Chapter 429 Spring Awakening (5)

Late at night on April 3, the Head of State's special train was running on the railway with "clang, clang, clang, clang" and speeding towards Poland. The Head of State's Guard did not relax their vigilance due to the recent improvement in the security situation and the decline in the activity of the guerrillas, and still maintained the highest alert. .

For safety reasons, Hoffman now rarely chooses to fly when he goes out. Most of the time he takes special trains, because he does not know whether his luck is as good as Hitler's, and he does not know whether there are residual opposition forces in the country. The safety of special trains is far stronger than that of airplanes. Although the carriage where the head of state is located looks exactly the same as other carriages, it has actually been greatly reinforced with bulletproof armor. Even a 37mm anti-tank gun cannot penetrate the defensive armor at long distances. In addition, the schedule and route of the special train are highly confidential, and even which route to take is temporarily determined by Hoffman before driving - he does not want to give conspirators an opportunity.

In order to strengthen the transportation capacity of the eastern route, under the leadership of Speer, various Eastern countries vigorously promoted railway upgrades centered on standard gauge transformation, changing the original Russian standard 1520 mm wide gauge to the European standard 1435 mm, so as to Trains departing from Berlin can travel smoothly all the way without stopping to change trains - this is a continuation of Germany's plan to transform the eastern (including Poland) railway network (Otto Plan) before the start of "Barbarossa".

Although the railway network in the western Soviet Union is far less dense than in Europe, it is still a huge project, especially as the Soviet railway level is very low, still at the level of World War I: most of the railways (except Kharkiv to Moscow) are built in On the soft sand roadbed, and the sleepers are also relatively soft pine, the rail load capacity is not as good as Germany: the German standard railway rail weighs 49 kilograms per meter, and the Soviet Union only has 38 kilograms; the density of sleepers per kilometer in Germany is 1,600, and the Soviet Union only has 1,440; Germany People use screws and washers to fix the rails, but the Soviets just use long nails. The load-bearing capacity of railway bridges in the Soviet Union is also very low, and they must be re-reinforced to transport tanks and other heavy equipment. As for the railway dispatching equipment, they are basically antiques from the First World War, and electric switches are very rare.

Dopp Muller, the Imperial Minister of Transport and Director-General of the Railways, once gave a special report: Theoretically, because Russia’s track gauge is wider, the carrying capacity should be stronger under the same line length, but in fact, due to Russia’s backward management level and equipment As well as infrastructure construction, the carrying capacity was less than one-third of Germany's. The destruction before the Red Army's retreat and the rapid advance of the German army intensified the pressure on the railway network, reducing the transportation capacity to only one-quarter - the failure of the Typhoon Campaign and supplies Shipping and protection are not unrelated.

Historically, Germany was limited in capabilities and material supplies and only made minor repairs to the Soviet railway network. However, after comprehensive consideration, Hoffmann decided to use the labor force of Poland, Jews and Russian prisoners of war to carry out systematic repairs: not only adjusting the track gauge, but also Renovation and upgrades were carried out as much as possible according to the German standards in Otto's plan. In addition to domestic companies, Belgium's steel rail and railway equipment manufacturing capabilities are very top-notch in Europe, so it has won a large part of the orders, and France has also received a share. The reconstruction funds will be advanced by Germany first, and will be repaid by the Eastern countries with food, resources and other materials. Speer made ambitious plans to complete at least 3,000 kilometers of reconstruction work in 1943.

Thanks to the smooth overall war situation and the early purge of the "treasonous group", Hoffman's prestige is currently at an unprecedented peak. The discomfort caused by the general mobilization has also been selectively ignored by the people and focused on the current one. A victory that had a spillover effect that profoundly affected Italian politics. Mussolini's regime, which had been shaky in history, is now as stable as a rock. After recapturing Libya, taking Ethiopia, and merging parts of Sudan, especially after successfully controlling the situation in the Mediterranean, the Italians' originally illusory dream of the "Roman Empire" looks very real. meaning, and the transfer of a large amount of German industry and technology allowed Mussolini to win the favor of the big bourgeoisie. Italy's preparations for the war were originally extremely inadequate, but after vigorously strengthening the Axis-integrated policy, it actually started to look decent. This can't help but make people laugh.

"Führer." Dargos' call interrupted Hoffman's thoughts. "If you haven't had a rest yet, Minister Speer would like to report to you."

"sure."

"There have been some changes in several areas of armaments production and adjustments are needed." Speer suddenly showed an embarrassed look, "Führer, I have to apologize to you. Some production did not meet the original assumptions and expectations."

"For example?"

"For example, take tank production." Speer took out the report and explained, "March was the highest point in tank production in history, but even in this month, the production of No. 4 tanks only reached 1,394 units, and the production of Tiger tanks was 204 vehicles, which is still some distance from the 1,500 and 250 vehicles you requested.”

"It has almost reached 90% or more than 80% of the expectation. This is also a quite remarkable achievement." Hoffman knew that the highest monthly output of the No. 4 tank in history was only more than 600 units (including various variants based on the No. 4 chassis). car), the Tiger tank is only in its early 100s (the production of Tiger tanks in this plane is less difficult than in history), and the current production level has more than doubled the historical high level, but now there is no Panzer III tank (including deformed vehicles). of production.

"Because some production lines are preparing to switch to Panther tanks, the number will begin to decline from April. I always keep your request in mind: I hope to reach the production scale of 1,500 No. 4 tanks, 750 Leopard tanks, and 250 Tiger tanks. But this year We have no hope of reaching that goal.”

"What is the expected production capacity of Leopard?"

"Thanks to the fact that many parts are common with the Tiger, the monthly production of the Leopard will reach 100 vehicles in 3 months after the production is converted, 150 vehicles in 3-6 months, and more than 250 vehicles by the end of this year. This is a path The output of the production lines will leave us with only two No. 4 production lines. During the same period, the production volume of No. 4 tanks will drop to about 1,000 units. The Tiger will basically remain unchanged in the future. "

Hoffman couldn't help but frowned: This level is certainly much better than in history, but there is still a big gap compared with expectations, especially the fact that Italy can only produce assault guns in the future. Must bear the heavy responsibility of supplying all tanks.

"When do you expect the level of 2,500 vehicles to be reached?"

"Maybe it won't be until the end of 1944." After one experience, Speer did not dare to guarantee this time and said a time that he thought was relatively safe.

"Assuming that all No. 4 production is stopped now, what will be the situation by the end of the year?"

"Leopard is expected to achieve 750 units, and Tiger is close to 250 units."

After thinking for a moment, Hoffman nodded and said: "I understand. Please adjust according to the following plan: ensure the production of 1,500 No. 4 tanks in April, maintain high-level production for 3-4 months, and postpone the conversion to Panther production until 7 Let’s discuss this again next month.”

"Will this have a negative impact on combat effectiveness? I heard that Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union are all developing new tanks."

"Their focus is on the Tiger, but before 1944, they could not come up with new tanks that could compete with the Tiger. This is very beneficial to us. What we have to do is to increase the size of the armored force as soon as possible - especially the fuel issue. It is no longer a fatal constraint." At this point, Hoffman simply took out a pen and paper and calculated, "Before September last year, we maintained a total of less than 500 Panzer IV tanks, and from September to March this year, we had less than 500 Panzer IV tanks. About 6,500 vehicles were produced, and the cumulative scale is about 7,000 vehicles. In the past few months, nearly 1,000 vehicles have been lost in combat, and 400 vehicles have been allocated to the Marine Corps, plus tanks to Spain, Portugal, Romania, Italy, and Japan..."

"There are more than 500 vehicles in total, you can calculate it as 600 vehicles."

"In this way, the number of No. 4 vehicles in stock is about 5,000. The reserve army and armor school need to divide 500 vehicles. After deducting the 200 vehicles sent to the factory for repair and transportation, there are about 4,300 vehicles left?"

"That's basically the number."

"Currently, the Wehrmacht has a total of 25 armored divisions, and the SS has 4..."

"The SS should be five." Speer reminded in a low voice, "In addition to the SS, Reich, Totenkopf and Viking divisions, you also agreed to recruit the Hitler Youth division and reserve them as armored divisions."

The Hitler Youth Division was approved by Hoffman. It was one of the few newly expanded units. The soldiers were basically recruited from Hitler Youth volunteers born in 1925. Most of the non-commissioned officers and officers were transferred from the standard guard and other units of the Wehrmacht. Although This is a young unit, nicknamed the "Milk Bottle" Division by the outside world, but Hoffman knew that this group of troops, composed entirely of volunteers, had high morale and strong combat effectiveness, so he readily let them go and personally attended the flag-giving and oath-taking ceremony. ceremony.

"Then there will be a total of 30. According to the 1943 standard establishment, each armored division has 3 armored battalions, and a total of 90 armored battalions need to be prepared. In addition, the Wehrmacht is also preparing to complete 16 standard armored grenadier divisions. The SS is 4, each of them is also assigned an armored battalion - a total of 110 armored battalions?" Hoffman started multiplying, "Each battalion is 92 No. 4 tanks, so if there are 110 battalions, then..."

"10,120 vehicles." Speer calculated faster than him and came up with the result immediately. Then he couldn't help but shake his head, "Although some T-34s owned by the army can be added, we are still half way from completing the entire reorganization. above the gap.”

He knows the situation: the Russians have the ability to produce more than 1,500 T-34 tanks per month, and the Americans have the ability to produce more than 1,500 Sherman tanks per month. Although the German tanks are more powerful, sufficient quantities are still not available. few.