THE TURNING POINT:
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August, they were able to blunt operations by Western and Kalinin
Teheran. It was Stalin, flushed with victories, who came to dominate and
Fronts and retake Smolensk. Soviet offensives in the north and at the
domineer at Teheran at the end of November. He had taken great care on
centre unrolled against prepared German defences and difficult terrain.
his way to Teheran to preserve himself from mishap. He travelled by train
The gains were appreciably smaller than those in the southern theatre,
to Baku. At the airfield two aircraft waited, one for Stalin, piloted by a
where the prospect of a major breakthrough to the Dnieper, at the
colonel-general, the other for officials piloted by a colonel. Stalin chose
junction of two German Army Groups, now beckoned.
the colonel's aircraft, saying: "Colonel-generals don't often pilot aircraft".
Late in September, Soviet armies driving over ISO miles
On 6 November 1943, Kiev, "the mother of Russian cities", was
(240 kilometres) to the west drew up to the Dnieper. Within a week,
cleared of enemy troops. The Stavka planned to smash in the "Dnieper
23 bridgeheads dotted the Dnieper's western bank. During the night
line", hurling a great mass of men and tanks on Army Group South.
of 26 September, the Airborne Forces dropped 4,575 men in 296
The General Staff had completed the attack timetables for the
aircraft sorties into the Bukrin bridgehead, an ambitious airborne
winter offensive. Designed to destroy German forces at Leningrad, in
operation marred by over-hasty improvisation and lack of unified
Belorussia, the western Ukraine and the Crimea, the main attack was
command. The Soviet rush to the great river line became a frontal
to be mounted in the southwestern theatre, the quicker to bring Soviet
pursuit of the Germans complicated by dwindling supplies of fuel and
troops to the 1941 frontiers.
ammunition. Astride the river, the Soviet command now planned the
What Stalin wanted and pressed for at Teheran was a definite date
battle for the entire "Dnieper line". On 22 August, the Stavka approved
for Overlord, the cross-Channel attack. He asked pointedly, "Who
the revised plan for the Smolensk operation further north. The final
will command Overlord?" Churchill's proposals for a Third Front,
attack opened on 15 September, toppling German defensive bastions
a landing in southern France, attacking the German flank in the
one by one. Smolensk, torched by retreating Germans, fell on 25
Balkans, were brutally shoved aside. Stalin fought to nail down
September. Soviet losses were heavy — the price the Soviet command
Overlord. Did the British really believe in it or was this just "to keep
paid for holding down 55 German divisions to prevent reinforcement
the Russian quiet?" Resorting to ill-concealed blackmail, Stalin asserted
reaching the southern wing, which the Red Army aimed to annihilate.
that without Overlord materializing in May 1944, to coincide with
Early in October, the briefest lull settled across the Soviet—German
Soviet offensive operations, the Red Army might falter and the
front. Stalin planned to unleash an autumnal storm over two regional
Russians succumb to war-weariness. With Overlord on time, there
capitals: Minsk in Belorussia and Kiev in the Ukraine. Orders for the
would be no need "to take steps" to counter feelings of "isolation" in
attack on Kiev had been issued and those for the liberation of Belorussia
the Red Army. What Stalin could not win from Churchill he finally
were readied. German military intelligence predicted, correctly, a
extracted at a lunch attended by all three Allied leaders: Overlordwas
powerful Soviet winter offensive, plus the chilling forecast that "the
timed for May 1944, enjoined as an Anglo—American decision and
Soviet—Russian enemy will surpass Germany in terms of manpower,
duly confirmed in the third plenary session.
equipment and propaganda." Already the great dispersal of German
The Teheran conference dispersed with a common decision formally
forces, the very essence of Stalin's "war-shortening" strategy, had begun.
agreed, though fundamental divisions shone through, glowing like hot
Plans were in train for a massive winter attack to bring the Red Army
coals. Stalin could congratulate himself: Overlord was now immovably
to a line from which to launch decisive blows that would necessarily
anchored in the late spring of 1944, rival armies were diverted from his
require full co-operation on the part of the Western allies. To this end,
southern flank, Poland had been splintered, the Baltic states retained
in late October, several Foreign Ministers met in Moscow to prepare for
and a provisional territorial claim staked out in the Far East. Churchill
the "Big Three" conference to be attended by Roosevelt, Churchill and
departed Teheran in good order but was a prey to foreboding, seized
Stalin - it was to be held, at Stalin's insistence, in the Iranian capital,
with the urgent need to "do something with these bloody Russians".
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