The Third Reich: The Return of the King

“Did the Soviets retreat?”

At the Volga River, at the German front headquarters,

Manstein sat at his desk, handling various military affairs, and asked casually.

Although the German army dispatched a large number of troops this time, it was actually just to create momentum. Most of these troops were useless.

“They have already retreated. General Guderian has led the First Army to pursue them!”

The deputy chief of staff replied.

“Well, let them chase for a few hundred kilometers, but if they run further, the road will be difficult to travel, and it will be troublesome to tow the tanks if they break down!”

The German tanks represent the most advanced technology on the planet, so the German army keeps their tanks highly secret. They obviously don’t want their tanks to fall into the hands of the enemy, even if it’s a broken tank.

“Yes, General, I will send a telegram to General Guderian!”

“”Yes!”

Manstein nodded and went back to his complicated government affairs.

……

One hundred and fifty kilometers away, in Kazan.

The Soviets had just left when the Germans entered the city.

The Soviet troops who were the rear guard had no power to resist the fierce attack of the Germans and were quickly defeated.

Amid the fierce gunfire, Guderian stepped into Kazan, the pearl of the Ural region.

“Tsk, this kid Starling destroyed it quite cleanly!”

Seeing the mess in the city, with remaining sparks that had not been completely extinguished everywhere, and thick smoke billowing not far away.

Guderian sighed in his heart that Starling was really cruel!

He knew that he could not protect Kazan, and that it would fall into the hands of the German army sooner or later, so he simply burned it down before leaving.

In this way, even if the German army occupied this place, all they got was a ruin.

Even after burning Kazan, millions of residents here became homeless refugees. If the German army did not want to leave such a huge hidden danger behind them, then they had to help these refugees, otherwise, the hungry refugees would take risks and attack the German logistics supply convoys.

“Send someone to control Denikin’s people, let them send people to receive the refugees here, tell Reinhard to let his First Panzer Army continue to pursue eastward, at least to Yekaterinburg!”

Guderian knew that his army could not continue to pursue, but he did not intend to let the other side go so easily.

Although the Führer did not allow them to completely wipe out Starling’s Soviet army, he was somewhat unhappy to see the other side withdrawing so swaggeringly.

So he planned to send a small force to pursue, to create some trouble for the old guy Starling, and let him pay the price for his actions!

“General, the order from the front’s highest command is that we cannot pursue too far. Yekaterinburg is more than 1,000 kilometers away from Kazan. If we pursue so far, it will definitely violate the order of the front’s general command, and the First Army will become an isolated force. If the Soviet army counterattacks, the First Army will be in danger!”

The chief of staff of the First Army frowned and said to Guderian. He felt that doing so was too risky.

“Then let the Fourth Army attack. Atobek where they are located is only a few hundred kilometers away from Yekaterinburg. Is this distance in line with the order of the front headquarters?”

The chief of staff was stunned. He didn’t expect Guderian to take advantage of this!

According to the order sent by the front headquarters, they only said that they could not pursue too deep and the pursuit distance could not exceed 500 kilometers, but they did not say where they could not pursue.

From this point of view, the First Armored Army must not go to Yekaterinburg. In that case, the distance is too far and it has violated military orders.

However, the Fourth Army stationed in Atobek did not have such a problem at this time. They were very close to Yekaterinburg!

“”General, if the Fourth Army is mobilized, the defense of Central Asia will be a bit empty!”

The chief of staff said with some embarrassment.

Although he was only the chief of staff of the First Army, they all belonged to the Southern Army Group, and Guderian was the commander of the Southern Army Group. In this case, he had to persuade them anyway. If Guderian’s order led to any very bad consequences, everyone would be in trouble.

“What are you afraid of? The only threat to Central Asia is Starlin and his army. I will send the Fourth Army to pursue them. They won’t even have time to run away, so how dare they go south!”

“But, will the British in the south take advantage of the situation to loot?”

The chief of staff knew that what Guderian said made sense, but he was not worried about the bears, but the British in the south.

“The Sun Never Sets? Is the war in Australia over?”

Guderian hadn’t paid attention to the intelligence of the Sun Never Sets for a while, so when he heard the words of the chief of staff, he was stunned for a moment and asked.

Before, the Sun Never Sets took advantage of the weakening of the Sun Never Sets and attacked Australia, which had a lot of resources.

In order to defend Australia, the Sun Never Sets sent a large number of troops to Australia. The two sides fought in Australia, and it is said that the casualties on both sides were quite heavy.

In this case, the Sun Never Sets probably doesn’t have the extra strength to get involved in Central Asia, right?

“A ceasefire agreement was reached last month. Australia was divided into two parts. The desert area in the northwest was occupied by the Japanese army, and the rich area in the southeast belonged to the British Empire!”

The chief of staff found a piece of intelligence from a pile of documents and handed it to Guderian.

Guderian frowned and took a look.

This telegram was sent back by the SS intelligence agency in the Far East. Guderian glanced at the date and found that the intelligence was from last month.

He patted his head. Because he was too concerned about the war in the bear country, he paid less attention to the Far East. Such important intelligence, he actually knew it now, which was a huge dereliction of duty!

“”Next time you have important intelligence like this, remember to inform me as soon as possible!”

Guderian said to the adjutant beside him with some dissatisfaction.

The adjutant looked embarrassed, thinking, you are the commander of the Southern Army Group, and the intelligence in the Far East has nothing to do with you, right? Do you plan to transfer to the Far East to continue fighting after defeating the Russian bear?

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that it is not impossible.