Iron Cross

April was a critical month. All tank production was allocated to the Eastern Front for the replenishment of the 1943-type armored divisions. After deducting the losses in the Spring Awakening Campaign, the Eastern Front had a net increase of more than 1,400 tanks (including Type 4 and Tiger). The campaign originally scheduled to start in early May was postponed, and the Eastern Front received nearly half of the production for that month. That’s why Model asked for 400 tanks but was actually given 600.

In the past, requests for equipment supplies were discounted. Model asked for 400 tanks, and he thought that if it exceeded 300, he would be thankful. If 600 tanks came at once, of course it could only be that the crews were not enough.

Hoffman had read Speer's report before. Excluding the tanks in the reserve army, training schools, transferred to the Marine Corps, and sold to other allies, the total number of tanks equipped by the Wehrmacht and the SS had reached more than 7,000, of which the Type 4 tank exceeded 6,000, and 75% were concentrated on the Eastern Front. Although there was still a big gap from the ultimate goal of 12,052 tanks (30 Wehrmacht armored divisions, 7 SS armored divisions, 3 battalions per division; 16 Wehrmacht armored grenadier divisions, 4 SS armored grenadier divisions, 1 battalion per division, a total of 131 battalions, 92 tanks per battalion), compared with the beginning of Barbarossa and the same period in history, this number is undoubtedly quite amazing.

What is even more amazing is that after the last Type 3 tank returned to the factory in April to be transformed into an assault gun, the front-line armored forces were all Type 4 tanks and more than 90% were G and H models. It was more difficult to find a short-barreled Type 4 tank than a command tank. Hoffman was filled with emotion when he thought of the fact that during the Battle of Kursk, the German army was stepping up its equipment of the latest Leopard tanks while also being filled with a lot of Type 3 tanks.

The benefits of only equipping Type 4 were not obvious at first, but now they are obvious - the ability to repair, maintain and supply has been greatly improved.

According to the previous practice of mixed 3 and 4 tanks in armored divisions, different accessories should be prepared for the two tanks under the same supply capacity (some of which can be used interchangeably), and sometimes even Type 2 tank accessories should be added. Now only one set is needed. For maintenance personnel, they used to master the maintenance capabilities of Type 2, Type 3 and Type 4 tanks. Although many places are similar, it increases the difficulty of training. Now most people only need to repair Type 4, and they can get started quickly; the shells of Type 3 and Type 4 were different before, one was 50mm and the other was 75mm, but now they use 75mm exclusively, which also reduces the supply pressure.

When the total number of tanks on the Eastern Front was only 2,000 or 3,000 at most, mixed loading of multiple models could still cope with it, but when the total number of tanks exceeded 5,000, the single supply demand would not make the poor logistics officers collapse.

Logistics supply is what Hoffman values ​​most and spends the most effort on in military construction. In order to take care of the increase in the production of No. 4, he retired No. 2 and No. 3 in advance and postponed the production of Leopard, so that the power of No. 4 cluster can be brought to the extreme. As a time traveler, he certainly knows that the reason why Germany did not explode in the sea of ​​tanks in history was not because it did not have the corresponding industrial production capacity, but was restricted by resource factors-Germany not only lacked sufficient oil, but also lacked metals and other resources, but this no longer exists. The restriction of 1,500 vehicles or more is the real restriction of industrial production capacity.

After going through untold hardships, he finally brought the tank production to the same level as the United States and Russia - Russia has the ability to produce more than 1,500 T-34 tanks per month, and the United States has the ability to produce more than 1,500 Sherman tanks per month. Although Germany has the superior Tiger tank, a sufficient number of Type 4 tanks are still indispensable.

He smiled and said to Model: "If you think it's too much, I can take some back and transfer them to the Northern Army Group."

"No, no, no, I mean, can you allocate more crews to us so that my troops can complete the standardization transformation as soon as possible."

As soon as he finished this sentence, the honest Marshal Weichs shouted unsatisfiedly: "You still think it's slow? I haven't even started to reorganize one of the armored divisions in my hands! How about we change it?"

Everyone laughed at once, and the command center was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

The so-called standardized transformation is to organize and supplement personnel according to the 1943 type division organization requirements (4 regiments, 6 battalions, 8 companies). In April, the first batch of 6 armored divisions and 24 infantry divisions had completed the reorganization. Originally, the first batch of armored divisions also included two elite units, the 7th Armored Division and the Imperial Division, but because they had been fighting on the African front, they were temporarily replaced by the 6th Armored Division and the SS Skull Division (the former's qualifications were still retained). In addition, the Grossdeutschland Division, the Wiking Division, the 3rd and the 16th Armored Divisions completed the reorganization of the enhanced sub-type.

In addition to the 1943 standard armored division equipment, this batch of enhanced sub-types also included the 4th armored battalion (originally equipped with the StuG III assault gun) that became a Tiger heavy armored battalion, and an additional Himmler organ company. The reason why Rommel's 5th Panzer Army was enviable was that he had two reorganized ace armored divisions, the Grossdeutschland Division and the Wiking Division (330 tanks per division). Himmler had suggested that the SS armored division be formed separately as the SS armored army. Hoffman agreed after consideration, but said that it would be implemented after the completion of the summer campaign.

In May, the reorganization of the second batch of 10 armored divisions and 40 infantry divisions began. The Southern Army Group was the fastest, having completed 30%, and the Central Army Group had a reorganization rate of more than 20%. The Northern and Eastern Army Groups were the slowest, and this batch of organizational adjustments was expected to be completed by October, followed by the reorganization of the remaining third batch of troops. Speer believed that it would be impossible to complete all of them in 1943, and Hoffman had agreed to postpone it to June 1944.

In addition to tanks, other technical weapons, including anti-tank guns, armored vehicles, and rifles, were replaced simultaneously. Take anti-tank guns as an example. Due to the increase in the number of our own tanks, the strengthening of tank destroyer battalions in the new organization, and the increase in the thickness of enemy tank armor, small-caliber towed anti-tank guns were weakened. After the 37mm anti-tank guns were completely withdrawn, the 50mm anti-tank guns also began to be withdrawn. In the future, the troops will only have one type of anti-tank gun, either the German army's own 75mm anti-tank gun or the captured Soviet 76.2mm anti-tank gun. The weakened towed anti-tank capability is compensated by the mobile anti-tank capability of the destroyer.

In addition to the 37mm and 50mm anti-tank guns, the development and production of all other 28mm, 42mm, and 75mm tapered bore guns were also stopped. Although Germany no longer lacked tungsten at this time, Hoffman did not want the wide variety of products to interfere with production. All the 28mm tapered bore guns that had been produced were transferred to the paratroopers to play a lightweight effect.

The troops did not have no opinions on this. They thought that the 75mm anti-tank gun was useful, but it was a bit heavy (weighing 1.5 tons) and occupied too many gun crew members. Secondly, the 75mm caliber gun was too powerful to deal with armored vehicles and light tanks. A lightweight anti-tank gun was needed to be used in encounters outside of street fighting (usually referring to a rifle distance of 150-600 meters, just outside the range of the Panzerfaust). After the demand was reported, Hoffman scolded them for being stubborn - "Can't you use the Dongfeng or Tornado self-propelled anti-aircraft guns to shoot horizontally? Do air defense forces only shoot planes and not tanks? Where did the 88mm tank gun come from?" So the reorganized troops began to combine air defense and anti-tank firepower to further strengthen combat literacy training. Although Hoffman repeatedly stressed that no new troops would be added before the existing organization was reorganized, and that the combat capability and command authority of each division would be strengthened through the expansion and reduction of the divisions, the expansion was still in progress: the SS had 5 more divisions, the Wehrmacht had 12 more heavy armored battalions and 2 more armored divisions (the Armored Training Division and the Flying Fortress Armored Division). The 12 heavy armored battalions equipped with 54 Tiger tanks alone, if measured by the standard that the armored divisions generally had only more than 100 tanks in the late period of the Battle of Moscow, would be equivalent to adding 6 more armored divisions at once.

In history, during the Battle of Castle, Germany used more than 2,000 tanks to attack more than 5,000 Soviet tanks, and used 800,000 troops to attack 1.8 million. Although the German army had an advantage in combat effectiveness and equipment performance, Hoffman did not want to repeat the same mistakes and was still very cautious.

After the greetings and jokes, Zeitzler formally introduced the overall combat plan:

"According to the battle plan, our army will launch an attack at dawn on May 25 (tomorrow). First, we will use 2,000 aircraft to clear the enemy's troop concentrations and key defense areas in the front line, gain air supremacy on the battlefield, and then conduct artillery preparations in the early morning to create a favorable situation for the assault cluster to attack; at 9-10 o'clock, the aviation force will launch a second round of air strikes, focusing on attacking the enemy's depth, railways and transportation lines, to prevent them from reinforcing and gathering troops on the front line... The combat schedule requires the encirclement of Tambov before May 31, and then 7-10 days to encircle and annihilate it before the Red Army's heavy troops rush to the battlefield to support it. Then take advantage of the favorable opportunity that the enemy has been mobilized to carry out the next step of the battle.

If the enemy mobilizes heavy troops in the direction of Moscow If the enemy uses heavy troops from the south wing to reinforce, the 3rd Panzer Army will advance to Tula and Ryazan; if the enemy uses heavy troops from the south wing to reinforce, the 4th Panzer Army will turn to the south wing and carry out the southern army group operations; if the enemy only uses the Steppe Front to reinforce, one of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Panzer Armies will monitor the enemy in Tambov, and the others will turn to encircle and attack the reinforcements; if the enemy sits and watches the enemy in Tambov being surrounded and annihilated, our army will rest on the spot after the battle is completed and will not attack again. "

The last strategy is the most controversial. Although it is unlikely that Stalin will sit and watch the Bryansk Front being surrounded and annihilated, if it really happens, everyone wants to continue the attack, but Hoffman believes that the goal of the Castle Campaign is limited, and the salient formed after extending too far forward is too large, and the defense must be consolidated before considering the next attack.

After fierce debate, the General Staff finally accepted the idea.