Chapter 123:
Chapter 123
The German army finally set foot in Leningrad.
Now, the Soviet Union had prepared some ways to deal a fatal blow to the German army that had one arm caught in a trap.
“Yes, the four battleships that were in the Atlantic are still in the Baltic Sea.”
[Sigh… I personally want to thank you. If it weren’t for the Soviet Union, we would have…]
Roosevelt’s voice was more exhausted than I imagined.
He was four years younger than me in physical age, but his health was not very good since he survived a life-and-death crisis due to polio.
Compared to me, who reduced alcohol, maintained a healthy diet and exercised regularly, he seemed much worse.
Also, unlike me, a dictator, Roosevelt had to care about domestic politics, elections, and public opinion.
He was the president, but I could vividly imagine how he was hurt and troubled by the words of the people.
On the other hand, me? Hmm… How dare they say anything to ‘Stalin’?
“No, no. If it weren’t for the United States, our Soviet Union would have suffered much more damage.”
If it weren’t for Lend-Lease, maybe ten million more would have died.
Thanks to bringing Lend-Lease early, the Soviet people and soldiers could eat better, live better, and arm better.
How could they expect us to fight against the German army that became stronger than the original history with poor weapons?
Even with the Soviet army that I modified with the power of the General Secretary, the damage was still high.
The United States that I couldn’t reach? They were suffering much more.
After being repelled twice in the Azores, the United States succeeded in the third landing while the four battleships were returned to Leningrad.
The Azores archipelago, which could be called a base in the middle of the Atlantic, had been doing a great job as an unsinkable aircraft carrier since Germany seized it from Portugal.
Not anymore.
The U-boats lurking and the Luftwaffe flying over the Atlantic as if it were their own backyard were partly thanks to the Azores base.
The United States had lost or damaged all their carriers in Pearl Harbor, and had to fight with a handicap against Germany, which freely used ground-based aircraft on the island.
But now, that advantage was in the hands of the United States.
[Sigh… I should have believed you when the Soviet Union told me about the Pearl Harbor attack plan. Even if I had to use force…]
Every word of Roosevelt was filled with deep regret.
He must have repeated his regrets every night.
I should have intervened in Europe earlier, I should have believed the Pearl Harbor attack that the Soviet Union told me!
If they had intervened before Britain completely collapsed, they could have beaten Germany with their overwhelming air force in front of them.
If they had known and prepared for the Pearl Harbor attack plan in advance, they wouldn’t have been stuck with a few battleships in the Pacific.
But the United States hesitated and missed the opportunity.
Hitler and Tojo boldly launched preemptive attacks, and the United States wasted their trump cards.
“Anyway, we will win. I believe that.”
[Your words are helpful, at least.]
Of course, technology would advance and new trump cards would emerge. Maybe Roosevelt knew that and talked like that in front of me.
After making a brief greeting, I hung up the phone and the interpreter ran out of my office.
Beria and Molotov, who had been waiting, got up and came to me.
I wish Zhukov was here, but he was commanding the army in the field, and Vasilevsky, who became the new Chief of Staff, was standing behind them.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes, Comrade General Secretary. But it’s still time…”
That’s enough. At least a year and a half? Considering the money that the United States poured into the Manhattan Project and the money we are using now… Ahem, I felt sorry.
I shortened the development time by a few months with the future ‘copper’, that is, the plutonium refining technology that I taught them.
Thanks to Korolev, who quickly got out of the gulag and devoted himself to rocket development, the first nuclear weapon might be mounted on a ballistic missile.
The Manhattan Project was slowed down by the lack of budget for building ships, but it wouldn’t speed up.
That means, in the end, the nuclear weapon we will show will be the first.
Whether to use it or not is another story.
“You’re doing well. Just keep working hard.”
Beria smiled and backed away. He must have intuitively realized that I didn’t trust him lately.
There was no way. But now that he confirmed my trust, there would be nothing better for him.
Well, it’s not like I didn’t hide a trump card… I wonder how his exaggerated reaction will change when I get regular reports on what his son is doing.
“Comrade Korolev, please don’t hurt your health. What did you do to make yourself so thin and weak… Tsk tsk.”
I remembered Korolev, who was much thinner and weaker than when he was in the gulag, and said that.
Beria flinched and groveled.
The work itself seemed to have no problem, but… Well, there was no problem with the development of rocket technology, right?
“Now, let’s hear from Comrade Vasilevsky. Is it possible to encircle the Pas-de-Calais 9th Army? What did General Rokossovsky say?”
I would have been less anxious if it weren’t for that operation name… They didn’t have armored forces for the offensive operation, but they had an excellent general and an infantry formation that was still more skilled than the Soviet army.
Where did the Walter model get so many tanks to crush the Soviet army in Rezhev?
“Yes. General Rokossovsky must have started the second offensive by now. I will order him to submit a progress report.”
***
“Charge! Charge! Hahaha!!”
The soldiers just accepted it.
The legend of the crazy brigade commander who had once led the troops in the northern front grew and inflated as the brigade commander became a military commander.
And the soldiers under Rotmistrov realized that it was not a mere exaggeration.
“Die! You filthy Pas-de-Calais pigs!”
Wearing a black coat and opening his chest on his uniform, Rotmistrov fired a grenade launcher over the heads of the French soldiers who were hiding and resisting in the trench, riding a special command armored car.
It was not a heavy tank wrapped in thick armor, but an armored car with an open top. He was not afraid at all, despite the bullets flying like rain. No, he was burning with anger.
“It’s the revenge of the fallen comrades!!!”
“Ura! Ura! For revenge!”
He put down the grenade launcher with one hand and picked up the radio. Then he shouted into the wireless network.
Revenge of the fallen comrades! The blood of all the Soviet soldiers who heard that boiled.
They charged ahead more than anyone else, like the fallen comrades. Now, the young Rotmistrov led the soldiers from the front.
“Charge! Charge!”
The French army was not as high-spirited as the Italian army, but they were not very willing to fight either.
They had already tasted the tanks of the German army and suffered a complete defeat.
They were even more afraid of the Soviet army’s armored vehicles.
The propaganda that the Soviet army was an inferior race did not work well on the French, who were not Germans.
“Three department stores at two o’clock! Watch out, General!”
“Department stores? Hahahaha! * them!”
Three French tanks appeared to support the infantry.
The B1 infantry tank was the most powerful thing that the French army had at the moment.
But Rotmistrov didn’t care and threw away the grenade launcher that ran out of ammunition and fired a machine gun at the infantry.
He had a red blood flowing from his cheek, probably scratched by a fragment, but he was still laughing and only interested in putting bullets into the chests of the enemy soldiers.
“Department stores, destroyed!”
“Look! The fallen comrades are with us! Ura!”
“Ura!”
Of course, the fallen comrades’ medium tanks could easily crush such shabby old tanks.
The reason why they were nicknamed department stores was because they had a 47mm gun on the turret and a 75mm gun on the hull.
With such an old-fashioned design and ‘medium armor’ from the 1920s, they couldn’t stand in front of the fallen comrades’ tank guns.
The fallen comrades’ tank’s 100mm anti-tank gun spewed fire and the last B1 ‘department store’ exploded.
Rotmistrov shouted the name of his small and great comrade and fired a machine gun into the sky.
“Now, forward! Forward!”
The French army had many things that were outdated. They lost to Germany in just six weeks because of that, right?
They lacked automatic weapons, tanks, and anti-tank weapons.
They were much more outdated than Germany, which had quickly developed after experiencing the power of the Soviet tanks. Such easy guys…
The 5th Guards Tank Army was breaking through the defense line like a mad wild boar.
Of course, they hadn’t reached the target point yet.
They didn’t know when the German army would start a crushing offensive from both sides.
The fascist’s one field army that was stationed to occupy Smolensk was still alive in the unsealed encirclement.
To meet the 8th Tank Army in the south and close the encirclement… they still had to go 50km more.
They had to break through the French army’s defense line, which they didn’t know how many layers it had.
Well, whatever.
“Chargeeeeee!!! Blow up their heads!”
***
“…Damn it, they all came this way.”
Compared to the 5th Guards Tank Army, which launched an offensive against the French army in the north, the 8th Tank Army, the spearhead of the southern offensive, faced fierce resistance.
The Central Group Army and the 9th Army, seeing the Italian-made defense line collapse, withdrew all their reserves and deployed them to the southern defense line.
As a result, the 8th Tank Army had to face not the ragtag soldiers they had been dealing with, but the best of the German army trained in combat.
There were too many enemies compared to the data collected by the intelligence department.
The 8th Tank Army’s momentum was gradually broken in front of the enemy soldiers who seemed to never decrease.
The 8th Tank Army commander wiped the sweat from his forehead and ordered the deployment of the last reserve, the field army’s direct medium tank battalion.
“There are no more reserves. Now we have to advance from behind…”
If the offensive started, a commander without any reserves would become a spectator of the battle.
The 4th Shock Army and the 2nd Guards Tank Army, which followed, were still 80km behind.
It was a considerable distance to follow the 8th Tank Army, which could collapse at any moment.
‘Do I have to fight with a gun like Rotmistrov?’
Damn it, I don’t have the guts for that.
The commander muttered to himself.
He was so cowardly that he survived to become a general. Most of the brave comrades died in the civil war.
The bold and smart ones were almost all purged.
Now, the era when people who bowed their heads and followed the current became corps commanders and field army commanders had come.
The General Secretary still purged Koolik Comrade and Pavlov Captain, and even purged Zhukov and Lysenko, whom he loved, as if he was wielding a fierce blade.
In the meantime, someone received the General Secretary’s favor and rose rapidly. Young Chernyakhovsky, crazy warrior Rotmistrov and the like. But once he became a military commander, he thought of his own safety first.
“Request reinforcements from the Western Front Army Command. The enemy has deployed a large number of reinforcements to the south. The scale is…”
“Yes, sir?”
“The scale is… two corps. A massive counterattack.”
He didn’t know if it was two corps or smaller. He couldn’t tell for sure. He was sure that a lot of enemy soldiers had come out, but how could he guess the formation?
But it was right to exaggerate the enemy’s scale. If he lost, it would be a good excuse, and if he won, it would be his merit.
Didn’t he have to earn some credit to preserve his position and get promoted? That would be good for his subordinates too.
The political officer looked at him with a meaningful glance, but the commander was lost in his own fantasy and didn’t notice his gaze at all.
“Hurry! Report.”
“Yes! I will report. Comrade Commander!”
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