Chapter 140: A Bad Start
This should be considered a test, right?
But what was strange was that, perhaps because he had stayed in the army for too long, the first thought that came to Yuri's mind was not nervousness, but the situation in the southwest.
Kharkiv, an important industrial city in eastern Ukraine, is located at the turning point of the Northern Donets River. Its northern region is a complex hilly area in Central Russia, its southern region is the Donets Mountains, and its central region is a plain area. Affected by the humid air currents from the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Azov, this area enters a rainy period from February every year. In addition, the ice and snow melt, the river network is dense, and the road conditions are very bad. In addition, in order to ensure that the steel and coal mines in this area can continue to be imported into Germany, the German army built a solid defense in this area during the occupation, and the areas where its heavy troops were concentrated were not easy to conquer.
Let's look at the situation of the Soviet army in the southwest: the encirclement and annihilation battle of the Stalingrad Campaign has not yet ended, and the Don Front and the Stalingrad Front cannot be mobilized; in the Caucasus direction, the Southwestern Front is cooperating with the North Caucasus Front to attack the southern group of the German army; in the Voronezh direction, the Voronezh Front has just crushed two German resistance forces in the Ostrogozhsk-Rossosch Battle and the Voronezh-Kastelnoye Battle.
Overall, the Soviet army occupied an advantageous position in the offensive posture, especially the offensive of the Voronezh Front, which directly tore a 400-kilometer gap in the German front from Kursk to Kharkov.
However, the Soviet army also had shortcomings, that is, the lack of reserves and follow-up forces. It is certain that the Don Front and the Stalingrad Front could not participate in the attack on Kharkov; although the Southwestern Front could participate in the war, its own manpower was limited, and at the same time, they had to defend against the attack from the German Caucasus Corps; the same was true for the Bryansk Front. Although they could participate in the attack, they also had to guard against the attack from the German Central Army Group, which was a two-front war. In this way, the only combat cluster that could really be deployed in the direction of Kharkov was part of the Voronezh Front, and this front was not only severely damaged in the previous battle, but also exhausted after months of fighting.
"I think now is not the best time to launch the Kharkov Offensive, Comrade ," Yuri said without much thought, "We do not have enough troops to launch this campaign."
As soon as Yuri said this, he immediately regretted it. He felt that he had made a low-level mistake, which was talking too much.
Stalin came to the General Staff quietly and found the new Chief of Operations. After a few words, he asked him what he thought about launching the Kharkov Offensive. The meaning behind this was very clear, that is, Stalin himself, or the Supreme Command, had plans to launch a campaign to recapture Kharkov in the near future. As a new staff officer of the Operations Department, what he should do at this time is to make the most practical plan for the offensive, instead of telling Stalin directly that he, Yuri, thought it was inappropriate to launch this campaign now.
To put it bluntly, the role of the Minister of Operations is not that of a staff officer, let alone the Chief of Staff. What the Supreme Command needs is for the Minister of Operations to implement plans based on their ideas, not to judge whether their ideas are feasible or not. That is the Chief of Staff's job.
Sure enough, after hearing what Yuri said, Stalin's smile froze. He looked at Yuri, took a puff of cigarette silently, and after a long while, he asked calmly: "Not enough troops? Then tell me, where is the Voronezh Front? Where is the Bryansk Front? And where is the Southwestern Front?"
As the supreme commander, Stalin might not know where a specific division was, but he could not be unaware of where an entire front was. Therefore, by raising these questions, he actually meant that he was dissatisfied.
Although he was full of regret, Yuri knew that he could not retreat at this time. Otherwise, Stalin's dissatisfaction with him would not disappear, but would become more serious, because that would show that he, the Minister of Operations, had no opinion and was an indecisive person.
Fortunately, Yuri had done a lot of work during this period to record the basic situation in various directions and war zones. He did not simply answer Stalin's questions, but explained them in more detail.
In the following period, Yuri started with the Bryansk Front and gave detailed answers about the specific positions and losses of the army groups under this front. He even mentioned the situation of the German troops facing the Bryansk Front and made a comparison. Then, it was the Southwestern Front and finally the Voronezh Front. When talking about the Voronezh Front, he also specifically reported the losses of this unit in the previous battle.
Through such a comparison, Yuri hoped to tell Stalin that although the overall strength of the Soviet army was slightly greater than that of the German army in the southwest, it was constrained by many aspects and still did not have much advantage in a specific war zone.
If you force a battle without superior military strength, the final result will be that once the battle reaches a stalemate, or even the enemy launches a local counterattack in a certain area, you will be in the embarrassing situation of having no reserve troops to deploy, which is very dangerous militarily.
Faced with Yuri's nearly perfect answer, Stalin was silent for a while. After nearly two minutes, he said: "It seems that you have done some work. However, Baolenka, what we need now is a competent Minister of Operations, not a front commander."
After saying this, he turned around and walked out of the office without waiting for Yuri to speak.
Yuri knew very well that Stalin was angry. Of course, from the attitude of the supreme commander, it could be seen that the Soviet offensive in the direction of Kharkov would probably be launched soon. The next step for him as the Minister of Operations should be to formulate a complete combat plan.
Looking back at his response just now, it is impossible to say that he has no regrets in his heart. However, if he is asked to make a choice again, he will probably say so. It is not for anything else, but because he thinks that the continuous offensive campaigns decided under the mentality of eagerness to win are too risky. Although the memory of the previous life cannot help Yuri much, he has been commanding battles on the front line since he entered the army. He has experienced many brutal battles during this period. Therefore, he has developed a cautious command style. This style is brought to the current work, that is, a conservative way of thinking. Yuri believes that the situation of the war has been reversed. Now the Soviet Red Army does not need to rush in, but only needs to be steady and not make mistakes. At the same time, it can always crush the German army by maintaining strong pressure on all fronts and looking for opportunities to fight.
If Yuri's combat thinking could be summarized in one sentence, it would be: no attack unless the reserve troops are in place; no attack unless all participating troops reach the designated positions; no sustained attack lasting more than four months.
However, it must be admitted that in the Soviet Red Army that had just experienced a great victory in the Battle of Stalingrad, Yuri's steady and cautious combat strategy was absolutely unpopular. Otherwise, the offensive campaign plan against Kharkov would not have been approved by the headquarters and the General Staff.
Yuri had offended Stalin in person. This was the beginning of his career after entering the General Staff. It was not accurate to say that it was terrible, but it should be said that it was extremely terrible. Yuri did not know what he would face next. However, according to common sense, he would at most be kicked out of the General Staff and return to the front line. Thinking about it carefully, this did not seem to be a big deal. It was better than agreeing to the Kharkov offensive plan and finally suffering a big defeat.
Driving Stalin's unhappy expression out of his mind, Yuri turned his attention back to the documents in front of him.
If nothing unexpected happens, it may not be long before he will receive an order to formulate a plan for the Kharkov campaign. Although he does not agree with the launch of this campaign, if the order falls on him, Yuri has no reason not to complete it. Now, he can only do everything possible to arrange this battle plan properly. Yes, as Stalin said, his task is to formulate a plan, not to make recommendations on whether to implement the plan.
If the attack from Kharkov is inevitable, how should the plan be formulated to be the safest? Yuri began to think about this question.
First of all, it was not safe to rely solely on the old and tired Voronezh Front to carry out this offensive plan. The troops were too weak. Without reserve forces, once the Germans counterattacked, the consequences would be serious. But if we don't rely solely on the Voronezh Front, which other troops can cooperate? The answer can only be the Bryansk Front and the Southwestern Front.
If the Bryansk Front and the Southwestern Front are mobilized to cooperate in this operation, then the second problem arises: how to ensure the stability of the defense lines of these two fronts?
The front of the Bryansk Front could be reinforced by the Kalinin Front and the Western Front, mainly to protect the flank of the Bryansk Front from the threat of the German army during the Kharkov Campaign. However, the execution of this plan was not optimistic, mainly because the Kalinin Front and the Western Front had just cooperated to recapture Velikiye Luki, and at this moment, they were advancing towards Rzhev.
On the flank of the Southwestern Front, there was the Southern Front, which had just been reorganized from the Stalingrad Front. However, they were advancing rapidly towards Rostov, and the latest battle report showed that their main force had already advanced to the Mius River. In other words, they could not help in the attack in the Kharkov direction.
