Chapter 723: German-Soviet War (57)

On the Soviet-German battlefield, facing the situation in Smolensk, the Soviet leaders were caught in an awkward dilemma.

The Germans had surrounded Smolensk on three sides, but they were reluctant to close the encirclement. The German army was not without the strength, but it was obvious that they were waiting for more Soviet soldiers to enter the encirclement and then catch them all.

But knowing that this was a trap set by the Germans, the Soviets had to jump in, because Smolensk was the gateway to Moscow. Once Smolensk fell, the German offensive would be directed at Moscow. This was not the situation that the Soviet leaders, especially Stalin, wanted to see.

"Smolensk must be defended!" This was a death order issued by Stalin, with no room for bargaining.

But wanting to defend and being able to defend are two completely different things.

The military supplies originally assembled on the front lines of Belarus and Ukraine were not withdrawn in time. As a base far behind, Smolensk did not stockpile much military supplies, and food was not abundant. In addition, the Soviet Union's granaries, Belarus and Ukraine, were lost, which resulted in the supply of the troops being barely enough; what was even more terrible was that the Siberian Railway was destroyed from time to time, and the mountains of American aid materials in the Far East could not be delivered in time. Stalin could only allocate materials from other nearby cities to Smolensk for emergency.

For this reason, Stalin specifically asked the US transport fleet to cross the Bering Strait and bypass the Arctic Ocean to directly deliver the materials to the front-line cities. It's not that the United States has not tried it, but the transport fleet leaked the news when it took the Arctic Ocean route for the first time, and ran into the ambush of the German submarine force in the Arctic Ocean. Dozens of transport ships were wiped out without exception.

At this point, the US transport fleet did not dare to cross the Bering Strait again, so it was better to deliver these materials to the Soviet Far East.

But this is back to the original problem. The materials piled up in the Far East could not be transported to the front line in time because the Siberian Railway was frequently destroyed. In a rage, Stalin dispatched three divisions to guard the long railway, and the situation improved slightly.

However, there is also good news. Smolensk is an ancient Russian city. Most of the residents here are Russians and are the most hardcore supporters of the Soviet Union. These people can firmly execute any order of Stalin, united and full of fighting spirit. Men, women and children in the city are helping the Soviet army to improve the city's fortifications. Basically, there will be no situation like Belarus and Ukraine surrendering at every turn.

And Stalin sent Marshal Boris Mikhailovich Shaposhnikov to guard Smolensk.

Shaposhnikov was gentle, knowledgeable and respected by Stalin. He was the first person to be called by Stalin by his full name (the second was Rokossovsky) and the only one who was allowed to smoke in front of Stalin.

In 1940, when the Soviet Union was preparing for war, Stalin asked Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Shaposhnikov to draft a comprehensive staff report on what plan Germany might adopt for invasion. In the report, Shaposhnikov believed that Germany's main attack direction would be between the Baltic Sea and the Pripyat Marshes, targeting Smolensk and Moscow. At the Politburo meeting in September of the same year, Stalin listened carefully to the report, but disagreed with it, believing that the main attack direction of the German army was in the southwest, and rejected the report made by Shaposhnikov. Stalin's misjudgment had an extremely adverse impact on the development of the early Soviet-German War.

Sending him here is enough to show Stalin's attention to Smolensk.

Shaposhnikov ordered all food and medicine in the city to be concentrated and managed by the military. All doctors and even clergy in the church were unified into the army to do some work of praying for the wounded and dead.

Smolensk was also large enough for the Soviet army to arrange street battles. As long as the defense is proper, he believes that the German army can pay a heavy price. He ordered that defensive positions be carefully arranged in every street and every house. In order to defend against the German air bombing, Smolensk's waterways and subways were transformed into underground bunkers, some sturdy underground air defense facilities were reinforced and expanded, countless trenches were dug on every street, and there were barbed wire and checkpoints everywhere. All residents were required to sew more than 10 cloth bags every day to fill them with sand and rubble as sandbags for fortifications.

Under Shaposhnik's careful deployment, the entire Smolensk became a giant fortress.

On the other side, in the Berlin Palace, Yannick ordered people to pick up Yakov.

"How is it? Yakov, are you used to the life in the prisoner-of-war camp? I have some bad news for you. Your father has issued a statement saying that you are a traitor to the Soviet Union and he has announced that he will sever the father-son relationship with you. And no matter who catches you as a traitor, he will be executed on the spot and can be promoted three levels."

"..." The muscles on Yakov's face trembled slightly, and a look of dejection appeared on his face.

"Tsk tsk, your father is really determined. He didn't even discuss with us to see if he could exchange his son back, and just severed the father-son relationship. If he is willing to discuss, I don't ask for much. As long as your father gives up Smolensk, I will send you back immediately. It seems that in your father's eyes, even a brick or a grain of soil is more valuable than you, his own son. But if it was your brother, I don't know if he would still be so determined."

After talking to himself, Yanik secretly smiled at the resentment that flashed in Yakov's eyes, and then he got to the point. "Our army is about to launch an attack on Smolensk, but you also know how cruel your father is. He ordered the women and children in Smolensk to take up arms to resist our army. If young and middle-aged people can understand, what can women and children understand? Can they shoot? Can they throw grenades?"

That's what he said, but Yanik knew that in the Soviet-German War in the original time and space, when the source of soldiers was extremely tight, the Soviet Supreme Command ordered the recruitment of female soldiers. Within three months after the start of the war, 8,360 women in Moscow joined the army, and 2,700 women in Leningrad signed up to fight. During the four years of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union recruited 800,000 female soldiers, 70% of whom were in various main forces, including 6,097 pilots, 4,522 machine gunners, 7,796 riflemen, 15,290 shooters, 45,509 communicators, and 2,484 snipers. Most of them were unmarried young women between the ages of 18 and 25, and as many as 500,000 of them died on the battlefield.