Zhukov first defeated the invincible Guderian in Yelinia in 1941, and then almost single-handedly saved Leningrad and Moscow, the two most important cities in the Soviet Union, and was saved under his command, which was a god-like presence among the senior Soviet generals in 1941. If the Western Front had fought more resolutely and cleverly in the war, if Zhukov had taken command, Minsk would not have failed so badly. Zhukov is a symbol of the existence and victory of God among the people of the Soviet Union, and the Victory Medal of the Great Patriotic War is called the Zhukov Medal, which is well deserved.
Zhukov's exploits are irreplaceable in the history of the Russian nation, higher than kutuzov, Nevsky and other famous national heroes in Russian history.
Zhukov, the regimental commander, had just experienced the baptism of fire of the cruel First World War and the Civil War, and the future god of war
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Just talk about Zhukov in 1941.
June 1941. As Chief of the General Staff at the outbreak of the Zhukov War, he was sent to the Southwest Theater to advocate a counterattack, helping to stop the advance of Army Group South of Lundstedt to Kiev in June and July. But Zhukov was not yet a commander of the Front.
At the end of July 1941, due to disagreements with Stalin over the abandonment of Kiev, Zhukov was dismissed from his post as chief of the General Staff and made commander of the Reserve Front. At the Battle of Smolensk in August, Zhukov commanded his own Yelinian counterattack, pulling out the German salient and forcing the Germans to retreat strategically for the first time, and the retreating German forces included elite units such as the "Greater German" regiment. In the early stages of the war, this was a valuable achievement. Zhukov showed his tough tactical style in this offensive - non-stop assault and ferocious artillery fire, slightly monotonous tactics but very effective. Two years ago, at Nomonkan, he had destroyed the Japanese defenses with fierce and uninterrupted artillery fire. His reserve front experienced this battle, and the first Guards units of the Great Patriotic War were born. The survivors of Germany's elite "Greater German Regiment" have detailed descriptions of the Soviet artillery fire in Yelnya in their post-war memoirs, and they are terrified.
In September 1941, he succeeded Marshal Voroshirov, who believed in "the omnipotence of willpower", as commander of the Leningrad Front. Faced with a panicked and chaotic situation, Zhukov took office with severe disciplinary measures and made full use of the advantages of artillery fire to stop the Germans' attempt to occupy Leningrad before the winter, but failed to break through the German blockade of Leningrad. The Soviet army in the Leningrad area was the only strategic direction that was not completely annihilated at the beginning of the war at the army group level. The Soviets had already lost Kiev, and if they lost Leningrad, an important economic and military-industrial base, it would be difficult to obtain important supplies such as shells and submachine guns on the northern front, and the prospects for a Great Patriotic War would be unpredictable.
On September 30, 1941, Operation Typhoon began, and the Germans achieved significant results in the first phase, due to the absolute superiority in equipment personnel, especially armored forces and air power, and the failure of the commanders of the Front to block the breakthrough in time to adjust the straightening line, the German army quickly annihilated hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops in the encirclement of Vyazima and Bryansk. The Soviet Reserve Front and the Western Front suffered heavy losses, with the Bryansk Front to the south fighting slightly better, but also losing more than 100,000 men. The gateway to Moscow is open.
On October 10, 1941, Zhukov was appointed commander of the Western Front. Without any hesitation, he quickly judged the main direction of the German assault and quickly dispatched a small number of reserves to the gaps on both flanks, and the defenses of the secondary areas were boldly weakened. The capital of the Soviet Union remains precarious. The Germans did not give the Soviets much time, and on October 14 launched a pincer offensive aimed at capturing Moscow in one fell swoop. It should be known that Zhukov had only 90,000 scattered troops directly defending Moscow at this time, and the main force of the Western Front had been reimbursed by Konev in the German cauldron of Vyazma, dying and unable to break through. The situation to the south was slightly better, but the poor Soviet command there could only barely delay the Pace of the Germans.
Only ten days ago, the Soviets in Vyazma were still very dull, and after being broken, they would not fight and retreat, but would only sporadically attack the Germans with firepower superiority, and the friendly neighbors whose flanks were exposed would not take the initiative to retreat, and the communications were even more messy, resulting in the small troops being encircled would quickly disperse and disintegrate rather than organize to retreat to the rear to continue to contain the German assault. The commissar in the movie Brest Fortress said that where there is no commander, there will be panic. The morale of a lost force can drop rapidly, and even if ammunition is plentiful, the risk of disintegration is much higher than in the case of a smooth communication.
In the method of blitzkrieg warfare, the core element is the rapid formation of the battle breakthrough, once formed, the German tank leader will drive straight into the wild surge, and if the retreat speed of the besieged troops is too slow, it will be quickly encircled. The poor situation of ammunition light and loss of communications will cause the troops to lose their combat effectiveness early. Therefore, the defensive element of the defensive side is to block the breakthrough at all costs, and the troops defending the breakthrough must remain calm even if the flank is broken, which requires the commander to have greater flexibility, make full use of artillery fire to attack the enemy, and maintain contact (which is the focus) without breaking the battle line. The Soviets had done enough bad enough to defend against pincer offensives (which could also prove the strength of the Germans' combat effectiveness), and now there was not much money to give to the Germans.
Zhukov's conditions were much worse than those of Konev, and he did not have 600,000 men and horses to withstand another siege, and when the commander of the 16th Army received the task, he had only one division in his hand, but he had to defend 100 kilometers of front! Zhukov's advantage was that he was close to Moscow, and that fresh troops and supplies could be delivered directly and directly, while the Germans were getting farther and farther away from the supply base. The Germans had been fighting for more than half a month to capture Moscow, and the deployment of troops was no secret to the Soviets. The Germans' offensive now seemed a bit too appetizing, and the time was a friend of the Soviets.
History will look easy in 70 years. But at that time, all the countries of the world felt that the Soviets were doomed.
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The German 4th Panzer Division, advancing all the way to Mzensk, was horrified to find that the Soviets had learned to use ambushes against their tank detachments, and that Katukov's tank brigade had destroyed a regiment of German tanks through ambushes in Mmtsynsk, with very little losses. Guderian's tankers could no longer carelessly follow the road.
But this mid-level commander's flash of inspiration was not enough to hinder the Germans' advance towards the ultimate target, Moscow. Zhukov showed at this time the determination of a senior commander, as in Leningrad, he categorically ordered the mobilization of all forces, the students of the military academy, the militia battalion hastily formed, the new regiments that had just been equipped with artillery, all sent to the front, the headquarters of the army group had no decent strength, only these patchwork troops, fortunately the Soviet artillery was still relatively sufficient. In Leningrad, the Soviets used artillery to teach the Germans a harsh lesson in the city, and they also retained a bridgehead in the Gulf of Finland.
The material guarantee of the Battle of Moscow
ammunition
Strictly speaking, compared with the First World War, the conditions of the Soviets in World War II were much better, although hundreds of thousands of troops were reimbursed and the replenishment of weapons and ammunition was guaranteed. With the support of a large number of ordnance industries, even if a large number of industrial areas were lost, important cities such as Moscow and Leningrad were still in the hands of the Soviets, and the replenishment of mortars and machine guns never had a problem. When the gun is broken, it can be quickly replenished, and the shell is enough. Except for the blockaded Leningrad, the Soviets did not feel particularly short of food. Even in 1942, when the situation was most serious, there was no shortage of guns and ammunition for officers and men of the Red Army, compared with the Russian troops during the First World War, which were plagued by ammunition shortages for a long time, and the front-line troops often had only half a base of ammunition.
Traffic
Moscow is the heart of the Soviet Union, not only an important political, economic and cultural center of the Soviet Union, but also the most important transportation hub of the Soviet Union, the military significance of holding here is extremely important, the Soviets can make full use of Moscow's well-developed transportation network to mobilize troops and equipment to all fronts, the speed of mobilization of troops is much faster than the Germans.
discipline
Most importantly, the Soviet Union under Stalin's iron fist was much more disciplined than in the Tsarist era, and a large number of internal affairs troops filled all aspects of the army and society. It should be said that they played a great role in maintaining order in Moscow and suppressing the atmosphere of panic, rather than just random arrests.
The conditions of the Battle of Moscow were undoubtedly favorable to the Soviets, but they could not be brought into play.
To be fair, Zhukov was an overly strict senior commander who had the habit of treating officers unfavorably to officers in summary executions when they were fighting the Japanese at Nomonkan. This violent temperament was not only in line with Stalin's appetite, but also a character and command characteristic that was extremely necessary for the survival of the nation. Another general, Konev, was more violent than Zhukov's temper. For the increasingly brutal Soviet-German war, any relaxation of discipline meant defeat.
Now there is a saying that another general, such as Rokossovsky, can replace Zhukov and reach his height. I think this view is lost in simplicity and is an hindsight-like view. The edifice will fall, the enemy will soon destroy the entire Red Army and the country, and only the most severe and decisive generals can command the Red Army. See how many generals are available? Voroshilov panicked, but the marshal was only as brave as a puppet, and when he was in Leningrad, he was anxious to blow up the warships and retreat, Pavlov was blindfolded by the enemy, and even the minimum common sense of war was lost, and it was not unjust to be shot. Timoshenko did his best in Smolensk, and the work was not bad, but the determination was not enough, and the command and dispatch were one step behind the Germans.
The Soviet-German war was an unprecedented mechanized war and a war of national liberation, and both the Soviet and German peoples faced the choice of victory or destruction.
On December 5, 1941, the Soviet counterattack began! Unlike the "man-sea tactics" predicted by later Western historians, the Soviets in the Battle of Moscow did not have much superiority in strength, the advantage was that the Soviets had a reserve of three armies in Moscow to participate in the counter-assault! The Germans knew nothing about a reserve of this size, but what if they did? Hitler did not have the ability to loot the last grain of rice and the last man to go to the front, and Stalin could order at any time to shoot a division commander or factory director who did not obey orders. The mobilizing capacity of the Soviet state is astonishing.
As for "the Russian winter stopped the Germans" is even more mythical, the harsh winter is fair to both sides of the battle. At the tactical level, the German tanks also made a smooth breakthrough because the cold froze the Istrian reservoir!
The Germans always blamed their failures on objective factors: the weather, the mud, even Hitler, and never examined themselves for not being as tenacious as the Soviets!
Looking back at the history of the Soviet-German war, there are words like "the Soviets suddenly launched offensive campaigns during the muddy season, the tanks passed through the swampy areas that could not be passed, and the Soviets suddenly braved the blizzard to attack".
In the Battle of Ukraine on the Right Bank (the "second assault in history") that began in February 1944, in the face of a swampy battlefield and logistical cut-off, the Soviet military and civilians relied on amazing perseverance and carried the shells to the front line on their shoulders! In the case that the personnel and equipment were not superior to the Germans, the Germans surrounded a whole tank army! Forcing the Germans to lose all their tanks to break through, marshal Manstein was also removed from his post!
This is an Oriental-style tenacity that is unimaginable to Westerners. Will the Germans let the Tiger tanks venture through the swamps? Do they have the ability to do this? Will German soldiers attack during the pulp-turning season? Is there this perseverance? You just want to play the cards and fight according to common sense, but the Soviets have overcome all difficulties and fought with you, everyone is your life and death, you want to be comfortable, people dare to think and dare to do, you do not fail who fails?
Even Westerners write war histories that are "inconceivable and counterintuitive" to the Soviets' offensive during the pulp-turning season. But the Soviets did just that, achieving the suddenness of the battle. Is it strange that the Germans lost to such a tenacious opponent?
Therefore, the Germans, for their own reasons, led to: "What I can't do, the opponent can actually do, what I can't think of, the opponent can actually do." "The defeat of the Germans is not unjust at all.
Zhukov at the Victory Day military parade on June 25, 1945
Beginning on December 5, 1941, the Soviets, after withstanding two months of German offensive ravages, turned to counterattack!
The ratio of troops between the Soviets and Germans in this counterattack was basically 1:1, not the "Soviets have endless manpower advantages" in many people's minds, and the fighting quality of Soviet soldiers was very inferior. For example, the Soviets participated in the counterattack of the First Army, for example, more than 90% of the entire army underwent training for no more than two months, which was basically a civilian army that was the rear!
It is such a force, for Europeans and Americans to rush to the front line is tantamount to "cruel death", in exchange for the French have already announced their surrender early, the civilians will not be able to pull the line of fire will flee. But the Red Soviet Union is invincible, and the Soviet Union under the iron fist is so cruel to carry out the "people's war, the war of death" (the lyrics of "Sacred War"), which is really literal.
The Soviets, whose number of personnel were equal to those of the Germans and whose personnel were inferior to those of the Germans, were able to break the spearhead of the Germans' offensive in the Moscow counterattack and drive them west for tens of kilometers, and the Germans no longer had the ability to attack Moscow. This cannot but be said to be a miracle of no small size.
It is no exaggeration to say that in December 1941, Zhukov rewrote the history of the Soviet Union and the history of the world.