It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 117 | Everything will be fine?
Compared with the turmoil in Hungary, the world's attention is still focused on the banks of the Oder River.

Just over a month after the outbreak of the war, the number of Ivan Rus's troops more than doubled, expanding like a balloon from more than two million at the outbreak of the war to more than five million.

Of course, apart from the elite standing troops, most of them are conscripted troops that lack heavy weapons and professional training, as well as national shooting troops that are no different from militia.

But such a huge number is still daunting.

The gray storm seems to be sweeping across Europe like a torrent?
Old William could not tolerate the fact that his former defeated generals were at the gates of the city, and kept urging the imperial army to launch a counterattack.

Northeast of Berlin, the Oder River flows in a westward concave shape, forming a natural salient in the Schwedt area.

The Ivan Rus army here is the 1st Minsk Front on the northern line. This heavy military group was initially only responsible for the containment mission, but now as the front advances westward, it also undertakes part of the main attack mission, and its strength has rapidly increased from 42 to 110 million.

Walland's General Staff therefore proposed the idea of ​​a large-scale counterattack.

Launch a powerful pincer attack on this salient, attacking from both the north and the south, and severely damaging Ivan Ross's army on the northern front!
This will ease the offensive pressure on the center front, completely disrupt the enemy's overall deployment, and even destroy the enemy's strategic offensive momentum!

The General Staff planned to use Army Group D to implement the pincer attack, which would consist of three operational corps: the 3rd Army, the 4th Army, and the 1st Panzer Army. The total number of corps included:

｜20 infantry divisions
｜8 motorized infantry division

｜7 armored division
｜2 armored brigades
｜3 cavalry divisions
The Wallander army assembled a total of more than 60 elite field troops, including hundreds of assault guns, 1523 tanks alone, and an air force of about 900 aircraft to provide cover.

Operation codename: Griffin.

This powerful heavy military group was led by General Elward von Kleist.

Kleist was a veteran general with a steady style, and everyone thought he was a very suitable candidate.

From a strategic perspective, this concept is reasonable and timely. If the goal is achieved, the situation can be immediately saved and the offensive and defensive momentum can be reversed.

It can be said that the business capabilities of the General Staff of Walland are quite high, and they quickly made corresponding deployments in just one week.

At 10:10 a.m. on October 5, as the first 210mm high-explosive bomb flew deep into the east bank of the Oder River, the massive counterattack began.

On the main axis of the attack, the technical weapon density of the Varland Empire Army reached an unprecedented level, with about 55 to 60 tanks per kilometer; the artillery firepower was also unprecedentedly terrifying, with an average of 38 artillery companies per kilometer (about 152 barreled artillery pieces).

In the Schwedt area west of the Oder River, the Imperial German artillery launched a large-scale bombardment of the enemy in front of them without warning.

The Varland army assembled powerful armored forces and complete engineering units on the north and south sides of the salient. Six armored divisions, three in the south and three in the north, launched an assault together!

In this era when countries around the world have not yet figured out how to fight against armored clusters, the spear is far more powerful than the shield, not to mention that this is a large-scale counterattack carefully prepared by the Valland army.

In the two main attack directions of the north and south, the Varland armored forces, with the strong support of engineers and artillery, achieved a breakthrough in just five or six hours, tore apart the seemingly solid positions of Ivan Ross's army, and began to advance rapidly into depth.

The 130th Infantry Division of the Imperial Russia was completely wiped out during the day. It failed to organize an effective resistance at all, and a large number of troops were captured. Even worse was the ignorant 225th National Rifle Brigade, which was scattered and defeated in just two and a half hours.

On the eve of the outbreak of war, Varland's military industry was deeply researching the Monroe shaped-charge hollow-charge warhead and designed experimental 37mm anti-tank gun super-caliber armor-piercing rounds and 75mm Gr38 armor-piercing rounds, the latter capable of penetrating 90mm of armor from a static point, fired from a Panzer IV tank. Due to the panic caused by the T-34 crisis, the immature Gr38 armor-piercing round was rushed into production.

The arsenal designated by the Varland military industry department worked overtime and, without even having time to set up a production line, managed to produce 9000 rounds of armor-piercing shells half-manually and half-mechanically throughout the night within half a month. Each Type IV tank participating in the counterattack was equipped with at least five precious armor-piercing shells.

Walland's General Staff believed that Operation Griffin had a great chance of success both from a tactical and campaign perspective.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the New York Times published an exclusive interview report in which a military commentator confidently commented: The Varlanders have correctly implemented a powerful pincer offensive, and the Ivan Rus people will be driven back to their homeland before Halloween, and everything will be fine.

The sudden large-scale counterattack did catch Ivan Rus's army off guard.

In other words, it was expected but there was nothing we could do about it.

According to Ivan Ross's military theory, which Tukhachevsky proposed in prison, it is inevitable that the position will be broken through by the enemy's armored clusters. The only way is to increase the depth of the position, stack it layer by layer, and use deep defense and sufficient reserves to continuously consume the enemy's armored clusters until their momentum is exhausted.

The Vistula counterattack continued.

The officers and soldiers of Emperor De lived up to expectations and overcame all obstacles along the way.

In the next few days, several armored divisions and motorized infantry divisions advancing from the north and south successfully joined forces.

Looking at the overall situation, the two iron pincers have closed.

明斯克第1方面军有三分之一陷入重围，其中包括14个步兵师、3个独立坦克旅、2个骑兵师、25个国民射击兵旅，总人数多达40万人。

Starting from October 10, Walland's Army Group D, with the 16st Panzer Army as its main force, began to encircle and annihilate Ivan Ross's army, which had been surrounded.

After several days of fierce fighting, the besieged Ivan Rus' army was almost out of ammunition and food, and was in serious shortage of food and medicine.

The commander of the front, Colonel-General Ivan Akulinin, sent twelve telegrams requesting the troops to abandon their heavy weapons and disperse to break out. Veronika rejected his request twelve times and ordered the troops in the encirclement to hold on firmly and wait for help.

In order to break the siege, Ivan Rus's army successively deployed battle reserves and tried to break the encirclement, but all ended in failure, and only a very small number of people were able to escape.

The big dumpling skin did not break in the end. The desperate hundreds of thousands of Ivan Ross troops were quickly divided by the powerful Varland army and lost their organized resistance. Despite their tenacious resistance, they were defeated one by one and eventually wiped out.

At the last moment, Colonel-General Ivan Akulinin escaped capture in a service plane.

However, he was arrested as soon as he landed, and the commissioners of the Imperial Internal Affairs Committee escorted the haggard and embarrassed commander back to St. Petersburg.

In stark contrast to this side, Charlottenburg Palace was filled with the joy of victory.

At the instruction of the delighted old William, the Imperial High Command issued more than 2,000 Iron Cross medals in one go.

It seems... everything is getting better?

(End of this chapter)