Bismarck

Soldiers compete with each other based on their seniority and military achievements. Lütjens has the same rank as you, but he was promoted to general or major general earlier than you. Even though the age difference is not that big, when the two of them meet, I really have to call Lütjens my senior!

As for military exploits and such...

Think about Lütjens's Gold Knight's Medal, which is currently unique in the whole of Germany, and then look at the ordinary Iron Cross Knight's Medal hanging on his collar - this was the "common honor" he had retrieved after the submarine force sank the Ranger during the Battle of Bear Island in the Arctic Ocean more than a year ago.

Especially, in that battle, I was beaten by Torvi with the head maid and fled away...

What's more, looking at the newly built submarine shelters next to the dock, Dönitz's submarines were still coming in and out.

What if this guy makes a fool of himself?

Forget it. The Marshal said that the current situation is difficult and the overall situation is more important. He is also happy not to bring humiliation upon himself.

Lütjens is an outlier, and Dönitz's submarines are not the "mainstream of the navy". The marshal still values ​​himself, so no matter whether it is his own future or the situation of the country, it is better for him not to bring disgrace to him.

Yeah! I must be thinking this in my heart!

Stamping his feet in anger, Kumets turned and left the Saint-Nazaire Dockyard, and like a man, he didn't even look back.

Of course...no one paid attention to him.

-

The Soviet Union's battle plan was very grand: first, let the Saransk Front and the Volga Front commanded by Marshal Timoshenko, the "Headquarters Representative (equivalent to the commander-in-chief of the theater)" of the Southwestern Front, defeat List's Army Group C, and then cooperate with the counterattack of the Kalinin Front and the General Reserve Front commanded by Marshal Zhukov, the representative of the Central Theater Headquarters in front of Moscow, to defeat all ten German army groups that had been badly beaten in one fell swoop, and at the same time surround the German troops occupying the Maikop oil fields in the North Caucasus to cut off the oil supply of the German troops on the Eastern Front, thus laying the foundation for victory in one fell swoop!

but……

The ability to judge whether our army is not prepared or the enemy is even less prepared is one of the essential qualities of a top strategist.

After all, Hitler was a great hero, and he judged the time it took the Soviet Union to prepare very accurately.

Although, for a man who had fully demonstrated his military talent for judging opportunities in the Battle of Poland, the Battle of Norway, the Battle of France, and the Battle of Barbarossa, and who could be considered a first-class strategist, this kind of judgment was fully within his capabilities...

On November 11, the German Army Groups A and B, which still retained their offensive capabilities, directly "adjusted the direction of attack on the spot and continued the attack" under the order of the little mustache - Guderian's Fourth Panzer Army and Manstein's Eleventh Army attacked in the direction of Moscow and Ryazan respectively, while Rommel's Fifth Panzer Army and Model's Ninth Army encircled Tula, opened up communication between the two army groups, and then let Chrysler's First Panzer Army to the east of Ryazan, along the Oka River, relying on the coniferous forests and swamp terrain of hundreds of kilometers northeast of Ryazan as a flank support, to form a defensive formation specifically to defend against possible flank reinforcements that the Saransk Front might send.

Hitler took out his last assets in Moscow and risked everything! Under Hitler's strict supervision, the two army groups of 600,000 troops were like two beasts that became more ferocious after being injured. The attack power of concentrating all their efforts and fighting to the death should not be underestimated!

In less than two days, Tula and Ryazan were surrounded. The main forces of the Bryansk Front and the Ryazan Front, which defended the two cities, were forced to move away except for the city garrisons. The German army, which was in a dominant position, not only sent a small number of troops to surround the two cities, but also concentrated the main forces of the two armies of Manstein and Guderian, with more than 250,000 soldiers and more than 700 tanks, and took advantage of the fact that the Soviet front-line troops were forced to move away and the general reserve front in depth had not yet completed combat preparations, to form two extremely sharp armored spearheads, seize this fleeting opportunity, and start a crazy assault in the direction of the Vladimir Highway behind the side of Moscow!

At this moment, although the General Reserve Front was equipped with heavy artillery divisions and the more advanced T-54 main battle tanks, due to the continuous support for the front-line defense forces, it has only assembled more than people. Moreover, it adopted a covert assembly offensive deployment and was not prepared for defense. Therefore, in front of the German army that had already taken the initiative and broke through the defense, it was once plunged into chaos with its advantages in manpower and tank performance!

Although everyone knew that this attack was Hitler's dying counterattack, for the Soviet Union, whose preparations were not yet complete, it just happened to hit the weak spot of time rhythm!

Even though most of the defeated soldiers on the front line were taken in, the General Reserve Front that retreated to the Moscow-Vladimir Highway had an army of 200, but was in an unfavorable situation of "facing the enemy on the side of the traffic line, and in order to ensure that the highway was not cut off, it was necessary to divide the troops equally to defend all sections of the road." On the -kilometer front line, the troops were divided into defenses at the scale of one regiment per kilometer, and they could not form a fist. Even now, even the flanks and rear of Moscow were in danger of being surrounded and stabbed in the back!

It seemed that the only way to save the situation was to draw troops from the Saransk Front under Timoshenko to attack the rear of Army Group B. But would this disrupt the deployment of the Southwestern Front's counterattack and give List's Army Group C a chance to escape unscathed?

It is now mid-November, and the Soviet Union still has one last autumn rain before the muddy terrain hardens for winter. However, if the main force of the German army retreats, even if the lost territory is recovered, it will be meaningless if the main force of the enemy is not destroyed!

Not to mention, the intelligence and analysis teams also reported that while the Germans were desperately attacking Moscow, Lister had seized the opportunity in the past five days and had already deployed related work to switch to defense. While the Soviets' attention was diverted to the Central Theater, they repaired the fortifications and withdrew the SS First Panzer Army under his SS leader Dietrich - according to intelligence analysis, the SS First Panzer Army had assembled almost all of Lister's 500 tanks, and they had been used as armored reserves!

Under the premise that the troops are dispersed to the central war zone, a blind counterattack would only give the German armored counterattack forces heads!

But if this is not done, Moscow will really be in danger of being cut off from the rear and surrounded by the German army - you know, the area northeast of Moscow is basically frozen soil, swamps and deep mountains and forests!

Although the 500,000 reinforcements dispatched from the Far East and Central Asia are still on the way, and relying on the last line of defense and the Soviet army's fighting will to defend the country, stabilizing the front line is only a matter of time - but in this case, the time issue itself is a big problem!

If the German army occupied the northeast of Moscow, given the local terrain and traffic conditions, as long as the few roads were blocked, no matter how many troops there were, they would not be able to deploy! In this way, not only would the counterattack be a failure, but there would also be the danger of Moscow being surrounded!

Now the German attack has reached the Vladimir Highway behind Moscow. Even if the Germans never advance again and the exit of the forest highway is blocked by the Germans, the Rybinsk Highway and the Yaroslavl Highway alone cannot support the logistics and troop transportation of the 1.4 million troops of the Kalinin Front and the General Reserve Front. Now many automobile and tractor factories have switched to producing tanks, and the shortage of cars has become a problem! But if the Vladimir Highway is blocked, the reinforcements from Siberia can only take a detour from the north to compete with the Kalinin Front for transportation capacity. And it will take at least two or three more weeks!

Not to mention that after such a long battle, the Soviet Union’s understanding of the German military strength was definitely not much worse than Hitler’s - the unfortunate news is that in order to ensure the smooth flow of logistics and roads, the German army actually concentrated a full 27 engineering divisions on the 2,000-kilometer front line! !

The troops from Siberia will take ten days or half a month to arrive, and now the German troops in the center have been attacking for five days, and the German troops on the north and south lines have also been on the defensive for at least five days - this back and forth time is twenty days.

Everyone knew that even without engineers to reinforce the frontline troops, it would only take five days to build a front line under enemy attack! And now, not only had five days passed, but there were also 27 engineering divisions behind these frontline troops - in 20 days, who knew what 300,000 engineers could build! !

In this case, the Germans' attack was completely in a position of absolute initiative, with the ability to attack or defend! As long as they could not counterattack, they could safely hide in the defense line built by the Engineer Division to spend the winter! In this way, Hitler could stand firm even when Moscow was surrounded on three sides, and the variables of the entire battle situation would be very troublesome!

As for the other option, if the Kalinin Front and the Saransk Front were mobilized in advance, although the German attempt could be stopped, the counterattack momentum that had been hard to gather for half a year would be dispersed!

Whether it was Stalin in the Supreme Command in Moscow, or the Chief of General Staff Marshals Vasilevsky and Zhukov who were troubled by the fierce fighting in Moscow and forced the General Reserve Army to constantly "refuel" the front-line defenders, or even Marshal Timoshenko who was preparing for a counterattack in the Southwestern Front, they were all confused when they saw the German army suddenly launched a large-scale attack on the Moscow-Tula-Ryazan line.

Even though everyone knew that this was the last desperate attempt of the mustache, but...

This is too scary, isn't it? Not everyone will remain calm when they are stuck in such a situation.

"What do you think we should do now?"

Putting down his pipe, Stalin exhaled a breath of anger, as if he wanted to spit out the depression in his chest, and the smoke once again filled the room that was already like a fairyland.

After hearing this question, the senior military officers led by Chief of General Staff Marshal Vasilevsky and representative of the Central Theater Headquarters Marshal Zhukov looked at each other, and no one dared to speak.

For a moment, the meeting room fell into silence.

No one knows what to do...

Stalin looked at the silent scene below and felt angry, but he could not say anything.

After all, everyone already knows the situation. Such a complicated situation could change the whole situation at any time! We must be careful!

Let alone these generals, did Stalin himself have any ideas? In fact, it was not easy for him to make up his mind.

If Timoshenko were to divide his troops - whether to attack Chrysler or to reinforce Moscow in the north, it would only lead to insufficient forces for counterattack!

What if we do nothing and just counterattack according to the schedule? Now the General Reserve Front has not even completed its assembly and has been broken through by the Germans. Even now the Vladimir Highway has become a battlefield... It’s good enough not to mobilize the Saransk Front and the Kalinin Front to reinforce! Not to mention that the German defense line is almost built!

Ignore the danger from Moscow and let Marshal Timoshenko of the Southwest Theater launch an attack directly? But the German List Army Group has already switched to defense, and the weather has not completely thawed. According to past experience, there will be another freezing rain in the second half of November. If the breakthrough is blocked and the momentum is damaged, Hitler has two armored fists, Chrysler's First Panzer Army and Dietrich's First SS Panzer Army, with 800 tanks waiting for him in this direction!

You know your own business. Although Timoshenko has 3,500 tanks in the two fronts, the Soviet army's combat quality at this moment is not enough to compete with the German army in a one-on-one situation. Not to mention that tanks are very susceptible to mechanical wear and tear, and muddy terrain is really a test for tanks!

Moreover, the Soviet Union does not have enough cars and tractors now! We cannot afford the loss of blindly attacking!

If the counterattack gets bogged down and the life of the engine and gearbox as well as the ammunition and fuel carried are exhausted, and then the enemy's tank army launches a counterattack, the consequence will be the loss of a large number of elite troops!

The timing for counterattack must not be the same as last year, where we could just send a large number of troops under the enemy's guns on a whim!

When Stalin thought of his stupid behavior last year, which resulted in the sacrifice of many unprepared troops in the early stages of the war, he gritted his teeth in hatred.

This lesson is not worth learning!!

--

Just when Stalin was furious but could do nothing about it, Zhukov spoke hesitantly:

"Comrade General Secretary, I think... if there is really no other way, I suggest taking a safer approach. First, we should withdraw some troops from the Saransk Front to the north to ensure the safety of Moscow, and then plan a counterattack. After all..."

After looking at Stalin's expression and hesitating for a while, Zhukov finally chose to finish his words: "After all, there is a long way to go. The comprehensive national strength and resources of the fascist bandits cannot compete with ours. So even if we compete in consumption..."

(The sound gets smaller and smaller)

After all, the troops had not yet been assembled, and Zhukov could not really say something like "I can defend Moscow - but please give me two more armored army reinforcements."

Stalin did not speak, and his face did not show any expression, he just looked at Vasilevsky on the other side. However, all he saw was the latter nodding silently.

After continuing to scan the entire meeting room, Stalin discovered that the vast majority of generals, at this moment, at a critical juncture that could determine the direction of the war in the entire Soviet motherland, could only respond to him, the general secretary, with an apologetic silence.

Although I always felt that this was the only way on the battlefield, but seeing the generals and marshals under him all with such a helpless expression, and even Zhukov, whom he originally valued the most, with an apologetic but powerless customer service-like expression, Stalin, a steely straight man who had been indomitable in the underground struggle and even escaped from exile seven times through hundreds of kilometers of uninhabited areas after being arrested eight times, suddenly felt a surge of unwillingness to admit defeat in his heart!

Our total military strength far exceeds that of the fascist bandits on the opposite side, but it is unreasonable to abandon the entire counterattack plan just because of the disadvantage in Moscow!

and……

Since your ultimate goal, Hitler, is still Moscow, I will "send" Moscow to you! !

You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a lamb. I don't believe that after entering Moscow and being dragged to death by street fighting, you can still confidently switch to defense!

Comrade Steel took a deep breath, clenched his teeth, and his eyes became sharp. He made up his mind, slammed the table hard, and stood up from the chair suddenly.

"I, Stalin, do not agree to transfer Timoshenko to the north!"

Seeing the leader suddenly stand up, hearing Steel's speech, Zhukov, Vasilevsky, and other generals were all stunned. Some even stammered out half-sentenced "This...?" as a conditioned reflex.

Ignoring the surprised and shocked looks of his subordinates, Stalin raised his head and glanced at the huge Moscow defense map on the wall. Looking at the satellite town of Lyubertsy in the southeast direction of Moscow, which was being attacked by Guderian's Second Panzer Army, Comrade Steel took a deep puff of his pipe, his eyes condensed, and he made up his mind:

"There is nothing to say - pass on my order: let the garrison of Liubertsi withdraw into the city and let Guderian in!"

"I want to - close the door and beat the dog!"

P.S.: A lot of things happened, thank you for being here, the innocent will be innocent. Then I should have updated it earlier, but I just started working not long ago... I worked overtime until 11 o'clock on my first day, I also admit it... It's terrible.

Chapter 817: Hitler's Order

"What? Guderian actually rushed into Moscow?!"

"Yes! Führer! Guderian has now completely occupied the town of Liuberchi, and the vanguard has already reached the outskirts of Moscow! And in this way, the flanks of several key points in the south of Moscow, including the Domodedovo Airport, are also exposed! If we take the opportunity to launch an offensive, we can not only force our way to the outskirts of Moscow, but also straighten the front line... No matter what the reason is, this is a good opportunity to capture Moscow in one fell swoop! Führer, I say, let's do it!"

In the office of the Wolf's Lair, Hitler, with a head full of black question marks, twisted his head, looking at Halder, who was beaming with excitement in front of him, with a confused look on his face.

Moreover, in the mind of the man with a mustache, he even always felt that there might be something wrong with reaching the outskirts of Moscow so smoothly.

"The Russian army's fighting spirit is very formidable, and Moscow is their capital. How could they break in so easily? I'm afraid there's something wrong... Emmmmmm..."

He strode to the map table and quickly flipped through the map of Moscow to make a personal assessment. However, the densely marked military map showed only dense water networks, swamps and forests, dividing the battlefield into countless fragmented open spaces, but the intervals were calculated by several kilometers or even dozens of kilometers. Between these open spaces, who knows if there will be Soviet guerrillas and small troops operating here, gathering intelligence on the imperial army while harassing the imperial army's logistics...

Under the permafrost conditions of the Soviet Union, many roads on the map were drawn as dotted lines by the surveyors - this means that even near Moscow, these roads are not even accessible all year round due to the muddy terrain, and can only be used "seasonally" according to the dry and rainy seasons! Unfortunately, in mid-to-late November, there was freezing rain mixed with snow around Moscow, half wet and cold, half muddy, the kind of season that is about to freeze.

"Halder, tell me, are these places safe? Also, how is the clearance of this occupied area going?" The man with a mustache stretched out his finger and drew a big circle around the large forest and open space in the direction of Guderian's main attack. Even his tone suddenly became stern: "Tell me! Tell me the truth!"

"This..." Halder turned his head to look. "We have already sent out battalion-level search teams to these places. They are split up to start encircling and suppressing possible Soviet stragglers. At the same time, we are also exploring here to see if we can bypass the Russian defense zone in this area and not affect Guderian's attack on Moscow..."

Before he could finish his words, Halder saw the man with a low profile and rolled his eyes at him impatiently.

Ignoring Halder's stunned expression, Hitler put his hands behind his back. His head and neck seemed to be trembling slightly, but his tone was calm as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him. Without any expression, he gave an order: "Tell Guderian to stop the attack, consolidate the existing position, and switch to defense."

"Wait, Führer, what did you say?!"

Thinking that Moscow was so close, but the mustache man said to stop the attack, Halder's face turned ugly:

"Führer, shouldn't we continue to put pressure on Moscow and force the Russians to further disperse their forces?"

Seeing that Halder actually questioned his judgment, Hitler's face suddenly turned from cloudy to gloomy: "Halder, can't you see this? Moscow is their capital, and it is surrounded by dense forests and is easy to defend. Guderian was able to arrive at the city so quickly. Don't you think that it might be a trap to lure us into it, and then they will cooperate with the reinforcements to drag us to death in the city?!"

"This... I have thought about this question, but, Führer, this is also an opportunity for us." Halder pondered for a moment, walked to the side of the map and gestured to the mustache man, then picked up the pointer and pointed to the PODOLISK area on the map, which was about 30 to 40 kilometers south of Moscow and was currently in the midst of a fierce battle. He spoke his mind:

"Look, Führer, we are fighting the Russians here in Podolsk... If we count from the outskirts of Moscow, this is a salient of 30 to 40 kilometers, with a large number of forests covering both wings. At the same time, the Russians have two airports here, so this can be said to be an important support point for them, and it also separates our troops east of Moscow from the Ninth Army of Kremlin in the west of Moscow."

"...From the terrain in the southeast of Moscow, there is a flat area between here and Lyuberchi to the east of Moscow, across the Moscow River, where armored troops can advance to the outskirts of Moscow! Before, when Lyuberchi was in the hands of the Russians, if we wanted to attack here, we would be attacked from both sides by the Russians, but now Lyuberchi is in our hands...As long as we attack from here, we can't say whether we can rush into Moscow, but we can completely outflank Podolsk from the flank - either force the Russians to abandon Podolsk and the two airports here, or their troops here will be surrounded by us. No matter what they do, we can further straighten the front line, and at the same time, our troops in the center will directly hit Stalin's head! At that time, the entire battlefield situation will be more favorable to us..."

The more Halder thought about this prospect, the more excited he became. Even his voice and tone became higher and higher.

but……

No matter how Halder cheered himself up, the man with the mustache always had a worried look on his face, calculating the pros and cons of doing this in his mind:

"Straighten the front? It seems like that, but this place is important and has forests as its support. If I were Stalin, I would at least deploy an army here. Even if we are surrounded, it will take more than a few days for an army to defend the forest. Not to mention that there are only so many paths in the forest that can be used to infiltrate reinforcements... And even if we completely surround them, at least 100,000 troops must be sent out to watch the encirclement... How many people are there on the entire Eastern Front now?! If I waste another 100,000 troops, I won't fight this battle! The Russians' counterattack is expected to be ready by the end of the month and they may start counterattacking at any time. If we are dragged into this place, they will attack from the north and south and I'm afraid we will collapse. But..."

Looking at the intricate battle lines on the map, and measuring left and right with a ruler for a long time, even Hitler still found it difficult to make this decision.

Everyone knew that the Soviet counterattack was about to begin. Cutting off the Vladimir Highway and the Yaroslavl Highway had become an inevitable choice to separate the Moscow defenders and the Far East reinforcements. But now, even if Guderian rushed to the outskirts of Moscow, Rommel and Manstein next to him still had not entered the Vladimir Highway. Hitler repeatedly measured several times that even the suburban location where Guderian entered, the exit of the Vladimir Highway and the Yaroslavl Highway, a factory area called BALASHIKA, had a forest ten kilometers deep! And this was the closest position of the German army to the two highways!

Other than that…

Although there were no 100,000 troops to surround the Podolsk salient, it should be possible to force the Soviets to withdraw from the area by threatening the flank. In this case, Halder's previous statement of straightening the front line was also a very attractive topic.

Moreover, in addition to the land advantage, two airports can be seized in this salient!

There are only seven or eight airports around Moscow in this large area. The nearest airports are in the Kalinin area 200 kilometers away. Guderian has now occupied Zhukovsky Airport in the southwest, and Vnukovo Airport in the east is also under heavy artillery suppression by Kremlin. If the two airports in the Podolsk salient are occupied, the Imperial Air Force will have a foothold very close to the front line, and there will be no need to worry about attacks from the Soviet Air Force!

It was already mid-to-late November, and after a week of fierce fighting, many of the tanks in our tank unit needed repairs. However, if we were only going to clear the forest and attack the edge of the city, we would need infantry, not tanks.

After all, in street fighting and forest warfare, he was very clear about the practical lessons such as "tanks do not leave the main roads or go on the viaducts, armored vehicles do not go on secondary roads, the alleys and roads are the responsibility of the infantry, and they are surrounded and cleared out in sections..."

Moreover, the southeast side of Moscow is actually a factory area, which is relatively open. Although the main tank unit needs to be repaired, a small number of tanks can cover the infantry and attack in the factory area.

As long as we can control the Balashka factory area...

Besides, there is no better way now...

Just pray to God that I can win this war against the Bolsheviks...

Hitler closed his eyes and racked his brains. He put on his military cap on the table with a depressed mood, and even covered his tired eyes:

"That's it... Halder, pass on my orders..."

"First, in order to coordinate the entire battle situation, Bock's Army Group A and Rundstedt's Army Group B will be merged to form a unified Central Army Group, with Rundstedt in charge and Bock as deputy commander..."

"Second, except for a few areas that need tank cover, withdraw the main tank force to the second line to rest and prepare to counterattack the Russian winter counterattack. For the first line of attack, let the infantry take over, rely on the forest, block the intersection, build fortifications, and strictly prevent infiltration..."

"Third, the three armies attacking Moscow will be assigned tasks: Guderian will hand over Liubert's troops to Rommel, who will be fully responsible for the Podolsk direction; Rommel will take over the command of Liubert's troops and continue to attack the industrial area east of Moscow - especially to occupy Balashka; Manstein will continue to infiltrate and attack in the forest direction, attract Russian troops and threaten the Vladimir Highway - if possible, attack Noginsk, but if the troops are really insufficient, don't force it..."

"In short, tell everyone that the purpose of our current counterattack is still tactical - to contain the possible winter counterattack of the Russians by occupying key points. Therefore, it is key to pay attention to controlling the scale of the operation and occupying key points and terrain as much as possible!"

Halder said nothing, took out a pen and paper, and wrote down the orders of the little mustache. He wrote down every word the little mustache said.

but……