Eight Hundred and Twenty Nine

Just such a map is a work that is similar to the actual situation drawn up by German spies. If the map in the hands of the Soviets is used, the Germans can walk 20 kilometers in the wilderness a day, which is probably considered fast.

The advancing speed of the German army was indeed not slow. With the cooperation of the Soviet troops commanded by Zhukov, the German troops advanced hundreds of kilometers in just 15 days, and even encircled Smolensk, which Stalin claimed that he did not want to lose. But along the way, the transportation situation of the German army fell into a "disaster".

First of all, there is an old problem that the Soviet railway standards are different from the European railway standards. Although Germany helped the Soviet Union improve some railway construction standards in the early days, it did not solve all the problems. At least in the Moscow area where the railways are relatively dense, the Soviets still used their own standards because of cost issues, which caused the German army to encounter the dilemma that the railways could not be used near Smolensk.

Then the roads in the Soviet Union are not the asphalt roads that the Germans had in mind. Most of the roads in the Soviet Union are paved with dirt, and they are completely temporary roads according to German military standards. These roads, combined with snowfall, reduced the efficiency of German road transport by almost half.

The German army used to make do with IWC 6 ￡ vehicles due to production capacity problems: the cars from the British, French and Belgian coalition forces seized, and the civilian vehicles from their own countries. The slightly better off-road vehicles used by German However, these cars from different sources performed differently when dealing with mud, which seriously affected the advancing speed of the German army.

Horses and mules have become the main means of transportation for the German army to transport supplies to the front line. This efficiency makes the A Group Army, which is the most mechanized on the central front line, miserable. King Tiger tanks and Tiger tanks and a large number of Panther tanks and armored vehicles have become real oil tigers, making it extremely difficult for Rundstedt to move forward.

The current situation is not how fierce the Soviet Union's resistance is, but that looking at the seemingly endless road makes the German army lose the courage to take another step forward. Because every step forward, they have to lose more cans, more fuel, more ammo supplies, which sounds hopeless.

"And we need time to clear the guerrillas, resisters, and pro-Soviet civilians behind us." Rundstedt continued to Akado helplessly: "These people will try their best to destroy our transportation system and attack our Convoys, bridges blown up, railroads destroyed, we must mobilize troops to expel and suppress these enemies."

"Various things have involved our experience. In fact, the arrival of the SS armed forces has relieved some of our pressure. At least in my army, this is the case." Rundstedt said I did not forget to support Akado: "But these troops need better training. This is the best way to reduce their casualties."

"I agree with that, the Army can train these SS Armed Forces to make them better at their combat tasks.

"Akado nodded, giving enough face to the Marshal who supported him.

Seeing that Akado agreed with his opinion, Rundstedt gave himself enough face, and hurriedly continued to complain. After all, a real war cannot be fought by the commander-in-chief on the map, and the troops can fight wherever they want: "My head of state, another problem is the security of the flanks of the southern cluster and the central cluster."

As he spoke, he pointed to a vast area on the map, and said to Akado: "As the war continues to advance, the southern group of our army advances too fast, resulting in an area extending from near the west bank of the Volga River to Sri Lanka. On the outskirts of Molensk, on such a long front, our army's strength is seriously insufficient."

"Along such a long line of defense, in the middle of the southern cluster and the central cluster, is the Ukrainian 1st Army. This army suffered a lot in the battle to capture Kharkov." Rundstedt pointed Manstein's Army Group M in the northern area said to Accador: "Next to this Army Group is General Model's Army Group D."

Then he pointed to the flank of Army Group F, and then introduced: "General Kluger's Army Group F's flank is also short of troops. There is a Romanian Army Group, and further south is the Italian Expeditionary Force."

The current division of the German army is like this, the northernmost is an army group in Finland, and then the army group e of Lister. These two armies formed the northern group of the German army, and the main direction of attack was Leningrad, an important town in the north of the Soviet Union.

In the middle is the Army Group A of Marshal Rundstedt, and further south is the Army Group F of General Kluge, plus the Romanian 1st Army, and the Italian Expeditionary Force. Central cluster in the direction of Moscow.

Then to the south, there are Model's D Army, Ukraine's 1st Army, Manstein's M Army and Guderian's G Army. Such a strong force forms the Southern Group. Caucasus oil production base.

The original idea was very simple, to place Model, who was the best at defense, among a few unreliable Axis allies, and rely on the D Group Army to strengthen a weak point in the entire defense line that was not stable. However, as the war progressed, the German offensive continued to move forward, causing the entire front to be destroyed.

The extension made it impossible for the d group army to effectively cover the flanks of each group.

Akado has no military talent anymore, and he understands Marshal Rundstedt's worries. He has to admit that this line of defense is fragile, and as the war progresses, it will not be able to be effectively repaired and repaired even in a short period of time. strengthen. Once the Soviet Red Army launched a counterattack against these areas, even if the several German armies in the southern cluster were not encircled and wiped out, they would be forced to retreat to end the battle for the Caucasus and hand over the good situation to others.

Fortunately, the Soviet Union is now in a hurry to shrink the line of defense, and there are not so many troops invested in the counterattack. In other words, the entire Soviet high-level has been beaten by the German army that has been victorious. They have not correctly analyzed their positions and considered counterattacks. this kind of thing. So this line of defense is considered safe at present, but once Zhukov is allowed to withdraw his hand, it is better to expect some other miracle to happen if these allies are expected to hold on to the line of defense.

Sometimes Akado really feels very helpless. There is really such a country in the world. Its territory is so vast that it is surprising. In front of it, the tanks, planes, and cannons are as small as a bug, and it crushes France in one blow The Blitz had to be used against this country several times, but it still couldn't end the war.

"For this kind of thing, you have to ask the relevant person in charge of the army's logistics department. Regarding when the n army, o army and p army can go into battle, we urgently need to strengthen our forces in several directions. This is not a joke. "Akado looked at several generals sitting far away. They were officers in charge of the German army's logistics and equipment.

One general was taking out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat, and the other general was desperately cleaning his monocle. Obviously, none of them wanted to answer the head of state Accardo's question directly, after all, the timetable they gave was really embarrassing to speak. But when things come to an end, if you don't say anything, you have to bite the bullet and say it.

"My head of state, it's not that the logistics department is delaying. It's really that the equipment and personnel needed by these armies are too short." A general finally replied with a groan: "The establishment of General Huot's j army At that time, the production of weapons was almost unable to keep up, so we had to transfer some assault rifles and G43 weapons that should have been given to other troops, and then everyone used the Mauser 98k rifles in stock to make up for it.”

"It's just a gap in the rifle, cannons, Tekken anti-tank rockets, cars, armored vehicles..." He was crying as he spoke, and it seemed that he had been tortured by people from various armies who came to demand various supplies Crazy: "I'm not complaining, in fact, the number of weapons and equipment provided by the industrial sector has surprised our logistics department, but the speed of our military expansion is too fast. Two years ago, we only had less than one million weapons and equipment. troops, but now we have to raise weapons, ammunition, food and equipment for 7 million troops."

The German army actually does not have 7 million troops, but some security forces of the SS need to be armed with weapons, and Germany's allies also import weapons from Germany from time to time to improve their military strength-this back and forth, causing It made the German army's weapons distribution stretched.

The next few group armies formed were basically searching for German stocks. Most of Manstein's troops were using Mauser rifles, and although his troops had a large number of cannons, they gathered the caliber and Model, in fact, the logistical pressure is very huge.

On the surface, it seems that the German armored forces are attacking by leaps and bounds on the front line, but behind the scenes, the logistics department is patching together, and the thousands of tons of oil that have finally been accumulated disappear like evaporation. To be honest, the production capacity of Romanian oil fields is no longer enough for the German army to squander, and the current offensive has begun to consume Germany's domestic strategic stocks.

The German navy has stopped going to sea on a large scale due to fuel issues. Only submarines are still active in the entire waters near Iceland, and even the routine patrols of reconnaissance aircraft have been canceled on a large scale. The German garrison in France only keeps 60% of the strategic oil reserves, and less than 70% in Germany. Acado knows all these data.

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