September 14, 1942, Soviet Union, Belarus.
Although the day of the autumn equinox has not yet arrived, the wind and rain in Belarus, which is located in the cold region, are already bitterly cool.
In the midst of the falling wind and rain, a German armored convoy painted with this iron cross mark rumbled along the slightly muddy road, and arrived in Dzerzhinsk, 378 kilometers southwest of Minsk.
The Battle of Rakov-Zaslavl continued, except that the city of Rakov had been captured by the Germans five days earlier.
The battlefield then shifted to the south to Dzerzhinsk, a city named after the late Soviet proletarian revolutionary Dzerzhinsky, located on the Great Railway from Moscow to Warsaw.
It was also the first important target that the German Army Group North was preparing to seize in Belarus, once it was captured.
The Germans were able to cut off the main lines of communication with Moscow in Warsaw.
At the same time that the German Army Group North launched a surprise attack on Dzerzhinsk, the 1st Army Group South also attacked north from Lviv, and now it has broken the resistance of the Soviet Southwestern Front and is advancing towards Pinsk on the territory of Belarus.
According to the plan, after Army Group North and Army Group South occupied Dzerzhinsk and Pinsk respectively, they would also advance at the same time towards Baranovichi in the Brest region.
As soon as Baranovichi was occupied, then Western Belarus and Poland would be cut off from the rest of the Soviet Union.
At least a million people of the Soviet Western Front and the Belarusian Front would be surrounded If you add in the large number of Soviet troops lost or besieged in the Warsaw Campaign, the Battle of Lviv, the Battle of Leningrad and the Battle of Belarus, more than 3 million troops of the Soviet Red Army were surrounded or annihilated by the Germans in just a few months after the outbreak of the world revolution.
Although for the super-resilient USSR, such losses were nothing at all.
But the fact that so many armies were surrounded and wiped out is enough to show that Stalin's line of world revolution was completely wrong.
This would undermine Stalin's prestige in the Soviet Bolshevik Party, which would be very beneficial for Germany to win a favorable peace on the Eastern Front Sitting in a half-track armored command vehicle with mud and bullet holes on its body, the lethargic Major Gustav Schwarzenegger was now in no mood to think about Stalin's prestige or how to win a favorable peace.
He just wanted to get a good night's sleep between the engagements, and it would be great if by the time his tank battalion arrived in Dzerzhinsk, the Soviets had already surrendered or been killed.
In this way, the 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion, which had been fighting hard for twenty days, would have a chance to rest and recuperate.
It would be the happiest thing in the world to have his battalion stationed in Dzerzhinsk and live in a roofed house, where he could take hot showers, sleep in warm beds, and have delicious food to eat.
In the last twenty days, especially in the dozen days since the beginning of the battle of Rakovzaslavl.
The 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion and another 10 tank destroyer battalions on the battlefield near Minsk were definitely the busiest troops, fighting almost every day, with each "Rhino" tank destroyer firing 45 base 88 shells a day.
Those poor loaders were so tired every day that their arms were swollen.
As the commander of the first battalion, Major Schwarzenegger did not have to carry the shells himself, but he led his troops around the front line with the fiercest fighting every day, and the pressure was as great as you can imagine.
Moreover, his 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion was not fighting under the command of the 5th SS Panzer Division these days, but was constantly moving around the various panzer divisions of the front.
He, the battalion commander, had to deal with different bosses and colleagues, dealing with logistics and supplies, and all kinds of other chores, which was really troublesome.
However, there was also something that made him very satisfied with the twenty-day battle, that is, although the battle was extremely fierce, his men did not suffer many casualties.
Because the "Rhino" tank destroyer was regarded as a self-propelled gun that could hit tanks, it was always arranged to bombard various targets with the 88 gun in a relatively safe position.
Although it was hard enough, it was relatively safe and did not suffer much damage.
After twenty days of fighting, his 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion still had 33 Rhino tank destroyers in operation.
Of the nine vehicles that could not be repaired, only four were damaged in combat, and the remaining five were mechanical failures.
Boom, boom, boom The rumbling sound of cannon was heard, and the drowsy Major Schwarzenegger suddenly woke up, and he looked up at the place where the cannon sound had come.
The dim sky had been turned red by the flash of fire from hundreds, if not more, cannons, and the assault on Dzerzhinsk had clearly reached its climax "Comrade Stalin, the command of the Belorussian Front transmitted the last telegram from the military headquarters of the 9th Mechanized Army stationed in Dzerzhinsk" The Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, Colonel-General Golikov, walked into the conference room of the Soviet High Command in the Kremlin and reported in a somewhat trembling tone the news he had just received.
"Read."
Stalin said.
"All the commanders, fighters, and political workers of the 9th Mechanized Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army are loyal to their oath and realize the great mission they shoulder.
For the sake of the victory of the cause of GC doctrine and the liberation of mankind, we will stick to our posts and fight to the last soldier, and now the commander of the army, Comrade Glychko, has died a heroic death, and the whole army will be commanded by Political Commissar Guselev.
The enemy has advanced to the vicinity of the military headquarters, and the final battle is about to begin.
Long live the world revolution, long live the Soviet Fatherland, long live the great leader Stalin, this station now stops posting. c。
” After listening to the report of General Golikov, Stalin was expressionless, just nodded stiffly and said: "Got it."
Then he swept the people in the conference room with a gloomy gaze, "Comrades, the fall of Dzerzhinsk is only a matter of time, and Pinsk, because there are no troops to hold on, will soon fall.
Now only Baranovichi remains, and if the Germans take it, Brest and Warsaw will soon be encircled. ” The capture of Baranovichi by the Germans is certain, because the Belarusian Front suffered heavy losses in the battle of Rakov-Zaslavl, losing more than 3,000 tank assault guns, 1 of the 19 tank brigades was completely annihilated as belonging to the 9th Mechanized Army, 12 were completely incapacitated, and only 6 tank brigades remained with some combat effectiveness, but they were all transferred to the Kalinin Front.
As for the mechanized units of the Western Front, after the Battle of Warsaw, a large number of mechanized troops were transferred to the Belarusian Front and Moscow to Moscow, which will be used to form a new reserve front army directly under the high command.
Therefore, now the Belarusian Front and the Western Front simply do not have the ability to stop the battle of Baranovichi.
Moreover, Baranovichi would also be caught between two German army groups, with Army Group South and Army Group North having a large number of panzer divisions and heavy armored battalions.
The difference was that Army Group easily defeated the Soviet Southwestern Front and did not experience the same hard attrition as Army Group North, so it was able to attack Baranovichi with all its might.
Therefore, Baranovichi neither has the troops to hold it, nor can it hold it at all.
Brest and Warsaw were surrounded by German troops, and it was a matter of time.
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Since it is unrealistic to hold on to Baranovic, then it is now naturally Warsaw and Brest that need to be considered To keep, or not to keep Who will guard With how many troops to defend How to solve the siege in the future A whole bunch of problems must be solved at today's meeting of the Supreme Command.
"Comrades, in view of the great combat effectiveness shown by the German Nazi troops on the Leningrad and Minsk fronts, we must reconsider the question of holding on to Warsaw and Brest."
Stalin took a puff of his pipe and said with a solemn face: "Therefore, I propose to abandon Brest and then transfer part of the Brest garrison to Minsk Before the fall of Baranovichi, the defenders of Brest can still be transferred, and the other part will be transferred to the city of Warsaw, together with our supplies stored in Brest." ” It was clearly wise to abandon Brest and hold only one Warsaw.
Because the Brest Fortress had no special political significance, it was not necessary to put hundreds of thousands of troops there to hold on when the army was not abundant.
However, the abandonment of Brest also had the disadvantage that Warsaw was too far from the main Soviet-controlled front.
The distance from Warsaw to Minsk is also almost 470 kilometers in a straight line, and Brest is in the middle, and once abandoned, Warsaw will become an isolated city.
It's hard to defend a lonely city The Germans didn't even need to storm onslaught, as long as they used the method of long encirclement, 12 months if it didn't work, 18 months, 24 months.
Hunger was able to force the defenders of Warsaw to surrender.
"Moreover, it is too much to hold on to Warsaw with the forces of one front."
Stalin also said that "the Western Front should be reorganized into an army group, which could be called the Red Banner Warsaw Army." ” Stalin did not mean to reduce the forces of Warsaw, but to change the number of the front to army groups.
In this way, even if Warsaw was not held in the end, the losses of the Soviet army would seem to be smaller.
After all, the total annihilation of an army group looks better than the total annihilation of an army of one front.
"Then Comrade Pavlov and Comrade Bulganin are no longer fit to stay in Warsaw."
Stalin went on to say, "I propose to transfer Comrade Vasilevsky, Kruglov and Lyapin to Warsaw.
Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Comrade Kulik was transferred to Minsk, and Comrade Ponomarenko was appointed Military Commissar of the Belarusian Front.
And the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, which Comrade Kulik now holds as the commissar of defense, was succeeded by Comrade Pavlov.
At the same time, Comrade Pavlov was again awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, promoted to marshal. ” t1706231537: