Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, Marshal Loeb has been here for nearly two months. Now that he has learned that the battle in Leningrad has basically ended, Marshal Loeb naturally wants to replace his Northern Army Group headquarters. One place, Leningrad, the second largest city in the Soviet Union, oh no, it should be called St. Petersburg now, became the location of the new headquarters in the eyes of Marshal Loeb.
There are almost no traces of German soldiers in the three Baltic countries. This is because soldiers from the Northern Army Group have gathered around Leningrad. This is of course a good thing for the indigenous people and the government here. The German army also did not disappoint these indigenous people who had always regarded themselves as liberators, and did not show any emotion towards this place. Actually according to Hit? According to Le's original blueprint, these small countries would definitely be annexed, but in Lin Wei's blueprint, he had reservations about these three small countries. Lin Wei did this not because he was kind-hearted, but because the three small countries had nothing for Germany to worry about. Moreover, limited by population and territorial area, these countries could never pose a danger to Germany. If they were forcibly annexed, they would definitely cause instability. For Germany, the gain outweighs the loss.
As early as when Leningrad was mostly occupied, Marshal Loeb had already prepared for the relocation of the new headquarters. The Estonian government absolutely welcomed this decision. Although they had no real power, they still mobilized many people. The German army saw them off and cooperated well with the German army to stage a scene of love between the military and civilians.
Most of the Germans staying here were members of the SS Gestapo. Lin Wei had been racking his brains to expand the SS. For this reason, Heydrich, as the deputy leader, naturally tried his best to help Lin Wei. As early as in the Northern Army Group When they occupied the three Baltic countries, the Gestapo had already made contact with the resistance forces of these three countries. Their conditions have never changed, that is, they require the three countries to help Germany participate in the Soviet-German War. When Army Group North left the three countries, the Gestapo remained here. This time their mission became to help the three countries establish a stable intelligence agency.
When General Arthur Philip learned of Marshal Loeb's actions from the telegram, there were only two choices before him. First, end the battle before Marshal Loeb arrived in Leningrad. Second, go to a military court and wait. deal with. There is no doubt that no normal person would choose number one. General Arthur and Philip's behavior of wiping the butt of Shade and Herman eventually got themselves involved. The facts are before us. General Arthur Philip must end the battle at Plaza Towers immediately.
The bloody battle for the building lasted all night. Soldiers from the Prince Eugen Division finally cleared the Soviet soldiers on the nine floors below the building. When the next morning, the troops who went in to clean up the battlefield carried out nearly two thousand corpses from both sides. In one night, the Second Mountain Regiment was directly reduced by two-thirds, forcing General Arthur Philip to change the attacking troops, because the tenth level with the strongest defense was still controlled by Red Army soldiers.
Now that we know that Marshal Loeb is preparing to come here, time has become very urgent. After a night of fighting, General Arthur Philip asked the 3rd Mountain Regiment to replace the 2nd Mountain Regiment that had existed in name only, and began the offensive on the 19th. At this time, General Arthur Philip welcomed an unexpected guest, Marshal Mannerheim, Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army. Apparently the lingering movement here has attracted the attention of Marshal Mannerheim.
In a private house not far from the building, General Arthur Philip met the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army, Marshal Mannerheim. The performance of the Finnish army had already won the respect of General Arthur Philip, and General Arthur Philip Although somewhat influenced by the National Socialist Party, his soldiers were trained for winter combat in Finland after all. The two factors combined, General Arthur Philip was naturally very polite to the Finnish marshal.
"Hello Marshal, why did you suddenly remember to come here!" General Arthur Philip said a little cautiously, obviously showing a guilty conscience. Seeing this, Marshal Mannerheim just smiled slightly and said, "Ah General Sir Philip, you are completely different from your bold leader. When we fought against the Soviet Red Army, I had a real sense of his arrogance!"
"The marshal was joking, of course people are different!" General Arthur Philip smiled modestly, "The leader is under control of everything. Of course I can't learn that!"
Marshal Mannerheim was noncommittal and glanced at General Arthur Philip with an indescribable look. Then he turned back to the Plaza Building outside the door and said nonchalantly, "General Arthur Philip, you are in trouble! I just got Marshal Loeb’s telegram, he is on his way here, it’s okay if he comes by railway, but if he comes by plane, you will be in trouble!”
After a night of fighting in the Plaza Building, the entire building had completely changed. Naturally, General Arthur Philip could not deceive himself and pretend that nothing happened, so he admitted generously, "This is indeed my mistake!"
"Let me help you!" Marshal Mannerheim patted General Arthur Philip on the shoulder and said, "I already know the situation of this building. Since it was built in recent years, it will definitely be There is one thing, and that is a heater to keep people warm in winter!" Looking at General Arthur Philip's somewhat puzzled eyes, Marshal Mannerheim knew that it would be difficult for General Arthur Philip, an Austrian, to understand this thing, so Explained, "You don't have to worry about what he does. In short, there must be such a large building, and there must be pipes at the bottom of the building that go to the top of the building. These pipes are usually very large, allowing a person to There’s no problem with people doing it!”
"I understand, thank you! Marshal Mannerheim!" General Arthur & Philip knew that what Marshal Mannerheim said could indeed solve his current dilemma, so he expressed his sincere thanks.
"You don't need to thank me. After all, Germany also helped Finland a lot during the Winter War!" Marshal Mannerheim said.
With the guidance of Marshal Mannerheim, General Arthur Philip knew the weakness of this building. This cannot be blamed on General Arthur Philip. After all, General Arthur Philip is an Austrian, and there is no such thing in Austria. Plant something.
"Only the last two floors are left. There is no reason to take more time to occupy the two floors than to occupy the ninth floor!" General Arthur Philip said to himself secretly. The occupation of the entire Leningrad could happen anytime, anywhere. The purpose of General Arthur & Philip was to make it happen before Marshal Loeb arrived.
At six o'clock in the morning on the 19th, the attack began again. The Third Mountain Regiment, which took over from the Second Mountain Regiment, began to attack from the stairs on both sides at the same time. After paying dozens of casualties, the Third Mountain Regiment successfully succeeded on the tenth floor. Having gained a firm foothold, although they only controlled a few rooms near the stairs, this was already a great improvement for the German soldiers who had made no progress all night.
At the same time, according to the instructions of General Arthur Philip, some engineering soldiers were standing looking for heating pipes that ran through the entire building. Dozens of soldiers had been selected. They would climb up from the pipes to the eleventh floor and then occupy the eleventh floor and go down. Launch an attack. This is definitely a difficult battle plan, and only the brave and careful can carry out this kind of battle.
At this time, the battle on the tenth floor has reached a critical moment. Both sides are evenly matched and are engaged in close combat in each room. The crazy factor is constantly challenging human nerves, making humans even crazier. Two soldiers in a room kept opening holes in each other's bodies with bayonets and daggers, cursing their opponents while ignoring their own injuries. Until they fell down at the same time, facing the coming of death.
In another room near the window, two soldiers with bruises and swollen faces were attacking the enemy with their fists, tearing each other close to the window, preparing to throw each other out of the window. In fact, at this time, several soldiers had already been thrown from the tenth floor and smashed into meat patties.
On the other hand, the soldier who found the pipe carefully began to climb along the pipe until he reached the top of the eleventh floor. When they used the vise they finally took out to gently break the exit door lock, an absolutely unexpected situation occurred. There was not a single Red Army soldier on the entire eleventh floor. Oh no..., it should be said that among them There was a Red Army soldier within their line of sight. The SS soldiers were not careless and began to carefully check all the rooms. What happened was a big surprise. There were only a dozen soldiers guarding the entire top floor. These Red Army soldiers were captured before they could react. They were killed, and their shouts were drowned out by ten layers of huge fighting sounds, which did not serve as a warning.
The defense situation on the eleventh floor was completely different from that on the tenth floor below. This situation caused General Arthur Philip to think deeply, why was this arrangement made? Quite simply, because of the fear of bombing by the Luftwaffe, the top floor was very dangerous in this case, but unexpectedly it became the original breakthrough point for the SS or General Arthur Philip.
But no matter how this oversight came about, General Arthur Philip accepted the gift unceremoniously. Under the instructions of General Arthur Philip, soldiers continued to climb up from the pipe to the top. The number of soldiers on the eleventh floor reached two When there were hundreds of people, they suddenly rushed down from the roof and dealt a fatal blow to the Red Army soldiers who were fighting with the Third Mountain Regiment. The Red Army soldiers who were concentrating on fighting the German soldiers did not expect that the Germans suddenly appeared behind them. There was chaos for a while. Soon, the Red Army soldiers who had been fighting were annihilated by the German soldiers in a pincer attack.
At noon on October 19, the last Red Army soldier who was still resisting was shot dead, and the entire building was completely occupied by Germany. General Arthur Philip immediately ordered a search for Zhukov. However, after a blanket search, Zhukov was still not alive or dead. The corpses caused General Arthur Philip to order the blockade of all roads out of Leningrad, but still nothing was found.
General Arthur Philip could only send a telegram to Lin Wei with a sense of loss of failure. Although Lin Wei was quite helpless, he could only ask General Arthur Philip to continue the search, but did not remove General Arthur Philip from his position. Regarding Zhukov's fate, Lin Wei was very concerned about it in the subsequent battles, but contrary to Lin Wei's expectations, Zhukov never appeared again. It was not until long after the war ended, when Lin Wei was recuperating in Essen City, there At that time, I was still wondering that the victorious Marshal Zhukov, who was originally the most powerful man in history, turned out to be one of the millions of missing people on the Soviet-German battlefield.
At noon on the 19th, almost when General Arthur Philip occupied the building, the Imperial Propaganda Department announced that Leningrad had been occupied and its name was changed back to St. Petersburg to continue its glory as a metropolis in eastern Germany. On the evening of the same day, the Turkish government announced that to join the war, 22 infantry divisions and 300,000 Turkish troops would cross the border and declare war on the Soviet Union.
It seemed that all the good news arrived on the same day. Lin Wei, who was in Moscow, once again received a telegram from Marshal Manstein of Army Group South. The telegram stated that the Romanian-dominated army had occupied and cut off the Soviet army's access to Ukraine from the Black Sea. The transportation line helped the German army fully control the situation in Ukraine. Regarding the sudden outbreak of the Romanian army, Lin Wei arrived very puzzled, because in his memory, there seemed to be no time when the Romanian army was particularly outstanding, but Lin Wei thought I feel relieved when I think about it. After all, my head is not a computer and it is impossible to remember everything, so it is normal to forget some things.
The Battle of Odessa was launched by the Romanian Fourth Army under the command of its commander, Lieutenant General Nicolai Sopica. The Romanian army was divided into two groups. The left wing third group (which governed the first, third and seventh Romanian Army) The Infantry Division and the 2nd Tank Regiment) are responsible for the frontal attack on Odessa, and the Fifth Group on the right wing (which governs the Romanian Army's 15th Infantry Division, 1st Armored Division and 1st Cavalry Brigade) is responsible for launching a flank attack south of Odessa.
On August 8, the Romanian army launched a general offensive. The 1st Cavalry Brigade of the Romanian Army broke through the outer defense line and penetrated deep into the town of Alexandrovka alone. It turned to defense and waited for the 1st Armored Division of the Romanian Army to follow up. In the afternoon, with the sound of rumbling propellers in the distance, several Soviet "Il-2" attack aircraft, known as the "Black Death", soon appeared in the sky. They spewed tongues of fire and rushed to the ground. After rows of bullets rained down, the Roman soldiers turned on their backs. Some injured horses that fell to the ground struggled hard and howled at the top of their lungs. Immediately after the air raid, countless Soviet soldiers poured out from all directions. They shouted "Ula!" and rushed towards the Roman army like a tide. The two sides immediately started a medieval-like fight: the Romanian cavalry drew sharp sabers and rode out to attack; the Soviet infantry lined up in neat lines, with sharp bayonets mounted on their rifles, and charged at the Romanian cavalry. For a time, the town was filled with the sound of killing. The battle lasted until the afternoon, when the Romanian Army's First Armored Division arrived, and the Romanian Army blocked the Soviet counterattack. In the following days, the Romanian army continued to attack, and soon occupied the reservoir outside Odessa, cutting off the water source in the city, so that the soldiers and civilians of Odessa could only rely on fresh water transported by sea to sustain their lives.
At dawn on the 18th, two Romanian infantry regiments, led by a tank regiment, launched an attack on the town of Mikhailovka on Odessa's outer defense line. Not long after the Romanian tanks advanced, haloes of light flashed across the opposite position, and intensive Soviet anti-tank fire came like raindrops. In the blink of an eye, more than 20 Czech-made 35(t) light tanks of the Romanian army were hit one after another, and the tank regiment leader was killed immediately. The Romanian infantry regiments, which had lost the support of tanks, still charged desperately and entered the town. The battle was extremely fierce, and half of the Romanian army officers, including the two regiment commanders, were killed. That night, Luo Jun finally took complete control of the town. On the 24th, the Romanian army completely broke through the Soviet army's outer defense line, and the urban area of Odessa was within the range of the Romanian army's heavy artillery.
The fighting lasted for more than a month, until September 20th, Army Group South had finished the Battle of Kiev. Suddenly, it was discovered that the Romanian army was still fighting the Soviet Red Army in the city of Odessa, so they discussed with Marshal Antonescu and discussed with Romania. The army fought together. It may be that the battle in Odessa made Marshal Antonescu a little embarrassed. Marshal Antonescu rejected the proposal. The Romanian army was ordered to complete this campaign independently, because Marshal Antonescu knew that if the Romanian army could not prove its worth, it was likely to repeat the tragedy of Italy in World War I, that is, it was a victorious country but got nothing. Moreover, Romania urgently needed Soviet territory to compensate for the territory that had been returned to Hungary. Various reasons forced Marshal Antonescu to issue an order to fight independently.
The Romanian Army finally broke through the Soviet middle-level defense line. Part of the Romanian Army's 7th Cavalry Brigade broke into the eastern city of Odessa. The following Romanian Army artillery immediately blocked the Odessa port and fired, causing the Soviet Navy's ships to transport supplies to Unable to enter or leave the port. The Soviet army, which was forced to a desperate end, launched the largest counterattack in the entire campaign on the 22nd, dispatching two infantry divisions stationed in the city and landing a regiment of marines from the sea to cooperate. Before the attack was launched, the Soviet army airborne a small detachment behind the Romanian 7th Cavalry Brigade. They attacked a Romanian army headquarters and moved around, creating the illusion of an airborne landing of a large force. Luo Jun was panicked for a moment and even took the initiative to retreat six kilometers. After learning of the situation, Marshal Antonescu severely reprimanded Lieutenant General Nikolay Sopika and asked him to capture Odessa as soon as possible.
Lieutenant General Nicolai Sopica, who had received the death order from Marshal Antonescu, now knew Romania's embarrassing position and could only continue to command the already exhausted Romanian army to continue attacking Odessa.