Chapter 412 Kulik
"Order them!" At this moment, even someone like Mechlis, who has little knowledge of military affairs, knew what to do. He ordered without thinking: "Let them hold on, especially the Kerch Peninsula. Take a step back!"
"Yes, Comrade Mechlis!" The signal soldier responded and conveyed the order.
"What should we do now?" Mehlis cast his gaze on Shulka: "Are you going to land right now?"
"Yes!" Shulka nodded: "Of course, if they can hold it!"
So the Crimean Front Army took action.
The troops drove to the port one by one, including Shulka's 1st Guards Tank Brigade.
In fact, the 1st Guards Tank Brigade was the priority to land, which was an order from Mehlis.
Because Mehlis believes that as long as the 1st Guards Tank Brigade can successfully land on the Kerch Peninsula, then half of the battle will be won.
Even Mehlis is planning to land with the 1st Guards Tank Brigade...don't know if this is Mehlis trying to get a reputation as a "leader" or because he believes that the 1st Guards Tank Brigade thinks it is the only one that can guarantee itself safety.
Or, it was Mehlis who knew that once he left Shulka he would not be able to command the battle.
Shulka thinks the last one is more important.
However, the 1st Guards Tank Brigade failed to make the trip.
"Comrade Mehlis!" A naval colonel in charge of coordinating with the army reported to Mehlis: "The sea is too rough today, and it is difficult for heavy equipment such as tanks to land!"
This is indeed the case. The transport ship is swaying in the port with the wind and waves, which will bring a lot of trouble and danger to the crane lifting, and accidents will happen if you are not careful, not to mention that there will be a few Germans occasionally. The fighter plane swooped down from the sky and dropped a few bombs.
"If possible!" The colonel staff said: "We can transport the personnel of the tank unit first!"
"Are you crazy?" Mechlis looked at the staff officer with incredible eyes: "You let the tank troops leave their tanks and rush to the front?"
So the 1st Guards Tank Brigade stayed, and the first to land became an infantry division.
In fact, let alone tank units, infantry divisions have difficulty loading and unloading under such wind and waves, because infantry divisions also have cars, artillery and ammunition.
In desperation, the infantry division had to give up their heavy equipment and rush to the Kerch Peninsula. After a while, only more than 6,000 people successfully landed in Kerch in the first batch.
At this time, the situation in Kerch has begun to deteriorate.
Marshal Kulik was in command of the Kerch operation. He was originally a deputy defense commissioner of the Soviet Union and was deeply trusted by Stalin because he commanded the artillery to win the Battle of Tsaritsyn and was considered by Stalin to be an artillery expert... At that time, the Soviet Union was extremely short of talents .
But in fact, Marshal Kulik is strong on the outside and strong on the inside (historically known as the marshal of the idiot), the T34 tank, the "Katyusha" rocket launcher and the "Poposa" submachine gun have all been denied by him, the deputy defense commissioner, because Marshal Kulik believes that they They are all useless, such as rocket launchers and submachine guns, which are not accurate enough to waste ammunition. Until Stalin himself ordered production.
After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, Marshal Kulik was dismissed because of his wrong command in Leningrad.
Originally, Marshal Kulik could only stay in Moscow for vacation, but after Manstein launched an offensive and threatened the Crimea, Stalin transferred Kulik to the Crimea to preside over the overall situation...
It can be seen from this that Stalin's employment is actually quite subjective, and he can do what he thinks can be done.
For example, Kulik, for others, failed because of command problems or was shot or sent to a military court, but Kulik was able to be sent to the battlefield again after a period of vacation... This is obviously another chance for him.
If in terms of military rank, Mehlis is a lieutenant general and Kulik is a marshal, of course Mehlis cannot command the marshal.
But another identity of Mechlis is the representative of the Supreme Command, which is equivalent to the order of the Supreme Command, so of course Kulik must obey.
However, Kulik secretly complained when he received this order.
He led a force that had retreated from the front line, although it had more troops than the Germans, but its morale was low.
Just a second ago, Kulik was still complaining to the staff: "Hold on? Don't they know that my troops are all defeated? Their heads just want to retreat, or even run away...I have to hit it with a pistol To keep them on the front lines is to hold their heads! In this case they let me stand!"
It would be normal if these words came from a soldier, but if they came from a marshal and the commander of an army of more than 100,000 people, this battle is doomed to be impossible to win!
The reason is simple. The commander's calmness and confidence are the pillars of the morale of the entire army. At this time, Kulik should try to convince all the soldiers under his command that they have the ability to stop the Germans and win in the end. exit.
Kulik's complaints seem to be nothing on the surface, but they actually violated the taboo of military strategists.
So, naturally, the staff officers, messengers, and guards would spread such words, and then no one had the courage to fight the enemy.
At this time, the Soviet army actually has a great advantage:
The first is the comparison of forces.
The German army rushed to the Kerch Peninsula first and put into battle only one division (the 46th Division) and some reinforced troops, with a total strength of only 20,000 troops.
The Soviet army has 150,000.
The second is the geographical advantage. The narrowest part of the Kerch Peninsula is only 16 kilometers, and there are insurmountable seas on both sides, and the sea conditions are not good.
16 kilometers is nothing to the Soviet army with hundreds of thousands. They can build several lines of defense one after another, and it is not a problem to block them for a few days.
Again, the Soviet Crimean Front has already reinforced the Kerch Peninsula, that is, the time is also on Kulik's side.
Objectively speaking, this is a very good opportunity, a chance to turn around. As long as he pretends to give a speech in front of the soldiers, strengthen the soldiers' confidence in defeating the enemy, and then set up the defense line one by one, even with landmines, the German army can be kept out of the line of defense.
Unfortunately, Kulik did not see this. The first thing he did was to order the headquarters to retreat, and at the same time gave the frontline troops an order to stand firm.
This can be said to be the most stupid approach, even more stupid than his complaining about the battlefield situation.
Because this is clearly telling all the officers and soldiers, telling those officers and soldiers who have low morale... You stand in front, I will retreat first!
(end of this chapter)
