Five Hundred and Seventy-Nine Manstein's Plan

Let Vlasov return to his station, and Akado and the Chief of the Wehrmacht General Staff Manstein drove to the Wolf's Lair together. A few days ago, Marshal Brauchitsch was promoted to Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Third Reich because of his outstanding combat performance on the Eastern Front, and Manstein, who had been helping Brauchitsch with his advice, naturally followed suit, so he was appointed As the new Chief of Staff of the Army, he completely replaced the original position of General Bork.

The scenery outside the window reversed rapidly as the car moved forward, and Akado was obviously in a very good mood sitting in the convertible. He saw the situation he wanted, and he was full of confidence in the next war on the Eastern Front.

"The marshal went to Kyiv in person to inspect the Brovare defense line. Before he left, your itinerary hadn't been finalized yet, so he couldn't come to meet you in time." Manstein carefully explained Marshal Brauchitsch The reason why he did not stay in Warsaw to meet him also mentioned the more worrying issue of Kyiv's defense.

Akado smiled, and then waved his hands: "General Manstein, I am not a person who pays attention to small details. My marshal fought in the front line and won the war, and he won my respect more than flattering me."

"With all due respect, my head of state. Most areas of the Dnieper River defense line are very strong, and our grenadiers and elite infantry are sufficient to withstand the Soviet counterattack." Manstein thought for a while and said to Akado: "But this There are two serious loopholes in the line of defense, one is the surrounding area of ​​Kyiv and the Brovare area, and the other is the direction of the Crimean Peninsula."

"Oh? Then, General, how does the Army General Staff plan to avoid these two defects?" Akado raised his eyebrows and asked casually.

"The opinion of the General Staff is to launch a limited attack, occupy the Crimea Peninsula, destroy the Soviet Black Sea Fleet port there, and complete the defense line." Manstein really threw out his battle plan for attacking the Crimea , this combat plan can shorten the length of the German defense line and seriously interfere with the actions of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. But now there is a very serious problem in front of Akado, that is, he does not have weapons such as Gustav cannon and Karl mortar, and he lacks heavy fire support to attack the Sevastopol fortress.

And recently, high-level Germans are discussing the feasibility of jointly sending troops to attack the Balkan countries with Turkey and Italy. This plan is extremely active in Turkey, and even proposed a radical plan to send 700,000 troops, intending to demonstrate the strong military power of the Turkish army. If Germany shows weakness on the Balkan issue at this time, it is conceivable that Turkey in the Balkan region will make more and more demands in the future.

At the same time, the German-Italian coalition forces launched a powerful offensive in the Tobruk area, intending to capture this important military fortress. The African Legion is expanding its strength and is expected to expand into a huge military group with three armies. Including Rommel's L Army, General Scherner's K Army, and Italy's Garibaldi's 1st Army. The supply and transportation of this army requires a lot of manpower and material resources. It is obviously not a wise move to continue to expand the war on the Eastern Front at this moment.

"General,

I know what you say makes sense, but once we attack the Crimean Peninsula and then capture the Sevastopol fortress. Then the Soviets who have been forced by us to return to the negotiating table will completely give up their plans for peace talks and continue to fight us. "Akado sighed, looking at the gradually dense woods outside the car and said.

"..." Manstein put forward his idea in front of Akado for the first time, but Akado rejected it. It is conceivable how he feels now. He shut his mouth and waited for Akado to continue to reprimand him.

Manstein is now one of the best strategists in the Wehrmacht, and a rare genius in strategic command. Even his boss, Brauchitsch, praised his performance. He even praised Manstein in private. Compared with Schlieffen, the former Chief of the General Staff of the Empire, he commented on Manstein to his colleague, General Bock, who was transferred to the Army Group as the commander of the Army Group: "He reminds me of Alfred. If he continues to maintain such wisdom, then One day he will surpass all of us."

But Manstein himself knew that his "Operation Sickle" plan was inspired by the head of state Accardo. It was because of the successful implementation of this plan that the German army was able to get rid of the danger of fighting on two fronts, and it also made Manstein I have become Brauchitsch's deputy from an unknown small army commander.

Subsequent changes to the Barbarossa plan were also facilitated by the head of state behind the scenes, and had nothing to do with Manstein himself. Now that the situation on the Eastern Front has stabilized, the German army has gained the upper hand and reduced losses to negligible levels. It was the head of state who foresaw everything in advance with his elusive strategic vision.

So now Manstein is uneasy. He suspects that he is not capable of serving as the chief of staff of the German army at all, and that he is just a puppet of the head of state. So he stayed up for several days, using the time of rest at night to draw up a complete attack plan for the Sevastopol fortress. For this plan, he even consulted the intelligence department with his own rights, and obtained a lot of information from German spies on the Crimean fortress group.

But to his disappointment, Akado still rejected this attack plan to prove himself, which made him suddenly feel disheartened. It seems that the Führer really just regarded him as a mouthpiece with no assertiveness, an echoer of the Army Staff Headquarters.

The atmosphere in the car suddenly became awkward, Manstein remained silent, and Akado seemed to be thinking. The two of them were so silent, and Anna who was sitting beside Akado didn't speak, just holding Akado's hand and playing with it lightly.

"I can't offer you much support, and it will be months at night. We have invested too much in the Balkans and must withdraw it in the near future. But as soon as the problems in the Balkans are over, then I will give you an army , let you solve the Crimean Peninsula yourself." Akado spoke suddenly, breaking the silence in the car, apparently Manstein, who was sitting across from him, didn't expect the conversation to turn around, and for a moment he wanted to cry impulse.

He looked at Akado, and listened to Akado continue to talk to himself: "I do have many supporters in the army, and many supporters are also in high positions because of their absolute loyalty to me, Raedel , Gascoll, even Catherine and Dick have a deep personal relationship with me, and the Army Li Guderian and Rommel are also my confidants. But I found you. It is not because of your obscurity, but I really feel that seeing you is the same as seeing Rommel Guderian, it makes my eyes shine."

"You are the man I am looking for. I have a hunch, like I have a hunch that Guderian and Rommel will bring me victory. I think you will bring me victory, and you will become my proudest One of my subordinates, even I have already prepared the position of marshal for you." When Akado said this, he glanced at Manstein, obviously the other party was frightened by his words, and maybe the other party would never Thinking that he would be regarded by the head of state as a backup candidate for the marshal.

Of course, Akado couldn't say this to Manstein: Brother, in fact, those plans of mine were written by you yourself a few years later. It will be given to you—he will scare Manstein to death, or Anna will treat him as a psychopath and send him back to Berlin for treatment.

So he had no choice but to continue to use the gift of God to explain the process of discovering Manstein under the guise of discernment. This frustrates Manstein. After all, the generals who have been favored by the head of state are doing well now. He, the chief of the general staff, knows all too well.

"My Führer..." Manstein, who is 51 years old this year, felt that tears were about to burst from his eyes. He had experienced so much in just a few minutes, and he almost gave up on himself and was about to fade out. The military command circle, but because of the heartfelt words of the head of state, Akado, decided to fight for Akado for the rest of his life.

"Submit your plan to attack the Crimean Peninsula to Marshal Brauchitsch, and store it as an action guide for this area. In the future, I will give you a chance to prove yourself in the Crimea." Akado He continued: "At that time, don't let me down, understand?"

"Yes! My head of state! Manstein will never let you down! Head of state Akado? Long live Rudolf!" Manstein replied solemnly.

"Don't look depressed, my general, show me my wolf lair, maybe I will spend the whole summer here." Akado said helplessly: "I hope this place is better than the one in Berlin." The temperature is slightly better, I hate the heat."

The car stopped at the first checkpoint. The two sides of the road were full of SS soldiers at three steps and one post at five steps. On both sides of the road were endless forests. The dense foliage casts dappled light on the ground. Akado stood up, took off the trench coat and handed it to Anna, revealing the SS uniform he was wearing underneath.

He wears a lot of clothes, mainly to maintain the image of the head of state in public. The weather in the past two days has not been too hot, so he even wears a windbreaker to maintain a capable and energetic image. He has a special shape designer, and his clothes are strictly checked. These are all arranged by Fanny, she needs a perfect image to allow her to carry out the German Führer's propaganda without any flaws.

"My head of state! Welcome to the wolf's lair." An officer at the checkpoint stood at attention and saluted, and then signaled the guards to remove the roadblock.