I became Stalin chapter 143

143

Germany’s millennial kingdom, which seemed to last forever, began to shake from its roots.

First, Belgrade, the capital of the former Yugoslav Kingdom, was besieged before the offensive of Soviet troops and partisans. The second-class units stationed in the Balkans could not withstand the offensive of the Soviet army, which had undergone a fierce struggle and was equipped with an elite and abundant armored equipment and aircraft.

German Balkan field forces eventually abandoned Belgrade and retreated toward Hungary and Italy. The 16th SS Division ‘Free Ukraine’ and the 21st SS Division ‘Skanderbeg’ composed of recruits recruited from the Balkans were left to fight decisively in Belgrade.

In the words of those who surrendered to Nazism, it was a throwaway plaque to open the way for the Germans to retreat.

Those caught here, knowing that harsher treatment awaited them as traitors, desperately resisted the Soviets.

“One, two, three, fire!”

Whoa whoa whoa!! A Soviet 152mm heavy gun fired fire. For the SS soldiers who were sitting in the building, it was like fire and lightning.

In order to reduce the number of casualties in street fighting and to liberate Belgrade as quickly as possible, the Allies took extreme measures. He ordered howitzer artillery, fully organized in each corps and division, assigned to small echelons and used as a direct fire.

A company was assigned 1 or 2 heavy howitzers. The Soviet Army, who towed artillery with a tractor and entered the assigned area and building, first fired one shot at the building where the enemy wanted to hide and started grinding.

There were no screams. In fact, he couldn’t even figure out whether or not he had any bad luck. The 7 kilograms of explosives packed into the 152 mm shells were excellent at grinding away the fascists along with the bricks and concrete of the building.

Tatata tang, tatata tang.

Machine gun bullets flew through the window frames shattered by the shock wave of the explosion. That’s all the weapons the SS units resisting in the city had.

Armed with an old-fashioned Kar98 rifle, a few machine guns and at least a few grenades, they were left to face the Soviets armed with fighters and heavy field artillery. But there was no time to feel pity for them.

“Enemy machine guns in the windows on the third floor! Angle and shoot with a 120mm mortar!”

“Yes! load!”

It took about two weeks for the Soviet, Partisan, and Bulgarian forces of nearly one million men to besiege and capture Belgrade.

More than 30,000 members of the SS fought a desperate resistance, but Tito’s partisans were revenge and crushed the resistance more thoroughly.

“Come on! He killed my wife and children!”

“Children who are not even dogs! You have to kill them all!”

The rebels were well aware of this. The grudge that has engulfed the marrow of the Serbs. The people of Belgrade, who had lost their families and had been abused by the German occupation forces, threw stones at the captured Germans.

“Long live the Yugoslav Republic! Long live Marshal Tito!”

“Long live General Stalin! Forever, brethren!”

Troops marched in the center of the destroyed but liberated Belgrade. The Yugoslav Partisans waved brightly as they received pollen thrown by citizens. Soviet soldiers also proudly boarded tanks and greeted the citizens.

After that, the red flag of the Soviet Union and the tricolor of the newly formed Republic of Yugoslavia flew together. Together with the armed guards carrying the trampled, torn and tattered Hakenkreuz.

Whether Stalin or Tito would treat the enemy according to international law, he had no intention of keeping the nation’s rebels alive. The traitors of the Free Ukraine Division were soon destined to be taken to a concentration camp somewhere in Siberia. The traitors from the Balkans were awaiting punishment according to their crimes.

Tito was trying to use the great war against Germany as an opportunity to form a kind of ‘nation’. Germany, the enemy of the nation, the Soviet Union allied by blood, and the nation as one! To do this, a sacrifice was needed to calm the hostility that had accumulated over the years.

As the Red Army shone dazzlingly, the German army became more and more miserable.

“It is said that Horti from Hungary was kidnapped and is unknown… Do you need to advance to Hungary?”

“The judgment of a great nation only comes down from Stavka. There has not yet been an order from Your Excellency.”

Tito, now president of the Yugoslav Republic, insisted on an offensive to restore the “unrecovered area,” that is, the puppet state of Croatia under Italian occupation.

Since Germany kidnapped former regent Horti Miklosi and the fascist puppet Arrow Cross Party came to power, it would be a long way for Hungary to change sides like Romania did. Wouldn’t an advance into the Axis homeland, Italy, shake them even more? This was his argument.

However, General Malinovsky, commander of the Balkan Front, remained silent. The Soviet army was now conducting an offensive not only in the Balkans, but also in the northern and central regions. The enemy commander model was delaying the advance of the Soviet army with an effective defense against a massive offensive.

Therefore, the general secretary ordered not to enlarge the front too much. Digging deep beyond the Alps with only one front? It was too obvious an irrational number.

“There will be only one decisive offensive. Reorganize your army for that time. We will also prepare for that.”

“Uh… good!”

It took time to reorganize the Partisans into a full-fledged “military”. The general secretary spoke of a decisive move and ordered the entire front army to prepare for a rapid maneuver.

The Yugoslav People’s Army to be reorganized, the Romanian Army, the Bulgarian Army, and even the Balkan Front. In anticipation of a heavy attack on the southern border of the Axis, Malinovsky had to struggle to contain his laughter.

* * *

“The defense treaty with Germany was signed in the name of former President Risto Ryti, no, the traitor Ryti, and the Finnish parliament has never ratified it. We, the Finnish interim government, hope for an end to the war with the Soviet Union and are willing to bring the traitor Ruti to a war crimes trial.”

“Is that the only official intention of your government?”

“… Here is the negotiation proposal that we brought.”

Finland had no other option after Germany’s defeat in the Siege of Leningrad and withdrew. Not only were they defeated, but the Army Group North itself, which was supposed to block the Soviet army in the north, was cut in half.

It was the opinion of the Finnish government to quickly surrender and reduce damage before the enraged Soviet Union came up to punish Finland, which had been attached to Germany. No, to be precise, it was Mannerheim’s opinion, who had effectively made the Finnish army his own private organization.

Already, the Karelian Front, led by General Goborov of the Soviet Army, captured Vyborg, Finland’s second city, which had been taken back during the Winter War, and was advancing towards the capital, Helsinki.

The Finnish army could not afford any further losses. The German 20th Army suffered heavy damage during the Siege of Leningrad and was reduced to one corps. The 700,000 Soviet troops advancing on both Karelia could not be helped by the Finnish army of 300,000.

In the Winter War of ’39, the Finnish army succeeded in blocking the first offensive by taking advantage of the terrain, winter weather, and the incompetence of the Soviet army in half the size. But there was no way for the Soviets to double the invading forces and bring them back.

All the factors of the government well remembered the nightmare defeat of surrendering after losing a quarter of the entire army in an instant.

“No matter what you give, please don’t waste the lives of our people more… .”

President Ruti was Mannerheim’s scarecrow, but his responsibility was real. Ryti ordered the Soviet Union to comply even if it asked for his life. The Finnish negotiator, Foreign Minister Tanner, remembered his tears of blood.

The third meeting, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov, now smiled with the victor’s leisurely smile.

“We consider Karelia to be a legitimate territory of the Soviet Union. Vyborg is also our territory… .”

“… .”

Molotov’s thick fingers skimmed the stretch of the border between the two countries. The Soviet Union wanted as many buffers as possible to ensure Leningrad’s security.

Of course, the buffer zone was Finland’s key industrial zone. But what? A loser has no words. The Finnish government, which lost tens of thousands of young lives in vain in the last war, said it could accept any conditions, except for complete annexation.

“Also, the Lapland region to enter fascist-occupied Norway and their cooperative Sweden… I want to ‘even’.”

When Tanner heard the name Lapland, his head shook.

During the 40 Years’ Winter War, the Soviet Union seized 11% of Finland’s territory and 30% of its industrial output, Karelia. So give up another 30% of the reduced territory, 100,000 square kilometers of Lapland?

Molotov was waiting for Tanner’s answer with an expression that looked like he was about to burst into laughter at any moment. Even if I say ‘even’, I don’t know how long. If you swallow it and say you don’t know me, that’s it.

But Finland had nowhere to turn. The United States chose the Soviet Union as a partner to deal with Germany and Japan, and Britain, on which President Rutti hoped to continue, collapsed. If we give up Lapland, it will become a de facto island with only the Soviet Union bordering on land… .

“I will ask Congress to ratify the treaty… .”

“Oh, and one more.”

“Yes?”

Gradually, the corners of Molotov’s lips rose. After being ridiculed for a long time with a Molotov cocktail, he seemed to be very happy with this situation of watering Finland.

“If you ratify the treaty, dissolve the parliament and hold another general election. We also consider the current Finnish parliament to be a sympathizer of war crimes by neglecting the war of aggression. We do not consider Mr. Mannerheim’s government as a negotiator. In the new general election, the Soviet Union intends to send a monitoring team to prevent “election manipulation” by Mannerheim and his party… What would you do?”

“… .”

finished.

What is the Soviet ‘watching group’? Those who will be elected in the new general election will be Soviet puppets, meaning that they will make Finland a vassal state.

Tanner stared at Molotov, who was about to go mad at any moment, exposing this blatant ambition. Are you telling me to change the national government to the Finnish Soviet Republic?

Rather, it would be possible if a few high-ranking people would be executed in a war crimes trial. Tanner himself, seeing President Ruti’s declaration of self-sacrifice, vowed to do the same if necessary, but what if he died?

“Give me time to think… . Between dog death and submission… .”

“Well? What did you say?”

The last words were mumbled inwardly as if they were chewed and swallowed, so Molotov put his hand to his ear in an exaggerated gesture, asking him to repeat it, with a look of surprise.

“think… Time to think… .”

“Ah! I’ll give you a week! The general secretary is running out of patience… .”

“… Okay… .”

The loser has no words. With hundreds of thousands of Red Army ready to continue the Iron Dialogue, the Finns had little to do.

* * *

The Red Army began to clear the perimeter of the battlefield before actively fighting the Germans under Model command.

Western European allies, such as France, Spain, and Italy, were unable to actively recruit troops, even because of the turbulent air currents in their home countries.

In the meantime, the departure of the Eastern European allies was a powerful means of weakening the German forces, even without engagements that were expected to cost significant.

“Yugou and Balkan field forces, out. Finland, out. France, out… .”

The Axis allies marked in black on the map disappeared one by one.

In its place, only our allies painted in red remained.

From the Balkans, Turkey and Finland to the restored Estonia and Latvia! Hungary has become a puppet government, but it is almost impossible to defend its own country, so out of the discussion, all that is left is the main German army, suffering from the cold and struggling with supplies.

Now, for the last effort, even the National Offensive Corps was summoned and they were doing all sorts of tricks, but the end of the war was fast approaching.

“It’s time to give the fascists a taste of the horror!”

I became Stalin chapter 143

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