Beiyang 1917

() Emile Hull also feels that General von François chooses which von Neuhaus to act as his commanding authority. Going to the city of Kharkov, it is very likely that they will hit the opponent's reinforcement reserve team. The enemy is strong and we are weak, and the opponent has air superiority, and there are fortresses as shelter... The 29th Reserve Infantry Army wants to gnaw hard bones like this. This battle may really be fought. slipped away...

"Hmph... According to that Neuhaus, how does he want to fight?" Major General von Balouis, chief of staff of the 27th Infantry Army, von Kusmani's deputy, hummed. ..

"Neuhaus suggested that under his leadership, the 29th Infantry Army should first defend Yekaterinoslav and attract the main force of the coalition forces to go south. The coalition forces will not let go of Yekaterinoslav, which ranks third in size and population in Ukraine. At that time, the 29th Infantry Army will attract the opponent to station troops under the city to block the opponent's attack, while the 27th Infantry Army in the direction of Kiev and the 31st Infantry Army in the direction of Donetsk will each have two infantry divisions. Outflank the rear of the main force of the coalition forces in one direction!"

"Von Neuhaus believes that if we can concentrate the strength of six infantry divisions by then, we can eat up the opponent's two main divisions in one go, and take back Kharkov as a matter of course!" Emil Herr revealed the mystery , walked back to the conference table, picked up the tea mug and drank heavily, the military uniform was already sweating...

In the campaign plan first reported to Berlin by General William Greiner, the main force of the German army will abandon Kharkov after the coalition forces attack heavily, and hope to attract the coalition forces to fight all the way to the city of Kiev, so that the logistics and transportation support lines of the coalition forces will be stretched. It will be hundreds of kilometers long. At that time, the German Eighth Army will cross the Dnieper River northward from Odessa along the Sea of ​​Azov, and cut off the Allied forces' retreat by surprise. The main force is invested in the battle in the direction of Kharkov.....

When the coalition forces actually launched the Ukrainian campaign, the development of the situation was a bit beyond the expectations of William Greiner and Berlin. The coalition forces only invested less than 5 troops to attack Kharkov. For the German 10th Army, it's just... I can't laugh or cry... Of course, the coalition forces rely on the advantage of mastering the air supremacy in a short period of time to make up for the shortcomings of the Japanese Army's insufficient artillery fire, and the air strikes of the coalition air force are very effective in disintegrating and defeating the Ukrainian troops. It worked wonders...

This is like the German army waiting in full force, thinking that the coalition forces can invest at least 20 main forces to attack Kharkov, so they decided to trade space for time, prolong the logistics transportation of the coalition forces, and disperse the opponent's forces. As a result, the opponent only A quarter of the troops were invested, which made General William Greiner have a difficult time... If the 1st Fighter Wing hadn't suffered heavy losses and needed time to recover, maybe William Greiner would have led the main force of the 27th Infantry Army southward. Rush to the aid of Kharkov...

Now that the coalition forces are left behind, at least two-thirds of the main force of the opponent's Southwest Front Army has not been engaged in the battlefield and attack. In this way, the commander of the German 10th Army also began to hesitate, when should he go? A large-scale counterattack is obviously not enough to send the troops up for nothing to suffer from the air strikes of the coalition air force, but if you want to blindly retreat and defend at the mercy of others, you can't explain to everyone. Simon Petliura's Ukrainian government has already followed The railway line was withdrawn to Ekaterinoslav, but the commander-in-chief of the national army led a group of defeated soldiers and said that he would stick to Krasnorad and never give up an inch of land. Obviously, he was forcing the main force of the German army to go south for reinforcements !

"What do you think of the next phase of the combat plan proposed by von Neuhaus?" General William Greiner snuffed out the cigarette butt in his hand, and turned his attention to von Kusmani and his division commanders...

"I don't think so! It's too passive to hide and defend! Moreover, it is only 200 kilometers from Kharkov to Yekaterinoslav. It takes half a day to get there by train. We have to walk more than 400 kilometers from Kiev to the south, and it is difficult to keep it strictly confidential. It’s not small, once the wind leaks, you must know that the sky is full of coalition reconnaissance planes flying all over the sky, once it leaks, I don’t think the main force of the coalition forces will run back to Kharkov before we can kill Krasnorad!” The speaker was still Major General Von Balouis, chief of staff of the 27th Infantry Corps...

As soon as Feng Balouis said this, William Greiner and Emile Hull frowned. Even the commander of the 27th Infantry Army, Feng Kusmani, felt that his chief of staff was unreliable. When Smany said that he was going to lead a main division south to reinforce Ekaterinoslav, Von Balouis did not say that there was no way to keep it secret, but now he puts forward such a reason. …

"Major General...how do you fight?" General William Greiner's tone was cold, looking at Major General Feng Baloui with disappointed eyes...

"Follow me...Follow me...Let the 29th Infantry Army guard Yekaterinoslav on the southern front, and take advantage of the opportunity when the main force of the coalition forces is transferred to Kharkov...We avoid the real and attack the false... Launch a counterattack from the northern front and attack directly to Kursk. Didn’t the Chinese have a saying “surround Wei and save Zhao?” In this way, the enemy’s deployment will definitely be broken and the initiative in the battle will be gained! Without the help of our army commander, I will personally lead a division and go by train, anyway, the north is where Soviet Russia and the Volga Federation meet, and the coalition forces will definitely not guard against us!"

The way that Major General Feng Balouis suppressed in desperation really made the eyes of the German generals in the conference room brighten. Several division commanders and chiefs of staff whispered to each other, obviously very interested in the plan proposed by the chief of staff of their own army. ...

"Your Excellency, Commander, Chief of Staff, Commander, I think the suggestion of the Chief of Staff is feasible. In the previous stage of the Ukrainian campaign, we were led by the coalition forces. We must break the rules this time... Kursk Oblast just returned from the Soviet Union. The Volga Federation allocated to that puppet by the Russian Bolsheviks is the farthest away from the opponent’s heartland, the enemy must not pay attention to it, send my division into battle, and I will take Kursk in three days!”

The one who stood up and volunteered was the commander of the 41st German Infantry Division, Major General Marus von Birkhe. His division was the main trump card division of the 27th Infantry Army, and it was always the first choice for charging!