One step from the Third World. As allies of the anti-Hitler coalition were going to attack us
1 July 1945 was to begin the Third World War: the United States and Britain developed a plan of attack on the USSR, which was not without cynicism called Operation Unthinkable.Indeed, who would have thought that the partners of the USSR in the war against Hitler actually, even before the end of hostilities against fascist Germany, had already drawn up a plan of sudden aggression against our country? And they were going to attack us in those years more than once.
The Soviet government announced the demobilization of its 23 army on June 1945. Germany was defeated, why was it necessary to keep millions of soldiers under arms? It was necessary to urgently restore the destroyed cities and the national economy, the country needed working hands. However, 1 July 47 British and American divisions without any declaration of war should have delivered a crushing blow to our troops in Europe. At the same time, the four air armies of the heavy bombers — the huge “flying fortresses” —were preparing to bring down their deadly cargo and turn the largest cities of the USSR into dust, as they did with Dresden. The blow of the Anglo-Americans were to support the 10-12 of the German divisions, which the "allies" kept unstructured in Schleswig-Holstein and in Southern Denmark, where British instructors were preparing for the war against the USSR.
The plans, as historians have already established, were as follows: to occupy those areas of internal Russia, having lost which country will lose the material possibilities of waging war and further resistance.
And also "to inflict such a decisive defeat on the Russian armed forces, which would make it impossible for the USSR to continue the war."
Operation Unthinkable - two plans at once, offensive and defensive in the event of a military conflict - was developed on the instructions of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Work began when Nazi Germany was not yet defeated, and was carried out by the Joint Planning Headquarters of the British military office in the deepest secret. The ultimate goal was the complete defeat and surrender of the USSR. It was supposed to end the war in the same place where Hitler planned to end it according to the Barbarossa plan: at the turn of Arkhangelsk-Stalingrad. Documents relating to these plans are stored in the National Archives of the United Kingdom and are not subject to full declassification.
Churchill has already ordered to store trophy German weapon with an eye on its possible use against the USSR, placing, as already mentioned, surrendered Wehrmacht soldiers and officers in Schleswig-Holstein and in southern Denmark.
A massive propaganda support of aggression was being prepared under the beautiful humanitarian slogans of the struggle against the "totalitarian regime" and "the liberation of the peoples of the USSR from the yoke of dictatorship." That is, almost the same thing that the “democracies” did many years later when Belgrade was bombed, smashed Iraq, invaded Libya and fought in Afghanistan, and today they are preparing for operations against Syria and Iran.
However, the day before the planned start of the war, parts of the Soviet army suddenly changed their deployment. It was a weightlifting weight. stories: the invasion order was not given.
In addition, as noted by historians, the successful assault of Berlin by Soviet troops played a decisive role in changing the plans of the “allies” about the treacherous attack. And Western military experts convinced politicians that war with such an adversary would be very difficult.
This, by the way, deals a crushing blow to the fabrications of liberal "experts" who claim that the assault was "not needed", surrounded from all sides Berlin "would have capitulated itself."
And the threat of a surprise attack was quite real. The naval forces of Great Britain and the USA, for example, then had absolute superiority over the Soviet Navy: in destroyers by 19 times, by battleships and large cruisers - by 9 times, by submarines - by 2 times. They had over a hundred aircraft carriers of various classes, while our country had no aircraft carriers. The Soviet ground forces were tormented by the war, the equipment was worn out, and the Americans were already prepared for the atomic bomb, which they soon dropped on Japanese cities. There was another important reason why the treacherous blow to the USSR was postponed. The USA needed the USSR to crush the Kwantung Army in the Far East, it was impossible for them to defeat the Japanese themselves.
From 1945 to the beginning of 1960, the United States developed a total of about 10 plans for attacking the USSR.
So, for example, according to the Doublestar plan, it was planned to drop atomic 120 bombs on the USSR cities, after which, as the aggressor expected, the USSR would surrender, and the occupying forces would have to install new power during 5-8 years. According to the Dropshot plan, it was planned to drop 300 atomic bombs on the 200 cities of the USSR within a month. And if the USSR does not surrender, drop 250 thousand tons of conventional bombs, which should have led to the destruction of 85 percent of Soviet industry. Simultaneously with the bombing, the ground forces in the number of NATO 164 divisions, of which the 69 divisions were American, were supposed to take the starting position.
After the occupation, the territory of our country was planned to be divided first into occupation zones, and then split up into more than 20 states, including “Northern Russia”, the Volga Tatar-Finno-Ugric formation “Idel-Ural”, the Republic “Cossacks” and so on . The Far East was supposed to fall under the protectorate of the United States. Much has been written about the Dropshot plan, but much of the history has already become forgotten ...
Mikhail Vasilyevich Berezkin told me recently in St. Petersburg about another attempt to attack the USSR and the real plan of Americans on this subject — which is not so often remembered today. A veteran of World War II, he was more known under the name of the cover - Major General Bystrov. For many years he had been preparing foreign agents, fought, worked as an illegal scout. Berezkin believes that in 1956, it was he who prevented the Third World War.
Mikhail Vasilyevich - he is already 90 years old - is sometimes dressed in a ceremonial general's tunic with a full set of orders. Among them - four orders of the Red Star. But the general doesn’t like to talk about his exploits - the deep-rooted habit of intelligence for secrecy and its natural modesty have an effect.
And there is something to tell him. He was taken to intelligence immediately after the end of the artillery school, he went through the whole war, personally communicated with Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, and then fought on the “invisible front” for many more years. But the main thing in his biography of intelligence officer Berezkin considers two operations of the “political level”, which he told me about during our meeting.
When the insurgency began in Hungary in 1956, Berezkin served in Germany as Assistant Commandant of Leipzig under the name of Bystrov. But it was a cover, in fact, he headed the reconnaissance post No. XXUMX of the Main Intelligence Directorate and conducted intelligence in relation to the American troops in the western zone of Germany, and the commandant of Leipzig was under his command.
“We knew then,” Berezkin recalls, “that the Americans are going to intervene in the Hungarian events and are preparing a strike against our troops.” This was to be done by the seventh US field army, stationed in Germany, consisting of 5 and 7 corps, armored forces and aviation. In total - about 100 thousand soldiers and officers. But where do they hit? From the Eisenach region in the north, or from the south - from the Hof direction?
Here, the commander-in-chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, Andrei Grechko, calls me and says:
“The Americans are preparing a strike, and if you figure out where they are going to inflict it, you will do a great job.” And if you don't, you will become a lieutenant colonel! I give you a few days ...
And I was recently assigned a colonel. But I was not worried about the title, I understood the main thing: if the Americans strike, a big war will begin. And so the hot days began for me. There was little hope for our illegal immigrants in the American zone. They didn’t have any transmitters (it’s only in the movies that we have radio operators everywhere), the resident in Munich sat while he informed me that it would be too late! Therefore, the main hope was assigned to agents, “minibuses”. So we called those who were sent on a mission to the rear of the enemy for a short time. Completed and - back! Then I sent a man of 25. Worked day and night. And they found that the Americans are preparing a strike from the Eisenach region. I personally reported Grechko about this on the HF. Then Ivan Yakubovsky, the commander of our tank army, and asks:
- Where to go? Where do the Americans strike?
I answer: "From Eisenach!"
And Yakubovsky was a hot, resolute commander. If the Americans moved their troops, he would have punched them! And that's for sure - a big war! The tension was terrible ...
But soon our Foreign Ministry made a statement, exposed the plans of the Americans, and they refused to strike, they realized that we would meet them with dignity.
I think that then my actions prevented a possible conflict, and, probably, the Third World War.
Then Yakubovsky calls me. Says: “I want to see what kind of person you are! After all, such a big deal did! ”And when he saw me, he was very disappointed:“ So you are a very simple guy! ”. And I really was young then, and I didn’t come out as tall. And Yakubovsky was huge, under two meters tall!
Then Grechko personally congratulated me. “Comrade Berezkin,” he said, “you did a great job and deserve a high reward!” And ... gave me a Sauer hunting rifle.
Many then we had different cases, continues to recall Mikhail Vasilyevich. They stole from Americans the newest automatic, gas mask of the latest model. But all this is - intelligence trivia. But once A. Grechko gathered a meeting of intelligence officers and said:
- Well, how do you work? You must get the documents! Get me documents about US troops!
Began to think how to do it. In the Stuttgart area in the town of Weichingen the headquarters of the US 7-th Field Army was quartered. Began to look for an approach to it. And found! Through our agent, a German by the name of Clem. He said that the Americans periodically send large batches of documents for destruction. We decided to replace them. On the way, when the documents were taken for destruction, they were replaced with waste paper. This waste paper and then carried to burn, and these documents were sent to our headquarters.
So we have tons of valuable American documents stolen. Tons! There were not only data on the troops, but also drawings of the new secret weapon and a lot more then ...
It took a lot of money for the operation - to bribe anyone, buy a car, and for other purposes, but they gave it to me. Grechko personally gave. I think that this was the largest operation to steal secret documents in intelligence history. In order not to fail, we overloaded the bags with documents ourselves, then I had to work as a loader ...
- So, Mikhail Vasilyevich, the most important thing in life? And what is most important in intelligence?
- Patriotism! - without a moment's thought replied the scout. “My parents brought me up like this.” When I was handed one of the orders in the Kremlin, I said so there: “We are the patriots of our country!”. I spent all my life in intelligence - 70 years! I had nothing else. Patriotism and intelligence is what matters for me ...
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