Chapter 185 The Big Plan
Thinking about the problem in his mind and organizing his words, Yuri walked into Office Building No. 1 and went straight up the stairs to the second floor.
Turning from the stairs to the corridor on the second floor, Yuri saw some people sitting on the chairs on the right side of the corridor. Everyone was wearing a military uniform. Looking at the rank insignia, the highest-ranking one was a young major general who was no more than 35 years old.
Seeing Yuri appear in the corridor, these people stood up and saluted him. Yuri saluted back and looked around, and found that there was no one he knew among these people. When he got closer and saw the medals on their chests, Yuri knew what these people did.
The young major general wore four or five medals on his chest. The highest one was undoubtedly the Hero of the Soviet Union Medal, and below that was the Patriotic War Partisan Medal. Looking at the remaining few people, although the medals they wore were different, each of them had a Partisan Medal. Without asking, one could guess that these people must have worked in a guerrilla unit.
Without talking to these people, Yuri walked straight past them and came to the door of Office No. 1 where there was a guard on duty.
The two heavy wooden doors of the office were tightly closed, and the good sound insulation prevented any sound from coming out of the room. After all, this was Stalin's office.
Several commanders who were former guerrillas saw Yuri stop at Stalin's door and turned their heads to look at him. They either knew Yuri or not, but they all knew who that office belonged to. Anyone who could knock on those two doors without notifying the secretary was definitely not an ordinary person.
Yuri hesitated for a moment, but finally reached out and knocked twice on the office door. He had just knocked when the originally tight door was opened from the inside. A young man came out with a tea tray in his hand. When he saw Yuri, he was stunned for a moment, but quickly stepped back and made room at the door. At the same time, he turned around and said, "Comrade Stalin, General Yuri Arkhipovich is here."
Yuri did not know this young man. He was probably the office secretary that Stalin had just replaced during this period. His office secretary changed frequently, and only Poskrebyshev stayed with him the longest.
Without hearing Stalin's voice, probably with a gesture or something, the young man turned around, looked at Yuri and smiled, "Come in, Comrade General Yuri Arkhipovich."
Having entered this office so many times, Yuri is no longer unfamiliar with it. It can even be said to be very familiar with it.
He walked into the door, took off his military cap and held it in the crook of his right arm, then turned around, found where Stalin was, stood up straight, and saluted.
"Comrade Yuri Arkhipovich Kulyokov, did you have a smooth journey back?" Stalin raised his hand and returned the salute symbolically, while asking.
"All is well, Comrade Stalin," Yuri said, nodding.
"How is the work in the south? Has the handover been completed?" Stalin continued to ask.
Stalin asked this question a bit redundantly. In fact, before returning to Moscow, Yuri had already submitted a systematic report on the work of the Southern Front to the Supreme Command. Stalin could not have failed to see this report. Of course, Yuri was also very clear that Stalin asked these questions at this time not because he needed an answer, but just a topic.
"Everything has been handed over, Comrade Stalin," Yuri said, "and the formation of the independent Primorsky Army has also been completed. I have submitted a work report on the details to the General Staff."
Stalin nodded with satisfaction. Yuri believed that Stalin must have seen the work report he was talking about before. The reason why he asked this question again was just to bring up the next topic.
"Very good," Stalin nodded and gestured to Yuri to come over. At the same time, he changed the subject and said, "Take a look at this. This is an operational plan that Comrade Govorov submitted to the General Staff not long ago."
As he said this, Stalin pointed to the desk in front of him, where there was a red-covered document. It was a highly confidential battle plan.
Yuri first glanced at Zhukov who was standing next to Stalin, nodded to him as a greeting, then quickly stepped forward and picked up the document on the table.
The document was a copy, the copy department was the Northern Operations Department of the General Staff, and the submitting department was the General Command of the Leningrad Front. The signer was Leonid Alexandrovich Govorov, who is now the commander of the Leningrad Front, and the other signer was the Chief of Staff of the Front, Dmitry Nikolayevich Gusev.
Although Yuri was not very familiar with Govorov, he knew something about this man's style. As far as he knew, Govorov was a very rigorous soldier and did things meticulously, which could be seen from the combat plan he submitted.
The plan was formulated in November and finalized in early December. The planning and adjustment took nearly a month, and all of this was noted in the prologue of the operational plan. After the prologue, the front staff made an overall analysis of the situation in the Leningrad region, including the comparison of enemy and our forces, the layout of the German defense line, the main assembly locations of the Soviet army, enemy reconnaissance at several key defense points, the logistics status of the front, etc. After this, the overall offensive plan of the front was formulated.
According to the battle plan submitted by Comrade Govorov , the Soviet army will deploy the Leningrad Front, the Volkhov Front, the 2nd Baltic Front, the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and its attached aviation in this brewing battle. The purpose of the battle is to annihilate the German "Northern Army Group" composed of the 16th and 18th Army Groups and completely liberate Leningrad and the vast area around it.
The specific operational plan of the battle was that part of the Leningrad Front and part of the Volkhov Front would launch a swift offensive against the two wings of the German 18th Army entrenched in the Leningrad and Novgorod areas, crush the German troops, and then advance the front to the Luga River. After that, they would cooperate with the 2nd Baltic Front commanded by Comrade Popov to launch an offensive against the German 16th Army, striving to defeat .
According to the combat plan, the battle was scheduled to last for two months, with more than one million troops mobilized and a total of three fronts participating.
Yuri read the battle plan as quickly as possible, but he didn't speak directly. He didn't think about the battle first, but the establishment of a new independent tank army. He wanted to express his attitude on this matter and put forward some suggestions, but it seemed that Stalin had no intention of asking for his opinion.
"The battle in Ukraine has not ended yet, and our progress on the central front does not seem to be going smoothly," Stalin glanced at Zhukov after Yuri finished reading the battle plan, and the latter said, "The opinion of the General Staff is that at this time, it is not appropriate for us to launch another large-scale offensive campaign on the northern front, which will overly strain our forces."
"What's your opinion, Yuri Arkhipovich? I want to hear your opinion." Stalin took his pipe and asked in a deep tone.
"I agree with the opinion of the General Staff," Yuri thought for a while and said, "The offensive in the direction of Leningrad should be postponed for at least one to two months."
Stalin nodded. Although he had increasingly respected the opinions of frontline commanders since 1942, he was more inclined to accept the opinions of the General Staff when formulating strategic campaign plans. Most importantly, this time even Yuri recognized the opinions of the General Staff, and Stalin's attitude became clearer.
"In the next one or two months, my opinion is," Yuri did not finish his words. He continued, "We should do our best to transport reserve troops and weapons and equipment to the right bank of Ukraine, Leningrad and Crimea. Similar logistical support should be sufficient to support a full-scale offensive for two to three months."
"Oh?" Stalin frowned. Frowning does not mean that he is unhappy, but a sign of thinking.
"Do you have any specific ideas?" Stalin asked curiously, putting the pipe in his mouth.
"I need to borrow the battle map, Comrade Stalin," Yuri said, pointing to the battle map .
Stalin nodded, took out a box of matches from his pocket, lit the pipe in his mouth, and then said: "If you want to smoke, there are some on the table, take them yourself."
Yuri did not take the cigarette, he walked directly to the map and put it down. Zhukov, who was standing on the side, took a step forward, picked up a pack of unwrapped cigarettes from the table, took one and lit it - Stalin's authority was growing, but when he was with a few people around him, he was still more easy-going, at least, he did not stop the generals around him from smoking in his office.
"Comrade Stalin," Yuri turned the map over. He stared at the map for a while, and when Zhukov lit his cigarette, he pointed to the Dnieper River line in the right bank of Ukraine and said, "After the previous stage of the battle, I think that in the coming spring, the conditions are ripe for us to launch several battles in the direction of Leningrad, the right bank of Ukraine, and the southern direction where Crimea is located at the same time."
