Three Hundred Limited Investigation

"Report!" The staff officer knocked on the door and said loudly at the door.

"Come in!" Guderian was staring at the huge map on his desk, carefully looking at the positions of the two troops drawn on it. His office was in a mess. It was originally the city government building of Stone City. He didn't take anything with him when he ran away, and he messed up his things like a thief.

"Just now, about 10 kilometers due south of us, the 10th Armored Corps of the French Army launched a fierce attack." The staff officer handed the document to Guderian, and then said: "I heard that the scale is very large, and even dispatched an attack." Get a tank."

"Don't easily believe the complaints of your subordinates, dear Bob." Guderian smiled and threw the matter aside: "They always exaggerate all kinds of difficulties. For example, they don't say that they are tired. Need to rest, but will say that their tanks are out of gas, the same example, they can heroically 'repel' ten times the enemy, just need to give them a month's vacation."

False reporting of military achievements has been born since human beings have wars. Sometimes it is because of statistical errors, sometimes it is because of asking for credit, and sometimes it is just to cover up their own mistakes and losses. This kind of thing cannot really be avoided, and sometimes it is exaggerated and encouraged because of the need for war propaganda.

Of course, there is a very famous adage that tells people that it is irresponsible to themselves to constantly exaggerate their achievements - "Don't exaggerate your achievements too often, or next time your boss will send you on a harder task." Because of this , so everyone will carefully consider the consequences before choosing to brag.

As a qualified general, you need to have many necessary skills, and it happens to recognize the bragging of your subordinates, which is one of these necessary skills. Obviously, Guderian, who often fights on the front line and has even been on the battlefield himself, has a more thorough understanding of these issues, so when he heard that there was an attack from the last tank, his first instinctive reaction was not to believe it.

"General, our army repelled this French attack on the side of a small pass and destroyed 29 of their tanks." The staff officer had to briefly introduce the results of the battle reported by the 9th Motorized Infantry Division .

"28 tanks? Relying on the 9th Motorized Rifle Division is a little bit reluctant. Is the 3rd SS Panzer Division helping?" Guderian straightened up, took off the monocle clipped from his eyes, and looked at the My secretary: "The French really dispatched the last tank? Were our losses big?"

"General, we lost 63 soldiers at the pass, and two more are seriously injured and are being rescued." The staff officer introduced: "In addition, the French attacked very suddenly. At that time, there was only one tank of our army there, and this tank was destroyed. gone."

"A tank?" Guderian was taken aback for a moment, then suppressed the vague uneasiness in his heart, and continued to ask: "How can a tank last for so long? Did the crew survive?"

"According to several reports from the scene,

This tank is the No. 113 tank ace of our army. One member of the crew was killed in battle, one was injured, and the others were fine. The staff officer recalled and said: "And just sent a report from the technical appraisal department, they are responsible for collecting the damage parameters of the destroyed Leopard tanks. This report needs to be sent back to the technical department in Berlin. "

No. 113? Rennes tank? With an indescribable feeling in Guderian's heart, he asked, "Who was killed in battle? Who was injured?"

Then he pushed aside the staff officer and walked out, walked to the office in charge of item classification, grabbed all the reports on this defensive operation, and read them carefully. I don't know if I don't see it, but when I saw the photos taken on the spot and the recorded words, the battle-hardened Guderian took a breath.

The photo shows that the track on the right side of the Leopard tank was hit and broke off, and the guide wheel on the same side has also been broken into several pieces and scattered not far away. The shell pierced the tank's side armor from here and hit the tank's electromechanical crew.

Of course, there are other photos to show that the tank is also full of bullet marks in other places. More than half of the plate skirts hanging on the sides have been blown away, and only a few pieces are still hanging on it. hole.

Moreover, the entire turret of this tank was hit several times. The analysis showed that several times it was entirely because of the corner problem that it avoided being completely penetrated. It is important to mention that the several adjustment positions of this tank were very smart and correct .

When he saw the casualty analysis later, Guderian was still slightly relieved. It showed that the gunner Andre was injured, and an electromechanical officer named Clark was killed in battle-he didn't know these two people, but he was in some commendations. The names had been mentioned, so it was reassuring to him that he only cared about the Rain Harder he knew.

"Just submit this report as it is, and don't make any exaggerations. In addition, how many French tanks were destroyed by Frederick's rockets, excluding the air force?" Guderian sorted out the report and put it back in the reference room. table, and then asked.

"About 5 tanks were destroyed. This is the consequence of the opponent's tanks being too dense." The staff officer replied behind Guderian.

Guderian nodded, and then ordered the officer who stood up at a loss at a loss: "Help me draft a commendation and send a copy to the entire army... In addition, submit the application in the name of the 1st Armored Army for Lieutenant Lei Ernest Harder applies for the Knight's Cross of the Oak Leaves."

"Lieutenant?" The Chief of Staff glanced at Guderian, then nodded and said, "I understand, General. I will sign an order for Ren to be promoted to Lieutenant Commander."

"Give him a vacation and let them go forward with the battalion headquarters. Don't arrange any other tasks for them. When the supplementary tank arrives, give him a priority to change a tank." Guderian thought for a while and said .

Then he walked out, stopped in the middle of the walk, turned around and added: "Choose the best electromechanic for him to cooperate with their crew. Remember, use your brain when doing this, and arrange a fast People who integrate into their car crew must also have strong skills. Do you understand?"

Guderian thought for a while, and then went on to tell his staff: "Also, choose some good things from the supplies and supplement them, saying that I rewarded and condolenced their battalion."

"Yes! I understand." The staff officer nodded.

"Is there anything else?" Guderian looked at the staff officer he was familiar with, and knew that there must be something wrong with his constipated expression, so he asked.

"General Rundstedt sent a telegram. For some reason, the oil transportation must be delayed by 2 days before it can be delivered to us." The staff officer said: "He suggested that we stand by and wait for the infantry to come up before continuing west. "

"Oh?" Guderian was taken aback for a moment, and then he figured out the twists and turns when he turned his eyes. Rundstedt must have been pressured by the Army General Headquarters to stop the armored forces from attacking. The aggressive scythe-swinging operation has always been very worrying. This time, they want to stabilize the front line and bypass Yuan to restrain the armored troops who are as aggressive as Yuan.

"Is the oil stored in the military headquarters enough for a few days?" Thinking of this joint, Guderian frowned and asked.

The staff officer naturally knew this kind of thing very well, and immediately replied: "We seized a part of the French army's reserve gasoline in Stone, and the quality is quite high. Adding our own, it can be used for at least 5 days, but this part of gasoline is in the seized supplies. There is a report, we can't take it and use it directly..."

"Immediately send a telegram to the army headquarters of the group army, telling them that the gasoline we seized was detonated because of the destruction of the French army." Guderian wiped dozens of tons of supplies from the account with a swipe of his pen.

He still didn't think it was enough, so he said to his already embarrassed chief of staff: "Bring me the original electronic copy."

...

After a few minutes, the telegram was sent to Guderian, and it was written on it. Because the troops advanced too fast, the fuel transportation was chaotic, so the group army suspended the supply of fuel to the frontline troops. In addition to strengthening defenses, the various ministries can dispatch reconnaissance troops to confirm the further movements of the French army and prepare for subsequent actions.

After reading it, Guderian threw the electricity on the desk, then put a confident smile on his face, clicked on the map to his chief of staff and said: "Order the 1st regiment of the 1st Armored Division to continue westward." , the task is to detect the movement of the French army. But you can talk to their regiment commander in private and tell him that the furthest detection distance I have set for him is in Laon."

"Raon? Is that far away?" The chief of staff felt that this kind of behavior was no different from disobedience on the battlefield, so he could only bite the bullet and ask, "If it is pursued, this kind of thing..."

"No one will be held accountable." Guderian waved his hand to cheer up his own chief of staff: "Since the order given by General Rundstedt did not prohibit the troops from investigating, it gave us an excuse. I said so Say, do you understand?"

For the front-line generals in charge of the army, the orders of the commander-in-chief of the army are of course not easy to disobey. But who can become the commander-in-chief of hundreds of thousands of troops, who is an idiot with insufficient IQ? They naturally knew that the orders of the Army General Headquarters ran counter to Yuan's wishes, so they had to choose the fundamental question of "whom to take orders from".

Of course, Lundstedt is a smart man among smart people. He ordered the restraint of the troops, which is in line with the meaning of the Army General Headquarters, and giving his subordinates unlimited power of investigation is a disguised support for Guderian and Rommel to continue attack. And as long as the various army headquarters and division headquarters on the front line do not continue to advance, they can shirk responsibility infinitely downward.

And once it is investigated, it will be a fight between the gods of the Supreme Command of the Empire and the General Command of the Army, and it has nothing to do with frontline officers and soldiers like them.

The chief of staff is naturally not a fool. Hearing what Guderian said, he understood the reason of the matter, and immediately nodded and issued an order to order the various troops to continue to "investigate" forward.