As Manstein explained in depth, Zeitzler and Kleist understood what "feast" meant. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In Hoffman's view, since the Soviet Union dared to gather heavy troops on the front line of the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea, its central zone must be extremely empty, so he believed that the Caucasus direction would slowly retreat with a posture of resistance, exchanging space for time, and then Model's Army Group Center and Weix's Army Group East could continue to launch an offensive on the central battlefield, and Army Group North could continue to monitor the direction of Moscow.

Hoffmann set the distance for the central offensive to go down to the Ural Mountains, which meant to push to the line of Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk and to continue to extend the control of the two flanks. If you count from Kazan, Ulyanovsk, and Saratov, the distance in a straight line is 600-800 kilometers, and if you count from the Voronezh line, it has advanced a full 1,500 kilometers - even more than the distance from Warsaw to Voronezh.

If this goal is really achieved in the central direction, the entire Soviet-German Eastern Front battlefield will turn into a very interesting scene, divided into four salients from top to bottom: the northernmost section is the northern salient of the German army, and the battle line is roughly from Arkhangelsk to Vologda; A little south was the Moscow salient of the Red Army; The middle section was the central salient of the German army; In the southern sector was the Stalingrad Salient of the Red Army, creating a situation of dog-tooth staggering.

Among them, the two salients of Moscow and Stalingrad will be cut off by the central salient of the German army, and they will be completely isolated into two pieces, and the next major battle will be obvious: if the Red Army wants to launch an offensive, it can only advance from the north and south of Moscow and Stalingrad to flank the central salient of the German army; The Germans had two options, either Army Group North and the Central Bulge to flank the direction of Moscow; Or Army Group South and the Central Bulge flanking in the direction of Stalingrad.

Hoffman's investigation made it clear that the two important cities of Moscow and Stalingrad, despite their large numbers of troops and tight defense systems, had a fatal weakness -- the industrial system and product power were not self-sufficient. The industrial zone behind the Ural Mountains provided Stalin with more than two-thirds of the main military equipment and more than 85% of the fuel; The industrial regions of Moscow and Stalingrad provide only about 15% of their industrial capacity and less than 10% of their fuel supply, not to mention agricultural products, and both cities need to rely on the grain producing areas in the rear for food. In other words, as long as they are separated and do not need to be fought by the Germans, these two cities will definitely not be able to hold up for a long time.

There were also suggestions in the High Command that since the Ural industrial region was so important, it would be better to continue the assault in the central direction, completely eliminating Stalin's stubborn resistance to the end, but Hoffman also rejected this strategy, and he considered it for many reasons:

From a military point of view, the line between Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk is the main passage connecting the inside and outside of the Ural industrial zone, and further south or north are mountains, and it is difficult to break in, and the Red Army can make the German army return with a million or more troops with 500,000-600,000 troops in vain -- in fact, Vasilevsky also arranged it this way, and the central front was not very well defended, and after Zhukov transferred his troops to the south, he could only use the last 500,000 troops to block this pass. But blocking this mouth would also mean that the Urals' ties with Moscow and Stalingrad would be largely severed. In fact, this is the entrance to the large Ferghana Basin, and once the mouth is blocked, the Germans will not be able to enter it, and the Red Army will not want to come out

Politically, Hoffman was not Hitler, he did not want to destroy Stalin and the Bolsheviks, he wanted above all to divide Russia in two along the Urals. It is not that he has illusions about the Soviets or the Virgin, but that his eyes are on the future of the world and European politics. What good would it do Germany to completely eliminate Stalin and bring about the collapse of the Soviets? Germany will not be able to obtain these territories, but Japan will have the opportunity to get a piece of the pie in the Far East and Siberia. In the end, it is nothing more than to let Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army unify the whole of Russia -- don't look at Vlasov's bowing down now, in a few years he will definitely pose a hegemonic challenge to Germany, this is determined by the background of a great power, and it is by no means determined by the relationship between leaders or some other factor, and the best way to prevent Russia from rising again is to split -- first from the Soviet Union to Russia, and then from Russia to the opposing Menshevik West Russia and Bolshevik East Russia. Moreover, the Bolshevik East Russia would exert a major influence in Asia in the future, which would be conducive to consolidating Germany's hegemonic position.

From an economic point of view, after all, Stalin still had 5 or 6 million troops, and even if it was militarily feasible to completely eliminate him and fight to the Far East, the economic cost would be too great, and Hofmann could not afford the price of 1 million German casualties alone, not to mention that the Eastern Front now contained too many troops, materials, and military spending, and once it was completed and turned back to the Western Front, the Axis could immediately reduce the cost of tanks and armored vehicles and invest in high-tech fields such as warships, missiles, and jets. The vast and resource-rich Eastern Europe will be a reliable rear to support Germany's struggle for Atlantic hegemony – and there will certainly be some more time for a security war, but that is something that the Russian Liberation Army should be worried about.

The top of the National Socialist Party, while strange at the Führer's retreat from the position of "total annihilation of the Bolsheviks", did not see this as a reversal, but felt that it reflected the flexible position of a statesman. Just as the Jews were dealt with in order to unite the German people, and when the German people were fully mobilized, Germany had already dominated Europe, and for the sake of national image and political prestige, it was impossible to exterminate the Jews - didn't they grit their teeth and trample France under their feet so that they would never turn over? After defeating France and making it willingly obey him, don't you also advocate Franco-German reconciliation? This is true of France, it is true of the Jewish question, and it is also true of the Bolshevik question.

Manstein fully agreed with Hoffmann's plan, not only because he had launched a counteroffensive in the Caucasus, but also because after the Red Army launched a counteroffensive in the Caucasus, his attitude was more radical -- since he was focused on the final solution of the Bolshevik question, why didn't he just let it go in and fight? The rugged terrain of the Transcaucasia could not fully exert the power of the German armored cluster assault, but the South Caucasus steppe was different, where the terrain was flat and boundless, and the power of the German lightning assault could be fully exerted.

The task assigned by the old guy to Kleist is to block layer by layer, and then slowly retreat, to lure the Red Army out of Transcaucasia, Stalingrad and Astrakhan like muddy ground, and fight a good battle against Astrakhan, as for Baku, Grozny or something, the Russians will give them if they want, how many things can they get in a few months?

"The Führer was persuaded by me that the Eastern Theater of Operations was under my full command, and he was not remotely controlled, and ......," Manstein smirked, "he gave me the hammer of Thor, and I decided when and where to use it, I plan to put them in the Caucasus, but the time is still a little later, and the hammer of Thor is still being urgently repaired, and it will not be put into use until at least late May." ”

The two of them gasped: the hammer of Thor was originally intended to be used as a decisive attack force in the central direction, but now it seems that the Führer's mind has changed, thinking that it would be better to use it on the southern front. Zeitzler said: "So it seems that I am overly careful. ”

"The strategy that was just decided two days ago is shared by Heinz himself." Manstein smiled slightly, "Now it's up to you to make a breakthrough in the direction of Britain, and if you're lucky, you can end the war in Europe this year......"

"You have more confidence than I do." Zeitzler smiled wryly, "I don't think it's that fast. ”

"Of course, you can't deal with a few Britons?"

In Hoffmann's arrangement, Manstein was in charge of the Eastern Front, and Zeitzler assisted him in the Western Front, but Zeitzler probably had been worrying about the Eastern Front for too long and couldn't let go at all, so he had to fly over to take a look, and now that Manstein was so sure, he was embarrassed to say anything more - do you not believe Manstein or Guderian?

Of course, Thor's hammer is not one or two peerless weapons, and it is impossible for any peerless weapon to decide the victory of a million-scale battle, but Hoffmann can put the heaviest weight for the victory of this battle - the SS armored assault army organized in the reserve army group.

Now there were 6 Panzer armies in the Wehrmacht, 7 including the SS Panzer Assault Army, but everyone admitted that only this last one deserved the reputation of Thor's hammer.

The SS Panzer Assault Army had a total of 7 Panzer Divisions and 5 Panzergrenadier Divisions, including the SS-1 Guards Flag Division, the SS-2 Reich Division, the SS-3 Skull Division, the SS-5 Viking Division, the SS-9 Hohenstaufen Division, the SS-10 Flensburg Division, and the SS-12 Youth Division (Bottle Division)

5 Panzergrenadier divisions: SS-4 Police Division (Panzergrenadiers), SS-6 Northern Division (Mountain Division), SS-8 Florian Gale Division (Cavalry Division), SS-11 Nordic Division (Panzergrenadier Division), SS-16 National Leader Division (Panzergrenadiers)

In addition to the SS-7 Prince Eugen Division, which fought in the Ferghana Basin, the most combat-ready units of the Waffen-SS were all gathered together to form an unprecedented elite cluster, and the group army also had 4 heavy armored battalions equipped with Tiger 2 tanks and 2 heavy artillery divisions and a series of subsidiary units, with a total strength of 350,000 when fully equipped, which was much stronger than the 6th Army, which was known as the most elite in history.

The reason why it was not moved until late May was that some of the panzer divisions were still undergoing an intense rearmament, changing to the 1944 type according to Hoffman's request (the grenadier division had already been all 1943 formations), and he wanted to crush the last of the Soviets' will to resist with the torrent of German steel......