Chapter 1523

Stalin, who was stuffing tobacco into his pipe, heard me say this, stopped his action, looked up at me, raised his eyebrows, and asked, "Rita, where are you going?"

I took a look at the senior leaders sitting around the conference table, then faced him and replied respectfully, "Comrade Stalin, you are about to hold an important military conference. I am not suitable here, so I intend to avoid it."

"Now that you are all here, sit down and listen." Stalin raised his right hand and pressed it down. He said in a kind voice, "if you have any opinions, you can also put forward them boldly."

Although Stalin said that, I knew that it was just a polite remark. I must not take it seriously. If I really tell the decision made by the supreme command, I would not be far away from meeting with Tukhachevsky, Pavlov and others.

Stalin lit his pipe and took a slow puff. Then he said slowly, "comrades, let's continue our meeting. Who will talk about where we should choose the main attack direction of the summer offensive?"

After the silence in the conference room, the first speaker was Marshal Timoshenko. He stood up with his hands on the edge of the table, looked around, stood upright and said, "comrades, our army has just won a great victory in the right bank of Ukraine and liberated a lot of occupied territory. At present, the four front forces deployed in Ukraine are in a state of strong troops and high morale. I think it is most appropriate to choose Ukraine as the main attack direction of the summer campaign. "

"Comrade marshal," as soon as his voice fell, voroshlov corrected him and said, "at present, our troops in Ukraine are not four front armies, but three. Don't forget that the first and second front armies have been merged and under the unified command of Marshal konev."

"Comrade Voroshilov," timusinko said solemnly, turning his eyes to Voroshilov, "you may not know that at the meeting attended by the general staff yesterday, the motion of dividing the first front army of Ukraine into the first and the second has been passed."

"Is that so, comrade Antonov?" After turning to ask Antonov this question, voroshlov shrugged his shoulders and said, "I just returned to Moscow from Leningrad this morning, so I don't know much about some of the situation."

"Yes, marshal voroshlov." Antonov sat in his seat and nodded to voroshlov: "the first front army of Ukraine will continue to be commanded by Marshal konev; The commander of the second front army is general Malinowski, and the post of commander of the third front army vacated by him is taken over by the former commander of the Fourth Front Army, general torbusin. "

"My God, such a large-scale adjustment of the commander of the front army has been carried out." On hearing this series of adjustments, a look of surprise appeared on voloshlov's face. He then asked, "who will be the commander of the Fourth Front Army?" As he said this, he glanced at where I was.

Antonov looked at voroshlov with a smile and said with profound meaning: "the post of commander of the second front army of Belarus is assumed by general Ivan yefmovitch Petrov, the former commander of the 33rd group army, while the outgoing general kurotchkin is transferred to Ukraine as commander of the Fourth Front Army."

When Voroshilov heard the name of Petrov, he sneered and said with some disdain, "if Petrov is to be the commander of the Fourth Front Army of Ukraine, he will not delay the campaign in the summer offensive, will he?"

Seeing that Voroshilov despises Petrov so much, I can't help but wonder. At the same time, I think of the latter who was promoted to the rank of general at the beginning of last year. Why is he still a general now? Is there any irreconcilable contradiction between them?

At this time, Stalin suddenly said: "some time ago, he dismissed Comrade Petrov from the post of commander of the north Caucasus front army and demoted him from a general to a general. He did not want to put him in another book, but to let him learn how to attack. After all, he never directed an offensive campaign after he became a senior commander." With these words, he waved his hand, "who's going to speak next?"

Stalin's words remind me of the history of Petrov. In February 1944, he was accused of not being good at attacking, but was dismissed by Stalin and demoted to the rank of general. From what voroshlov said just now, I have come to a conclusion in my heart that the dismissal of Petrov has something to do with voroshlov.

After the episode, bujoni, who has been in the role of soy sauce for a long time, took the floor. He sat in his seat, looked around, and then said slowly, "I think we should choose Belarus as our main attack direction. In addition to our three front forces, once the campaign starts, we can also get support from the Baltic front forces in the northeast and the Ukrainian front forces in the South... "

"I think the main attack should be on the Baltic coast," said Admiral Kuznetsov, who objected to bujoni's opinion. He specially stressed: "the reason why we chose this direction is because the German army is the weakest here. More importantly, our navy can also send Marines to land to cooperate with the army's offensive."

When he saw the public saying that the public was right and the old saying that the old saying was right, Stalin laughed but said nothing. After smoking a pipe of cigarettes, he knocked the ash into the crystal ashtray, looked at Zhukov and asked, "Comrade Zhukov, I don't know what you think."

Zhukov turned to look at Stalin and politely replied, "Comrade Stalin, I think the direction of attack you have chosen has merits. I don't know which direction you think is the best?" He gently pushed the contradiction back to Stalin.

Stalin didn't care about Zhukov's attitude. After glancing at the participants, he stopped at me and asked unexpectedly, "Rita, if you were asked to choose the main attack direction, which of the three directions would you choose?"

I didn't expect that Stalin would suddenly ask for his own opinions. He stood up and answered in a flurry: "Comrade Stalin, I think we should choose Belarus as our main attack direction."

After I said this, I immediately stared at Stalin nervously to see what kind of reaction he would have. He picked up the clean cigarette end, slowly stood up and walked towards my position. A few steps away, he stopped, pointed at me with his fist clutching the cigarette end, and said, "tell me why you chose this direction."

I took a deep breath, quickly organized the words in my mind, and then said with confidence: "Comrade Stalin, the reason why I agree with marshal bujoni's proposal to choose Belarus as my main attack direction is mainly due to three reasons:

First, our army passed through Belarus to Berlin, which is the shortest distance;

Second, we can get the support of the vast number of guerrillas active in Belarus. As far as I know, there are more than 200000 guerrillas here, which is a force that can not be underestimated;

Thirdly, when we liberate Belarus and our troops enter the Polish border, the friendly Polish people's army will meet us there. They have been fighting against the Communist aggressors for five years.

It is based on these three considerations that I think we should choose Belarus as our main attack direction. "

These words I said were all said by vasilevsky in real history and were approved by Stalin. At this moment, I will say these words in advance, and I believe I will vote for Stalin.

I saw a happy smile on Stalin's face. He nodded and walked back to his desk. When he sat down again, he filled his pipe with tobacco and said, "what do you think of Rita's proposal?" Looking up and seeing that I was still standing, he quickly raised his hand and pressed it down, indicating that I would sit down.

Zhukov stood up, looked at me and said, "the Ukrainian troops have become very tired after continuous fighting. They need to rest and replenish their troops and ammunition. The German troops that have been attacked by us in succession will take Ukraine as their key defense direction. Even if we succeed in our attack in this area, we will pay a great price. Therefore, I agree with Rita's proposal to choose Belarus as the main attack direction and launch the main attack in places unexpected to the Germans. "

After listening to Zhukov's speech, Stalin turned his eyes to Antonov and asked, "Comrade Antonov, what is the opinion of the general staff?"

Antonov quickly stood up and replied respectfully, "Comrade Stalin, I don't think launching an attack on the Baltic coast can achieve unexpected results. Moreover, the enemy is in the position of internal combat in this area and has an advantage in mobility. They control the perfect railway network and roads in their hands and can be reinforced in time no matter any point is attacked. On the other hand, there are many swamps and lakes in this area, which is very unfavorable for our army to use tank troops. Even in some areas with the support of naval artillery and Marine Corps, the results are very limited. "

In their speeches, Zhukov and Antonov negated the proposal to launch major attacks from Ukraine and the Baltic coastal areas“ Comrade Stalin, "seeing that his main attack direction has been denied, timoshinger can't wait to say," if we use tank regiments to fight in the main attack direction, we must have vast plains, and only Ukraine can meet this condition. "

"The Germans will think the same way, comrade timoshinger." As for timoshinger's speech, Zhukov flatly refuted: "according to the German military theory, they also think that tank troops are more suitable for plain combat. In order to prevent us from using tank regiments to carry out assault, they are bound to build solid fortifications to stop our tanks."

Stalin rekindled his cigarette and after thinking for a while, he finally expressed his own view: "since Comrade Zhukov and Antonov are against taking the above two areas as the main attack direction of our summer offensive, we will set the main attack direction in Belarus."

Zhukov said while the iron was hot: "Comrade Stalin, since the General Staff Headquarters and I have the same opinion, is it right to call all the commanders of the front army to hold a meeting at the right time and tell them about the main attack direction?"

Stalin frowned at Zhukov's proposal. After thinking for a while, he shook his head and said, "Comrade Zhukov, we'd better wait until the adjustment of the commander of the front army is over. Your task now is to go to Belarus first and study the situation there, so that we can work out a targeted attack plan. "“ Yes, comrade Stalin. " Zhukov replied solemnly, "I will fly to Belarus tomorrow." Stalin stood up and walked back and forth beside his empty chair, all eyes focused on him, patiently waiting for new orders he might give. After walking back and forth for two or three minutes, he suddenly stopped, pointed to my position with his hand, and told Zhukov, "Comrade Zhukov, take Rita with you."“ But Comrade Stalin. " After looking at me, Zhukov said with some embarrassment, "she is currently the deputy commander of the first front army of Ukraine. Is it suitable for her to go to Belarus with me?"“ Comrade Zhukov, "Stalin looked at Zhukov and said solemnly," don't you think it's a bit too condescending to let Rita be a nominal deputy commander? Well, from now on, she will be temporarily removed from the post of Acting Deputy Commander, and she will be used until you come back from Belarus. " When Zhukov heard what Stalin said, he had a smile on his face. He readily agreed, "well, comrade Stalin, I will take Rita to Belarus tomorrow." Stalin nodded with a smile, then waved to everyone and announced loudly, "the meeting is over!" When I got to the door, I was stopped by bosklebshev. He asked politely, "Comrade oshanina, do you have a residence in Moscow?"“ No, comrade bosklebshev, I have no place to live. " I shook my head, looked at bosklebshev and asked, "can you introduce me to a suitable place?" Boskelebeshev picked up a note on the table, handed it to me, and asked with a smile, "this is the place for you. Do you want me to send someone to see you over?" I looked at the address, and it happened to be the place I knew. It was not far from Red Square. As an old Mo who had lived in Moscow for more than ten years, it was so easy to find that place. So I politely declined boskelebeshev's kindness: "no, comrades boskelebeshev, don't bother others, I can go by myself."