Although Hoffman did not think that the Eastern Front issue could be completely resolved in 1943, the development of Soviet-German peace talks and the change of hands in Leningrad marked the dawn of a complete settlement of the war on the Eastern Front for more than two years. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

It is obviously very difficult to screen them out one by one, and Hoffman does not want the newly defected Red Army to directly join the war against the Soviet Union, so he first pulls them to the rear for training, brainwashing, and re-disrupting the establishment before using them, so that not only can a large number of unqualified personnel be dismissed -- most of the defecting crowd are either middle-aged uncles in their 40s with unshaven beards, or young soldiers under the age of 18, and their combat effectiveness is quite low; It can also expose conspirators and spies.

Under this snowballing expansion, the Russian Liberation Army has expanded to four army groups, more than 50 divisions, and nearly 700,000 men, and after the traditional red, white and blue flag reappeared in St. Petersburg, this speed can be called an avalanche, not only the military, but also a large number of civilians, local officials, and even internal affairs troops began to surrender to the new Russia - they painted a picture of the current embarrassment facing the Soviet power, believing that the Stalin and Bolshevik regime was about to end.

Hoffmann knew that the situation was not so optimistic, Stalin still had strength in his hands, he still had at least 6 million to 7 million troops, and it would not take 3-4 years to completely solve them, and the Germans with more than 2 million dead and wounded would not succeed - this price was of course small compared to history, but he did not want to pay such a big price. The dawn of victory was already on the horizon, and the United States was still eyeing the other side, and the cost of 2 million German boys killed and wounded was somewhat too heavy.

After the Red Army abandoned St. Petersburg, it gave up a large area of land - because these areas could not be defended at all, the confrontation line between the two armies advanced to the Volkhov and Novgorod lines, and for the Red Army, the overall defensive area was reduced by about 200-300 kilometers, which could free up about 300,000 troops. For the German army, the battle situation was even more favorable, and the supplies transported from the German mainland could go directly to St. Petersburg through the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Gulf of Finland, greatly reducing the pressure on the main railway line from Poland. What's more, the northern Russian Primorsky and inland transport lines were nearly cut off after the loss of St. Petersburg as a transit hub. Now, even if Britain and the United States open up the Arctic route, they can transport supplies to Murmansk, and they can no longer smoothly transport them to the mainland.

"The Battle of Dawn was the last large-scale battle of the year, and after studying the battlefield situation in the early stage and the comparison of forces between us and the enemy, the General Staff made many changes to the campaign policy, and finally formed the following campaign determination."

The original plan of the General Staff headed by Zeitzler was very grandiose, hoping to force Stalin to surrender or destroy the main forces of the Red Army through this large-scale campaign, but under Hoffmann's intervention, the campaign policy was changed several times, and the goal was gradually lowered to eliminate the Red Army's heavy army group of more than 1 million to 1.5 million troops, greatly weakening the Red Army's will to fight and resist, and forcing the Bolsheviks to negotiate peace or sign an armistice on our terms.

The overall campaign was divided into three major fronts: the northern, the central, and southern fronts, and according to Zeitzler's arrangement, the main strategic steps included:

In the first stage, starting from 23 September, with all the main forces of Army Group Center and Army Group East, and part of Army Group South (mainly the Hawk cluster), an all-out offensive will be launched on the central front, and the current overall front will be pushed forward by 400-500 kilometers by October 15 with the tactics of one-line pushing, and it is necessary to occupy the first line of Saratov, Ulyanovsk, Kazan, and Samara, and deter the front line of Ufa, Yekaterinburg, and Chelyabinsk.

In order to close the loopholes on the central front, the Red Army is expected to draw troops from the left and right flanks for support, and the second phase will be treated on two levels:

If the Red Army mainly draws troops from its right flank (north), it will launch an offensive campaign with the Finnish Army and Army Group North as the main force, completely seize the Volkhov and Novgorod lines, occupy the area on the right bank of Lake Lagardo, and completely cut off the territory along the Arctic Ocean coast of the Soviet Union from the interior;

If the Red Army draws forces mainly from its left flank (south), it will launch an offensive campaign with Army Group South as the main force, seize Astrakhan, and establish land relations with Central Asia. Zeitzler had a clear disagreement with Hoffmann on this goal, believing that at least Stalingrad should be defeated, but Hoffmann believed that it was not necessary and still insisted on opening up the connection with Central Asia.

The second phase of the campaign is expected to be completed in early November.

If, after the completion of the second phase of the campaign, the political objectives are still not achieved, the third phase of the offensive campaign is launched, and the winter campaign is launched in early December, preparing for an offensive on Nizhny Novgorod and blocking Moscow's connection with the east. After the third phase of the campaign was completed, Moscow would be besieged (not completely encircled) on all sides, and then the goal of the spring campaign of 1944 was to close the encirclement and completely trap Moscow.

According to the General Staff, according to the predictions of climatologists and the experience of the first Moscow campaign, late October to early November is the autumn muddy period, and by the end of November, the temperature on the front line of Moscow will remain around zero degrees, and the land will also freeze, which is very conducive to the advance of armored forces, and it is expected that by early December, the minimum temperature in the region will be about minus 5 degrees (minus 10 degrees in extreme times), and this temperature will not cause serious effects under the premise of sufficient warm materials and winter equipment. But in any case, the Moscow front-line offensive should be stopped around December 15.

The most striking feature of this campaign was that the German army had reached a certain level of material mobilization and equipment improvement, and it no longer talked about the cold color of the Russian winter, and even dared to boldly take advantage of the characteristics of the land freeze in the early winter period, which was conducive to the movement of mechanized troops, to launch an offensive, completely breaking the concept that "the Germans attack in the summer and the Russians attack in the winter."

"We were going to tell Stalin that we could actually fight in winter, and that Russian weather in December was not uncommon in Germany, at least." Zeitzler smiled confidently, "It's not that we don't know that he's trying to delay time, but we want to tell him that it's useless to delay any longer, and we still have three months to use." (To be continued.) )