"Yes, on all sides. "The northern Bread Raiders are Hort's tank clusters, the southern route is Kleist's outflanking cluster, and the middle route, that is, the West, is the main force of Manstein's infantry group, the Sixth Army, and the eastern ......www.biquge.info I wonder if you noticed Rommel's armored forces? ”

Vasilevsky dragged out his tone and said in a very clear and firm voice: "Although the British have always been secretive about how they failed in North Africa, and even boasted that 500,000 German and Italian troops landed in northern Egypt at that time, forming a complete outflanking of Montgomery's troops, according to the intelligence we have and the information provided by the American side, the German troops that landed near Matrouh in Egypt did not exceed 100,000...... The whole landing process is extremely bold and breathtaking! ”

"The German army adopted a landing plan coordinated by the army, navy and air force, first using airborne troops to make a sudden landing to control several airfields in northern Egypt, and then large transport planes landed.

"This news is absolutely true!" Seeing that everyone was suspicious, Kuznetsov, who was in charge of the navy, was anxious and made a supplementary speech in time, "The Germans used S-boats, which were actually a kind of torpedo boats with a slightly larger volume, and then used a large number of landing craft, which could not only be assembled after being transported by rail, but also had a good carrying capacity, each of which could hold two tanks -- under the sudden attack, the Germans used one armored battalion to control the situation at the landing field, and then the follow-up troops continued to go ashore. ”

"After discovering the German landing attempt, the British Mediterranean Fleet attacked and attacked, but was wiped out by the German bomber group before it could reach the battlefield, and the so-called statement that the main German and Italian naval forces in the Mediterranean were dispatched and the Mediterranean Fleet was outnumbered is not a fact at all -- the British Mediterranean Fleet had already been cleaned up long before the German-Italian fleet arrived on the battlefield." Vasilevsky sighed, "After the German landing force came ashore, it immediately cut off the retreat and supply routes of Montgomery's department, and the 300,000 heavily armed British troops were finally wiped out in the desert by less than 200,000 German troops, and then the German army took advantage of the situation to sweep the entire Middle East and Egypt, and the British and American support fleet and landing force that rushed to the rescue collided with the main force of the Japanese combined fleet in the waters of the Horn of Africa, and almost wiped out the entire army......"

"What a bunch of rubbish!" A group of people were talking.

"Therefore, we cannot underestimate the landing capability of the German army, under the premise that neither the enemy nor the enemy nor we can invest in large-tonnage warships, the German landing advantage of mastering air supremacy and being able to effectively use S-boats and landing craft is even greater than before, and judging from the information we have so far, those two elite paratrooper brigades are still under Rommel." Vasilevsky gently inserted the small blue flag representing Rommel towards Atyrau at the mouth of the Ural River, "If the Germans first control the coastal line with 2 airborne brigades, and then land an armored division and an infantry division in the first wave, what do you think will happen?" ”

Everyone pondered bitterly: Atyrau is a city on the northern shore of the Caspian Sea, more than 350 kilometers away from Astrakhan, and if the German army really landed here, the Stalingrad Front holding Astrakhan would definitely not have time to come to the rescue, and the other reserve forces scattered near the Caspian Sea were completely at the level of the militia, and they could not defeat the elite German airborne troops or armored divisions.

"Only the separate army group of Comrade Malinovsky was dispatched to carry out the anti-landing operation...... They are only 200 kilometers away and can be there in 3 days. ”

"If there were enough landing ships, 3 days would be enough for the Germans to send all 2 divisions ashore."

"So what?" Timoshenko shouted, "A group army of 250,000 people can't beat 2 divisions? ”

Zhukov, who had not spoken, suddenly smiled bitterly: "Maybe it can't be defeated, 250,000 people can't be put into the battlefield at one time, and Comrade Malinovsky can send at most 1 tank corps and 1-2 infantry corps to attack at a time......"

"This ......," everyone hesitated.

"The armored division on the opposite side is not easy to mess with." Vasilevsky sighed helplessly, "At present, it is known that Rommel has 2 armored divisions in his hands, one is the Greater German division and the other is the SS Viking division. Comrades, we must not take it lightly, this is a very difficult enemy to deal with - a division has more than 400 tanks, which is slightly more than our tank army. ”

"400?" Everyone was dumbfounded, but soon relieved, the German armored division has always been difficult to mess with, and the armored division with the word prefix is even more difficult to gnaw, many people have fought with the Great German division and the Viking division, and they know the truth and fiction. Timoshenko's face flushed, but he couldn't say a word.

"If Rommel's troops are allowed to land completely, suppose that 2 armored divisions, 2-3 infantry divisions, and 2 airborne brigades with a total of 100,000 people will land in the Caspian Sea, and then attack the Stalingrad Front flank from east to west, I am afraid that the defense line will be shaken on all fronts. The enemy did not have to attack Astrakhan, they would have the same effect by attacking Stalingrad. Vasilevsky gently pushed the small blue flag 500 kilometers to the northwest, and then the map prominently appeared with the appearance of four flags encircling Stalingrad - this is the real meaning of encirclement on all sides!

The Caspian Sea coastline is more than 1,500 kilometers, and because of the endogenous land phase, it is actually more like a big lake, the coastal terrain is flat, and there are places where landings can be made everywhere. The situation would be more ideal if the small fleet of the Caspian region could really work.

But without waiting for anyone to ask, Kuznetsov had made it clear that the Caspian small fleet was suffering from the bombing of German planes from Iran and the Caucasus, and that there were no decent warships at all. So all hope can only be pinned on Malinovsky. But after all, there is only one independent group army, and if you want to organize more, you will not have more troops and equipment, not to mention, countless battles have proved that it is not enough to have troops and equipment but not quality.

Taking tanks as an example, the basic equipment of the Red Army's tank units is currently T-34/76, and a small number of them are equipped with the latest T-43, and although the design direction of the new tanks (T-34/85 and IS-1) has been clarified, it cannot be mass-produced before the onset of winter, but the T-43, which has improved the thickness of the front armor and improved the suspension mechanism, has obtained a better development opportunity than history -- in a sense, The T-43 is closer to the idea of an improvement of the Type 4G.

The T-34 that left the factory in 1943 was not at all comparable to the previous products, not to mention that the quality was not comparable to the T-34 of 1941, and even worse than the T-34 produced during the emergency last year. At the same time, due to the lack of high-quality armor steel, the parts of the body that originally needed to be rolled with thick dimensions were replaced by cast iron of the same thickness, and the simplicity of production and the source of materials were of course simplified, but the quality also dropped to a miserable level.

Germany, which has a world-class metallurgical level, can only achieve 90% of the defense level of rolled armor steel with its own casting process, which is why Hoffmann refused to give the Tiger a cast turret in order to increase production - cutting-edge weapons should be of the best quality in order to give the front line enough confidence, as far as the Soviet Union's own casting process with bubbles is concerned, the quality is even worse, in the past, the 37mm anti-tank gun could not penetrate the T-34 frontal armor, and now the tungsten core armor-piercing projectile at a distance of 400 meters has no pressure at all. The deterioration in defense capability is the most significant proof of the deterioration in the quality of production, and in addition to armor, the average level of maneuverability, the average level of engine trouble-free is getting worse and worse.

The German side also noticed a significant decline in the quality of the T-34: after the T-34 with the best quality was captured by the front-line troops, it could be directly exchanged with the Ministry of Armaments for Tank No. 4 at a ratio of 1:1, and then taken to the southern front to fight against Britain and the United States; Later, the quality of the goods deteriorated to dismantle the turrets and use the chassis to produce all kinds of deformed vehicles -- the Raider tank destroyer used the T-34 chassis, and the exchange ratio could still be maintained at 2:1 at this time; and the T-34s captured or destroyed in the Spring Awakening Campaign, the military experts only came to one conclusion after looking at them -- "Garbage!" ”。

Now you can only exchange 4 or even more T-34s for 1 tank No. 4, and the latest place is for the training of armored troops in various Eastern countries, so that low defense is not a thing at all, and a high level of failure is just enough to exercise the level of maintenance!

It was certainly not possible to use such a water-filled tank against the elite No. 4H or Tiger, but it was also praised by Marshal Voroshilov, who was in charge of the production of the defense industry, because the Soviets could no longer afford to supply enough armor steel, and if they adhered to the old standards, it would mean a significant reduction in tank production, which was completely politically unacceptable. Replacing armor steel with cast iron barely guaranteed the expected amount.

As for the quality, Voroshilov explained it this way: "Anyway, it turns out that the T-34 armor steel will be pierced by one shot when it encounters the Tiger or the No. 4 tank or the No. 3 assault gun, and the quality is almost pierced by one shot, and the difference will not be obvious in battle, and our armored troops should be brave, and fight in close combat with the enemy, in a chaotic battle, then there will be a chance to win." ”

Is this wrong? Of course it's good! The problem was that the T-34 had to withstand multiple attacks when approaching the enemy tanks, and at a long distance (1500 meters away) it could have been expected that the 45mm inclined armor could withstand the fire of the 48 times the diameter of the 75mm tank gun (both the No. 3 assault gun and the No. 4 tank were equipped with this model), but now it could not be stopped, which invisibly increased the chance of being destroyed. (To be continued.) )