Chapter 11 04. See who makes more mistakes

On May 12, 1942, when the Soviet and German armies were fighting fiercely on the Kerch Peninsula, Marshal Timoshenko of the Soviet Union commanded a total of 45 divisions of the Southwest Front Army and the Southern Front Army, and launched a campaign from the northeast and southeast to Kharkiv, an important town in Ukraine. The attack, the attack was very smooth at the beginning, broke through the German defense line, and advanced 25 to 50 kilometers in three days and nights.Stalin was very happy, and also criticized the General Staff, which had previously opposed the battle, saying that such a smooth battle was almost canceled because of the mistakes of the General Staff.

It is a pity that Stalin was happy a little early. On May 17, the German First Panzer Army launched a counterattack with the support of the Seventeenth and Sixth Army, encircling the Ninth and Fifty-seventh Army of the Soviet Southern Front, and the Sixth Army of the Southwest Front. Army Group and Bobkin Battle Group.By May 29, most of the besieged Soviet troops had been wiped out.The Soviet army killed 3 lieutenant generals and 1 group commander, captured 240,000 people, and lost 1,249 tanks and 2,026 artillery pieces.What is amazing is that the Soviet government publicly acknowledged this defeat for the first time. The Soviet Union's rare frankness this time was to call on the Western allies to rush to war against Germany.

The Battle of Kharkov kicked off the Battle of Stalingrad.The German victories in Crimea and Kharkov depleted the hard-won reserves of the Soviet army, and the southern front was severely weakened.The defeat of the Soviet army was related to Stalin's misjudgment of the situation on the battlefield, but Stalin shifted the responsibility to his subordinates, and since then he no longer trusts Timoshenko, who advocated the Kharkov campaign.In response to that sentence, there is nothing wrong with the leader, and the mistakes are all made by the subordinates. In the summer of 1942, the Soviet Red Army re-enacted the collapse in the summer of 1941. It lost its divisions and ground, and was defeated for thousands of miles. Four army groups were annihilated, and a large number of soldiers were captured. In the first six months of 1942, 820,000 Soviet troops were killed in battle, and more than 700,000 were missing.

Just when the German army was progressing smoothly, Hitler's arrogance broke out again.At that time, the German army had two strategic goals: one was to attack Stalingrad, an important Soviet city, and block the Volga River; the other was to occupy the Caucasus oil fields in the south and obtain Soviet oil.On one side is the precious oil that German planes, tanks and cars need every day, and on the other side is Stalingrad, which has a very important strategic position. In the Caucasus, none of them should be missing, and they should be occupied simultaneously. Hitler's arrogant decision to divorce himself from reality caused serious differences of opinion in the German High Command.Chief of the Army General Staff Halder advocated the concentration of forces to capture Stalingrad, and repeatedly stated the reasons, but Hitler took Halder's opinion as a deaf ear.

Hitler couldn't listen to the correct opinions, so Halder had to sneer in his diary: "The strength of the enemy has been underestimated, reaching a ridiculous level, and becoming more and more dangerous." Halder also talked about Another thing: someone read to Hitler an actual report that in 1942 the USSR was still able to muster over a million new troops north of Stalingrad and west of the Volga and half a million in the Caucasus people; the Soviet Union produced more than 1,200 tanks per month for the front.Before Hitler finished reading the report, he scolded the person who read the report and told him not to read such stupid things in the future.Hitler's behavior was exactly the same as that of his opponent Stalin. It seems that covering up mistakes and stubbornly refusing advice is a common problem of all great dictators throughout the ages.

Anyone with a little military knowledge can understand that once Stalin threw nearly 2 million troops into Stalingrad and the Caucasus region, it would not be easy for the German army to kill them.The sober Halder pointed this out to Hitler.Annoyed, Hitler dismissed Halder, appointed General Zeitzler to replace Halder, and determined to fully implement his will in the army.Hitler was very conceited about his experience of squatting in trenches on the front line during World War I, thinking that German generals did not understand the situation on the front line. It stands to reason that the Soviets should have seen the German army's next strategic intention long ago.Stalin has always been stubborn, thinking that the German army will attack Moscow again, and the defense forces of Stalingrad are insufficiently prepared.It can be said that Hitler made mistakes that arrogant dictators would make, Stalin made mistakes that amateur military enthusiasts should make, and the two brothers were equal, playing a game of seeing who made more mistakes.