Iron Cross

The full name of the Central Asian Army is the 5th Armored Army, which was reorganized from the Middle East Army and later formed an army group with the Turkish troops. Scherner replaced Rommel as the commander of the army group, but because the Turkish troops are currently far away, he actually commands only one army group.

Hoffman has great confidence in him. He is not only stronger than everyone else, but even stronger than Scherner himself. As the commander of the Courland Campaign in history, he was able to lead a group of defeated soldiers to fight until May 1945. How could he not be strong? So he didn't care about what specific tactics Scherner used. This was not a question that a head of state should think about, and he wouldn't anyway.

The main force of the army was originally located in the center of the triangle surrounded by the three cities of Bishkek, Dushanbe and Tashkent. On the eve of the Red Army's offensive in December, strategic contraction had been continued. In addition to the headquarters, relevant guard units, Tiger heavy armored battalions, heavy artillery units and other direct units, the complete sequence of the army's forces mainly includes the four divisions of the Grossdeutschland Division, the 15th Armored Division, the Prince Eugen Mountain Infantry Division and the 1st Mountain Infantry Division (Edelweiss Division), as well as the German 1st Parachute Division and the Italian Parachute Brigade (Note: If the parachute unit is not included, it is specifically called the Central Asian Cluster to distinguish it). After Scherner took office, the Central Asian Cluster immediately gathered troops, built fortifications, and stockpiled supplies to wait for the arrival of the Soviet army. The commanders from top to bottom had full confidence and did not take the upcoming brutal battle seriously.

In addition to Schorner, Hoffman was very satisfied with the command team of the Central Asian Cluster: the army commander was Colonel-General Hermann Balck, the former commander of the Grossdeutschland Division, who had rich experience in armored warfare, especially assault and attack; the army chief of staff was Gauss, who was familiar with the entire cluster and was meticulous. Schorner admired him very much after meeting him, and did not have any ideas because he was Rommel's long-term partner.

Among the division commanders, there were also brilliant generals. The commander of the Grossdeutschland Division was Lieutenant General Wenck, who performed outstandingly in the Battle of Baku. When Hitler asked where Wenck was when the Third Reich collapsed, it was him. The 15th Armored Division was Lieutenant General Walster, who fought in Africa and made many military achievements; Otto Kum, who served as the commander of the Prince Eugen Division, was also no ordinary person. He was originally included in the Nuremberg Trials. This guy actually escaped from Dachau Prison and did not reappear until 1995. Hoffman admired his cunningness. ——He was getting more and more annoyed with the old-fashioned and rigid Junker officers, and he would send them to the reserve army to sit on the bench at any time; only the 1st Mountain Division was a little troublesome. The original commander, Lieutenant General Herbert Lanz, was sentenced to death after being found out by Hoffman because of his involvement with the conspiracy group. The commander was Lieutenant General ******-Ritter-von-Granberhofen-Stettner, whose command ability was slightly inferior to others, but Scherner himself was a mountain infantryman, so the last shortcomings were also made up.

In Hoffman's words, such a command team has offense, defense, armored assault, and mountain warfare, which is simply perfect! He soon learned from the front-line intelligence that the Soviet commander was Zhukov himself, and thought it was enough to teach the other side a profound lesson. Didn't Zhukov bump into Model in Operation Mars?

Starting from early December, Zhukov launched a fierce offensive with six newly formed Guards tank brigades allocated by Stalin as the vanguard, hoping to contain or split the Central Asian cluster in two. Two of the tank brigades were equipped with the IS-1 heavy tanks that the Red Army had just produced, with 58 tanks in each brigade, and the other four brigades were equipped with a mass-produced model that had never appeared in history - T-43/85, that is, the same 85mm artillery as IS-1 was installed on the basis of T-43 enhanced defense, forming a new model of T-43/85, which was slightly less mobile than T-34/85 but more defensive.

On December 7, the left wing of the Red Army's pincer offensive captured Tashkent and quickly sent cavalry troops to make a flank detour; on the 9th, the right wing of the Red Army's pincer offensive appeared in Samarkand, also trying to make a flank detour. Scherner commanded the troops to fight and retreat, and break into the predetermined defensive position. On December 15, under the command of Balck, the armored forces of the Grossdeutschland Division and the 15th Panzer Division, together with two Tiger heavy armored battalions under the headquarters, used a lightning attack method to turn around and launch a short assault that caught the Soviet army off guard. They quickly and neatly devoured the Red Army's more than 20,000 troops and two Guards Tank Brigades that had advanced rashly, with only over 2,000 casualties.

Originally, the German victory would have been easier, but what surprised the Germans was that the Red Army's newly deployed tanks made them spend a lot of effort.

The IS-1 tank was the best Russian heavy tank they had ever encountered. Its defense and attack power were not as good as the Tiger, but its mobility was superior. It was very difficult to fight, and the Type 4s could not bite it at all; and the Red Army's more T-43/85 also caused great trouble to the Germans. Not only was the Type 4 completely suppressed, but the probability of the Tiger being destroyed also increased a lot. Even with the elite tank troops, they could no longer achieve an exchange ratio of 1:6 or 1:8, and the advantage of a short assault was between 1:3 and 1:4. Fortunately, the 1943-type armored division was powerful, and the Tiger heavy armored battalion was famous. The German army still wiped out two elite Guards tank brigades, one equipped with IS-1 and the other equipped with T43/85. Zhukov lost one third of the Guards given to him by Stalin.

The result of the fight also shocked Zhukov. He did not expect that the troops formed by the new tanks were still vulnerable, and he did not expect that the German 1943 armored division was so tough. Not only could the 100,000 troops plus 400 tanks not hold off the two armored divisions, but more than 20,000 troops were killed by the enemy. It was like a heavy slap in the face, and it hurt.

On December 23, the German army retreated after the battle of Kujand. The Red Army lost more than 30,000 troops and more than 200 tanks, of which nearly 100 were destroyed by the German 88mm anti-aircraft guns that were ambushed in advance. At the same time, the Assault tank destroyer equipped with 88mm tank guns also played a huge role. The German army suffered nearly 5,000 casualties and more than 50 tanks. Germany is now much more generous than in the past. Not only does it have the support of tungsten mines in the Eastern Province, but it also has obtained a large amount of tungsten from Japan (mainly materials provided by China to buy arms from Japan). Tungsten core armor-piercing shells are in open supply. After learning that the Red Army has put in new heavy tanks, the first reaction of all crews is to increase the proportion of tungsten core armor-piercing shells.

On December 31, the two sides fought fiercely in Konibodom. The Prince Eugen Mountain Infantry Division and the First Mountain Infantry Division used the special terrain and barriers of the Syr Darya, Tianshan Mountains, and Gissar-Alay Mountains to teach the Red Army a vivid lesson - a full four cavalry brigades eager to pursue fell into the ambush circle prepared by the German army in advance, and were completely lost in the face of dense machine guns and artillery. The blood of people and horses dyed the Syr Darya red, and then poured into Lake Kailakum. A few days later, it froze due to the sudden drop in temperature, and it looked like it was shining with a strange red light.

The Red Army ended its mobile war and ran into the first line of defense of the German army, a solid defense line intercepted at the mouth of the basin. Looking at this huge basin, Zhukov began to feel troubled. Because the final battlefield chosen by the German army was the Kokand Basin, or Fergana Valley, which is a mountain basin between the Tianshan Mountains and the Gissar-Alay Mountains, located at the junction of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The basin is a cone-shaped mouth, which becomes wider as it goes inward, but the width of the opening is less than 70 kilometers, and the widest part in the middle is only 170 kilometers. There are mountains on both sides, and heavy equipment and tanks can't get through at all. Originally, light infantry had some chances, but now it was a season of heavy snow and biting cold wind. He only had less than a brigade of ski troops. It was okay to make a sneak attack, but it was really difficult to fight a serious battle.

What's more troublesome is that the entire basin has a completely different climate from the outside world because the mountains on both sides block the cold air flow: the temperature is relatively high. Even in the coldest season, the lowest temperature is only minus 5-8 degrees Celsius, and the average temperature is usually above zero. When it is icy and snowy outside, the Fergana Basin is still full of vitality and greenery.

"Things are troublesome. No wonder the Germans are so confident to stay in Central Asia. It turns out that they found such a place to hide."

"Can our people still infiltrate?"

"Of course a small team is no problem, but a large force is not."

"Then send a small team in to destroy and cooperate with the main force to fight."

The idea is very good, but when I asked the subordinates, I found out that it is not that simple. There are nearly 3 million people living in the entire basin, all of whom are Central Asians, and there are almost no Russians. The local independence forces have long destroyed the grassroots party organizations and administrative organs, and transformed themselves into an independent kingdom-in other words, the Bolshevik team will immediately face a vast ocean of 3 million people! If it is difficult to keep secrets and save lives, how can we talk about cooperating with large troops in combat and infiltrating and sabotaging?

Zhukov had only two choices: first, to attack by force, to exchange lives for lives, to force the German army to retreat, and to advance step by step; second, to monitor and wait continuously, so that the German heavy troops will collapse without fighting after the food and other military supplies are exhausted.

Neither of them is a good choice, but Stalin's telegram urging the army to advance has been sent - informing the United States of the subsequent handling of the aid materials to the Soviet Union, and asking him to eat up these 100,000 German troops and hundreds of thousands of separatist and rebellious forces as soon as possible! .

Many times, the sadness of a soldier is that he always has to fight a war that he doesn't want to fight...