Iron Cross

While the situation on the Eastern Front had not yet been fundamentally reversed, news came from the south that the German army had occupied Iraq and was threatening Turkey and Persia. Stalin's anxiety became even more serious. Although he immediately instructed Zhukov and others to dispatch 150,000 troops into Persia to consolidate the soft lower belly of the Soviet Union in accordance with British and American requirements, he still faced great difficulties - this meant that the 300,000 reserves he had prepared for the Don River front line were suddenly reduced. 150,000, and at the same time, the second-tier echelon in Central Asia has become unusable. The total strength of the Don River Front only barely increased from 2.3 million to 2.4 million. The number increased rapidly on the books, but the combat effectiveness was really unknown.

Many group army commanders complain that an infantry division is now filled with middle-aged soldiers over 45 years old. Even the three weeks of emergency training have not been completed in time and they almost have to be taught from scratch - at a time when the war is so fierce, this is simply a problem. An extravagant hope. They generally believed that the combat effectiveness of one division of this kind of supplementary troops was not as good as the previous two battalions. Under direct pressure from corps and division commanders and repeated requests from Zhukov and Vasilevsky, Stalin gritted his teeth and once again transferred troops from the Far East. 150,000 troops. After continuous deployment, the total strength of the Far East Red Army dropped from 1.45 million to less than 1.05 million. However, the average combat effectiveness level is still the highest, and the total number of troops is still more than half of its direct enemy (700,000 Japanese Kwantung Army). The main heavy equipment is its More than 3 times.

In the war on the Don River front, even Stalin himself has begun to think about retreating. He wants to give up the difficult nut of Rostov and instead divert the main force of the army to the direction of Moscow and change the direction of strategic attack. However, large-scale retreat is not a problem. It's easy. Manstein kept a close eye on the Red Army's movements, and would pounce fiercely if there was any slight flaw. Therefore, the southern flank battlefield with the Don River as the core is still the main battlefield on the Eastern Front - the northern flank battlefield, where the 600,000-strong Northern Army Group confronts the 750,000 Red Army (there are still 50,000 German troops cooperating with 300,000 Finnish troops on the Finnish battlefield In battle, they faced 350,000 Red Army); on the center battlefield, the 1.05 million Central Army Group faced 1.3 million Red Army; on the southern flank battlefield, the 1.6 million Southern Army Group faced 2.4 million Red Army. In addition, the Red Army has 150,000 reserve troops in the Steppe Military District, 50,000 reserve troops in Central Asia, nearly 250,000 troops in Persia and Transcaucasus, and 1.05 million troops in the Far East. A total of approximately 6.3 million Red Army ground troops were fully utilized.

The Red Army knew that although the German army only had a little over 3 million troops on the front line and close to the front line, its apparent strength was by no means the strength of three army groups (which already included 200,000 Axis Allied forces). The Germans also Following the example of the Red Army, it began to set up strategic reserves - this was the second major policy adjustment that Hoffman adopted after disarmament, expansion of divisions, and reduction of group army organization. In the original historical time and space, the German army did not have a reserve force on the Eastern Front. Once the front line is tight, troops will be transferred from other theaters, which not only increases the pressure on each defense area, but also increases the transportation burden, making it extremely passive. After careful consideration and repeated discussions and communication with Keitel, Zeitzler and others, Hoffman decided to form a strategic reserve force in the east of Poland, across southern Lithuania, western Belarus, and northern Ukraine. He initially planned to form a 20-person strategic reserve force. -Army Group Eastern with 250,000 troops. The purpose is to give the troops of the three major army groups a place to rest and rotate, without having to run back to the Western Front as soon as they rest.

Thanks to Hoffman's methods of draining the air force field divisions, liberating prisoner camp guarding forces, redeploying German troops from the Balkans, and accelerating the replenishment of reserve forces. Moreover, except for the southern front, the other two army groups used measures to level the front and abandon the salient. , stick to defense and other strategies, the ground forces on the eastern front still maintained relatively abundant and high-quality troops after the withdrawal of 200,000 troops from Italy, Romania, and Hungary.

At the same time, the Eastern Army Group also received the assistance of a large number of servants: the Russian Liberation Army has completed the establishment of the first three divisions and is in the process of forming the second batch of three divisions. In addition, it has issued a declaration of independence. Troops from the former Soviet Union countries were also gradually formed. By early January 1943, the total strength was as high as 17 divisions - including 5 in Ukraine, 3 in Estonia and Latvia (there were originally SS troops, but now they are all Regarding the National Defense Forces), Belarus and the Cossacks each formed 2 divisions, and Lithuania and Kalmykia each formed one division. These are basically units formed according to the unified organization of the German army. Each division has close to 15,000 personnel, instead of the small divisions of the Red Army with only more than 5,000 people. The total strength has exceeded 300,000. According to these countries' own expectations and affordability, the number of divisions will exceed at least 25 in the future. The destination of this group of troops is clear. Except for the Army Group that is directly integrated into the front-line operations, they will all be integrated into the Eastern Army Group.

Considering that coordinating these forces requires high prestige and military rank, on January 12, Hoffmann signed a transfer order. Marshal Weikes, the former commander of Army Group Center, took over as commander of Army Group East, and his position was filled by defense master Model. The general took over, and the order he gave Model was very simple - flexible defense and a high exchange ratio.

Although the combat effectiveness of the servant army cannot be compared with that of the German army, its existence is of great significance. On the one hand, they use their armed forces to actively promote the collective farm or factory distribution process in their own country. On the other hand, they undertake second-line defense tasks and help the German army in logistics, supply, and counterattack. To reduce pressure on guerrilla warfare and public security, especially in the process of hunting down guerrillas, the German army often faced the embarrassment of unfamiliar territory, but the local National Defense Forces were able to catch them accurately. Some units with relatively strong combat effectiveness are even directly integrated into combat units and obey the orders of the army groups to which they belong. Although the three army groups have only 3.1 million troops, almost all of them are deployed in the field - this is in sharp contrast to Japan's situation in China.

Under Hoffman's repeated requests, the weapons and equipment given to these servant troops by the Eastern Front Logistics Office were not bad. They were all armed with captured Russian arms. Since there were more seized equipment and fewer troops, the equipment level of these troops except tanks was It soon surpassed the level of the Russian army divisions, and most of the selected equipment was produced before the war and was well-made. It was not the shoddy and inferior products that the Red Army had in the past year for emergency use.

Driven by the wave of national independence and the temptation of land distribution, people in the Red Army defected almost every day. Some of them were dissatisfied and looking for opportunities to leave. Some were held responsible for the failure of the battle. Or officers and soldiers who were afraid of being held accountable by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Since the fighting between the Northern and Central Army Groups was relatively less intense, more people defected than the Germans themselves captured.

On the one hand, there are farm distribution and tax-free treatment for military dependents, and on the other hand, there are more and more comrades who defect to themselves. The morale of the servant soldiers is instantly stimulated, and their will to fight is also particularly strong. The German army does not accept everyone, and their age is obvious. The older and weaker personnel were simply demobilized and discharged, and the release rate of non-Russian ethnic prisoners in the prisoner-of-war camps was also greatly accelerated. By early January, except for some mid-level and senior military officers and political workers, almost no prisoners could be seen. To non-Russian prisoners of war. Although there will definitely be problems of one kind or another among these prisoners of war and defectors, the General Staff has confidently and boldly handed over the second-line tasks to these servant armies, specifically to deal with the Red Army. As for screening out the saboteurs mixed in, that is the Gestapo and The task of reviving the intelligence and police systems of various countries, and the SS Special Detachment's elimination of the Jewish "Final Solution" mission, were also given a similar mission. Bormann, who had considerable experience in catching treasonous groups in Germany, was assigned this task, while Himmler, who had been doing nothing, devoted himself to the Jewish trade with great interest. Both of them were immersed in it and were very busy.

Based on Stalin's original intention, he believed that the servant armies were more vicious opponents than the German army, especially the Russian People's Liberation Army, which was a thorn in his throat. He was eager to get rid of them as quickly as possible, so he sent out one wave after another. The "anti-revolutionary" teams mobilized to go deep behind enemy lines to cause destruction, but judging from the reports, the effect was obviously not as good as expected. Although the collective land distribution work in these countries has been interfered with in one way or another, it can basically be distributed before spring sowing. After all, most of the missions he sent to assassinate the leaders of the independence movement and the commanders of the Russian Liberation Army failed, and they only lost the intelligence personnel they had managed to cultivate with great difficulty. His confidant, Beria, who cleaned up the mess of the great purge, did not dare to tell him - many intelligence officers defected as soon as they arrived at their destination.

Although the report on the occupied territories submitted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs was vague and full of optimism, Stalin knew the subtext behind it. The guerrilla war had little effect, the level and scale of the resistance were getting lower and lower, and pro-Germany and anti-Russia became the mainstream. These allocated fields have been harvested for a full season, and I am afraid that they will no longer be able to stop their determination to defect to the arms of the Germans. What made him even more anxious was that intelligence showed that the coal mines in the Donetsk Basin that were destroyed by the Red Army during its retreat had been basically repaired by Germany and were about to be mined on a large scale. After a large amount of coal was mined and used for power generation, it restricted the development of the occupied western areas. The problems of heating and industrial power would no longer be an issue, and over time, once industrial production in the West was restored, he could not imagine what the prospects for future war would be.

"You mean, the Germans have gone to Istanbul and also sent equipment for two divisions to the Turks?" After listening to Beria's report on the dynamics of the occupied areas, Stalin changed the topic and asked about Turkey On people.

"Yes." Beria considered his words, "Intelligence shows that the Turkish military is happy to accept it, and its radicals are in harmony with the German fascists, but President Inonu and some cautious people are still hesitant."

"The war in Persia is tight..." Stalin sighed and fell silent.