Chapter 213
With Melitopol as the main offensive direction, this battle was not so easy to fight. There were many reasons for this, and the most important one was that when the Battle of Kursk was coming to an end, the German army had already begun to build a solid Dnieper River defense line.
This line of defense starts from Vitebsk in Belarus, passes through Orsha, the Desna River, and the Dnieper River, and extends to Zaporizhia and Melitopol, stretching for thousands of kilometers. It was called the "Wotan Line" by the German army.
Wotan is actually Odin in Norse mythology. Wotan is the ancient Germanic pronunciation of Odin. The Germans obviously hoped that the great god Odin could protect them so that they could use this line of defense to block the Soviet counterattack.
However, although the German army accelerated the construction of this line of defense after the Battle of Kursk, due to the shortage of manpower and material resources, this line of defense was not successfully built. Many sections were not started at all, and some sections were only half built.
However, the fortifications in the Melitopol area had been built very solidly. Because of this, Vasilevsky did not agree with Yuri's proposal. He believed that the main direction of attack should avoid the German army's solid fortifications and choose its relatively weak defense areas.
Senior commanders like Yuri, who grew up from the front line through bloody battles, often have a shortcoming, that is, when others are commanding the battle, they always want to point fingers and tell others what to do and what not to do. But when it is their turn to command the battle, they hate others' comments and only think that their own command is the most correct.
Although Vasilevsky was the Chief of the General Staff and the representative of the headquarters, Yuri did not give him face. On the issue of the main direction of the attack, he directly rejected the former's proposal and insisted on making Melitopol the core target of the attack.
The long table in the tent was filled with military intelligence collected by the intelligence department, including the German movements obtained by the Air Force reconnaissance, intelligence obtained from German prisoners of war, the hydrological conditions of the lower reaches of the Dnieper River and the Molochnaya River provided by the geological department, and so on.
"The Germans have changed their deployment along the Molochna River," Yuri said, handing a telegram to the uneasy-looking Vasilevsky. "The 17th Infantry Army has been transferred to Zaporizhia and is under the command of the 1st Tank Army. The Germans defending Melitopol are only the 4th and 29th Infantry Armies. The remaining troops of the former 9th Army have been transferred to the command of Army Group A, and the purpose should be to strengthen the defense force in the direction of the Dnieper River estuary."
Although he had rejected Vasilevsky's proposal, Yuri still needed to do some ideological work on him, so he also explained the basis for his choice of Melitopol as the main attack direction.
"In my opinion, the German defense force is already exhausted," Yuri continued, picking up a hydrological report from the table, "so I think the German defense in Melitopol may seem solid, but in fact it will be full of loopholes due to insufficient manpower."
Vasilevsky didn't say anything. He put the information in his hand on the table and reached out to take the hydrological report from Yuri.
The existing hydrological data of the Dnieper River in the hands of the Soviet army are all from 1939. Those things are outdated, especially after 1941, the hydrological conditions in the lower reaches of the Dnieper River have changed greatly compared with before the station.
In 1941, the German army blew up the Dnieper River Hydroelectric Power Station, causing flooding in the entire lower reaches of the Dnieper River. After the flood receded, the Germans did not build river embankments, nor did they try to change the poor situation here. As a result, over the next two years, the conditions of the rivers and mudflats here have changed dramatically, and the original hydrological report has basically become invalid.
At present, the report in Yuri's hands was sent by the guerrillas. Although the data was incomplete, its credibility was much higher.
According to the data in the report, the total length of the Dnieper River from Zaporizhia to the mouth of the river is 331 kilometers, the widest section of the river is more than 3,500 meters wide, and the flow rate is 2 meters per second, which is not conducive to forced crossing. Most importantly, due to geological reasons, the banks of the Dnieper River are high in the west and low in the east, which is conducive to the German defense but not to the Soviet attack.
"My plan is to concentrate our forces to attack the German defense line in Melitopol," Yuri continued. "Once we achieve a breakthrough in this direction, we will quickly advance to the Dnieper River, strive to complete the river crossing operation while moving, and establish one or two stable landing sites on the west side of the Dnieper River."
Vasilevsky nodded. He roughly understood Yuri's combat intention. There was no doubt that he chose this method of attack in order to avoid the fierce battle of attacking the Dnieper River and strive to resolve the main battle on the Molochna River line.
This combat plan is not unfeasible, but it is very risky. Moreover, it requires that once the battle is launched, the Soviet offensive must be swift and resolute, with one wave of offensives following another, leaving no opportunity for the German army to withdraw from the battle and form a second line of defense.
In addition, once this knife-like attack achieves a breakthrough, it will inevitably form a dangerous salient in the depth of the German defense. If the Soviet flank defense cannot withstand the German counterattack, then this salient will face the risk of being surrounded and ultimately the whole army will be annihilated.
Vasilevsky was a little puzzled. You know, Yuri had always been very cautious in commanding operations in the past, and he had never been seen to be greedy for merit or act rashly. He didn't know what was going on this time, but he actually chose such a very risky combat plan.
However, even though he knew he was taking a risk, Vasilevsky did not insist on his position anymore, because he knew very well that once the two plans were submitted to the headquarters at the same time, the one that would eventually gain Stalin's approval would definitely be Yuri's plan. After all, Comrade Stalin was more eager than anyone else to break through the German Dnieper River defense line.
"Well, Comrade Yuri Arispovich, since you insist on this risky plan, then put it into written form as soon as possible and submit it to the headquarters." After turning around and staring at the map on the wall for a while, Vasilevsky finally made a concession, "However, I hope you can reserve your opinion on the finalization of this plan."
The so-called reservations meant that he disagreed with the plan and had raised objections, but because of Yuri's insistence, his objections were not adopted. In the future, if there were any problems with the plan, he, Vasilevsky, would not bear any responsibility.
Of course, as a reaction, if this plan succeeds in the future and the Soviet army successfully breaks through the German Dnieper River defense line on this line, then he, as the representative of the headquarters, will not have any credit and may even have to bear responsibility to a certain extent.
Just as Yuri and Vasilevsky were having a dispute over the battle plan on the southern front, Rokossovsky, who was in charge of commanding the Soviet Central Front in the direction of attacking Kiev, also had a conflict with Vatutin, who was in charge of commanding the First Ukrainian Front.
Since the launch of the campaign, Rokossovsky, the commander of the Central Front, has shown his command ability to the fullest. In the battle to attack Nezhin, the front he commanded faced the German 4th Panzer Group commanded by Manstein, and won four battles in a row, defeating the German elite armored forces. Afterwards, he took advantage of the situation to defeat the German Second Army that came to reinforce, captured Nezhin in one fell swoop, and opened the door to Kiev.
Seven days ago, the vanguard of the Central Army Group was less than 100 kilometers away from the Dnieper River. Rokossovsky had a new plan. He wanted to encircle and annihilate part of the German 4th Panzer Group in the area east of Kiev, thereby inflicting heavy damage on the German army.
As a result, when the report reached Moscow, the reply he received was an order to change the deployment and launch an offensive in the direction of Chernikov. In this way, the offensive direction of the Central Front moved to the north, completely away from Kiev.
Rokossovsky was very dissatisfied with this order. He then ordered the 60th Army to launch an offensive against Priluki and captured the city within two days. As a result, he did not receive a commendation from the headquarters, but a severe warning. According to the headquarters, his offensive was too advanced and was seriously out of touch with the First Ukrainian Front on the left wing, so that he could be counterattacked by the German army at any time.
Although the explanation given by the headquarters seemed to be well-founded, as commanders on the front line, everyone knew what was going on.
The fact is that Rokossovsky's rapid attack on Kiev not only threatened the German army, but also Comrade Zhukov, who was serving as the representative of the headquarters in the First Ukrainian Front. Comrade Zhukov had already reserved the honor of liberating Kiev. Rokossovsky attacked so quickly and was about to attack Kiev, so it was inevitable that he would be squeezed out by Comrade Zhukov.
As the commander of the Central Front, Rokossovsky naturally knew what was going on, so he made a special call to Zhukov, and the two had an unpleasant conversation.
As a bystander, Yuri was very clear about the impact of this incident. In fact, Comrade Zhukov had become inflated and his greed was very ugly. In order to establish a reputation as a god of war for himself, he would do anything.
Of course, this was not the first time he did this, nor would it be the last. It was through his ugly eating habits that he offended people little by little.
Rokossovsky, who was forced to shift the main attack direction to the north of the Dnieper River, seemed ready to vent all his anger on the Germans. He was now planning an offensive in the direction of the Pripyat River.
