Chapter 111:
Chapter 111
“So, it’s Leningrad after all?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
All the information pointed to one direction for the German offensive.
The capital of the revolution, the heart of northern Russia, and the undisputed second city of the Soviet Union: Leningrad.
The spy network that infiltrated the defense forces, the Italian deserter who defected and handed over the German operation plan, and the partisan’s observation of the material movement all fit together.
Of course, compared to the headache we had over whether it was the center or the south, it was a thin conclusion.
“The 1st Panzer Group, which belonged to the Southern Army Group, was reorganized into the 1st SS Panzer Army and deployed in the direction of Leningrad. They are expected to start their offensive in mid-May, when the ground hardens.”
“Is Manstein still the commander?”
“Yes, that’s right. Unfortunately, he seems to have succeeded in preserving his position by swearing absolute loyalty to Hitler and the Nazis in the midst of political turmoil in Germany.”
I felt a bit sorry. Even in real history, Manstein was loyal to Hitler and the Nazis despite his aristocratic background.
In fact, he even flattered them.
So he was a very difficult opponent to overthrow with a single intelligence operation.
Anyway, it was not good that he was the commander among the many talented German generals.
“But… why Leningrad?”
Leningrad was one of the areas where the Soviet industrial power was most concentrated.
They all agreed that it was a target worth aiming for.
One of the three German army groups, the Northern Army Group, had been struggling to reach Leningrad.
“Isn’t it to destroy our industrial capacity, Comrade Secretary? And also the symbolism of capturing the capital of the revolution, the former capital…”
“Yeah. Let’s say they did that. Then what’s next?”
“…”
Leningrad was important, but what would they do after occupying it?
There was nothing else to do.
There were many other important places to aim for instead of Leningrad.
For example, Moscow. Moscow was not only the capital, but also a key point where the railway network of European Russia passed through.
Also, there were large cities such as Gorky, Yaroslavl, and Ivanovo in the rear.
If the Central Army Group captured Moscow, they would have options to annihilate or push into the isolated Soviet forces or metropolitan cities.
The south of Ukraine was the same.
They had already been pushed back too much and suffered huge losses after continuous battles, but there were still many tempting targets in front of the German Southern Army Group.
Let’s start with Kiev, which they intended to occupy last year.
After Kiev came Kharkov. After Kharkov came Stalino, an industrial area on the Don River. Then came Stalingrad, which could dominate the Volga River.
Finally, there was Baku, one of the two largest oil fields in the world.
But Leningrad?
“Are they going to save their allies Finland? Ha!”
Unlike real history, due to the German naval fleet roaming too much, there was no lend-lease coming into Murmansk on the Arctic Ocean.
So we just coolly gave up on fighting with Finland and left them alone as they advanced into land we had snatched away during Winter War.
On contrary, Finland did not come down any further.
They occasionally exchanged bullets with Soviet forces who had built a solid fortress line north of Leningrad.
“Let me introduce you to some important facilities in Leningrad first. This might be their strategy…”
“Yes! Comrade Secretary.”
“Are there no more available railway vehicles? We deployed our forces too early.”
“I will investigate and report!”
Already millions of troops and equipment had been deployed in central and southern regions.
Since we couldn’t tell them to walk across this vast land, we put them on trains and dropped them off.
Literally tens of thousands of trains were tied up in various places to take them there.
We had to load these forces again and send them northward but that work required a lot of orders, timetables and paperwork.
Ugh… My head already hurt.
I couldn’t just give orders and leave it to my subordinates… I was too suspicious. I had to see for myself what was going on.
What to do with the spare time?
This era was too poor in terms of entertainment. No wonder the birth rate was high (???). As someone who lived in the age of smartphones, YouTube, and web novels, I had nothing to do. I’d rather work than worry and be anxious while playing boring chess!
I handed over the report while calculating in my head how much more work I had to do.
The estimated troop deployments were written down.
“A million men in that narrow north… Hitler is determined, huh?”
“Th… that’s right. They seem to have moved the newly formed divisions and the elite units of the armed SS to the north. According to the intelligence…”
This was what the intelligence network had summarized.
Germany was aiming for Leningrad and had massively reinforced the Northern Army Group to push up.
As they concentrated their elite units on the Northern Army Group, there were relatively gaps in the center and south.
They filled these gaps with troops from France, Italy, and Spain, whose combat power was unknown but not very high.
If you were a military geek, you would have thought of something here.
“The Northern Army Group of the fascists will select the Pskov-Leningrad axis as their main offensive direction and advance. At that time, their right wing of the main offensive axis will inevitably be stretched.”
Bang! The pointer pointed at two points.
The places Konev pointed at were Riga and K?nigsberg.
These two places were a kind of bottleneck.
When going from west to east, K?nigsberg was followed by Kurland, which protruded northward.
Likewise, after Riga came Latvia and Estonia, which also protruded northward.
What we were aiming for was this. We would break through Smolensk and encircle German 9th Army there, then pierce through gap and trap bloated Northern Army Group in Baltic.
German army would have advanced easily with widened gate when they came in, but not when they went out.
“There are two bottlenecks where we can cut off German army. Leningrad will be anvil, and Western Front Army will be hammer that will crush them between us!”
They all clapped enthusiastically. Indeed, it sounded great when you just heard plan…
The prototype of this plan was Operation Uranus that ended Battle of Stalingrad and Operation Bagration that broke spine of Central Army Group.
How many people died from turning the tide at Stalingrad to driving a wedge with Bagration?
The Soviet Union became stronger, but Germany was still powerful. In real history, Germany’s military production continued to increase until 1944.
Even under the fierce attacks of the Allies, their production actually increased!
Unless the United States could find a way to cross the Atlantic and launch strategic bombing… Only a giant bomber like the B-29 could strike Germany from the mainland.
It was not reasonable to ask anything from the United States, who was still struggling to break through the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic.
Cutting off the supply of oil and chrome was a brilliant move.
They seemed to maintain their quality by using their reserves, but soon, very soon, they would reach their limit.
“I will end this war as soon as possible and fly the red flag over Berlin!”
“This summer will be the turning point of the war!”
Many people thought that the war would end soon.
Last year, the German army lost its initial fierce momentum and collapsed.
After launching a powerful counterattack in the winter, the generals and politicians seemed to think that Germany was an easy opponent.
Even the Luftwaffe, which had an overwhelming advantage, began to improve their exchange rate with the deployment of MiG-Molniya fighters.
The Soviet Air Force, which had to tremble even against Ju87 Stuka, a ground attack aircraft and not a real fighter, was no more.
Molniya, or Firebear as the Germans called it, could fight on par with Bf109, the frontline fighter of the Luftwaffe.
The Germans still had an edge due to the pilots’ skills, but soon, very soon, we would be able to gain the upper hand.
Air Force Commander Novikov assured me.
“Molniya is a revolution! A revolution! Already more than ten aces have been born.”
“That’s good. We will focus on producing more fighters and delivering them. The production of engines is still a limiting factor… How is the evaluation of the new machine gun?”
We begged hard for American engines and technicians and put them in Ural to produce them diligently, but the supply was still insufficient compared to the demand.
That was understandable. Once they tasted Firebear, all the air force units shouted for more Firebears.
“More Firebears! Give us more Firebears! If we have those amazing machines, we will crush those Fascist bastards!”
We worked hard with three shifts of technicians who were promised generous rewards by Americans, but we couldn’t produce tens of thousands of them overnight.
Even if we had new fighters, we couldn’t ignore the production of Sturmovik and other fighters.
The current aircraft production was at 140% full operation. And the Germans didn’t seem to notice yet, but we had given some new toys to the air force.
“Yes, Comrade Secretary! Since Comrade Kalashnikov’s new machine gun was introduced, the machine gun malfunction in aerial combat has decreased significantly. The pilots are all praises.”
“Did you hear that? Put all your efforts into producing machine guns.”
“Yes! Comrade Secretary!”
The young Kalashnikov showed his genius without regret.
After inventing the ‘assault rifle’ AK-41, he developed several automatic weapons. Aircraft machine guns, squad support weapons, high-speed grenade launchers.
The soldiers who used his guns gave great reviews.
Kalashnikov’s weapons were all reliable and worked well in extreme battlefield conditions.
They were also simple in structure and easy to use, making them convenient for training and deploying quickly.
Of course, above all, they had high productivity.
They eliminated complex metal processing processes and minimized the number of parts, making them overwhelming in terms of production.
I gave him some concepts, but… Kalashnikov was really a genius, wasn’t he?
The generals were still talking among themselves about the operation.
They looked like children who had received a lot of new toys as gifts, chatting happily about how to trample on the Germans. I felt a kind smile on my face.
“Well… Let’s give it a try!”
The most uptodat𝓮 n𝒐vels are published on (f)reew𝒆(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦