Imperial Overlord

The beginning of the Soviet-German war plunged the highest command of the Soviet Union into chaos. Stalin really did not expect that the war he hastily started would usher in a heavy defeat.

It is also interesting to say that the wars of Soviet expansion seem to be rarely won - both Finland and Poland seem to have ended in failure.

In this case, this failure, although everyone is prepared, but not so fully prepared.

Many people have guessed that such an underprepared attack will end in failure, but no one has guessed that the failure will come so quickly and the losses will be so heavy.

Ten hours after the start of the attack, the middle section of the army was routed by the Germans. The loss of the Air Force was a mess, and the Army also began to retreat indefinitely.

So far, a specific loss has not been counted and reported to Moscow. It is estimated that the commanders on the front line also know that if they tell the truth, they will be responsible for this kind of failure that cannot be seen directly.

But even so, the aggregated loss reports were enough to annoy Stalin. For example, the Soviet Air Force lost more than 5,000 aircraft after the war!

This number is not a complete statistical figure, because the number of the Luftwaffe's own statistics is that more than 7,000 Soviet aircraft have been destroyed.

Therefore, in the statistics of the total number of aircraft destroyed by the German army, whether the Soviet Union had inaccurate statistics due to confusion, or deliberately underreported, the figures are inaccurate.

No matter how many planes were lost, it was absolutely true that the front lost air supremacy. The Soviet army had to fight without air supremacy, and losses became more and more numerous.

"Brother Timoshen is incompetent! Khrushchev is stupid! Don't the two of them have a way to stop the German army from continuing to advance?" Stalin asked with a frown as he sat in his seat and looked at his men.

Marshal Voroshilov, who was standing there, said nothing. He glanced at Marshal Budyonny next to him and saw that the latter, like him, had no intention of speaking.

Both of them were generals who opposed attacking Germany before. Now that there is a problem on the front line, naturally it will not be their turn to solve it.

Of course, if Stalin was named and appointed, that would be another matter. In short, the two of them are reluctant to come forward, especially in the face of the German army.

Marshal Budyonny became famous in the battle to suppress Kazakhstan, where he led his troops to fight a no-man's land, and also achieved his illustrious reputation.

Marshal Voroshilov had a little old grudge with Timoshen, so it was impossible for him to come out to relieve his old opponent at this time.

In the war against Finland, the Soviet army's fiasco was ultimately blamed on Voroshilov, and it was Timoshenko who succeeded Voroshilov as Marshal.

Stalin looked at the two marshals who said nothing, and then turned to Zhukov, the general who was not yet a marshal.

The young general was a go-getter promoted by Stalin, and his role in the Soviet Union was to replace Tukhachevsky.

Because of the big purge, the senior command of the Soviet Union was broken, so Zhukov joined the core command circle as a rising star.

Now he is the chief of the general staff of the Soviet Union. When Timoshenko went to the front to personally command the battle, he sat in Moscow to support the various troops on the front.

"The problem on the front line is very serious now. Our troops have been collapsing. This must be contained!" Stalin said slowly, looking at his subordinates.

Then he paused and adjusted the tone of his speech: "It seems incorrect to hand over such a huge front line to one person. You should divide the theater of operations, station your own defense line, and adjust your own troops in order to have more Faster and more appropriate response strategies.”

Having said this, he looked at Voroshilov: "Go take over the Western Front, Comrade Marshal Voroshilov! Stop the German advance in the direction of Leningrad!"

Up to now, the Soviet Union's Western Front battlefield is divided into three sections, and only the central theater has suffered the disaster.

And what Stalin gave to Marshal Voroshilov was a good or bad war zone, that is, the northern war zone that was retreating but not many troops.

The troops deployed by the Soviet Union here are the Western Front, with a number of about 1.1 million. Although it looks good, it lacks armored units such as tanks.

For Voroshilov, being able to take over the Western Front was much better than his worst estimate.

It turned out that he thought he was going to take over the central war zone, but it was really a mess.

Therefore, when he heard that he was going to take over the defense near Leningrad, he quickly stood at attention and saluted and promised: "Comrade Stalin, the great leader! I will leave immediately, go to Leningrad, and preside over the command of the Western Front!"

After assigning a task, Stalin looked at Marshal Budyonny who was standing there again, and said: "The southern front army is handed over to you to command! Comrade Marshal Budyonny! I hope you can defend Kyiv, this is Your bottom line!"

The Germans had now split the Soviet line of defense in the center, and the Soviet flanks on both the upper and lower sides were dangerous.

In such a crisis situation, Stalin was not a fool. Of course, he knew that the Soviet army had to retreat in order to save the day.

Because of this, he did not easily issue an order that did not allow retreat, but delineated areas that could not be lost for each unit.

In Stalin's view, when the Soviets were at their worst, they could retreat to the Leningrad-Minsk-Kyiv line of defense to prevent the Germans from continuing to attack.

Then he concentrated his troops to counterattack, defeated the German army, regained the initiative of the war, and won the final victory of the Soviet-German battle.

"As ordered! Comrade Stalin, the great leader!" Budyonny got the troops he wanted, and hurriedly stood at attention and saluted.

The Southern Front was the most powerful force assembled on the frontier in the entire Soviet Union. There are more than 2.3 million troops under its jurisdiction, and most of the elite troops are concentrated here.

It is a pity that, as the Soviet army in the central part was defeated, the southern front army, which was going to attack Romania with all its strength, could only give up the attack mission and instead took defense and stabilized its flank line of defense.

It can be seen that the Soviet army has assembled a considerable force on the border. It is a pity that these offensive troops were forced to turn to the defense before they started to attack.

The troops in the north and south were divided among his two marshals. Stalin said slowly to Zhukov: "Go to the front in person, Comrade Zhukov, take over Comrade Timoshenko and stop the German army from continuing to attack. Advance!" After thinking about it, Stalin decided to hand over the most difficult task to Zhukov.

Zhukov had a history of defeating Japan in Mongolia. It seemed that he had some commanding skills. Stalin planned to try this young general, which was a bold attempt.

You must know that this world-famous general was only 33 years old when he commanded the Battle of Nomenkan, and he was only 35 years old when he became the chief of staff of the Soviet Union.

Judging from his age alone, this commander is a real genius, and among the senior Soviet commanders, he is a fake young soldier.

"As ordered, Comrade Stalin!" Zhukov stood at attention and saluted, taking over the job that gave him a headache.

Germany has captured more than 700,000 Soviet troops, while the remaining Soviet troops are only 900,000. Although it still seems to be huge in number, these troops are in a state of collapse.

It will take time to organize these soldiers and rebuild their defenses. But the German attack was very fast, leaving no time for the Soviet Union at all.

"The great leader, Comrade Stalin!" An officer hurried in and stood beside Stalin.

He stood at attention and saluted, and then reported the latest situation on the front line to Stalin: "The news just came that Marshal Timoshenko died in Brest..."

"What?" Zhukov opened his mouth in surprise when he heard the news. He knew that Timoshenge was going to fight to the death in Brest, but he did not expect that Timoshenge would lose so quickly.

Timoshenko died, and died in Brest, fulfilling the oath of others who are in the city and those who die in the city.

But his death left the Soviet Union with a war situation that was no longer out of control. Zhukov could even imagine that the troops he was commanding were now being hunted down by the Germans.

"There are 400,000 people in the encirclement, how could Germany wipe out the entire 400,000 troops in such a short period of time?" Marshal Voroshilov questioned when he heard the news~www.wuxiaspot.com~.

Stalin's face was also not good-looking, he glanced at Voroshilov, and snorted an order: "Enough! Go and take up my previous appointment..."

As the leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin also had his own plans and intentions. At the moment when the front line failed, he was thinking about how to turn defeat into victory.

Now, his appointment is for the situation at hand. It's just that he didn't expect that Timoshenge would be defeated so quickly that his plan didn't even have time to implement.

"Since Marshal Timoshenko has sacrificed his life for the country, Khrushchev will take over the command of the frontal central battlefield for the time being. Zhukov, after you go to Minsk, take over his work and complete the defense deployment! "Stalin ordered this at the end of the meeting.

Upon hearing the order, Zhukov hurriedly stood at attention again, and saluted and replied: "Yes! Comrade Stalin, the great leader! I will definitely complete the task! For the great Soviet, fight to the last moment!"

Behind him, Budyonny and Marshal Voroshilov also stood at attention and left the conference room.