I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 52

<If we annihilate 12 enemy divisions, they will just form 12 new divisions>

<Our intelligence said that the Soviet Union had 160 divisions and 3,000 tanks. We have destroyed 400 divisions and 20,000 tanks so far, but there are still 500 divisions and 30,000 tanks ahead of us.>

This was the perception of the German high command on the historical Eastern Front. Despite achieving tremendous success in Operation Barbarossa, the Soviet army never surrendered easily like France, but rather ignited their fighting spirit. 

And if we modify those words a little to fit the current situation… It would be like this.

<We failed to annihilate 12 divisions, but anyway they formed 12 new divisions.>

<The Soviet Union had 400 divisions and 20,000 tanks, and now they have 600 divisions and 30,000 tanks>

The scale of the toxin war was so huge that it needed to add one more zero compared to the other fronts that Germany fought.

On the historical African Front, the Axis forces suffered a total of about 40,000 deaths and 300,000 prisoners – mostly Italians – in three years from 1940 to 1943.

That was after Hitler’s ‘brilliant strategy’ ended the African Front early and cut off Britain’s supply line. 

The reduced Axis losses were at most 300,000?

This level of loss was comparable to the half-year loss on the historical Eastern Front in 1941, and if compared to the more than 1.5 million ‘deaths’ each in 1944 and 1945, it only delayed their collapse by a month or two.

Now? 

According to the data obtained by our intelligence and military information agencies and the tentative estimates, they have already suffered nearly 1.2 million total losses. 

The intelligence agency was shocked by the exchange rate of 2.5 to 1, and I was shocked too.

‘Is this all they died…?’

The number of Soviet prisoners was much lower than in history, which meant a decrease in the total loss rate, that is, a significant increase in the number of people who could return to the front or go to munitions factories.

Also, the disaster of losing 60% of the skilled officers and soldiers who had been serving since before the war did not happen at all, so the overall combat power of the Soviet army increased exponentially.

Our army deployed right now is 4.5 million. We can deploy at least one million more every quarter. We may also have secondary fronts open from our perspective… But can’t we handle that?

And Germany played the worst card. 

No, is that bastard just Hitler who saw the future? 

Not a future person? 

How could he think of doing that crap to America?

Acting as a web novel editor, I have corrected the sentence structures and translated the text into English. 

The text is a third-person narrative that follows the perspective of Zhukov, a Soviet general who knows the history of World War II. 

“Germany has launched a surprise attack on the Panama Canal, which is currently a US asset, and delivered a declaration of war to the US State Department through the German ambassador in the US 30 minutes before the attack. Outraged by this brazen attitude, the US Congress has decided to join the war…”

“Are they insane?”

Everyone had a similar reaction. 

Especially those who had experienced the benefits of the US’s enormous production capacity. 

Zhukov, who had left the front command to Kirponos, Tolbukhin, and Malinovsky and came up to Moscow for a while, was rolling his eyes while gulping down cola.

It was not enough to say they were insane. 

If you had seen the US’s production volume in history like me, you would understand how I feel.

The US could produce as many battleships as Germany had in two or three years. 

Even if Germany had seized the industrial power of Western Europe – which they didn’t – they would have been pierced through on the Eastern Front if they tried to catch up.

For convenience, let’s call the Atlantic Front with the US as the Western Front… 

Even with this inflated Germany, I think they could only handle one of either East or West. 

Especially since they failed to eliminate the Soviet forces in a surprise attack at the beginning of the war.

While everyone was discussing what Germany’s strategy was thinking, my thoughts were on the other side.

“Why do you think Japan… won’t go to war with the US?”

“Huh?”

From my perspective, Japan should have gone to war with the US. 

I thought they would surprise Pearl Harbor this winter and diligently played cuckoo to the US, but Germany attacked Panama out of nowhere and made me look like a fool.

Did Molotov, who went to the US and talked hard, look like a fool? 

Anyway, they said that Americans started to doubt us a little.

To be precise, it was because I told them that Japan could attack in December… It’s not December yet, so I can still argue hard, but Japan declared that they would not participate in the war as a member of the Axis alliance while confronting the US.

It became an annoying situation.

“Comrade Secretary-General, you have been saying this all along… Do you think Japan will definitely go to war with the US? Is it logical to open a new front when they are struggling in the Sino-Japanese War…”

“Well… No…”

Yeah fucker, of course you’re right? But those bastards are not so logical! Ah…

Until now, I had used my authority and power to make the members of Stavka plan operations based on the premise that Japan would launch a surprise attack and go to war with the US.

But what did I see? 

Japan doesn’t seem to do that at all. 

I wondered if this was part of their deception tactics, but I had no evidence to convince them.

“Or we can consider a limited clash in Southeast Asia-Indian Ocean. 

They can attack the powers that have lost their ability to maintain their colonial dominance, such as the Netherlands and Britain, and the US may tolerate this as their situation in the Atlantic becomes urgent.”

“Really? To maintain the Atlantic Front, they inevitably have to cooperate with Britain, but on one hand they tolerate Britain being attacked, and on the other hand they help. Is that what you’re saying?”

“That’s also… a good point, but do you think Britain will hold on to their colonies until this point?”

“On the contrary, if they got into this mess trying to hold on to their colonies, can they abandon them now?”

All kinds of predictions came out and opinions clashed sharply. 

It was different from the usual atmosphere where I led and asked only what was necessary, so I was glad that creativity was being shown… But guys, don’t you think you’re barking up the wrong tree?

First of all, my prediction was based entirely on later interpretations of history. 

Churchill was a stubborn imperialist who never gave up his colonies, and Japan was a mess where lower organizations acted separately in decision-making.

The army and navy fought separately and a single group army of the army called Kwantung Army and a single fleet of the navy called Combined Fleet ignored the orders of the General Staff and engaged in combat with other countries independently. 

There was no other way to describe it than a mess.

But if I tell them that Japan will attack America based on spiritualism even though they know it’s disadvantageous, they will think I’m crazy.

Where are such crazy bastards in this world? That was the problem…

The Soviet Union was anyway a socialist state based on materialism… If they heard about Japanese-style spiritualism, they would only snicker, and honestly, I did too, but what can I do about them!

“Sorry to interrupt you while you’re discussing…”

Oh, Beria showed up. He had a serious attitude that he often showed these days. 

Did he find out something from Japan? 

Richard Jorgensen was still infiltrating Japan as our spy and spreading real and false information to Germany and Japan.

Like he leaked Operation Barbarossa… Pearl Harbor too?

“According to the Chief of Staff, there are signs of a surprise attack by Japan on the United States. Nazi Germany has sent a submarine fleet of heroes to Japan, and…”

???

Submarines? Why is my brother there? Who went there?

“…they are planning a surprise operation that mobilizes the entire naval force of battleships, aircraft carriers, and submarines. The timing is not yet precisely determined…”

Uh…? Will this succeed?

The historical significance of the Pearl Harbor attack was that it used aircraft. 

Japan’s military leaders followed the example of the British Taranto raid, which was a great success, and realized their delusions by destroying the US Pacific fleet.

But now that I think about it, the Taranto raid ended in a complete failure…? Could it be because of that?

“Submarines… submarines…”

But our generals were showing a strong allergic reaction. 

The operational value of aircraft carriers was not yet proven. 

Rather, there was only the case of being crushed by the thorough anti-air defense of Taranto harbor. 

Therefore, battleships and submarines were more frightening.

Kriegsmarine had brought down the British Mediterranean fleet through a conventional naval battle, and strangled the neck of Britain with submarines.

It would be impossible to strangle the neck of the US, which was far away in this vast Pacific, with submarines… But what if they took their fleet to Pearl Harbor, fired their cannons and bombed them openly, and then shot torpedoes with submarines when the Pacific fleet’s ships came out?

This seemed like a plausible scenario to others. 

Of course, not so much from my perspective…

In actual history, Yamamoto Isoroku, the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, was a thorough coward who paradoxically insisted that aircraft carriers were important, but he himself stayed in the rear on a ‘useless’, safe battleship and used his carrier force recklessly.

Would the Japanese bastards be able to push Yamamoto, who they had saved for their decisive naval battle, to the front line like that? 

We already had intelligence on the Yamato-class battleship. 

Rather than having it, I just told them. 

It was also delivered to the US, but I had no idea how they judged it.

“The Atlantic and Pacific are fundamentally different. The Pacific is much wider in size, and Japan lacks intermediate bases that can utilize submarines. The Germans developed supply submarines to expand their operational range and cover the entire Atlantic, but Japan can’t do that.”

Most nodded their heads. 

Of course, there were also advantages of submarines in the Pacific. 

It was too wide to search for them all, and while there were almost no islands in the Atlantic, there were islands like stepping stones in the Pacific.

If they could only occupy one or two of them, they could set up intermediate bases as much as they wanted. 

I don’t know if Japan’s transportation capacity could handle it though.

“Let’s focus on our problem for now. What is the situation in the Balkans?”

“Yes, King Mihai I declared his loyalty and issued a statement requesting the Romanian army on the front line to surrender to our side. We sent 30,000 Romanian soldiers who had been held captive and swore allegiance to the king to Bucharest and are forming units.”

Very good. 

This means an additional 500,000 losses for Axis forces. 

Even though their combat power was nothing to write home about, they filled up their numbers with Romanian troops who completely turned to our side. 

That was a blow that could flip the weight.

The defensive front of Axis countries would extend to the entire southern border of Hungary. 

Isolating another Axis country, Bulgaria, below was a bonus.

“King Boris III of Bulgaria is not yet willing to surrender. He said he did not pursue a policy of hostility against Russia as a Slavic nation and joined Axis countries only because of Nazi fascists’ threats. He asked us to understand that he did not participate in the war…”

“But we need Bulgaria. To attack Turkey. Will Nazi Germany leave Bulgaria alone if it declares neutrality? If they want our support against Germany’s invasion, wouldn’t it be much more advantageous for them to declare an alliance with Soviet Union?”

Molotov nodded his head. If Bulgaria also joined our side, Axis countries would be shocked. 

they would lose their Balkan occupation areas that they had gained by postponing Soviet invasion in an instant. 

An additional 500,000 Romanian troops, 100,000 Bulgarian troops, and 150,000 Yugoslav partisans would be added to our hands.

How many troops would Germany have to deploy in this Balkan backwater to deal with them?

“Turkey is… what is their reaction? Hahaha.”

“The public sentiment is boiling over. Both nationalists and Islamists are shocked by our proposal and some are calling for a declaration of war and an advance across Caucasus. They also claim Armenia and Azerbaijan as Turkey’s rightful territories…”

Sigh. 

Are they still acting like that after the Armenian genocide? 

Of course, we asked for a lot. 

To create an independent state for the Kurds and to establish a joint mineral development company.

Well, the mineral development was nothing more than saying that we would monopolize the chrome in Turkey, which was the only valuable mineral there, so that Germany could not get it.

The oil-rich lands that they had during the Ottoman Empire were all taken away by the Arabs and Iranians, and all they had left was Anatolia, but if the ‘foreigners’ reached out to here… How could they stay still? 

The switch that triggered their trauma was pressed, and the Turks were reacting fiercely.

“Looking at the map of Turkey… there is a plain area along the northern coast of Anatolia, and the inland is a relatively underdeveloped highland area. Most of the major chrome mines are concentrated on the western coast, except for this one in the south. Our army will move from Bulgaria to pressure Istanbul, and from Georgia along the northern coast…”

We might not be able to cut off all the chrome mines, but it was meaningful to make their supply difficult.

“Good! Leave the operation to the generals! I wonder what the Germans’ faces look like! Hahahaha!!”