Chapter 183 New Plan
The battle in the Kursk direction had not yet ended. Due to the extension of the front line, the battle on the northern front of Kursk had basically ended. On the line from Kirov to Grokhov, the Soviet army switched from offense to defense. To the west of this line of defense was the so-called "Hagen" line of defense of the German army. The German army gathered heavy troops on this line of defense in an effort to curb the rapid offensive of the Soviet army.
On the southern front, the Soviet offensive continued: after breaking through the German Bogodukhov Line, Golikov's Voronezh Front quickly attacked in the direction of the Vorskla River; the Steppe Front commanded by Konev encircled part of the German Kempf Combat Group in the Belgorod area, and then quickly advanced in the direction of Kharkov and Zmiev.
On the third day after the end of the battle on the northern front, the German Kempf Combat Group was forced to retreat towards Liubotin and Merefa to avoid being surrounded by the two major Soviet heavy forces. Later, after learning that the Voronezh Front was rapidly attacking in the direction of Poltava, the Kempf Combat Group was forced to retreat to the rear again and finally retreated to the west bank of the Vorskla River.
The retreat of the Kempf Combat Group exposed the flank of the German Army Group South. At the same time, the Soviet Southwestern Front also launched an offensive in the direction of Lozovaia , which made the German Army Group South face the embarrassing situation of fighting on three fronts and threatening its two wings. In mid-to-late September, the German Army Group South was forced to evacuate Krasnograd and retreat to Kremenchug and Novomoskovsk. Subsequently, the Soviet army successively liberated Lozovaia, Krasnograd, and Pavlovgrad, and pushed the front line directly to Dnepropetrovsk, thus posing a direct threat to the German army in the direction of the Dnieper River.
It was at this time that Yuri received Stalin 's order that the time was ripe for the Soviet Army's front-line field corps to make large-scale adjustments.
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There was already a slight chill in Moscow in September, and the short summer was fading away amid the celebration of the all-out counter-offensive. However, the enthusiastic atmosphere of celebrating the victory in Moscow showed no sign of fading.
During this period, the citizens of Moscow seemed to have become accustomed to the deafening sound of the salutes. On the front line, a city was recaptured almost every few days, and news of new victories came out on the radio almost every day. At this time, even the most slow-witted people could imagine that this damn war was beginning to come to an end, and the Soviet Union would be the ultimate winner.
Yuri's jeep was driving on the streets of Moscow. There were colorful flags and portraits of Comrade Stalin and Comrade Lenin everywhere, showing how lively the celebrations held in Moscow were some time ago. However, if we were to say who was the most famous during this period and whose name appeared most frequently in the newspapers, it would have to be Comrade Zhukov. This general comrade who planned and commanded several major fronts to achieve a great victory in the Battle of Kursk has become another Soviet person who appeared on the cover of the American "Time" magazine after Comrade Stalin.
To some people, this is an honor, but to some wise people, it is a prelude to misfortune.
Interestingly, during this period, a person who had always seemed relatively silent in the past also began to emerge. That was Comrade Vasilevsky. As the Chief of Staff of the General Staff of the Soviet Red Army, he frequently attended various press conferences and seminars attended by Western journalists as a representative of military leaders to introduce the Soviet Red Army's deeds in the preparation and progress of the Battle of Kursk, as well as the importance of this battle to the entire Soviet-German War and the world anti-fascist war.
In addition to these, the most popular issue in recent times is naturally the awarding of the "Medal of Victory" of great significance. After discussions by the Supreme Command, the Military Committee and the People's Commissariat of Defense, the candidates for this medal were finally determined. This time, there are three people who are honored to receive this medal: Comrade Stalin, Comrade Zhukov and Comrade Vasilevsky.
He didn't know if it was out of a sour grapes mentality, but Yuri always felt very uncomfortable every time he saw the list of awards, and he believed that he was not the only one who had this mentality.
Well, Yuri didn't have too many regrets about not getting the Order of Victory this time. In fact, looking at the candidates who were awarded the medal, he knew that it was not unfair for him to miss out on the medal. After all, he was not arrogant enough to think that he could be compared with any of the three.
A Victory Medal is of great significance, and Yuri certainly wants to win one in his lifetime. This is a soldier's obsession. He may have found it difficult to understand in the past, but now he can feel it personally.
It doesn't matter. If you can't get it this time, there will always be next time. Anyway, this war is still some years away from ending. Yuri doesn't think he has no chance at all.
The jeep drove into Red Square and was about to reach the entrance of the Kremlin. Yuri put away the complicated thoughts in his mind and began to think about the task assigned to him by Stalin.
According to the opinions of the General Staff and the Supreme Command, considering the current combat situation on the front line, the headquarters' setting of the combat direction before September was obviously out of date. The last adjustment was in the late stage of the Battle of Stalingrad. At that time, each combat group made a small-scale adjustment to the stationing and combat positions, but the combat directions of each field army were still the old ones. For example, the Central Front, which was reorganized from the Don Front, mainly advanced towards Kursk, while the Southwestern Front mainly advanced towards Belgorod, the Voronezh Front advanced towards and so on.
Now, Kursk, Kharkov, Belgorod and other places have been liberated. At the same time, the troops of the Southern Front and the North Caucasus Front have completed their combat tasks in their respective war zones. The next step is to launch a new offensive towards Ukraine.
In addition, during the Battle of Kursk, it was inevitable that the troops under the various fronts would intersect with each other during the offensive. For example, the troops under the Central Front advanced into the combat area of the Bryansk Front during the offensive. This was normal. Once such a situation occurred, the Supreme Command could not order the troops that had advanced to a certain area to withdraw and return to their own organization in order to ensure the integrity of the combat sequence of a certain front. That was simply unrealistic.
Therefore, at this time, taking advantage of the fact that the Soviet-German front-line war entered a defensive cutoff, it became inevitable for the headquarters to redeploy its troops.
Before returning to Moscow, Yuri had made some rough considerations on the specific plan for the next attack.
According to Yuri's consideration, the campaign against Ukraine should be divided into four offensive directions, namely: in the south, on the south bank of the Dnieper River, the main attack is on the German defense hub of Melitopol, so as to cut off the connection between the Crimean German Army Group and the German Army Group on land; in the north, the main purpose is to capture Kiev, and further attack the German defense line in the direction of Zhitomir and Kornin; in the middle, the Dnieper River section between Zaporozhye and Dnieper Petrovsk is used as a breakthrough point to launch an offensive on the west bank of the Dnieper River, and strive to build several large landing sites in a short time. After that, quickly make a deep detour in the offensive direction of the north and south wings, strive to cooperate with the offensive forces on the two wings, and encircle and annihilate the German heavy troops in the west bank of the Dnieper River.
If this idea is implemented, the Soviet army will deploy at least six fronts in the Ukrainian offensive campaign: four of the fronts will be the main offensive forces, one front will need to be deployed in the central direction to cover the flank position of friendly forces attacking Kiev, and the last front will exist as a reserve in case of emergency.
It can be said that Yuri's thinking on the layout of large battles at this time was already very mature, and his combat style was to anticipate defeat before victory and to be cautious. For any large-scale battle plan he made, he would need to allocate at least one front, that is, the 5th to 7th Army, as a reserve.
Yuri had his reasons for being so safe, because in Yuri's view, the reserve troops were not only used for counterattacks and defense arrangements, but they could also be quickly deployed there and launch attacks when accidental breakthroughs occurred at non-important locations, thus not giving the enemy time to redeploy and retreat.
Of course, as far as the front-line combat troops are concerned, the total strength of the Soviet army is limited, and there are only so many troops that can be mobilized at the same time. In the campaign to attack Ukraine, if one front is used as a reserve according to Yuri's plan, then there will be a lack of troop deployment in other directions.
In a phone call the day before yesterday, Stalin told Yuri that his Ukrainian offensive campaign plan was opposed by the General Staff and some major commanders of the fronts. Although Stalin did not mention who opposed it, Yuri could guess it almost right based on his own speculation.
I won't mention the opposition from the General Staff, at least Comrade Antonov was the first to oppose this operational plan. As for the commanders of the fronts, the current commander of the Western Front, Alexander Petrovich Pokrovsky, must have opposed it, because not long ago, the Western Front had just suffered a great loss in the offensive campaigns in Vitebsk and Orsha, and this lieutenant general was planning to launch a new offensive to break through the German defense line there.
Of course, the voices of opposition may also include Yuri's old superior, Comrade Rokossovsky, because the Central Front under his command also suffered losses in the offensives of Rogachev and Bobruisk.
However, Yuri's plan was complete and feasible, at least he thought so. Therefore, no matter who opposed it, he would stick to it as always. This time he returned to Moscow to convince Stalin.
