Chapter 192 A New Battle
Although there was a preliminary negotiation process before the formal summit meeting, the progress of the Tehran summit meeting was not very smooth after it officially started. There was only one reason for this, that is, Churchill, who was persistent and always wanted to continue to work hard and pull Roosevelt to force Stalin to make concessions on the issue of opening a second front.
Obviously, Stalin was not someone who could be easily convinced, and certainly not someone who could be easily convinced by the British. Perhaps in his eyes, the protagonists of this meeting were only him and Roosevelt, and Churchill was just a bonus. Therefore, his main target was Roosevelt, and he was arrogant towards Churchill.
As a peripheral member of the negotiation team, Yuri did not know what the three leaders discussed specifically, and he had no way of knowing. However, every day after 4 pm, when the three leaders held their regular meetings, he could hear the angry voices of Stalin or Churchill. If two people are at loggerheads, then the remaining person who acts as a peacemaker becomes extremely important.
In fact, between the United States and the Soviet Union, Roosevelt's real support was still the Soviet Union. Although there was a Cairo Conference before coming to Tehran, and Britain and the United States had already consulted in advance, Roosevelt obviously still hoped to open the second front in the English Channel, or even directly in southern France according to the Soviet Union's request. Why? The reason is very simple. If the second front is opened in the Balkan Peninsula according to Churchill's plan, then the Allies will attack from east to west, and they will jointly deal with the German defense line with the Soviet Union. On the contrary, if they land in southern France, then with the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, the losses suffered by the Allies will definitely be much smaller.
In addition, in the Pacific battlefield, the Americans also hoped that the Soviet Union would join the war. After a series of previous battles against Japan, the Americans were a little scared of the Japanese's fearless fighting style. According to the Pentagon's prediction, if the US military landed on the Japanese mainland, the losses suffered by the troops would likely be an astonishing number. Considering this situation, Roosevelt hoped to end the European war as soon as possible, and then asked the Soviet Union to join the war against Japan, so as to reduce the losses of the US military in the Pacific battlefield.
So, during the negotiations that lasted for several days, despite the constant quarrels between Churchill and Stalin, the negotiation process was basically smooth.
By November 30, Yuri received news that Comrade Stalin had reached a basic agreement with the leaders of the United States and Britain. This agreement was confidential and would not be made public. Its content determined the division of Polish territory after the war. In this confidential agreement, Stalin made concessions and gave up part of the Polish territory occupied before 1941, and determined the Soviet-Polish border between the Curzon Line and the Oder River. At the same time, Königsberg was ceded to the Soviet Union.
Through this concession, Stalin also obtained Churchill's concession on the opening of a second front, and the time for opening the second front was set for May next year.
On the very evening when this basic agreement was reached, Stalin summoned Yuri and informed him to return to the country overnight, not to Moscow, but to go directly to Leningrad, as a representative of the headquarters, and to be fully responsible for the offensive campaign that was about to be launched there.
This was the second time that Yuri went to an important frontline area as a representative of the headquarters to directly participate in combat command. The previous time was on the southern front. However, because he took office rather hastily, he did not go through the formal procedures. This time, his identity as a representative was completely complete.
First, the Supreme Command and the People's Commissariat of Defense sent a circular to the Northern Theater Command, and then the Northern Theater Command . After this procedure, once Yuri, the representative of the headquarters, arrived at the front, he would be the supreme commander of the corresponding combat area. As long as he was willing to intervene in the affairs of combat command, both the front commander and the front military commissioner would obey his command and orders.
In the past, Yuri would be very happy with such an appointment, because his dream was to directly command a front-line battle at the front level. But now, his passion in this regard has faded, and more importantly, he still hopes to complete his work and not make mistakes or cause trouble.
After receiving Stalin's order, Yuri set off from Tehran that night without any delay and flew directly to Leningrad on a military plane.
…
“Da da da…”
"boom……"
Sporadic gunfire mixed with the sound of artillery fire raged on the snow-covered surface of the Mga River. The half-meter thick snow was lifted up by the explosion and flew all over the sky.
The artillery fire came from the west bank of the Mga River, which was a position firmly controlled by the German army, belonging to the 4th Infantry Army. The 4th Infantry Army once had tens of thousands of troops and its own tanks, but now, after three years of war, this once elite force has been completely crippled. The unit has less than 10,000 troops and no tanks. There are only a small number of artillery deployed on the river defense line, which can not form a suppressive firepower at all.
In the past few days, the German troops on the west bank of the Mga River probably felt the tense atmosphere, so every night they would carry out routine fire tests on the Soviet positions on the east bank of the river. The purpose was not to kill the enemy, but to prevent being attacked by the Soviet army crossing the river.
This winter was unusually cold, and the surface of the Mga River had been completely frozen. Even with artillery bombardment, it was difficult to form large-scale ice collapses on the river surface. After the Soviet T34 tanks were equipped with snowplows, they could easily rush to the river surface, and while forcing their way across the river, they could also clear the snow on the river surface.
In the rear of the German army, the situation was equally grim. In Luga, Pskov and other areas, Soviet guerrillas had begun to carry out large-scale activities. They blew up railways and roads, attacked German supply convoys and wounded soldiers' camps, and caused great trouble to the German troops fighting on the front line.
Now, for the German troops in the area outside Leningrad, the time, place and people are all very unfavorable. Everyone knows that a large-scale Russian attack will definitely come, but no one knows when it will come.
On the east bank of the Mga River, the Soviet garrison was commanded by Lieutenant General Stankov and belonged to the Ninth Army of the Volkhov Front. This was a very old unit, which was first established in 1919 and had participated in countless battles. In the previous offensive campaign, the German resistance hub of Porechiye on the Mga River was captured by this unit.
The first thing Yuri did after arriving in Leningrad was to inspect the Ninth Army's defense line on the east bank of the Mga River. The reason for choosing this place was very simple, because the subsequent all-round counterattack in the Leningrad area would use this place as a breakthrough point.
On the east bank of the Mga River bend, the Ninth Army deployed the 10th and 11th Infantry Corps. The Volkhov Front Command also strengthened the artillery firepower in the area, with the aim of forcing a crossing of the Mga River and establishing a landing site on the other side of the river after the battle began. In addition, the Ninth Army's leadership agency was also moved to Kirishi for nearby command. The 12th Mechanized Army under the Army was moving between the Volkhov River and the Mga River. According to the combat deployment of the Front, once the Soviet Army broke through the German Mga River defense line, the 12th Mechanized Army would quickly advance in the direction of Lyuban, and cooperate with the 54th Army, which launched an offensive westward from Budoghi, to implement a deep encirclement of the German Army in the area south of Leningrad, striving to encircle and annihilate the main forces of the German 4th, 28th, 50th, and 54th Infantry Corps.
Further away, the 59th Army and the 7th Independent Infantry Army of the Volkhov Front will launch an attack westward from Novgorod later. Their attack will target the German rear area - Luga.
The offensive launched by the Volkhov Front from east to west and the offensive launched by the Leningrad Front from north to south were like two iron clamps, and the final target of these iron clamps was also Luga.
Once this operational objective is finally achieved, the Soviet army will completely annihilate the German Northern Army Group that has besieged Leningrad for nearly three years.
When the battle order reached all troops, it was also distributed with an order signed by Comrade Stalin himself: the order required that all participating troops must complete the predetermined combat plan at all costs, and front-line commanders and military commissars must sign a letter of responsibility. Any unit that had problems in the process of executing the order would be held accountable.
The nearly three-year defense of Leningrad caused heavy losses to the city, especially during the long siege period, when food was scarce and countless civilians were killed and wounded. Since the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, although the Soviet Union had suffered many battles with heavy losses, the siege was what angered Stalin the most. Therefore, when the opportunity for revenge came, he demanded that the enemy under the city of Leningrad be wiped out as much as possible.
Yuri rushed from Tehran to Leningrad without even a day's rest. Accompanied by Lieutenant General Gusev, Chief of Staff of the Leningrad Front, he inspected the combat deployment of the entire front. Then, on the sixth day after his arrival in Leningrad, he left the Leningrad Front and rushed to the Mga River front to begin his inspection of the Volkhov Front. Not only that, he would stay here until the war started to personally supervise the offensive operations of the Volkhov Front.
On December 17, the weather was clear. At 4 a.m., on the Soviet front line on the east bank of the Mga River, shrill whistles sounded and the rumbling of artillery tore through the gloomy night. The Battle of Leningrad-Novgorod began.
