Empire in Progress

Chapter 410: Ready

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All the big countries in the world, except the United States, have been dragged into the war by Germany. This does not mean that there is no possibility of war between Germany and the United States. According to Lin Wei's estimation, unless Germany can defeat the Soviet Union at lightning speed, there will be no chance of war. Time for Americans to react. Otherwise, once Germany and the Soviet Union fall into a protracted war, the United States will definitely join the war. As for whether Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, it didn't matter at all during the period. All the United States lacked was an excuse, and excuses are the best thing to find.

"Now let me tell you the last news. General Krupp, the commander of the Southeast Army Group, is the commander-in-chief of the German Army on the Eastern Front! He is responsible for the specific matters of the war!" Goebbels's mouth was full of understatement, as if he was saying something trivial. Little things. And with the previous three shocking news as a foil, the last thing really didn't cause much of a sensation among the Germans. Lin Wei recognized that the matter of the Commander-in-Chief of the German Army on the Eastern Front affected the Soviet Union, not Germany.

Since it was already evening when Goebbels spoke, there was no chance for other countries to respond that day. The Soviet Union was the first to be shocked. Now Stalin personally considered Lin Wei to be his biggest enemy psychologically. The two divisions of the armed SS that broke into Leningrad on the northern front, and the Battle of Minsk in Berezina. He sniped at the First SS Armored Corps of the Fourth Army of the Soviet Union, and finally the Southeast Army Group in the Battle of Kiev. Lin Wei's troops always appeared in the right position at the critical moment, thus delivering a fatal blow to the Soviet Red Army. . This was of course a good thing for Germany, but it was a big bad thing for the Soviet Union.

"Everyone knows that a few hours ago the Germans established a commander-in-chief on the Eastern Front to fully command the German troops currently fighting us! What do you think?" In Stalin's office on the second floor of Building 1 of the Kremlin, Hercules Rushchev, Malenkov, Beria, Molotov, Marshal Timoshenko, who had just escaped from the encirclement of Kiev, and Marshal Budyonny of the Reserve Front gathered together again. Stalin's eyes were deeply sunken. You can imagine how much pressure he was under. From being blindly optimistic after the war to being cautious now, Stalin's change was surprising. There was nothing we could do about it. After the Battle of Kiev, the Soviet troops in the three major military districts in the west had been wiped out by Germany. Even Smolensk, the gateway to Moscow, had been controlled by the German army. If Stalin had not been strong-willed by nature, he might have been Escaped Moscow.

The first person to speak was still the somewhat bald Beria. He stroked his glasses on the bridge of his nose. The gentle-looking Beria remained as indifferent as ever, "For the German Wehrmacht, the committee had specially studied it, and before the war we intelligence officers also faced the fact that Hitler once tried to control the Wehrmacht, but unfortunately failed! In other words, it was unreasonable to use normal means to let the German High Command hand over full command to the leader of the SS. I guess General Krupp must have forced the German Wehrmacht to give up command! I heard that in the late stages of the last war, the German army had full control of the country. Krupp's success may have something to do with the support of the German emperor! "

If Lin Wei were here, he would definitely take a breath. Beria is not Lin Wei. The analysis was all done by himself from clues. It is completely different from Lin Wei's search for memory. If he let If Lin Wei and Beria are playing tricks on each other, Lin Wei is definitely no match for them. Maybe they can only rely on Heydrich to ensure that they don't suffer.

"Is it possible to assassinate this person!" Stalin now hated Lin Wei deeply, and he said this regardless of the occasion.

Beria shrugged and said helplessly, "As far as I know, this young general who also controls the German intelligence department is very careful. No matter what important matters it is, he will not fly by plane and will only choose the land route. Traveling, and there is no shortage of professional security personnel around him, the possibility of assassination is almost non-existent!"

"Marshal Timoshenko, tell me what you think!" Stalin looked at Timoshenko and said. Although after the failure of the Battle of Kiev, Stalin did not seem to be interested in Marshal Timoshenko who forced Army Group Center to stop attacking. Zhukov, who lost confidence and was supposed to appear as a firefighter, did not notice Stalin because the situation in Leningrad did not improve significantly or even worsened.

Marshal Timoshenko, who had just suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Kiev, seemed to be a little depressed. When he heard Stalin calling him, he cheered up and said with some memories, "General Krupp and the German armed SS in his hands are... A formidable opponent. Compared with the Wehrmacht, what impressed me deeply among the Waffen SS I fought against was the desperate spirit of sacrifice of these loyal Nazis. They could kill one after another for a worthless goal. Attack, calmly withstand huge casualties, but sometimes show superb fighting sophistication. It's hard to imagine that two completely opposite styles can appear in the same army!" Marshal Timoshenko recounted with some confusion. In fact, Marshal Timoshenko did not know that the SS generals within the SS were also divided into two groups. Dietrich and the division commander Prinz Eugen were all guys who would do anything for victory. Generals such as Paul and Hausser etc. Because he was originally a senior commander of the National Defense Forces, he naturally paid more attention to the cultivation of tactical literacy.

"Krupp should also be someone who can sacrifice everything for victory. This can be seen from the fact that the SS armored divisions always appear in the most dangerous areas!" Marshal Budyonny added, "Such an opponent will not The troops were ordered to stop attacking because of excessive casualties. According to our intelligence, many SS troops suffered large-scale attrition during the Battle of Kiev, but they still fought until the last minute and evacuated the southern front three days ago. The battlefield should be in front of us now!"

"So, Germany's next target has been determined, which is Moscow?" Stalin looked around and said, "The great Lenin founded the Soviet Union. He cannot be defeated. The enemy will surely suffer a shameful defeat in Moscow! No matter how powerful the enemy is, we will fight to the end, long live communism!"

"Long live communism!" No matter whether they are fighting for power or not, no matter whether they have forgotten their dreams now, they have indeed fought for communism, and those who fight for their dreams are always respectable.

The current Soviet Union is indeed in the most difficult period in history. In the three months since the war between Germany and the Soviet Union began, three million Soviet Red Army troops have entered prisoner-of-war camps. Eighty percent of the Soviet Red Army's strength has been wiped out. Germany The huge victory not only inspired the Germans, but also France and Italy, which had always hated the Soviet Union, as well as Germany's allies in Eastern Europe, Hungary and Romania. No one believed that the Soviet Union could make a comeback. Everyone thought that the Soviet Union was just the third Two France, many companies in the United States that predicted the outcome of the Soviet-German war have handed over their error reports to the U.S. government. They all believe that the war will end within the year, and more countries will fall in the face of the German Blitzkrieg. one.

At this time in Berlin, Germany, Lin Wei officially accepted the appointment as the Commander-in-Chief of the German Army on the Eastern Front in the Reichstag Building. On this occasion, Lin Wei did not mind trying to win over these congressmen who were usually of little use. After all, Congress He also showed full support for Lin Wei in this power struggle. Lin Wei would naturally not mind saying a few more kind words to repay his kindness.

"I will capture Moscow before the arrival of 1942, thereby establishing the victory of this war!" Finally, Lin Wei made a solemn promise to 600 members of Congress. Everyone was stunned for a moment. It seemed that with the minds of these politicians, it was difficult to understand why Lin Wei would issue a guarantee rashly. But immediately, the entire Congress burst into warm applause, because according to the current situation, Germany is indeed very likely to win Moscow. Lin Wei's move is just an advance victory.

Lin Wei himself was also very concerned about the preparations for the Battle of Moscow. After leaving the Capitol, Lin Wei returned to the SS headquarters building. Since Heydrich and Lin Wei were both in the Soviet Union, this SS headquarters suddenly It was much deserted, but Louis, another deputy leader of the SS, was still working in the country. He was mainly responsible for logistics and training of reserve troops. In the Battle of Kiev, the Imperial Division and the Viking Division suffered huge losses. It was naturally impossible for Lin Wei to let these two ace divisions drag a battalion of wounded soldiers to participate in the Battle of Moscow, but it was not the right time to withdraw them to rest. After all, the Battle of Moscow was very important. , Lin Wei didn't have any of his direct troops in his hand, and he always felt that something was wrong.

After thinking for a long time, Lin Wei could only learn from the United States' approach and adopt a supplementary soldier system. The United States' battlefield replenishment is completely different from that of Germany. If some of Germany's troops suffer losses, they need to retreat and only return to the front line after replenishment. It is normal to cancel the number if the loss is huge. But the United States is completely different. To put it simply, the United States' method of replenishing losses is very simple, that is, one dead person is replenished one by one. Therefore, the United States usually has almost no replacement of infantry in a division during a war, but this division still fights the entire war from beginning to end. Many times, as the U.S. Army advances, the army's headquarters usually receives a steady stream of unsupplied soldiers. The sad thing is that as new reinforcements, many times they die because of lack of experience. There were many such examples during World War I.

It is difficult to say which supplementary system is better between Germany and the United States. I can only say that both have advantages, but from the perspective of tapping the country's potential, Germany's military system is more powerful. In German operations, there is also a system for replacing combat personnel for the loss of soldiers. Those directly responsible for recruiting, recruiting, and training tasks are the "new training camps" that have been staying in various stations in the defense area. This means that the defense area does not send all the recruited soldiers to the frontline units, but will stay in them. The next few soldiers are responsible for training new recruits here. These "new training camps" have the same unit number as the frontline troops and are only responsible for training soldiers sent to their own regiments. To give a simple and easy-to-understand example, under the First Infantry Regiment fighting on the front line, there is a "new training camp" that has been staying at the original station in the country to be responsible for the additional soldiers the regiment needs. All companies in the German army have such one-on-one training camps. Replacement units stay in their hometowns!! This is mainly because the German army attaches great importance to local awareness and believes that troops composed of soldiers from the same hometown are very helpful to morale and designed the replacement unit system.

There is also a system for replacing combatants when soldiers are lost during combat. Those directly responsible for recruiting, recruiting, and training tasks are the "new training camps" that have been staying in various stations in the defense area. This means that the defense area does not send all the recruited soldiers to the frontline units, but will stay in them. The next few soldiers are responsible for training new recruits here. These "new training camps" have the same unit number as the frontline troops and are only responsible for training soldiers sent to their own regiments. To give a simple and easy-to-understand example, under the First Infantry Regiment fighting on the front line, there is a "new training camp" that has been staying at the original station in the country to be responsible for the additional soldiers the regiment needs. All companies in the German army have such one-on-one training camps. Replacement units stay in their hometowns!! This is mainly because the German army attaches great importance to local awareness and believes that troops composed of soldiers from the same hometown are very helpful to morale and designed the replacement unit system. During the war, Germany launched a total of thirty-five echelon mobilization orders due to expansion, sending 17 million people to the front line.

Lin Wei's meaning confused Louis and asked, "Lampard, are you going to let these soldiers be replenished to the front line one after another? You should know that our tradition is to withdraw the troops and replenish them!"

"It's too late, the Battle of Moscow has already begun! I have given an order to let Marshal Bock temporarily command the Battle of Moscow while I am not at the front line!" Lin Wei said, "In this kind of battle, the Imperial Division and the Viking Division must participate, but They have suffered heavy losses now, and I must replenish their troops!"

"You are asking these recruits to commit suicide!" Louis suddenly stood up, and he objected for the first time, having never gotten angry in front of Lin Wei, "Lampard, I have always respected you, but this time it will definitely not work!" Louis The reservists who have been responsible for training the SS soldiers naturally know that even if the training is arduous, it is far from comparable to the battlefield of war. Without veterans and new recruits running in, asking new recruits to join the army immediately and then join the war is no different from asking them to commit suicide.

"I'm sorry, this is an order. I don't have time to explain to you. In order to win the war, you must make sacrifices!" Lin Wei now fully felt the urgency of time, so he asked directly without explaining to his subordinates, "I want to know now how many reserve troops I have, including foreign volunteers from the Netherlands and Belgium. I don't care about their nationality. I want to know how many there are!" Lin Wei said this without any human feelings at all.

Louis was stunned by Lin Wei's unkind order. It took him a long time to say, "50,000 Dutch, 30,000 Belgians, 20,000 Nordic people, a total of 500,000 from the original stormtroopers and Austrian reserve forces." There are also French Foreign Legion and Italian Black Shirts, but they have already gone to Romania first!"

Lin Wei thought for a moment and then ordered, "Add the Nordic volunteers to the Viking Division, add the Dutch to the Netherlands Division, and form the rest into a new Dutch Division with the number after the 39th Volga German Division. Forty Dutch Division! The Belgians were newly organized into the 41st Belgian Division. One hundred thousand people were selected from the back soldiers to be added to other SS troops. During the Battle of Moscow, the armed SS must remain at full strength! By the way, mobilize half a million Jews to ensure our supplies!"

"I'm sorry, leader! This is impossible!" Louis said in a completely helpless tone this time; "Heydrich was one step ahead of you and asked me to mobilize 500,000 Jews to widen the narrow gauge railway in the Soviet Union!"

"Heydrich and I will talk about ensuring the supply line first!" Lin Wei frowned and said, "It is indeed important to widen the railway, but it is not timely now, because this kind of project cannot be effective in a short time. After winter comes, we are thinking To solve the railway problem, the most important thing now is to ensure the supply line! By the way, I remember that before I came back, where were the things I asked you to mobilize from Europe? "

"You mean the railway cannon?" Louis said, touching his chin, "You know how many railway cannons there are in the empire, but the collection during this period really opened my eyes. Poland, France and the United Kingdom have made quite a few discoveries. , now we have nearly a hundred railway guns with a diameter of over 280 mm, but Lampard, what do you want these for?"

"Bombard Moscow!" Lin Wei took out a cigar from his pocket and put it in his mouth, then gave one to Louis, lit it himself and said, "Moscow's urban area is too large, and a strong attack may cause unnecessary losses, so it must be With this kind of mass murderer, although the nerve agent from Farben Chemical Company seems to be better, I don’t want to use it unless it is a last resort!”

"This is definitely a test for logistics!" After hearing Lin Wei's crazy idea, Louis couldn't help but be speechless.

"So I need half a million Jews to ensure logistics, dismantle all the railway guns, load them on trains in batches, and assemble them outside Moscow!" Lin Wei said in a puff of smoke, "And bring enough strength. The rails, especially the Gustav giant railway train gun rails, must be special. I will tell Uncle Koldoff about this, they must be thickened, otherwise the rails will be shot at the optimal elevation angle of forty-six and a half degrees. It is very likely to be bent by the recoil! Just in case, Tabun and Sarin who stored me in Romania will also faint on the front line. I will tell Goering about this! You must ensure that the railway guns and supplementary troops are in place now! "

"Well, I really hope the damn war ends soon!" Before the war started, Louis once hoped that the war would start soon so that he could avenge Germany, but now he was disgusted with the war and really started to hope that the war would end. .

Seeing his deputy's true words, Lin Wei smiled coldly, "The war will naturally end when it is supposed to end!"