Chapter 530 Castle (7)

"Yes, encirclement from all sides." Vasilevsky pointed at the map with his pointer and said, "The encircling force in the north is Holt's tank group, the south path is Kleist's outflanking group, and the center path is Manstein's to the west. The main force of the infantry group - the Sixth Army. As for the east... I wonder if you have noticed Rommel's armored forces? "

Vasilevsky protracted his tone and said in a very clear and firm voice: "Although the British have been very secretive about how they failed in North Africa, they even boasted that 500,000 German and Italian troops landed in northern Egypt at that time, forming a Montgomery's troops were completely surrounded, but according to the intelligence we have and the information provided by the United States, the number of German troops that landed near Matruh, Egypt, did not exceed 100,000... The entire landing process was extremely bold and breathtaking. !”

"The German army adopted a landing plan coordinated by the army, navy and air force. They first used airborne troops to descend suddenly to control several airports in northern Egypt, and then large transport planes landed. Before that, the landing troops carrying army troops had set off in advance, and there was even no escort during the march. The biggest ones are just a few torpedo boats!”

"This news is absolutely true!" Seeing everyone's suspicions, Kuznetsov, who was in charge of the navy, became anxious and made additional remarks in time, "The Germans use S-boats, which are actually a slightly larger torpedo boat. Then a large number of landing craft were used. Not only could this kind of landing craft be assembled by rail, but their carrying capacity was also good. Each boat could carry 2 tanks. In the unexpected attack, the Germans used one armored battalion to control the landing site. situation, and then follow-up troops continued to come ashore."

"After discovering the German landing attempt, the British Mediterranean Fleet launched an attack, but was wiped out by a fleet of German bombers before reaching the battlefield. The so-called statement that the main German and Italian naval forces in the Mediterranean were dispatched and the Mediterranean fleet was outnumbered is simply not true - as early as Germany "Before the Italian fleet arrived on the battlefield, the British Mediterranean Fleet had been wiped out," Vasilevsky sighed. "After the German landing troops landed, they immediately cut off Montgomery's retreat and supply routes. 300,000 heavily armed British troops. The Japanese army was eventually wiped out in the desert by less than 200,000 German troops. The German army then took advantage of the situation and swept across the entire Middle East and Egypt. The British and American support fleets and landing forces that rushed to the rescue ran into the main force of the Japanese combined fleet in the waters of the Horn of Africa. Almost the entire army destruction……"

"What a bunch of rubbish!" A group of people talked incessantly.

"Therefore, we cannot underestimate the German landing capability. Under the premise that neither the enemy nor we can invest large-tonnage warships in the Caspian Sea, the German landing advantage of mastering air supremacy and being able to effectively utilize S-boats and landing craft is even greater than before. As far as what we currently have According to the intelligence, the two elite paratrooper brigades are still under Rommel's command." Vasilevskiy gently planted the small blue flag representing Rommel at Atyrau at the mouth of the Ural River. "If the Germans attack first. Two airborne brigades control the coastal line, and then the first wave lands one armored division and one infantry division. What do you think will happen? "

Everyone thought hard: Atyrau is a city on the north coast of the Caspian Sea, more than 350 kilometers away from Astrakhan. If the German army really landed here, the Stalingrad Front guarding Astrakhan would definitely not have time to rescue them, and the troops scattered near the Caspian Sea would Other reserve forces are completely at the militia level and cannot defeat the elite German airborne troops or armored divisions.

"Only Comrade Malinovsky's independent group army can be dispatched to carry out anti-landing operations... They are only 200 kilometers away from here and can arrive within three days."

"If there are enough landing ships, three days will be enough for the German army to send all two divisions ashore."

"So what?" Timoshenko shouted, "A group army with 250,000 men cannot defeat two divisions?"

Zhukov, who had been silent all this time, suddenly smiled bitterly: "Maybe we can't defeat it. It's impossible for 250,000 people to be thrown into the battlefield at once. Comrade Malinovsky can send at most 1 tank corps and 1-2 infantry corps to attack at a time. …”

"This..." Everyone hesitated.

"The armored divisions on the opposite side are not easy to mess with." Vasilevsky sighed helplessly. "Currently, we know that Rommel has two armored divisions, one is the Grossdeutschland Division and the other is the SS Viking Division. Comrade We cannot take it lightly, this is a difficult enemy to deal with - one division has more than 400 tanks, which is slightly more than one of our tank armies."

"400 vehicles?" Everyone was stunned, but soon felt relieved. German armored divisions have always been difficult to deal with, and armored divisions with the prefix "Panzer Division" are even more difficult to crack. Many people have fought against the Grossdeutschland Division and the Viking Division. , know the truth and falsehood. Timoshenko's face turned red, but he couldn't say a word.

"If Rommel's troops are allowed to completely land successfully, assuming that 2 armored divisions, 2-3 infantry divisions, and 2 airborne brigades totaling 100,000 people land on the Caspian Sea, and then attack the Stalingrad Front from east to west, I'm afraid that the entire defense line will be shaken. The enemy doesn't have to attack Astrakhan. They can have the same effect by attacking Stalingrad." Vasilevsky gently pushed the blue flag 500 kilometers northwest. , and then the map clearly showed the appearance of four flags surrounding Stalingrad - this is the true meaning of encirclement on four sides!

No one said such silly things as setting up defenses along the Caspian Sea. The Caspian Sea coastline is more than 1,500 kilometers, and because the land is endogenous, it is actually more like a large lake. The coast is flat and there are places where you can land everywhere. To divide the troops and guard them, there is no defense everywhere. Only by deploying an independent group army like Malinovsky in advance as a theater reserve, there is still a glimmer of hope for carrying out counter-landing immediately after receiving information about enemy landings. The situation would be even better if the small fleet in the Caspian Sea region could actually play a role.

But before anyone could ask questions, Kuznetsov made it clear that the small fleet in the Caspian Sea had suffered greatly from bombings by German planes taking off from Iran and the Caucasus, and now there were no decent warships at all. So all hope can only be pinned on Malinovsky. But after all, there is only one independent group army. If you want to form more groups, you don't have more troops and equipment. What's more, countless battles have proven that just having troops and equipment without quality is not enough.

What is more frightening than the sharp decline in the Red Army's quantity and scale is that the performance and quality of its technical equipment are also declining rapidly. Taking tanks as an example, the current basic equipment of the Red Army's tank units is T-34/76, and a small number of them are equipped with the latest T-43. , although the design direction of the new tanks (T-34/85 and IS-1) has been clarified, mass production cannot be carried out before winter comes. However, the T-43, which has improved the thickness of the front armor and improved the suspension mechanism, has won more awards than ever before. Good development opportunity - in a sense, the T-43 is closer to the improvement idea of ​​the No. 4 G model.

The T-34 manufactured in 1943 is completely incomparable with previous products, let alone the quality of the T-34 produced in 1941, and even worse than the T-34 produced during the state of emergency last year. Many inconspicuous parts were eliminated to simplify production. At the same time, due to the lack of high-quality armor steel, large areas such as the front and sides of the car body that originally required thick rolled armor steel were replaced with cast iron of the same thickness, simplifying production. , The source of materials is of course simplified, but the quality has also dropped to a terrible level.

Germany, which has a world-class metallurgical level, can only achieve 90% of the defense level of rolled armor steel with its own casting process. This is why Hoffmann refused the factory to equip the Tiger with a cast turret in order to increase production - cutting-edge weapons should Maintain the best quality to give the front line enough confidence. The Soviet Union's own casting process with bubbles has even worse quality. In the past, the 37mm anti-tank gun could not penetrate the T-34 frontal armor. Now it is equipped with tungsten at a distance of 400 meters. Core-piercing bullets have no pressure at all. The decline in defensive capabilities is the most significant evidence of the deterioration in production quality. In addition to armor, maneuverability and the average engine failure level are also getting worse and worse.

The German side also noticed a significant decline in the quality of the T-34: after the T-34 with the best quality was captured by the frontline troops, it could be directly exchanged for the No. 4 tank with the Ministry of Armament at a 1:1 ratio, and then used to fight against the United Kingdom and the United States on the southern front; later The turrets of the goods that have declined in quality will be removed and the chassis will be used to produce various deformed vehicles - the Assault tank destroyer uses the T-34 chassis. At this time, the exchange ratio can still be maintained at 2:1; while those captured or destroyed in the Spring Awakening Campaign After looking at those T-34s, military industry experts only came to one conclusion - "Garbage!".

Now only four or more T-34s can be exchanged for one Panzer IV tank. The latest place is to be used for armored training in various Eastern countries. In that case, low defense is not a problem at all, and a high level of faults can just improve the maintenance level. !

Of course, it is impossible to use this watered tank to deal with the elite No. 4H or Tiger. However, this watered method was also praised by Marshal Voroshilov, who is in charge of defense industry production-because the Soviet Union has The inability to supply enough armor steel means that if the previous standards are adhered to, tank production will be significantly reduced, which is completely unacceptable politically. Replacing armor steel with cast iron barely guarantees the expected numbers.

As for the quality, Voroshilov explained this: "Anyway, the T-34 armored steel will be pierced by one shot when it encounters the Tiger, No. 4 tank or No. 3 assault gun. No matter how poor the quality is, it will be pierced by one shot. In combat, The difference will not be obvious at this time. Our armored soldiers must be braver and engage in close combat and chaotic battles with the enemy, that way we will have a chance of winning."

Is this sentence wrong? Of course not bad! The problem is that when the T-34 approaches an enemy tank, it has to withstand multiple attacks. Originally, at long distances (beyond 1,500 meters), it can still count on the 45mm sloped armor to prevent the 48-caliber 75mm tank gun from firing (the No. 3 assault gun and the No. 4 No. 1 tanks are all equipped with this type), but now they can't stop it, which virtually increases the chance of being destroyed.