The Third Reich in Desperation

Dalachi, who made the move as a staff officer, has already performed exceptionally tonight.As soon as the northern line of the Manzanares River fell, he decisively mobilized nearly 4 reserve troops formed by gathering routs and threw them into the northern line in time.

It's a pity that both the garrison on the northern front and the reserve team that was invested in the later stage were defeated and surrendered one after another like stone sinking into the sea.It took only 5 hours for Rommel's armored forces to swallow the 1.2 People's Guard under Dalach's command.

Forcibly cross the Manzanares River, blitz the 8 garrisons within the line of defense, and defeat 4 follow-up reinforcements.The combat effectiveness of Rommel's troops has far exceeded Darach's imagination.

Dalach has seen countless battles and analyzed many battles in the last world war.But he has never encountered such an unbelievable attack speed and attack intensity!No matter what coping plan you make or how many troops you mobilize to contain it, it will be futile.

All the tactics, all the preliminary preparations, the seemingly solid line of defense, and the huge number of troops, all failed to cause the slightest delay to the opponent.All the advantages of one's own side were forcibly broken by the opponent with the most outrageous means.

And Rommel, who was ridiculed countless times by the People's Guard garrison, is a master tactician!Almost at the same time as the northern line was broken through, the opponent made a keen judgment and mobilized troops to detour to the back of the central garrison, which greatly reduced the morale of the 2 People's Guard who had lost the defensive advantage of the Manzanares River. rout.

"General Dalach!" A Republican staff officer in the command hurried over to report: "Our request for additional troops was rejected by the Madrid General Command."

Dalach waved his hand lightly, indicating that the staff officer could step down.At this time, no matter how many troops were to come, it would be impossible to plug the growing gap.On the contrary, Dalach was already somewhat thankful that no reinforcements were sent from the rear.Because the enemies they need to face obviously cannot be resisted by relying on the superiority of numbers.

"Report, three-quarters of the University City area located northwest of the command headquarters has been lost. The enemy is less than 20 kilometers away from our headquarters!" Another staff officer, sweating profusely, delivered the bad news.

The battle situation has become increasingly clear.If the first line of defense west of Madrid could rely on a large number of forward positions to resist for two days, then the second line of defense on the Manzanares River can only last for 24 hours at most.

There is no problem with the deployment of the defenders. Dalach, who was a staff officer, arranged the most reasonable deployment according to the terrain of each region.Although the upstream is relatively weak and easy to pass through, Dalachi also deployed 8000 dense troops accordingly, and used the position near the rear of the upstream as the assembly point of the reserve team.All the deployment of troops has been handed over to the Madrid General Headquarters for review, and no one can find fault.

It's just that no one can imagine, how can the Germans who have been squatting in the opposite line of defense for a long time be so able to fight?

Now what Dalach is thinking about is not how to fight a successful defensive battle and take the opportunity to become famous.What he was thinking about now was how to clean up the corrupt situation in front of him.

It is meaningless to continue to send troops to intercept the enemy, so what we have to do now is to save as many troops as possible to strengthen the defense force for the next line of defense.Although, this is very ironic for Dalach, who previously proposed to transfer troops from the third line of defense to the second line of defense.However, this is already the only choice a sane commander can make.Besides, before the war, who would have thought that the lingering corps in Rommel's hands could push the National Army twice as large as them to this extent.

After a long sigh, Dalach closed his eyes and gave his last order: "Let the defenders in the southern part of the Manzanares River charge northward and entangle the enemy as much as possible. All other troops that can be withdrawn should withdraw. "

After Da Laqi gave the order, his headquarters was surprisingly quiet.No one could say anything. Everyone knew that after this battle, Darach's military career would come to an end.No matter how much Dalach fought for the third line of defense, his failure was enough to send him to a court-martial.Even if this kind of failure is inevitable for anyone!

"Major General..." A military academy staff officer who graduated at the same time as Da Laqi wanted to persuade him.But Dalach shook his head gently and rejected: "It's useless, we can't do anything now. Instead of spending everyone here, we should send as many as possible to the next line of defense. At least, the third The fortifications of the first line of defense are denser, the length of the line of defense is shorter, and there are more garrison troops and reserve troops.”

After Dalaki finished talking about the advantages of the third line of defense that he didn't even believe, a series of retreat orders were distributed to all levels of troops.As for how many troops could escape to the third line of defense in the end, he couldn't tell.

"Report, there are movements of German armored forces in the northwest!" Without even leaving Daragh too much time for sadness, Rommel's second hand immediately appeared in front of Daragh.

"Northwest?!" Dalach's eyelids twitched, and he turned to look at the big map on the wall.

When Da Laqi glanced at the map a few times, he fully understood that now, even withdrawing a large number of troops has become a luxury.

........

"Cut it off! We cut off the El Escorial highway!" An excited liaison officer rushed in quickly from Rommel's headquarters.Through telegrams, the news that an armored battalion of the German army cooperated with an infantry battalion to cut off the El Escorial highway has been confirmed.Since then, the 5 troops of the second line of defense of the Spanish People's Guard have been cut off from the final path of retreat.This time, Rommel did not intend to let go of a single soldier!

Although Rommel seemed to be smiling calmly, his fists were already tightly clenched.The training exercises in China for nearly ten years, and the forbearance since the first three months of going to Spain, finally paid off at this moment!With this battle, he proved the combat effectiveness of the German and Western United Corps, and also proved his tactical control.

True, he, Rommel, had done nothing in his first three months.However, in just 3 days, he achieved what the Italian Army on the Northern Front could not achieve in 3 months.Winning Madrid within a week is not just a wild statement, it is a kind of self-confidence, a prediction combined with sufficient analysis!Now, half of this prophecy has been fulfilled!

From today, Rommel's name will be recorded in history as the name of the world's first commander who successfully commanded large-scale armored forces!

Rommel had an idea that perhaps it was time to change the name of the book he was conceiving.

"Tank Attack", a name that sounds good.

Text Chapter 97 Breakthrough Again

A German armored division, a Spanish quasi-armored division and five German armed infantry divisions of the German-Spanish United Corps have been divided into two groups, cutting off the main traffic arteries such as the El Escorial Highway, and cutting off the second line of defense of the Republican Army. The retreat route of the troops.

Although the armored division under Rommel has only light tanks like the No. 2 tank, it is enough to demonstrate its terrifying crushing combat effectiveness in the face of the Republican Army with backward weapons.Under the impact of the torrent of steel, the People's Guard temporarily formed by the Republican Army was almost collapsed at the touch of a button, and many surrendered.

Such a People's Guard gathered by faith does not lack the courage to fight.But the government's chilling abandonment, and the German army's hopeless armored tanks, drained their courage by every inch of it.

Looking at the flying Iron Cross flag of the German army, every Republican soldier who tried to resist could only feel a deep-rooted sense of powerlessness.They couldn't even pose the slightest threat to the German tanks, so they were forced to break through.

One after another positions were breached, and one after another troops were collectively wiped out.A small number of people can retreat to the rear position, most people are either killed or surrendered.

It can be imagined that when the soldiers of the Republican Army saw the machine gun in the No. 2 tank calmly killing their own death squads, and saw the defense line that they thought was unbreakable collapse in an instant, what else was left in their hearts?Only despair!

The Germans are definitely not the "young soldiers" as advertised.They have efficient coordination tactics, excellent non-commissioned officer command system, and rapid deployment methods.There are such excellent soldiers and tactics, as well as military technology far beyond Spain.How could this kind of enemy be resisted by a militia like the People's Guard?

Not to mention the Republican Army representing half of Spain, even if the entire Spanish army is pulled together, it may not be possible to resist the attack of 5 German armored divisions!

Take the German Fifth Armored Division in front of us as an example. Wherever it appears, the defense zone will be completely eroded.It was like an invulnerable monster, no matter how many troops or densely packed positions, it couldn't cause any damage to it.

This is a typical asymmetric war!This is the newest war mode!

As a German commander, Rommel quickly mastered this mode of warfare.Darach, who was barely regarded as Rommel's temporary opponent, has obviously been fooled by this new model of war.The war has broken away from the trench warfare familiar to the Republican Army, and the panic-stricken Republican Army can only do now is to flee.

Rommel, who had just moved to the new headquarters, looked at the latest combat map with satisfaction.The collapse of the Republican Army's second line of defense was much faster than he had imagined. In just one night, there were no enemy positions to be found on this section of the combat map.

All the blocking positions did not have the slightest blocking effect, but instead sent troops to the mouth of the Fifth Armored Division faster.Those fortification groups built according to the standard of permanent positions are not much different from the rout time of temporary positions.

Rommel was already certain that his plan to take Madrid in a week would succeed.At that time, he will become the first among the new generation of German generals to win such a huge victory!

From the selection of the timing of the attack, the formulation of the attack route, to the decision of the pursuit plan after the breakthrough, all are completed by his command team.Throughout the process, he did not receive any domestic guidance requirements.Reinhardt has given him near-infinite autonomy, and he's about to return with an unprecedented victory.Once Madrid is captured, the outcome of this war will be sealed.The rest is nothing more than the dying struggle of the Republican Army.No matter how happy you are struggling, you will undoubtedly die!

The only thing that Rommel cares about is that the opponent recently transferred 3 main regular troops and 5 People's Guards to the southern front.As a result, his results can easily be misinterpreted as being achieved by the containment and cooperation of Gambala and Franco.Obviously, this was not Rommel's original intention.

The reason why he waited so long to attack was to run in and train the Spanish troops of the 6 divisions under him, master the marching speed of these German armorers, and avoid the phenomenon of disconnection between the two armies.Moreover, the stingy Reinhardt in China even had to provide the aviation gasoline used by the planes by Franco.As a result, the 50 Me-109 fighter jets under his command have been afraid to dispatch on a large scale. It was not until not long ago that Franco gathered enough aviation gasoline and sent it to him.

"Speed ​​up the assault speed! The task of clearing the rear is left to 5 Spanish German armored divisions. The 5th Armored Division and the Spanish 2st Armored Division advance first. Within [-] hours, they must take down the forward D[-] of the Republican Army's third line of defense. Heights!"

Rommel has been waiting for too long. Since the previous forbearance has become a joke in the mouths of many colleagues, he will make the current victory a victory in the eyes of those colleagues!

The two armored divisions of the German and Western United Corps formed two arrows that broke away from the group, forming the last line of defense towards Madrid in a centripetal assault formation.At this time, it is less than 72 hours from the date of Rommel's dispatch of troops!

.....................

"General, Commander Rommel of the German-Spanish Combined Corps has sent a telegram suggesting that we stop our attack on Bilbao. Set up a defensive line on the spot and gather reserves to the south." An Italian liaison officer sent Gambara a message A telegram just sent by Rommel.

Glancing at Rommel's "suggestion", Gambala smiled wryly: "Understood. Reply to Major General Rommel for me, Bilbao is about to be taken by us, and it is already on the back of a tiger, and the frontline troops cannot retreat Come down. The Italian Expeditionary Force can only try to take Bilbao as quickly as possible, and then deploy."

For Rommel's suggestion, Gambala actually completely agrees.The record of the German and Western United Corps has long been heard in his ears. Once Rommel takes Madrid, more than half of this war will be won.It doesn't really matter whether Bilbao can take it or not.

However, the leader of the country, Prime Minister Mussolini, strongly demanded that the Italian expeditionary force must take Bilbao, the capital of Basque Country.He believes that this is an opportunity for the Italian army to demonstrate its strength and increase Italy's international influence.

If the situation remained the same, Gambala would not object to Mussolini's plan.But now, Rommel's original prediction was confirmed. The Republican Army sent the International Column and 1 People's Guard north to Burgos.The attack speed of the Italian expeditionary force has been completely retarded.

Others Rommel has reminded himself that the five German armorers belonging to the German-Spanish Combined Corps in the north have also been dispatched by the Italian Expeditionary Force.However, Gambala still failed to break through the repeated resistance of the Republican Army.

On the southern front, Franco's troops had stopped advancing and turned to defense across the board.Everyone knows very well that at this time, compared with Rommel's offensive, the results in other directions are already negligible.

However, the leader of Italy is obviously not a person who is willing to make concessions.That idiot knows nothing about military commonsense except his head full of fantasies.Let such an idiot lead, Gambala's heart can only be sad and desolate.

Text Chapter 98 South Army North Transfer

"It seems that this Italian general still chose to go down that road of no return." Rommel, who received Gambala's reply, said with some sympathy: "It is estimated that the leader in their country is putting pressure on him again. I am really sorry. I can't figure out why a group of military strategists want to listen to a politician dictating in their own field, don't they have the self-consciousness of being a general?"