Published at 13th of February 2023 06:56:21 AM
"Damn, what about our air force? Why are they just watching? Doesn't the Western Front have two aviation armies?" Konev's eyes were red as he watched the Luftwaffe massacre the Russian army.
"The two air armies of the Western Front are nothing more than empty shells. In the previous battles, we lost a large number of aircraft and pilots and are rebuilding. In addition, our I-16 fighters and I-15 fighters, It is not an opponent of the German fighters at all. The Jacques-1 fighter, the Lager-3 fighter and the MiG-3 fighter are still in the test flight, and it will take some time before mass production enters service. Besides, even if they are in service, I'm afraid they are not the opponents of the Germans. Although the Americans have assisted a batch of fighter planes, their performance is not much better than our fighter planes. It is simply impossible to expect those guys from the aviation group to fly these fighter planes to fight the Germans. General Zhukov shook his head and smiled wryly.
Although, the size of the Russian Air Force is very large. But that's just a numerical advantage. In terms of quality, it is not flattering at all. The huge gap in the performance of fighter jets and the quality gap of pilots made their Russian Air Force simply not capable of confronting the German Air Force.
Lieutenant General Konev has nothing to say, but under such circumstances Joseph still insists on the Russian army to launch a counterattack against the Germans. That is completely treating the war as a child's play! However, he couldn't say that. Otherwise, the political workers in the army would definitely not let him go.
The Russian soldiers on the ground suffered a lot of losses under the attack of the Luftwaffe, leaving a lot of corpses. Even the bravest troops will lose courage and confidence under such circumstances. The same is undoubtedly true of the Russian army.
"God! Run away, if we continue to attack, we will only be killed!" A Russian soldier whose will to fight had collapsed shouted and turned to run away.
The power of role models is infinite. After someone took the lead, the rest of the Russian soldiers turned around and ran away. This immediately affected the entire battlefield. A large number of Russian troops began to collapse. Even those political workers tried their best to stop them, and even shot and killed a few fleeing Russian soldiers, but it was useless.
General Zhukov saw this scene and did not stop it. In his opinion, such an attack itself is no different from sending him to death. If it can be stopped, it will undoubtedly be the best.
After the collapse of the Russian army, the political workers asked General Zhukov to order another offensive. However, General Zhukov did not accept their request, but asked to wait for another opportunity.
Those political workers were very dissatisfied with this. They sent a telegram to the Front Army Command, accusing General Zhukov of delaying the fighter plane. However, he was suppressed by Marshal Voroshilov. On the one hand, Marshal Voroshilov knew that Joseph valued General Zhukov very much, and he hoped to sell General Zhukov a favor. On the other hand, Marshal Voroshilov is going to use General Zhukov as a scapegoat after the attack fails, and now that General Zhukov has been dealt with, wouldn't he have to go up by himself? Marshal Voroshilov would not do such a thing.
With the support of Marshal Voroshilov, General Zhukov was not intimidated by those political workers. He decisively stopped the attack, and then called Lieutenant General Konev and Lieutenant General Remezov, commander of the 20th Army, to discuss how to break the situation.
"Comrades, you must have seen from the previous battles that the enemy's defense line is very strong, with strong firepower, and can also receive air support. Under such circumstances, if we want to break through the enemy's defense line, then It is simply impossible. Blindly launching a strong attack is nothing more than paying unnecessary casualties." Zhukov said.
Lieutenant General Konev and Lieutenant General Remezov nodded again and again, and they also agreed with General Zhukov's words. It's just that the order to attack was given by Joseph, so it's impossible to just give up halfway like this. In that case, let alone them, even General Zhukov cannot afford such serious consequences.
"Now we are only attacking the defense lines of the Poles and Belarusians, not the defense lines defended by the Germans. It is already so difficult. If we attack the German defense lines, we don't know how many casualties will be paid." Column Lieutenant General Mezov said.
Although the German army is powerful, the Russian army is also ashamed. However, they never paid attention to the armies of the slave countries of Germany. They believed that with the fighting power of the Russian army, it would be no problem at all to defeat those servants. But the final result proved that everything was not what they imagined. Those servants, under the training of the Germans, have also greatly improved their combat effectiveness. It is undoubtedly very difficult for the Russian army to break through their solid defense line.
General Zhukov also agreed with this in his heart. You must know that the 19th Army and the 20th Army are the elite forces of the Russian army. In the previous battles, the elite of the Russian army had already lost a lot, and there were not many remaining main forces. Now, even if the main force is mobilized, the enemy's defenses can't be dealt with. This undoubtedly shows that it is almost impossible to achieve Joseph's goal and severely damage the vital strength of the German army and its servants.
It's just that, now they have been driven to a dead end, if they give up, Joseph will definitely not agree, and they will be severely punished. Therefore, they can only bite the bullet and continue to attack. If it can cause greater casualties to the German army and its servants, it can be regarded as barely fulfilling Joseph's expectations, and it may be possible to pass the test.
"Comrade Commander, if we launch an attack during the day, we have almost no chance of winning. The enemy's firepower is very strong, and there is also air support. Our superiority in strength cannot be brought into play at all. If we launch an attack at night, we may have a chance At that time, the German air force will no longer be able to dispatch, and the enemy's firepower advantage will be limited at night. Our troops are very likely to attack the enemy's position. At that time, the superiority of troops will be very important!" Lieutenant General Konev Said.
General Zhukov thought for a while, then nodded. Although it is unknown how many people will be frozen to death and frostbite when launching an attack on a cold winter night, it is much better than being killed by enemy planes and intensive machine gun fire. What's more, now they have no way out, they can only choose this way.