Prohibition of Interference. Book 4. Asymmetric response. Макс Глебов

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СКАЧАТЬ with the task, this is not the individualist Rommel, able to perform normally only solo parts in isolated theaters of military operations and absolutely does not recognize the interests of his neighbors on the front, if he suddenly has them. Kleist will grasp it with a deadly grip and tear forward until he reaches his goal. And he has something to fight with. Five tank divisions, though battered in the battles for the Donbass, but not badly replenished and put in order – this is a very formidable opponent for the Soviet armies, which closed the Moscow Pocket with great difficulty. And right behind these tanks come the elite motorized SS divisions "Viking" and "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler". The latter, by the way, is familiar to me – I had the pleasure of encountering it near Uman.

      “I would like to hear your opinion on this situation,” Shaposhnikov, who never waited for me to comment, broke the silence. “You seem to understand the logic of the German commander quite well, since you were able to predict his actions so accurately.”

      Yes, the situation is indeed complicated, since the Chief of the General Staff openly asks the advice of a lieutenant colonel, albeit not the most ordinary one. This is understandable – no one wants to let go of a grand victory that already seems to have been won.

      While I made my way to Moscow, I had plenty of time to analyze the situation, but the Red Army had too few resources at its disposal to remedy the worsening situation.

      Over the past week, we have not been able to make much progress on either thermite projectiles or fuel-air explosives. General Ustinov's People's Commissariat used everything it could at these developments, but so far only the first prototypes were ready, whose tests were just beginning. And it was too early to even think about cruise missiles. Too much had to be reworked there, so Korolev could hardly put the first products to the test sooner than in a couple of months. The problem had to be solved with the means we already had at our disposal.

      “Comrade Marshal, I completely agree with your conclusion that we cannot stop Kleist's tanks with a counter-strike. They have to be beaten off by a stubborn defense full of anti-tank weapons, and our counterstrokes can only have an effect if we apply them on the flanks.”

      “But it's all flooded with mustard gas!” Shaposhnikov interrupted me.

      “Boris Mikhailovich, we need to break corridors through the chemical barrier sectors. As soon as we do that, the chemical troops will do the decontamination. They have accumulated a lot of bleach and other special solutions. It is important that the Germans have no opportunity to target the chemists. Before you sent me to Vyazma, you mentioned two tank brigades being formed near Kalinin. On leaving, I submitted a report to you with a request to reinforce them with chemical warfare units and to saturate them with protective equipment, including all available hazmat suits.”

      “I gave the appropriate orders,” Shaposhnikov nodded. “Do you want to use these units for counterattacks?”

      “By and large, they are totally unprepared for this and will probably suffer great losses, but we simply do not have anything more suitable. The Germans left relatively weak infantry divisions to cover the chemical barrier sectors. The farther Kleist's tanks advance, the more their flanks are stretched and the weaker their covering forces are. Newly formed tank brigades must overcome contaminated territory and retain their ability to attack German infantry positions. Immediately behind them will go the chemical units with their decontamination machines and provide passageways for troops protected only by gas masks and anti-mustard gas capes. The Germans will probably continue to use chemical munitions to close the holes we shall have punched in their defenses. It will cause more casualties, but I see no other way to stop Kleist's advance.”

      Shaposhnikov walked thoughtfully along the wall with the map.

      “The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command rejected your proposal to refrain from retaliatory use of chemical weapons,” the Chief of the General Staff suddenly changed the subject. “With the total shortage of conventional ammunition, we simply cannot afford it, and the very idea of not retaliating has not been understood by the country's leadership. By the end of the day, our air force and artillery will begin treating enemy troops with poison gas shells and bombs. Perhaps this will slow down the advance of Kleist's armored divisions.”

      “It won't, Comrade Marshal. They've been ready for this for a long time and they know what we're capable of. If chemical weapons were to be used, it would not be against Kleist, who was fully equipped for chemical warfare, but against the Germans in the pocket. Unlike the First Panzer Group, they were equipped with the means of chemical protection at a minimally sufficient level, and when retreating from Moscow the enemy troops abandoned these "unnecessary" cargoes in the first place, and now they are hardly prepared for chemical attacks. We need to prevent a blow from the pocket toward Kleist, don't we? Mustard gas treatment of the leading edge of the German defense on the inner front of the encirclement would contribute greatly to this. Without decontamination, infantry cannot traverse contaminated areas, and surrounded troops almost certainly do not have the right reagents. ”

      I said "almost certainly" for Shaposhnikov. I myself knew exactly how Rommel, Goth, and Göpner were doing with chemical protection and decontamination. They had nothing – everything but gas masks had been abandoned or lost in the retreat.

      “Perhaps that does have a rational point,” the Marshal nodded, “but now the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command considers the main task to stop further advance of the enemy's First Panzer Group. Comrade Nagulin, can you repeat the experience of the Rogachev Highway? Then your grenade launcher companies, together with General Zakharov's men, were able to hold back Rommel's tanks and inflict very significant losses on them, and this was in the conditions of an encirclement. Now we have the opportunity to give you much more forces to fulfill this task.”

      “It won't work,” I tried to answer as firmly as possible, “In the Rogachev Highway area the Germans were severely restricted by terrain conditions and squeezed in the forest "corridors". It is one thing to defend a kilometer or two front with a concentration of all forces in previously prepared positions, and it is quite another thing to hold a 40-kilometer band of land at defense lines, hastily equipped, moreover, by troops with no real experience in chemical warfare and having no reliable means of protection against blister agents. Positional defense will not help us in this case. We need a successful counterstrike that would force Kleist to stop the offensive and deploy his tanks to parry the threat from the flanks.”

      “And if Kleist does not stop and continues to deepen the breakthrough, hoping that his infantry divisions and aviation will not allow us to develop our success?”

      “So, another famous German general and his army will end up in the Moscow Pocket,” I allowed myself a wicked chuckle. “Suppose Kleist manages to break through to Army Group Center. And then what? Will he break back through the corridor that has been liberally sprinkled with mustard gas and has already been closed by us? His Panzer Group is the last truly mobile army of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. Never will its commander take such a risk and allow us to cut off his communications and supply lines. And so that Kleist doesn't want to rush forward without looking back, we need, before it's too late, to redeploy to the Gzhatsk direction all the grenade launcher companies formed by Comrade Beria's Commissariat. They showed themselves very well on the Rogachev Highway. Of course, they can't stop five tank divisions, but the grenade launchers will knock out a lot of tanks and slow down the enemy's advance, and then the Germans will stop themselves when we get to their rear.”

      “I see you, Lieutenant Colonel, do not doubt for a second the success of flank counterstrokes through mustard gas and lewisite contaminated territory. How can you be so sure?”

      “Comrade Marshal, my confidence is grounded on a plan based on an analysis of the situation. I believe it is necessary to create a strong breakthrough group, concentrating in it the formations most prepared for chemical warfare and all the available tanks in reserve. Only then will we СКАЧАТЬ