The Kremlin
May 26, 1942
Vasilevskij was again sitting behind his desk, his heavy eyelids tormenting his sandy-feeling eyes. He had not been sleeping well the past few days; his overworked mind did not cease its processing during the night as it normally should do. Instead, he ended up staying awake late into the night thinking, strategizing, hoping and fearing. When he did eventually fall asleep, his dreams were bursting at the seams with images of armies, of conflict and of schemes gone awry. He knew that such a malignant shift in his sleep patterns would only end with the war, or at least this period of intense pressure. Vasilevskij sighed and rubbed his eyes before blearily reviewing the reports of the past two days so that he could give Stalin a brief overview of events that evening when his office hours began. Stalin was an insomniac. Vasilevskij most certainly was not.
Two issues bickered for Vasilevskij’s attentions. These two fell under the broad categories of distraction, or pocket. The first item he was reviewing, commencing at sunrise on the 24th, fell primarily into the former category, though it did have ramifications for the latter as well. One of the Baltic Fronts was assaulting Konigsberg again, having just recently been chased out of the city by German panzers. The eighteen divisions of the Front, being temporarily commanded by Lieutenant-General Reiter in the momentary absence of the Front’s actual commander, were attacking the nine Germans divisions which were not only holding the city but also pushing toward Suwalki at the same time. The attack on Konigsberg was an indirect method of preserving the existence of the pocket even as another of the Baltic Fronts was attempting to hold Suwalki itself and prevent it from becoming a supply corridor for the Germans. Instead, it was being turned into a corridor of fire.
The umpteenth battle for Konigsberg.
The second item fell firmly into the pocket category. Timoshenko, perhaps slightly impatient or perhaps attempting to slow the German advance toward undefended Bielsk, attacked Bialystok directly. In any event, this would have been a steep proposal, but Timoshenko’s 1st Belarussian Front was exhausted. It was in no shape to take on thirty nearly fresh German armored and motorized divisions. They were nearly fresh because, in the words of a captured German report, “they’ve been low on oil for so long, they’ve barely seen any combat.” In any case, Timoshenko’s gambit obviously failed, and within hours of its beginning. Nevertheless, it was a handy method of gauging the difficulty of quashing the pocket; the judgment was in: very difficult.
Attacking Bialystok, and the general situation around the pocket.
The third item also fell into the pocket category, but was much more positive than Timoshenko’s foolhardy assault. Fedorenko’s 2nd Belarussian Front was pushing the assault of Luniniec home, despite the increase in German defensive capabilities with the retreat of six more divisions into that locality. The Luniniec pocket was about to be liquidated at the time of the report, and had been destroyed by the next morning, that of the 25th. It was the first unambiguous big victory of the war for the Soviets, and it gladdened Vasilevskij immensely. Of the sixty-three divisions pocketed in the enormous crescent, only forty-eight were left. A quarter had been destroyed, and Vasilevskij’s strategy was seeing colossal armies marching toward and massing around Bialystok. The enemy, however, was still strong.
The battle of Luniniec in its last hours before the fifteen German divisions were destroyed forever!
During the morning of the 25th, however, the Germans launched a distraction operation. Vasilevskij could think of no other use for it. Ulex, still possessing considerable forces in the south, was pushing again toward Tarnopol. Zhukov held command over twenty-one divisions there but they were tired and battered from constant fighting. Ulex’s divisions, thirty in all, were very fresh by comparison and were running roughshod over the Soviet defenders. Vasilevskij’s breath caught as he read the report again, he had missed something. His 1st Tank Army was at Zhitomir and moving toward Tarnopol. Within the next few days, it would finally be on the front line! Vasilevskij hoped that Stalin would keep his promise and release Vasilevskij back to operational duties.
Distraction in the south on the morning of the 25th.
The 2nd Ukrainian Front, so long neglected by a lack of action, was finally fighting again. Field Marshal Purkaev threw the full weight of his Front toward Stanislawow, the base of Ulex’s push, in an attempt to distract that and slow it down. Vasilevskij shrugged with apathy. Ulex’s thrust was no danger to the course of the fighting around Bialystok by any stretch of the imagination, it was simply too far away even if there was no Soviet resistance between the German vanguards and Bialystok. Nevertheless, he understood Purkaev’s reasons for attacking, beyond the purely military consideration of halting another enemy offensive no matter how strategically irrelevant it was. There was still some glory for the taking in the south, it seemed, and Purkaev was determined to grasp it solidly.
The battle for Stanislawow.
Vasilevskij shook his head in an attempt to jar his sluggish mind back into first gear. He was going to go back to his tank army, he just knew he was. He was finally going to the front, and he had to be on top form to attempt to deal with the German thrust toward Tarnopol. At thirty divisions, it was still a significant force that outnumbered both the Soviet Tank Armies even when combined, by a healthy six-division margin. Individually, each Soviet Tank Army consisted of only twelve divisions, of which only four were actually
armored. Another two were mechanized infantry divisions, and the final six motorized infantry. Compared to the standard German composition of two armored and one motorized division for each corps, half the corps of the four-corps Tank Army were very lightweight. Vasilevskij knew he would have his work cut out for him. His strategic competence had been proven, but soon he would have to prove his tactical excellence.