Chapter 261
The attack of the 9th Guards Army went smoothly. The corps commanded by Chuikov not only quickly broke through the German Obra River defense line, but also forced a surprise attack of nearly 60 kilometers in three days after breaking through this line of defense, pushing the offensive front to the Oder River basin.
However, when the attack reached this point, not only the 9th Guards Army, but all the Soviet front-line troops had become exhausted and they were no longer able to launch an offensive to the west of the Oder River.
What is particularly important is that on the Berlin front, the First Belorussian Front's attack was too rapid and the distance from the adjacent troops was too far, which was equivalent to forming two huge salients with a front of more than 200 kilometers and a depth of more than 270 kilometers within the German mainland.
To the north of this salient was the German "Vistula" battle group, which was under the command of the 9th Tank Army and the remnants of the 9th Army. To the south of the salient was the German Central Army Group, which was under the command of the remnants of the 9th Tank Army and the 17th Army.
As for the front of the salient, it is the Berlin defense zone where the German army is heavily defended. In this defense zone, there are three defense zones in the Oder-Neisse area, with a defense depth of 20-40 kilometers; Berlin's outer layer, inner layer and three ring walls in the urban area. These defense zones are not only strong in fortifications, but also have a large number of troops. It is said that when the Soviet army was advancing rapidly, the Germans had formed 200 national commando battalions in Berlin, with a total force of more than 200,000. Although these so-called commandos were made up of some old, weak and sick people, if they were simply trained, with such a large force, they would still cause great trouble to the Soviet army.
Yuri didn't like salients, especially overly dangerous salients in his offensive formation. And now, this salient extending from the Obra River to the Oder River was obviously a very big trouble. They were facing the danger of being besieged on three sides by the German army.
Almost at the same time when the Soviet army launched a fierce attack in the direction of Poznan, the German counterattack in the Ardennes region on the Western European battlefield slowed down . The British and American Allied Forces consolidated their defense lines. Subsequently, the war on the Western Front cooled down and calmed down. All the pressure shifted to the Soviet army.
The sudden increase in military pressure forced Yuri to consider stopping the war again. Under his order, the troops of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts quickly switched from offense to defense to wait for follow-up troops to catch up and further adjust their troop deployment.
At this time, it was already May, and Labor Day had just passed. Perhaps to add to the festive atmosphere of victory over the Germans, a grand celebration was held in Moscow on this year's Labor Day. Comrade Stalin personally awarded labor medals to a large number of social workers. It is said that more than 100,000 people participated in this celebration, which was a grand scale.
After May Day, Comrade Stalin went to the Crimean Peninsula in person, where he held talks with Roosevelt and Churchill, and determined a series of post-war policies toward Germany. At the same time, he also determined a series of issues regarding the Soviet declaration of war on Japan after the end of the war against Germany.
It was not until the end of this meeting that Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Minister, officially informed the Japanese ambassador to the Soviet Union that the Soviet Union not only did not intend to renew the Soviet-Japanese Friendship Treaty with Japan, but would also formally declare war on Japan after the Battle of Berlin - the benefits that Japan had promised to give to the Soviet Union would be taken by the Soviet Red Army itself.
At this point, Soviet-Japanese diplomatic relations were completely broken, and the Soviet-Japanese War officially entered the countdown. The Japanese Kwantung Army abandoned the low-key policy it had adhered to for the past two years and began to build large-scale permanent fortifications and so-called defensive fortresses on the border between Northeast China and the Soviet Union.
Fighting against Japan is Moscow's established policy. As long as there are no changes in the war against Germany, this war must be fought. This is not only because there is an agreement in this regard between the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain, but also because of the old feud between the Russian nation and Japan.
It has been less than 40 years since the Russo-Japanese War, which brought endless humiliation to Russia. In today's Soviet military and political systems, many people have experienced that war and still remember the shame.
During the Soviet-German War, although the Japanese did not launch an attack on the Soviet Union, there was a lot of related political blackmail. Now that the situation has reversed and the Soviet Union has the opportunity to take revenge, how could it let it go easily?
Yuri also knew that the timetable for the war against Japan was advancing rapidly. In his previous life, the Soviet Union officially declared war on Japan several months after the end of the war against Germany. In this time and space, the Soviet army's counterattack on the German front was advanced by nearly a year, and the corresponding losses were also reduced a lot. Who can guarantee that when Moscow is sure of winning the Battle of Berlin, it will launch a war against Japan in advance.
It has to be said that Yuri is becoming more and more greedy. He is not only determined to gain the command of the campaign to capture Berlin, but also covets the command of the campaign to attack Japan.
However, war is never a matter of one person or any specific unit. Although the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts commanded by Yuri are powerful, they cannot complete the attack on Berlin independently. In order to reduce the pressure on the front, the two fronts need the cooperation of friendly forces. At least, they need support from several Ukrainian fronts in the southern area of Berlin.
Therefore, when the dangerous salient of the First Belorussian Front was formed, Yuri ordered the troops to switch from offense to defense. On the one hand, it was to redeploy troops and weapons and equipment, and on the other hand, it was to wait for the offensive forces on both wings to catch up and stabilize the front lines on the left and right wings.
In fact, just as the battle to attack Poznan began, several fronts in the Ukrainian direction were also advancing rapidly westwards, ignoring the brutal Battle of Budapest and delaying the battle in the south.
The Soviet attack on Budapest was initially very smooth. The attack was jointly launched by the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts. The troops of the two fronts quickly defeated the German troops outside Budapest and formed a siege on the German troops stationed in Budapest.
As the commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Konev was initially very optimistic. He believed that the German troops stationed in Budapest should have withdrawn their main forces, because the main forces of the German army were the 9th SS Mountain Army, the "Führerhalle" Division, the 8th SS Cavalry Division, and the 22nd SS Cavalry Division. Almost all of them were SS troops, and the German army rarely arranged SS troops to defend the fortified city. Konev had even organized a pursuit, preparing to annihilate the German Army Group South as much as possible in the pursuit.
But to everyone's surprise, the German SS troops that were supposed to retreat did not retreat. Not only did they not retreat, but even the Hungarian 1st Army stayed and defended Budapest, ready to fight him to the death.
The German 9th SS Mountain Corps, plus the 1st Hungarian Army, the two forces combined, plus some attached troops, surrounded the city of Budapest with nearly 100,000 German troops. This was the first time since the Battle of Stalingrad that such a large German force was besieged in a city.
Konev, who received the relevant intelligence, was overwhelmed. He really did not want to fight such a large-scale encirclement and annihilation battle in Budapest. On the one hand, it was because his ambition was not just Budapest, but Berlin. On the other hand, the city of Budapest was not suitable for offensive operations.
As the capital of Hungary, Budapest is a bit special. It consists of two parts, Buda and Pest. One of the two parts has a relatively flat terrain, while the other has a more complex terrain. The most important thing is that the city was built entirely in the style of a fortress, which makes it easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Nearly 100,000 tough SS troops were besieged in such a fortress-like city. God knew how brutal this battle would be.
As it turned out, Konev's worries were necessary . The entire battle, from the beginning of the offensive to the final end, lasted nearly one and a half months. During this period, the German army outside Budapest launched three large-scale offensives, trying to break into the encirclement to support the besieged troops. The closest one was launched by the "Viking" Division, which had reached 17 kilometers outside Budapest.
More and more Soviet troops were involved in this battle, starting with parts of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts, and eventually even the 1st Ukrainian Front joined in.
In this siege and reinforcement battle that turned into a major battle, the Soviet army suffered huge losses, but the German army also suffered heavy losses. A large number of elite German troops were destroyed or crippled in this battle, such as the "Viking" Division, the "Führerhalle" Division, etc. Even the 4th Panzer Army was almost wiped out.
In the end, it was not until half a month after the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts advanced to the Oder River line that the Soviet army officially occupied the entire Budapest. 97,700 German and Hungarian troops were annihilated in this bloody city.
Especially in the final stage of the battle, the German commander-in-chief Wildenbruch ordered the defense forces to break out to the west. The remaining 43,900 German-Hungarian troops left behind 11,600 wounded and rushed out of the city with nearly 100,000 Hungarian civilians, breaking out to the northwest.
