Chapter 120
Chapter 120
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Warsaw Uprising (1)
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The Western Allies' landings greatly emboldened Stalin.
"Finally, the Western bastards have opened up a proper second front."
The Man of Steel had been waiting for this very moment.
"Comrade Zhukov."
"Yes, Secretary-General Comrade."
"Begin the briefing."
At Zhukov's nod, Chief of the General Staff Marshal Vasilevsky himself picked up the pointer and explained the operational overview.
"Operation name: Bagration. Start date: June 18, 1944. A total of 240 divisions will be committed to this operation, targeting 60 Nazi German divisions for encirclement and annihilation in the central Belarus region."
With 10,000 tanks and assault guns, 10,000 aircraft, and 50,000 field guns mobilized, it was the largest-scale operation ever, ensuring the Soviet forces' overwhelming superiority.
The Soviet General Staff projected a force ratio of at least 1:5 in their favor.
"And the Koreans? They're not moving?"
"They've agreed to launch an offensive from the north once we achieve results. The Koreans don't have all their forces in place yet, so they can't secure a firm advantage."
There was nothing to be done about that.
The Secretary-General stared at the map before rising from his seat.
The generals stood up rigidly after him, their faces tense.
Stalin scanned the symbols on the vast map and jabbed a finger at one spot.
"The final objective of this offensive will be here."
The tip of the Secretary-General's finger rested on Warsaw, a city reduced to ruins by the previous war.
In the pre-dawn hours of June 18, 1944, as the German forces slumbered, Soviet artillery batteries advanced to their pre-designated positions.
There were so many cooled-down guns that they jostled against one another.
"Commence bombardment!"
The Soviet barrage swept over the German positions in an instant.
There wasn't even time to shout that it was a surprise attack.
Amid the earth-shaking shelling, some were buried alive in collapsing earthworks, while the rest were left dazed by the shockwaves.
While the Germans were reeling from an hour of preparatory bombardment, the Soviets thrust in six prepared tank armies.
This tank army organization had expanded continuously through the war, restoring its massive 1941 scale.
Each tank army commanded roughly 1,000 tanks.
Compared to German panzer armies on the same level, which operated just over 300 tanks, it wasn't an exaggeration to say they possessed firepower on another level entirely.
As endless waves of Soviet tanks poured in, minefields and anti-tank defenses lost all meaning.
Most of the troops meant to man them were already paralyzed by the barrage anyway.
"What about troop deployment? How's the troop deployment going?"
"Th-the partisans have risen up en masse in the rear and blocked the roads and rails."
The Germans were paying the price for their abuse and exploitation of the Soviets.
200,000 partisans rose up in Belarus, coordinating with the Soviet offensive to cut off major transportation routes and raid German supply depots.
Communications lines were severed in many areas.
As a result, the Germans couldn't dispatch responding units immediately, watching helplessly as holes were punched through their front lines.
Even in this chaos, many frontline commanders were pinned to their positions by Hitler's no-retreat orders.
"Stop this bullshit and withdraw. I'll take responsibility."
General Kurt von Tippelskirch, commander of the German Fourth Army, boarded a liaison aircraft himself in this dire situation to save his men.
"Your Excellency! Liaison planes are at too high a risk of interception by the Soviets."
"But how can I just sit here? My men are dying!"
A few generals like Kurt von Tippelskirch flew liaison planes along the front to direct the battle personally, but most watched helplessly from their command posts.
"We have to cross that bridge!"
The desperate Germans frantically tried to cross the river and flee westward.
But air superiority belonged to the Soviets.
Soviet fighters strafed with machine guns and bombers dropped their loads at the slightest glimpse.
Thousands of them relentlessly tore into and hammered the German retreat columns.
Many Germans fell here, killed or straggling.
Equipment losses were enormous.
The Germans had to abandon or self-destruct their tanks and assault guns.
"We can't leave them for the Ivans. Blow them up."
The Germans shed tears as they ditched irreplaceable weapons.
Dodging Soviet air and infantry pursuits by weaving through swamps, rivers, and forests, the Germans somehow managed to escape with their lives.
General Kurt von Tippelskirch risked being shot down twice while directing this withdrawal.
Thanks to those efforts, many German soldiers made it back to near Minsk on foot.
But Soviet tanks that had broken through were already forming a new encirclement around Minsk.
"What? Minsk is already surrounded?"
The German generals were horrified to learn belatedly of the Soviets' second encirclement ring around Minsk.
The Soviet blitz was too fast and lethal.
It was swift and bold enough to evoke memories of the Wehrmacht in the early war years.
Even the German High Command now grasped the crisis.
"We'll send reinforcements to aid the withdrawal."
The Ninth Army, driven to Bobruisk south of Minsk and encircled, finally heard of support from High Command.
When the 12th Panzer Division arrived at Marina Gorka near Bobruisk, the Ninth Army commander said:
"Welcome. But the Ninth Army is already gone."
It was exactly as he said—the Germans were finished.
The Fourth and Ninth Armies, squarely in the path of the Soviet offensive, were trapped or melted away, while the Second Army and Third Panzer Army fled in tatters.
A few relief units from the homeland rescued some troops, but not enough to save the entire army group.
To counter this crisis, Hitler appointed Walter Model as army group commander.
"My dear Field Marshal, I believe you can salvage this. Restore the front somehow."
Model replied to Hitler's demand:
"I need full authority."
With carte blanche from Hitler, Model took on both northern and central army group commands to stabilize the front.
But even Model wasn't a superhuman who could reverse an already collapsed situation.
"Hahaha. The Germans are collapsing even worse than at Stalingrad."
German losses were approaching 300,000.
The Soviets kept pushing west through the gaps in the German lines.
This time, the Union was poised to finish off Germany.
"Guess it's our turn to move."
The Korean forces, facing off against Army Group North in the Baltics while focusing on propaganda, finally heaved their heavy rears.
"The Koreans are moving too?"
Model ordered Army Group North to withdraw the moment he heard.
Withdrawal was inevitable anyway, with their flanks pierced.
The Koreans pursued the retreating Germans, ceaselessly scattering propaganda leaflets.
"Head that way and the Ivans are waiting. Ivans or us. Choose wisely."
The Koreans pressed their propaganda relentlessly.
Some Germans, sensing defeat, lagged behind and surrendered to the Koreans.
Over July, the Koreans swept most of Estonia and Latvia, capturing 40,000 German POWs.
Yi Jeong-yun loaded these prisoners onto trains and shipped them to Manchuria.
"What about resistant local civilians?"
Leaving them be meant trouble in the rear.
Yi Jeong-yun reached a clear decision.
"Ship those guys to Manchuria too."
A stint mining coal might make them reflect.
During the Baltic sweep, the Koreans also received protection requests from some German civilians.
"Soviet-swept German settlements were rife with rapes and murders. Please, send us to Manchuria."
They'd abandon homes and property just to avoid the Ivans.
That was the sentiment of the Germans settled in the Baltics.
"Very well."
The Koreans loaded them onto trains and shipped them to Manchuria too.
Watching the humans steadily accumulate like savings, Yi Jeong-yun thought:
'If we push to East Prussia, we might bag them by the million.'
Only then did Yi Jeong-yun grasp His Excellency's true intent.
Choosing the East Prussia route over the Balkans—easier for racking up kills and merits—was surely aimed at scooping up German civilians.
Yi Jeong-yun decided to pick up the advance pace.
But progress along the Baltic coast proved tougher than expected.
"The German Navy?"
"Y-yes."
The Germans deployed large warships—cruisers and pocket battleships—in the Baltic Sea to support their ground forces.
A single 280mm shell landing wiped out tanks or anything else.
Army artillery couldn't match naval guns.
The German capital ships formed squadrons of a few vessels each, periodically shelling the coast.
Frustrated by this, Yi Jeong-yun requested support from the Soviet Baltic Fleet.
But.
"Our naval capital ships can't sortie."
"Why not?"
"Who takes responsibility if they're lost in action?"
The Soviet Navy was extremely timid, refusing to risk their big ships.
The Baltic Fleet's battleships, cruisers, and destroyers outnumbered the German Baltic Navy sufficiently.
Even just destroyers would have made it hard for the Germans to loiter offshore shelling.
Yet they didn't.
At best, they sent torpedo boats or subs to nip around.
Such passivity couldn't counter the German Navy's Baltic operations.
'If you have the strength but won't use it, it's no better than scrap metal.'
Yi Jeong-yun drew a vital lesson from the Soviet Navy's behavior.
In any case, the German Navy's show of force made Yi Jeong-yun's expeditionary force struggle far more along the Baltic coast than anticipated.
The Soviets fared no better.
The Soviets, who had charged triumphantly into Lithuania and Poland by early July, finally got a taste of their own medicine from Walter Model, who had reorganized his defenses.
"Know what 'Model remodeled' means?"
"No idea."
"It means Model rebuilt the front."
The Soviet 2nd Guards Tank Army, which had pierced the German lines to near Warsaw, was hammered by Model's scraped-together panzer divisions and suffered a crushing defeat.
The Soviets' ambitious offensive seemed to be fizzling out.
But the grand Soviet offensive was enough to rouse one corpse that had lain dead until now.
"Poland is not yet dead!"
Poles, watching for their chance at resurgence, launched a massive uprising in Warsaw.
Thus began the Warsaw Uprising, stained with blood and death.