Chapter 145 Target: Kursk
When the German army launched a full-scale counterattack on the southern front, Yuri was drinking with Rokossovsky and Chuikov in his apartment.
The wine was brought by Rokossovsky, and the side dishes were simple, with only some sausages and cod fillets, and a bowl of soup made by Gerlyosha.
Perhaps because he was in a bad mood recently, Yuri drank a little too much. He drank more than half of a bottle of strong vodka. When people drink when they are in a bad mood, they tend to get drunk easily. Once they are drunk, they will naturally talk more, and these drunken words often contain a lot of complaints and dissatisfaction.
However, Yuri still knew how to restrain himself. Even when he drank too much, he did not lose his composure too much. At least, he did not complain about Stalin or the General Staff - this was a question of political stance. Although Yuri was not very mature politically, he would not make such low-level mistakes.
"The situation in the Kharkov Campaign is hopeless," the conversation between the three generals could easily lead to the battlefield. When talking about the situation in Kharkov, Yuri, who was obviously a little drunk, opened up. "I believe the German offensive will be launched soon. The defense line of the Ninth Army will be their main direction of attack. Once they achieve a breakthrough in this direction, they will then advance rapidly to the north and cut off the supply line of our Kharkov combat group."
Rokossovsky and Chuikov looked at each other, and neither of them spoke. In fact, when it comes to the Battle of Kharkov, not everyone in the Soviet command system agrees with the headquarters' plan. For example, Rokossovsky disagrees with this combat plan.
However, how should I put it? As a soldier, everyone has his own duties. Naturally, he should do his best in matters within the scope of his duties. As for matters outside of his duties, it is better for smart people to think less about them.
The Kharkov offensive had nothing to do with Rokossovsky . The Central Front he commanded was not fighting in that direction. He had to deal with the German army group in the Kursk direction.
Since the Kharkov offensive was not Rokossovsky's responsibility, he certainly would not comment on it, as that would be unwise.
"Since the situation in the Kharkov campaign has deteriorated beyond redemption, I think it's no longer necessary to continue our efforts on this front," Yuri burped and continued his topic. "As a wise choice, we should look further ahead and not worry about the gains and losses of a particular time or place..."
As he spoke, Yuri began to look around slowly, as if looking for something, but he didn't find anything.
"Gerlyosha, Gerlyosha... Where is my map?" Yuri started shouting when he couldn't find anything. "The map to Kharkov..."
Gerlyosha appeared silently and placed a folded map in front of Yuri.
"At present, in order to avoid losses, we should withdraw the main force of the Southwestern Front to the Bogodukhov-Volchansk line. At the same time, south of Kursk, from Oboyan to Shebekino and then to the Volchansk area, we should build several echelon defense positions to block the German offensive on the southern front." Yuri pointed to some locations on the map and said, "In the area north of Kursk, our Central Front and Western Front should abandon the siege of the Orel area and build defense positions on the Kirov-Dominich-Ulyanov-Mchinsk line and the Orlovsky-Maloyaroska line."
This time, both Rokossovsky and Chuikov came to have a drink with Yuri, their intention was actually to comfort him, especially Rokossovsky. He had previously proposed to Stalin that Yuri should be transferred to the Central Front, but was rejected by Stalin. He could see that Stalin was very dissatisfied with Yuri.
It was precisely because of this mentality that the two of them did not pay much attention to the combat ideas mentioned by Yuri at the beginning. However, now with the map in hand and after listening to the several lines of defense planned by Yuri, the sensitive Rokossovsky was the first to notice the problem - a big and shocking problem, and behind this problem was a large-scale battle of grand scale and extremely far-reaching significance.
Why do you say that? Because if Yuri's plan is followed, after several lines of defense are built, there will inevitably be a large-scale decisive battle between the Soviet Union and Germany in the direction of Kursk. This is a decisive battle that must be fought. Unless one side chooses to retreat actively, it will be inevitable.
Once these lines of defense were built and the Soviet-German fronts were stabilized, the German front would form two fatal salients within the Soviet army, namely, the Orel salient in the north and the Kharkov-Belgorod salient in the south. In these two salients were the German Manstein Group and the Orel Military Group. If the German groups in these two salients were not eliminated, the Soviet Voronezh Front and the Central Front wings in the Kursk direction would be threatened by the German army at any time.
For the German army, this decisive battle was also inevitable, because the Soviet army in the Kursk direction also formed a salient in their front. The Soviet Central Front and Voronezh Front in this salient could easily pose a threat to their Orel Group and Manstein Group. In the north, the Orel Group was threatened by the Soviet Central Front, Bryansk Front and Western Front, while in the south, the Manstein Group was threatened by the Soviet Southwestern Front and Voronezh Front.
Imagine that once this battle begins, let alone how many troops the German army will have to deploy, the Soviet army alone will need to deploy five major fronts, including the Western Front, Bryansk Front, Central Front, Voronezh Front, and Southwestern Front. Oh, no, no, no, there will also be a front as a reserve force. In other words, the troops directly participating in the battle will include 6 fronts. This is a strategic battle, which can determine not only the Soviet-German military strength comparison in the Kursk area, but also...
Rokossovsky believed that the outcome of this battle could even determine the future direct situation between the Soviet Union and Germany on the front battlefield - if the Soviet army wins, the German army will completely lose all initiative in future wars, conversely, the Soviet army will lose the ability to continue the offensive within the next year.
So, did the Soviet army have the ability to fight this decisive battle? Rokossovsky was not sure about this, because he was not a general from the General Staff, he did not have a clear understanding of the overall issues, and he did not have that much information. However, he believed that since Yuri, as the Minister of Operations, dared to propose such a battle plan, the current Soviet army should have this ability.
The drunk Yuri was still talking about his combat thinking, but after all, he had drunk too much, so his thoughts were a little confused and his words were unclear. However, even so, his performance still made Rokossovsky feel a little jealous: this young man in front of him - really a young man, unbelievably young, of course, even more unbelievable is his growth rate. It is certain that once this Battle of Kursk... yes, it must be called a battle, this is no longer a battle at the campaign level, but a strategic level. Once the plan for this battle is finalized, whether the Soviet army wins or loses, Yuri will leave his name in the world military history.
Rokossovsky's jealousy was not without reason, because in the distant future, more than half a century later in 2002, the Russian Academy of Military Sciences ranked many Soviet generals according to the contributions and roles played by Soviet military leaders in the Great Patriotic War. Yuri was included in the ranks of "strategic and key battle leaders" because of his active role in the Battle of Kursk, and ranked fourth among them. Ahead of him were Soviet Marshal Zhukov, Soviet Marshal Vasilevsky, and Soviet Marshal Rokossovsky.
However, despite his jealousy, Rokossovsky's character was still trustworthy. He believed that Yuri's idea was very forward-looking and crucial, and it was very necessary to report it to the Supreme Command as preparation for the next stage of the battle.
Therefore, after the meeting and introduction, when Yuri was in a hangover state, Rokossovsky and Chuikov did not rest. The two postponed their trip back to Kursk and spent nearly a night carefully studying the strategy that Yuri casually proposed. On the next day, they reported it to Stalin himself in the form of a briefing.
The reason why it is said to be a report in the form of a briefing is that the reports of Rokossovsky and Chuikov are only a rough outline of a battle idea, which focuses on the direct impact that the Soviet army can have once it wins a battle on the battlefield.
In the report, Rokossovsky was not able to fully explain the impact of the battle. He only talked about that once the battle was won, the Soviet army would annihilate or at least defeat the two major German heavy forces in Orel and Belgorod-Kharkov, thus creating the most favorable conditions for the Soviet Red Army to advance into the left bank of Ukraine and out to the Dnieper River.
As for more specific reports, Rokossovsky recommended Yuri to Stalin, because the idea of this battle was proposed by Yuri, and only he knew better how this battle should be planned.
