I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 4

Pskov was a strategic point for the German army on their way to Leningrad.

Located south of the lake with the same name, Pskov was a transportation hub where the railway lines from the Baltic cities such as Riga and Vilnius converged and headed towards Leningrad.

It was also a major obstacle for the German supply lines. 

If they captured Pskov, they could enter the Soviet railway network directly, but without it, they could not advance further north.

The Baltic regions that Germany had occupied so far had standard gauge railways that were compatible with the German ones. 

But the rest of the Soviet railways, except for the Baltic regions, used broad gauge, so the German army could march swiftly to the gates of Pskov without having to repair the railways for their supplies.

The Soviet troops in Lithuania and Latvia were crushed by the 16th Army and the 4th Panzer Group under the Northern Army Group in just a few days of the war. 

The Baltic people, who should have resisted the Nazi invaders, cooperated thoroughly with the German army out of hostility towards the Soviet Union.

The German troops, who had massacred the Slavic people in Ukraine and Belarus as Untermenschen (subhumans), were able to collaborate well with the Baltic people, who were of the same Germanic race.

All factors were in favor of the German advance.

Nikolai Vatutin, the commander of the Soviet Northwestern Front, was holding repeated meetings with his staff at his headquarters in Pskov City Hall. 

The order from the High Command was to hold Pskov ‘as much as possible’, but at least for nearly 20 weeks – until Rasputitsa came – he had to defend Pskov.

If he retreated from here, the front line would suddenly widen. 

When he was holding Pskov, the lakes and rivers blocked his right flank, but if he passed here, a wide maneuvering route would open up for the German mobile group.

The Soviet troops that were delaying in the Baltic would also have to retreat to near Leningrad if Pskov was breached. 

Or be surrounded and annihilated with their supplies cut off. 

If they were pushed that far, they would have to fight street battles in Pushkin and Koltino, which were metropolitan areas of Leningrad, and they might even be isolated if the railway connection to Leningrad was cut off.

Also, if the Northwestern Front retreated, they would have two places to defend.

When they were blocking Pskov, they had to break through Velikiye Luki, a railway junction in the center, to open up the railway network north of Moscow. 

But if Pskov was breached, Germany could make a strategic maneuver to encircle Moscow by going around instead of breaking through. 

Or they could use this strategic maneuver to encircle Leningrad.

Either way, if Pskov opened up, Germany would gain a huge strategic advantage, and conversely, the Soviet Union would face a threat from the front to Leningrad, the heart of the north.

What if they lost the former capital and the birthplace of the revolution? 

Vatutin did not even want to imagine such a result.

“Are there any problems with the fortification work of the 8th and 11th Armies?”

“Yes. Your Excellency. Currently, the 10th and 11th Rifle Corps under the 8th Army are preparing trenches along the city and suburban roads, and eight rifle divisions under the 11th Army are fortifying Izborisk area west of the city. As you ordered, we have deployed enough anti-tank weapons.”

The staff officer recommended by Vasilevsky, who was appointed as deputy chief of staff this time, was very competent.

 This colonel, who had served as a division commander in the Baltic Special Military District before, was directing the fortification work like a seasoned soldier despite being in his early thirties – he was too young to participate in the Civil War!

“The manual on German combat doctrine delivered by Stavka was very useful. Don’t you think so?”

“Yes, Your Excellency. I also found it very helpful.”

The content delivered was nothing special, but it was surprisingly helpful for the Soviet troops who had been repeatedly hit by Germany’s encirclement and annihilation tactics using armored units. 

The multi-layered trenches and machine gun nests, or what they called defensive positions from the last war, were effective against infantry but not against tanks that were developed to break through these positions.

The German army had used tanks to their limit to encircle-annihilate-advance repeatedly. 

The Soviet troops lacked weapons to deal with tanks at the front line, but Stavka had delivered various means to use as anti-tank weapons even if they had to improvise. 

For example, tank turrets that could be used as fixed gun emplacements.

The losses of the early KV-1 tanks were mostly due to problems with the mobility system rather than destruction from combat. 

These heavy tanks, which were hard to penetrate even at close range by any anti-tank guns that the German army had, were whining due to mobility system problems that occurred while retreating, and the High Command had authorized a bold measure for this.

They dismantled the problematic tanks and used the necessary parts to repair other tanks. 

And they buried or hid the intact turrets in the ground or buildings and used them as anti-tank guns. 

In this area, where the maneuvering route was limited by the lakes and rivers in front of them, the German army had two choices. 

They could either hit the solidly constructed defensive line head-on or try to encircle it by bypassing the open left flank of the Soviet troops.

Either way was fine. 

If they repeated attrition battles, the side that would win was this side.

The vanguard of the enemy’s Northern Army Group was said to be the 56th Panzer Corps of the 4th Panzer Group. The corps commander was that famous – in fact, Vatutin had never heard of him – Erich von Manstein. 

The chief of staff praised him as a great general who had ended France in six weeks and ordered him to build the strongest defense possible. 

To use every drop of blood more valuably. The chief of staff said so with a stern expression.

Too much blood had been spilled in vain. It was inevitable that Soviet soldiers would bleed, but if they had to sacrifice, they had to use it as valuably as possible.

To achieve that, I had to sweat now. 

Despite the scorching heat of summer, the riflemen were working on fortifying the buildings. 

They dug anti-personnel and anti-tank trenches, introduced civilians, and conscripted labor to reinforce the structures.

Even if the Germans boasted of their tank units, how could they run wild in the city where soldiers were hiding and attacking everywhere? 

If there was no way to buy time, drag them into the city that would be reduced to rubble by artillery fire and fight them fiercely. 

That way, they wouldn’t be encircled and annihilated.

The chief of staff laughed bitterly at the plight of the Western Front Army and recommended urban warfare. 

The Northwest Front Army was ordered to defend this place at any cost.

Stavka succeeded in agreeing on a few things. 

First, the most effective way to weaken the Axis forces was to make their allies, who filled their numbers, defect.

Because of the US embargo and the British naval power, the Axis countries always needed oil. 

Not only Germany, but Japan advanced across China to Southeast Asia to secure oil fields, and Hitler ordered to capture Stalingrad and secure the oil fields in the Caucasus.

Much of the oil that Germany coveted was supplied from the Ploiesti oil fields in Romania. 

Some of it was also supplemented by a process of liquefying coal. 

That is, if the Soviet Union defended the south, Ukraine, advanced to Romania and surrendered or at least bombed the Ploiesti oil fields strategically, they could reverse Hitler’s plan.

The operation that Hitler planned, cutting off the resource lines of Ukraine and the Caucasus and making the Soviet Union surrender, was more dangerous for Germany, which had limited resources behind it, than for the Soviet Union with Lend-Lease!

To achieve this strategic goal, most of the new units, newly produced tanks, and elite units brought from the Far East were decided to be deployed in the southern sector.

Shaposhnikov and Vasilevsky worked hard to deploy dozens of newly formed divisions to the south by train. 

The forces in the hands of the great generals Zhukov and Kirponos were not expected to be able to crush and advance against the weak Axis allied forces.

What good is it if a general is good? 

The level of troops is miserable. 

Hundreds of thousands of new conscripts were replenished from the rear and trained in each military district, but they still had a long way to go before they could be deployed, and they were not very reliable in terms of quality. 

Especially against the German army that had been trained through combat.

Zhukov’s Southern Front Headquarters was located in Odessa. 

The Southwestern Front Headquarters in Kiev under Kirponos communicated constantly by telegram with each other and planned defensive operations in close cooperation.

Lvov, the largest city in western Ukraine, fell to the rapid advance of the 1st Panzer Group in the first week of the war. 

The 1st Panzer Group quickly moved eastward and threatened Zhitomir, the gateway to Kiev, and at that moment when Zhukov himself finished preparing and took office in Odessa, 1st Panzer Group forces and Soviet 5th Army and 26th Army were confronting each other in Zhitomir.

“Fire! Fire!”

The Soviet artillery fired incessantly at the German forces across the Teterev River, a tributary of the Dnieper. 

The frontline soldiers did not know that the Soviet command decided to concentrate reserves in the Southern Front at headquarters level. 

But they could distinguish between heavy cannon blasts or terrible whistles of Katyusha multiple rocket launchers.

If you listen without fail every time, you will realize it at some point.

“Damn it, it’s so noisy!”

“But isn’t it lucky that those are ours?”

The platoon sergeant chuckled and rubbed his nose. 

The grumbling soldier smiled sheepishly at his senior’s joke. 

In fact, he was much better off hearing only friendly fire. 

He had seen fascist bastards’ terrifying bombers fly over with a screeching sound and drop huge bombs on his platoon next door and spray machine guns. 

What was its name… Stuka?

German aircraft flew around like their own living room in Soviet blue sky. 

Where did our fighters go? 

They came out like starving dogs, raised German fighters’ kill count and disappeared somewhere.

When air supremacy passed into their hands, terrible Stukas flocked and tore up Soviet troops. 

There was nothing much brave soldiers could do in front of terror striking from above.

Now his platoon became 1st Platoon because 2nd Platoon disappeared. 

The political officer of 1st Platoon was a pretty good person but after bombing only two fingers covered with blood remained of him. 

His TT-33 pistol was quite tempting but he didn’t want to rummage through his… corpse.

Freshly dug trenches smelled of dirt and grass. 

He got up from the trench to shake off his dirty clothes and his sluggish body, and saw the reconnaissance plane of those fascists in the sky. 

Was it doing aerial reconnaissance to attack our artillery? 

I hope that damn screeching bomber doesn’t come to this area.

Our anti-aircraft guns started firing to shoot down the reconnaissance plane, and the reconnaissance plane disappeared far away. 

I wish the ration was good today, he prayed in his heart to all adults and whistled. 

The platoon political officer or platoon leader would have been startled and scolded him, but what does it matter.

Bang! 

Another friendly artillery fired and aircraft began to appear. 

They must be enemies. 

He announced the news of the air raid and hid his body in the trench again.

Of course, it wasn’t that the Germans were very happy because the Soviet situation was bad.

Ewald von Kleist, commander of the 1st Panzer Group, was holding his sore neck.

I had to work under the same old bastard Rundstedt, the official top geezer of the Defense Army, who was also my superior during the last invasion of France. 

And I had to command a ‘group’ of armored forces that was a temporary formation and could be torn apart and handed over to others at any time.

Guderian, who was unstoppable in the invasion of France, had already advanced to one of the most important positions, the commander of the Central Group’s armored group, by swallowing up all the merits he had established at that time. 

But I had to control more crazy bastards under the old man again and again.

Fedot von Bock, who was one year older than me, was the commander of the Central Group, and Guderian, who was seven years younger than me, was the same armored group commander as me! 

Do I have to watch these thugs who became generals after being sergeants and hang out with those damned Nazis?

The breakthrough didn’t go as planned either. 

As if it wasn’t enough that Zhukov, the best commander of the Soviet army, came to face us, the intelligence agency Abwehr also reported that the enemy’s strategic reserves were concentrated in the south. 

Having prioritized the breakthrough to Kiev because there was no way to perform a pincer movement in the early stage, I didn’t like my stretched and soft flanks.

“Your Excellency! The commanders are all gathered!”

At the voice of the young co-pilot, I let go of my sore neck and entered the barracks where the meeting was scheduled. 

The commanders of three corps and nine divisions under the 1st Panzer Group all stood up and saluted when I entered.

“Sieg Heil!”

Among them, two bastards who didn’t salute in the Defense Army style but in the Nazi style until the end. 

Kleist rubbed his chest that felt sour as if acid refluxed. 

And even though I, the commander, just shut up and passed by, there was also a bastard Yunker old man who added a word. 

I know his father was a general in the Kaiser era and he is currently the senior elder of the army, but come on! Come on!!!

“Let’s start the meeting. Can you all be quiet?”

The agenda of the meeting was simple. 

Should we go to Kiev? 

Or should we stabilize both wings? 

The 1st Panzer Group had already threatened Kiev by reaching Zhitomir with a rapid breakthrough, but the situation was not very good. 

There were still Soviet forces in the swamp that was extremely difficult for armored forces to enter, and no commander wanted to put his unit into that quagmire.

Also, in the Tarnopol-Stanislav-Chernovtsy section, enemy forces had not been annihilated yet, and Soviet 9th Army forces holding onto rough terrain along the Dniester River were also intact. 

Damn Romanians still couldn’t cross even Dniester River and couldn’t even approach Odessa let alone besiege it.

Is it possible that they can’t push back even one border city when they face such a great commander?? 

There is no choice in this situation. 

What will we do if we push down south and push back the enemy? 

There are limited mobile units to cooperate with encirclement, and they can just retreat to the next defense line.

And there was actually a problem with the formation itself. 

It was understandable that only two armored corps were deployed in the Northern Group, which was nothing but a pawn of Central Group, and had a much shorter distance to go. 

But in Southern Group, which was not inferior to Central Group, or maybe had a much longer distance to go and a wider area to cover, only three armored corps were deployed. 

If you combine 2nd Panzer Group and 3rd Panzer Group of Central Group, there were six corps, five armored corps!!

They should have taken one or two corps from 2nd Panzer Group here. 

Kleist thought so. 

They could take those bastard ‘bodyguards’, just give me one more proper armored corps.

The generals argued over his proposal. We should cooperate with 6th Army and 17th Army on both wings and annihilate Soviet main forces in south now. 

No, we should advance to a position threatening Kiev as quickly as possible even if supply becomes urgent.

We should threaten Zhitomir, which is a gateway to Kiev, while waiting for allied mobile forces – what kind of proper armored or motorized divisions do those Hungarians or Romanians or Slovaks have – and conserve our forces. 

Fundamentally, it was a problem that we didn’t know we would face such strong resistance and dug in, but Hitler would go crazy if he heard about retreat. 

Hanging out with those damned Nazis as Defense Army generals and also with those water-filled Riehnaus.

Somehow, I felt like I was stuck in a swamp.

I realized it too late, but the Soviet Union was vast. 

The distance from the German-Soviet border to Kiev was the same as the distance from the border city Brest-Litovsk to Berlin.

Even though we had crossed as much land as Poland that Germany had devoured, it was still only a gateway to the first gateway to the south of the Soviet Union. 

It sounded like a joke, but it was true.

It felt so far to go from the border to Kiev, let alone Kiev’s next target, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Stalino, Rostov, Stalingrad. 

When will we conquer these areas? 

Looking at the endless names of cities written in the orders, Kleist felt suffocated.

Can we conquer them…?

First of all, I have to drag these shitty subordinates there. 

Ugh, I felt like something was rising in my stomach.