Chapter 559 Kiev

Rommel and the 21st Armored Division were sent to the Eastern Front, which did not happen in history.

Because at this time in history, the African Corps was actively organizing a counterattack after being driven back to Algeria and fought all the way to El Alamein, but after a few months of stalemate, it was completely defeated in November... This defeat made Rommel lose his confidence, and Germany completely lost Africa.

Of course, all this did not happen.

Not only did it not happen, Germany also built a stable defense line in Algeria and Tunisia and fell into a stalemate with the Allies. Even because Germany discovered oil fields in Algeria and successfully blocked the Strait of Gibraltar, the counterattack was not so urgent... Another reason is that the air supremacy was in the hands of the British and American troops, and the German counterattack would be greatly restricted.

At the same time, Gabes adopted tunnel fortifications that did not require too many armored forces, so the armored divisions of the African Corps were idle.

On the Eastern Front, the German army lost a lot of equipment and troops because of the failure of the Battle of Moscow... Roughly estimated, Germany lost more than 40,000 trucks, more than 200,000 horses, tens of thousands of various types of artillery, nearly 5,000 aircraft and more than 2,000 tanks.

It is not surprising that it suffered such heavy losses, mainly tanks, which were almost wiped out and few survived... The German army was on the offensive at the time, and all tanks were driven to Moscow and Leningrad for the attack. The sudden cold wave made it impossible for the German army to transport fuel to the front line, so a large number of tanks and vehicles were abandoned as scrap metal.

It is said that when the German defense line stabilized, there were only 140 tanks left in the 16 armored divisions of the three army groups on the Eastern Front (Note: There were originally 19 armored divisions on the Eastern Front, three of which were transferred to Sicily and Greece).

On the one hand, the armored forces had nothing to do, and on the other hand, there were almost no armored forces available, so of course the armored divisions of the African Corps would be transferred to the Eastern Front.

"I think they are all exhausted after this battle!" On the running train, Rommel handed Qin Chuan a cup of coffee: "Now, let's see who can recover their strength first!"

"Hmm!" Qin Chuan agreed.

He knew who Rommel meant by "they"... At this time, Rommel could not be said to be a part of the Eastern Front battle group, so he looked at the German and Soviet troops on the Eastern Front from a third-party perspective.

"But I think..." After taking a sip of coffee, Qin Chuan said: "It should be the Soviets who recover their strength faster!"

"Why?" Rommel asked.

"The reason is very simple!" Qin Chuan replied: "The Soviet army is more primitive, they have sufficient troops, and they can be directly put into the battlefield without almost any training. In addition, there are advantages such as the production speed of tanks and shorter transportation supply lines!"

Rommel nodded, frowning.

This is obvious. Germany's supplies and equipment need to be transported from Berlin, more than a thousand kilometers away. Although they can rely on trains, it is still very difficult to transport enough ammunition, equipment and troops in a short time, but these are not a problem for the Soviets.

After a pause, Rommel said, "I heard that we have an advantage in air power!"

"That's true!" Qin Chuan said, "We have always had air superiority on the Eastern Front, otherwise we would not be able to defend Holm at all!"

"It's really interesting!" Rommel said self-deprecatingly, "If we have air superiority in Africa, we can fight back to Egypt and drive the British and Americans into the sea!"

Rommel obviously couldn't let go of Africa.

At the same time, Qin Chuan thought that Rommel was right. The Allied forces' battles were mainly based on air superiority. If they didn't have air superiority, they wouldn't know how to fight.

The Soviet army's battles were mainly based on human wave tactics, which was precisely what air superiority could not reverse.

It was because of this that the German army in history was defeated in both Africa and the Soviet Union.

Of course, now that Qin Chuan is here, things may be different.

Perhaps because of his concern for the front line, Rommel soon fell into deep thought until Qin Chuan asked, "General, where is our destination?"

Rommel raised his head as if he was awakened, and after a moment he realized what Qin Chuan asked, and then replied, "We are going to Kiev, Captain!"

"Kiev, Southern Army Group?"

"Yes!" Rommel nodded.

Qin Chuan couldn't help but cry out in his heart, he would appear wherever he was busy... Before, the Central Army Group was the main force, and it landed in the most dangerous Holm with an airborne landing. Now, it is the turn of the Southern Army Group to be the main force of the attack, and he was transferred to the Southern Army Group.

(Note: The Central Army Group was seriously injured in the Battle of Moscow, and Hitler had to launch a new round of offensive with the Southern Army Group as the main force)

But this seems normal. You must know that the 21st Armored Division and even Rommel are experienced fresh forces, and they must be sent to where they are most needed.

When the firepower stopped at the German base outside Kiev, Qin Chuan realized that there was not only the 21st Armored Division in Kiev, but also his 1st Infantry Regiment.

Because it was Colonel Slaine who came to greet them.

After not seeing each other for a while, Colonel Slaine and Qin Chuan couldn't help but hug each other warmly.

"Captain!" Colonel Slain said, "I heard that you were assassinated by those Bolsheviks in Frankfurt. I'm glad you're safe. You didn't return to the army so late... I thought something happened!"

"No, everything is fine!" Qin Chuan replied, "They just sent me this!"

Qin Chuan showed the Knight's Medal in front of the discipline buckle.

Colonel Slain couldn't help but whistled: "Good guy, the Knight's Medal, very beautiful, you deserve it!"

After a pause, Colonel Slain said again: "Believe me, if you stay in the army for a few more years, you will have so many medals that you can't even walk!"

The two laughed.

The base is two miles outside the city. The reason why it is so close is that troops are often transferred into Kiev to encircle and suppress guerrillas...Originally, these things should be done by the security division, but in the previous Holm Battle, several divisions of Soviet troops were blocked in the German defense line. The result is that the guerrillas have greatly increased their strength, and sometimes there are even organized sneak attacks on German supply warehouses, such as Kiev.

And the combat effectiveness of these Soviet regular troops mixed in the guerrillas is sometimes not something that the security division can deal with, so they need the assistance of the German regular army.

The car drove all the way into the base. Qin Chuan saw his subordinates from a distance, so he waved his hat and leaned out of the car window and shouted to them: "Hey, guys, I'm glad to see you are still alive!"