Chapter 263
Landsberg is a city on the Lech River in Bavaria, Germany. It is also the largest city in the Lech River basin. In the eyes of Germans, this city is a pearl on the so-called "Romantic Road" and it has the most sunlight in Germany.
However, those are all in the past. Today, this city located on the north bank of the Lech River has been completely destroyed by war and has become a hell.
A long convoy of military jeeps moved slowly on the rubble-covered street. On the fourth military vehicle from the front, Yuri put his military cap on his thigh and looked through the dusty window to the right side of the street.
We have to admit that the Germans are indeed the most disciplined people in the world. When the German troops stationed in this city gave up resistance and surrendered to the Soviet army, the citizens of this city were all silent. They were even ignorant of everything. The shops on the street were already open for business, and even the pubs were open.
The Soviets' looting occurred in this situation. They rushed into shops and houses, took away everything they could, and robbed young women. Everything was done blatantly, but no one stood up to resist. These people seemed to be very resigned to their fate, and they accepted their fate almost numbly.
Then, in Yuri's sight, at the door of a bakery on the street, two Soviet soldiers pushed a girl in a light blue skirt into the shop. A major with a big beard stood on the street not far away, smoking his pipe with an expressionless face.
Yuri withdrew his gaze from the window. Although his rank was very high, and he was even the commander-in-chief of all the participating troops on the front line, there were some things that were beyond his control.
At this time, let's not talk about whether it was a crime or not, and don't mention the problem that the Soviet Red Army soldiers were not of high quality. After years of war, tens of millions of people died, and those truly qualified soldiers had long since died. In order to sustain the war, the Soviet Union even sent criminals from prison to the battlefield. In recent times, in order to make up for the shortage of troops, the front-line combat troops even stuffed Soviet prisoners of war from prisoner-of-war camps directly into the troops without any screening, which was impossible at the beginning of the war.
His gaze shifted to a document on his left hand. Yuri let out a long sigh, reached out to take the document, and began to look through it page by page.
The document was sent from Moscow. It was an order signed by Comrade Stalin himself. The main content was the important regulations on the elimination of the "Russian Liberation Army": "The only way to deal with these traitors and bandits is to completely eliminate them, leaving no one alive."
Although all commanders above the army level received this order, it actually had nothing to do with Yuri now, because the main force of the Russian Liberation Army was not in the area attacked by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belarusian Fronts. The strange General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov had already taken hundreds of thousands of his soldiers to Czechoslovakia, and went to war with the Germans two days ago and captured Prague.
General Vlasov is indeed a strange man. After he was defeated and captured, he surrendered to the Germans and served as a propaganda tool for the Germans for a long time. At the beginning of this year, he formed the "Russian Liberation Army" with the support of the Germans and quickly formed three divisions. Not only that, they also soon had their own tank brigade, anti-tank brigade and fighter squadron.
As the Soviets advanced rapidly on the Eastern Front, the size of the Russian Liberation Army also expanded rapidly. When the Soviets entered Czechoslovakia, the Russian Liberation Army absorbed Panwitz's Cossack Corps and Steifon's Russian Army, and the strength of the army expanded to 100,000, forming a large-scale battle group. However, it is easy to imagine the combat effectiveness of such a battle group composed of mismatched troops.
But even so, General Vlasov refused to give up. He obviously saw that the Germans had reached the end of their road, so without receiving any orders, he led his army to Czechoslovakia, hoping to gain a foothold in the border area between Germany and Czechoslovakia.
Just half a month ago, when the Soviet army was advancing rapidly towards Prague, a major uprising organized by the exiled government of Edward Beneš broke out in Prague. As a result, the rebels were not strong enough, and after briefly capturing Prague, they were quickly defeated by the German SS.
Seeing that Prague was about to become the second Warsaw, the insurgents actually sent a letter for help to the Russian Liberation Army, which was still loyal to the Germans at the time. Then, a strange thing happened. General Vlasov, the leader of the Russian Liberation Army, actually accepted the insurgents' request for help and led his army to Prague. While the SS was fighting the insurgents, he seized control of the city overnight and drove the SS troops out of Prague.
Perhaps in Vlasov's view, he helped the Czechs and Slovaks liberate the capital, and once Czechoslovakia was re-established, he and his troops would be able to obtain political asylum from this country and escape.
But his idea was nothing but a foolish dream. You know, Edward Benes, who reached an agreement with him, was an old fox with a clear mind and eyes, and his judgment of the situation was very accurate.
During the first two years of the war, Nennes lived in London, and his so-called government in exile was recognized by Britain and the United States, which was not much different from the Polish government in exile. However, Benes was obviously smarter than his Polish refugee comrades. When the Soviet Union launched a massive counterattack, Nennes went to Moscow and reached a series of agreements with the Soviet government. In the end, he did not return to London, but stayed in Moscow.
However, this is also where Neness was smarter than the Polish government in exile. He saw clearly that it was impossible for Britain and the United States to help him return to Czechoslovakia to take power, only the Soviet Union could do it. Therefore, after the liberation of Prague, he was sent back to his country and became the first president of Czechoslovakia after the war. But he was more miserable than the Polish government in exile. Although he never received recognition from the international community after the war and could only work in his own private residence, the Polish government in exile continued to operate until 1990, that is, after Walesa came to power in Poland, while Neness's regime only existed for two or three years.
Moscow was extremely angry about the Russian Liberation Army's capture of Prague. Comrade Stalin immediately gave an order to Zhukov, who commanded the First Ukrainian Front, asking him to quickly capture Prague and wipe out the so-called Russian Liberation Army.
As a result, Zhukov had to abandon his plan to advance quickly towards Berlin and mobilize his main combat forces to the front of Prague.
Unfortunately, Vlasov did not have the courage to confront Zhukov. When the First Ukrainian Front was about to approach the city, he led his men to flee, escaped into the Audi, and then ran all the way to the Swiss border, trying to surrender to the British and American Allied Forces there in order to save his life.
However, Yuri knew very well that Vlasov's wishful thinking was useless, because Moscow was waiting for him to return home. No, not only himself, but also the commanders of the three divisions of the Russian Liberation Army and even all the officers and soldiers were on Moscow's disposal list. Comrade Stalin had reached an agreement with Churchill and Roosevelt. Even if they surrendered to Britain and the United States, they would eventually be handed over to the Soviet Red Army.
In any case, the incident in Prague delayed the advance of the First Ukrainian Front towards Berlin. For Yuri, the honor of attacking Berlin was already in his hands.
However, if he wants to get this honor, he still has a few things to do. After all, Berlin, as the heart of German fascism, is not so easy to take.
For now, the threat on the two wings of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts has not been resolved. The "Vistula" Army Group gathered in Eastern Pomerania is a great threat. Although the German is restrained by the 1st Ukrainian Front, the overall threat still exists.
Therefore, before launching the offensive against Berlin, Yuri had to first solve these two problems, among which the "Vistula" Army Group was the most important.
In order to solve the troubles of the Vistula Army Group, Yuri strengthened the strength of the 2nd Belorussian Front. He applied to Moscow and deployed the 19th, 26th and 32nd Armies, which originally belonged to the Karelian Front, from the headquarters reserve to the 2nd Belorussian Front.
At the same time, in order to cover two independent combat directions, he established three battle groups within the 2nd Belorussian Front, namely the Stettin Battle Group, the Eberswalde Battle Group and the Swinnemunde Battle Group.
These three battle groups have their own main combat directions, and at the same time, they cooperate and cover each other. Among them, the Swinemünde battle group will also receive cooperation and support from the Baltic Fleet.
As for the Central Army Group on the southern front, Yuri was ready to leave it to Zhukov to deal with. In the report submitted to Moscow, he clearly pointed out that the First Ukrainian Front should launch an offensive in the direction of Bautzen and Cottbus within a week after resolving the Prague battle to tie down the forces of the German Central Army Group.
However, Yuri's priority now is not the progress of the battle. He is preparing to draft a report on the establishment of a secret search team in East Prussia and Germany.
This secret search team was not used to hunt down Nazi war criminals, but was specifically used to hunt down "special people". On the list of so-called "special people", von Braun was at the top.
