Finally, Largo Caballero, the head of the government, had no hope of continuing to fight to defend the capital, so he moved the government agencies to Valencia.
Largo Caballero then summoned General Miaja of the National Defense Council and entrusted General Miaja to continue leading the defense of Madrid. Then he hurriedly evacuated Madrid. The government suddenly retreated, causing panic. Franco's fifth column spread the news and re-established it at the right time to fan the flames. Various rumors arose one after another, and people in Madrid were panicked.
"What should we do? After the National Army enters the city, we will all be killed."
"General Franco will not let us go..."
The government's retreat temporarily created a power vacuum within Madrid, which provided a stage for the Spanish Communist Party to perform. Those communists took to the streets to boost people's morale. The Party Central Committee called on the military and civilians of the capital: "Everything is to defend Madrid!". Barricades were built on various streets in the city. Volunteer registration was carried out. The newly formed troops went to the front line.
Then he immediately ordered the two brigades of the International Column defending the west to retreat to Madrid. Lin Wei was able to seize the opposite position without any blood. The Italian army has occupied Guadalajara northeast of Madrid, the German Wehrmacht has also reached its predetermined position in the northwest, and Franco's National Army is attacking from the north to the south.
Madrid transferred back the International Column together with the 11th Brigade commanded by Kleber (Manfred Stein), who was newly formed in Madrid; the 12th Brigade commanded by Lukács (Matthew Zorkow); Pol. Tank detachment (Volunteers of the CPSU) commanded by Arman and Semyon Krivoshein. And shouted the slogan "Don't go too far!".
In December 1936, the defense of Madrid entered a new stage. On December 7, the National Army began to attack the city. An offensive was launched across the entire front, and its left wing troops carried out the main assault through the "Pastoral House" park. The Republican Army resisted tenaciously. The National Army occupied most of the park at a heavy cost of casualties and approached the Manzanares River. The Nationalist Army attempted to forcefully cross the river and break into the city, but failed. In the first half of December, the enemy continued to carry out ineffective attacks. The characteristic of the Republican Army's operations is to skillfully combine holding positions with short counterattacks on the flanks of enemy groups. For this purpose, the Madrid headquarters of the Central Front mobilized 7 brigades, including 2 international brigades and 1 tank group (about 50 T-26 tanks). The Republican Army held on to Madrid, buying time to establish the people's army, consolidate the rear, and mobilize national reserve troops and supplies.
After the failure of the frontal siege, the National Army headquarters formulated a plan to encircle Madrid in an attempt to cut off Madrid's connection with the country and make it isolated and helpless, and then captured it in one fell swoop. The siege task was mainly carried out by the Italian Expeditionary Force (40,000 people). The army was sent to Spain by Mussolini's fascist government at the end of 1936. The general plan of the battle is to attack Madrid simultaneously from the east bank of the Jarama River in the south and from Sigueenza in the northeast.
At this time, the southeast and northwest of Madrid were surrounded by the National Defense Forces, the SS, the Italian Army, the Portuguese Army and the National Legion. Several armies numbered more than 200,000 people. Due to the persuasion and mobilization of the Communist Party, there were nearly 30 people in Madrid. Thousands of armed personnel.
The Republican Army headquarters is also preparing to implement an offensive campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to annihilate an army of the National Army in the Madrid area. Unexpectedly, the National Army preemptively launched an offensive at the Harama River.
The Republican Army had been forced to retreat and was fighting with the belief of living or dying with Madrid. General Ludwig and Lin Wei believed that the war in Spain must end before 1937, so they advocated Launch a general offensive as soon as possible and engage in a decisive battle with the Republican Army in Madrid.
What Lin Wei advocated was exactly what Franco wanted. Now he has advantages in all aspects. Of course, he hopes that the war can end soon. At the same time, Franco has announced to the outside world that the members of the Republican Army and the left wing of the Republic will If he won't be pardoned, he will definitely use an iron fist to clean up the influence caused by the Republic.
At the same time, Franco launched a series of offensives in order to completely offset the Spanish influence in Madrid. Until the Madrid team's contact with the outside world is completely cut off, and before the decisive battle, Madrid has completely become an isolated city.
For the upcoming decisive battle, the Republican Army tried its best to mobilize the masses in Madrid and turned the city into a battle fortress. Lin Wei is also preparing for the final blow. The two sides have assembled half a million troops in the small city of Madrid. Now the whole of Europe is watching here. This decisive battle will determine the future to a certain extent. The direction of Europe.
It was a rare good day. Lin Wei also walked out of the dark headquarters, sunbathing with his eyes closed, enjoying the rare tranquility. Lin Wei also knew that this was the rare tranquility before the war.
Andre and Thomas were still in the command post or in the tank as usual, but today they were called out by Lin Wei. "You will get suffocated if you stay in there for a long time," Lin Wei said.
Seeing Lin Wei's expression of enjoyment, Thomas was embarrassed to interrupt, so he chose a light topic, "Leader, if we learn Madrid City, can we return to Germany?"
"Of course, Andre," Lin Wei replied affirmatively.
"But! I really don't want to go back," Andre and Thomas said with their heads lowered.
This answer was beyond Lin Wei's expectation, so Lin Wei asked, "Why?"
Andre and Thomas muttered for a long time and said, "There will be no more battles to fight after we go back."
Lin Wei opened his mouth, walked over, patted Andre and Thomas on the shoulders, and said, "Don't worry. Andre, we will have a lot of fights in the future."
"real?"
"Of course" Lin Wei said firmly while looking at the fiery sun.
On December 15, 1936, the Spanish National Army, the German Wehrmacht, the SS, the Italian Army, and the Portuguese Army began to attack the urban area of Madrid from the four directions of southeast, northwest, and southeast. The German Wehrmacht and the SS were on the western front. Facing the four brigades of the International Column, from the previous battles, the Republic already knew that among the intervention armies of various countries in Spain, the German army was the most combat-effective. Although they were small in number, they had good weapons and equipment and must not be underestimated. , so the Republican Army placed its most elite international columns in front of Germany.
This was the final decisive battle. The SS and the Wehrmacht knew that they would not tolerate any hidden dangers at this time and had to show all their strength. Hundreds of cannons were lined up on the battlefield, and the deafening sound of shelling resounded throughout the world. Artillery shells flew towards the international column on the opposite side with the greetings of death, making these soldiers known for their firm faith unable to raise their heads.
In order to make the strike last longer, the artillery fire was deliberately delayed and the extended firing was carried out. The land on the opposite position was plowed over and over again. After making sure that basically no living thing could escape, the artillery fire began to extend to the position behind. At the same time as the artillery fire extended, the armored forces also started to take action. The engines rumbled. Nearly four hundred tanks started at the same time and flew out like arrows. They almost started to extend the artillery fire at the same time. There was a certain risk in doing so, and it was easy to accidentally injure yourself. However, in order to be able to break through the International Column's position at once, we can't lock many of them now. If we don't break through the position immediately but engage in a positional battle with the International Column, more people will die. These German generals will still count on this Accounting.
The position was in shambles, with huge craters indicating that it had been hit hard just now. You could smell the choking smell of sulfur and blood with just a breath. It seemed that no living thing existed in this area, and the implementation was correct. In this way, when the armored troops rushed up, except for a few unconscious people with bleeding mouths and noses, no living creatures were seen.
The soldiers didn't stop too much and immediately rushed into the depths. The Spaniards certainly did not expect that the German army would break through so easily after they had worked so hard to build a seemingly solid line of defense.
Lin Wei looked at the trembling scene and couldn't help but sigh, "Humans are really terrible animals." However, Lin Wei's eyes immediately changed again, "Damn, now is not the time to think about this." A cold command came from his mouth, "Military Police Soldiers of the regiment, the people opposite are all fighters who came to Spain from the international community to support the Republican Army. They fight for their beliefs. What about you? Why are you fighting? Remember, the Führer wants to lead us Germany to rise again, then A war cannot be avoided. You have a lot to learn from this war. Now I want you to know that when you face soldiers who have the same firm beliefs as you, you must kill them mercilessly. This is Do you understand our respect for them?"
"Hi, Hitler." All the soldiers of the Gendarmerie responded to Lin Wei's words with loyalty to the Führer.
As we went deeper, the resistance of the International Column gradually increased. They began to crawl out of the trenches in twos and threes and began to weakly fight back. However, they were quickly killed by the Gendarmerie. The soldiers of the Gendarmerie already knew that killing them was also a sign of respect. They were so-called men. This is the meaning of being shrouded in horse leather, although the military police regiment does not know this idiom.
The armored forces achieved such great success that the generals of the Wehrmacht also had their own answers to why Hitler was so focused on the armored forces. These generals also began to think about how they would command such forces in the future.
When the armored forces advanced, the infantry followed closely behind the armored forces. They accepted the heavily fortified positions of the International Column without any loss of life. Then most of the soldiers followed the armored forces to attack again.
The International Brigades are also fierce fighters. They have their own spiritual beliefs. They can come from thousands of miles away to support their comrades, which shows what kind of people the International Brigade members are. The Gendarmerie also has its own spiritual beliefs. , it is exactly the opposite belief to these International Brigades. From this point of view, the Gendarmerie and the International Brigades are natural rivals.
These soldiers immediately proved Lin Wei's idea and launched a fierce counterattack. About four battalions and nearly 3,000 people rushed out of the trenches and bunkers to carry out the counterattack, shouting slogans that the military police regiment despised but were very inspiring. The charge, and even the tank group of the German army, came to a brief pause because of the actions of these international columns.