Chapter 686: German-Soviet War (30)

Washington.

In the presidential bedroom of the White House, the ringing of the phone startled President Wilkie who was sleeping. He reached out to turn on the bedside lamp and looked at the alarm clock on the bedside table. It was only one o'clock in the morning. "Damn it!" He couldn't help but curse inwardly. The call that came so late must be urgent, and it was probably not good news.

Picking up the phone, the caller was Secretary of War Henry Stimson. "Mr. President, the Germans are preparing to attack."

President Wilkie was shocked when he heard it, and all his sleepiness disappeared instantly. "I'll be there right away!" He put down the phone and hurriedly changed his clothes and rushed to the Pentagon. Most of the senior military officials had gathered in the spacious combat conference room, and they were pointing and talking in front of a huge sand table in the middle.

President Wilkie didn't bother to greet everyone one by one, and went straight to the point. "Did the Germans attack?!"

Secretary of War Stimson shook his head. "Not yet, Mr. President. The Germans are bombarding the Soviet defense line all the way."

"How long will the German bombardment last?" According to the way the last war was fought, such bombardment before the attack would last for a week or two, with continuous shooting for several hours every day. The famous Battle of the Somme, the British army's large-scale bombardment lasted for seven days, pouring millions of shells on the German positions.

"The last time the German army attacked Poland, the bombardment lasted only more than an hour. If the German army is serious this time, the bombardment should not exceed two hours."

"How many troops did the German army assemble?"

"The exact number is unknown, but we estimate that the Germans have assembled more than 150 divisions, 15,000 aircraft, 20,000 tanks, and 100,000 artillery of various calibers; of course, the real number may be more."

Before the start of Operation Barbarossa in the original time and space, the German army assembled 4,900 aircraft, 3,700 tanks, and 47,000 artillery. This time, because there was no Western Front to tie him down, and Germany had entered the wartime system early, Yannick found almost all the resources he could find; the military force deployed on the Eastern Front could be said to have increased several times.

"Oh my God! Is the Soviet Union ready?" President Wilkie felt bad just by hearing these numbers. The last time, the commander of the Soviet Western Front, Pavlov, was shot, and then Timoshenko defected. I hope nothing will go wrong this time.

"The commander-in-chief of the Western Front is Marshal Budyonny. I heard that he also arranged a trap-like defense line based on previous lessons. Maybe this time he can also eliminate hundreds of thousands of German troops."

"..." Eliminate hundreds of thousands of German troops? It sounds easy, but will it really be so smooth? Although he was full of doubts, President Wilkie did not speak, and silently smoked and waited for new news.

I don't know how many cigarettes he smoked, and the communicator finally reported new news. "The German artillery bombardment has stopped!"

President Wilkie subconsciously glanced at the clock on the wall. The German artillery bombardment lasted for an hour and a half. Does stopping the bombardment mean that the German army is about to launch an attack? !

Less than half an hour later, new news came.

"The German army has broken through the first line of defense of the Soviet army."

Everyone in the war room looked at each other. This should be the Soviet army half-voluntarily giving up? ! "It seems that the Soviet plan has been quite smooth so far."

"I hope so." President Wilkie nodded secretly.

But in the next few hours, the German army broke through the second and third lines of defense of the Soviet army and went straight to the fourth line of defense.

President Wilkie couldn't help but ask. "How many lines of defense do the Soviets have?"

Stimson's face was quite ugly. "I heard that there are four in total, but the fourth line of defense has not been completed yet, as if it is useless!" According to the Soviet defense plan, the Germans should be stopped at the third line of defense, but now even the third line of defense has been broken. What is this!

"Oh my God!" President Wilkie understood as soon as he heard it. "That means the battle situation has completely deviated from the Soviet plan. These lines of defense were not given up by the Soviets, but were torn apart by the Germans!"

"Now it seems so. I didn't expect the Germans to be so powerful."

"Damn it!" Douglas MacArthur, who was smoking his pipe silently, suddenly screamed. "Isn't this Tukhachevsky's deep operation!"

Everyone was confused. "What Tukhachevsky? What deep operation?"

MacArthur explained at a very fast speed. "It's the Soviet Marshal Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky who was shot by Stalin a few years ago! He wrote a book called "Some New Problems of War" before, which contains the theory of deep operations."

The deep battle (battle) is the combat style of the battle corps (corps, troops). Its essence is to suppress the enemy's defense in full depth with lethal weapons at the same time, break through its tactical area in the selected direction, and then develop the victory echelon (tanks, motorized infantry, cavalry) into the battle, and drop airborne troops to achieve the predetermined goal as soon as possible, and quickly develop tactical victory into campaign victory.

The essential characteristics of a deep battle (battle) can be summarized as follows:

Carry out a full-depth assault on the enemy's defense configuration. The key point is to abandon traditional linear operations.

Immediately deploy reserve echelons after breaking through the tactical zone.

It is necessary to develop tactical victory into campaign victory, which is the purpose of deploying reserve echelons, otherwise all the results of tactical breakthroughs will become dispensable, because the gap opened will soon be closed again.

In addition, the Soviet Union's large-depth theory is supported by a powerful air force, that is, "air and ground integration, roundabout interweaving". With the support of tactical air power, it uses mechanized troops to carry out rapid maneuvers and attacks at lightning speed, emphasizing the use of Firepower interception achieves the operational purpose of isolating enemy forces and cutting off contact between the enemy's front and rear, thereby creating advantageous conditions for ground forces. The key is: "initiative", "depth", "flexibility" and "coordination" of combat forces, which are also the four basic operational principles of the "air-land battle" theory.

Once the use of large depth reaches a proficient level, after breaking through the enemy's main defensive line, they can easily divide, assault and annihilate the enemy's troops on a front of tens to hundreds of kilometers and a depth of hundreds of kilometers. But the most critical part is still the tactical depth of quickly breaking through the enemy's defense line at the beginning of the battle, and the German army has now completed this tactical requirement.

After listening to MacArthur's explanation, everyone suddenly understood. "In other words, the Germans are using the Soviet combat theory to deal with the Soviets? The Soviets should be able to defend themselves."

MacArthur shook his head depressedly. "One of the crimes for which Marshal Tukhachevsky was shot was 'rapidly building tank corps at the expense of reducing the number and cost of cavalry.' After he was shot, his books and theories were either destroyed or banned , who dares to mention his theory, I am afraid it has been completely forgotten. "

"These stupid guys!" President Wilkie couldn't help but curse. How many useful talents did this stupid Stalin kill? !"Are our soldiers deployed on the front lines?"

Stimson nodded. "There are 80,000 soldiers in Belarus and 70,000 soldiers in Ukraine."

"Can we let them evacuate immediately?!" President Wilkie was a little anxious. According to MacArthur's deep-depth operations, there may be countless encirclement circles throughout Belarus and Ukraine, and our own troops are also in danger of being surrounded.

"This..." Stimson was a little embarrassed. Although the US military retained the right to disobey orders, it seemed a bit unreasonable to run away before the fire was officially exchanged.