Chapter 643: Attack
Looking at the desolate and broken Kremlin, Stalin trembled all over.
First, his hometown Georgia openly colluded with Germany to rebel, then the city named after him was bombed, and now even the Kremlin was killed.
A rage of revenge burned in Stalin's heart, and he shouted hysterically. "Order the front-line troops to launch a general offensive immediately! I want Berlin to disappear from the map!!"
Looking at Stalin who was almost in a state of madness, no one dared to dissuade him this time, and the order was quickly passed to the Western Front Command on the front line.
"Launch a general offensive immediately?" The commander of the Western Front, Dmitry Grigorievich Pavlov, was stunned when he received the telegram from the Kremlin, and summoned the chief of staff, political commissar and others to discuss.
Of course, the content of the discussion was not to question or complain about the order, but to discuss the distribution of ammunition and which unit would take the lead.
Like other Soviet generals who filled the command vacancies after the "Great Purge", the ability of the commander of the Western Front was "low-ability and high-match" relative to the size of the army he commanded. His greatest characteristic was that he completely obeyed orders. He would never go west if he was told to go east, and never go south if he was told to go north. Therefore, he was more favored by Stalin than the "thorny" Zhukov. Moreover, he was very knowledgeable about combat plans and military regulations, so Stalin made him the commander of the Western Special Military District with a stroke of his pen.
In the West Belarus Front Command, Kruger and Guderian also noticed the unusual movements of the Soviets on the opposite side. "The front-line reconnaissance troops sent news that the Soviet army on the opposite side was frequently mobilizing and seemed to have signs of launching an attack."
Guderian clapped his hands excitedly. "These bastards finally couldn't bear it anymore." After the Battle of France, he was sent to garrison the Soviet-German border. He was almost envious of other generals who swept across North Africa and landed in Britain.
He had been looking forward to the Soviet army on the other side launching an attack day and night. Now that the battle was finally about to begin, he was ready to teach these bastards a lesson.
Kruger coughed lightly. "General Guderian, be patient, it's not your turn yet."
The relationship between Kruger and Guderian in the original time and space can only be described as irreconcilable. The conflict between the two has a long history, and can even be traced back to before the outbreak of World War II.
The root of the conflict between the two lies in the conflict in military thought. Kruger participated in the First World War and was a representative of the traditional army. His conservative and traditional combat thinking naturally conflicted with Guderian's combat thinking. In Kruger's concept, cavalry and infantry are the main forces in the army, which made him deeply disgusted with Guderian's armored combat thinking (because Guderian's vigorous development of armored forces was equivalent to indirectly weakening the infantry).
Therefore, when Guderian vigorously developed armored forces, Kruger tried his best to obstruct it, and the two of them had a grudge. In the subsequent World War II, the two had fierce conflicts many times, and in the end they even had to duel to decide who was the winner.
At the "Yellow Plan" report meeting, the first friction between Guderian and Kruger occurred. At the meeting, Kruger openly questioned the feasibility of the plan, believing that Guderian could not reach the Meuse River at all, and the key to this battle was whether Guderian could break through the Meuse River and establish a bridgehead. Guderian's character was originally very irritable and stubborn. Hearing Kruger's doubts, he directly retorted, "At least I won't ask you to do my task for me." Although Guderian finally won, the conflict between the two was not resolved, but deepened.
After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, Guderian was appointed commander of the Second Armored Group, and together with the Third Armored Group, he was assigned to the Fourth Army. However, fate made people, Kruger was appointed commander of the Fourth Army and became Guderian's immediate superior. On the vast land of the Soviet Union, Guderian led his armored group to "fly" desperately, from the Soviet-German border all the way to Smolensk. During this period, Kluge ordered Guderian to stop moving forward several times and wait for the lagging infantry. Guderian scoffed at this and thought that Kluge did not understand tank tactics at all. For this reason, Guderian often quarreled with Kluge, and the relationship between the two further deteriorated.
After the failure of the "Typhoon Plan", the commander of the Central Army Group, Bock, was dismissed, and Kluge took over the position of commander. At this time, Guderian's armored group had been upgraded to the Second Panzer Army, and he also became the commander of the new army, but with Kluge's promotion, Guderian once again became Kluge's subordinate. After the failure of the attack on Moscow, the little mustache strictly ordered the German army not to retreat, but Guderian believed that retreat was the best option. After Kluge took office, he resolutely executed the order of the little mustache, and the two disagreed again. Against this background, an unexpected incident instantly intensified the conflict between the two. At the end of December, the 10th Motorized Division of the Second Panzer Army was besieged by the Soviet army and had to abandon its original position and break out backwards. In response to this incident, Kruger insisted that it was Guderian who issued the retreat order to the 10th Division, so Kruger dismissed Guderian from his post, and the two had a big argument on the phone about this.
After this incident, the relationship between Kluge and Guderian was like fire and water, and Guderian sneered at Kluge. In 1943, at the operational meeting of Operation Citadel, Guderian and Kluge met again. This time, not only did they not shake hands and make peace, but they even had a duel. Guderian, the director of the armored forces, opposed Manstein's Citadel plan, while Kluge was a staunch supporter of this plan, so the two had a fierce argument again. In the end, the argument turned into a personal grudge. The furious Kluge demanded to duel with Guderian to decide the winner. This farce did not happen under the prevention of the mustache, but the two did not shake hands and make peace until their death.
Fortunately, Yannick knew the importance of armored forces, often emphasized the inevitability of the construction of armored mechanization of the army, paid attention to the scale and speed of the development of armored mechanization, and even kicked out several stubborn old guys. Moreover, as a "genius" tactical and strategic master, no one dared to rely on his seniority and disobey him; Kluge and Guderian have not had any conflicts until now.
Although he was completely convinced of His Highness Yannick's decision, Kruger had different ideas than Guderian, who advocated an immediate counterattack.
Kruger arrived earlier than Guderian. As soon as the Battle of Poland ended, he was sent here to garrison and resist possible attacks by the Soviets. In the past year or so, he was not idle. He commanded millions of soldiers and prisoners of war and dug countless pocket-type defensive positions on the wide front battlefield of the Soviet-German border.
Relying on these excellent defensive positions, he was confident that he could strangle as many as possible. According to his estimate, the Soviets would lose at least hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers.
But if Guderian launched a counterattack directly, his efforts would be completely useless. Therefore, he asked Yannick to use a defensive battle to consume most of the Soviet front-line combat forces first, and then launch a counterattack by the armored forces.