Chapter 108: Vacation?
By the end of April, the entire Moscow front battlefield had completely calmed down. The German army was like a wounded leopard, curled up in its own defense line to lick its wounds.
As the German Army transferred 12 divisions and 2 brigades of reinforcements from Western Europe, and the Soviet Army suffered heavy losses in the process of rapid advance, and logistical support was already insufficient, the Supreme Command had to order the troops to stop the attack and enter a relatively peaceful period of rest.
On May 1st, after obtaining permission from Comrade Stalin and the Supreme Command, a grand parade celebration was held in Moscow. This celebration had two meanings. On the one hand, it was to celebrate International Labor Day, and on the other hand, it was to celebrate the complete victory of the Battle of Moscow.
As one of the commanders of the Western Front who has been in the spotlight during this period, Yuri also received an invitation from the Moscow Municipal Party Committee. Comrade Khrushchev invited him to observe the parade, and it was on Lenin's Mausoleum.
At first, Yuri did not refuse directly, but he was unable to go after all, because on the first day of May, Comrade Rokossovsky fled back to the front without waiting for his wounds to heal. According to Rokossovsky himself, he was worried about the troops and the situation at the front, but according to Yuri's malicious speculation, the commander of the army group was probably running away - running away from his original wife.
During the time when Rokossovsky was recuperating in the hospital, his first wife, who had been separated from him for nearly a year, and her child were finally found. Comrade Bulganin, the "good husband of the people" who had once complained to Stalin about his immoral lifestyle, was very "kind" and brought the woman to Moscow as soon as possible.
Actually, Yuri hated Bulganin. As a member of the Military Commission, why don't you do your job properly and keep an eye on other people's private lives? However, seeing Rokossovsky's embarrassed look after returning to the army, Yuri couldn't help but feel gloating. After all, Yuri was not the only one with problematic lifestyles. Moreover, he looked a little whiter than Rokossovsky, at least he was still unmarried.
For some unknown reason, Rokossovsky . After re-understanding the situation of the troops, he submitted a plan to the Western Front Command, preparing to command the army's existing troops to launch an offensive against the German army in the direction of Bryansk in order to further expand the results of the battle.
The Western Front Command agreed to Rokossovsky's request on the 6th. The 16th Army immediately launched an assault in the direction of Bryansk with the 97th Infantry Division as the main force. Unfortunately, the German resistance was very firm. Sporadic fighting lasted for more than ten days, and the 16th Army did not achieve much success. When the first heavy rain in May came, Rokossovsky had to order the troops to stop the offensive and go into defense.
On the 22nd, Comrade Zhukov arrived at the headquarters of the 16th Army. After inspecting the situation on the front line, he decisively ordered the 16th Army to abandon all offensive attempts and instead build a defensive offensive on the existing defense line to prevent a German counterattack.
On the 24th, Yuri received a surprising notice. As a commander who had been fighting on the front line since the outbreak of the war, he was granted a half-month vacation. He could freely choose between the Qileni Islands and Astrakhan for his vacation. Moreover, he could choose to bring a female companion. All expenses during the vacation would be borne by the state.
Whether it is the Tyureni Islands or Astrakhan, they are actually both in the Caspian Sea. However, among the resorts in the Soviet Union, it seems that only the Caspian Sea region is relatively safe.
Well, no matter where we go, a vacation is always good. Yuri decided to take Gerlyosha with him to have fun for half a month and relax.
Just as Yuri received the notice and was happily preparing to return to Moscow and take Geryosha to the Caspian Sea for vacation, in the Kremlin, in the conference room reserved for Comrade Stalin, a group of generals from the Supreme Command and the General Staff were discussing the so-called summer counterattack plan.
According to the normal process of the meeting, Comrade Shaposhnikov gave a combat situation report as usual, mainly reporting on the current situation of the Soviet army's front-line troops.
Coincidentally, just before this meeting, the General Staff had just received intelligence from Berlin, Germany. According to the information provided by this intelligence, a new wave of German offensives will be launched in the southern area. The German Army Group South will launch a fierce offensive in the direction of Kharkov to smash the Soviet defense in this area.
Based on this intelligence, Shaposhnikov concluded that the Soviet army should focus on defense and consolidate the front this summer. The main reason was that the front-line troops were very tired after a series of previous battles and needed to rest. On the other hand, the Soviet army currently lacked reserve forces. As we all know, it is impossible to launch a large-scale offensive campaign without reserve forces. Because once the enemy launched a surprise attack, without reserve forces, the offensive would likely become a catastrophic failure.
However, Comrade Stalin, who had just won a victory outside the city of Moscow, was obviously not satisfied with this conservative approach. He cautiously put forward an opinion that defense should not be passive defense, and one or two counterattacks should be launched at certain critical moments.
As soon as Stalin put forward this opinion, the topic was taken over by Comrade Timoshenko, who commanded the Southwestern Front. The Marshal told Comrade Stalin that the Southwestern Front under his command was ready and planned to launch a full-scale offensive in the direction of Kiev and Gomel.
Timoshenko's words immediately made someone laugh. This senior marshal, who had been demoted recently and had given up a bit, sneered in front of Stalin and said, "Wow, where are we fighting?"
That's right, this old marshal who gave face to neither Timoshenko nor Stalin was Comrade Voroshilov. His retort made Stalin unhappy, but in fact, his sneer was not excessive, because at present, the Southwestern Front had been driven by the German army on the southern front to the area east of Kharkov, which was too far away from Kiev.
Comrade Voroshilov's sneer was probably because he disagreed with Timoshenko's unrealistic battle plan. He believed that since he was in charge of commanding the battle and formulating the battle plan, he should listen more to the opinions of the General Staff. But his mocking tone, although it embarrassed Timoshenko, also directly angered Stalin.
Therefore, Stalin not only did not refute Timoshenko's unrealistic plan, but praised him highly. Later, without seeking the opinion of the General Staff, Stalin directly made the decision and approved Timoshenko's summer counterattack plan - he did not even ask about the specific content of the plan.
At the meeting, there were not only Shaposhnikov, but also Zhukov, Khrushchev, and Budyonny. None of these people approved of Timoshenko's plan, but seeing Stalin's gloomy face, no one dared to raise any objections. Of course, the same was true for Zhukov. Perhaps with his increasingly high position and more significant achievements, Comrade Zhukov gradually left the ranks of pure soldiers and began to develop in the direction of a politician.
Originally, Khrushchev also approved of this plan, and he even participated in the entire process of formulating the plan. However, after a conversation with Yuri, this cunning guy became cautious. He even expressed his cautious doubts about this operational plan to Shaposhnikov when no one was paying attention after the meeting.
However, no one could deny Comrade Stalin's will, and Timoshenko's battle plan was finally approved and quickly entered the implementation stage. Even though Shaposhnikov repeatedly told Timoshenko that if the war went unfavorably, the Supreme Command would not have any reserve forces to support him, the battle still entered the implementation stage at the end of May.
At the beginning of the battle, Timoshenko judged that the main force of the German army, especially its large-scale tank forces, should be assembled in the Kharkov area. Therefore, the Southwestern Front and the Southern Front under his command launched an offensive towards the Kharkov front area from the north and south directions of Barvenkovo and Volchansk.
The battle progressed so smoothly that it was almost unexpected. The Soviet assault troops broke through the German defense in less than a day.
But what Timoshenko didn't know was that his judgment of the German movement was completely wrong. The main force of the German army was not in front of Kharkov, but in the area south of Barvenkovo, which was where the Soviet assault troops on the southern front launched the attack.
On the third day of the battle, the two Soviet armies advanced more than 100 kilometers westward and penetrated deep into the German defense line. At this time, the main force of the German army launched an offensive towards Barvenkovo. The weak Soviet Ninth Army was quickly defeated and Barvenkovo fell.
Subsequently, the German army launched a swift attack on the Soviet flank attacking in the direction of Kharkov. Most of the Southwestern Front and part of the Southern Front were in danger of being surrounded by the German army.
On June 13, the Southwestern Front Command was surrounded by German paratroopers. In the subsequent breakout, most of the senior commanders, including the front's deputy commander Kostenko, were killed. The situation of the Soviet army on the entire southern battlefield was completely devastated.
On June 14, less than three days after his vacation on the Caspian Sea, Yuri received an order from the 16th Army Command that his vacation was cancelled and he had to return to Moscow within three days to accept a new mission.
