"Sit down, my armored hero, General Guderian, and my Chief of the General Staff, General Zeitzler, and it's a pleasure to have dinner with both of you." Hoffmann struggled to adapt to the Führer's style of speaking.

"Chief of the General Staff?" Surprised, Guderian turned to Zeitzler and asked, "You want to succeed Halder?" ”

Zeitzler's face was full of apologies: "To be honest, I also just received a verbal notice from General Schmunt, and the specific situation is unknown. ”

Guderian wondered if he was sure that he would be reinstated by the Führer's words, which made him have great expectations, although he did not dare to hope for the position of chief of the General Staff, a commander of an army group was always indispensable. Now it seems that the situation is far more complicated than I think, a small character like Zeitzler can be the chief of the General Staff, why can't he Guderian? He glanced at Zeitzler with a complicated expression, and then he was a little troubled and lost.

Zeitzler's wondering strength was no less than that of Guderian. If it weren't for the clear telegram of instructions from the base camp, he would not have flown in from France to have dinner with the Führer. As we all know, the Führer lived a hard life, and his diet and daily life were very simple, which made the senior officers who were accustomed to enjoying it not very comfortable, and what was even worse was that the Führer often made long speeches during meals, and peddled those clichéd things endlessly, so that people's ears were about to be calloused, but they had to pretend to be listening. As soon as he heard that the Führer had summoned him and had to dine with the Führer, Zeitzler's head hurt, but he had to come again. I thought that the Führer just wanted to know the specific situation of the Battle of Dieppe, and he made full preparations, but after getting off the plane, Schmund vaguely informed himself that he was about to take over as Chief of the General Staff, although he didn't know how this close friend recommended it to the above, but such shocking news made him still have some sincere fear.

"General Zeitzler, the Battle of Dieppe was well fought, but ......," Hoffmann paused, "I would like to hear your opinion on the current situation on the Eastern Front. ”

Zeitzler was stunned for a moment, is the Führer ready to listen to my thoughts? But I didn't have any preparations!

He thought for a moment, considered his words, and said slowly: "As you know, the Führer, I arrived this afternoon when I received a telegram. In fact, until yesterday, I was the chief of staff of Army Group D on the Western Front, and I was busy dealing with the follow-up to the Battle of Dieppe, and my understanding of the Eastern Front was completely limited to the battle reports sent from the base camp, and my understanding was relatively superficial...... "Zeitzler still can't figure out Hoffman's hole cards, and he doesn't dare to speak casually, for fear of angering the Führer, who is said to have become a little nervous recently." But he could not completely say that he did not know—that would only arouse the Führer's disgust even more, and perhaps even more so to Schmunt.

Hoffman interrupted him mercilessly: "Don't be modest, get 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 comparative-" Zeitzler thought for a long time, and finally held back one word, "Positive!" In the northern sector of the front, in front of Army Group North, we besieged Leningrad and thwarted the Red Army offensive in Demyansk; In the Rzhev salient in the middle of the front, under the leadership of General Moder, we held our defensive positions firmly and inflicted heavy casualties on the opposing side; In the southern sector of the front, our troops had cleared the Crimean Peninsula of the remnants of the enemy, firmly grasped Sevastopol and the Kerch Peninsula, and after thwarting Timoshenko's offensive attempts, we won the victory in Kharkov, and the Sixth Army was already in the city, forming a powerful deterrent to Stalingrad...... Of course, there are also many problems. The first is that there is a serious shortage of troops, after last year's winter offensive and this year's summer defense, the strength of many divisions has been almost depleted, and I have seen on the Western Front that many troops that have been adjusted and rested from the Eastern Front have a serious shortage, even a one-third to one-quarter shortage, and these forces cannot be reused at all until they are replenished; Second, the forces are too scattered, and I agree with the strategic direction of the march to the Caucasus and the march to Stalingrad, but the current forces on the Eastern Front are far from enough to support such a strategy. ”

Zeitzler said as he quietly observed the Führer's expression, and to tell the truth, he personally had great doubts about the Caucasian strategy, but Schmund had warned him in advance not to interfere with the Führer's most favored southern flank strategy, and he decided to do so after thinking about it, but the euphemistic opinion still had to be mentioned.

"General Guderian, what do you think?" Hoffmann listened to Zeitzler's speech without any incriminating expression, but turned indifferently to Guderian, which surprised the latter - when did the Führer be so calm?

"Dear Führer." Guderian put down the knife and fork in his hand, "Frankly speaking, I have been out of the front line in the past few months, although I still know some information, but it does not necessarily correspond to the actual situation, so my judgment is ......."

Hoffman knew his concerns, smiled and waved his hand, "This is not a formal combat seminar, and there are no minutes of meetings that need to be distributed afterwards, it is entirely the Supreme Commander who is listening to advice, so you don't have to have any scruples, it seems better to be straightforward - this time last year, if it wasn't for my generals behind my back, maybe we would have been discussing post-war reconstruction by now." ”

Guderian's face flushed, of course he knew what the Führer meant by "one set in front of the other and one behind the other": before the Battle of Moscow, the commanders of the armies on the Eastern Front were targeting Moscow, but the Führer's goal was first Ukraine and then Moscow, and he asked to send Guderian's Panzer Group to Army Group South to support the operation. As a result, the commander-in-chief of the army, Brauchitsch, the chief of the General Staff, Halder, and the commander of Army Group Center, Field Marshal Bock, opposed together, and discounted the Führer's order by overt and covert means, and the armored units of Army Group Center were preparing for the advance into Moscow on the one hand, and on the other hand, they divided their forces to support in the direction of Ukraine. The result of this was that the troops did not go straight to Moscow as the generals had envisioned, nor did they take Ukraine as soon as the Führer had envisioned and then turn around and attack Moscow, and the best five weeks slipped away in pointless arguments, and then there was the defeat of the Battle of Moscow. Then Brauchitsch was dismissed as commander-in-chief of the army, Bock was removed as commander of Army Group Center, he Guderian was forced to transfer to the reserves, and now it was finally Halder's turn.

"Looking back now, I think calmly that the Führer's original decision was still wise, but it is a pity that we made a deviation in communication and execution." At that time, the commander of the armored forces who was in the situation of the beginning and the end was Guderian himself, but he could not hear the complaint from the current words, Zeitzler couldn't help but give him a thumbs up in his heart, the reserve in the past few months was really not in vain, and Guderian, who had always been annoying, was now good at speaking.

Guderian continued: "In terms of the next strategy on the Eastern Front, my ideas may be ...... It may be a bit negative - I think we should gather our strength this year, focus on offensive and defensive, deplete the living forces of the Russians, and wait for another year to launch a full-scale offensive. ”

Zeitzler was taken aback, but Hoffmann nodded slightly: "Tell me your reasons." ”

"There are two main reasons for this. The first is the problem of troops that General Zeitzler just said, our army strength on the Eastern Front is about 3 million, plus the strength of the allies, at most 3.5 million, but we need to face at least 4.5 million enemies, and 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 he can have more than 2 million reserves, and he doesn't have to worry about the Japanese behind him; The second is the problem of equipment, whether it is artillery or armored power, the Russians have at least half more than us, although they are very clumsy when using them, but this numerical advantage is difficult to ignore, and what is even worse is that in the vital armored forces we not only have no quantitative superiority, but even the quality advantage has been lost - the Russians' T-34 and KV-1 we have a very difficult time to deal with, I heard that the No. 5 tank (Leopard) has been basically developed, and the No. 6 tank (Tiger) has also been successfully manufactured, If there is a year of large-scale rearmament, the Empire's armored forces can regain the upper hand, and the same is true for air power. Guderian finished his point in one breath, and then waited anxiously for Hoffmann's verdict.

"One thing I would like to correct is that, according to the intelligence gathered at the front and my judgment, the strength of the Russians at the front is not 4.5 million as you estimate, but between 5.5 million and 6 million, and the estimate of 2 million reserves is also logical; In addition, the Russians may have a greater numerical advantage in armored vehicles and artillery than you think - not only did they outnumber us, but the British and Americans also supplied them - in the first half of this year alone, Stalin got no less than 1,000 tanks from Churchill and Roosevelt, so. "We have eliminated 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, and if necessary, several salients in the northern and central sections of the Eastern Front can also be leveled to save troops. ”

"What?" Now it was Zeitzler's turn and Guderian to be surprised, was this still the Führer who had always persevered to the end and refused to give up an inch of vested land? Such an adjustment almost twisted the strategic direction determined at the turn of summer and autumn, and the intensity made them a little dumbfounded.