In the middle of the night on 3 April, the Führer's special train was speeding off the railway in the direction of Poland, and the Führer's Guard did not relax its vigilance because of the recent improvement in the public security situation and the decline in the activity of the partisans, but remained on the highest alert. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

For safety reasons, Hoffmann rarely chooses to fly when he goes out now, and most of the time he takes special trains, because he doesn't know if his luck is as good as Hitler's, and he doesn't know if there are any remnants of opposition in the country. The security of the special train is far stronger than that of an airplane, and although the carriage in which the Führer is located looks exactly the same as the other carriages, it has actually been greatly strengthened with bulletproof, and the defensive armor cannot penetrate even the 37mm anti-tank gun at a long distance; in addition, the schedule and route of the special train are highly secret, and even the route to take is only temporarily determined by Hoffman before he drives the car -- he does not want to give the conspirators a chance.

In order to strengthen the transport capacity of the eastern route, under the auspices of Speer, the eastern countries vigorously promoted the upgrading of railways with the standard gauge transformation as the core, changing the original Russian standard of 1520 mm broad gauge to the European standard of 1435 mm, so that trains from Berlin could go all the way without stopping to change wheels -- this is a continuation of Germany's plan to renovate the railway network in the east (including Poland) (Otto Plan) before the start of the "Barbarossa".

Although the railway network in the western part of the Soviet Union was far less dense than in Europe, it was still a huge project, especially since the level of railways in the Soviet Union was very low, still at the level of World War I: most of the railways (except Kharkov to Moscow) were built on soft sandy roadbeds, and the sleepers were also relatively soft pine, and the carrying capacity of the rails was not as good as that of Germany: the German standard railway rails weighed 49 kg per meter, while the Soviet Union had only 38 kg; Germany has 1,600 sleepers per kilometer, while the Soviet Union has only 1,440; The Germans used screws and washers to fix the rails, and the Soviets directly used spikes. The Soviet Union's railway bridges also had a low load-bearing capacity and had to be re-reinforced to transport tanks and other heavy equipment, and the railway dispatching equipment was basically antique from the First World War, and electric turnouts were very rare.

Doppmuller, Minister of Transport and Director General of the Imperial Railways, once made a special report: Theoretically, due to the wider track gauge in Russia, the carrying capacity should be stronger under the same line length, but in fact, due to Russia's backward management level, equipment and infrastructure, the carrying capacity is less than one-third of Germany, and the destruction of the Red Army before the defeat and the rapid advance of the German army have intensified the pressure on the railway network, so that the transportation capacity has dropped to only a quarter -- the failure of the typhoon campaign is not unrelated to the delivery and support of materials.

Historically, Germany had only made minor repairs to the Soviet railway network due to capacity and material supplies, but Hoffmann decided to use the labor of Polish, Jewish, and Russian prisoners of war to carry out a systematic repair: not only to adjust the gauge, but also to upgrade it as much as possible to the German standards of the Otto Plan. In addition to domestic companies, Belgium's rail and railway equipment manufacturing capacity is very top-notch in Europe, so it takes a large part of the orders, and France also has a share. The cost of the renovation was to be paid in advance by Germany, and then to be reimbursed by the countries of the East with food, resources and other materials. Speer had ambitious plans to complete at least 3,000 kilometers of renovation work in 1943.

Thanks to the overall success of the war and the early purge of the "traitorous bloc", Hoffmann's prestige is now at an unprecedented peak, and the discomfort caused by the general mobilization is also selectively ignored by the people to focus on the current victory after victory, and this spillover effect has profoundly affected the Italian political situation. After the recapture of Libya, the capture of Ethiopia, the annexation of some Sudanese, and especially after the smooth control of the situation in the Mediterranean, the illusory dream of the Italian "Roman Empire" seemed to be a real thing, and the transfer of a large amount of German industry and technology made Mussolini win the favor of the big bourgeoisie. It is ironic that Italy's preparations for the war were extremely inadequate, but after the vigorous strengthening of the Axis policy, it began to look decent.

"Führer." Hoffman's thoughts were interrupted by a phone call from Dalders, "If you haven't rested yet, Minister Speer would like to report back to you." ”

"Absolutely."

"There are a few areas of arms production that have undergone some changes that need to be adjusted." Speer suddenly showed an embarrassed look, "Führer, I have to apologize to you, some production did not meet the original vision and expectations. ”

"For example?"

"For example, tank production." Speer pulled out the report and explained, "March was the highest point in the history of tank production, but even in this month, the production of No. 4 tanks reached only 1,394 units, and the production of Tiger tanks was 204 units, which is still a long way from the 1,500 and 250 units you requested." ”

"It's almost 90 or 80 percent of what we expected, which is quite a remarkable achievement." Hoffman knows that the highest monthly production of the No. 4 tank in history is only more than 600 units (including various deformation cars with No. 4 as the chassis), and the Tiger tank is only in the early 100s (the production difficulty of the Tiger tank on this plane is lower than in history), and the current production level has more than doubled the highest level in history, but now the production of the No. 3 tank (including the deformation car) is completely gone.

"As part of the production line is preparing to switch to Leopard tanks, the number will start to decline from April, and I always keep in mind your request: I hope to reach the production scale of 1,500 units of No. 4, 750 units of Leopard and 250 units of Tiger, but this year we have no hope of reaching that target."

"What is the expected production capacity of the leopard?"

"Thanks to a lot of parts and Tiger general, the monthly output of the Leopard will reach 100 vehicles after 3 months, 150 vehicles in 3-6 months, and more than 250 units by the end of this year, which is the output of one production line, so that we only have 2 No. 4 production lines, and the production volume of No. 4 tanks will drop to about 1,000 units during the same period, and the Tiger will basically remain the same. In the future, each production line will go through this process. ”

Hoffman couldn't help frowning: this level is certainly much better than history, but it is still far from what is expected, especially since the fact that Italy will only be able to produce assault guns for some time to come will make Germany have to bear the burden of supplying all tanks.

"When do you expect the level of 2,500 units to be reached?"

"It may be the end of 1944." After an experience, Speer didn't dare to pack the ticket this time, saying a time that he thought was relatively safe.

"Assuming that all No. 4 production is stopped now, what will happen by the end of the year?"

"The Leopard is expected to achieve 750 units, and the Tiger is close to 250."

Hoffman pondered for a moment and then nodded: "I see, please adjust according to the following plan: ensure that the No. 4 tank will be 1,500 units in April, and then maintain a high level of production for 3-4 months, postpone the conversion to Leopard production - and discuss this matter again in July." ”

"Will this have a negative impact on combat effectiveness? I heard that Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union were developing new tanks. ”

"Their focus is on the Tiger, but before 1944 they couldn't come up with a new tank that could compete with the Tiger, which was good for us, and what we had to do was to increase the size of the armoured forces as quickly as possible - especially when the problem of fuel was no longer a fatal constraint." Speaking of this, Hoffman simply took out a pen and paper and calculated, "Before September last year, we kept less than 500 No. 4 tanks, and from September to March this year, we produced about 6,500 tanks, and the cumulative scale was about 7,000 vehicles, and the cumulative combat losses in these months were nearly 1,000 vehicles, and 400 vehicles were allocated to the Marine Corps, plus tank ...... to Spain, Portugal, Romania, Italy, and Japan."

"There are more than 500 in total, and you can count it as 600."

"In this way, the number of No. 4 vehicles is about 5,000 vehicles, and the reserve army and armored school need to divide 500 vehicles, and then deduct the 200 vehicles sent to the factory for maintenance and transportation, and there are about 4,300 vehicles?"

"That's basically the number."

"At the moment there are 25 Panzer Divisions in the Wehrmacht and 4 ...... in the SS"

"The SS should be five." Speer whispered, "In addition to the Guards, Reich, Skeletons, and Viking Divisions, you have agreed to draft Hitler's Youth Divisions and book them as Panzer Divisions." ”

The Hitler Youth Division was agreed by Hoffmann, one of the few newly expanded troops, the soldiers were basically recruited from the Hitler Youth Corps volunteers born in 1925, and most of the non-commissioned officers and officers were transferred from the Guard Flag Corps and other units of the Wehrmacht.

"Then there are 30 in total, according to the 1943 standard, each panzer division has 3 panzer battalions, a total of 90 panzer battalions, and the Wehrmacht is also preparing to complete 16 standard panzergrenadier divisions, and the SS is 4, and they are also each assigned to one panzer battalion - a total of 110 panzer battalions?" Hoffman multiplied, "Each battalion is 92 No. 4 tanks, and 110 battalions are ......."

"10,120 units." Speer calculated faster than him, and immediately got the result, and then couldn't help but shake his head, "Although you can add some T-34s in the hands of the troops, there is still more than half of the gap before the completion of all the reorganization." ”

He knew the situation: the Russians had the ability to produce more than 1,500 T-34 tanks per month, and the Americans had the ability to produce more than 1,500 Sherman tanks per month. (To be continued.) )