Chapter 843 The Final Battle - Such a Big Appetite (Asking for Monthly Tickets and Subscriptions)

"What? The Western Front and the Reserve Front are going to merge into the Central Front?"

"So we are going to join the Battle of Smolensk?"

General Chuikov, deputy commander of the Reserve Front, and Major General Shevchenko, chief of staff, were shocked by the news brought back by Yeremenko. They did not think that Smolensk could be defended... Like Pavlov, Zhukov, Shaposhnikov and others, their analysis of the war situation was not optimistic.

In their view, the Battle of Smolensk was doomed to fail! And the second Leningrad relief operation might still be fought for. As for the joint battle that Stalin had high hopes for, it would most likely be lost, the only question was how much it would lose.

So what the Reserve Front had to strive for now was to deploy defenses outside Moscow as soon as possible and prepare to resist the German attack!

As long as Moscow could be defended and the Leningrad relief operation could achieve certain results, the Soviet Union could drag the war until 1944... By then, Japan would most likely have been defeated by the United States, and the Soviet Union would be saved.

But to their surprise, their superior, General Yeremenko, took on the task of rescuing Smolensk.

"But we can't save Smolensk." Chuikov shook his head repeatedly, "The Germans will soon be able to complete the encirclement of Smolensk. How can we break this encirclement? We don't have a tank army..."

"Comrade Commander," Major General Shevchenko asked, "Does the Supreme Command have any plans?"

"No plan," General Yeremenko shook his head, "We can fight however we want, Comrade Stalin fully trusts us!"

Shevchenko sighed in his heart, is that Stalin's trust? That means Pavlov and Shaposhnikov have no tricks.

"Then Marshal Kulik..."

"He was dismissed from his post," said General Yeremenko, "Comrade Stalin is very angry, and Marshal Kulik is likely to be in trouble."

"Then... who will be responsible for the defense of Smolensk?" Chuikov asked in a low voice.

He was very afraid that Yeremenkov would assign him this doomed job - he was the deputy commander, and if the front was to set up a headquarters to command several armies, he should be in charge.

"This... Comrade Chuikov, do you have a suitable candidate?" Yeremenkov asked casually.

"I recommend General Yefremov." Chuikov said, "He is the current deputy commander of the Western Front and knows the situation in Smolensk very well."

In fact, General Yefremov did not know the situation in Smolensk because he was now the commander-in-chief of Minsk.

"Okay, then let Comrade Yefremov go to Smolensk." Yeremenkov thought for a while and said, "I will order Comrade Yefremov to hold on as much as possible... at least for 15 days, and we will launch a counterattack within 7 days, and we must repel the enemy from Smolensk no matter what!"

General Chuikov and Chief of Staff Major General Shevchenko looked at each other. This was a task that could not be completed anyway!

…

"Comrade General Secretary..." Now it was time for the First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense to report the battlefield situation to Stalin. Marshal Pavlov stood in front of a huge map, pointing at it with a baton.

"There are four large-scale battles going on on the Western Front at the same time." Pavlov said, "One is the Battle of the Junction; the second is the Battle of Smolensk; the third is the Battle of Great Luki-Leningrad; and the fourth is the Battle of Minsk. The Battle of the Junction is mainly responsible for the Bryansk Front, the Battle of Smolensk is responsible for the Central Front, and the Battle of Great Luki-Leningrad is responsible for the Kalinin Front and the Leningrad Front; as for the Battle of Minsk... I suggest setting up a separate army group to take charge."

Minsk is obviously defending an isolated city, and the situation is similar to that of Warsaw. If a separate front is set up, it will be ugly when the whole army is annihilated.

"Who will be the commander of the Minsk Army?" Stalin asked, "Do you have a suitable candidate?"

"Comrade Yeremenkov, commander of the Central Front, recommended Comrade Yefremov, who is currently the commander-in-chief in Minsk, as the commander-in-chief of the defense of Smolensk," Shaposhnikov took over the question, "so the General Staff recommends Comrade Baghramyan, commander of the 4th Army, as the commander of the Minsk Army."

Bagramyan's 4th Army was sent by the Supreme Command a few days ago to delay the German 3rd Panzer Army, but this mission ended prematurely before it began because the German 3rd Panzer Army occupied Borisov, so Comrade Baghramyan is still safe and sound in Minsk.

"Okay, Comrade Baghramyan will definitely complete the task of defending Minsk well." Stalin nodded, agreed to the candidate recommended by Shaposhnikov, and did not mention the matter of letting the 4th Army go out of the city to die.

"How is the battle at the junction going?" Stalin then shifted the topic to the battle at the junction. In his opinion, as long as the Red Army can win this battle, everything will be fine.

"The 1st and 2nd Tank Armies will arrive near Gomel on the 9th, but... Gomel has now fallen." Pavlov replied, "In addition, the 5th Tank Army has now arrived near Roslavl in the southern part of Smolensk Oblast."

"So what about the German southern armored group?" Stalin asked, "Where are they?"

"One part broke into the Chernigov area to the south, and the other part went north and occupied Cherikov, Klimovichi and Kostyukovichi yesterday."

"Divide the troops?" Stalin looked at the two black arrows on the map, one in the south and one in the north, and shook his head. "What do the Germans want to do?"

"Maybe they want to join forces with their two armored groups in the north and the middle, and at the same time cross the Desna River to open a passage to the south to encircle the Southwestern Front." Pavlov tried to explain the German actions.

He said: "The Germans may want to achieve the three goals of forced landing in Leningrad, approaching Moscow and encircling our Southwestern Front at the same time."

Such a big appetite?

Stalin took a deep breath and thought: "This is going to destroy the Soviet Union! The fox tail of the great reactionary Hessmann has finally been exposed!"

"We must smash the conspiracy of the German Nazis!" Stalin's face became extremely gloomy, "The battle at the junction must be carried out as soon as possible, and it must be won! In addition, instruct the Southwestern Front to send the 3rd Tank Army to reinforce Chernigov to cooperate with the Bryansk Front in the battle at the junction!"

Stalin, who felt the problem was serious, once again raised the stakes and increased the number of tank armies used in the battle at the junction to 4!

However, at this time, the Soviet opponent in the battle at the junction, General Mackensen, commander of the German 1st Panzer Army, did not know that his army had attracted 4 tank armies of the Soviet Union. Because the troops he sent to the east, north and west had not yet encountered large Soviet tank forces.

On the afternoon of May 7, the entire 1st Panzer Army thought that they had hit an empty door this time and had to wait for the good news of victory in the leisurely combat operations like a picnic.

Honorary Sergeant Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlyuchenko, a female sniper who graduated from the National University of Kyiv (although she participated in the battle, the conservative German Wehrmacht did not recognize her identity as a soldier, and only gave her the official identity of "Wehrmacht female assistant", so her rank was honorary), was leisurely marching on the land bordering Belarus and Russia with her comrades from the 14th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion (affiliated with the 14th SS Ukrainian Cavalry Division).

Although the 14th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion she was in was named cavalry, it was not cavalry in the traditional sense, but a special unit composed of armored soldiers and cavalry.

The battalion has 3 half-cavalry and half-armored reconnaissance companies, each of which has an armored vehicle platoon, equipped with Sdkfz234/2 and Sdkfz222 series wheeled armored vehicles. The former is the famous Puma armored vehicle, equipped with a 50mm/L60 artillery.

Theoretically, this cannon can penetrate the frontal armor of a T-34 tank at a distance of 600 meters when using tungsten steel armor-piercing bullets!

In addition to the Sdkfz234/2 armored vehicles, this Ukrainian SS Cavalry Division, which has made a name for itself in Lviv and Kiev, is also equipped with Sdkfz234/3 wheeled assault guns (with a short-barreled 75mm gun) and Sdkfz234/4 wheeled anti-tank destroyers equipped with 4 cannons, which are specially used to support cavalry/mounted infantry operations.

So this Ukrainian Cavalry Division can be used as a light armored division! Since there are many decent armored divisions and armored grenadier divisions in the troops under the German 1st Panzer Army, "light armored divisions" such as the 17th Ukrainian Cavalry Division of the SS can only do firepower reconnaissance or something.

However, Honorary Sergeant Pavlyuchenko and the soldiers in her sniper squad, who were riding horses behind a Cougar, had no problem with not being able to fight the main force.

Because in their opinion, the Ukrainian war was almost over - the Ukrainians shed too much blood in Lviv and on the battlefields of Right Bank Ukraine! At least 500,000 people died in the war (not all soldiers), and a large number of people were seriously injured or missing.

Moreover, the territories of the former Polish Ukrainian state have now been recovered, and the fertile black soil has returned to the hands of Ukrainian farmers. It seems that there is not much point in fighting further...