Iron Cross

Comrade Joseph Stalin stood in front of a huge map, paying attention to the latest marked enemy and friendly dynamics, staring at it for a long time, and occasionally a sigh could be heard.

The calendar of the war finally turned over to 1943. The German army and the Allied forces were fighting fiercely in Africa and the Middle East, but the Soviet battlefield was quiet again. If it were in the past, he would have been eager to have such a breathing space so that the wounded Red Army could have time to recuperate, but now he was filled with only anxiety and panic.

Winter should be a good time for the Red Army to launch a counterattack. In the first winter of 1941-1942, the Red Army successfully repelled the German army by 250-350 kilometers with the victory of the Battle of Moscow, and won the first victory of the Allied Forces. In the second winter of 1942-1943, he wanted to do the same, and focused the offensive on the Don River front, but he repeatedly ran into obstacles in front of the Southern Army Group. Although the losses in these two months were not small, compared with the losses in the early stage of the war, especially in the summer when the German army attacked, the strength of the Red Army was not seriously damaged, but the counterattack could not be carried out.

In fact, since September, the German army has been preparing for winter defense. Not only has it mobilized and replenished a large amount of winter combat supplies, but it has also abandoned many salient areas, tried to level the front line, and even took the initiative to retreat in the face of such an attractive target as Stalingrad. The situation of the German army at the turn of summer and autumn seems a little passive, but the overall strength has not been affected. On the contrary, it has greatly enhanced its own defense capabilities and smashed the pursuit and counterattack of the Red Army. Starting from November, the Red Army’s accumulated manpower and supplies at the turn of summer and autumn were completely consumed through the continuous Voronezh Offensive, the Battle of the Great River Bend, and the subsequent tug-of-war on the Don River front, forcing Stalin to mobilize the Far East forces to move westwards on the one hand, and to use the reserve forces that were finally raised to make up for the losses on the front line on the other hand.

The Red Army found itself in an awkward situation: although it maintained a superior force over the enemy, it could not break through the German army’s solid defense system and flexible mobile defense. The once-vigorous "Uranus Plan" finally came to an end. Although the "Saturn Plan" aimed at encircling and suppressing the Hoth Group is still being implemented, the effect is not very good. Several tentative attacks in the early stage have not achieved results. Not only did they lose relevant armored forces, but they also caused internal fear of Tiger tanks. This heavy tank with an exchange ratio of more than 10:1 has become an inescapable nightmare for the Soviet tank troops. Faced with more and more German heavy armored battalions-Manstein now has 4 heavy armored battalions, the Red Army tank brigade can no longer safely act independently, and must be grouped together to act according to the scale of the tank army to launch operations, but this greatly weakens its own mobility and flexibility, which is also the root cause of the disadvantageous operations.

Faced with the increasingly perfect Don River defense system, Vasilevsky was shaken and even proposed to imitate the German army's active retreat and disengagement at the turn of summer and autumn, and arrange the defense line in the Stalingrad area to lure the German army to attack by actively showing weakness. But no matter how he handled it, the Germans were not moved at all, and had no intention of pursuing them. They were still busy building a defense system behind the Don River defense line, and at the same time, they took the time to receive troops, equipment and supplies from the rear for replenishment and organizational adjustments. If Vasilevsky sent out a bait unit, it would often be swallowed up in one bite - now the cunning Manstein has become a big fish that only swallows bait but does not take the bait.

For the German army, this is a long-term process. After the disarmament and expansion operations were completed one after another, the German army began to adjust the distribution of armed forces and build the 1943-type army division. As time went by, more and more Eastern countries (this is the general term for independent countries established by Germany on the land of the former Soviet Union) began to build and accumulate armed forces. The German army handed over the rear supply channels to them step by step. The Wehrmacht of these Eastern countries lived up to expectations and successfully curbed the guerrilla forces. Not only were they able to maintain very smooth supply channels, but they also allowed the German army to greatly increase the density of frontline troops. The German General Staff was even able to form the Eastern Army Group to provide strategic reserves for the Eastern Front - this not only meant that the Red Army could no longer expect to exhaust the German army by strengthening the war on the Western Front, but also had to face the German divisions that were getting better and better in the future.

Faced with this embarrassing and useless state, the Red Army General Staff had a debate. One was to continue to confront the German army on the front line, even if it paid a greater sacrifice to maintain pressure on the German army, and the other was for the three fronts to disengage and retreat to the Volga River to recuperate. Zhukov was the advocate of the first opinion, so he spared no effort to revise and improve the "Saturn Project", while Vasilevsky was the advocate of the latter opinion. Originally, Stalin had gradually tilted his inner balance towards Vasilevsky in the face of a difficult situation, but the victory of the German army in the Middle East battlefield forced him to change this judgment.

After obtaining sufficient oil output, the German army has sent people to investigate the number of tractors that cannot be started due to lack of oil in the Eastern countries, and is preparing to provide them with diesel during the spring sowing and plowing. This news was quickly mastered by the intelligence personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At first, some people ridiculed the Germans for being whimsical, saying that they did not have enough oil for their tanks and were still going to help tractors, but Comrade Stalin did not say a word. He knew that it was powerful. If there were 500,000 or 1 million tons of oil, it would be enough to start these tractors. With Ukraine's fertile black soil and the "land distribution to households" that has been basically completed, he dared not imagine what the harvest would be like in the fall. In the era of collective farms, Ukraine could not only meet its own needs, but also provide an additional 25%-30% of the food for the rest of the Soviet population. Even if the average food demand of the Germans exceeded that of the Soviets, in Stalin's view, it could at least meet the food needs of more than 15 million Germans. When he thought that up to 15 million Germans could engage in military production without worries, he felt a chill on his back.

He had seen the report on the reorganization of the German 1943 type troops submitted by internal intelligence personnel. According to the plan of the German Supreme Command and the Armament Department, the Waffen SS will complete the transformation of all standardized divisions within 12 months and the Wehrmacht will complete the transformation within 18 months. At first, everyone in the General Staff of the Red Army thought that the Germans were bragging. After getting to know the relevant organization, people will find it incredible because it greatly exceeds the current equipment level of the Germans. Take the armored grenadier division as an example. This is particularly significant. This is a new troop organization that only appeared in the summer of 1942. The clear requirement in the plan is to organize more than 20.

An armored grenadier division will include 2 armored grenadier regiments and 1 artillery regiment, each regiment has 4 battalions; armored grenadier battalions will include two categories, one is a light battalion, all motorized infantry equipped with trucks or other vehicles-mechanized infantry according to the Red Army standard; the other is a heavy battalion, all equipped with half-track armored vehicles, and a regiment has half light battalions and half heavy battalions.

The 4 battalions of the artillery regiment include 2 light howitzer battalions (each battalion is equipped with 1 caliber howitzer, nicknamed Wasp, but unlike history, its chassis is Type 3), 1 heavy howitzer battalion (equipped with 12 self-propelled 150mm caliber howitzers, nicknamed Wild Bee, but unlike history, its chassis is T-34), 1 anti-tank battalion (equipped with 54 Type 3 assault guns or Hunters, and 12 75mm anti-tank guns). In addition, there are 5 independent battalions and 7 independent company units at the division level (6 and 8 respectively for armored divisions), so the armored division is figuratively called Type 468, and the armored grenadier division is Type 357.

The independent units include 1 armored battalion (54 Type 4 tanks), 1 reconnaissance battalion, 1 engineer battalion, 1 anti-aircraft battalion (24 Type 2 anti-aircraft vehicles, equipped with 4-mounted 20mm anti-aircraft guns, nicknamed Grasshopper, 1 anti-aircraft gun) and 1 baggage battalion. The 7 independent companies include guard company, communication company, military police company, medical company, logistics company, transportation company and military band, with a total force of about 17,000 people.

But Stalin knew that if the Germans could tap into their own industrial capabilities, including the effective operation of the German-Italian axis and European integration, these equipment would not be difficult for the Germans. The Soviet Union could produce 2,000 tanks a month, and Germany would not produce less but more after going all out, and the quality and performance of German products exceeded those of Soviet products. Now that the Germans have obtained oil and occupied the rich mineral deposits in North Africa, even the only constraint no longer exists. Therefore, he dared not let the troops retreat and could not retreat - if Germany was allowed to recuperate, the war would be completely unfightable in another year.

Stalin's estimate was very good. According to Hoffman's timetable, the task of the Eastern Front in 1943 was to continue to hold the existing defense line and bleed the Red Army. It would be a good time for the Soviet-German final battle when all standard divisions were completed in 1944. Now the goal of the German army was not to occupy the Soviet Union here and there, but to ensure the normal operation of the Eastern countries, cut off the material assistance from the United States to the Soviet Union, and slowly suffocate the Red Army's recovery ability with a high exchange rate.

In the plan of the Supreme Command, there would not be one or a few troops with such a composition. According to Hoffman's requirements, there would be 35 Type 468 armored divisions (28 in the Wehrmacht and 7 in the SS) and 20 Type 357 armored grenadier divisions (16 in the Wehrmacht and 4 in the SS).

The third thing that terrified Stalin was the increase in the density of German troops on the Eastern Front: according to information obtained by the Red Army intelligence personnel, after the German army withdrew most of its forces from the former Yugoslavia and deployed them to the Eastern Front, it also transferred three divisions from the Northern Norwegian Group to the Eastern Front, including an armored division. In addition to these troops, the organization process of the Russian People's Liberation Army was greatly accelerated. Unlike the national defense armies of Eastern countries that focused on guarding the rear, the Russian People's Liberation Army was directly assigned to the front-line German troops for coordinated operations.