Iron Cross

The X-4 was developed relatively early, starting in 1942, and matured and completed actual combat shooting in early 1944. However, Hoffman was not satisfied with the wire guidance method. Later, at his suggestion, it was transformed into an anti-tank missile. The air-to-ground anti-tank missile was quite good to use. Since the speed of tanks was much slower than the slowest heavy bombers, they could be easily hit by remote control.

The subsequent X-6 was closer to Hoffman's expectations. The missile used a radio proximity fuze and an infrared dual-seeker, weighed 85 kg, had a maximum attack range of 7 kilometers, and a maximum speed of 1,150 kilometers per hour. It could fly in the air for up to 45 seconds. If it did not hit the target after 55 seconds, it would choose to self-destruct.

From the experience of shooting, it is very effective to deal with large targets with a speed of less than 500 kilometers per hour, such as 4-engine bombers, twin-engine attack aircraft with torpedoes or bombs, but it is not able to deal with fighters with high speed and strong maneuverability. But after all, it is on the right track. Hoffman believes that as long as the liquid fuel still used by X-6 is replaced with solid fuel, and the guidance head and airborne radar system are upgraded, the expected X-8 can kill any piston aircraft. As for whether it can hit a jet with a speed of 1,000 kilometers per hour, it is another matter, and we can't be too anxious.

He thought very clearly that new weapons are valuable, but the most important thing is the tactical concept. If the tactical concept is not upgraded, the equipment improvement alone is completely in vain. In history, the Iran-Iraq War broke out more than 30 years after the end of World War II, but these two brothers fought a World War II-level war with third-generation weapons, which was terrible.

The lessons learned from the Battle of France were even more obvious. The main force of the German armored forces was still the Type 3 tank with few Type 2 tanks. Not only was the performance inferior to that of the French tanks, but the number was also inferior to that of the opponents. However, the German tactical concepts and offensive strategies completely overturned the enemy's cognition. When the French were still slowly preparing to fight a typical defensive, attrition, and blocking line war in 1918, Germany had already used blitzkrieg and defeated its opponents. It took only 6 weeks for France to sign an armistice treaty - in World War I, 6 weeks was not even enough for Tsarist Russia to fully deploy its western army.

If Germany used the original equipment to fight a World War I war with the French, no matter how brave and good the troops were, the outcome would be death.

In the Battle of Brazil, although Germany had the advantage of sea control and tank performance, if Clark really fought a positional war with steady progress, Rommel would not be able to cope with it even if he doubled his force, not to mention that Rommel had only 120,000 troops. However, the German army adopted the strategy of attacking El Salvador first, and used rockets, air control, and naval gun suppression to force a landing, which defeated Patton's troops in one fell swoop.

Hoffman is not a tactical expert, but he believes that the Blue Army Command represented by Guderian and the Red Army (imaginary enemy) Command represented by Paulus will be able to practice the blitzkrieg 2.0 tactics well. In his mind, deterrence, decapitation, rockets, joint attacks and other means will ultimately achieve three goals:

First, distance folding

Blitzkrieg 2.0 will no longer fight a bad battle of steady progress, step by step, and layer by layer. The front and the rear are battlefields. Although South Africa has a large land area, Hoffman considers the overall depth of the opponent's territory together. Reconnaissance planes had repeatedly checked Bradley's deployment. He built at least four lines of defense based on the terrain, placed a small number of troops at the front, and placed the main force and reserve forces on the second and third lines of defense, thinking that this would defeat the German attack. How could he know that the Germans would take the approach of distance folding to attack four lines of defense at the same time?

Second, time compression

Let's not talk about the slow pace of World War I. The war had been going on for six weeks, and the Russians had not yet completed it. Let's not talk about the Blitzkrieg 1.0 era, which first carried out aircraft bombing for several hours or even days, and then implemented artillery preparations for up to 50-120 minutes. In Blitzkrieg 2.0, time is everything. When the bomber groups and fighter groups began to take off, the rocket troops had completed their preparations and splashed down at a swift and powerful speed, and then there were endless, swarming army aviation attack groups that opened the way from the air, and the iron flow on the ground surged, and the rapid assault opened the gap with the strongest force and quickly submerged it - who gave you time to retreat to the second and third lines of defense?

Third, battlefield control

Neither side had sea control in the South African campaign, but Germany had a large submarine fleet, and whoever came would die, so it was considered to have half sea control; for air control, the German army was dominated by a large air force fleet, superior fighters, and a new land aviation attack group; for land control, the German steel torrent was the quality guarantee.

On this basis, Hoffman proposed the fourth power - electromagnetic control, which was to destroy the US military's ability to transmit and obtain information. Although the electronic confrontation of this era was primitive, it was already being implemented and strengthened step by step. In terms of electromagnetic control, the enemy's radar system arranged anti-radiation bombs to deal with it, and the most important thing was that the communication jammer had also arrived on the battlefield.

This system, called "super-power blocking", has a total of 3 sets, each with a power of an astonishing 60 kilowatts, and the antenna tower is 35 meters high. The interference frequency bands are all the communication frequency bands commonly used by the US military. The interference range after being deployed on the Mozambique border can cover most of South Africa. In addition, the German army also installed jamming pods on the Fw-190 and developed mobile jamming vehicles using Sherman tanks. Each move was aimed at Bradley's communication capabilities - when his troops were covered by an overwhelming meteor shower, it was not known whether he could convey the orders to his subordinates.

In the evening, the results of all missile launches came. 85% of the missiles hit the target as expected, and 15% of the missiles were better than expected.

Hoffmann specially summoned Guderian and Paulus.

He first told Guderian: "For well-known reasons, I basically will not choose to go to war in North America, and the Americans have proposed peace to us for the second time. This South African campaign is likely to be the last large-scale army group In an offensive war, the Americans have sincerity in peace talks, but they have not yet fully understood their situation and always have unrealistic illusions about the situation. Therefore, this battle must be impressive, achieve deterrence, and force the US military to accept our conditions. .

I know it is difficult for you to use a large number of new weapons and new tactics in just three months, but as our army's leading tactician and blitzkrieg planner, I hope you can personally use this set of tactics to a higher level. level. There may be Blitzkrieg 3.0 and 4.0 in the future, but we will all grow old, and by then I am afraid we will just be clapping spectators instead of conductors. "

Guderian nodded and promised: "I fully understand your painstaking efforts, and I will work hard to find ways to implement your epoch-making combat concept."

Hoffmann turned to Paulus again: "This new tactic cannot be kept secret. As long as we use it, the enemy will know it. The Americans can definitely learn it in the future, so when studying offense, you must also work hard to think of defense methods. And your perspective and stance should be as low-key as possible. Don’t put your position on Germany but on the American Republic. If the Americans come to the American Republic with lightning speed in the future, how will you be in Germany? Prepare for resistance before the mainland completes its war mobilization to prevent the new republic from being swallowed up in one bite.

In view of the strength of the American Republic, your strength is approximately 100,000-150,000 troops in peacetime, and the expansion limit in a short period of time is 200,000-250,000 troops. This amount of troops can basically rest easy in the Americas, but in the face of a world war and pressure from the United States, this amount of troops is not enough, so we must work hard to find a way. "

Paulus' appointment as the top military commander of the American Republic has been made clear internally. He prefers the position of Chief of General Staff, and his military rank is set to be Marshal of the American Republic - this is Hoffman's answer to the rank of general, and at the same time he is determined not to be promoted. Compensation and workarounds for German Marshals - the rank of Marshal of other continents will be half a rank lower than that of the local Marshal.

Paulus replied respectfully: "Führer, don't worry, I will definitely come up with a solution. I have gained some experience in the past two days, but it is not yet a system."

Hoffman nodded, he was very satisfied with Paulus's conscientious attitude, otherwise he would not have pulled him back from the "give up" list and entrusted him with important tasks.

"If you find that there are still problems after the combined exercise, it is not subject to the time limit of November 15. You can delay it for a while. I can afford to wait, but it is best not to end the battle later than the end of this year, because I still need to Deploy troops to Central America. There is no shortage of troops now, but there is a shortage of time, materials and transportation capacity, so you must be considered comprehensively. You are still young and there will be opportunities in the future..."

The two were stunned for a moment, then laughed.

Guderian is 56 years old this year, Paulus is only 54 years old, and Rommel is 53 years old; even though he has reached the peak of a land combat commander, Manstein, known as the "Commander of All Commanders", is only 57 years old - which he himself is extremely disgusted with. This title believes that "no matter in the past or in the future, only the head of state is worthy of being the leader of all commanders!"

As for the future arrangements for other commanders, they have basically been finalized:

Rundstedt - honorably retired;

Blomberg - second line, general adviser to the German Army;

Kuechler - Retired;

Bock - Retired, Türkiye is preparing to ask him to serve as Army General Counsel;

Weeks - second line, general advisor to Army Europe;

Kleist - second line, military chief of German East Africa;

Model - Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern European Command, guarding the Western Russian front;

Jodl - promoted to Field Marshal, Chief of Staff of the German High Command;

Hausser - After being promoted to field marshal, he took a back seat and became the general advisor of the SS.

Other arrangements after the war were basically in place:

Chief of General Staff of the Supreme Command of the European Allied Forces: Keitel

Commander-in-Chief of European Army: Manstein

Commander-in-Chief of European Air Forces: Kesselring

Commander-in-Chief of the European Combined Fleet: Machar

First Deputy Commander of European Army and Commander of Rapid Reaction Force: Guderian

Third Deputy Commander of the European Combined Fleet and Commander of the Mobile Fleet: Krank

Commander-in-Chief of Western European Command: Rommel

Commander-in-Chief of the Home Command: Scheerner (General)

Chief of General Staff of the German African Republic: Erhard Rouse (Marshal of the African Republic)

As for other personnel arrangements, Hoffman is still considering it.