Iron Cross

"Please take a seat, my armored hero, General Guderian, and my chief of general staff, General Zeitzler. It is a pleasure to have dinner with you two." Hoffmann tried his best to adapt to the speaking style of the head of state.

"Chief of the General Staff?" Guderian looked surprised and turned to Zeitzler and asked, "Are you going to replace Halder?"

Zeitzler apologized: "To be honest, I just received a verbal notification from General Schmont. The specific situation is unknown."

Guderian was puzzled. From the words of the head of state, he was sure that he would be reactivated. This gave him high expectations. Although he did not dare to expect the position of chief of general staff, a group army commander was always indispensable. Now it seems that the situation is far more complicated than I thought. A junior like Zeitzler can be the chief of general staff, why can't he Guderian? He glanced at Zeitzler with a complicated expression, and suddenly became worried about gain and loss.

Zeitzler was no less puzzled than Guderian. If it weren't for the clear command telegram sent by the base camp, he would not have flown from France to have dinner with the head of state. As we all know, the head of state lives a poor life, and his diet and daily life are very simple, which makes senior officers who are used to enjoying themselves uncomfortable. What's more terrible is that the head of state often makes long speeches during meals, peddling those commonplace things, which makes people listen. My ears are almost calloused, but I still have to pretend to be listening. As soon as the head of state summoned him and he had to have dinner with him, Zeitzler had a headache, but he had to come. I originally thought that the head of state just wanted to know the specific situation of the Battle of Dieppe, and he had made full preparations. Unexpectedly, after getting off the plane, Schmundt vaguely informed him that he was about to take over as the chief of general staff. Although he did not know this close friend A friend recommended it to the above, but such shocking news made him still feel a little frightened.

"General Zeitzler, the Battle of Dieppe was fought well, but..." Hoffman paused, "I want to hear your views on the current situation on the Eastern Front."

Zeitzler was stunned for a moment. Is the Führer prepared to listen to my ideas? But I am not prepared for anything!

He thought for a moment, carefully selected his words, and said slowly: "Führer, as you know, I only received the telegram this afternoon and came here. In fact, until yesterday, I served as the chief of staff of Army Group D on the Western Front. I am busy dealing with the follow-up work of the Battle of Dieppe, and my understanding of the Eastern Front is completely limited to the battle reports sent from the base camp, and my understanding is relatively superficial..." Zeitzler still can't figure out Hoffmann's trump card and dare not speak casually. He was afraid of offending the head of state, who was said to have become a little nervous recently. But he couldn't just lay down his hands and say he didn't know - this would only aggravate the Führer's resentment, and might even implicate Schmont.

Hoffman interrupted him mercilessly: "Don't be modest, talk to the point!"

Zeitzler's expression was a little embarrassed, but he was also experienced in the world and quickly adjusted his mentality.

"The overall situation on the Eastern Front is relatively——" Zeitzler thought for a long time and finally choked out one word, "Positive! In the northern section of the front, facing Army Group North, we surrounded Leningrad and defeated the Red Army's attack. Demyansk's offensive; in the Rzhev salient in the middle of the front, under the leadership of General Model, we firmly held the defensive position and inflicted a large number of casualties on the opponent; in the southern section of the front, our army had cleared the enemy The remnant enemies of the Limu Peninsula firmly controlled Sevastopol and the Kerch Peninsula. After defeating Timoshenko's attack attempt, we won the victory in Kharkov. Le's powerful deterrent... Of course, there are also many problems. The first is the serious shortage of troops. After last winter's offensive and this summer's defense, many divisions have been almost exhausted. I don't see it on the Western Front. The shortage of troops that had been adjusted and recuperated from the Eastern Front was very serious, even one-third to one-fourth of the shortage. These forces could not be used again until they were replenished; secondly, the forces were too dispersed, marching towards the Caucasus and towards Stalinger. I agree with the strategic direction of the military advance, but the current strength of the eastern front is far from enough to support such a strategy. "

As Zeitzler spoke, he quietly observed the Führer's expression. To be honest, he personally had great doubts about the Caucasus strategy, but Schment had warned him in advance not to attack the southern wing, which was the Führer's favorite. Strategically speaking, he decided to do it after thinking about it, but he still had to give tactful opinions.

"General Guderian, what do you think?" After hearing Zeitzler's speech, Hoffman was noncommittal and showed no inclination. He just turned to Guderian with an indifferent expression, which surprised the latter—— When did the head of state become so calm?

"Dear Head of State." Guderian put down the knife and fork in his hand, "Frankly speaking, I have been away from the front line in the past few months. Although I have learned some things, they may not be in line with the actual situation. Therefore, my judgment... "

Hoffman knew his concerns, smiled and waved his hand, "This is not a formal combat seminar, and there are no meeting minutes that need to be distributed afterwards. It is completely the supreme commander who is listening to the advice, so you don't have to have any scruples. It seems straightforward. Even better - this time last year, if my generals hadn't done one thing to my face and another behind my back, maybe we would have been discussing post-war reconstruction now."

Guderian blushed. He certainly knew what the Fuehrer meant by "one thing in front of you and another behind your back": before the Battle of Moscow, the commanders of the army groups on the Eastern Front were targeting Moscow, but the Fuehrer's target was Ukraine first and then Moscow. He asked to send Guderian's armored group to the Southern Army Group to support the battle. As a result, Army Commander-in-Chief Brauchitsch, Chief of the General Staff Halder, and Commander of the Central Army Group Marshal Bock opposed it together, and discounted the Fuehrer's order through overt and covert means. The armored forces of the Central Army Group prepared to advance to Moscow on the one hand, and sent troops to support Ukraine on the other hand. The result of this was that the troops neither attacked Moscow directly as the generals had imagined, nor did they take Ukraine as soon as possible and then turn around to attack Moscow as the Fuehrer had imagined. The five weeks with the best weather slipped away quietly in meaningless arguments, and then there was the defeat of the Battle of Moscow. Then, Brauchitsch was removed from the position of Army Commander-in-Chief, Bock was removed from the position of Commander of the Central Army Group, and Guderian was forced to transfer to the reserve. Now it was finally Halder's turn.

"Looking back now, I think calmly that the Führer's decision was wise. It's a pity that we made some mistakes in communication and execution." The commander of the armored forces who was in a dilemma at the time was Guderian himself. However, there was no complaint in his words now. Zeitzler couldn't help but give him a thumbs up in his heart. The reserve service of these months was not in vain. Guderian, who was always annoying, has improved his speaking skills now.

Guderian continued: "On the next strategy on the Eastern Front, my thoughts may be...maybe a little negative - I think we should accumulate strength this year, focus on offensive defense, consume the Russians' manpower, and wait for another year to launch a full-scale offensive."

Zeitzler was shocked, but Hoffman nodded slightly: "Tell me your reasons."

"There are mainly two reasons. The first is the issue of troops that General Zeitzler just mentioned. Our army on the Eastern Front has about 3 million troops, plus the Allied troops, at most 3.5 million, but we need to face at least 4.5 million enemies. We still have 1 million troops on other fronts such as the Western Front, the Balkans, and North Africa, but they are facing more British and Americans. Stalin estimates that there will be more than 2 million reserves. The second is the equipment problem. Whether it is artillery or armored forces, the Russians have at least half as many as us. Although they are clumsy in using them, this numerical advantage is hard to ignore. What's more, we not only have no numerical advantage in the crucial armored forces, but also lose the quality advantage - we find it very difficult to deal with the Russians' T-34 and KV-1. I heard that the No. 5 tank (Panther) has been basically developed and the No. 6 tank (Tiger) has also been successfully manufactured. If we can have a year to carry out large-scale replacement, the Empire's armored forces can regain the upper hand, and the same is true for air power. "Guderian finished his point of view in one breath, and then waited anxiously for Hoffman's verdict.

"There is one thing I want to correct. According to the intelligence collected from the front and my judgment, the Russian front-line troops are not the 4.5 million you estimated, but between 5.5 and 6 million. The estimate of 2 million reserves is also logical. In addition, the Russians' numerical advantage in armored vehicles and artillery may be greater than you think. Not only do they surpass us in manufacturing quantity, but they also have British and Americans to supply them. In the first half of this year alone, Stalin received no less than 1,000 vehicles from Churchill and Roosevelt. Tanks, so. "Hoffman said slowly, "We have destroyed 400-500 divisions of Stalin, but he still has at least 500 divisions. I think your judgment is correct. We should switch to strategic defense. The offensive in the Caucasus and Stalingrad can be selectively stopped. If necessary, the northern and middle sections of the Eastern Front can also be flattened to save manpower. "

"What?" Now it was Zeitzler and Guderian's turn to be surprised. Is this still the head of state who always insists on the end and refuses to give up any inch of the existing land? Such an adjustment almost reversed the strategic direction determined at the turn of summer and autumn, and the force was so great that they were a little dumbfounded.