May 1st, 1944
Soviet celebrations
Labor Day
Red Square (Moscow) - Today is a celebration in the workers' paradise. For the occasion, while Marshal Stalin is still speaking, 57,000 fascist prisoners, most of them recently taken in Belarus, are paraded. They pass in front of the Vojd, the crowd and the cameras in an endless, colourful and pathetic column. The Soviet Union wins the war - it wants to prove it to its people. And to prepare the spirits for what is to come. Also, closing the march behind the prisoners, many fire engines symbolically wash the pavement stained by Nazi shoes with water.
Stalin is satisfied. He has his speech, his victory and his symbol. On this, before going to fulfill his political obligations, he will pass by the premises of STAVKA...
Marshals' Day
Frunze and STAVKA Academy (Genchtab, Znamenka street, Moscow) - Indeed, for the Workers' Day, the Red Army also planned its little celebrations. What better way to honor the workers and peasants who fight than to distinguish those who command them? So all the front commanders were gathered here for a kind of social event. They all arrived with their courtship and decorum, flattering their egos while respecting the rules*, waiting for the toast to be given by the leader.
Konstantin Rokossovsky of course, the Pole who almost won Warsaw, who was first on the Vistula and who recently showed everyone that he had teeth long enough to slit the throats of anyone who might get in his way - a characteristic that is quite common in the Red Army, it must be said. Undoubtedly the one who has the most sincere affection for Stalin (and the only one optimistic enough to believe it is reciprocal!), Rokossovsky already imagines himself entering the capital of the Reich in the lead. But apart from him, everyone knows that this is not likely to be the case - the Vojd did not even want to grant him Warsaw, despite his Polish origins (or because of them). So Berlin! One should not exaggerate... In practice, it is certain that the new Marshal will remain a useful, effective, but not essential tool to march towards Danzig.
Aleksandr Vassilievsky and Fyodor Tolbukhin, it is another thing. They have already understood where they belong, and what is expected of them in the months to come. At the foot of the Carpathians, facing a Hungary chained to the Reich and a most difficult terrain, their 1st and 4th Ukrainian Fronts will not have the most glorious role, nor will their leaders. Rather, they will have the task of conducting a school exercise: long, probably painful, undoubtedly bloody... but ultimately victorious. This suits well the former chief of staff of the STAVKA and the conqueror of the Black Sea. Having given up on the first place, they will gladly settle for the second - it is less exposed, and Budapest is as good as Berlin for those who are preparing for the post-war period.
And then there are the northern guards. Ivan Bagramyan - one of the few, here, who is not yet a marshal - too bad for him, he only had to advance as much as the others. And Rodion Malinovsky, the child of the Black Sea who became a soldier of the Baltic. His performance is not really extraordinary, but he does not stop showing off the pleasure he gets from wearing his new epaulettes. His neighbor Kyrill Meretskov is not so lucky... But it doesn't matter: both of them know that neither of them will have the glory of the final blow.
No - on this point, everyone looks out of the corner of their glasses at two clans facing each other on either side of the room, carefully avoiding mixing or even crossing paths. Hostile groups staring at each other, each one forming a block around its leader. Ivan Konev on one side - Suvorov's marshal - wears his shaved head high and sweeps the audience with his steely gaze, affirming his absolute communist faith. And on the other side, Georgi Zhukov, who arrived late - perhaps to make himself more noticeable - threw his beige coat behind him with a flamboyant gesture to better reveal to the world his virile chest full of decorations, while behind him, Miniuk, his orderly, caught the garment in flight.
Zhukov has some reasons to feel he must assert his presence. He knows that he is not as much in the limelight as before. The marshal played a limited - but mostly unofficial - role in Bagration, and assumed absolutely no responsibility for the operations in Ukraine, whether it was Lvov-Kovel or Vistula-Warsaw. On the other hand, he is still being blamed for the Šiauliai farce, as well as for the near-disaster in Kaunas. To a greater or lesser extent, of course! But everyone knows that in the USSR, people are suspicious of the popularity of the military. And it turns out that Zhukov is very popular - and according to the saying, when you want to kill your dog ...
But as soon as Stalin enters the room, all this disappears - at least on the surface. The bad mood quickly gives way to forced camaraderie. Even if, as usual between the Soviet marshals, one always feels under the surface a dull and fierce jealousy - when it is not outright hatred, as is obviously the case between Konev and Zhukov, who will both take great care to avoid each other during the whole reception.
Stalin, of course, observes and is amused by all this childishness, which benefits him by strengthening his power. Especially since the next round will not take place between these two! Indeed, the future offensive planned will be Cluj-Debrecen - launched towards Hungary, it must reduce, or even eliminate the immense salient of the Carpathians, this true strategic aberration that the fascists persist in wanting to keep, attracting wonderfully towards the south a large part of the German reserves. Meanwhile, the Red Army will continue to prepare the operations in Poland and then in Germany - which will be decisive and will put an end to the war, but will be launched only in early summer.
So, who will deliver the final blow? Good prince, Stalin is going to give an indication, by carrying in front of the assembly his traditional toasts in a meticulous order: "To Comrade Zhukov! To comrade Konev! To comrade Vasilyevsky! To comrade Rokossovsky! To comrade Malinovsky! To comrade Tolbukhin!"
And raising a glass to each name, the Vojd signifies to all what the balance of power in the war between the Soviet marshals is at this time.
The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
Sector of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, 17:30 - The sun has not yet risen over the south of liberated Poland (?), and the cannon thunders again very loudly on the front. Well, to be precise, on a small part of the front - the offensive to clear the Slovak insurgency, decided the day before in a somewhat hasty manner, is under way.
It would be a lot to say, however, to claim that the Red Army is making a big effort here: in fact, Dukla-Carpathians concerns only two armies. Moreover, Ivan Konev, who had left for Moscow, left his chief of staff, Vassili Sokolovski, manage this contingency. That is to say if one expects much from it! In reality, in the spirit of the Soviets, it is undoubtedly a simple gesture of goodwill, intended to please without costing too much, while waiting for much more important deadlines, in the Carpathians as on the Vistula.
And yet, the frontovikis progress, in spite of all these shenanigans, where one plays, bets and loses the lives of others. From Babica, Pavel Belov's 61st Army advances to Strzyżów (at first), running into the forward lines of the 125. ID (Helmut Friebe). Centered in Jasło (30 kilometers away) and covering 45 kilometers of front, the latter obviously does not hold on to the ground, but prefers to withdraw, gaining time while bleeding the enemy. The few surviving StuG IIIs of the 911. StuG Abt (Hauptmann Erich Hoffmann) are very useful for this - they try to ambush the enemy as usual, taking advantage of their low profile and their Schützen for camouflage, before withdrawing in reverse, carrying the infantry on their roof. Even if, sometimes, a passing Sturmovik hits it all, sending metal, flesh and weapons into the ditch... The 61st Army can only advance - in the evening, it enters Strzyżów, already evacuated by the enemy.
On the left, Andrei Vlassov's 1st Shock Army devotes itself to the same exercise. Except that the opponent here is the 141. ID of Heinz Hellmich, and that the terrain - as wooded as it is hilly - does not favor the maneuver. However, the Soviet formation advances along the road from Bircza to Sanok. It benefits, it is true - this is the advantage of a forced assault axis! - of a strong artillery support as well as the support of its neighbor, the 5th Shock Army: Ivan Chernyakovsky is in the center, he can at least support! So the 1st Shock Army is not long in approaching Tyrawa Wołoska.
Paul Völckers, at the head of the XXVII. ArmeeKorps, which regroups the three German divisions guarding the sector, reacts by authorizing the 132. ID (Herbert Wagner) to support the 141. ID from Ustrzyki Dolne. However, without forcing it... In agreement with his commander Walter Weiß (8. Armee) - who understands the objective of the red maneuver - he considers that the sectors downstream of the San and the Wislok were already lost anyway. And since we know where the Bolsheviks are going, it is enough to accompany them by withdrawing with control until the Dukla Pass: 55 kilometers, there is a margin!
Desolate Poland
A sinister symbol
Brest-Litovsk - In Poland too (unless it's in the Soviet Union now, go figure...) the Workers are celebrated, with beautiful joint parades between the small 1st Polish Army and the big Red Army - the latter visibly dressing, equipping and commanding the former.
These parades would gladly wring a wicked smile from passers-by - if they had the heart to smile, even while grimacing. Five years ago, on September 22nd, 1939, Semyon Krivoshein's frontovikis marched under triumphal arches with Heinz Guderian's Nazis, celebrating the success of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the crushing of Poland and the handing over of the city to the USSR at the same time. Today, for some people, everything seems to have to go back to normal - but just because you want to chase away a memory doesn't mean it disappears. In fact, the Poles remember it very well. And decades later, old people will not fail to remind anyone of this burning episode of their childhood.
A sombre assessment
Lublin - Far from these painful prospects, two weeks after his return to Polish soil (?), the government of Władysław Raczkiewicz is quietly taking stock of what remains of its loyal (i.e., not subject to the Berling army) forces on its national territory.
Unfortunately, it is not very bright. After the Storm and the Vengeance, the Armia Krajowa is left with nothing but debris: the Krakow district of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Józef Godlewski "Garda", the 25th and 26th ID (Lt-Col. Wincenty Mischke "Henryk" and Col. Stanisław Dworzak "Daniel") of the late Radom-Kielce and Łódź districts and finally the "Czeslaw" Relief Force of Col. Gwido Kawiński "Czeslaw", holed up somewhere near Łódź. That is, respectively, 10,000, 7,500 and 4,000 fighters, reinforced in the last case by just under 200 paratroopers.
Less than 25,000 men ... Needless to say, it will be impossible to hope to weigh in any way in the ongoing operations. Especially since among these soldiers, there are undoubtedly some who, without going so far as to reject the government's authority outright, will soon be prowling on the side of the National Armed Forces. They still claim, at least, to be fighting the Nazis, but also the Communists! The Secret Army is well and truly devastated. The Republic no longer has any control or means of control over its own territory, whether it is liberated or not.
Returning state
Vibrations
Insurgent Slovakia - Although the Soviets now support the insurgency, things do not immediately improve (nor do they get much better) for the Czechoslovakians. After the capture of Dolný Kubín the day before, KG Schäfer continues to advance in the Orava Valley, pushing back undermanned and ill-equipped defenders to take Kraľovany by midday. In doing so, he links up with the 178. PanzerGrenadier Tatra of Friedrich-Wilhelm von Loeper, still regrouping while attempting to secure Vrútky.
The fall of Kraľovany is properly catastrophic for Ján Golian's troops. It forces all his remaining forces to retreat to the Orava region, the large plateau west of Námestovo**, where they will be both isolated, without prospects and without hope... as long as the Nazis can go after them. In fact, all this history is beginning to cost the Germans dearly, who no longer have the means to go looking for each rebel in the depths of a grove, at least for the time being. Everyone knows that good Axis infantry is becoming scarce on the Eastern Front...
Further south, KG Schill also records important successes, against the Partisans of the 1st Joseph Stalin Brigade, visibly routed. Žarnovica and Prievidza both fall without fighting - 30 kilometers on two axes in one day. Such a pace of advance is not acceptable for the Czechoslovakians, or else in a week everything will be over. In the evening, Golian orders his army to launch a counter-offensive with the Partisans to retake Prievidza. This will start... when we are ready, with the forces gathered from Telgárt, where everything seems to be calm. Unfortunately, however courageous the 1st Czechoslovak Army is, it continues to show its shortcomings in terms of coordination and training against an opponent with five years of experience.
Good riddance
Rohozná airfield - Taking precautions while it still has some control over its fate, the insurgency transfers to Kiev, under the custody of Lieutenant Piotr Alexeyevich Veličko, Generals Ferdinand Čatloš and Jozef Turanec. The USSR will know what to do with them.
Regarding Turanec, it was a bit painful to make this decision... In fact, if the case of Čatloš does not suffer from any ambiguity, Turanec, on the other hand, is a genuine hero of the 1919 War against the Hungarians, an opponent of the Minister of Defense, a protector of Golian, whose rise he promoted... Alas, he also commanded the Rapid Division on the Eastern Front, committed proven war crimes against the Partisans, and took part in the creation of the Hlinka Guard. Personally appointed commander of the ground forces by Bishop Tiso in the wake of the uprising, he had foolishly flown to Sliač, apparently not imagining that he would be arrested immediately... Since then, detention has not been kind to Turanec, who may owe his health at this time only to the gratitude of Ján Golian, who sent him chocolate, blankets and books on his own authority. In any case, once they arrive in Kiev, the two men are interned in the Butyr prison.
Catch-up Shoah
Slovakia - Einsatzkommandos 13 and 14 continue their dirty work by launching a raid on Žilina, after having thrown their claws into Topoľčany , Trenčín and Nitra. Taking over from KG Junck, they arrest several hundred unfortunate people in one night, who are deported to Ilava or Sereď before reaching Auschwitz. All thanks to the obliging collaboration of a good part of the local population, who willingly make up for the lack of German manpower, by going to look for the refugees even in the most remote houses...
* Since the reforms of the end of 1942, an officer above the rank of captain was no longer allowed to take public transport, nor to carry his own luggage!
** Including today the Felső-Árva reserve and the Babia Hora (Old Witches) massif.
