Chapter 863 Eastern Front Feast (End, 900 Votes for Additional Content)
After receiving a positive reply, Zeitzler finally returned to Berlin relatively relieved. He still had to worry about the Second Battle of Britain. He believed that Manstein could maintain the situation in the Caucasus, and he thought it would not matter even if the Thor's Hammer Army could not complete the change of equipment. Half of the force would be enough for the Soviets. His old friend Schmont told him that the entire SS Armored Assault Group Army involved more than 3,500 tanks and tank destroyers, which was more than the total number of tanks owned by the German army at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa three years ago, and the combat effectiveness and performance were basically On the contrary, except for the two shortcomings of huge cost and heavy reliance on logistics, he could not find any weaknesses in the military.
Zeitzler agrees, and the two shortcomings don't seem to be a big deal to him. The key to whether it is expensive or not depends on the results. Being able to win the battle is the last word. It is cheap enough to build a bunch of No. 3s, but what if they are all eaten up by the IS-1 and T-43/85 on the opposite side? As for logistics, as long as you can read a map, you will understand that as long as the transportation line of the Black Sea is continuous, plus the railway line, the Caucasus line is the place with the strongest logistics supply capacity in the entire Soviet-German battlefield. Compared with the central battlefield with large areas of uninhabited land, , I don’t know how many times the logistics support would be better. Perhaps this is the reason why Manstein tried his best to persuade the head of state to let the Russians in to fight, and also persuaded him to leave Mjolnir in the Caucasus?
When he thought of this, he was completely relieved. He did not pay attention to the urging of the Turks. Instead, he sternly scolded the other side for their incompetence: 200,000 troops, with two natural lines of defense in the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, and the German Air Force providing cover, were actually short. In just 10 days, everything collapsed. Not only was Transcaucasia completely lost, but it also allowed people to invade its own territory - until now, the Axis countries have not had any land occupied by the Allies. Turkey was the first, and it was simply the laughing stock of the entire Axis camp! In the past, it was said that Italy had poor combat effectiveness. The British mocked the Americans and called them "our Italians", but now they will change it to "our Turks". See how the Iranians defend themselves? Have the Russians invaded?
The Turks were helpless when they heard these words. They didn't know how they collapsed, as if they were suddenly blinded. The German army clearly promised to send troops to rescue our side in 2-3 weeks, but in less than two weeks our side had completely collapsed. If the Germans had not acted quickly enough to block the passes in the Caucasus Mountains, they might have been swept away by the Red Army. Turkey is now in a state of turmoil, and the country's troops are moving toward the northeast, but no one is confident that they can stop the Russians. In fact, this is also true. If Chernyakhovsky wants to attack Turkey, Istanbul and Ankara cannot be attacked, and it is no problem to attack Erzurum. But the Central Asian cluster has important things to do, so how can it waste time and energy on the Turks?
He could only beg the Germans to continue to help. Zeitzler said that this was natural, but more importantly, Turkey was now guarding its defense lines and must not let the Russians break in again. In addition, Zeitzler said without a blush or heartbeat that based on the current situation, if the Transcaucasus is recovered in the future, it will definitely not be occupied by the Turks alone as before - otherwise the Russian People's Liberation Army also has opinions, and the originally promised foreign affairs will not be occupied by the Turks alone. There are also opinions on the independent establishment of the Caucasian nation. The Turkish side was quite helpless about this, but the situation had deteriorated so much that they could not allow them to bargain, so they could only accept it and planned to seize more territory when the Red Army retreated.
However, neither Zeitzler nor Manstein expected that just as they were rejoicing at the Führer's Mjolnir, Comrade Stalin was also applauding the progress of the Central Asian Special Front, and gritted his teeth and came up with a new Equipment - 4 Guards tank brigades (56 vehicles per brigade) with the latest IS-2 tanks rushed to the aid of Chernyakhovsky under his instruction, preparing to compete with the German Tiger heavy armor battalion.
In the Soviet defense force design system, the second half of 1943 was a turning point in major adjustments to equipment thinking. Originally, the Soviet side had been pursuing numerical superiority, emphasizing overwhelming the German army with numbers, and even resorted to simplifying processes and reducing equipment integrity rates to forcibly increase numbers. . However, after losing the Baku oil fields, losing the Volga Industrial Zone, and losing a large amount of equipment due to successive defeats in the Spring Awakening, Castle, and Summer Thunder battles, the soldiers were depleted, there was a shortage of combat-effective technical troops, supplies and raw materials were scarce, and the production capacity plummeted. Factors such as reduction have made the original quantity sea idea reach a dead end.
The remaining resources can no longer support the production of more than 2,000 tanks per month - there is neither enough steel for production nor enough fuel for use. Zhukov's original estimate of the future was quickly confirmed. Due to the emphasis on using all oil for industry and the military, during the cold winter of 1943, there was almost no fuel supply for people to heat. In addition, there was already insufficient coal and Food eventually led to a significant reduction in population, not by tens of thousands, but by hundreds of thousands!
It is easy to pass the winter, but it is not easy to pass the shortage of resources. The cruel reality forced the Soviet Union to change its course and begin to pursue quality advantages. The production volume of lunar tanks and tank destroyers has dropped from more than 2,500 vehicles to less than 1,000 vehicles, but its performance has been greatly improved. Production of all resource-consuming 4- and 2-engine bombers was stopped, and the company concentrated on the production of single-engine fighters.
In terms of models, the aging T-34/76 was gradually replaced by the T-43/85, and the cutting-edge IS-1 and IS-2 tanks also began to be produced. As for the reduced armored warfare capabilities, the emphasis is on improving the anti-tank capabilities of ordinary infantry. The latter rely on the three treasures of the Red Army - Molotov cocktail bottles, anti-tank magnetic grenades and Soviet copycat rocket launchers.
Later, due to fuel shortages, the Molotov cocktail bottles disappeared; German tanks were generally coated with anti-magnetic coatings, and grenades had little use. However, the Soviet rocket launcher became popular, and its famous name is even attached to the Hof in Berlin. Mando can't sit still - the rocket launcher copied by the Soviets is called RPG. RPG-1 was launched at the end of 1943, and RPG-2 was launched at the beginning of 1944. Fortunately, German experts have done tests. I don’t know whether it is because the Soviet imitation level is not up to standard or there is a problem with the production technology. Both RPGs are not as good as the same German products. But even if it is not as good as German products, it is still more than enough to deal with No. 4 or other armored vehicles.
Fortunately, the Soviet RPG came out late. In addition, after the autumn of 1943, the Soviet-German war mainly took place in the vast plains of the central battlefield. The area for RPG to be used was not too big. If the German army dared to attack Moscow or Stalingrad rashly, When fighting local street fighting, the armored divisions go in and the armored battalions come out.
The German army made emergency adjustments and adopted a new strategy after its own armored forces gained a solid upper hand in both quantity and quality: on the one hand, it did not equip new infantry anti-tank weapons on the Eastern Front to prevent them from being captured and used by the Russians; on the other hand, it did not The troops were given repeated orders not to allow tanks to engage in street fighting! Even so, there were hundreds of tanks and various types of armored vehicles that fell under the RPG. Although many of them could still be repaired, they were still minor hidden dangers.
The Soviet side did not believe that relying on RPG alone could change the passive situation. They still bet their hopes on heavy tanks. The People's Committee of the Tank Industry made a request to the SKB-2 Design Bureau to quickly complete the IS tank. IS-1\2 two Models are designed and developed at the same time. The IS-1 was finalized earlier. Although its performance was slightly worse than the Tiger tank, it was faster in progress. The Soviet Union, eager to reverse the passive situation, still put it into production; and the IS-2 continued to improve on the basis of the IS-1. Upgrading and striving to overwhelm the Tiger, in order to make concessions to the production of the IS-1, Voroshilov personally ordered the IS-2 to wait a few more months to perfect the design, making the latter more mature.
The IS-2 prototype completed at the end of January 1944 was deeply impacted by the Tiger tank. There are some differences from the historical IS-2 (both early and late models). The thickness of the upper armor is 120mm/60 degrees, and the defense The force exceeds the 100mm/50 degree level of the German Tiger; the artillery is a 122mm/L43 howitzer, which also exceeds the Tiger's 88mm/L56; the weight is 45.5 tons, 2.5 tons lighter than the Tiger, but because the engine is smaller than the Tiger The HL230+ used has more than 100 horsepower less, so the maneuverability is still better in the Tiger style.
The chassis of IS-1 and IS-2 are basically the same, but the artillery and armor are weaker than IS-2. Only the maneuverability is worse than IS-2. In the Soviet view, the overall combat effectiveness is not as good as IS-2, so Comrade Stalin is generous. They sent a prototype of the IS-1 and a full set of technical information to the United States, but they obviously refused to bring out the more advanced IS-2.
Now, the Red Army, which did not know the existence of the Tiger 2, is finally glad that it has a heavy tank that can overwhelm the Tiger. According to the designers, at a distance of 1500-2000 meters, the IS-2 can destroy the Tiger first without worrying about the opponent. ; At a distance of 1000-1500 meters, IS-2 and Tiger can basically guarantee mutual destruction, but the IS-2 with thicker armor will have a higher probability of survival; at a distance of less than 1000 meters, unless necessary, it is not recommended to fight with Tiger In battle, because the 122mm tank gun uses separate ammunition and has a low firing frequency, it may be hit by the Tiger's tungsten-core armor-piercing bullets.
After seeing this, Stalin expressed deep satisfaction and instructed that US-aided armor steel should be properly utilized and priority should be given to the production of IS-2. At least 200 vehicles should be produced every month. He hoped to increase it to more than 400 vehicles in the near future and directed that it be more powerful. , the 50-ton IS-3 must be accelerated to design and finalize, and strive to be put into service this fall.
Chernyakhovsky, who had just been promoted to general, won the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and received the latest support, constantly dispatched troops and launched small groups of troops to attack the weak links of the axis, and was confidently preparing to sweep the Caucasus plain in one fell swoop...