762 Great Siege of the Six Soviets Catastrophe

Because of the news that Germany is about to bomb Moscow, the Kremlin is starting to dig bomb shelters in the past two days. And before this huge project is completed. The headquarters and the office of the Supreme Commander were moved to 37 Myanitsky Street, an old mansion connected to the newly completed Moscow Metro, and under the Moscow Metro, there is an unknown underground bunker. The military meeting of the base camp was held in Stalin's office here.

Zhukov, who was ordered to stay in Moscow, also received an order to attend the meeting at 37 Myanitsky Street. In the reception room of the base camp, he saw the head of the Red Air Force Baranov, his deputy and People's Commissar of the Aviation Industry Shahulin, the director of the Red Artillery Voronov, the commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District, General Zhigalev and others. At four o'clock in the afternoon, Marshal Voroshilov arrived together with General Berzin, and a few minutes later, Stalin and Molotov also came. Stalin went straight to his office, and asked everyone to follow him in. While the people were seated on one side of the long table, Zhukov was pulled by Voroshilov to sit down beside him. It was the first time he had seen Stalin at such a close distance, and it was also the first time he had attended a meeting at the base camp.

Zhukov saw that Stalin was in a bad mood and seemed a little depressed. In fact, he himself was depressed, how could the battle situation suddenly come to this point?

Stalin was pacing in the open space indoors while Berzin and Baranov spread out all sorts of charts and maps. Zhukov glanced at the charts. He saw a circular map of communication lines around Moscow, drawn in colored pencils.

"If Germany bombs our central telegraph office, will we be able to maintain reliable contact with the front and rear?" Stalin asked Berzin. Only then did Zhukov know that the first thing of today's meeting was about air defense. It seems that the great leader has not yet realized the crisis facing the front.

"Comrade Stalin, allow me to interject before General Berzin answers your question." Zhukov stood up in the astonished eyes of everyone and gave a military salute to Stalin.

"Oh, it's Comrade Zhukov, let's talk about it, what do you think is more important than the air defense of the capital?" Stalin was visibly unhappy, even angry.

Zhukov didn't care about this, he unhurriedly took out a map from his purse and unfolded it on the long table, which was a situation map of the western battlefield. After opening the map, he said to Stalin: "Comrade Stalin, our Western Front is facing an unprecedented crisis!" If we don't find a way to deal with it in a short time, I doubt that Hitler will need to send planes to bomb it, and maybe he will be able to drive to Moscow by himself! ”

As soon as these words came out, there was a buzz in the office, and Voroshilov looked at the young general who did not know whether he was alive or dead. Just as he was about to reprimand, Stalin was the first to speak: "Of course I know that there is a crisis at the front, otherwise why would I invite you here." Since Comrade Zhukov has asked to speak first, let's fulfill him. ”

"Comrade Stalin, I think you and the base camp have already received a report from Comrade Tukhachevsky. He suggested that the 1st Baltic Front should be tasked with diversion, covering the retreat of the three front armies located in the western region to the east of the Dnieper to establish a new defensive line...... "Listening to Zhukov's low tone, one feels as if the front line has reached the point of collapse.

"But now except for the situation of the First Baltic Front, which is not good, in the west and southwest, the situation is quite okay! Why give up large swaths of the Soviet homeland? Stalin said with a cold face.

Zhukov shook his head bitterly, "The western and southwestern fronts are facing a huge crisis!" Because in the battles of the past some time, no one has seen the powerful armored forces of Germany! The Germans were definitely brewing a massive armored assault...... They may use 7,000 to 8,000 tanks, 5,000 aircraft, and more than 10,000 artillery pieces to concentrate their forces to break through the weak links of the western defense line. Then launch a surprise attack on the depth of our army with a powerful tank column, with the possibility of advancing directly to the Dnieper and encircling the entire Second Baltic Front and the Western Front in one fell swoop! ”

"Comrade Berzin, where are all the armored divisions of the Germans?" Stalin took out his pipe and slowly filled it with tobacco, brushed it on fire, and smoked it. But if you look closely, you can see that the great leader's hand holding the pipe trembles slightly!

"There are some cases." Berzin stood up, took out a document and handed it to Stalin with both hands. "Our intelligence officers found several trains full of tanks from East Prussia to Poland, and some tanks were being transported to Latvia."

Stalin exhaled a cloud of blue smoke and asked: "What does this mean?" ”

"It means that the enemy is about to attack!" Zhukov replied in the tone of a funeral attendant: "It is clear that this is unavoidable. So we had to adjust the deployment...... Even if it is not possible to retreat to the Dnieper, it should retreat to the Stalin line. It is absolutely impossible to put troops in field fortifications on the east bank of the Bouag River, because that would be suicide! ”

There was a sudden silence in the room, and all eyes were on Stalin. The retreat to the Stalinist line would have been part of this preemptive strike plan. Now it seems that the time has come to execute.

"But what about the 1st Baltic Front?" Stalin thought for a moment and asked: "If both the Second Baltic Front and the Western Front retreat, won't the more than a million men of the First Baltic Front be wiped out?" ”

"That's better than the annihilation of the three armies together!" Zhukov shouted: "Comrade Stalin! There can be no further hesitation, the battle on the Western Front has been defeated, and it is time to switch from offensive to defensive. ”

Zhukov's loud shouts seemed to wake up Stalin, and the battle on the Western Front now looks defeated! If we don't find a way to save the main forces, I'm afraid that the entire USSR will cease to exist because of this defeat! Stalin glanced at Zhukov with a slight look of appreciation, and then at the Chief of the General Staff Berzin and the People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov, who seemed not very satisfied with the military work they were presiding. Stalin began to slowly refill his carved pipes with tobacco. It seems that he was thinking about something. As he shoved the lit match into his pipe, he said in a nonchalant tone, "It's time for us to make some adjustments...... The war is still going on, so it should be constantly adjusted according to the changes in the situation......" He was silent for a moment, and then said to Voroshilov: "After today's meeting, you will be responsible for developing a plan to transfer the front to the Stalinist line, and ...... The breakout plan of the 1st Baltic Front. ”

None of the participants in this military conference could have expected that Stalin's correct decision would come too late......

……

December 2, 1937 at 2 a.m. It's the darkest time of the day. On the west bank of the Bouag River, the German long-range artillery group suddenly fired in silence! More than 3000 cannons of various calibers fired at the same time. Streams of fire pierced the night sky and rained down on the positions of the Soviet Red Army. Pillars of smoke and fireballs continued to rise, and the forward positions of the Soviet army were suddenly engulfed in flames.

The reaction of the Soviet troops was also timely. The artillery groups deployed behind the positions immediately began to return fire, and the 80 artillery regiments belonging to the two fronts, which had artillery on a par with the Germans, also joined the chorus of artillery fire at this time. Shells repeatedly exploded over the positions of both sides, and snow and ice mixed with shrapnel flew in all directions, turning the front lines of the two armies into a real hell of artillery fire. The flashes and explosions of the 6,000 cannons on both sides turned the entire sky red. Countless flaming flames tore through the night sky, like thunder falling from the sky, sweeping across the land of Western Belarus.

All the communication lines of the Soviet army were shouting wildly, and the long-awaited attack of the German fascists on all fronts was just around the corner. As soon as the artillery fire was extended, the Red Army soldiers, who had been waiting for a long time, poured into the trenches. Mosin. Nagant rifles were erected, Maxim heavy machine guns and DP light machine guns were also ready, and a 37mm and 57mm anti-tank guns were dragged out of the cover and into firing positions. Braving the rain of bullets from the Germans, the Soviet Red Army quickly opened a posture of desperate resistance!

Biahua. To the east of Podlaska, the Bouag River, which had formed a thick layer of ice, was the point of the breakthrough of the Chinese 8th Panzer Division, which was attached to the German 16th Panzer Corps. Less than 3,000 meters above the assault front, three hundred and eighty tanks No. 2 and No. 3 of a tank brigade of the 8th Panzer Division formed a huge equilateral triangle. With the 32-ton No. 3 tank as the vanguard, followed by the 22-ton No. 2 tank. Behind them were Panzergrenadiers in half-tracked armored vehicles, and finally Hu Lian's division headquarters and 72 assault artillery anti-aircraft combat vehicles and trucks for heavy troops. After completing the formation, hundreds of steel behemoths rumbled across the Bwag River in front of the two armies, braving artillery fire to advance towards the Soviet defense line of the Bouag River.

The Soviets established a continuous defensive system on the east bank of the Bouag River, dug trenches, anti-tank trenches, anti-artillery bunkers, and built permanent fortifications with large-caliber machine guns and artillery. Between the key areas of defense, there are also barbed wire and barbed wire, and mines are laid. The Soviets also built every village on the east bank of the Bouag River into an independent support point. The infantry was simply helpless in the face of such a defensive line, but in the case of hundreds or thousands of roaring steel behemoths, this defensive line was nothing more than a thin layer of paper.

However, the Soviet Red Army, which was defending this line of defense, did not intend to give up, and the overwhelming artillery fire covered it, and the report of the Soviet troops on the front line made Marshal Ubolevich, the commander-in-chief of the Western Front of the Soviet Army, confirm the direction of the main attack of the German army at the first time. He immediately ordered the use of all artillery groups that could get their hands on German (Chinese) tanks to counterattack! It's just that these howitzers pose little threat to tanks No. 2 and No. 3, which are wrapped in thick armor, unless the tanks are directly hit by shells. However, the half-track armored vehicles that followed the tanks suffered some losses, more than a dozen armored vehicles were set on fire by shells, and some were overturned by the shock wave of the explosion of Soviet heavy artillery, and the panzergrenadiers were rolling on the ground screaming and screaming. But the vast majority of tanks and armored vehicles are still roaring forward!

The armored units quickly rushed through the wall of fire from the Soviet artillery fire, and the tanks rushed straight into the Soviet defenses, the barbed wire and barbed wire grates were easily torn under the tracks, and the few remaining anti-tank mines in the shelling broke the tracks of some tanks, and some tanks were destroyed by ZIS-1 anti-tank guns. However, in the face of more than a thousand tanks in four armored divisions, this level of resistance was only a drop in the bucket. The 75mm tank guns began to roar, and tens of thousands of Panzergrenadiers jumped off the half-track armored vehicles and fired at the Soviet troops who were desperately defending the line with their submachine guns, MG37 machine guns, Min-26 automatic rifles, 60mm mortars, and 37mm anti-tank guns. The flesh and blood of the Soviet army on the entire front are flying! One shell after another penetrated into the firing point and the permanent fortifications, and the fragments of the fortifications and weapons, as well as the stumps of human beings, were simultaneously lifted into the air. Dense fire swept across the entire front, and the Soviet resistance was soon completely crushed, and the terrified Red Army soldiers disregarded the machine guns of the political workers, dropped their weapons and fled! There were even some undetermined Eastward shakers who simply raised their hands in the air and betrayed their Soviet Motherland......

The tank group that successfully broke through the Soviet defense line did not stop, nor did it spend time dealing with the Soviet soldiers stuck in various isolated strongholds, but kept attacking in depth, crushing the Soviet reserve positions, rushing into the Soviet artillery positions, and crushing all the resistance and counterattack of the Soviet army!

At the same time, hundreds of kilometers north from Brest, in the Russian city of Velikiye Luki, an even larger armored assault was launched at the same time! The six panzer divisions of the German 19th Panzer Corps, commanded by Colonel Guderian, tore apart the thin Soviet defense line like six bolts of Zeus. In the afternoon of the same day, a torrent of steel consisting of more than 2,000 tanks rumbled into the city of Velikiye Luki.

……

December 2 was the beginning of an unprecedented catastrophe for the Soviet Union. The German team has made major breakthroughs in almost all the main offensive directions. To the northwest, the defensive line in the Velikkiya Luki region, which was defended by the newly formed Leningrad Front, ceased to exist. Guderian's armored clusters marched unhindered on the road from Velikiye Luki to Smolensk. The 16th Panzer Corps, commanded by Admiral Hopner in the West, also broke through the defenses of the Soviet Western Front, and the steel army of 1,600 tanks and artillery made a detour from the south of the Brest Fortress, and then followed the route of Napoleon's army to Minsk, the white capital. In the skies above these two unstoppable steel dragons, there were also German and Chinese planes flying in the sky and throwing bombs wildly, including the bombers of the 7th Air Division of the Chinese Air Force - their mission was to bomb Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union!

The bombing was carried out at the suggestion of the big fat air Marshal Goering, and according to the dead fat man, this bombing will mobilize more than 1,000 bombers to scorch the capital of the Soviet Union and raze it to rubble! The bombing will be commanded by Luftwaffe General Kesselring, and nearly 1,000 HE-111 and JU-88 bombers have been concentrated at the Luftwaffe bases around Riga, the capital of Latvia. This also includes 240 HE-111 bombers belonging to two bomber regiments of the Seventh Division of the Chinese Aviation.

At 5:30 a.m. on December 2, Lieutenant General Sun Yang, commander of the Seventh Aviation Division, received an order to attack, and he personally piloted a He-111 bomber to fly into the blue sky first, and then all 240 bombers of the two bombing aviation regiments loaded with bombs and incendiary bombs all rose into the air in less than 30 minutes, and the group formed 15 clusters in the air, escorted by 40 German FW-190 fighters that arrived later, and flew to Moscow in a straight line.

It was naturally impossible to keep it secret by swaggering to bomb people's capitals in broad daylight, and the arrogant German-Chinese bomber group was intercepted by the first wave of Soviet fighters before it had not penetrated far into Soviet territory.

"Attention units, attention units! Soviet fighters were found ahead, Soviet fighters were found ahead! The German alarm sounded in the cockpit of the He-111 bomber that Sun Yang was piloting.

"Seventh Division, pay attention, keep in formation, leave those Soviet planes alone, and keep moving!" After giving the order, Lieutenant General Sun Yang handed over the plane to the co-pilot, raised the binoculars himself, and watched the air battle ahead with great interest.

The Soviet Air Force sent out a dozen very good biplane fighters, which looked like the I-15 in appearance, but the performance seemed to have improved somewhat. The hovering performance of this aircraft is excellent, better than that of the Chinese F-2 family, and even the F-3 monoplane may not be able to take it easily. However, it was the Luftwaffe's latest F,M machine guns that escorted the bomber group today and constantly spat tongues of fire into the tails of Soviet fighters, and in less than 10 minutes, more than a dozen brave Soviet planes all dragged their heads down with black smoke! At the same time, white parachutes opened in mid-air.

Seeing a German fighter turning its nose and preparing to strafe the Soviet pilot who was about to parachute to escape, Sun Yang sighed slightly, picked up the microphone, and ordered in German: "Don't care about those parachutes, all fighters return to their designated positions." Our goal is Moscow! ”

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