Seven Hundred and Twenty Four Running Dogs

On October 30, 1882, a boy was born into a military family in Poznan, Prussia. His father had been promoted to Lieutenant General in the old German Army. The boy was influenced by his father in the military since he was a child, and he was inspired to become a great soldier.

In the blink of an eye, time came to 1901. This big boy had graduated from the military academy and became a second lieutenant artillery officer of the German Empire. A good education and a background in a military family allowed the boy to rise to the top and was eventually transferred to a military academy for further studies. At this time, the current head of the empire, Akado, was still an unknown child who had just started learning to read and write. In 1912, he graduated from the Military Academy and served in the General Staff. During the First World War, the boy successively served as a staff officer at the headquarters of the military division. And he was seriously wounded in the Battle of Verdun in October 1918.

Immediately afterwards, the lives of two different trajectories intersected. In 1919 after the end of World War I, this big boy was hired by the newly formed German Wehrmacht and later served in the 3rd Military Region. At the same time, Akado Rudolph, an unknown soldier, was also selected by the New Wehrmacht to continue to serve Germany. In 1921, the boy was promoted to a major. In 1924, he was transferred to the Army Training Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense. He also met a younger officer, Akado, who was already a colonel.

From then on, the boy became close friends with the still extremely young Arkado Rudolf at that time, and he became one of Akado's potential forces in the military early on. In terms of the degree of desperation, it was even better than Rommel and Guderian at the time.

In 1926, he was arranged by Arcado as the commander of the artillery regiment. He was promoted to colonel in 1927. In 1928, he was transferred to the chief of staff of the famous 26th Cavalry Division of the National Defense Forces. He worked with the current Desert Fox for a short period of time. This period was also the era when the 26th Cavalry Division gathered stars. All the imperial generals in the world can find immature faces in a group photo of officers of this division.

In 1930, he became the commander of the major general of the infantry division. In 1932, he served as the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division. In 1933, he was once again promoted to lieutenant general by Akado. Since then, he was labeled as Akado's confidant and began to serve as the director of communications. And the secret expansion of the army created conditions for the general who had already been on the rise to continue to be promoted. In 1934, he began to command the infantry army with the rank of lieutenant general, and successively served as the commander of the 6th infantry army, the commander of the 16th infantry army and the commander of the military area of ​​the station. In 1936, he was promoted to general of the artillery again. This miraculous promotion speed can generally be proved to be a sign of the commander sent by the head of state. The generals who have also risen so rapidly are all Akado's most trusted military spokespersons.

When the time advanced to 1937, when the German army launched a military attack on Poland, the 55-year-old general was appointed by Akado as the commander-in-chief of the f group army, and concurrently served as the commander-in-chief of the Polish garrison. This military boss who can control powerful generals such as Liszt Model in name has been labeled as a "head of state running dog" for five full years.

In the army, he was despised by the generals of the powerful faction, thinking that he got such a high position by flattering the head of state, Akado.

Most generals, even Rommel and Guderian, who are also generals of the Führer's faction, don't think much of this general with a mediocre record on his resume. Sitting on the Eastern Front all the time made him have no chance to show any performance in the defeat of France, the expedition to North Africa, and the flattening of the Balkans. Even the Soviet Red Army opposite him called him "General Peace".

This general with no bright spots in his resume is the commander-in-chief of Army Group F on the Eastern Front, and the spokesperson of the head of state who was ordered to supervise all the commanders of the Army Group on the Eastern Front. Colleagues think that there is no commander with much ability.

At this moment, the running dog under the head of state is listening to a majestic symphony in his command headquarters. The record is matched with a beautifully designed 1877-style gramophone, which fills this small place with that exciting tune. General Kluge, who was sitting in the center of the room, was beating the beat of the music with his eyes closed.

"General!" Perhaps because the knock on the door could not reach the general's ears, the assistant at the door shouted directly, and waited until the music in the room stopped and the voice of Kluge ordering him to come in came out. Pushed open the door and walked in.

"Long live the Führer!" Among all the armies of the entire army, perhaps only the soldiers of the F Group Army must greet the Führer Akador when they are asked to meet. This is also one of the characteristics of the Klug command. The other armies joked that this move made Army F the "main force for flattering". However, it seems that Kluge didn't care about this, and he still carried out this order in his own way, and he was meticulous to the point of harshness.

"General! General Student's paratroopers have arrived in Marin. According to your order, the 3rd Armored Army directly under the Group Army and the 5th Armored Division of the independent SS have assembled in the designated area." The deputy stood at attention and reported After learning about the latest developments in the battle situation, he asked, "The next step... shall we continue to stand still?"

Klug smiled, seemed to be very happy, and seemed to be laughing at some people and things. He walked from the phonograph to the front of the map, pointed to the hoarding sites full of supplies, and the garrison area where the troops were assembled, and ordered to his assistant: "Record my order... order, the first The 16th Infantry Corps, in coordination with the 3rd Panzer Corps, began to attack in the northeast direction, sticking to the 1st Guards Front Army units on the front of the Soviet Union! The second order was given to the commander of the 5th SS Panzer Division, ordering him to follow Route 44 Assault to the east and create pressure on the opposite Soviet troops as much as possible!"

"General... are we finally going to enter the battlefield?" After hearing these orders, the deputy looked at Kluge in front of him with disbelief and asked excitedly.

Kluge glanced at his assistant, with a warm smile on his face all the time, he opened his mouth slowly, as if he was talking about something that had little to do with him: "You know what I like the most about the sentence that the head of state said Talk? When he was drinking with me, he said a word, saying that it was a famous saying from the far east. After listening to it, I found it very interesting."

He turned around, walked to his assistant, reached out and touched the assistant's empty chest. Unlike other group armies that are good at fighting, the soldiers of those group armies usually have shiny medals on their chests. While nodding his assistant’s chest, he seemed to remember those past years: "The head of state said that there is a famous saying in distant China, which is 'a dog that bites does not bark'. When I took this position, I put I have become a dog of the head of state, a dog that can bite! For the revival of Germany and for Germany to become the most powerful country, I am willing to stand in front of Akado and not bark, but I will kill anyone who blocks the way Who!"

"Understood now? As the commander of the F Group Army, I didn't get into this position by flattering. What the Führer needs is not a pet dog that wags its tail, but a dog that can bite people." Klug narrowed his eyes and said : "Today, we will go out and bite people! Within a year at the latest, I will let your empty chests be covered with enviable medals!"

"General!" For some unknown reason, the assistant who had worked under Kluge for three years felt something stuck in his throat. Several of his predecessors took their positions in the F Group Army as a stepping stone for their advancement. They came and went in a hurry, always with the humbleness of a dwarf. The entire F Group Army seems to be a forgotten corner of the Third Reich Army, just a government agency rather than a combat unit.

But these people have forgotten a fact, an obvious fact, even without any decent battles, Klug's training has been widely praised by other army groups. regarded as a valuable talent. And Kluge himself, who has studied the coordination of infantry and artillery for ten years, is a rare master of infantry offensive tactics in the German army.

It's just that during the time when the German armored forces were shining brightly, the German infantry only played the role of supporting. Even the elite grenadiers are just a supporting role for tanks, let alone traditional infantry, which has no distinctive features. Klug's best infantry attacks were insignificant in the face of armored assaults, and his reputation was overshadowed by a large group of armored commanders with outstanding military achievements.

"I'm called Führer faction in the army, and I admit that I was promoted all the way to my current position by the Führer." Klug put on his coat and leather gloves while speaking, and walked to the door , stopped his footsteps, looked back at the assistant who was still there in a daze, and finally said: "However, there are many heads of state in the army, Rommel, Guderian, Raeder, Catherine, Dick, Deng Nitz...even Lütjens can be counted as half. But have you ever thought about it, so many people are so powerful, why is there an extra Kluge who is nothing?"

After finishing speaking, he led the guards into the armored command vehicle that was already waiting at the door. At the same time, in the middle of the German front, the F Group Army, which had been motionless like a mountain, began to move.

Akado, who was far away in the wolf's lair, was facing a group of traditional army generals with a smile, shaking his hand with a goblet full of red wine. He squinted his eyes and looked at a group of red-faced generals, and finally said: "Call the head of state!" Pai? Are you envious? Only now do I know who I, Arcador Rudolph, is not a general who is in his own right?"

On January 10, 1939, Kluge's F Group Army unexpectedly showed its elite, and fought fiercely for 14 hours with the First Front Army of the Guards commanded by the famous Soviet general Konev. They won the battle and advanced 20 kilometers.