Chapter 80:
The Soviet army had learned a bitter lesson from the Winter War with Finland, and now they were using it against the Germans.
“Those filthy inferior bastards… They resort to all kinds of dirty tricks, don’t they?”
“You said it. Spit, I don’t want to face their infiltration tactics again.”
Of course, the German officers had much more experience and skill than the Soviet army that had suffered from the Great Purge, so they managed to deceive and ambush the infiltrating Soviet ski troops, and then counterattacked with their own German ski-mountain divisions, achieving several encirclements and annihilations.
The Northern Army Group headquarters also gathered as many tanks and armored vehicles as possible and broke through the front line, inflicting devastating damage on the Soviet 6th Tank Army that had penetrated deep into their territory.
The final operation was originally a tactical maneuver to advance the follow-up units before the end of the offensive, and to prevent the enemy from deploying reserves and preparing for the counterattack that would come after the end of the offensive. But the Soviet army did not have the ability to carry out such sophisticated operations yet.
In front of the raging snowstorm, the Soviet army was also hindered by their advance, and in this gap, Manstein launched a proper offensive and made the Soviet army falter.
“We have reports of an offensive by at least a corps-sized armored unit on the front line!”
“On the front of the 56th Panzer Division… 300? More than 400 enemy tanks have appeared!”
“Where did they get so many tanks from? Damn it!”
But when Manstein received a report that the 5th and 8th Tank Armies had been deployed in place of the shattered 6th Tank Army, he ordered a retreat without hesitation.
“I can’t sacrifice any more soldiers for a futile fight. All responsibility is on me… Retreat.”
“…Your Excellency!”
“We will need to reorganize our units during the retreat process, so be prepared for that!”
In summer, in summer he could take back the land he had lost now. If he had enough troops and equipment, the elite German army could crush those shoddy Soviet troops at any time.
But… he had spilled too much blood of his soldiers in this winter to take back that land.
He could replenish his troops, but elite soldiers were hard to train, and whether they were recruits or veterans, they were all equally weak humans in front of the cold.
Rather, there were many veterans who gave their own clothes to save the young recruits who were freezing to death, making their losses even greater.
A soldier who had to cut off his hands and feet due to frostbite smiled awkwardly at Manstein, who visited the field hospital in a comfort car, as he looked at his right hand that was now gone.
“Your Excellency, I’m sorry. The young recruit looked like he was going to die right away…”
He couldn’t say anything. Damn it, you idiot. You should have taken care of yourself, come back alive…
His eldest son had gone missing while fighting in the Central Army Group.
He wanted to believe that he had been captured, and that he was alive with all his limbs intact.
He saw his son in that soldier.
He was always responsible, generous, and brave enough to be the first to sacrifice himself.
He was smart and courageous, so he thought he would make a good officer, and he was always his father’s pride, but… he remembered a bad joke someone had made.
‘Brave officers always die first. It’s the cowards who survive and become generals. Like me. Hahaha!’
No, no. That’s not true.
He must have fought off even the devil who came to get him and survived somewhere.
He was a child who would not lose hope even if he went to Siberia’s gulag… If they knew he was Manstein’s son, they wouldn’t dare treat him badly.
He had a chilling premonition for a moment.
‘Stalin, that devilish bastard.’
Stalin’s eldest son died in Smolensk, and his youngest son died in Pskov.
And yet he didn’t hesitate for a moment to grind up the German army with those Soviet tsars…
Would he really spare his son?
The barracks were warm, but Manstein shivered at the chill running down his spine.
The Soviet army was like devils, and Stalin was like Satan who ruled over those devils.
The king of devils who punished the mortals who dared to enter his territory with steel, fire, and cold.
Was it a good choice for humans to fight against devils? He didn’t know.
***
Heinz Guderian, commander of the Central Army Group, could not just sit back and watch the retreat of the Northern Army Group. Whether it was possible or not was beside the point, the goal of the Central Army Group was Moscow.
But he couldn’t just run towards Moscow with his flanks filled with enemies.
The left wing of the Northern Army Group and the right wing of the Southern Army Group had to advance sufficiently to create a gap for the Central Army Group.
“It’s better on the right wing, where the Pripyat Marshes block the way…”
Even if the Soviet army tried to imitate the German army’s rapid maneuver, they couldn’t strike the German flank across the swamp where vehicles couldn’t even move.
But the retreat of the Northern Army Group was a different problem.
The starting point of the two railway lines leading to Moscow, Velikiye Luki, was directly exposed to the pressure of the Soviet army.
In a situation where he was still unable to eliminate the Soviet army in the east of Dnieper and was repeatedly advancing and retreating, even the route to Moscow was blocked.
If Velikiye Luki fell, then Vyazma would be next.
If Vyazma fell, Smolensk would be isolated and he would have to give up Smolensk that he had taken with great difficulty.
“To support the Northern Army Group, we could send our reserve, the 8th Division, to the north, but…”
“Then we might end up being pushed back ourselves.”
If he sent out some of his scarce reserves to support the Northern Army Group, he would be pushed back from the east of Dnieper that he had barely acquired.
In summer, the Dnieper River, which had felt so wide and huge, like a natural barrier, had frozen solid in the severe cold, making it difficult to defend along the river.
“How much blood did we spill to cross this river…”
An old staff officer muttered through clenched teeth. His voice sounded strangely loud in the quiet conference room.
Countless German soldiers had become bloodstains on the vast land as they tried to break through the defense line set up by the Soviet army, and now they had to cross this river again.
Not being chased, but on their own feet.
How many Germans would he have to sacrifice again in front of the Soviet fire to cross this river again? Could he cross it again?
The Soviet army was much stronger than when they first fought.
Both qualitatively and quantitatively.
“Is there no contact from Gomel?”
“No, Your Excellency. They are still holding the city…”
The communications officer trailed off. They were ‘still’ holding the city.
While the Southern Army Group was hesitating in front of Kiev, pressuring the Soviet Southwestern Front and Southern Front, the Central Army Group could have crossed Gomel, taken Chernihiv, crossed the Desna River, a tributary of the Dnieper, and stabbed the enemy’s rear.
But General Model had given up on advancing along the Zhytomyr-Kiev axis to prevent the collapse of the Southern Army Group’s front and retreated, and now Gomel was exposed to the Soviet army’s concentrated offensive.
He couldn’t blame Model. He had fought remarkably well in a hopeless situation, and inflicted heavy losses on the Soviet army.
But he had lost in the end.
If Gomel, the bridgehead, disappeared, Germany would have to step back one step, to the other side of the Dnieper, and if they pushed them back like this, they would eventually end up being surrounded at Smolensk.
“Can we hold it without reinforcements…?”
“…I’ll contact them.”
The force holding Gomel was only one reduced division.
There was not a single unit under the Army Group that had a full complement of troops.
From the start of the war, the battalion of heavy artillery that was responsible for the firepower of the division had been taken away for the completion of the armored group, or had been reorganized or reduced due to exhaustion.
The 161st Division that was holding Gomel also had less than 10,000 men and barely maintained its appearance with a reduced artillery regiment.
And the Soviet army that was launching an offensive to drive out the German army from Gomel bridgehead… was unknown.
100,000? 200,000?
The aerial reconnaissance unit that flew briefly on a clear day reported that there were countless Soviet troops massed in the rear.
Those troops poured shells and rockets on Gomel without stopping, and tried to encircle the German army.
The German army that resisted with determination was elite, but they were not machines.
They died one by one.
No, even machines wore out and broke down and needed repairs. How could humans endure?
[Reinforcements… Our troops… can last for a week at most. Before that, if there are other places that need reserves…]
The hoarse and tired voice of the division commander came through the phone line. Behind him, he seemed to hear faint screams. He also heard faintly the sound of guns firing and exploding.
The division commander probably meant this.
‘We will all die in about a week, and maybe the Soviet army will crush us before that. But there may be comrades who are being crushed right now, so I can’t ask you to send reinforcements to us first.’
Most of the staff officers understood his meaning exactly.
And they turned their eyes to their commander’s troubled face. It was time for his decision.
The 161st Division could inflict damage on the Soviet army by holding the city’s defense line.
The Soviet army had to spill a lot of blood to break through the well-built defense line.
But once a hole was opened in the front line, the 161st Division that had been holding the city with a desperate resolve would be surrounded and eventually disappear.
But to save them, he had to deploy forces that could stop and buy time for 161st Division’s soldiers to escape from 100,000 or 200,000 Soviet troops who were well mechanized and armed with at least twice as many guns.
If he spent his scarce reserves on this, he wouldn’t know if he could stop the next offensive towards Smolensk and Velikiye Luki.
Well, there was no guarantee that he could stop them even if he had enough reserves now.
The Soviet army had pacified Ukraine and Romania and then withdrew strategic reserves from their huge army to deploy them in the key areas of the north and center.
The Novgorod-Pskov axis, Velikiye Luki-Vyazma, Smolensk salient, and Gomel salient.
“How many Soviets will swarm over Smolensk and Velikiye Luki for just one division in Gomel?”
“When will we get reinforcements from Führer… No, at least supplies!”
There were too many soldiers who were shivering and starving because of lack of food and clothing in this cold winter.
Their morale was also a problem.
Many soldiers suffered from nervous breakdowns because of the impact of Katyusha rockets and shells that the Soviet army fired incessantly.
Some even hallucinated and raved about seeing Soviet civilians they had executed themselves.
Some stupid officers who blindly followed Nazi party blamed soldiers who showed mercy or fear towards inferior humans or Slavs for lowering morale and inciting defeatism, and threatened to court-martial them… but it didn’t seem very effective.
Every day reports of soldiers shooting themselves or their comrades piled up on his desk.
Some staff officers who had read reports of various atrocities every day also showed signs of hysteria like the soldiers.
One female typist under the command committed suicide by stealing a pistol after complaining of fatigue and mental anguish.
After that, he ordered the units to deal with the soldiers’ ‘flights’ themselves…
Somehow, he felt that the wounds of the soldiers’ souls would not heal.
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