The Third Reich in Desperation

This may be an opportunity.Pavlov made up his mind, and he immediately called the Chief of Staff of the Front Army who went to the headquarters of the 13th Army with him to come over: "Immediately sign an order for me! Hurry up!"

"Through the commanders of the 10th, 3rd, and 4th armies." In addition to Pavlov's own commander of the 13th army, he greeted the commanders of the other three armies: "Today, that is, in June On the night of the 3th and 6th, each group army must start a strategic shift no later than 25:26. All ministries should be prepared to use tanks as the vanguard and cavalry and powerful anti-tank defense forces as the rear.

This march should be carried out day and night, under the cover of a strong rear guard.Get rid of the enemy on a vast front... At least 60 kilometers or more should be jumped in one fell swoop day and night.By the way, the troops are allowed to fully commandeer the implements of the local people, and any number of horses to draw carts for use. "

It should be said that this order is still clear and decisive, except for the mother-in-law who still has a bit of Pavlovian characteristics, there is nothing wrong with it.

It can be said that it is not easy for a mediocre mind to finally have a spark of wisdom because of the warning orders sent by Stalin himself.

However, there is no problem with the retreat order, but it is too late to issue it.Pavlov's previous mistakes had completely ruined the ability of the various units to carry out this order.

The troops he sent to counterattack were left without fuel and transport, which had been taken or destroyed by the German enemy in the first days of the battle.

The messy retreat of the various corps that Pavlov is now demanding is still carried out under extremely difficult conditions when the German army holds air supremacy and the fast corps is moving rapidly in a detour.

The harsh god of fate did not give Pavlov a chance to save himself and the Western Front.Just after finally issuing the only resolute and decisive order, Pavlov lost command of several armies in Bialystok.

When he was not at the Front Army Command, he had completely lost contact with the various armies.

On June 6, the Moscow Kremlin officials.

Vatudin, the first deputy chief of the general staff of the general staff, is giving Stalin a daily report on the battlefield situation, almost without exception, it is bad news.Before that, when Zhukov, the former chief of staff on Duwadin's head, was there, at least the situation had never been so bad.

Stalin listened silently, everything was almost happening according to the worst situation, and the panic and anxiety for several days had almost made him numb.

He thought that replacing Zhukov and replacing Pavlov, who has never been defeated, would make the battle look completely new.

As a result, Pavlov had never lost an actual battle before, but this was the first and only time he lost, and Stalin couldn't accept it!

On the other side, Vadudin carefully chose his words and continued to report in a low voice: "The Western Front and the Northwest Front tried to counterattack, but the air cover was weak, the movements were uncoordinated, and the artillery support was poor, so the expected effect was not achieved, and the troops suffered huge losses. , continue to retreat, and often messy retreats..."

Then, he said: "The situation is particularly difficult for the 3rd and 10th armies. They are actually surrounded. The German armored forces are actually approaching Minsk and are about to complete the encirclement and seal the last gap."

Stalin, who had been silent just now, suddenly woke up from his contemplation when he heard this sentence: "What did you say?! Approaching Minsk! Are you afraid that you made a mistake in which link? Where did this come from? news?"

"No... I'm not mistaken, Comrade Stalin." Vatudin still had a low voice, but replied in an apologetic tone: "The report of the representative sent by the General Staff to the troops, and the aviation reconnaissance The materials are consistent. It can be said that the first-line troops failed to stop the enemy on the border and ensure the deployment of follow-up troops. However, the front lines on the two wings of the Western Front have actually been broken through!

Although as early as a few days ago, Stalin had realized that the battle on the border had failed,

But how could the German army penetrate 150 to 200 kilometers into the Soviet Union within five or six days? This is simply incomprehensible!

What do Pavlov, Kulik, and Shaposhnikov eat?

Why doesn't the General Staff command the troops?

Once Minsk lost Belarus, it would be over. He couldn't even imagine the consequences!

Stalin hurriedly called the headquarters of the Western Front in person, but he could not find a general in charge there.

He dropped the phone angrily.After a while, he picked up the phone again: "Get me to the Southwest Front Army Command...to find General Zhukov."

On the side, Duwadin was looking at Stalin with a strange expression on his face. After a long time, he slowly reminded him in a low voice: "Comrade Stalin, Zhukov...has long been absent from the Southwest Front Army. He was imprisoned by you." out of prison, and is about to be sent to Siberia..."

Text 749 IWC Allied Forces

The collapse of the Soviet-German War plunged the Soviet Supreme Command into shock and chaos.

Stalin really did not expect that the war he hastily started would usher in such a disastrous defeat today.

Calculating now, it seems that the Soviet Union's outward expansion wars will basically develop into an unsatisfactory end-for Finland, Poland, and now Germany, it seems that they have not achieved their own strategic goals.

Under such circumstances, the failure to challenge Germany this time is not so surprising.

Many people even guessed that it would fail. After all, such an ill-prepared attack would be very difficult to succeed, but everyone really did not guess that the failure would be so severe.

Until now, although the various front-line army headquarters have not counted specific losses, they have reported to the Soviet Supreme Command.

But even so, the roughly summarized loss report was enough to make Stalin tremble.For example, the Soviet Air Force lost more than 6300 aircraft after the war!

This number is not a complete statistical figure, because the Luftwaffe statistics have destroyed more than 7500 Soviet aircraft.

Although it is not certain how many planes were lost, it is certain that the front line lost air supremacy.

The Soviet army had to fight without air supremacy. In this case, whether it was the attack that Stalin hoped for or the retreat that the front-line commanders expected, it had become extremely difficult.

The current situation is that the Soviet army's offensive across the board has completely stagnated, and no front army is capable of continuing to advance.

On the other hand, on the side of the Allies, Lebu's Northern Army Group and the Finnish Army are preparing to capture Leningrad.Bork's Central Army Group is leading the powerful Italian and Spanish expeditionary forces to capture Minsk on both wings.Rundstede's Southern Army Group and Antonescu's Romanian Army are advancing with the main force of the SS led by Model, and are working together with the German Wehrmacht on the southern front to prepare for a siege battle outside Kiev.

At this time, the internal situation of the Allies is already very good.

Marshal Lebu of the Northern Army Group is ready to join forces with the Finnish army on the outskirts of Relingrad and surround this important Soviet town.

Marshal Bock of the Central Army Group is busy uniting with the Northern Army Group, requesting the Northern Army Group to send a German army south to cooperate with the Central Army Group to encircle and suppress the Soviet army in Belarus.

As for Marshal Rundstadt of the Southern Army Group, it can be said that he is about to become the commander-in-chief of the "Wan Guo Brand" United Nations Army.

According to the plan proposed by Manstein, the old subordinate of Rundstede, the Southern Army Group will apply for borrowing troops from the Central Army Group, and transfer all the Spanish and Italian mobile troops in the Central Army Group to the south, and join the Southern Army Group Complete a huge Kiev siege.

Within the Southern Army Group, Romania's hundreds of thousands of troops are already in a state of front-line combat, and they have joined forces with the German army to attack the Soviet troops dominated by the Southwest Front Army.

In the further back position, the two infantry divisions provided by Yugoslavia and the two infantry divisions provided by Greece have also arrived at the predetermined positions, ready to take over the occupied areas left by the German and Romanian troops and liberate the garrison troops for the front line .

Bulgaria agreed to send a division to the Soviet Union from the very beginning, but because they have not resolved the logistics convoy arrangement for the division, and the fuel and vehicles for the transport vehicles have not yet been prepared, the Bulgarian division will be in place later.

After all, the German logistics department has enough work on its own.

In addition to arranging the transportation and supply of German equipment and materials, they also had to transport some of the artillery seized from France to the front line.

Under the leadership of Reinhardt, the German artillery research and development focused on the convenience of mobility early on, so the caliber was a bit small.

But French artillery is different. In this era, if you want to produce artillery with a satisfactory caliber on the Soviet battlefield, you must use a large number of artillery produced and equipped by the French army.Fortunately, when France surrendered, all these cannons were called out to offset the war reparations, so all the German logistics department needed to do was transport.

Of course, just for transportation, it has already tested the scheduling and scheduling level of German logistics personnel.

This is just the eastern front. On the western front, a large amount of strategic materials and various equipment seized from the UK are also being busily transported to the European continent.

As for the logistical needs of the allies, they have to be resolved by themselves.Prepare enough logistics transport vehicles by yourself and arrive at the front line with enough fuel for one month.

Therefore, Bulgaria, which is poor in logistics, was a little slower to prepare.However, the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense also made a guarantee that within two weeks, an infantry division of the Bulgarian Expeditionary Force, including its logistics transportation team, must set off from the Balkan Peninsula to the front line.

All the member states of the military group of the Allied Powers are on the right track, which means that the member states of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are not feeling well.

The worst, of course, was Stalin himself in Russia, inside the Moscow Kremlin.

"Zhukov is incompetent! Pavlov is stupid! Couldn't one of them command the armored troops as well as the German tank commander?" Stalin sat on his seat and looked at his subordinates , asked frowning.

Both Zhukov and Pavlov were single-handedly promoted by Stalin, and they all existed as substitutes for Tukhachevsky.