Chapter 495 The Truth Behind Failure

Hitler was initially unwilling to believe Guderian's statement.

In Hitler's view, his supreme will of command is the existence that must be executed above all else. But when Hitler, who naturally had this conceited idea, continued to think for a while, his essential distrust of the Wehrmacht immediately began to sprout and spread crazily in Hitler's heart.

"Okay, Guderian, I'll ask the Director of Munitions to confront you and fulfill your wish!"

Because of the problem of winter clothing that could have been easily solved, the director of munitions who was directly responsible to Hitler himself was finally called to confront Guderian.

Faced with the loud questioning of the man in front of him who had the father of the German armored forces on his head, the munitions director who was having a fierce game in his heart finally did not dare to tell a big lie in front of Hitler.

"I admit that all this is true, my head of state, those winter coats are indeed still backlogged in Poland and have not been transported to the front line. We lack locomotives on hand, and the railways leading to the front line are in poor condition. Those Russian guerrillas blew up Many railways have been damaged, and the engineers on the front line are very slow in repairing them. We really don’t have the ability to put on winter clothes.”

"enough!!!"

Before the director of munitions had finished speaking, Hitler, like a volcano erupting, spat in the face of the man who was close at hand. The director of munitions, who could almost smell the stench of spittle, just kept his head down and did not dare to say anything. In front of Hitler, anyone born in Germany could lose his life at any time. The power of life and death only rested with Hitler's decision.

"Stop making excuses for your dereliction of duty at work! Go back and compile a detailed and reliable written report! I want to know how you can get winter coats to the hands of frontline soldiers as soon as possible!"

The director of munitions, who did not even dare to raise his head, was scolded by the furious Hitler. After receiving the order from the Führer, he immediately withdrew in despair, leaving Guderian and Hitler alone again. .

Feeling that he had a headache, Hitler pinched his brows and sat back heavily in his chair, with a distorted expression that looked very painful.

Looking at the German head of state, who was equivalent to Bole to him, Guderian suddenly felt at a loss.

Was Hitler the direct cause of all this? Maybe, maybe not.

But the only thing that is certain is that if the Director of Munitions, who had no idea what he was busy with all day, had not planned so poorly and did not plan well at all, the distribution of winter clothing to the soldiers on the front line would have been much better than it is now. Although all this is still inseparable from Hitler's own orders from the head of state.

After being silent for an unknown number of minutes, Hitler, whose anger was gradually replaced by helplessness, finally spoke again.

"Tell me about the specific situation on the front line, Guderian. I guess you must think that everyone around me is lying to me now."

The suggestive words from Hitler's mouth made Guderian stunned after hearing this. Guderian, who was penetrated by Hitler's keen eyes, was very straightforward and said what was in his heart without much thought. I want to blurt it out.

"The temperature during the day often exceeds minus 40 degrees, and it gets even lower at night. Many cars have their engines and fuel supply lines frozen, and many vehicles were lost in the battle! These are major consequences that cannot be repaired in the short term. Massive losses, we are so poorly prepared for the arrival of the Russian winter!”

"Without cars, we can only use local materials and go to villages and farmers' homes in the Russian-occupied areas to recruit horses to draw sleds and horse-drawn carriages to transport supplies. To be honest, these animals are even more useful than cars under the current circumstances."

"Putting aside for the time being the issue of how much dissatisfaction the people in the occupied areas will cause by the forced recruitment of carriages and horses, the more difficult problem is that these carriages and sleighs not only have limited transportation capacity, but also require dedicated people to drive these horses. We have to put the limited We will allocate part of the food and supplies to feed these livestock. Although it sounds like the gain is not worth the loss, if these horses starve to death, our own soldiers will starve to death and freeze to death next.”

"Compared with the truck baggage transport team in the summer and autumn, the manpower we now spend on logistics has increased exponentially, my head of state. My soldiers even had to learn how to feed horses, which they saw It’s so funny.”

Guderian's words may sound factual to ordinary people, but in the eyes of Hitler himself, who caused all this, this is not the case.

In order to achieve the seemingly huge and beautiful German Army of five million people, Hitler not only ordered the recruitment of more people who did not meet the Wehrmacht recruitment requirements to join the army, but also allowed the SS to recruit more foreign volunteers.

Hitler, who acted with both hands, also eliminated a large number of logistical equipment troops that he considered to be purely redundant. These reduced logistics equipment troops were not disbanded and returned home, but were directly filled into the establishment of the Wehrmacht and transformed into combat troops. .

After struggling hard, Hitler finally successfully achieved his ultimate goal of five million German troops, but the result was that nearly half of the Wehrmacht's logistics and equipment troops were abolished.

The number of people eating and clothing on the front lines increased sharply, while the number of people in the rear responsible for delivering food and clothing decreased sharply.

In the end, the munitions director, who was squeezing supplies for liquidation, was so busy that he couldn't touch the ground. The troubles he had planted for the sake of good numbers were now bearing bitter fruits.

Hitler's eyebrows jumped due to Guderian's hints. He wanted to get angry again, but he couldn't find a satisfactory excuse to vent. Hitler, who knew that what Guderian said was true, finally presupposed his own decision-making mistakes, chose to turn the page, and spoke again.

"I saw a report in your report to Berlin saying that many soldiers were frozen to death in their sleep in the middle of the night. What's going on? Did they all sleep in the open snow?"

It was understandable for Hitler to get a cold and runny nose, and it was not unacceptable to amputate limbs due to necrosis.

But what Hitler couldn't understand the most was that someone would be frozen to death at night. Hitler, who couldn't imagine why, had already suspected Guderian. Hitler naturally thought that Guderian, the commander, had not done a good job in arranging the soldiers' camps, just like Hitler himself had been treated unfairly by his superiors during World War I.