Imperial Overlord

Stalin's counterattack plan has actually been drawn up a long time ago, and on March 25, the battlefield situation was already very obvious.

At that time, the German Army Group Center was working hard to attack the Soviet Union, throwing off friendly forces on both flanks.

From the perspective of the battlefield situation, this German army did threaten the two huge strategic clusters of the Soviet Union from the flanks.

However, from another point of view, this fast-attacking German army is not alone in going deep, and the two flanks are of course also seriously threatened by the Soviet troops.

So, in this case, the counterattack plan drawn up by Stalin and Zhukov came into being.

At that time, the content of the plan also included Timoshenko, the Soviet marshal who had been killed in action.

According to Zhukov's action plan, Timoshenko and Khrushchev will stabilize their defenses in the central battlefield.

Then let the Western Front and the Southern Front change the direction of the attack, attacking from the flanks of the German Army Group Center, which had penetrated deeply into the Soviet Union, and attacked the German Army Group Center, which had penetrated into the hinterland of the Soviet Union.

Once this tactic is successfully implemented, the most elite German armored units will be surrounded by the Soviet Union.

And a German mechanized unit without fuel supply and ammunition replenishment will suffer disaster and be easily annihilated by the Soviet army on the road to Minsk.

As long as this encirclement plan can be carried out smoothly, then the German army can only switch from strategic offensive to strategic defense. The situation on the battlefield of Su-Germany was instantly reversed.

According to Stalin's conception, even if Zhukov's flanking attack did not work, the German army would feel the pressure, thereby slowing down its determination and speed to attack Minsk.

In Stalin's view, as long as the German army can be shaken, start wasting time on the offensive and slow down the speed of the offensive, the Soviet Union can continue to persevere.

Therefore, Zhukov's plan was approved by Stalin, and he personally named it "The Guillotine Plan".

Just hearing the horrible name reveals the basic idea of ​​the plan, and Stalin's hatred of Hitler.

He hoped that through a guillotine-like attack, the German attacking troops could be eliminated and Hitler's head beheaded.

This Soviet counterattack plan, which has never been seen in history, was completely tailored to the deep state of the German army alone.

It is a pity that on March 29, when the Soviet Union's "Guillotine Plan" began to be implemented, the German army had already occupied Baranovich and defeated Khrushchev's remnants.

The defeat of the Khrushchev group was not difficult for Marshal Lundstedt and his elite armored units.

Another great victory occurred in the northern regions of the USSR. The German Army Group North, led by Marshal Loeb, launched the second round of the German attack.

The German army, which had gathered 700,000 troops, launched a fierce attack on the Soviet army, which actually had more than 1 million troops.

Under the cover of 2,000 aircraft, the Germans launched a new offensive, driving the Soviet troops from the garrisoned areas in the border area to the road of retreat.

The Soviet army retreated all the way and lost air superiority, which made its troops fall into a congenital disadvantage in tactical arrangements such as retreat and defensive counterattacks.

As a result, the German troops caught up with the defeated Soviet Red Army near Vilnius, and encircled its main force near Vilnius.

About 500,000 troops were encircled by the German army, and only more than 50,000 soldiers broke out in the end. All the remaining troops surrendered and became Marshal Loeb's new exploits.

If the loss of troops is calculated, Loeb still has about 700,000 German troops in his hands, and Marshal Voroshilov, who has not yet taken office, has only a pitiful 500,000 troops left to call.

What is even more depressing is that the three Baltic countries, which have always been fairly peaceful, turned against the water when the German army advanced and overthrew the Soviet rule in the local area.

Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia successively declared their independence, and helped the Germans stymie the retreating Soviet troops.

In other words, the Soviet army was surrounded by German troops near Vilnius, thanks in large part to the three Baltic states.

And these three areas broke away from the Soviet Union and joined Germany. Leningrad Oblast, which was still quite far from the front line, suddenly became a dangerous front line area.

As if it was a joke, the offensive speed of the German Army Group North even exceeded the offensive speed of the Central Army Group, rushing ahead to fill the gap on the left flank of the central German army.

The northern areas were all occupied by the German army, and strategically they lost their bridgeheads. Zhukov's suggestion to Stalin to attack from both flanks turned out to be an impossible plan before it even started.

With the loss of the northern positions and the loss of the troops in the northern region, the "Guillotine Plan" is an incomplete plan, and it is also a plan that cannot be implemented at all.

Therefore, when the war entered April, on the day of April 1, the Soviet Union's highest command was connected to several pieces of news that made Stalin laugh and cry.

"Comrade Stalin, the great leader! The Latvia region announced its separation from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics..." The officers who reported the news had trembling voices in their words.

Just now, Lithuania has been electrified, announced to secede from the Soviet Union, and detained many senior Soviet government officials.

After learning that Lithuania seceded from the Soviet Union, Stalin was already furious. Not just from a series of blows from Lithuanian independence, but from yet another failure of his strategy.

Before the leader had finished venting, there was news of Latvia's independence. How could this not make Stalin even more furious?

So, when the general reported the news to Stalin, Stalin slammed his beloved pipe on the carpet.

"Bastards! It's because of these bastards! The 500,000 troops of the Western Front! They are trapped in the enemy's circle! Damn them! I have to catch them! Catch!" Stalin dropped his pipe and stood There was a loud roar.

As a result, before he finished venting, another officer walked in tremblingly and handed the leader a new message: "Comrade Stalin, the great leader, Estonia has also become independent..."

Stalin had nothing to drop in his hands, so he simply pulled the telegram, tore it to pieces, and threw it on the carpet: "I will make them regret it! I will definitely make them regret it!"

At this time, Stalin was a little angry and hysterical. He was like a leopard in a cage in a zoo, walking around his office in circles.

No one dared to look at his bloodshot eyes, for fear that he would become the ill-fated target of the furious Stalin and vent his anger.

No one knew what was in Stalin's mind at this moment. It was not until Marshal Voroshilov sent a telegram requesting the troops to retreat to Leningrad that Stalin recovered some state.

"Tell Comrade Marshal Voroshilov to let his troops hold on to Leningrad, and the defense of northern Moscow depends on him!" Stalin replied to Voroshilov's telegram and set his sights on the map again. .

The guillotine attacked on both sides seemed unfeasible. What he was thinking about was the feasibility of the southern front army launching a flanking attack alone.

Without the flanking attack, the power of the attack must be greatly reduced. In this case, it is also unknown whether an attack on one side will cause a German counterattack.

"Why are the damned Germans always the quickest move?" Stalin muttered, complaining that his troops were not quicker to execute his seemingly ingenious plans.

"Let Marshal Budyonny launch an attack to test whether the German army has deployed enough troops on the flank!" Stalin thought about it~www.wuxiaspot.com~ and finally decided to launch an attack on the flank.

Even a tentative attack could serve the purpose of delaying the further advance of the German army. The defensive pressure in the direction of Minsk was so great that Stalin felt a little guilty.

It is obviously not a reliable plan to rely on the remaining hundreds of thousands of remnants in Minsk to stop the German attack in the future.

If Minsk is lost, the final line of defense of Leningrad-Minsk-Kyiv planned by Stalin will be broken by the Germans.

At that time, the Soviet troops could only retreat to Smolensk, which was too close to Moscow, and people really had no way to rest assured.

At this time, the news of the victory of the German Army Group North in Vilnius also spread to the wolf's lair.

"Hey! Hitler!" When the German field marshal and commander-in-chief of the army, Brauchitch, stood at the door and saluted when Li Le was interviewed, "The Battle of Vilnius is over, our army has won a great victory!"

This victory can be said to be a great victory for the Führer. As a participant in the Barbarossa plan, Brauchitch knew the important weight of the Führer in this plan.

From beginning to end, if the head of state had not emphasized the strength of the Soviet Union again and again, he would have made targeted adjustments as much as possible. It is simply impossible for the Germans to achieve victory in such a short period of time.

"My marshal... I heard that the arrangement we made before the war still played a certain role..." Li Le smiled and put down the document in his hand and said to his general.

"My Führer! Your plan has brought us the greatest victory!" Brausch complimented Li Le.

"Don't relax! We only defeated one-twentieth of the Soviet Union's army, and there is nothing to be proud of." Li Le stood up, walked to Brauchitch, and said calmly.