Chapter 184: On Military Branches
It was still the same solemn office building. The car was parked downstairs. When Yuri got out of the car, he just saw Comrade Poskrebyshev hurriedly walking down the stairs in front of the building and heading towards the parking lot.
Yuri saw that he seemed to be in a hurry and didn't seem to have noticed him, so he gave up the idea of saying hello. But unexpectedly, just as he put down his half-raised hand, the secretary comrade who was walking hurriedly suddenly stopped, waved his hand at him, and then walked quickly towards him.
"Comrade Yuri Arkhipovich Kulyokov," Poskrebyshev said with a smile on his face when he was still a dozen steps away from Yuri. He stretched out his hand from a distance and said, "Good evening."
"Oh, good evening," Yuri greeted in surprise. He was a little surprised because Poskrebyshev called him by his full name, while in the past, the secretary comrade called him without his surname.
"When did you arrive in Moscow?" Poskrebyshev asked, holding Yuri's hand.
"Just arrived," Yuri replied, "less than an hour after getting off the plane..."
He paused, then added with a smile: "There are some problems with the road conditions from Bykovo to the city. I think it is necessary to inform Comrade Sherbakov about this matter. Otherwise, if the road conditions are not improved before Comrade Stalin discovers the problem, the Moscow Municipal Committee may be punished."
"Oh, what's going on?" Poskrebyshev asked curiously.
This time when Yuri came back from the southern front, he got off the plane in Bykovo. When he drove back to Moscow from there , he found that there were many bomb craters on the road along the way that had not been repaired. The road was bumpy and difficult to travel on, not to mention the road facilities such as street lights.
In fact, Bykovo Airport is just a small airport. Among the existing airports in Moscow, it ranks at the bottom. In most cases, no important aircraft will take off or land at this airport.
During the Battle of Moscow, the German army bombed this purely military airport, causing great damage to the airport. The roads from the airport to the city, especially the Ryazan Highway, were severely damaged. After the Battle of Moscow, due to limited financial budgets, the Moscow Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government did not renovate and maintain the infrastructure of this non-important airport, so that this road is still very difficult to travel.
After listening to Yuri's talk about the road conditions from Bykovo to Moscow, including the Ryazan Highway, Poskrebyshev frowned. He felt that he really needed to remind Sherbakov. The reason was simple. In a while, the role of Bykovo Airport would be greatly enhanced. If the road conditions continued to be so bad, Sherbakov, the secretary of the Moscow Municipal Party Committee, would probably be in trouble.
Why has Bykovo Airport, which has not been very important in the past few years, become important? The fundamental reason lies in the series of agreements reached by the foreign ministers of the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom on the trilateral summit at the end of the year. According to these agreements, the Soviet Union will officially declare war on Japan after the war against Germany ends, and launch an attack on the Japanese Kwantung Army entrenched in Northeast China. Although there is no end date for the war against Germany, the Pacific Operations Command of the General Staff has begun to be established. At the same time, a series of war supporting work has also entered the preparation stage. Bykovo Airport will undertake the main air transportation tasks in the early preparations.
The Soviet Union was positive in its attitude towards the war against Japan. There were many reasons behind this positivity, and the most important one was the historical grievances between the Soviet Union and Japan, or more precisely, between Japan and Russia. The Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of the century ended with Russia's disastrous defeat, which was definitely a huge shame for Russia at the time. Looking at the current Soviet authorities, including Stalin, almost every politician and senior general was born in 1904 when the war broke out, and many people even remember it. Therefore, for these people, it is very necessary to fight against Japan again, completely defeat the enemy of the Russian Empire, and fundamentally restore Russia's dignity.
In addition, for Moscow, fighting against Japan and sending troops to Northeast China can also expand the Soviet Union's influence in East Asia, Asia, and even the entire Pacific region. This is a geopolitical consideration.
Of course, the Soviet Union's long-term plan to launch a war against Japan is still an absolute secret. After all, the war against Germany has not ended, and the Soviet Union does not have the ability to open up a new battlefield against Japan on the Eastern Front while fighting Germany. At present, not many people know this secret. Although Sherbakov's rank is not low, he is no longer in the military, so he is unlikely to know the corresponding situation.
Poskrebyshev and Sherbakov have a good personal relationship. On the one hand, he did not know the situation at Bykovo Airport before, and on the other hand, he also ignored this matter. Now that Yuri reminded him, he naturally kept it in mind.
"Well, this is the situation in Bykovo. If we can hurry up, a few months of operation will be enough to change the current bad situation." After briefly introducing the road conditions from Bykovo to Moscow, Yuri finally said.
"I will remind Comrade Sherbakov," Poskrebyshev nodded and said, "but..."
Poskrebyshev seemed to want to say something. He hesitated for a moment, probably thinking about what to say next. After a few seconds, he continued, "Comrade Stalin is discussing the establishment of a new tank army with Comrade Zhukov. I think Comrade Stalin would like to hear your advice."
Yuri was stunned for a moment. It was obvious that Poskrebyshev was leaking information to him, and the information was about Comrade Stalin.
Don't underestimate such a thing. You should know that Poskrebyshev would never do such a thing in the past. At least Yuri had never heard of it. But for him and other people like him who also worked with Stalin, it would be undoubtedly very important to get some similar information before meeting with Stalin.
Take the present moment for example. Poskrebyshev told Yuri that Stalin was discussing the issue of forming a new tank army with Zhukov. Then, Yuri could think about this issue carefully in the next few minutes so that he could perform better in front of Stalin.
The Supreme Command plans to form a new tank army, and this statement has already existed before. At present, there are mainly two types of tank units in the Soviet Red Army: one is the tank unit that cooperates with the combined arms forces. These tank units are distributed in the combined arms forces at the army to battalion level. The other is an independent tank army at the campaign level.
Since the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, the Soviet Red Army has formed a total of 5 independent tank armies at the campaign level. There are great differences of opinion within the Supreme Command on whether to form a sixth tank army. Among them, the opposing opinion is that the tank army, as a branch of the military organization, has not performed well in past battles. At the same time, it requires terrifyingly high logistical support, and the losses in each battle are unacceptable.
For example, in the Battle of the Dnieper Bridgehead that just ended not long ago, the 9th Guards Tank Army lost more than 300 tanks in just over a month, and the number of tanks it had dropped sharply from 686 to 345. Similarly, the 9th Guards Tank Army assigned to the Steppe Front also lost more than 300 tanks in less than a month of fighting. Such a high price was obviously something the Soviet Union could not afford.
Yuri was aware of the differences within the Supreme Command on this issue, and he certainly had his own views. However, now that Poskrebyshev had reminded him, he had more time to organize his words so that he could speak calmly in front of Stalin.
No matter what Poskrebyshev's motive was for revealing the information, Yuri at least had to express his gratitude implicitly at this time.
After watching Poskrebyshev get into his car and gradually disappear from sight, Yuri adjusted his mood so that he could think about the issue of forming a new tank army in his mind and walk into the office building.
Comrade Zhukov was in favor of forming a new tank army. Those who opposed it were mainly senior generals such as Timoshenko. As for Yuri himself, he agreed with Zhukov's suggestion that the current Soviet Red Army did need to form one or two independent tank armies.
In the past two years, as the Soviet army reversed its decline on the front battlefield, especially after the construction of combined arms forces achieved real results, the theory of combined arms victory became popular, and the Supreme Command also invested a lot of energy and financial resources in the construction of combined arms forces. From a practical point , in the current Soviet Red Army, the number of tanks owned by a combined arms group army is even greater than that of a tank group army.
Is the construction of combined arms forces important? The answer is obviously yes. After all, the combined arms group army undertakes the main offensive tasks during the battle. They are the main force of the attack and the spearhead to break through the enemy's defense line. But this does not mean that the tank group army, which undertakes the task of assault and advancement, is not important.
