Макс Глебов – Prohibition of Interference. Book 4. Asymmetric response (страница 7)
Chapter 3
“How did the British and USA ambassadors respond to our appeal?”
“They expressed great concern, Comrade Stalin,” Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov grimaced irritably, “they promised to tell us the position of London and Washington as soon as possible. There seems to be little hope for the Americans. After the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor and the Imperial Army landed in the Philippines, they are, to put it mildly, not interested in us. Apparently, it was feared that once the war with the Samurai had begun, Germany would declare war on them, but so far this has not happened, and Roosevelt certainly will not want to provoke Hitler[1].”
“With the current situation at Moscow and the beginning of the British offensive in North Africa, all Hitler needed was a war with the United States,” Stalin's voice sounded irritated. “Roosevelt's apprehension is misguided, though it may only be an excuse for denying us effective help. And what do you, Comrade Molotov, think about the prospects of Britain entering chemical warfare?”
“It's more complicated here, Comrade Stalin. The Germans lost the air battle for Britain, but it is unlikely that Churchill would want to expose his cities to the risk of chemical bombing. By drawing off the tank units of the African Corps, we have greatly relieved the situation of the British in Egypt and Libya, and now Churchill is in a hurry to turn the course of the war in Africa in his favor. He does not need any new problems, especially in view of the Japanese attack on the port of Hong Kong and the emergence of a real threat to Singapore and all of British Malaya. On December 10, the British fleet lost in the South China Sea the battleship
The Chief nodded slowly and switched to another topic:
“After the gas attack on anti-aircraft positions near Vyazma, are there any other facts of the use of chemical weapons by the Germans?”
“No, Comrade Stalin,” Zhukov entered the discussion, “but the intelligence data is very disturbing. All the signs of the enemy's preparation for combat operations in chemically contaminated areas are there.”
“How ready are we for this?” Stalin shifted his gaze to Shaposhnikov.
The Chief of the General Staff did not embellish the real situation:
“Now the enemy is way ahead of us in means of chemical defense, but work is being done. All the necessary orders were issued immediately after the discussion at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of Lieutenant Colonel Nagulin's conclusions about the threat of the Germans' use of chemical warfare agents.”
“The name Nagulin has come up too often in this office,” the Chief grinned indefinitely, “do you not think so, comrades?”
“Given his role in key events at the front, it doesn't look like anything special,” Shaposhnikov answered cautiously.
“Perhaps,” Stalin nodded, “however, the results of his actions against the Luftwaffe air bridge do not yet look as impressive, as the previous operations, although some successes definitely exist.”
“Hardly anyone else in his position would have done better,” Zhukov, usually skeptical to all the endeavors of Nagulin, whom he did not quite understand, suddenly stood up for him. “The enemy's opposition is too great, and our resources are extremely limited.”
Stalin did not seem to expect such words from Zhukov either, and he was somewhat surprised at the unanimity of the commander of the Western Front and the Chief of the General Staff.
“When will Kleist strike?” The Chief suddenly changed the subject, temporarily "forgetting" about Lieutenant Colonel Nagulin.
“Perhaps as early as tomorrow, Comrade Stalin,” Zhukov answered after a short pause. “In two days at the most.”
Göring's "air bridge" crackled and swayed, but it had no desire to finally collapse. I gave the Luftwaffe a lot of trouble, but the forces and means at my disposal were still clearly insufficient, and I had nowhere to get additional forces and means.
The Germans quickly realized that flying in tight formation at maximum altitude would be suicide and immediately abandoned this tactic. The enemy was in no hurry to repeat the attacks on the air defense positions. Apparently, the losses made a great impression on the Luftwaffe command, and it was not prepared to lose aircraft and, more importantly, qualified pilots, at such a rate. Nevertheless, the very fact of the chemical attack on anti-aircraft positions forced us to take emergency measures.
We had to train anti-aircraft soldiers to fire in gas masks and anti-mustard gas capes, which had a big impact on their rate of fire and, consequently, on the results of their firing. This was clearly insufficient for protection against sarin, but no other means were available to the Red Army chemical troops anyway.
In a way, I was even glad that the enemy started using chemical weapons immediately with the most dangerous gas. This enabled me to tell Shaposhnikov categorically that if Soviet industry did not immediately master the production of general-purpose hazmat suits immediately, we would have no chance of winning the chemical war. At that time the army had only a few hundred general-purpose hazmat suits, and they were mainly made on the basis of fabric soaked in drying oil, which gave very conditional protection against serious poisonous substances.
Unlike me, neither Stalin, nor Shaposhnikov, nor the rest of the Soviet military commanders knew that Hitler no longer had sarin, nor the industrial capacity to produce it. I was in no hurry to inform them of this encouraging fact – why should I deprive the country's leadership of such an excellent incentive to improve chemical defense?
I looked at what had already been done in this direction at home and in the world, and turned to Shaposhnikov with a proposal to use for mass production of hazmat suits the double rubberized fabric
When convinced that the chemical attack had destroyed one anti-aircraft unit but had not solved the problem of beating the
Despite the losses, the Luftwaffe did not give up the idea of an air bridge. The transport planes were now flying at low altitudes during the day, trying to break through to the surrounded troops by single planes or in small groups. I found it more difficult to counter this tactic because there were too many targets in the sky at once, especially considering the numerous
With this arrangement, the air defense position areas were no longer needed, and I again distributed the anti-aircraft artillery more or less evenly throughout the western part of the encirclement ring. In fact, I did everything I could. The Germans lost almost three hundred transport planes in four days. The flow of cargo to the Moscow Pocket was cut in half and continued to decline. There was nothing more for me to do here, but the order that had been given to me had not yet been cancelled. I got ready to wait, but the adversary decided everything for me.
Having weighed the pros and cons one last time, Ewald von Kleist came to the conclusion that there was no point in dragging it out further. On reduced rations the Army Group Center was growing weaker and weaker every day in the Moscow Pocket, and all that the Führer could allocate to strengthen the First Panzer Group, Kleist had already received.
On December 21, five tank and three motorized divisions of the Wehrmacht took the offensive north of Vyazma. Before the attack, the Führer's address was circulated to the troops: