I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 28 (September 28, 1941)

“The time has come. Can I give the order to each unit?”

“Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff!”

On September 28, 1941, a Sunday dawn, the Soviet army received the order to attack across the entire front. 

Hundreds, thousands of artillery units spewed fire at once.

Ah, how long have I waited for this day?

“Transmit to each unit. Transmit to each unit. This is Farm. This is Farm.”

“Tyltyl and Mytyl have found the blue bird. I repeat. Tyltyl and Mytyl have found the blue bird.”

It’s the autumn offensive! 

You damned fascists! 

Taste the wrath of the people!

After consulting with Zhukov, I ordered the southern front to minimize the attacks on Sundays. 

It was not because of the Germans’ faith or the effect of the Orthodox Church, but to induce complacency.

As if they had made an agreement, the Reds would attack less on Sundays – this experience accumulated and inevitably led to carelessness. 

And when the attack started all at once like now, they could only panic.

Cowardly? 

This is war.

The Soviet IL-2 attack aircraft took off from Kiev, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy and Kirovograd and bombed the German airfields.

The German pilots woke up from their sweet weekend sleep and heard the air raid siren. 

They tried to get on their planes, but the Soviet artillery had already concentrated their fire on the airfields near the front.

The goal of the second half of 1941 offensive was to annihilate the 1st Panzer Group and the 6th Army, which were the main forces of the German southern group.

The German southern group consisted of the 6th Army, 17th Army, 11th Army and Romanian 4th Army and 3rd Corps, as well as the 1st Panzer Group.

With the 1st Panzer Group as its spearhead, the Nazi German army had advanced to near Kiev. 

The rest of the field armies, which were infantry units following up, formed a long front from north to south in the order of 6th Army, 11th Army, 17th Army and Romanian 4th Army.

“The short-term operational goal of the autumn offensive is to drive out the 6th Army that protects the soft flank of the 1st Panzer Group that has advanced to Kiev, and to strike their supply routes.”

Vasilevsky, who was in charge of designing the overall operation, calmly explained the operational plan. 

It felt like he was orchestrating an orchestra.

“If the 6th Army retreats, will the 1st Panzer Group retreat by abandoning their heavy equipment that can’t move well in the mud, or will they die gloriously by defending their current position? They have to choose one or the other.”

And their retreat route would narrow down gradually. 

Once in ten days, Rasputitsa would arrive and turn all the land into mud. 

The weather forecast also predicted that autumn rain would start soon. 

How about heavy tanks in a situation where even normal cars could hardly move?

The Soviet army was coming up from the south. 

The defense line that they had not been able to push back was still showing its solid dignity in the east. 

The swampy area of Pripyat in the north became more sticky and muddy during Rasputitsa season and became a natural barrier. 

Retreating in this direction was just suicide.

The only thing left was west. 

West was the only way for the 1st Panzer Group to maneuver.

But as the 6th Army that had to protect their rear retreated more and more, their maneuver axis would become narrower and narrower…

Encirclement and annihilation, or a great escape. 

What would the 1st Panzer Group choose? 

Would they sit and wait for death? 

 Or would they die fighting? The commander of the 1st Panzer Group, Kleist, was said to be a great general… 

Really? 

What kind of brilliant move could he make?

The first ones to start the infantry offensive were the 1st Shock Army and the 2nd Shock Army.

The two shock armies that took charge of breaking through the front line were reborn as the best armed groups in the entire Soviet army thanks to Comrade Chief of Staff’s special favor.

Most of the Soviet infantry companies had only one platoon armed with submachine guns or two or more soldiers per squad armed with submachine guns, but only these two shock armies increased their proportion of automatic weapons that were useful in close combat by leaps and bounds so that half of them could receive automatic weapons.

Also, although higher command ordered them to always recover grenades from dead soldiers while complaining about supply issues, they also supplied hundreds of thousands of grenades so that every soldier could be armed with more than two grenades.

And this faithful armament showed its powerful effect in the infantry combat with the Germans.

Nikolai Ivanovich, a Soviet private who had received a new submachine gun and had a headache for two weeks due to disassembly, assembly and gun cleaning, thought of Comrade Chief of Staff’s icon he saw on the poster and thanked God. 

Dear God, this gun is really good. Please let me keep shooting this gun.

‘Actually, I just want to go home, but that would be unfair to my comrades.’

Bang! Boom! 

The shelling started at 2 a.m. and continued until dawn, when the sun began to rise over the eastern horizon. 

Then, the unit that Nikolai belonged to was thrown into the offensive.

To prepare for today’s offensive, Comrade Political Officer kindly suspended our work for two days since the day before yesterday and gave us special food and rest yesterday. 

Considering that we had been awake since dawn, our physical condition was quite good.

On the other hand, the fascists seemed to be in a bad shape, as they had to wake up from their sleep at dawn because of the shelling and got beaten up all day long.

“Look, the fascist pigs left their weapons behind!”

There were often weapons left behind by the Germans who had fled. 

We didn’t touch most of the guns because the submachine guns we received were good enough, but we tried to grab one grenade each.

Nikolai’s senior, Vladimir – nicknamed Volodya – Sergeant got four grenades, but soon he found it inconvenient and heavy to march with stick grenades hanging around. 

He gave away one grenade each to the nearby soldiers in exchange for two packs of cigarettes or some American chocolate.

“Hey, Nikolai, take this grenade. I’m giving it to you for free, so be grateful.”

“Really? Oh, thank you.”

Volodya gave the last fourth grenade to Nikolai. 

As if he was doing him a big favor. 

Nikolai seemed to know his intention, but he couldn’t dare to show it in front of his heavenly senior.

Gunshots were heard sporadically here and there. 

Nikolai thought of it as a positive sign. 

According to Volodya Sergeant, the last gunshot was the winner.

Judging by the continuous sound of bursts, this submachine gun must be doing its part, he thought.

“According to Comrade Company Commander, we have received an order to suppress the Tachanka 1.6km ahead. At our current marching speed, it will take about 10 more minutes to enter the effective range of the Tachanka’s machine gun, so be careful. Our squad is in charge of the second wave role following the first squad, so be careful not to shoot our allies.”

Volodya Sergeant grumbled. What kind of Tachanka would be here? It would be enough to have one anti-tank gun to get rid of them all, but they sent us poor infantry…

“Sergeant, don’t worry too much. Considering our current armament status, we should have enough support, so let’s wait for the next order.”

“Yes, yes, whatever. Comrade Political Officer.”

Volodya Sergeant, who acted like a demon from the stories that grandmother used to tell by the bonfire when he was young, couldn’t move a muscle in front of the squad political officer.

The political officer was a college student before the war broke out. 

Nikolai had only learned to write his name at night school at the collective farm before he was drafted. 

Actually, it was more like drawing pictures of letters. 

Anyway, that’s why he had to rely entirely on what the political officer read for him when he sent or received letters from home.

Comrade Political Officer – he always asked him to call him by his name Semyon – was a good person. 

He always smiled and suggested good phrases to him when he stuttered and couldn’t think of what to write in a letter.

Of course, Semyon was not only grateful.

One of the two female soldiers in the company, nurse Maria Ivanova seemed to like Semyon. 

No, actually everyone thought so.

Nikolai admired nurse Maria Ivanova like other soldiers in the company, but her eyes were always on Semyon. 

There was even a rumor that even the company commander who was married early and already had two children was jealous of him.

Volodya Sergeant often described Semyon and Maria’s relationship with vulgar gestures. 

Nikolai, who was still a rookie, couldn’t dare to say anything out loud.

‘No one is perfect, right?’

He must have something that he could do better than Semyon, who was a college student. 

Semyon was brave, he could tell that in a short time, but he couldn’t admit that because he was too jealous.

He recalled the things he had done at the collective farm. 

For example, cutting wheat or making leather from hides or milking cows… 

Suddenly he thought of Maria Ivanova’s full breasts. 

Not a black and white spotted cow but Maria with blonde hair… Ahem.

Anyway, he probably could drive a tractor better than Semyon! 

But that didn’t help him look good in front of women. 

Wouldn’t it be better if Semyon read poetry from a poet named Pushkin that he always carried in his chest with style?

Screeeeech!! 

A scream-like siren sounded. 

It was a sound that never became familiar no matter how many times he heard it, like a monster roaring.

“Stuka! Stuka!”

The squad members scattered and tried to take cover. 

But soon our fighter planes attacked Stuka and it was shot down and crashed far away.

“Look at that, we have more than enough artillery and air support right now! Right now we have at least twice as many planes as the fascist invaders in this area, right? Maybe the Tachanka that we have to suppress will be attacked by Sturmovik too.”

Semyon, the political officer, truly admired the Secretary General. 

Nikolai, who had suffered from hunger at the collective farm because of the excessive production quotas, couldn’t always agree with him, but lately he wondered if the Secretary General was really an amazing person.

He was influenced by hearing Semyon or Volodya or other senior soldiers express their opinions fervently.

“Comrade Secretary General designed and supervised the production of all these weapons himself. He even manages how many people to put on the planes, what bullets to use on these guns, and so on… How can one person handle all these things in such a huge country? 

He is truly astonishing.”

Semyon’s words sounded plausible. 

The high-ranking officers also praised him and admired his weapons and troops and support.

He was a good person, the political officer. If he said so, wouldn’t it be true? 

Nikolai wondered.

His sister Natasha had died of typhus when she was young because of the lack of food and became weak, but that problem was… The political officer said it was a very tragic tragedy. 

The Secretary General would always be sad about it.

He also heard speeches about being vigilant against the Ukrainian kulak rebels and Trotskyists who sabotaged them. 

He didn’t really understand it, but Nikolai accepted it.

“Exactly as Comrade Political Officer said! They say Sturmovik already attacked their trenches and destroyed them! Now there are only corpses of filthy fascist pigs in that hole… Haha!”

“That’s good news, Volodya Sergeant. What did I tell you? Right? Haha.”

The company marched through the no-man’s land swept by shelling.

As he walked, he suddenly heard the engine sound that had been faintly heard from afar getting closer, and behind him a platoon of T-60 light tanks came rumbling along. 

The tank desantos waved their hands with friendly smiles to the infantrymen who were marching on foot.

“Hey! Comrades!”

Nikolai waved his hand back without thinking much.

“I wonder if our unit doesn’t have those armored vehicles, are they the follow-up units that have already advanced here? Our work will be reduced, right?”

Volodya Sergeant knew a lot of things strangely. 

What we had in our unit, how did he know all that?

Nikolai nodded his head vigorously to please Volodya Sergeant. 

It wasn’t bad to make him happy anyway. 

And he was also happy. 

It was always a good thing for a soldier to have less work to do.