The Rise of the Third Reich

"Werner, tonight you will take a squadron of Ju288 to fly to Moscow."

After receiving the order from Guderian, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, Jeshunek, the commander of the 6th Luftwaffe of the German Air Force, immediately called Lieutenant Colonel Werner Baumbach, the commander of the 2nd Long-range Bombing Regiment, to his headquarters in Kurdistan. Headquarters of the Irish Peninsula.

As early as the 1920s, when Germany had not yet gotten rid of the constraints of the Treaty of Versailles, the Courland Peninsula was an important base for the German Air Force, which was still "underground" at the time. The German Air Force's secret military academy and new aircraft test flight base, as well as the experimental center of the FK-BF aircraft manufacturing complex's factory, are all located on the Courland Peninsula near Riga.

After the Baltic Republic joined the German Empire, the Courland Peninsula was built as an important stronghold of the German Air Force/Navy Air Force on the Eastern Front. Not only did several large division-level airports be built, but also a dedicated air force/naval force was built. Underground ammunition depots and underground oil depots used by aviation forces, and a joint air force/naval aviation command center were built.

After the outbreak of the World War, the Luftwaffe air defense forces also deployed radar stations and a large number of air defense towers on the Courland Peninsula, turning the Courland Peninsula into the strongest nest of the Luftwaffe/Naval Aviation on the Eastern Front.

Therefore, after the situation on the eastern front became tense, the headquarters of the 6th Air Force of the Air Force and a large number of aviation regiments mobilized from the western front were stationed in the Courland Peninsula. The 2nd Long-Range Bombing Aviation Regiment, which has 85 Ju288 long-range bombers and 40 He-219 high-altitude fighters, withdrew from the Western Front battlefield in mid-May 1942 and deployed to the most defensive position on the Courland Peninsula. Tight Tulsi base. The Ju288, which has a maximum range of 6,000 kilometers, takes off from here, and its combat radius (combat radius is generally one-third to 40% of the maximum range) can cover the Ural Mountains and northwest Kazakhstan!

It's a pity that the Ju288 is not a four-engine heavy bomber like the B-29. Although the range is not inferior to the B-29, the maximum bomb load is only 3.6 tons (if you want to fly as far as the Ural Mountains, the bomb load will be reduced to 1.8 tons) , and the amount of equipment is not large enough to carry out the strategic bombing mission of destroying the Soviet Union from the air.

However, it is very ideal to use Ju288 to carry out diversionary bombing missions. To prevent the destruction of two regiments of Ju288 (the 4th Air Force has one regiment), the Soviets need to deploy at least 2,000 MiGs that have been strengthened for high-altitude and night combat. -5, a large number of radar stations and 130mm heavy anti-aircraft guns also need to be deployed.

Because the Ju288 is a difficult opponent to defend against. It is a bit like an enhanced version of the British Mosquito. It is faster, flies higher, has a greater range, and the destructive power of the remotely controlled gliding bomb is not comparable to that of randomly throwing bombs at high altitudes. , so the Soviet Union had to respond with all its strength.

"General, what good things should we bring to Stalin?" Lieutenant Colonel Werner Baumbach asked.

"Ordinary bombs and leaflets," Jeshunek said, "because it was a night attack, remote-controlled gliding bombs were difficult to use. In addition, the Army Policy Council also prepared hundreds of thousands of leaflets to expose the traitorous nature of Stalin."

"Stalin is a traitor?" Werner Baumbach was stunned. "Who did he betray?"

"It is said that he betrayed Marxism-Leninism and world revolution..." Jeshunek shook his head, "It's just that he is not a good person anyway."

"The Army Policy Conference..." Werner Baumbach smiled bitterly and shook his head, "What are these guys thinking? This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! Do they expect the Russians to believe our propaganda?"

"Probably?" Jeshunek shrugged, "Werner, this is none of our business. We just throw paper bombs. Even if no Russians believe it, it's good to disgust Stalin."

Jeshunek did not believe in the psychological war on National Socialism that Hersman and Natalie had discussed. But he is a soldier, and soldiers must obey orders, so Moscow is not the only city where paper bombs will be thrown tonight. Paper bombs must be thrown in Leningrad, Minsk, Kharkov and Kiev. They must also be thrown in the Soviet Union that is marching westward. The Red Army soldiers threw bombs and paper bullets at the same time... of course!

The same thing was done by the Soviet Air Force during the day on June 1. Their SB bombers dropped countless leaflets in Warsaw, Krakow and Lublin, telling them that the world revolution had begun and the Soviet Union was preparing to be the first to liberate Poland. The good news was told to every Polish working people in these cities, calling on them to launch an armed uprising and overthrow the rule of the German Nazis. However, these paper bombs will definitely not have any effect in the city of Warsaw, because the citizens of Warsaw will soon go to Western Europe as refugees - of course the people of Western Europe will welcome them with open arms!

"Compatriots, the Russians occupied half of our motherland and massacred hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters, and now they want to deceive us..."

The Warsaw train station was really lively tonight, with loudspeakers constantly playing the speech of the leader of the Polish Solidarity Union Party. Countless civilians in Warsaw, mostly elderly people, women and children, were carrying packages and suitcases on their backs. While shedding tears, they boarded the platform under the command of Solidarity Party cadres and soldiers of the SS Polish Division. Train bound for Western Europe - The mass evacuation of millions of people is still continuing and is not expected to be completed until around June 10.

At the same time, trains coming from the west also brought in carloads of German officers and soldiers! These officers and soldiers are affiliated with the 6th Army of the German Wehrmacht. The army's current task is to defend Warsaw, so it is still a pure infantry group.

The troops under the direct jurisdiction of the 6th Army Headquarters include the 168th Infantry Division, the 29th SS Polish Volunteer Division (there are two SS Polish divisions, and one is the 20th Polish Volunteer Cavalry Division, which is now under the direct jurisdiction of Army Group Center), The 9th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Smoke Launcher Regiments (rocket launchers) of the Air Defense Force, the 49th, 101st, and 733rd Heavy Artillery Battalions, and the 6th and 41st Light Engineering Battalions.

The subordinate units of the group army include the 17th Army (composed of the 50th, 62nd and 298th Infantry Divisions), the 29th Army (composed of the 44th and 289th Infantry Divisions), and the 44th Army (composed of the 9th, 57th and 298th Infantry Divisions). 262nd and 297th Infantry Divisions) and the 55th Army (composed of the 75th and 111th Infantry Divisions).

There are a total of 13 infantry divisions, 1 anti-aircraft artillery division and 1 smoke launcher regiment (bazooka regiment), with a strength of about 240,000. It's not very powerful, and it doesn't have much mechanized equipment, but it's enough to defend the fortified city of Warsaw.

Of course, the person commanding this army group is not the unlucky Paulus. Paulus is still hospitalized in Brest for treatment. General Model, who was sent by Marshal Guderian to serve as the commander of the 6th Army. He and Hersmann were military school classmates. During the interwar period, he served in the General Staff system for a long time. He had a good relationship with Hersmann, so his official career was It’s also better than historically.

Model's current military rank is General of Armored Forces, but there are no armored troops to command him. Instead, he has become the commander of an infantry group. However, his long-term experience in the armored forces can be used in anti-armor operations.

"Walter, can you really hold Warsaw?"

Marshal Rundstadter, the commander of Army Group Center, also took a train from the headquarters in Posen to Warsaw on the afternoon of June 1 to inspect the city defense. After seeing the situation of Warsaw's city defense, Marshal Lundstedt seemed very worried.

Because Warsaw is almost undefended! Outside the city, there are no fortifications except for the fortifications left over from the Piłsudski era in the "Warsaw Forest" area.

"You can stick to it for a while," Model replied, "2-3 months."

"Can you hold it for that long?" Marshal Rundstadt didn't believe it. "You don't even have peripheral fortifications!"

"I don't need peripheral fortifications," Model spread his hands. "Marshal, I only have 13 infantry divisions. Warsaw's periphery is more than 60 kilometers away. The 13 divisions are scattered over a defense line of more than 60 kilometers. Each division is responsible for 5 kilometers. The defense force is definitely not enough.”

"Then how do you keep it?"

Model walked to a city sandbox model placed in the center of his headquarters war room, and then pointed at the model of Warsaw City with many buildings.

"Marshal, isn't this a fortress? There are tall buildings everywhere, and there is a Vistula River more than 200 meters wide running through the city."

"Street fighting?"

"Yes," Model said, "This is the best way. Tanks are relatively vulnerable when fighting in cities. Many tanks were destroyed in urban fighting during the Western Front Campaign. And at that time, the British and The French have no such thing as the Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade launcher. The Panzerfaust has a range of only 30 meters, and at this distance it can destroy the frontal armor of any tank. Where better to use this weapon than the streets of Warsaw. ?”

Model paused and then said: "And we not only have Panzerfaust and anti-tank guns, we also have No. 3 assault guns. Each division has a battalion of No. 3 assault guns, and the No. 3 assault guns are enough to deal with the Soviets. tank."

The No. 3 assault gun is an artillery formation, so each division has a battalion. Because it is an artillery force, one assault gun battalion only has 18 No. 3 assault guns. There are 13 battalions with a total of 234 No. 3 assault guns. The combat effectiveness is almost equivalent to that of an armored division. Model planned to use the No. 3 assault gun as a mobile fortress in conjunction with the tall buildings transformed by the German army into defensive fortresses, effectively combining fixed fortresses, mobile fortresses and German supermen to form battle groups.