Chapter 7
With Operations in Poland clearly entering their last phase Trotsky decided to leave the war to his field commanders, despite him growing wary of Field Marshal Blücher, who had repeatedly left good chances unused and whom people like Zhukov and another rising Star, then-Major General Konev described him as " a good commander, but too devensive ". Blücher, despite his misgivings and his sometimes a bit catious approach had been the one who haf commanded the sucessfull defence against the polish offensive the year before and was therefore left in place. While concentrating on internal matters and also resting a bit more than usual on the insistence of his doctor Trosky finally found time and muse to do something he had been itching to do since he had taken over: a redesign of the Soviet Flag. He had long since been of the opinion that the old Soviet Flag had been stained by Stalins actions during his reign and that the Soviet State needed a new one to signal the world that things had changed, and so, on May 9th a new flag was unvieled in front of the Surpreme Soviet in Moscow.
The new Soviet State flag. The two different colours represent the unity between the people and the Party.
Meanwhile the Red Army, who would continue to use the old plain red banner as a Battleflag of sorts, like the Naval Ensign in the Red Navy, continued its slow but steady slogg into Poland. On the last hour of May 9th the polish/romanian defence of Stryj finally cracked and crumbeld, after both country had rushed units into the Area, that managed to slwo the Soviets down, but could not hope to actually stop the onslaught. The proivnce was secured hours later and held against a determined but to weak Polish counterattack. Trotsky was now called in again to decide upon the next action, as neither the Officers at STAVKA nor the field Commanders could decide upon their next move. What was the Red Army to do? Two options presented themselves to Trotsky while he was using his personal armoured train to visit the front:
1. Move into the remainder of Poland and grab the rest of their territories before the Germans could who claimed parts of these lands,
2. Concentrate on defeating Romania to secure the vital oil fields there.
When his train arrived at Blüchers forward headquarters east of Brest-Litovsk he ahd reached a decicion. The Red Army would concentrate its efforts on knocking poland out of the war first. This could mean that when the troops were in position to advance on Romania sonow could hamper their attacks through the river-area in Bessarabia or the mountainious area around the Czech border, but Trotsky and Zhukov, who was more and more becoming Trotskys favourite General and was by many seen as Blüchers sucessor should he once again fail to produce unsatisfactory results. If that happen Blücher would be sent to "guard some ammunition dump on the Manchurian border." anf someone, indeed most probably Zhukov would replace him. Blücher was well aware of this and did his best to show Trotsky that he was an able commander in the field and showed the Chairman his plans for his final offensive into poland. Trotsky looked over the plans and immediately saw that it was essentially an attack on the remaining key cities, and thereby forcing the Poles to surrender unconditionally. The Red Army was still underperforming when compared with western forces like the British or the Germans, but the battered remnants of the Polish Army could not hope to stop the ever-growing Soviet Juggernaut. Lomza was attacked on May 10th, and the Soviets quickly secured the town. Tobrun and Radom fell on the 15th and the 23rd, and after that only two major Polis cities, Lodz and Danzig remained out of Soviet hands.
The flanking attack on Kielce, made to make the attack on Radom easier, met with difficulties because the Poles had concetrated the majority of of their own and the cut-off Romaian Divisons that were still at full strength there, but with the support of Zhukovs Armoured Divisions the scratch force was brushe aside after heavy fighting. Allthough this was not known at the time this would be the last desperate effort of the Polish Republic. Crakov was attacked on May 29th, followed by Czetochova on June 1st and Lodz on the 3rd. The Red Army, now sensing that victory in Poland was close pressed on with amazing speed. Poznan fell on June 12th, and on June 25th Soviet forces entered Danzig, capturing the city so fast that the single destroyer flotilla the Polish Navy had posessed was captured intact and was sent north to be integrated into the Baltic Fleet.
The war in Poland was over, and the Soviet Juggernaught now slowly wheeled south, towards Romania.
