First of all, let me correct you. Zhukov, who is known as the "symbol of victory", is not always victorious!

Zhukov was born in poverty when he was young, but he became the Chief of Staff of the Soviet Army with his excellent military qualities. Zhukov first showed his talents in the Battle of Nomonhan, and successfully tested a large-depth missile on the battlefield for the first time. Later, Zhukov was appointed in critical situation. He successfully repelled two all-out German attacks with his outstanding command in the Battle of Moscow and the Battle of Stalingrad. Especially in the Battle of Stalingrad, he annihilated Paulus's German Sixth Army in one fell swoop. , successfully reversed the unfavorable situation on the Soviet-German battlefield. Next, Zhukov commanded the Leningrad siege and the Kursk battle, achieving great success. In the end, Zhukov commanded the Soviet army of three fronts to take Berlin first, ending the battle on the European battlefield. It can be said that wherever there is danger, there is Zhukov, and wherever there is Zhukov, there is victory. Zhukov was also affectionately called a "firefighter on the battlefield" by the Soviet people, and was praised by Stalin as a "symbol of victory."

▲Marshal Zhukov, who is full of honors

However, what people remember is mostly Zhukov’s victory. Zhukov is not a god. He also has the symbol of victory when there is a hundred secrets and one sparse. What is Zhukov’s most important victory? A tragic military defeat

It was in the spring of 1942. With the prestige of the Moscow Battle, Zhukov was promoted to deputy commander-in-chief of the Soviet army, commanding the Kalinin Front and the Western Front. Zhukov completely reversed the situation in order to eliminate the German Army Group Center. In a passive situation, the "Mars Operation" was planned to encircle and annihilate the 270,000-strong Ninth Army in the Rzhev Bulge. 1.9 million troops participated in the battle, 24,000 artillery pieces, 3,300 tanks, and 1,100 fighter planes.

▲Rzhev Bulge Battle Map Operation Mars? The battle reflected Zhukov’s typical style. Seven Soviet armies launched a centripetal attack on the German army from three directions, east, west, and north, with overwhelming momentum, but Zhukov was obviously The German army underestimated the tenacity and counterattack capabilities of the German army. The German army relied on the terrain to build defense in depth, built towns and villages into fortresses to support the defense line, and accurately deployed a crossfire network to kill and break through the enemy. In addition, this time the German Army Group Center had a powerful strategy Reserve team, after the battle broke out, 5 armored divisions and 1 motorized infantry division successively reinforced Model.

Facing the powerful Soviet offensive, the German defense line was very elastic and kept bending backwards without breaking. The Soviet army could not break through at all. Although some progress was made on the northeast and west sides, Also due to the tenacious deep defense of the German army, they showed fatigue and had to switch from offense to defense. The famous German general Model immediately seized the opportunity to make a comeback and invested his reserve team to counterattack the 40,000 Soviet troops who had penetrated the deepest.

▲The Soviet troops launched the charge

In order to save the defeat, Zhukov made a desperate move and deployed the strategic reserves to continue the attack in an attempt to rescue the besieged Soviet troops. The Soviet troops launched a human wave charge. However, they immediately encountered ferocious firepower from the German army. The brutal battle lasted for three days. The Soviet army was still unable to take down the solid German defense line. The besieged Soviet army could only abandon all their heavy weapons and return to the Soviet front line after paying a heavy price. ?Operation Mars? The Soviet army suffered a disastrous defeat. After the war, 260,000 Soviet troops were killed and captured, 500,000 were disabled, and 1,847 tanks and 1,100 artillery pieces were lost. The German casualties were only about 40,000.

▲The German army on the Rzhev battlefield relied on a good defense system to defeat the attacking Soviet army

This is the "Mars Operation" that Zhukov will remember for his whole life. Of course, after the war, Zhukov was at the height of his power and looked like a god of war. The Soviet Union also tried its best to cover up Zhukov's shortcomings and failures.

One general’s success is a symbol of victory. Zhukov is the most appropriate example of this famous saying!

One general’s success leads to countless deaths. Zhukov’s success as a victorious general was also made possible by the blood donations of countless soldiers. However, compared to other countries, the Russians paid a higher price. high.

Why is it that even though Zhukov won many battles, the losses of his own soldiers were still far greater than the losses of the German army?

(1) The intensive charge tactics of the Soviet army

The first example is the assault on the Isailovsk Highlands. In this battle, a battalion of the Russian army faced off against A German bunker launched an attack. As a result, the Russian battalion commander died during the attack and all the company-level commanders were killed. In the end, the Russian battalion of more than 700 people was left with less than 100 people, and there were only two in the bunker. One of the German machine gunners went crazy because he couldn't stand the piles of Russian corpses in front of him.

▲The Soviet Red Army launched an intensive charge

The second example is the battle record of an infantry battalion commander in 1943. A battalion commander named B. Dyatlov When recalling a battle in December 1943, Chang wrote: "The charge began." We set up a skirmish line, winding like a long black snake. Immediately behind it came another line of skirmishers. Moreover, these long black snakes, twisting and squirming, are so ridiculous and abnormal on the white snow! The contrast between black and white is like a living target. Then the German bullets flew over like raindrops. Many firing points also began firing. Large-caliber machine guns began to fire from the trenches of the second line of defense. Skirmishers fell one after another.

▲The Soviet Red Army launched an intensive charge

The battalion commander shouted desperately: "Charge!" Charge forward! Go! I'll shoot you! ?However, it is no longer possible to launch another attack. Just imagine, how could you get up from the ground in a hail of bullets? In any case, the commanders organized the black rural infantry and carried out several attacks. However, this is a futile exercise. The enemy's firepower was so dense that before they even took two steps, they all fell down like pillars.

From the above two examples, we can find that when the Soviets attacked, the biggest obstacle that led to their destruction was the intensive charge during the attack. When the Soviets attacked, one wave after another, the Germans simply chopped them down. The result of such a strong attack was that waves of Soviets fell. Therefore, the tactical literacy of the Soviets was very questionable. They obviously did not know how to fight like the Germans. It felt like the Soviet infantry offensive tactics still followed the cold style. The model of the age of weapons relies on the tactics of human waves to push forward, and does not hesitate to sacrifice the lives of any soldiers in order to seek victory.

(2) The overall quality of commanders is low and they lack due respect for the lives of soldiers

Compared with the German army, the overall quality of Soviet commanders is relatively low, and an army His fighting style and tactical literacy are inseparable from the abilities of his commanders. Throughout the Soviet-German war, there were few times when the Soviet army defeated more with less, or the weak defeated strong. Most of them were overwhelmingly outnumbered. The superior Soviet army annihilated a small number of German troops with higher combat quality at the cost of a large number of casualties, and then continued to use fresh troops to make up for the battle losses after the war. In this way, the Soviet army could continue to maintain its strength advantage.

Because of the most often seen sentence in Supreme Commander Stalin’s orders - "at all costs", from top to bottom, the entire Soviet commanders lacked the proper cherishment of the lives of soldiers! ! !

(3) Zhukov’s combat art relies on human sea tactics.

The famous Soviet Marshal Yeremenko once commented on the characteristics of the victorious Marshal Zhukov’s military art. Zhukov’s combat art That is: it must be at least 2-3 times more powerful than the enemy, otherwise he will not start fighting.

In fact, there are Zhukov’s considerations in this

Since Zhukov knew that the Soviet army still had a gap with the German army in terms of overall tactical literacy, Zhukov also knew that if his junior commanders encountered After accidents and casualties, they often lose their minds and choose to attack the solid defense line in a crazy and futile manner, because this phenomenon has happened many times. Soviet commanders at the grassroots level in adversity often lost the ability to think logically and relied entirely on instinct for decision-making.

▲Zhukov relies on the human sea tactics to have a clear judgment on the battle situation

So Zhukov knows that only when the Soviet army has a numerical advantage can it gain the advantage of fighting, will he consider it? Fight against Germany.

This is why when Stalin heard about China's Huaihai Battle, in which China defeated 800,000 Kuomintang troops with American weapons and equipment with 600,000 troops, and annihilated 550,000 of them, he shouted that this was simply an Eastern miracle, because They advocate steamroller-style combat, and there is still a big gap between them and the Chinese's flexible combat method of annihilating the enemy's effective forces. To put it bluntly, Zhukov's method of winning by paying more casualties than the enemy has long been regarded as a defeated general in China!

To sum up, since the overall tactical quality and tactical command are not as good as those of the German army, the Soviet army often has to pay a greater price to defeat the German army. Therefore, even Zhukov has to rely on numerical superiority to win the war, but in In this process, the Soviets advocated steamroller-style tactics and adopted brute force and flexible intensive charge tactics that they did not understand, which resulted in huge casualties of the Soviet army.