Chapter 563 Manstein

Recommended a book by a friend: "Behind the Scenes", written by Changfeng, a cool spy war novel about World War II.

Crimea is Crimea.

Needless to say, its strategic position is easy to defend on land and difficult to attack. On the sea, because of its terrain that stretches into the Black Sea like a hook, it has become an excellent location to blockade the Black Sea... As long as an air force base is built in Crimea, it can be used to block and control the entire Black Sea. It can almost be said that whoever occupies Crimea owns the Black Sea.

What's more, Soviet bombers can also take off from Crimea to bomb Romania, Germany's oil base... Crimea is only 300 kilometers away from the Romanian coast on the other side of the Black Sea. The Soviet Union did this before, bombing Romanian oil fields and refineries to make it difficult for the German army to import fuel.

Of course, its importance is not limited to this. For example, for the Soviet army, it can also protect the Caucasus oil fields from being bombed, etc.

It's just that these advantages cannot be reflected because the German army has air superiority.

Three days later, Colonel Slaine and Qin Chuan took their troops to the Crimean Peninsula to report to Manstein.

The road distance from Kiev to the Crimean Peninsula is only more than 800 kilometers.

Strictly speaking, it only takes about one day to transport more than 800 kilometers by car, but the First Infantry Regiment still walked for three full days... The spring in the Soviet Union is when the ice and snow melt, and it often rains. In addition, the Soviets are not attentive to the maintenance of the roads, so there is mud everywhere along the way.

This made the soldiers of the First Infantry Regiment tired of the hardship of marching. They were more likely to push the car forward with difficulty in the mud that was over their calves instead of falling asleep comfortably in the car.

Of course, the MP43 had been assigned at this time, and everyone had replaced it with what is now called an assault rifle. During the rest time, Colonel Slaine actively organized the soldiers to practice its use and maintenance.

Colonel Slaine said: "Maybe we will be in battle the day we arrive in Crimea. I don't want them to go to the battlefield without knowing how to use the rifles in their hands!"

Colonel Slaine's statement makes sense, but Marshal von Bock did not give the First Infantry Regiment time to adapt and train, or he still doesn't know what MP43 is.

Fortunately, the safety and maintainability of MP43 are quite good, and its biggest advantage is its ease of operation. Soldiers can master its key points in just a few hours of training... At this time, MP43 is actually closer to AK47, and AK47 can be easily mastered by a person who has never played with a gun for a few days of training. This is also one of the reasons why modern guerrillas generally prefer AK47.

The result of running all the way is that when the soldiers arrived at the Crimea base, they were all covered in mud and looked like humans.

Qin Chuan was about to sit down and drink water like the others, and Colonel Slaine waved to Qin Chuan and said: "Captain, come with me to see the general!"

"Why, Colonel?" Qin Chuan asked.

He was just a captain, and in principle, Colonel Slaine was the only one who could report such things.

"It's a matter of time, isn't it?" Colonel Slaine replied, "I don't want to have to come back and repeat everything to you!"

Slaine was right. In the end, Qin Chuan still had to make suggestions, so it was better to bring him along from the beginning.

So Qin Chuan and Colonel Slaine stood in front of Manstein.

Qin Chuan certainly knew Manstein. He, Rommel and Guderian were known as the three great generals of Germany. From this point of view, Qin Chuan was still looking forward to meeting this general who was as famous as Rommel.

At this time, Manstein was discussing something with his staff by comparing documents and maps. Seeing Colonel Slaine and Qin Chuan standing in front of him, he raised his eyebrows, nodded and said, "You go back and prepare for battle, I will assign you tasks!"

"Yes, General!" said Colonel Slaine.

"Oh, by the way!" Manstein asked when the two were about to turn around and leave: "I heard from the marshal that you are very confident in your new submachine guns, and even think that it can play a more important role than tanks... I am a little curious about this!"

Colonel Slaine didn't know how to answer.

General Manstein continued: "To be honest, although I don't believe this, I have some expectations for it. I think you have already understood some of the reasons when you came here. The current road is not suitable for tank combat, so we have a little trouble!"

Although Manstein said this, Qin Chuan knew that this was not "a little trouble"... Although Manstein in history won the Crimean Peninsula War and was promoted to marshal, he stayed here for too long, which even directly affected the Battle of Stalingrad.

(Note: The German army originally planned to take Sevastopol in four days, but it actually took a month)

"General!" Qin Chuan replied: "I think if you really want to know what kind of submachine gun this is, you should see it yourself!"

After thinking for a while, Manstein handed the document in his hand to the staff officer and said, "Then what are we waiting for?"

From this, we can also see that Manstein is different from other generals, at least this is different from von Bock... von Bock's first reaction to new things is to reject them. He reflexively thinks that the ideas and requirements of the low-level officers of the First Infantry Regiment are too arrogant. Or it can be said that von Bock has a sense of superiority. He naturally thinks that this is the low-level officers who are one-sidedly pursuing firepower and ignoring other things.

But Manstein is not like this. The logic in his head is: these are veterans who have been on the battlefield for a long time. It is unlikely that they will make such low-level mistakes, so they may have a reason for doing so.

So General Manstein and Qin Chuan and others came to the shooting range.

Manstein's eyes lit up when he saw the MP43.

"It looks like a good gun!" Manstein said as he played with it, "How does it compare to the Soviet PPSh submachine gun?"

"I think it can completely suppress the PPSh, General!" Qin Chuan replied, "Because it has a comparable rate of fire and a longer range!"

"Longer range?" Manstein asked, "How much?"

"The actual range of the PPSh is 100 to 200 meters!" Qin Chuan replied, "And this MP43 has a range of 350 meters!"

Manstein looked at Qin Chuan in shock. The German army had always been troubled by the Soviet PPSh on the battlefield, and even many German soldiers rushed to pick up the Soviet PPSh on the battlefield. Now there is a piece of equipment that far exceeds the PPSh in performance...