April was a very critical month, all tank production was allocated to the Eastern Front for the 1943 armored division to replenish, after deducting the battle losses of the Spring Awakening Campaign, the Eastern Front had a net increase of more than 1,400 tanks (including No. 4 and Tiger), the campaign time originally scheduled to start in early May has been postponed, and the Eastern Front has successively obtained nearly half of the month's production, so there is a fact that Moder asked for 400 vehicles and actually gave 600 vehicles. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In the past, the requirements for equipment supply were to be discounted, and Moder said that he wanted 400 vehicles, thinking that more than 300 would be thankful, and 600 in one breath could only be due to the lack of car crews.

Hoffmann had read Speer's report before he came, and after excluding the tanks of the reserves, training schools, transferred to the Marine Corps, and sold to other Allied countries, the total number of tanks equipped by the Wehrmacht and SS had reached more than 7,000, of which the No. 4 tank exceeded 6,000, and 75% was concentrated on the Eastern Front, although 12,052 vehicles were from the ultimate goal (30 Wehrmacht Panzer Divisions, 7 SS Panzer Divisions, 3 battalions each; 16 Wehrmacht Panzergrenadier Divisions, 4 SS Panzergrenadier Divisions, 1 battalion each, for a total of 131 battalions with 92 vehicles each) is still a significant gap, but this figure is undoubtedly quite staggering compared to the beginning of Barbarossa and the same period in history.

What's even more amazing is that with the last No. 3 tank returned to the factory in April to be transformed into an assault gun, the front-line armored forces are all No. 4 tanks, and more than 90% of them are G and H models, and it is more difficult to find a short-barreled No. 4 tank than a command tank. When he thought of the historical Battle of Kursk, the German army on the one hand stepped up to equip the latest Leopard tanks, and on the other hand, it was also full of No. 3 tanks, Hoffman was filled with emotion.

The benefits of equipping only No. 4 were not visible at first, but now they are evident - the ability to repair, maintain, and replenish has been greatly improved.

According to the previous practice of mixed No. 3 and No. 4 armored divisions, under the same supply capacity, different parts should be prepared for the two tanks (some of which can be used in general), and sometimes even tank No. 2 accessories should be added, but now only one set is required. For maintenance personnel, in the past, it was necessary to master the maintenance ability of the No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 tanks, although many places figured it out, but it increased the difficulty of training. In the past, the No. 3 and No. 4 shells were different, one was 50mm and the other was 75mm, but now the special 75mm also reduces the pressure.

When the total number of tanks is only 2,000 and up to 3,000, the mixed multi-model can still cope with it, but when the total number of tanks exceeds 7,000, the single supply demand will not collapse those poor logistics officers.

In order to take care of the increase in the production of No. 4, he removed No. 2 and No. 3 in advance, and at the same time postponed the production of the Leopard, so that the power of the No. 4 cluster was exerted to the extreme. As a traverser, of course, he knows that the reason why Germany did not explode the tank sea in history is not because it does not have the corresponding industrial capacity, but because it is constrained by resource factors - Germany not only lacks enough oil, but also lacks metals and other resources, but now this point is completely non-existent, and the restriction of 1,500 vehicles and above is the real constraint of industrial production capacity, and with great pains, he finally brought the tank production to the same level as the United States and Russia -- Russia has the ability to produce more than 1,500 T-34 tanks per month, The United States has the ability to produce more than 1,500 Sherman tanks per month, and although Germany has the Tiger tank, a sufficient number of No. 4 tanks are still indispensable.

He smiled and said to Modell, "If you think it's too much, I can recover some and send it to Army Group North." ”

"No, no, no, I mean, can you assign us more crews so that my troops can complete the standardization transformation as soon as possible."

As soon as he finished saying this, Marshal Weix, an honest man, cried out with dissatisfaction: "Are you still too slow? I haven't even started to reorganize my armored division! Why don't we change it? ”

Everyone laughed at once, and the command was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

The so-called standardized transformation is to carry out the establishment and personnel supplement according to the requirements of the 1943 division establishment (4 regiments, 6 battalions and 8 companies), and in April, the first batch of 6 armored divisions and 24 infantry divisions were reorganized. Originally, there were two elite units in the first batch of armored divisions, the 7th Panzer Division and the Reich Division, but because they had been participating in the war on the African front, they were temporarily replaced by the 6th Panzer Division and the SS Skeleton Division (the former's qualifications are still retained), in addition to these two units, there are also four units of the Greater German Division, the Viking Division, and the 3rd and 16th Panzer Divisions to complete the reinforcement subtype reorganization.

In addition to the standard armored division of the 1943 model, the 4th armored battalion (originally equipped with the No. 3 assault gun) was transformed into the Tiger heavy armored battalion, and an additional Himmler organ company was added. The reason why Rommel's Panzer Army is enviable is that he pinched two ace armored divisions (330 tanks per division) that had completed the reorganization, the Greater German Division and the Viking Division. Himmler had suggested that the SS Panzer Division be formed separately as the SS Panzer Army, and Hoffmann initially agreed after considering it, but said that it would be implemented after the completion of the summer campaign.

The reorganization of the second batch of 10 armored divisions and 40 infantry divisions began in May, with Army Group South being the fastest, with 30 percent completed, Army Group Center having more than 20 percent of the reorganization, and Army Group North and East being the slowest, the adjustment of the number of units was expected to be completed by October, followed by the establishment of the third batch of remaining troops, Speer believed that it was impossible to complete the entire reorganization of troops in 1943, and Hoffman had agreed to postpone it until June 1944.

In addition to tanks, other technical weapons, including anti-tank guns, armored vehicles, rifles, etc., are being reequipped simultaneously. Taking anti-tank guns as an example, after the 37mm anti-tank gun was fully withdrawn, the 50mm anti-tank gun was also completely withdrawn, and in the future, the troops will only prepare one type of anti-tank gun, or the German army's own 75mm anti-tank gun - the shell is common to the No. 3 assault gun and the No. 4 tank; Either the captured Soviet 76.2mm anti-tank guns - shells are common to the Hunter and the T-34. This is also a deepening of the concept of strengthening logistics support. In addition to the 75mm class of medium anti-tank guns, the Germans also had 88mm heavy anti-tank guns and Raider tank destroyers (developed with an 88mm gun on the T-34 chassis).

In addition to the above-mentioned anti-tank guns, all other developments of 28mm, 42mm, 75mm cone guns research and development and production were stopped, although Germany was no longer short of tungsten at this time, but Hoffman did not want to let a wide variety of products interfere with production, and all the 28mm cone guns that had been produced were transferred to the paratrooper units in order to play a light effect.

The troops did not have any opinion on this, believing that the 75mm anti-tank gun was easy to use, but on the one hand, it was slightly cumbersome (weighing 1.5 tons) and took up too much of the artillery crew; on the other hand, the use of 75mm caliber guns against armored vehicles and light tanks appeared to be excessively powerful, and they also needed a relatively light anti-tank gun. Could it be that the air defense forces only hit planes and not tanks? How did the 88mm tank gun come about? As a result, the anti-aircraft and anti-tank firepower of the reorganized units began to be combined, which further strengthened the combat quality.

Although Hoffmann repeatedly stressed that he would not expand the new units until the current establishment was reorganized, and that he would strengthen the combat capability and command authority of each division through the expansion of the divisional disarmament action, in fact the expansion was still going on: the SS had five more divisions, the Wehrmacht had 12 more heavily armored battalions and two more armored divisions (Panzer Instructors and Flying Fortress Panzer Divisions), and the 12 heavily armored battalions equipped with 54 Tiger tanks alone were measured by the standard of only more than 100 tanks in the Panzer Divisions in the later stages of the Moscow campaign. It is equivalent to 6 more armored divisions in one breath.

Historically, during the Battle of the Castle, Germany used more than 2,000 tanks to attack more than 5,000 Soviet troops, and 800,000 troops to attack 1.8 million.

After the greetings and jokes, Zeitzler officially introduced the overall combat plan:

"According to the campaign plan, our army will launch an offensive at dawn on May 25 (tomorrow), first using 2,000 sorties to clear the enemy's concentration areas and key defensive areas in the front line, grasp the battlefield air supremacy, and then prepare for artillery fire in the early morning to create a favorable situation for the assault group attack; At 9-10 o'clock, the air force launched a second round of air raids, focusing on attacking the enemy's depth, railways and their lines of communication, and preventing them from sending reinforcements to the front line and gathering troops...... The operational schedule called for the encirclement of Tambov by May 31, and another 7-10 days to encircle and annihilate the Red Army before the heavy group rushed to the battlefield to support. Then, take advantage of the favorable moment that the enemy forces have been mobilized to move on to the next step of the operation.

If the enemy calls in heavy reinforcements from the Moscow direction, the 3rd Panzer Army advances to the Tula and Ryazan lines; If the enemy calls for heavy reinforcements from the direction of the southern flank, the 4th Panzer Army turns to the southern flank and carries out Army Group South's operations; If the enemy only uses reinforcements from the steppe front, then one of our 3nd, 3rd, and 4th Panzer armies will be left to monitor the enemy in Tambov, and the rest will be encircled and reinforced; If the enemy sits idly by and watches the enemy of Tambov be surrounded and annihilated, then our troops will rest on the spot and will not attack again. ”

The last strategy is the most controversial, although it is unlikely that Stalin will sit back and watch the Bryansk Front be surrounded and annihilated, but in case it does appear, everyone wants to go on the offensive? Hoffmann was the only one who believed that the objectives of the Battle of the Castle were limited, and that the salient formed by extending too much forward was too large, and that the defense had to be consolidated before the next attack could be considered.

After a heated debate, the General Staff finally agreed to the idea. (To be continued.) )