Chapter 251
Tens of thousands of people, nearly a hundred square formations, such a large-scale parade marching on the street, the scale is quite shocking. The most important thing is that walking at the front of the parade are dozens of German generals wearing various medals, and the square formation behind them is a captured military formation composed of the German officers in front.
Facing the rising sun in the early morning, this massive formation took to the streets of Moscow. The noisy footsteps seemed to shake the ground.
After months of imprisonment, the captured German soldiers had already become ragged and dirty. Rather than being captured soldiers, they were more like a group of beggars. They walked on the streets of Moscow, each of them dejected and frightened.
The Soviet army did not notify the prisoners of war in advance about today's parade, so most of them thought they were going to be taken away and shot. According to German propaganda, this was how the evil red Soviet dictator executed prisoners, by parading them through the streets first and then shooting them in public.
In this panic, many prisoners actually collapsed emotionally during the parade. They probably didn't even know how they made it through the nearly seven-hour journey.
The cavalry of the Internal Security Troops from the Moscow Military District were responsible for escorting the prisoners through the streets. On both sides of each square, there were machine gunners on high alert. At the same time, on both sides of the streets along the way, there were soldiers with bayonets guarding.
In order to prevent the prisoners from rioting, their belts and shoes were confiscated before they set out, and the new shoes the Soviet army distributed to them were "large boots" made from rubber tires. These boots were not only heavy, but also did not fit the feet, and the soles did not bend. In order to avoid tripping over, they had to lift their feet very high with every step, which not only made their walking posture very funny, but also made them unable to walk fast.
Wearing these special shoes and walking on the streets for seven hours is simply a torture for people. Many people's ankles and soles are worn out.
Of course, compared to physical torture, mental torture is more unbearable.
Both sides of the street were filled with Moscow citizens who had come to watch after receiving the notice. No, not only Moscow citizens, but also many people who came from neighboring areas, and some even came from Velikiye Luki, just to watch this grand event.
More than three years of war had created too deep a hatred between the Germans and the Soviets. Under the control of this hatred, people on both sides seemed to no longer regard the other side as human beings. Therefore, both sides of the street where the parade was marching were filled with all kinds of shouting and cursing, and there were even many people spitting .
Compared with the pure Germans among the prisoners, the French, Belgians, Romanians, etc. who participated in the war as so-called volunteers, the prisoners of war from these vassal states were actually mentally broken. During the march, they tirelessly explained to the onlookers that they were not invaders, but were forced to come to the Soviet Union by the Germans. Although no one listened to their explanations, and no one even understood them, they still explained over and over again, even when they were beaten and hit hard by the soldiers in charge of guarding with rifle butts, they did not give up any opportunity to explain.
Parading through the streets is not just a simple physical punishment, but also a mental injury and humiliation of dignity.
A few years later, after 1950, with the fourth revision of the Geneva Convention, such a parade of prisoners of war would violate international law, but nowadays, this behavior is still allowed. Moreover, when the astute Comrade Khrushchev made this plan, in order to avoid condemnation from international public opinion, he had already thought of a way to deal with it: this was not a parade of prisoners of war, but a whole transfer , and they were just going to several different train stations through the city of Moscow.
In order to highlight the kindness of the Soviet people and the low quality of the Germans, Comrade Sherbakov, the secretary of the Moscow Municipal Party Committee, made some minor additions to the plan. For example, some ingredients were added to the prisoners' breakfast, so many German prisoners could not bear it during the parade and urinated and defecated everywhere. Another example was that the sympathetic citizens of Moscow not only threw debris and spit at the prisoners, but also threw bread and fruit at them.
These sharp contrasts will be captured by cameras and published in newspapers after the parade. The corresponding publications will be distributed not only in the Soviet Union, but also in Western countries. Even a large part of them will be delivered by plane to the German-occupied areas.
Behind the long parade, there were dozens of sprinkler trucks, which would wash away all the dirt left by the parade, indicating that the Soviet Union would wash away all the shame left to it by the German fascists.
As the commander-in-chief of the Belarusian campaign, Yuri appeared when the parade walked onto Gorky Street. He was wearing a brand new general's uniform, with all the medals he had won in the past three years worn on his chest. He rode a white horse without a single strand of hair on its body and walked at the front of the parade.
On his left and right were the chiefs of staff from the four major fronts in the Belarusian campaign direction, and behind him were the battle flag formations of the army groups, guards troops, and internal guards under the four major fronts.
The entire parade lasted too long and they did not have enough time to waste, so they only accompanied the parade along Gorky Street.
Gorky Street is the famous Tverskaya Street in later generations. It passes by the Moscow City Hall. Senior Soviet leaders including Stalin, ambassadors from various countries, military representatives of the Allied Powers, and journalists from various countries were waiting at the City Hall for the parade to pass by.
The entire street is 1.6 kilometers long. In other words, the distance Yuri traveled in the parade was 1.6 kilometers. Comrade Stalin arranged for him to appear because he was young and energetic and could represent the best image of the Soviet Red Army. Another principle was that Yuri was famous enough in Western countries. In the evaluation of the Allied generals such as Britain and the United States, he was a senior Soviet commander who was on par with Zhukov. Because he once again commanded the troops to defeat the "Master of Defense" Model in the Battle of Minsk, Yuri was praised by the Allied commanders as the "Spear of the Red Soviet Union."
Just before the parade officially began, this top commander of modern warfare, who is considered the youngest in the world, had just been awarded the "Third Class Order of the Restoration of the Polish People's Republic" by the Polish National Liberation Committee in recognition of his outstanding performance in various battles in eastern Poland.
Well, the Polish National Liberation Committee has no status now, and their authority has been completely suppressed by Comrade Bulganin. This medal is not legitimate, just like the Military Committee of the First Belorussian Front awarded a medal to Yuri, the commander-in-chief of the Belorussian Campaign. This is even more shameless than the "medal control" of later generations, which is equivalent to letting one's subordinates award a medal to oneself.
However, compared to this medal, the medal awarded to him by France is much more valuable. It is a "French Military Cross Medal" signed by the leader of Free France, Charles de Gaulle, himself.
The reason why Free France issued this medal to him was to commend his outstanding contribution in the war against German fascism. The medal registration form recorded in detail every battle and campaign that Yuri had commanded since joining World War II.
Come to think of it, Yuri has won quite a few medals now, and if he were to wear a medal of honor, it would be impressive enough.
At the front of the parade of prisoners of war, Yuri rode his horse for less than two kilometers, accepted the cheers of Moscow citizens, then dismounted, got on the carriage, and returned to Moscow City Hall. After that, he needed to accept interviews from a series of Western media. At noon, he needed to have lunch with Comrade Stalin, ambassadors from various countries, and Allied observers.
The flight back to the front was scheduled for three o'clock in the afternoon. At that time, he would fly to the Polish front to coordinate the combat operations of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 2nd Belorussian Front, and formally launch the Warsaw Offensive aimed at liberating Warsaw.
In the past two days, the Polish National Army that launched an uprising in Warsaw suffered huge losses. The German army's suppression of the uprising was very cruel. They did not attack and eliminate the insurgents occupying the buildings one by one, but directly used blasting methods to blow up the entire buildings.
The suppression operation was no longer carried out by the German Army, but was completely handed over to the SS and police forces. Himmler was in charge and the commander-in-chief of the Warsaw Theater, Bach-Zelewiskey, was in charge.
Himmler's order was: Everyone in Warsaw must die, we must raze Warsaw to the ground.
The SS rogue troops faithfully carried out Himmler's orders, trapping residents in buildings and then blowing up the buildings regardless of whether there was resistance from the insurgents. In less than two weeks, the death toll in Warsaw had reached hundreds of thousands.
Such a large-scale bloody massacre shocked the whole world. After all, the facts about the Jewish concentration camps had not yet been exposed at that time, and this tragedy was already horrifying enough.
Under pressure from public opinion, Britain and the United States have made concessions to Moscow. Roosevelt and Churchill issued statements in succession, announcing their recognition of the legal status of the Polish National Liberation Committee, and the Polish government in exile was completely abandoned.
Influenced by this, Stalin asked Yuri to speed up the offensive in the direction of Warsaw and strive to liberate Warsaw as soon as possible. The "Third Class Medal of the Restoration of the Polish People's Republic" also appeared in this environment.
