Six Hundred and Seventy-Eight November
In fact, the weather on the Ukrainian plains has become a bit cold, especially for troops stationed in the wild, and it is very difficult at night. After all, the weather in Ukraine is very different from the warm Europe.
Both sides are preparing the military supplies necessary for winter combat, cotton-padded tents, antifreeze protective covers for soldiers’ guns, and antifreeze fluid. Both sides are doing their best to make the final reserves of almost everything that can be prepared.
Akado prepared antifreeze suits made of white snow camouflage fabric for the 5.3 million troops on the entire Eastern Front. These short windbreakers and hooded antifreeze suits even have two sides that are convenient for storing things on most pre-processed styles. Small bag, the workmanship can be said to be very excellent.
The careful German rear even provided a full set of 4 white gun camouflage sets, covering the German mp-44 assault rifle, g43 semi-automatic rifle, Mauser 98k bolt-action rifle and mg42 general-purpose machine gun. In this way, the German team's camouflage in the snow will be a higher level than many times in history.
This time Germany came prepared. In order to reserve cotton-padded clothes for winter in advance, Accardo began to build breeding bases for the German side as early as 1925. These bases not only helped the German side under the constraints of the "Treaty of Versailles". A large number of management talents and troops are hidden, and a large amount of duck meat is provided to Germany during the production process.
Because of the large reserves of down products, German duck meat products were even exported to 13 surrounding countries and regions for a period of time, allowing the French at that time to enjoy the consumption experience brought by cheap duck and goose meat. Germany, on the other hand, uses this large-scale breeding to secretly stockpile low-quality down jackets mixed with chicken feathers. Then, from 1937 to 1938, these inferior down jackets were used to provide warmth for rear workers.
In addition, Germany occupied France and the Netherlands, acquired a large number of pastures, and strengthened the production capacity of the country's animal husbandry and textile industries, making Germany very rich in production capacity for civilian thermal materials.
The high-quality down jackets and cotton jackets produced during this period, as well as a large number of sweater products, were transported to the front line by the Germans to supply the military, so that German soldiers could obtain enough winter clothes in advance when the weather turned cold. Compared with another time and space, the German army is now very well prepared for the winter, and has even managed to store some spare supplies.
On the other hand, the German armored forces prepared more professionally and systematically for winter. For two months, using front-line factory areas such as Kyiv and Warsaw, German tanks thickened the front armor while also A device that can heat the engine is installed. At least when the order is 35 degrees, this device can effectively provide completely cooled tanks and armored vehicles, increasing the heat of the engine to reach the normal starting temperature.
In addition, as the production capacity of the Romanian oil fields gradually increased, the German army’s oil supply on the Eastern Front was very timely and sufficient. In addition, the German army’s original reserve of oil was more than that in another time and space, so the quality and quantity of oil for the German army have significantly improved.
Compared with the amount of oil reserves of the German army in another time and space that Acador is familiar with, the weight of oil in the hands of the German army is still a full 1.3 million barrels more than that of the same period. This is already a very good result, because compared with Germany in the same period, the German army is now drinking more equipment.
With these costs, German Farben provided enough antifreeze so that the armored vehicles that Germany is proud of can maintain a very good condition in the coming winter. In this way, Germany can be said to have made all the necessary preparations to prevent the vehicles from being frozen and completely unusable.
Not only did the fuel burn better, German armored vehicles also made their own preparations in other preparations. For example, the track width of German tanks was more than twice as wide as that of the No. 3 and No. 4 tanks. The new track The Leopard and Tiger tanks have a better passing rate in the mud, and are more adaptable to snow and complex road conditions, which also gives the German armored forces more confidence to attack forward in winter.
At the same time, there is also a full 1 million tons of charcoal and firewood from the German army. These materials will move forward with the troops to ensure that the troops can light fires to keep warm or heat vehicles in the field. These woods are all taken from the forests in Poland and Germany. In order to prepare these materials, the woodland in Poland has been reduced at a speed visible to the naked eye. Originally, with the level of preparation of the German army, raw materials such as wood were not needed, but the German army still prepared a huge amount, and some of them were even dried. It can be said that even a little help was not wasted.
The reserves of these materials support 13,100 various tanks of the German armored forces, as well as 7,100 armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery, as well as 390,000 vehicles and motorcycles of various types, and 11,300 large-caliber support tractors. artillery. 5.3 million soldiers are ready to fight. If you add 300,000 Romanian troops, 200,000 Finnish troops, 700,000 Italian troops, and 500,000 Turkish follow-up troops, the total German ground strength on the Eastern Front will exceed 7 million. It can be said that the soldiers are strong and the horses are strong.
Compared with the army, the preparation of the Luftwaffe can definitely be described as complete. In 4 months, with the help of engineers and prisoners of war, the Luftwaffe built anti-freeze bunkers for a total of 20,000 aircraft on the Eastern Front. This made Poland All the German planes to Ukraine can be placed in the house when the temperature drops and the sky is full of snow and ice. This project is incredible even to Akado. Never miss an idea.
In addition, the Germans also prepared aircraft protection tents and cut wooden skeletons, which were used to quickly establish front-line field airports when the German army advanced to Minsk and Smolensk and other areas behind. Farther away, the German army did not make too many preparations, only a follow-up support plan. After all, according to the passage of combat time, it is expected to attack near Moscow, and it will be spring and summer.
Because of the information obtained, Germany still adopted a defensive posture. Nearly 6 million troops were waiting for the Soviet Red Army's early offensive. Although they did not prepare a crenelated defense system like the one in Poland, they prepared a large-depth defense system in their frontline areas. Especially with the two wings of Kyiv as the core.
Similarly, the Soviet Red Army is also preparing for a winter offensive under the leadership of Zhukov. Compared with the German army, which has rich combat experience in Europe, the Soviet Red Army has very rich combat experience in the cold Russia. Leaving aside other things for the time being, just looking at the number of cotton coats the Soviet Union had in stock, one can tell that they are quite familiar with winter combat.
After the advent of winter, snowfall is often accompanied by mud and cold. At this time, the Soviet Red Army troops, which rely heavily on livestock to maneuver, ushered in the best time to fight. The Cossack cavalry on horses will attack in a wide range of roundabouts in cold weather, becoming a nightmare for the enemy infantry shivering with cold, and the Soviets' stronger ability to resist the cold makes them more adaptable to the cold climate Attack.
Compared with the German troops, the total strength of the Soviet Red Army has a clear advantage. They have prepared 9.1 million soldiers in three echelons on the Eastern Front. Although most of these soldiers are not as elite as the Soviet Red Army when Poland began to attack, they They have still maintained combat training for more than a month, and have fairly good basic combat capabilities.
After two months of delay, the strategic materials aided by the United States to the Soviet Union were also transported from the distant Bering Strait to the foot of the Ural Mountains. These advanced lathes and processing equipment provided the Soviet Union with a huge increase in industrial capacity.
In order to counter the performance advantage of the German armored forces in aiming optical collimators, the Soviet Union also deliberately ordered a full 500 sets of imported m4 Sherman aiming systems from the United States. After adjustment, they were installed on Stalin tanks to improve their performance. The precise performance of the firepower endows it with the ability to fight against the main German tanks such as the Tiger and Panther.
The ordnance enterprises of the Soviet Union worked overtime to provide more than 2,000 T-34 tanks for the Soviet Red Army on the front line in two months, so that the Soviet Red Army still had a certain numerical advantage over Germany in terms of tanks—of course Now, how big the gap in quality is, only God can know.
In order to increase production, the t-34 tank adopts a more rounded new cast turret, which is integrally formed and has an excellent bulletproof shape. It can be said that it has been significantly improved compared to the most primitive kv-1 tank. After this kind of tank was delivered to the troops, the soldiers of the armored forces loved it very much, at least when they replaced the t-26 in their hands, they were very happy.
But this is only the paper data of the tank performance provided by the Soviet engineers. In reality, no one knows how much protection the t-34 tank with this new turret has. After all, in the extreme situation where workers work overtime day and night and produce 35 pieces a day, how many bubbles and impurities are inside the steel body of the one-piece cast turret is beyond the subjective control of the person who produced it.
Of course, in fact, some of the tanks produced in the Soviet Union are still high-quality goods. For example, at least 50 Stalin tanks are almost completely hand-made by workers. The quality can still be guaranteed. Most of these tanks are similar to other mass-produced tanks. Stalin tanks were scattered inside the Soviet armored forces, using cold arrows to deal fatal blows to German tanks.
In the other two months, more than 170 mass-produced Stalin tanks were produced, and the handmade version finally completed Stalin's production requirements for this tank. In this way, the Soviet Union will have more than 220 Stalin tanks, more than 2,300 T-34 tanks, almost 100 KV-2 tanks, more than 5,100 KV-1 tanks, and more than 5,500 tanks during the winter offensive. t-26 tanks and 400 m3 and m3lee vehicles aided by the United States.