The Third Reich in Desperation

Who is this scolding?

Although Mannerheim did not guess wrong, and Reinhardt was indeed blaming Sang, but when he reflected on Mannerheim, he couldn't help but think of what he said to Loeb when "Instruction No. 21" was formulated. The appointment is very worrying.

Although Loeb's level is not low, there is still a gap between Bock and Rundstede. In addition, Manstein, who should have been in the Northern Army Group, was taken away, and now he is in trouble.

However, when things have come to this point, the only thing we can do is to try our best to recover instead of blaming each other.

The Finnish army will definitely have to continue to use it. In addition, Reinhardt put on a moderate tone in front of Mannerheim and Loeb: "I have decided to free up space from the Western Front for the formation of the new Eastern Front Army Group." Among the troops, transfer one armored division and two infantry divisions to strengthen your strength."

He came in with a military salute to the two of them, and said solemnly: "Marshals, from now on, it's up to you!"

Text 783 The Soviet-German situation

It is indeed time to worry about the Northern Army Group.

Before Loeb attacked Leningrad, Bock's Central Army Group had captured Minsk, the capital of Belarus.Immediately afterwards, they took down Smolensk, which is known as the "Moscow Gateway", and the next step is to go straight to take Smolensk!

Although before that, the Central Army Group had to wipe out a small number of remnants of the Western Front Army and the Reserve Front Army brought by Zhukov.

However, the strength comparison between the two sides is very obvious, and the strength of the Central Group Army Group obviously has an advantage.

After all, in addition to Germany's own troops, the Central Army Group also includes infantry divisions left by the Italian Russian Expeditionary Force and the Spanish 250th Corps.

In addition to the armored and mobile units that were transferred to the Southern Army Group to cooperate, the Allied Forces sent by Italy and Spain also had nearly 15 infantry remaining under Bock's command to serve as infantry supplementary forces for the Central Army Group.

Now what the German High Command is waiting for is that the Central Army Group wiped out the intelligence commanded by Zhukov and Timoshenko that there are about 28 Soviet troops east of Smolensk.

At the same time, the Northern Army Group should take Selingrad. While liberating its own forces, it should further strengthen the determination of the Finnish allies to attack the Soviet Union.

After that, the Northern Army Group can cooperate with the Finnish and Norwegian troops to go south.

The Central Army Group can also move eastward with the non-mobile forces that the Italian Russian Expeditionary Force and the Spanish 250th Corps have not transferred.

The Spanish Armored Division and the Italian Mobile Force, which have successfully fought the Kiev encirclement battle with the Southern Army Group, will also go north to fight in Moscow.

As long as such a powerful force is gathered, taking Moscow is nothing more than a large-scale military operation without any suspense.

Grain from Polish farms has been gradually transported to the occupied areas of Ukraine.

This was a decision made by the top German officials early on, which was to completely mobilize Ukraine's anti-Soviet sentiment.

Reinhardt has been planning for many years. German companies in the Soviet Union hardly make any profits, but they provide a large number of job opportunities for Ukrainians. They deliberately "prodigal" let the German railway and road engineers in the Soviet Union distribute food to Ukraine in their own name. families.

Then, when the German engineers and various technical instructors were notified that the Soviet-German relationship was about to deteriorate, when they were about to leave the Soviet Union, they quickly distributed all the canned food in stock and other materials that could not be taken away to the Ukrainian workers.

On the surface, it seems that it is inconvenient for the Germans who are eager to leave to take away a large amount of supplies from Germany to Ukraine, but in fact, this is actually a wooing of people's hearts.

In Belarus, the German engineers of the Soviet-German Cooperative have done a lot of this kind of approach, but the best effect is still in Ukraine, a land that has been oppressed all year round.

Under the guidance of Reinhardt, the top German leaders are increasingly discovering the benefits of attracting allies.

Compared with another time and space, the German army carried out more cruel exploitation of Ukraine and Belarus than the Soviet government, which led to the fact that the two sides turned against each other and wasted the support of the people in the two regions. The top German leaders in this life are simply Went to the other extreme.

It can be said that at the beginning of this era, Reinhardt had already thought about the relevant countermeasures for the future Soviet-German war.

Among them, first of all, he decided to consolidate the friendly sentiment in the Ukraine region from the very beginning and provide a stable rear for future combat operations.

It is necessary to turn the entire Ukraine into a region that hates the Soviet Union through multi-layered goodwill measures, laying a good foundation for further actions in the future.

Even better, Ukraine can also provide the allies with a large number of servant troops, reducing the pressure on the allies' military blocs to fight in the Soviet Union, which can also be regarded as a means of turning enemies into friends.

Happily, this vision has been a huge success.The external environment was also very favorable for the German army.

Before the German army entered Ukraine, there were 7 Ukrainian divisions, a prerequisite for the simultaneous uprising of two Ukrainian army commanders.This has further strengthened the confidence of the top German leaders in winning over the Ukrainian people.

And in Rundstede completed the Kiev encirclement and annihilation campaign, and after the German army entered Ukraine in an all-round way, it was unexpectedly warmly welcomed by the local people with extremely high enthusiasm. Dreaming of a better life ever since.

The better days that these Ukrainians dream of are nothing more than the ability for everyone to have a job, and after work, they can fill their stomachs and feed the whole family, instead of the past, where there is no idle land in the world, and the farmers are still starving to death.

When the Germans opened a railway and road cooperative here, they had already given hope to many Ukrainians.

Many ordinary people try their best to find a job with the Germans, because this is already the basic job with the highest salary in Ukraine.

All in all, Germany's new Barbarossa plan requires Germany to fight steadily in Ukraine, so after the army of Rundstede occupied Ukraine, it was not in a hurry to continue to advance.

On the one hand, the Southern Army Group has just successfully completed the largest encirclement battle in history, and all troops have exhausted their strength.

Hurrying, advancing, encircling at high speed, dividing and strangling... Whether it is armored troops or infantry divisions, they all fight under extremely high intensity.

Even if the weapon does not need maintenance, fuel and ammunition do not need to be fully replenished.

But people have to rest too!

So the Southern Army Group returned the Italian and Spanish mobile units lent to them by the Central Army Group, and they themselves stopped to make a short comprehensive repair in Ukraine.

Many occupied areas are supplemented by infantry from allies in the Balkan Peninsula such as Greece, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. Under the maintenance of a small number of German supervision teams, they jointly maintain the security of the rear strategic area.

The reason why there is still a monitoring team stationed in the rear with the allied troops is also to prevent the allied forces from oppressing the local people and causing bad influence.

After all, what the German high-level is pursuing is to win over the local people in Ukraine and Belarus, and it is necessary to ensure that the occupying forces will not do bad things.

Of course, the Southern Army Group is not completely idle and has nothing to do.

The entire group army group, and one group army, received a new round of combat orders-to capture the Crimean Peninsula, and incidentally further ensure the safety of Romania's oil fields.

The person who carried out this order was Reinhardt's confidant, Rundstede's old subordinate, and the most proud talent of the German General Staff—General Manstein!

And Manstein's troops are the 11th Army, a super-large mixed army including a German army and a Romanian army.

Text 784 Stalin's Line of Defense

There are too many changing factors in the war, and any insignificant change may affect the overall situation.

For example, the Northern Army Group, because the commander of the 56th Panzer Army, which is the vanguard, is not the historical Erich von Manstein, but von Wojend Tate.

Although the two army commanders are both members of the Feng family, they have completely different command styles.

Historically, when Manstein was in command of the 56th Armored Army, he penetrated into the Soviet Union to a depth of 80 kilometers in the first few days, and then went 100 kilometers deep alone.

Manstein gave an instruction to the officers and soldiers of the 56th Army at the time: "If you can't reach Dinaburg within four days, the bridge over the Dwayne River will be very difficult to occupy."

For this reason, the 56th Armored Army under the command of Manstein advanced all the way. After occupying Dinaburg, they did not follow Loeb's order to stick to the ferry and wait for reinforcements, and continued to carry out in-depth assaults alone.

But Commander Wojend Tate is different.Due to too much waiting for the Finnish army to achieve the first phase of combat objectives and share the casualties and losses of the German army, it took many days when he led the German army to station in Dinaburg.

Then, Wojende Tate chose the "safety policy" given to him by Loeb, that is, to follow the rules and wait for the arrival of the 41st Armored Army at the Ferry of Jacob City to join forces.

This is the biggest difference between the two commanders.