Iron Cross

"We are the brave and warlike Viking Division;

We have fought from the snowy North Pole to the scorching desert;

We are the brave and fearless Viking Division;

We have fought on three continents: Europe, Africa and Asia..."

Although he was sitting in a well-sealed armored command vehicle, Felix Steiner, the commander of the Viking Division, could still hear the loud singing from outside. This military song was only sung after the Viking Division trained for amphibious landing operations on the island of Crete. At first, it was just a spontaneous performance by the troops to adjust the difficult training atmosphere. Because the Viking Division soldiers came from many countries, it became more and more popular. In addition to the German version, there are also many versions in Western European and Nordic languages. Originally, there were only two continents in the lyrics. Once the troops crossed the Sinai Peninsula and began to conquer Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan and prepared to sweep across Asia Minor, the clever soldiers automatically changed it to three continents.

Now it seems like we have returned to the good days when Barbarossa was just beginning, and it is even more perfect than the Russian frontline operations: the ground is an endless desert and Gobi, which is an excellent armored combat terrain as long as the fuel and supplies can keep up; there is a strong air force cover above, and there is a vulnerable enemy in front - not only are the combat readiness and number pitifully small, but the combat will is much weaker than that of the Russians. After a year and a half of battles on the Eastern Front, the Viking Division has a more mature combat level, and the coordination of equipment, soldiers, and command systems is in the best condition.

Steiner initially thought that he would carry out the mission of landing in the British Isles. Considering the British navy and tight defense, he was ready to die in battle. In the end, he landed in North Africa to strike at the weakest link in the British Empire's global strategic system, especially because there was a crazy amount of oil underground. He had only one thought in his mind: I should have come to fight such an enemy long ago!

In addition to combat, he has been thinking about another central topic recently - the organization and reorganization of the troops.

The General Staff has issued the new 1943 armored division organization. After the process of disarmament and division expansion in the second half of 1942, the Supreme Command has made greater adjustments and upgrades to the division-level organization, and the armored division is the top priority.

According to the 1943 organization plan, the armored division will be based on the "4 regiments, 6 battalions and 8 companies" as the core. The 4 regiments refer to 1 armored regiment, 2 armored grenadiers and 1 artillery regiment; the 6 battalions include: armored reconnaissance battalion, armored engineer battalion, motorized baggage battalion, communication battalion, air defense battalion and health battalion; the 8 companies include: command company, guard company, maintenance company, military police company, quartermaster company (responsible for food, clothing, housing and transportation), military band, supply company (responsible for ammunition) and transportation company. The 4 regiments are front-line combat units, and the 6th battalion and the 8th company are included in the division-level direct units.

As the core of the armored division, the armored regiment has become unprecedentedly powerful, with 4 armored battalions under it. At the same time, each battalion has added a company, reaching the scale of 4 battalions and 16 companies as a whole. Among them, three battalions are tank battalions, all uniformly equipped with Type 4H, each tank platoon has 5 companies of tanks, an armored company has 22 tanks (4 tank platoons with 20 tanks + 2 tanks for the company headquarters), and an armored battalion has up to 92 tanks (4 armored companies with 88 tanks + 4 tanks for the battalion headquarters). In addition to the three tank battalions, there is also a tank destroyer battalion, equipped with Type 3 assault guns or Jagdpanzer tank destroyers as needed. Therefore, the total number of tanks will reach 284 (3 tank battalions + 8 tanks for the regiment headquarters) after the armored regiment is fully staffed, and the tank destroyer battalion has 92 armored vehicles. The total number of the reorganized Type 1943 Armored Division will be around 20,000.

According to the arrangement of the General Staff, the Type 1943 Armored Division will take one year to complete the reorganization, which will be completed in three batches. The Viking Division, which has always been an elite, is naturally in the first batch. But Steiner is not satisfied with the first batch. His eyes are projected to a farther place, because the Type 1943 Armored Division has two subtypes in addition to the standard model.

The first subtype is the tropical subtype or desert subtype, which is mainly considered for fighting against Britain and the United States. There will be about 3-4 divisions: all equipped with T-34 tanks, not equipped with StuG III or Jagdpanzer, but equipped with the newly developed Puma wheeled assault gun;

The second subtype is the enhanced subtype - all senior officers who know the inside story privately call it the elite subtype. In addition to the organization of the general armored division, it is also equipped with an additional Tiger heavy tank company and a self-propelled rocket launcher company (Himmler Organ).

The enhanced subtype has a small number of troops. Now it has been confirmed that there are 4 divisions, namely the 1st SS Führer Guard Leibstandarte Division and the 2nd Reich Division, and the Wehrmacht Division and the 3rd Armored Division. Although the General Staff has been keeping the news secret, the latest news is that there is a fifth quota. In order to compete for the fifth quota, the commanders of the Wehrmacht and SS armored divisions who thought they were qualified were eager to try. The 4th, 6th, 7th and 16th Armored Divisions in the Wehrmacht were all strong contenders; and the 3rd Skull Division, the 4th Police Division and the 5th Wiking Division where Steiner was in the SS were also strong contenders.

SS National Leader Himmler sent him a telegram specifically, asking him to work hard in the Middle East operations and strive to grab the fifth quota in the SS. Although the combat effectiveness of the elite sub-type would not be sky-high after adding a Tiger company and a rocket launcher company, it was a rare honor - it meant being recognized as the top main force in the entire German armed forces. As the only SS unit in this battle, he felt a lot of pressure.

In addition, the reason why Steinner made up his mind to fight for the fifth place was the gossip he accidentally learned: when chatting with the Führer about tactical details on the island, the Führer mentioned that he was also going to try to equip the reinforced sub-type with a ground attack aircraft company, allowing the armored division to directly command at least 16 ground attack aircraft to carry out integrated land and air operations. In the past, when the air force command was in the hands of Goering, this was something that he dared not even think about, but Steiner did not think that it was the Führer's fantasy to assign aircraft directly to the armored division. He thought it was very valuable and was very willing to try it.

Internal rumors about the reorganization have been circulating. It is said that the Führer has changed his habit of drawing troops to form new troops, and clearly made the reorganization of existing troops the highest priority. He also stipulated that the number of armored divisions in 1943 would be 28 for the Wehrmacht and 7 for the SS, a total of 35. Before these 35 armored divisions were reorganized, no new armored divisions would be considered for the time being. Later, under the strong demands of the public, the policy was slightly opened up, and two troops were added: one was the Flying Fortress Armored Brigade of the Air Force upgraded to an armored division, and the other was an armored teaching division composed of personnel drawn from various armored schools, so that the total number of armored divisions reached 37.

After the disarmament and expansion of the division, the competition for senior officers was unprecedentedly fierce. Except for a very few lucky ones who found a suitable position in the newly formed army group, those generals with slightly worse abilities or unsatisfactory performance in the past were sent to the reserve army. Some were either included in the traitor group and executed, or were swept into the reserve because they were always in the Junker group and often sang against the head of state. Serving in the reserve army, although the rank, treatment, and position remain unchanged, everyone is trying their best to stay in the front-line troops, and are even willing to accept demotion. In the past, major generals or even colonels could serve as division commanders, but now lieutenant generals and even generals have begun to serve as division commanders.

Some Allied observers believed that this was the second time Germany had disarmed itself (the first was the purge during the 100,000-man Wehrmacht period). It was called a reform of the organization, but in fact it was a purge launched by the head of state in the name of reform, reflecting the profound power struggle within the German army. Steiner scoffed at this. He did not deny that this change was partly due to political factors, but in the final analysis, it was to reduce the command level and improve combat effectiveness. After the war entered a white-hot state, many senior officers who performed well in the battles in Poland and France were not adapted to the war on the Eastern Front. They commanded too many smooth battles but were not adapted to the cunning, cruel and intertwined wars on the Eastern Front. Those young officers promoted on the front line may not be qualified for higher-level positions - the so-called promotion often puts people in the most inappropriate positions. In this regard, the Air Force is much better than the Army - meritorious pilots like Marseille, even if they shot down many planes, were given a lot of honors, and their military ranks also rose, but their positions never exceeded squadron leaders.

As for Steiner himself, he thought he was only qualified to command a powerful division rather than coordinate the work of an army commander of several divisions. General Guderian commanded troops in Africa, with only 3 armored divisions, 1 infantry division, 1 armored brigade and 1 Italian paratrooper brigade under his command. Any army group on the Eastern Front had more people than him, but he still sighed that the battlefield was too large and he couldn't command the Italians. Field Marshal Rommel always commanded no more than 50,000 troops, and this time the number finally reached 60,000. In the past, everyone always ridiculed him and thought that his marshal rank was water. Only when he went to North Africa and the desert in person did Steiner realize the difficulty of commanding operations - this place is completely different from the Eastern Front or the Western Front. There is no continuous front or clear road, only a vast desert.

"Sir, the Italian paratrooper brigade sent a telegram saying that they have successfully landed and are currently engaging in a fierce exchange of fire with the enemy. The enemy was caught off guard and their resistance is very weak, but the oil field facilities are spread over a large area and are understaffed. The British have been destroyed by explosions and hope that we can provide support as soon as possible."

"Please ask them to hold on, and our troops will arrive within 48 hours."

"Marshal Rommel sent an urgent telegram. In view of the weak enemy forces in Mosul and Baghdad, he has ordered General Student to command the paratrooper brigade to land in Baghdad. He asked our division to allocate powerful forces to cooperate with the attack. He has ordered the Great German Division to turn directly to the south to attack Basra."

If the commander of the Eastern Front heard such a temporary order to change the combat objectives, he would be furious, but Steiner's vision was not so limited. He believed that this change was correct, and the only requirement now was speed!