In the end, Hoffman himself had a headache as to which of the two options to choose, because each seemed to be correct, and he was anxious about it for a while, but after a week of painful thinking, he suddenly calmed down, summoned Zeitzler and Keitel to prepare to issue orders. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"The purpose of the Battle of the Citadel was not to occupy here or there, nor to capture or attempt to capture Moscow, our campaign was very clear, and there were two of them: first, to attract the attention of the heavy group of Red Army troops, to create opportunities for the southern flank; Secondly, if possible, Army Group Center could also annihilate the enemy's living forces, such as the Bryansk Front. Therefore, I decided to ......," Hoffman paused, "I want you to forget about the Tula plan or the Rzhev plan for a while, and we will go to Tambov first." ”

"From Orel to Tambov?"

"No, from Voronezh!" Hoffman explained his plan of action, "Voronezh is about 200 kilometers from Tambov, which is the distance of a week's assault of the armored group, and after capturing this place, we have a more relaxed opportunity to choose the next target for the attack." Tambov is about 300 kilometres from the Tula-Ryazan line to the north-west and Saratov to the south-east, and I am determined to make a salient here. ”

The two looked at each other: initially it was said that Army Group Center would carry out the Battle of the Citadel, but Voronezh was a defensive area of Army Group South, and it had been decided that Moder would be in command and Weix would be assisted, so would it be temporarily replaced by Hult?

In the face of this questioning, Hoffman couldn't help but laugh: "Why can't Army Group Center use the defense areas of other Army Group to launch an offensive?" It is true that Voronezh is the defense line of General Hoth, and in case of an enemy attack, can Moder stand by and watch? ”

"So......" Zeitzler asked, puzzled, "what is our real goal after the capture of Tambov?" Tula-Ryazan or Saratov? ”

Hoffman's answer made him vomit blood: "My goal is to have no goal, under the exchange ratio of 1:7, if Stallinken loses 1 million people for Tambov, let alone Tambov, I don't want it, even Voronezh can be ceded to him, and the big deal is that next time I set out from Kharkov to continue to fight Voronezh." Gentlemen, you must know that the capture of here or there is not now the most important, even Stalingrad itself is not the most critical, the most important thing is the destruction of the living forces of the enemy. ”

Thus, the Tambov plan immediately became the third option for the Battle of the Citadel, and although it was not the most brilliant and seemed a bit of a joke, it was finally approved, because the commanders of several army groups believed that it was feasible to set a small goal first and then decide on the next strategic direction, and Tambov itself was strategically important, as an important node for the Red Army to connect the Bryansk Front with the Southwestern Front - the position was equivalent to that of Voronezh, which connected Army Group Center and Army Group South.

Of course, the implementation of this plan will face a number of problems: for example, the attack of the Red Army in the Rzhev-Vyazma direction, and the counter-attack of the Orel defense area. After final deliberations, the most important line of Rzhev-Vyazma was to be defended by the 9th Army, and Hoffmann selected General Schellner as commander of the army after Moder's promotion, and the 4th Army was responsible for the defense of the rest of the area; The Orel front was defended by Field Marshal Weix's Army Group East, which also served as a campaign reserve.

On 11 May, a series of personnel changes and transfers related to the Battle of the Castle were introduced: the Hult Group was renamed Army Group B, with General Hult as commander and General Jorg Hans-Reinhardt as commander of the 4th Panzer Army; The Kleist cluster was renamed Army Group A, with General Kleist as commander and General Eberhard von Mackensen as commander of the 1st Panzer Army.

The biggest change was that the Middle East Army Group was renamed Army Group C, with Field Marshal Rommel as its commander, of which the German units were renamed the 5th Panzer Army, Hermann-Balk was promoted to general and became commander from the position of commander of the Greater German Division, and the troops led by Major General Walter Wink who were originally sent to Turkey also joined the army. In addition to the 5th Panzer Army, the army group was assisted by the Iranian 1st Army. Although the total strength of Army Group C is only 250,000 (150,000 for the 5th Panzer Army and 100,000 for the Iranian Army), its combat effectiveness should not be underestimated because it contains several ace divisions that have completed the reorganization.

Hoffmann clearly stipulated that Army Group A, B, and C were all subordinate to Army Group South and were under the unified command of Field Marshal Manstein.

Although Manstein was very proud of being the commander of the army groups, seeing that the other army groups had Panzer Army groups and the Southern Army Group did not have one at the same level, he became anxious again, and sent a telegram to the Führer hoping that the Panzer Army would also be established and strongly recommended Father Hube to serve as him, and his request was agreed to two days later, and Hans Valentin Hube was promoted to general and appointed commander of the 6th Panzer Army.

On the basis of Hoffmann's suggestion, and with Zeitzler's central coordination, the commanders of the various army groups agreed to launch an offensive against Tambov on 25 May, with the northern flank group under the command of Moder, the 3rd Panzer Army under the command of General Erhard Rouse and the 2nd Panzer Army under the command of General Rudolf Schmidt taking the main attack, the southern flank group under the command of Hult, and Reinhardt's 4th Army with the secondary attack.

On May 15, Operational Order No. 11 of the base camp, signed by Hoffman and countersigned by Keitel, was issued:

…… I have decided to carry out the first of a series of attacks this summer, the "castle" offensive, as soon as the weather permits.

The offensive was decisive. It must succeed quickly and completely, and it must lay the groundwork for winning the initiative this summer and completely eliminating the Bolshevik regime. Therefore, all preparations should be made with great care and vigor. In the direction of the main assault, the most elite troops, the best weapons, the most outstanding commanders and sufficient supplies should be invested. Every commander and every soldier must fully understand the decisive significance of this offensive, and its victory will surely attract the attention of the whole world.

The purpose of this offensive is to use Voronezh as the main starting base, divide the north and south routes, and carry out intensive, brave and rapid assaults with three armored armies, encircle the enemy in the Tambov region, and annihilate them through centripetal assault!

The so-called enemy in the Tambov region actually refers to the main force of the Bryansk Front, and intelligence shows that after repeated reorganization and strengthening, the strength of this group army cannot be underestimated, and it has the strength of the 3rd Guards Tank Army (the 12th and 15th Tank Armies, the 2nd Mechanized Army, and the 91st Independent Tank Brigade), the 1st Guards Tank Army, and the 20th Tank Army, with a total number of more than 800 tanks and a total strength of more than 500,000 troops.

However, Hoffman's offensive forces for Tambov can also be called furious—three armies were mobilized, with a total strength of almost 600,000, but the total number of tanks more than doubled that of the Russians, nearly 2,000, including five Tiger armoured battalions. Of course, considering that the Red Army was likely to receive a large number of reinforcements, in addition to the initial superiority in numbers, Hoffmann asked Zeitzler to prepare emergency reinforcements - 100,000 men, 600 tanks.

In addition to the significant tank superiority, the air force balance was overwhelming - the total number of aircraft of the Red Army in person did not exceed 1,000, while the Eastern Air Force had 3,200 troops. The only thing that the Red Army came close to in terms of major technical weapons was artillery: Germany had about 10,248 artillery pieces, while the Red Army had about 8,000 artillery pieces.

To Hoffman's regret, despite the same name, the Leopard tank that appeared in the historical Battle of the Castle could not have participated in the war this time, because it had not been produced at all.

In terms of the strength of the forces, this time it was overwhelmingly superior, and unless Stalin mobilized heavy troops to join the battlefield in the short term, the Bryansk Front could not be held - but this also achieved the significance of the castle battle.

He habitually asked Moder: "Tomorrow the battle will be launched, what difficulties do you still face?" ”

"Recently, I have really encountered a big difficulty." "I was asking for 400 tanks to be replenished, but I ended up sending me 600 in one go," he said...... There are not enough tank crews, even reserve crews are used, and there are dozens of gaps! ”

Everyone in the command headquarters was stunned for a moment, and finally they all burst into laughter

Originally, according to the plan, the Leopard should start small batch production in April, but due to the overall shortage of the No. 4 tank, Hoffman made up his mind to postpone the production of the Leopard until August, and even thought that if necessary, it would be okay to postpone it until September, and the domestic tank factories should produce the No. 4 tank at full capacity.

With Speer's efforts, the monthly output of No. 4 tank climbed again to 1,468 in April on the basis of 1,394 in March, and is expected to reach the ultimate goal of 1,500 in May, but it can't be high, because the supporting production line is gradually preparing to switch to Leopard, unless it is no longer ready to produce Leopard, 1,500 is the limit. Although everyone was happy with the expansion of numbers, and the performance of the Type 4H was not bad, Hoffman believed that the Allies would definitely introduce a new tank, and that a performance advantage was necessary, so the Leopard had to go into production this year, and the timing depended on the final outcome of the Battle of Castle and the Battle of Spring Awakening.

If the loss is large, then the Leopard will be put into production in September or even October; If the losses are small, then the Leopard will be put into production in August, and in any case, the 3,000 No. 4 tanks in June and July will not be able to escape. (To be continued.) )