"The strategic goal of the war against the Soviet Union is not to seize or occupy a specific place, but to destroy the living forces of the Soviet army, and it would be very satisfying to achieve victory in the siege of Kyiv as last year." Hoffman emphasized, "In the future, our criterion for judging the victory of a campaign is not only the enemy equipment and materials destroyed, but also the number of enemies killed, wounded, and captured. In order to achieve this exchange ratio, we must not be confined to the gains and losses of one city or one place, except for a few strategic pivots that must be defended, the rest of the fronts and areas can be flexibly adapted -- we do not have an advantage in overall strength, we must use a wide range of mobile operations to mobilize the enemy, and destroying the enemy's vital forces in the course of movement will be the essence of our operations. As for some of the territories, if the Russians want to take them, they should return them - anyway, if we have exhausted the enemy's living forces, these territories will fall like ripe fruit. ”

On the map, Hoffman delineated the strategic points that must be defended on the eastern front from north to south: the Leningrad Encirclement, Novgorod, Smolensk, Bryansk, Kursk, Kharkiv, Voronezh, Rostov, Taman and Kerch Peninsula, and the Crimean Peninsula. Zeitzler silently looked at it, and if these points were connected, with the exception of some areas (mainly the southern front), the overall front would probably be the continuous front after last year's Typhoon campaign, which would be 200 to 300 kilometers lower than the current overall front, and the overall defense area and width could be reduced by about one-fifth -- and the density of troops would increase by one-fifth accordingly.

Hoffman then drew a large circle of the north and south seas and said, "We have to change our mindset. Further attention should be paid to these two sea areas. To the north is the Baltic Sea. To the south is the Black Sea. The existing transportation of goods and people is constrained by Russia's poor road system, and must be supplemented by increased maritime forces. Army Group North could count on a supply fleet from the mainland, and Army Group South could count on a supply fleet from Romania and Bulgaria, so the vicinity of Leningrad, as well as the vicinity of the Crimean Peninsula, would be a top priority. Speer, have the current conditions for transportation on the eastern route improved? Did the captives speed up their westward movement? ”

"My Führer. As a result of our change in the strategy of replenishment and troop redeployment, the troops who have returned home from the Eastern Front for recuperation, except for the T-34 and the old models No. 2 and No. 3, which must be sent back to China for repair, no longer carry heavy equipment, and all the vacated tonnage has been handed over to prisoners for transportation. So far in September, 120,000 more people have been transported than last month, and the number of people in a single month is expected to reach 30-400,000 in the future; At the same time, as the SS suspended the movement of Jews to the East, the vacated transport capacity was transferred to the Wehrmacht, and the pace of our replenishment of troops, supplies, and equipment for the Eastern Front was quickened, and heavy equipment was given first priority, and winter equipment was currently being transported intensively, and it was expected that all of them would be transported and distributed by mid-October. Speer thought for a moment, "I agree with the policy of intensifying maritime transport. But this requires us to add ships, especially since there are practically no of our ships on the Black Sea side. In addition, the adjustment of the track gauge of the eastern railway will also occupy a part of the labor force. As a result, the number of prisoners received in the country may be less than the number we take away. ”

The allocation of winter equipment has always been a matter of great concern to Hoffmann: in the first winter of history, a bloody encounter was broken on the outskirts of Moscow, and a large number of soldiers were incapacitated by the bitter cold; The following year, the Sixth Army in the Stalingrad direction still lacked winter equipment and ended up losing hundreds of thousands. So this time he made up his mind to shrink his troops back in September, and to try to shorten the supply lines, and would rather lose some territory than lose people. As for the transport tonnage that Speer was concerned about, a conference on Serbia would be held in two days, and both Bulgaria and Romania would have something to gain from the territorial adjustment, and he believed that they would be able to obtain the ships and necessary resources from both countries on these preferential terms.

"General Zeitzler, one thing you have to pay attention to is that the Romanian, Hungarian and Italian units on the front line must complete the selection as soon as possible, and retain the most combat-ready one-third of them, while the rest of the troops will be withdrawn from the Eastern Front one after another."

"Evacuate?" Zeitzler was taken aback and asked suspiciously, "Where to retreat?" At present, there are the Italian 8th Army, the Romanian 3rd and 4th Armies, and the Hungarian 2nd Army on the front line, and the total number of the above four armies is almost 600,000. ”

"Some went to Serbia, some went to the second line, and some returned home." Hoffman explained, "I took the troops that I had in Yugoslavia and went to the Eastern Front, where there were about 90,000 troops; The domestic reserve army will provide 10 supplementary divisions, which is almost 140,000; The field divisions built by the Air Force with surplus manpower have given you 5, which solves another 70,000 people, and can replenish a total of 300,000 troops on the Eastern Front, taking into account the reduction of two large salients in our northern and central routes, which liberates another 5-6 divisions. Therefore, the overall strength of the troops is sufficient, and even because of the replacement of our troops, the overall combat effectiveness of the Eastern Front will rise to a new level. ”

"But ......," Zeitzler said in a long and euphemistic voice, "you have taken three more armored divisions and two motorized divisions from the front line to support the operation in North Africa, and we are still the main force of our first class, what should we do with this gap?" ”

"This ......" Hoffman was actually asked for a moment.

"General Zeitzler, the Waffen-SS recently completed the formation of 4 divisional units by order of the Führer, which can be put into the front." Himmler quietly took over the topic and relieved Hoffmann of the siege, "If the Führer allows, I will, in accordance with the principles established at the meeting just now, form an additional Foreign SS unit equivalent to 2 divisions and 1 brigade before the arrival of winter, which can also be used to fight against the Soviet Union." ”

Hoffman glanced at Himmler with appreciation: on the one hand, the front-line generals said that the troops were insufficient, and on the other hand, he had just stated that he would increase the intensity of the formation of foreign troops, Himmler immediately reacted and took over the task logically.

"That'...... All right. Seeing that the wood was already in the boat, Zeitzler knew that it was useless to oppose it, not to mention that neither the Romanians, nor the Italians, were too strong in combat, and he just wanted to take the opportunity to negotiate conditions with the Führer.

"The withdrawal of the troops of these three countries is not for me to weaken the forces of the Eastern Front, but precisely to protect ourselves." Hoffman further explained his reasons for doing so, "You should have read the war reports of the North African battlefields, and the Italians were so incompetent that they could not play any role except as prisoners and give war exploits to the British, and they wasted a lot of resources in vain. The situation of the troops of other countries on the Eastern Front is a little better, but it is only a little better, which battle is not the first time that these allied troops were broken through by the Russians and caused the whole front to be passive? So I made the decision to adjust the deployment of the corresponding forces. At the same time, personnel can be withdrawn during the evacuation process, but heavy equipment must be left behind, which is used to strengthen the firepower density of the remaining troops and improve combat effectiveness, and the air forces and other special support forces of various countries on the Eastern Front will not be withdrawn. As for the troops of other countries, such as the Finnish and Spanish Blue Divisions, the French Regiment, the Slovak Division, and the Croatian Troops, because of their relatively small numbers, all of them were retained and incorporated into the unified command of our various army groups, so as to reflect the characteristics of the Holy War in which all European countries participated together. ”

Hearing this, Zeitzler was happy, if the four group armies of Italy, Hungary, and Romania were replenished and all the heavy equipment was left, the loss of front-line strength would not be as much as 400,000, and the combat effectiveness of the carefully selected 200,000 troops would also be raised to a higher level, and he began to think about which troops should be retained.

"In fact, the allies have also tried their best in the early stage of the battle, and we cannot use their world's best combat power to demand them, and in addition, the factors of insufficient equipment and inferior performance also restrict their superiority. I had heard that some units, such as the Italian cavalry, the Romanian mountain troops, and the Hungarian grenadiers, fought well in some of the battles, so I decided to reward them on the Serbian issue. "This action is also good for improving our image with our allies." The Italian leader telephoned me three times and complained to me that General Guderian had sacrificed his troops in the North African theater, and that he was now under great internal pressure, and that the repatriation of some of his troops was an act of appeasement and would have helped to consolidate his position. At the same time, there were also complaints in Romania and Hungary about sending so many troops to fight against the Soviet Union, especially the excessive losses of the two Romanian armies, which accounted for nearly half of the troops, which would damage the prestige of Marshal Antonescu. It would be beneficial to bring them back to the garrison and let them maintain stability in the former Yugoslavia and consolidate stability in our rear - our field forces are not fit to carry out such tasks and should not be carried out. ”

When the head of state said this, Zeitzler and the others naturally could only nod in agreement.

Hoffmann breathed a sigh of relief: the time bombs on the Romanian, Hungarian, and Italian lines had finally been defused, and Stalin would not be able to find so many soft persimmons to pinch in the next war.

Finally, Hoffman announced an important policy adjustment that had been considered for several days, and as soon as a few words came out, it immediately caused an uproar in the conference room, and everyone was stunned. (To be continued.) )