Chapter 188 The General Who Was Protected by Stalin
"This time to deal with Japan's Kwantung Army, I am going to send you to serve as the commander-in-chief of the First Far East Army." After seeing off the Mongolian representatives, Stalin left the general in his early forties alone to talk.
Handing over a group army to a young general who was just over forty years old is enough to show Stalin's trust in this general. And this general who was deeply trusted by Stalin was named Georgy Konstantinovich
Q. Zhukov.
"Thank you, Chairman, for your cultivation! Please rest assured, I am 100% confident that I will win this battle." Being able to command a group army, Zhukov confidently believed that the Japanese Kwantung Army alone was no match for him.
The forty-year-old commander of the Army Group is considered quite young and promising even in Germany where there are many heroes. But if someone asks whether this position is worthy of the current Zhukov, the answer is yes, it is far from worthy.
Zhukov’s talent!
At the age of nineteen, he single-handedly captured a German battalion commander and was awarded the Georgi Cross. At the age of twenty-two, he led a cavalry company to attack the hidden Cossack White Army headquarters and won victory for the Red Army.
A brilliant victory. Four years later, he was admitted to the Leningrad Higher Cavalry School with excellent results and was given the opportunity to further his studies. At the age of twenty-seven, he entered the advanced training class of the famous Moscow Frunze Military Academy and later
Graduated with first place!
Zhukov's former classmate, the famous military strategist and later Marshal of the Soviet Union, Baghramyan, recalled with shame: "Zhukov is absolutely outstanding among us. He is not only courageous and tenacious, but also resourceful and insightful."
.During his studies, he often put forward some unexpected views, which were amazing. Although his opinions always caused great controversy, he could always use novel logic to demonstrate them."
At a young age, Zhukov was already a dark horse in the Soviet military. In order to hide it from Reinhardt, Stalin even secretly ordered the name of a death row prisoner to be changed to Zhukov, and then shot him with great fanfare.
Stalin's original intention was to use this to win over people's hearts, make Zhukov grateful to him, and then become a reliable confidant. However, he also received an unexpected gain - he discovered a young general who was fully qualified to become a famous general.
During several exchanges with Zhukov, Stalin was surprised to find that this man had extremely high military attainments and was extremely brave in combat.
Stalin soon learned that Zhukov once almost lost his life trying to recapture a heavy machine gun, and that when he led his troops in battles, he often suffered huge losses in exchange for greater results. For this reason, Stalin valued Zhukov, who was brave and good at fighting, very highly, and he did so more than once
Secretly glad that a good general was not killed by mistake because of the instigation of the German head of state.
"How are you going to fight in the Far East this time?" Stalin said sternly to Zhukov who was about to set off: "The railways in the Far East were not built with the help of the Germans. They are all inefficient narrow-gauge railways that we built many years ago.
.Transportation efficiency is not comparable to the Soviet western railway network.”
Ever since he learned about Stalin's life-saving favor to him, Zhukov tried his best to give him honest advice. After asking a staff officer to bring two cups of coffee, Zhukov handed one of them to Stalin and said confidently: "
Compared with the Japanese Kwantung Army's operations in the Northeast, our operations in the Far East have lasted much longer and are much better."
After taking a sip of coffee to refresh himself, Zhukov continued: "Once the war starts, even if no supplies are shipped to the Far East within a month, our reserves will be enough for the fierce fighting in the first month. After a month, the Japanese army will either
We have to increase our troops in large numbers, or else we have to withdraw the entire army."
After listening to Zhukov's confident analysis, Stalin looked into his eyes: "Comrade Zhukov, I now officially hand over all the troops provided by the Soviet Far East First Army and Mongolia in the future to you. Defeat the invaders! Let me see what you are doing.
How capable you are!"
In fact, the Soviet army that Stalin so solemnly entrusted to Zhukov was three times the size of the Japanese Kwantung Army's offensive force in terms of numbers, excluding the tens of thousands of Mongolian troops.
The 36th Motorized Rifle Division, the 57th, 82nd, and 152nd Infantry Divisions, the 5th Mechanized Brigade, the 6th and 11th Tank Brigades, the newly formed 7th, 8th, and 9th Tank Brigades, and the 212th Airborne Brigade under the First Army of the Soviet Far East
, whichever one is pulled out is hundreds of times better than the so-called sophisticated equipment of the Japanese Kwantung Army.
Compared with the 6th Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army, the ratio of the total number of artillery of the entire Soviet Far East Army was as high as 6:1, which was enough to suppress the Kwantung Army with artillery fire.
It can be seen from the designation alone that the Soviet First Far East Army is also equipped with a large number of tanks.
Although the designer of the Soviet T-34, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, was killed by Reinhardt during the Soviet-German cooperation, the Soviet armored brigade has not yet come up with such an excellent tank as the T-34.
But now the Soviet army mass-produces and equips the T-26 light tank based on the German Panzer 1 tank. It is better than the Japanese army's small pod-like ** medium tank (a 9-ton tank, only the Japanese have the nerve to care about this)
(called a medium tank) is much more reliable. After all, the firepower of the T-26 even exceeds the German Panzer II tank.
Even disregarding the fact that the Soviet T-26 tank, as a light tank, has higher firepower than the Kwantung Army's ** medium tanks, the 7:1 ratio of tanks between the two sides shown in the intelligence is enough to give Zhukov a 100% advantage.
Confidence!
In fact, Japanese tanks can be regarded as a unique feature. Comparing historical German tanks, we can find that Japanese heavy tanks are equivalent to German medium tanks, Japanese medium tanks are equivalent to German light tanks, and Japanese light tanks
Well, that just refers to armored vehicles with tracks.
The most annoying thing is that the Japanese tanks are still made of rivet structure! This means that if the T-26 hits it with one shot, it is likely to cause damage to the Japanese rivet tank due to the shock of the rivets falling off and the whole piece falling off.
Zhukov was so keen. He discovered early on that the Nomenkan battlefield was a desert terrain and the Soviet army was still on high ground. The Japanese army had no danger of defending. In this battlefield terrain that is very suitable for armored forces to play, who has stronger armor?
There is a huge chance of winning.
They have more troops and better equipment. The quantity and quality of aircraft, tanks and artillery have far suppressed the Kwantung Army. The most important thing is that what Zhukov thinks he is best at is fighting this kind of battle with the advantage of human sea! If not
General Secretary Stalin was serious about his speech, and Zhukov even wanted to go out and say that he was 200% sure.
Finally, after bidding farewell to Stalin, Zhukov quickly took a special plane and flew to the Nomenkan area, where he met the Soviet First Army of the Far East, which had been assembled behind Nomenkan and had been waiting for a long time.
"The entire army should make two preparations immediately from now on! First, prepare for victory. Second, prepare for sacrifice." This was the first sentence Zhukov said when he took office as commander of the First Far East Army.
