PS: There is another chapter later, so stay tuned......

While the war in the Atlantic came to an end for the time being, the battle for Tabriz and Baku reached a climax. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the first days of the Turkish onslaught, the Middle East Army Group under Rommel's command unexpectedly remained on hold, partly because he was waiting for the follow-up troops to arrive, and on the other hand he was observing the movements of the enemy forces on the opposite side, and he hoped that Mezzov's Persian Army would retreat in a hurry for fear of cutting off the rear route, but this hope was ultimately disappointed - the Red Army was in a panic at first, but from the fourth day this panic gradually disappeared, in the face of a series of stern orders, including from Stalin, the General Staff of the Red Army, and the Caucasian Front, Mezov had no choice but to stay put.

Of course, this was not the result that Rommel wanted to see, and he only wanted to drive the enemy to Baku like a duck, but now he had to turn it into a forced attack. Originally, he had another choice, that is, to besiege the Red Army, a group army that had been cut off from the logistics supply line could not support it for long, but Wink, who had been fighting with the Turks, sent a telegram to him, and the Russians were sending support forces to block the passes of the Caucasus Mountains, and he hoped that Rommel could help him to take the passes and Baku as quickly as possible, so as to create opportunities for the next battle.

Rommel did not dare to slack off on this coordination demand, and with the gradual lengthening of the battle line and Turkey's accession to the axis, the Middle East Army Group, in addition to oil and some food, would mainly transport supplies through the Turkish direction in future operations -- helping Wink would be tantamount to helping itself. Berlin has high expectations for the war situation in Turkey, a few days ago, Marshal Bock, who has been hidden by Hoffmann and rumored to be "house arrest" by the outside world, suddenly appeared in eastern Turkey and began to coordinate and command the German army to fight jointly with 500,000 Turkish troops.

The rumors from the outside world are not wrong: after the "traitorous group" was exposed, Bock (who was Treskov's uncle), who was close to the conspirators, was indeed investigated and monitored, and because Bock had a history of many confrontations with the Führer in the past, this surveillance and investigation were even more stringent, Himmler and Bauman took turns in the hope of digging up this "big man", but in the end they were disappointed. Hoffmann knew what Bock had done in history, and he understood that the other party was a pure and traditional Prussian soldier, so he didn't bother Bock too much. Of course, the arrangements for the various army groups on the Eastern Front were now very complete, and although Hoffmann was not very satisfied with the performance of the commander of Army Group North, Field Marshal Qu Hillel, he did not want to make a big deal in a short period of time, so he sent Bock to the Caucasus theater, hoping to take advantage of this veteran's strengths, who had a much richer history and experience in fighting the Red Army than Rommel.

By 14 March, the battle was going well, and Rommel took Tabriz, which was heavily defended by the Red Army, wiped out nearly 80,000 Red Army troops entrenched there, and squeezed Mezov's forces into northeastern Iran, forming a pincer offensive towards Baku with Wink's forces. The price he paid to take the city was not small, the Germans themselves suffered more than 7,000 casualties, and the Iranian forces suffered about 4,000 casualties.

In the eyes of Shah Pahlavi of Iran, this result was simply a miracle: Marshal Rommel used 120,000 to fight 130,000, and not only succeeded in eating 80,000 of the opponent's opponent, but also recaptured Tabriz with few casualties of his own. In this regard, the chief of staff of the Middle East Army Group Gauss can only smile bitterly, the Iranians do not know how to do it, does he know what these more than 7,000 people mean? This is not an ordinary 7,000 people, all of them are elite officers and soldiers of first-class units such as the Viking Division, the Greater German Division, the Prinz Eugen Mountain Infantry Division, and the Airborne Forces, not to mention 1:7, even 1:20, he feels panicked.

However, Gauss did not blame Rommel, on the contrary, he felt that it was impossible to do better, that the war could not be evasive and merciful, and if the speed was reduced now in order to reduce casualties, a large number of casualties would have to be paid in the next battle. The only thing that made him happy was that before this battle, he got more than 10,000 bottles of anti-inflammatory drugs called "penicillin", and the country told him that it had a miraculous effect on wound infection, and he asked the military doctors to use it with a skeptical attitude, and the result was surprisingly good, and the chance of the wounded being infected due to complications was greatly reduced, which was equivalent to saving the lives of countless wounded. For the sake of this, he felt that the price of up to 175 marks was no longer so hateful.

After learning that there was such a good thing, Pahlavi also bought 10,000 bottles very generously, but Gauss knew that in addition to the guards and officers, he was reluctant to use it on other ordinary soldiers, and said that it was 10,000 bottles, and after the palace nobles, the government and the senior officials of the army divided up, half of them would be lucky to fall on the troops.

"How about the direction of Baku? Is the enemy starting to retreat? ”

"No, but in the large-scale destruction of oil-producing equipment, reconnaissance aircraft reported, explosions everywhere one after another."

Rommel frowned and asked, "Stalin was so ruthless?" These troops can obviously retreat, and they can evacuate at least 50,000 people by taking the Caspian Sea waterway, but now they are gathered here, and it is a big deal to inflict 10,000 more casualties on us, but they themselves will inevitably be annihilated. ”

"Maybe that's what he wants, and he'd rather throw all 170,000 men to us to buy time for the Caucasian Front......," Gauss sighed, "The Russian soldiers we captured have not yet come to their senses, thinking that they are fighting to defend Baku - that place will be in ruins in a few days." ”

"Didn't a captive tell me that there was a heavy tank brigade? Still haven't found it yet? ”

"Not yet, but I believe it's coming soon." Gauss said in a confident tone, "It's just a brigade of heavy tanks, what's the big deal?" Let those two Tiger battalions deal with them. ”

Neither Rommel nor Gauss expected that, as they said this, Mezzov had already played his last trump card - the 11th Guards Heavy Tank Brigade had set up in a small village called Mazarari on the border between Iran and Azerbaijan, waiting for the Germans to take the bait.

On the side of the main road at the entrance of the village, three KV-3 tanks and trained crews took up well-camouflaged positions behind several huts, the latter of which were built on the seemingly endless steppe, half of which were built underground in order to provide shelter in the harsh climate, and the nearby firing elements were calibrated, and on either side of them, machine guns, mortars and the famous 76.2mm anti-tank guns had found good firing and shelter.

This was the only way to Baku, where they quietly waited for the German units to crash headlong. (To be continued.) )