Chapter 172 Father-in-law Arrives
The newly received battle report was then placed on the retro coffee table in the living room. Yuri turned his head and asked, "Have you had breakfast?"
"Not yet. I waited for two hours at the General Staff Headquarters before I got this battle report," Arseni took off his hat and looked at his military trousers which were almost completely wet below the knees. Then he scratched his head and smiled.
"Then let's eat together," Yuri nodded, walked around to the coffee table and sat down. He opened the leather cover of the battle report and said, "Tell the orderly to prepare more breakfast. Add some honey. I don't know why, but my mouth has been a little bitter since I woke up this morning."
"Do you want to call a doctor? Maybe you have caught a cold." Arseni asked carefully.
“No need,” Yuri smiled and waved his hand, “Maybe everything will be fine after breakfast. We have to hurry…”
Yuri stopped talking here, and the smile on his face froze in an instant.
Arseni's heart skipped a beat, knowing that something in the battle report must have caused Yuri's unhappiness, so he didn't dare say anything more and turned to find the orderly.
The battle report that Arseni brought was the latest developments of the fighting in the Kursk direction over the previous two days, and at the top was the specific situation of the fighting on the southern front of Kursk.
The top report came from the General Command of the Operation Direction, and was signed by Zhukov, the Commander of the General Command. In this report, the General Command did not give a detailed introduction to the specific combat situation in the Kursk direction, but only said that the German army had been worn down in the previous few days of fighting. Zhukov suggested that the headquarters could order the Western Front and the Bryansk Front to take the lead in launching . In a word, it was time to launch a full-scale counterattack.
Below this battle report is the battle report from the Voronezh Front, which was submitted by the Voronezh Front staff and signed by the front commander Golikov. In this battle report, the Voronezh Front Command first summarized the battle situation of the front in the past two days, and then reported the losses of the troops, among which the losses of the 9th Tank Army and the 9th Tank Army were emphasized. At the end of the report, Golikov complained about Rotmistrov and Grishin.
Rotmistrov is currently the commander of the 9th Guards Tank Army, while Grishin is the military commissar of the army. In his report, Golikov pointed out that as the commander and military commissar of the 9th Guards Tank Army, the two did not strictly follow the combat orders of the front command, and rashly launched an assault on the attacking German army in the battle of Beskov, resulting in unnecessary huge losses for the Soviet army.
Most importantly, the rash attack of the 9th Guards Tank Army disrupted the front's deployment on this line. The 9th Tank Army commanded by Kliuchinkin rushed into the battle hastily, and although it eventually repelled the German army, it also suffered heavy losses.
Yuri restrained his temper and continued to read. The next one was a battle report from the Central Front. There was nothing much to say about it. Rokossovsky's ability and character were well known, and his command of operations was impeccable.
The last one was a report on . This report was drafted and signed by Konev himself, fully reflecting the commander's energetic and meticulous work style. However, in this report, Yuri actually saw Konev's combat order for the 9th Guards Tank Army. The 9th Guards Tank Army, which originally belonged to the Steppe Front, had been approved by the headquarters and transferred to the Voronezh Front two weeks ago.
Konev's order to Rotmistrov, commander of the 5th Guards Tank Army, was to launch an assault in the direction of Berezov, seize a favorable attack point, and after the counterattack began, quickly detour to the rear of the German 2nd Tank Army to cut off the German army's retreat. The most outrageous thing was that Yuri saw Vasilevsky's signature at the end of Konev's order.
After seeing this order, Yuri was completely speechless. At the same time, he finally realized how unpopular his plan of wearing down the German army in defense and then looking for an opportunity to counterattack was.
After months of preparation and waiting, the Soviet commanders had already exhausted their patience. Facing this long-awaited battle, most of the commanders wanted to fight the Germans to the death. Passive defense in the early stage did not fit their mentality and could not cater to their emotions. Therefore, among the three major fronts that participated in the battle, except for Golikov who consistently implemented this combat idea, the remaining two fronts actually ignored it.
Yuri had reason to believe that if the Soviet advantage in this battle was not so obvious, the commanders in various directions might have been more conservative in commanding operations. But the problem was that sufficient preparations gave these commanders enough confidence, and as a result, they became bold and aggressive.
So frankly speaking, if Yuri did not unilaterally emphasize his tactical thinking in this battle, could the Soviet army win? The answer should be yes, at least, the Soviet army's chance of winning is more than 60%. The only difference is the size of the loss. The reason why Yuri emphasized his tactical thinking is to reduce some losses and thus expand the results of the battle.
But this led to a contradiction. Since the beginning of the Soviet-German War, the Supreme Command had never emphasized that while striving for victory, the strength should be preserved as much as possible. Looking through the battle records of the past two years, we can find that the Supreme Command, Comrade Stalin, only needed one victory after another, just to recapture a certain fallen city, just to defeat the German army by a certain number of kilometers, just to hold on to a certain area for a certain period of time, etc. As for how many troops the Soviet army lost in this process and how much it paid, not many people paid attention.
A big victory is a victory, a tragic victory is also a victory. This is the consistent combat thinking of the Soviet command. Yuri could not understand it, but he had to accept it because he was also a beneficiary of this rule.
Well, the past is the past, and the defensive battle of Kursk was generally successful. Yuri was too lazy and didn't have the mood to pay attention to more details. Most importantly, he also sensitively noticed a problem from these reports, that is, in the face of the improvement of the overall combat situation, the factional division within the Soviet command system seemed to be intensifying. Now, not only Konev jumped out, but even Vasilevsky began to become lonely. Yuri secretly speculated that although he didn't know whether Stalin had any influence on this, it was foreseeable that Comrade Zhukov's future would not be easy.
By diverting his attention away from the battlefield and focusing more on political considerations, Yuri's mood inexplicably improved.
"Hurry up," Yuri's mood had completely adjusted when Arseni brought him breakfast. He picked up a piece of bread and reminded Arseni, "After breakfast, I have to go to the Military Committee."
Yuri planned to visit some Demels, which was something he had been wanting to do recently but had never found the time to do. The last time he finally found some free time, something happened in Demel's family.
"Military Committee?" Arseni hesitated and said, "General , is it important?"
Yuri looked at him in surprise, not understanding why he asked that.
"It's like this, General. Miss Anjelia contacted you last night and said that her father, Comrade Vadim Vitalievich, will arrive in Moscow by train this morning," Arseny said. "She asked me to tell you that she hopes you can go with her to meet him."
"Oh?" Yuri suddenly realized that Angelica had mentioned this matter to him and he agreed, but he had forgotten about it in the past two days.
"Okay, let's go to the Belorussky Railway Station." Yuri nodded and said.
After a quick breakfast, Yuri left the place where he hid his lover and took the car driven by Arseny to the Moscow Municipal Party Committee, where he picked up Angela. Then he walked along Leningrad Street, crossed the Garden Ring Road, and headed straight for the Belorussky Railway Station.
Angeliya's father, Vadim Vitalievich, served as the secretary of Mogilev Oblast, Belarus before the outbreak of the war. After the outbreak of the war, with the fall of the entire Belarus, he did not move to the rear with the government agencies, but followed the orders of the Kremlin and hid on the spot, engaging in guerrilla warfare in the vast jungles between Mogilev and Smolensk.
Currently, he serves as the military commissar of the "Liberators of Belarus" guerrillas, the largest Soviet guerrilla organization in the Mogilev area, and at the same time, he still serves as the secretary of the Mogilev Provincial Party Committee.
Vadim came to Moscow this time under the pretext of reporting on the combat results of the guerrillas in Mogilev and Smolensk regions in the past period of time, but in fact, his purpose was to meet Yuri.
How important is a son-in-law like Yuri to Vadim? There is no need to comment on this question in detail. Just look at how much others envy him - he is the youngest general in the Soviet Union so far, has made great achievements, and is highly regarded by Stalin. In addition, he is also a trusted confidant of Comrade Khrushchev, a member of the Military Committee. Just putting these together is enough to attract attention. What else, what else needs to be said?
