Chapter 908 Belia (1)
In a blink of an eye, the time came to 1942.
Yannick couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. It seemed that the terrible winter curse had been broken. Now all he had to do was wait until spring came to capture Moscow in one fell swoop.
And the capture of Moscow was already a sure thing.
The European coalition led by Germany, together with the Russian Liberation Army and the Ukrainian and Belarusian armies, had a terrifying number of troops exceeding 8 million; plus the reserve forces that could be put into war at any time, this number could easily exceed 12 million. Moreover, the entire Europe was producing and equipping German weapons, and even the weapons equipped by the Russian Liberation Army had far superior performance to the Soviet troops.
The Soviet and American troops assembled in Moscow were at most 4 million. Stalin might arm all the old and weak prisoners in Moscow, and there might be 3 million more. However, it was hard to say how much combat effectiveness these old, weak, women and children could exert; perhaps their greatest role was to waste the ammunition of the European coalition.
Stalin obviously felt that these numbers were far from enough, and sent his most capable confidant Beria to Siberia. He heard some bad rumors, so he sent Beria there to stabilize the rear and to supervise production, increase the speed of weapon production as much as possible, and send more weapons and equipment to Moscow.
"Siberia" refers to all of Russia's territory in Asia, starting from the Ural Mountains in the west. It extends to the Bering Strait in the east and to Mongolia, Kazakhstan and the border of China in the south. The area can reach 12.76 million square kilometers, accounting for more than 60% of the total territory of the Soviet Union (this area has shrunk significantly due to the rebellion in the Far East at this time).
However, during the Tsarist period, due to its dependence on foreign investment (especially French capital), Russia's construction center was still in the western region. Coupled with the limitations of funds and technology, Siberia was not fully developed. In 1908, Siberia's industrial output value was only 25% of the total output value of Russia. In this case, Siberia was more famous as a place of exile, such as the famous Internet meme "sent to Siberia to dig potatoes".
After 1917, with the victory and stability of the Soviet regime, strengthening national strength and developing industry became the top priority of the Soviet regime. Siberia, with its rich resources and geographical location that is not vulnerable to attack, is simply a treasure land given by God. Since the "First Five-Year Plan", the Soviet Union has begun to invest in Siberia on a large scale, and the originally bitter and cold land has ushered in rapid development.
Under the powerful mobilization of the highly centralized planned economic system, the second metallurgical center of the Soviet Union, the Ural-Kuznetsk Coal Mining and Metallurgical Joint Enterprise, was quickly established on this barren land. The enterprise lasted for two five-year plans. In 1928, the Belovo Zinc Plant was completed. Just three years later, in 1931, the plant reached a quarter of the zinc production in the Soviet Union. There are also coalfields like Kuzbass, whose coal production accounted for 15% of the Soviet Union at the end of the "First Five-Year Plan". The success of the first two five-year plans won Siberia more investment in the "Third Five-Year Plan", and its investment accounted for 6% of the Soviet Union's national investment that year. The huge investment brought rich returns.
In addition to further strengthening Siberia's existing coal and metallurgical industries, the "Third Five-Year Plan" that began in 1938 also built a large number of machinery manufacturing industries, such as the construction of a turbine plant in Novosibirsk. All the above-mentioned enterprises will play an important role in the war.
The third task of Beria's trip is to collect more soldiers and send them to the front line, that is, Moscow.
In the original time and space, facing the problem of the Soviet army's shortage of soldiers in World War II, Beria proposed a solution, that is, to organize the people in prison, that is, to organize the prisoners in the labor camps and prisons, and send them to the front line to "clean up the crimes committed against the motherland." His original words were. "Don't let these "Soviet dust" waste Soviet food again, they should be made to bear the responsibility of the war." (Prisoners who have committed criminal crimes such as robbery and murder are not included).
According to statistics from the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1956, a total of more than 1.3 million labor camp prisoners and "problem soldiers" were sent to the front line. These criminals who joined the army were divided into many levels. Generally, criminals with minor mistakes were assigned to ordinary troops, but some serious criminals were assigned to the punishment camp, which was also called a field prison.
The archives show that both civilians and senior officers were sent to the punishment camp. The famous one is Lieutenant Matvienko, who was injured in the Battle of Vyazma in October 1941. After being discharged from the hospital, he deserted on the way back to the army and hid in his hometown. He was later sent to the 265th Penal Battalion and became an outstanding hero of reconnaissance behind enemy lines.
In order to facilitate management, especially to prevent people from escaping, the disciplinary troops are generally organized at the battalion level, with each battalion having about 800 people and each company having about 150-200 people. During combat, the disciplinary battalion is often interspersed among the combat troops for monitoring by friendly troops. The combat missions of the disciplinary battalion are basically the same as those of ordinary infantry troops. The difference is that they are often sent to perform high-risk tasks such as reconnaissance and flanking penetration. The purpose is to discover the enemy's firepower points and capture the enemy's high ground in an assault. This also caused the disciplinary battalion to have a very high casualty rate. In 1944 alone, their loss rate exceeded 50%, which was 3-6 times that of ordinary troops. At that time, the Soviet army had a saying that "people in the disciplinary battalion would not survive more than 3 months."
Ziabniatov was once the company commander of the 123rd Penal Battalion. He personally recounted the most tragic battle he had experienced. It was in the Oder-Vistula Campaign in early 1945, when the 123rd Penal Battalion served as the vanguard of the forced crossing of the Vistula River and opened a landing bridgehead for follow-up troops. Without any artillery cover, the attack of the 123rd Penal Battalion began late at night on January 2. As soon as they set out, they were suppressed by the extremely fierce firepower of the German army. The soldiers of these penal battalions could only paddle sideways on the rubber boats, listening to the bullets from the opposite bank whizzing over their heads. From time to time, mortar shells hit the ferry full of soldiers, and human body and rubber boat fragments were mixed together and blown into the sky.
When the 123rd Penal Battalion reached the center of the river, it had lost more than half of its rubber boats. The river was full of floating corpses, but the soldiers still stubbornly climbed onto the riverbank, only to be mercilessly strafed by German machine guns. Some desperately hid in the densely reed floodplain or under the embankment, trying in vain to prolong their last few minutes of life. After repeated battles, by noon the next day, the 123rd Penal Battalion, which had suffered heavy losses, finally occupied the bridgehead with the support of a large force. A captured German soldier said with lingering fear: "You crossed the Vistula River on corpses." After this battle, only 47 of the 670 officers and soldiers of the 123rd Penal Battalion survived, which shows how cruel the Penal Battalion was.