Chapter 73 Perspective
Drinking and smoking are not a fault for a commander as long as he does not drink excessively and cause trouble. As for Yuri's group, including Yuri himself, since they have been given the opportunity to study in the academy, it means that they have performed very well in the previous wars.
In fact, in terms of the military command profession that the three people present were engaged in, the one with the best treatment and the highest rank was naturally the tank commander Pavel. Like Yuri, after he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, he was actually qualified to command an infantry division, but as a lieutenant colonel, it was impossible for him to command a tank division. His rank had to be raised by at least one level, or even two levels. Similarly, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, he was not qualified to command an artillery unit of the same level.
But then again, among the commanders of the three arms, the one who gets promoted the fastest is only the infantry commander. And in the combined arms forces that the Soviet army is currently vigorously promoting, if one wants to serve as the supreme commander of an independent combat unit, one must have experience in commanding infantry units in combat.
The reason for this situation is mainly related to the current military construction ideas of the Supreme Command, because in the view of the Supreme Command, among the many arms, only the commander of the infantry unit is the real front-line combat commander. Tank units, artillery units, and even air force units are all to cooperate with infantry units in combat. The commanders of infantry units are on the front line, and their grasp of the war opportunity, consideration of the overall situation, and even their reaction speed, adaptability, mental strength and other aspects are more outstanding, and these are precisely the qualities that commanders of combined arms forces must have.
Therefore, among the three people in the group, whether it was Pavel or Mitrofan, they all knew that if anyone among them had the opportunity to truly become the commander of a combined arms army in the future, then Yuri would definitely be the first choice. It was also because of this that, although Yuri was the youngest among the three, no one would show off their qualifications or put on airs in front of him.
The three of them got together and finished a bottle of vodka. The atmosphere was very good throughout the whole process.
Talking about his previous personal command and combat, Mitrofan, like Yuri, also served in the Southwestern Front, but he commanded an anti-tank artillery brigade, which mainly fought in the area south of Kiev to cooperate with the Southern Front. In several battles in Strey, Kalush, Ternopil and other places, the anti-tank troops he commanded had outstanding performances, but he was injured in the battle to counterattack the German offensive in the direction of Vinnitsa, and then he was in the rear for a period of time to recover from his injuries.
Pavel was much more depressed. When the war broke out, he was still an insignificant staff officer in the 3rd Mechanized Army. As the saying goes, a staff officer without a chief is not even a fart. Therefore, he did not perform well in the battles before September. However, Pavel had a high level of experience. Before the outbreak of the war, he had already served as the deputy commander of the 5th Mechanized Division. At that time, in terms of the use of tanks, he strongly advocated the formation of a large-scale armored force to give full play to the high mobility and high breakthrough performance of tanks. The reason why he was later transferred to serve as an inconspicuous staff officer was because this combat idea was completely contrary to the opinion of Comrade Pavlov, the commander of the Western Special Military District. Even more unfortunately, the unit he was in at the time belonged to the Western Special Military District. Perhaps it was because of this that when the Western Special Military District suffered a disastrous defeat and Pavlov himself was shot, Pavel was immediately promoted and arranged to study at the academy.
From all aspects, Yuri's performance in the early stage of the war was the most outstanding among the three people. Well, maybe his performance can no longer be considered outstanding, but it is brilliant, very, very brilliant.
"Although Shaw's victory was accidental, this accident has largely reversed the overall situation on the northern front of Kiev," the three of them chatted more and more excitedly after finishing a bottle of wine. Later, when they talked about Shaw's battle, they moved the conversation to the sand table under the window. At this time, a battlefield situation map of the Kiev area was placed on the sand table. Pavel looked at the map and expressed his views, "After that, the German army increased the intensity of the offensive on the front and southern front of Kiev, which proved that due to Shaw's huge losses, the German army on the northern front was not only unable to launch a large-scale offensive, but they even had problems maintaining their previous results."
Yuri and Mitrofan, each holding a cigarette, stood quietly in front of the sand table and listened to Pavel's views.
"So, the Southwestern Front, especially the Bryansk Front, was too conservative in its battlefield decision-making. However, this was also directly related to the lack of reserve forces," Pavel continued. "Otherwise, when the German army on the northern front gave up its offensive and began to set up defensive fortifications, if the Bryansk Front could launch a large-scale offensive in the direction of Klintsy, the German army north of Kiev would likely be forced to move to Gomel. We would have the hope of pushing the situation back to the situation in early August in this direction."
Mitrofan shook his head and said, "I think it is unlikely that the situation will return to that of early August. After all, we cannot underestimate the Germans' logistical support capabilities. The subsequent battle situation also proved this point. The German army on the northern front of Kiev re-strengthened its offensive on this front on the fourth day after the end of the Battle of Shaws. This means that it only takes them less than three days to complete the logistics resupply work."
From a factual point of view, Mitrofan was not wrong, because on the 15th of this month, the German army on the northern front of Kiev had once again launched an offensive in the direction of Sosnitsa. However, facing the Soviet 40th Army that had been replenished with troops and weapons and equipment, they did not achieve much results, and the two sides were basically in a stalemate.
But Yuri was also very clear that Mitrofan's analysis was one-sided. He only saw that the German army completed the logistics resupply work within 3 days, but did not consider whether the same work could be completed in the same time under high-intensity combat conditions. After all, logistics supply under combat conditions and logistics supply in relatively peaceful times are completely two different things.
According to Yuri's judgment, Pavel's inference was closer to reality. If the Bryansk Front could take decisive action around the 11th and launch a large-scale assault in the direction of Klintsy, then the German troops on the northern front of Kiev would have no choice but to retreat actively to avoid being surrounded by the Soviet army after their fuel ran out. And the direction of their retreat would inevitably be Gomel.
However, Yuri also understood that Pavel's inference was only an inference after all. It could only exist in the minds of the commanders and could not be finally realized in reality. The reason for this is very simple. After the 11th, that is, after the Battle of Shaws, the German deployment was not only to strengthen the offensive in the front and southern areas of Kiev to clamp down on the Southwestern Front. In the direction of Moscow, on the left wing of the Western Front, they also strengthened the offensive, and these offensives forced the Bryansk Front, which was covering the left wing of the Western Front, to withdraw limited forces to reinforce this direction. As a result, the Bryansk Front itself no longer had any extra troops to launch an offensive against the German troops on the northern line of Kiev.
In short, Pavel, Mitrofan and Yuri each have their own opinions on the role of Shaws in the battle . Fundamentally speaking, none of their opinions are wrong. The reason for the differences is mainly due to different personal perspectives and overall awareness.
Mitrofan was born in the artillery and had always been in charge of artillery operations. This type of commander did not need a global perspective. His focus was always on the targets of his own troops. He did not need to and could not consider issues at the campaign or even strategic level. Therefore, when he looked at a battle, it was just a battle and had nothing to do with anything else.
Pavel was born in the cavalry, and his job for a long time was to command tank troops in combat. In order to cope with issues at the campaign level such as the direction of assault and breakout, his focus in commanding operations had to be broader and more far-reaching. Therefore, there were many issues that needed to be considered comprehensively, and relatively speaking, his overall concept was also stronger.
Yuri was born in the infantry, and he was not an academic commander. He climbed up step by step from the grassroots level, and he was always in the front line commanding troops. In terms of danger, his situation was obviously the worst. However, because of his many experiences in his previous life, coupled with the gradual training since his rebirth, he obviously had a higher perspective on the problem, especially during his time in Moscow, through his understanding of the battles in various directions in the early stages of the war, his grand strategic thinking was slowly being established.
To give the simplest example, in his previous life, and even for a long time after his rebirth, he believed that the Battle of Kiev was a major defeat of the Soviet army, in which hundreds of thousands of troops were surrounded and annihilated by the German army. Such a scale was rare in history.
But now, Yuri's concept has changed. He believes that even if history repeats itself, hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops are still surrounded and annihilated in Kiev. For the Soviet Union, it is still a victory. If nothing else, it is because the existence of this battle has made the German army farther and farther away from their original strategic goal - to capture Moscow. Stalin lost Kiev and hundreds of thousands of troops of the Southwestern Front, but he won time. No matter which side of the Soviet Union and Germany, what everyone lacks seems to be not troops and occupied cities, but time. Considering this, from the entire strategic level, the German army won the Battle of Kiev, but lost the entire war, while the Soviet army's disastrous defeat in Kiev created conditions for winning the entire war.
Perhaps, the final outcome of the Soviet-German War had already been decided at the beginning of the Battle of Kiev.
