Chapter 829: Defense or Offense

Snow was still falling in Smolensk in March. Although winter was about to pass, the cold still served as a reminder that it was unwilling to depart so cleanly. But this year was different from usual, because Smolensk had become a battlefield, a front line.

It was impossible to remember how long it had been since this place had experienced war. The ethnic Russians here seemed to have forgotten that such a thing as war even existed in the world. They had their own unique pride, because their motherland seemed to have a very proud history when it came to the word “war.”

The last person who had passed through here to challenge this country, it was said, was also a great leader. He had dominated all of Europe, possessed a myth of invincibility, and even more than a hundred years later, people still talked about his name with relish: Napoleon! You see, what a resonant name!

But this name had fallen, because he had marched on Moscow, attempting to challenge the martial prowess of the Russians. And so he had been utterly defeated in Moscow, had lost his honor, had lost his empire. Therefore, the civilians of Smolensk watched the current war with great composure. They had reason to believe that the other side would be soundly defeated, and that they themselves would achieve the final victory.

But when these civilians saw the face of war, they knew that this time there might be some setbacks, because the enemy they saw seemed to be a little bit stronger than they had imagined—or rather, not just a little bit stronger.

BOOM! A large-caliber artillery shell landed in the city of Smolensk. The massive shockwave destroyed the buildings in its path. A tall building began to collapse with the explosion, and the dust that was kicked up began to spread throughout the street. After more than a hundred years of evolution, the destructive power of war was no longer the small-scale affair of Napoleon’s time. Only those who had personally experienced it could know how terrifying it had become.

A teacher who had just been conscripted looked at the collapsing building in the distance, his rifle on his back, and exclaimed, “My God, the enemy’s cannons are too powerful. A whole building just collapsed like that!”

Several of the veteran soldiers walking in front of him had a disdainful look on their faces. They knew that their own side’s cannons were even more powerful, but they were unwilling to explain it to a new recruit. After all, the follow-up to this matter would lead to a question: “Why are we being pushed to our own doorstep if our cannons are better?”

An explanation like that would be rather complicated. After all, the German planes were too powerful, the tanks were too powerful, and even the infantry were more powerful. But it was embarrassing to say these things out loud, wasn’t it? So everyone remained silent, just walking step by step towards the edge of the city.

That place had already become a pile of rubble. The Germans had only encircled Smolensk and had not sent their own troops to attack it. They shelled and harassed the outskirts of the city every day but never attempted to capture the heavily fortified interior. The German army was cautiously avoiding street fighting, avoiding a battle of attrition with the Soviets.

To defend Smolensk, Zhukov had left 100,000 Soviet infantry, setting up a street-fighting position similar to the one in Kharkov, in an attempt to drag Army Group A into urban warfare and have Smolensk wear down the German armored forces. But Rundstedt had not fallen for it, or rather, Germany no longer had the capital to fall for it. So the two sides were only fighting small-scale battles on the outskirts of the city.

The lack of oil had made the Germans halt their offensive on their own, but Zhukov and Stalin could not figure out the Germans’ true intentions. They did not know why the Germans had stopped their attack again this time, whether it was because they were tired of fighting, or if it was another trap dug by the Germans for the Soviet Union.

“You can have the troops counter-attack at the appropriate time to see what the Germans are up to!” Stalin said in an annoyed tone over the phone. He had ordered Zhukov to defend Smolensk to the death, but Zhukov had instead abandoned it to the Germans, which had made Stalin very unhappy. But he also knew the current situation of the Red Army and knew that this was not Zhukov questioning his orders, but that it was simply impossible to hold Smolensk.

However, he was still worried about Moscow being strategically bombed by the Germans, so he was strengthening the Soviet Union’s air defense capabilities in the direction of Moscow with an almost paranoid intensity. He had transferred the best fighter planes and the best pilots to the vicinity of Moscow and had also deployed a large number of anti-aircraft gun positions there.

This had consumed a great deal of the Soviet Union’s precious air defense resources and had also aggravated the burden of the front’s lack of air defense firepower. But Moscow was of extraordinary significance to Stalin, and his actions were absolutely justifiable.

Zhukov was also happy to see this. Since Stalin was personally overseeing the air defense in the direction of Moscow, he would have no time or energy to interfere with his combat command. Therefore, he had more flexible command authority and could arrange his defenses with greater composure.

In his command post, Zhukov held the phone and said to his leader, “I don’t have enough intelligence to confirm it yet. I don’t know if the Germans have stopped their offensive on their own initiative this time, or if it’s because they are short on fuel or some other supplies. To launch an offensive rashly at a time like this could very well result in the loss of a large number of troops again. This would absolutely cause our hard-won defensive system to collapse once more.”

His words were by no means an exaggeration. Although the British spies in Germany had repeatedly claimed that Germany lacked sufficient strategic materials, and the United States also hoped that the Soviet Union would begin a counter-attack to seize the initiative on the battlefield, this series of intelligence was still not enough for the Soviet generals to make up their minds to launch a probing counter-attack.

After all, their wounds had not yet healed. They had launched offensives in Poland and Ukraine twice before and had been met with a head-on blow from the German armored forces. They had lost a large number of troops in these two offensive operations. These losses had made it so that even now, they had not been able to organize an effective defense to stop the German advance.

Who would dare to say that the Germans stopping their offensive this time was not premeditated? The incomplete intelligence about Germany’s material shortages, who would dare to say that it was not false intelligence spread by the Germans to deliberately mislead the Soviet side into making a wrong reaction? Once the Soviet Union began to counter-attack again, the price of failure would be something the Soviet Union could not bear.

That was why Stalin had given up his autocratic ways and had sought Zhukov’s opinion. That was why Zhukov had changed his operational policy of trading an offensive for a defense and was cautiously waiting for what he considered an appropriate opportunity.

Just as the mighty British Royal Navy had ruled the world’s oceans for a hundred years, making anyone think twice before challenging it, the German Army, after winning a series of victories, had to be treated with caution by everyone. No one would lightly attempt a counter-attack, which was a rather offensive challenge. Everyone was willing to use another, relatively milder, way to achieve victory: first, hold the position and wait for the Germans to attack. Once the German attack failed, it would prove that the Germans’ offensive was truly weak, and then launch a counter-attack.

Sometimes, being conservative meant lower risks and also less responsibility for everyone. So, even all the high-ranking Soviet generals, including Zhukov, were waiting for a relatively surefire opportunity to arrive. This opportunity was related to time.

Zhukov’s idea was very simple. The Soviet Union had already transferred 35 divisions of its main force from the Far East and was secretly transporting them in batches to its western front. Many of these units were old units that Zhukov had commanded before. They had combat experience against the Japanese Kwantung Army, and their combat effectiveness was relatively higher.

As long as these troops arrived in Moscow, Zhukov was confident he could hold his current defense line. As long as he held the current defense line, then the Soviet Union would find an opportunity to defeat the German army in the new winter.

A muddy spring, a summer where the German offensive was thwarted, a muddy autumn, and then the German army’s most exhausting winter would follow. The Red Army would launch a full-scale counter-attack when the second winter arrived, and the German army would be routed… This was Zhukov’s and Stalin’s script. There was no need to take risks. They just had to maintain the current situation.

According to calculations, Germany’s maximum mobilization strength was between 7 and 8 million men. The German army had now almost reached the limit of its military mobilization. As long as they could thwart the Germans once, then they would not have a second chance. Therefore, Stalin felt that he could wait for a surefire opportunity to strike, without having to let the Soviet army in the direction of Moscow continue to take risks.

So, on the phone, the instructions Stalin gave were very simple: “Strengthen all defenses in the direction of Moscow. Let the Germans get bogged down in a quagmire of war, and finally, when the Germans lose their offensive capability, counter-attack! We must not let Moscow be drawn into the war. This is a crime that the great motherland cannot tolerate!”

Zhukov generally agreed with Stalin’s view, but he was more concerned about the defense in the direction of the Caucasus. “Great leader, Comrade Stalin, since Rokossovsky is determined to share the fate of Stalingrad, then I, Zhukov, will certainly share the fate of Moscow! But in terms of the direction of the counter-attack after the defense, I still prefer to target the enemy’s weakness rather than being determined by geography.”

His idea was to first counter-attack from the Caucasus, to remove the German threat to the oil resources, and then to counter-attack from the south to retake Ukraine in one go, threatening the German oil-producing region of Romania, thereby quickly destroying Germany’s war potential.

“Comrade Zhukov, I believe we are in high agreement on the issue of defending Moscow. As for where to counter-attack, that is a matter for the future,” Stalin said. Surprisingly, he had agreed with Zhukov’s view. On the phone, he promised Zhukov, “Defend Moscow! We will work together! In the future Soviet Union, you will surely be a great hero!”

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