Chapter 189 Battle of Dahequ Tribe (2)

According to Hoffman's requirements and Speer's plan, by the spring of 1943, the production of Tiger tanks should reach a monthly output of 250 vehicles (equivalent to 5 heavy equipment battalions), and then trial production of Panther tanks would begin (if not produced The production capacity of Panther and Tiger will continue to increase), and no later than April 1943, the monthly output of German tanks will exceed 2,000 vehicles a month. At the same time, the production and maintenance of tanks using the T-34 tank production line can reach a scale of 300 tanks per month. Coupled with the output of stalkers modified from the 38T, the monthly output of tanks/tank destroyers can be close to 3,000.

"Our troops, weapons, and equipment are constantly coming in, and our reserve forces are constantly improving. I am less anxious than them." Manstein made a gesture on the map. "What's more important is that the head of state is in Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltic Sea." The de-Bolshevization movement was launched, and they were nervously allocating land, organizing political power, and preparing the army. Every month, the strength of these non-Russian ethnic groups recovered and grew. These are our allies and sources of strength, the head of state said. Slow down, why should I be in a hurry? Then, you should also have noticed that Italy’s industrial capabilities have been brought under unified management by Minister Speer. With the unique hard work and technical level of German workers and engineers, those Italian bourgeoisie must be under control. We have to be very busy. How many times should we increase the number of main products by then? Maybe by next May, the monthly production volume of tanks alone will reach 3,000..."

"3,000!" Weller exclaimed, "This number is exciting when I think about it. When Barbarossa was launched, we didn't have so many tanks in total..."

"The Americans may be able to produce more than us, but Americans have to go through a lot of hardships to send their tanks to Russia. One bomb or one torpedo can send hundreds of tanks flying into the sea to feed the fish." Mansch Stein said sarcastically, "Stalin is not crazy about attacking us. From a purely military point of view, what he should do most now is to accumulate strength, integrate the army, train and improve their combat level instead of rushing in hastily. He came to die, but he was afraid - would the Ukrainians, Baltics, Belarusians, Cossacks, etc. who had obtained the land and had a good harvest for 2-3 years, be willing to follow him in the future? It's enough for him to have a headache, not to mention political dissidents like the Russian National Liberation Committee and the Russian Liberation Army - his position is not stable at all. Maybe in a few years we can retreat home and look at non-Russia. Just hit the Russians.”

Weller nodded in agreement with Manstein. During this period, various ethnic minority soldiers or officers sneaked over from the Red Army every day. Although they had different ranks and different types of arms, they all carried leaflets spread by the German Air Force (Red Army Central Committee). If you are found out, you will be shot). The first thing you ask when you meet is: "Can you go home?" The second thing you say after getting a positive answer is to ask hopefully: "Participating in the national army to fight the Bolsheviks can be given priority. Land?" After getting a satisfactory answer, "Ula".

Except for a small number of these defected soldiers who were tired of military life and returned home, the rest without exception joined their own ethnic armies. Political leaders of various ethnic regimes also spared no effort to call on these former "Red Army" members to join. The leader of the Don Cossacks, P.N. Krasnov, called in the declaration: "Everyone join the German army! Fight with them! At the same time, we must remember that in the dangerous and decisive moment of the final battle, only those who have no chance will win. Only those who do not hesitate to fight side by side with the Führer and the German people will have a place in the new Europe." For this reason, the Cossack League raised the slogan: "Cossacks! Germany's victory is our victory!"

This trend can also be seen in the letters sent by ordinary soldiers to their families (the military counterintelligence agency will randomly check the letters). For example, Semyon Larin proudly told his father in his letter home: "...I Now I have the right to be proud, because I am now a soldier of the German army, belonging to the Don Cossack unit. After being recruited by the Red Army, I did not want to fight, so I simply went to the Germans. I didn’t want to work with them for a minute anyway. ..." And the Kuban Cossack Alexey Krivenko wrote in a letter to his wife: "I am now joining the German army... Our commanders care about us very much, not only about us, but even about our families. ”

"Of course, 3,000 tanks is a small matter, and this is not Germany's largest reinforcement this year."

"Reinforcements?" Weller was stunned for a moment, "What is the biggest reinforcement this year?"

"The biggest reinforcement this year is the head of state. After he had a fight with Halder, he fell down and was hospitalized. After he woke up, he completely changed. The head of state who used to have a clear mind and the overall situation is back - he doesn't If he tries to command armies or divisions, things that he is actually not good at, what he is best at is strategy, and his strength is this..." Manstein joked seriously, pointing to his head, "Look , now he does not say a word about the nonsense of not retreating even to the last man, nor does he say any more meaningless words like 'Attack! Attack! Attack again! First occupy this place, then occupy this place...' , now he only said, 'Manstein, Zeitzler, how to fight on the front line is all up to you, just hold on... I will find a way to replenish you with equipment and supplies.' "

"But didn't he also give a strange order to create a high exchange ratio?"

"You think it's strange?" Manstein shook his head. "I don't think it's surprising at all. The head of state finally realized that the war against the Soviet Union was a long-term war, a war of attrition, and could not be won by one or two short assaults. It is not possible to force the Bolsheviks to surrender by occupying Moscow or Stalingrad. The high exchange ratio sums up the essence of totalized war - without this exchange ratio, we would have undoubtedly failed last December. So. I say that the best thing to gain from an empire is a head of state with a clear mind and a plan for the overall situation. I saw this kind of decision-making ability before the Munich Conference in 1938. I saw it when the French campaign resolutely adopted the strategic direction of attacking from the Ardennes. Last year The choice to attack Ukraine first and then Moscow was actually the right choice. Unfortunately, it was undermined by the Halders who did not understand the intentions of the head of state. They always used the experience of Western European countries to apply it to the Russians, thinking that they would surrender after taking Moscow. , it’s not like Napoleon never captured Moscow, what was the result? The General Staff was guilty, and then Guderian and a bunch of people took the blame..."

"So now the Halders are out of luck..."

"Of course, otherwise do you really think that Halder is treason? This is absolutely impossible. He must be against the Führer - but unfortunately he was wrong, so the Führer finally appointed Zeitzler as an exception. Hey, let this kid pick it up. It’s so cheap…”

While talking, the combat staff came to report that the Red Army troops on the opposite side launched a tentative attack.

After taking a look at the map, Manstein said: "Fight and retreat at the same time, give them another 50 kilometers, and prepare to retreat to the first preset defense line... Remember to bluff, pretend that the defense is empty, and the main force has moved to the south flank. The posture comes..."

"You are going to carry out the coaxing to the end." Weller said with a smile, "If the Russians don't pounce on you, Marshal Stalin will probably get angry..."

The 27th Army of the 21st Group Army of the Red Army was the force selected by Chistyakov to test the depth. As a result, Army Commander Karpov strangely discovered that the German troops approaching the enemy on the opposite side were weak and had low combat effectiveness. They fell back at the slightest contact. Withdrawing, he advanced 50 kilometers in two days at a cost of less than 1,000 casualties and 4 tanks. Although he was full of confusion and doubts about this, this did not prevent him from eagerly asking Qistiako Husband and Moscow reported victory.

As Weller expected, on November 9, Comrade Stalin, who had been paying close attention to the progress of the front line, finally couldn't help but get angry: "Four days ago, the entire 21st Army crossed the river, and two days ago its vanguard troops crossed the river. The 27th Army was approaching less than 220 kilometers away from Rostov, and reported that the enemy's resistance was very weak. However, after several days, there was no movement from the other units except the 21st Army. The troops did not follow up and attack in depth. Why did the 62nd and 57th Group armies advance so slowly? Why did the Don River Front not send other troops to pick up the army?

Zhukov and Vasilevsky looked at each other: "We are worried that the Germans may have an ambush, so we ordered the frontline troops to postpone their advance."

"Really? Which unit of ours did the Germans surround? Why didn't I see it?" Stalin sneered, "There is only one group, the 21st Army, on the other side of the river. If there was really a trap, the group should have sent out a distress signal long ago. , but the report I received is that this group army has advanced the fastest and achieved the best results, and has recovered a large amount of territory on the west bank of the Don River. If follow-up troops are not sent to follow up, I am really afraid that the Germans will come back to their senses and surround them. Listen to Chuikov. I told Comrade Tolbukhin that the Germans are desperately trying to stop us, but they have deployed heavy troops downstream..."

The rapid progress of the 21st Group Army is in sharp contrast to the difficulty of the 62nd and 57th Group Armies. Zhukov and Vasilevsky have been studying this for several days, but they still can't figure it out. According to their thoughts and logic, there must be a trap in this. , so the instinctive response was to stay still and continue to wait and see, or hope to open a gap downstream. However, such an opinion did not satisfy Stalin. He hit the table with his pipe and got angry.