When Modell's appointment reached the SS command in the southern provinces, there were expressions of consternation everywhere.

For Modell, this is indeed an exceptional promotion. Not long ago, he was only an SS district chief in Berlin, but then, because of the Führer's favor, he was transferred to the southern provinces as Steve's deputy, coordinating the construction of the defensive line.

But now, in less than three months, Moder was promoted to the rank of commander of the party, took over a total of 12 SS combat divisions, and became commander of the SS Carpathian Army.

For Modell, this is a very good promotion. In the entire SS, the only one who stood above him was Steve, who was Reinhardt's first confidant and single-handedly formed the SS.

Of course, that's not to say how lucky Moder was to be promoted to the ground with ease.

In fact, what he inherited was a veritable mess.

Because the Soviet army has almost amassed more than 2,000 armored combat vehicles, mainly T-26 tanks, which are concentrated in the southern provinces of Germany, that is, on the eastern border of the former Hungary.

The Sixth Army on the northern flank of the SS was in trouble with the declining effectiveness of the command system precisely because of the sudden death of Commander Reichenau, and was unable to coordinate and communicate with the SS in a timely manner.

Therefore, Steve's first reaction at that time was to shrink his troops. Avoid losses, and thus strive to organize a defense in the Kerpathian Mountains and its north up to the Transnistrian region, taking advantage of the geographical advantage.

There is nothing wrong with this arrangement. After all, when the southern provinces of Germany were still called the Kingdom of Hungary, the Hungarian Wehrmacht successfully organized the Russian offensive in World War I by holding the Carpathian Pass.

However, the retreat of the SS, due to a deviation in communication with the 6th Army, led to the emergence of a vacuum of more than 10 kilometers on the northern flank of the SS in the southern provinces.

Around this area, there was only the strategic point of the city of Salock, where an SS 26th Mechanized Infantry Division was stationed. Once the 26th Mechanized Infantry Division was broken through by the Soviets, the entire northern flank of the Korpathian Army would be under the threat of the Soviets.

As soon as Moder arrived at the headquarters, he barely had half a sentence to say superfluous, so he beckoned the staff officers here, took out a map that had been prepared a long time ago, and placed it on the rectangular conference table of the headquarters and began to explain his deployment.

He pointed to a ring road in the city of Sarlock on the map: "Order the outer defense of the 26th Mechanized Infantry Division to shrink to the second ring of the city to fortify. Retreating here, although it seems that we have lost a lot of peripheral positions, and the depth of defense is only a few tens of kilometers. However, our forces are more concentrated and our defenses are much stronger than before. ”

"Moreover, due to the obstruction of several mountains around it, the Soviet army has little choice of offensive route here, and the room for tactical change is much smaller than fighting us on the periphery."

"But the general," reminded Braurock, Moder's new operational staff officer, "in this way, the defensive force will drop considerably, but we will also be unable to hold out for a long time because we have abandoned the outer positions." The strength that the Soviets could use was definitely 2 times or even 3 times that of the 26th Division, and there could be a large number of armored forces in it. It may not be a wise choice to give up depth on your own initiative. ”

Blaurock's concerns are justified. After all, he has been here longer than Moder, he has more experience, and he knows more about the terrifying crowd tactics of the Soviet army before.

Although the Soviets had huge deficiencies in their tactical coordination, the quality of their troops, and their combat methods. However, the other side can fill it with human lives without care, and the Soviet army only needs to fight for huge casualties to offset the disadvantage of their lack of combat capability.

After all, the biggest direct consequence of these disadvantages is to cause many unnecessary casualties.

It is obviously not enough to deal with an enemy who does not care about casualties and use a favorable line of defense to fight a defensive war.

Modell's predecessor was more inclined to trade space for time.

After listening to the worries of the combat staff officer, Moder just smiled slightly, took out a pen and knocked on the map between the third ring road on the periphery of the second ring road in Sarok City and the criss-crossing section of the road: "Abandoning this area with a large bandwidth, we can liberate at least one regiment of the 26th Mechanized Infantry Division, change the passive to the active, free up troops, and respond to the opposite cooperation after we launch a counterattack!"

Saying this, Moder stood up: "According to the calculations I made before I came, judging from the strength of the defensive line that we rearranged after shrinking, if the Soviet army is not ten times stronger than ours, if they want to break through the defensive line, in the best case, it will take about eight hours of high-intensity continuous attack. And in my battle plan, I won't give them the opportunity to attack at will. ”

"What's more,......" Morder paused and said contemptuously, "I don't think that the Soviets will be able to achieve the intensity of attack that I have set by our German standards." ”

Hearing this, anyone who has studied in a military academy should understand that Moder has been prepared for coming here for a long time. Otherwise, he would not have been able to open his mouth to say such a large set of tactical arrangements.

And the clear tactical arrangement, next, Braurock and other staff officers are most concerned about Moder's strategic arrangement for counterattacks.

Blaurock, who had already been analyzed by Moder before, was already excited, and at this moment, regardless of his stance against shrinking his forces a few minutes ago, in the blink of an eye, he immediately asked the new commander with some flattery: "Commander, you must have brought a lot of troops over this counterattack, right?" Was it the SS officers and soldiers who were transferred from the Western Front? ”

Unconsciously, Braurock's title for Moder has changed from the original "General Moder" to the current "commander".

Don't look at it as just a change in title, let's not say that it doesn't feel so rusty. Referring to Moder as a commander also represents Blaurock's recognition of Moder's military prowess.

When they first met, Modell's confident and down-to-earth tactical analysis won the respect and recognition of the soldiers present more than the fanciful opening remarks.

However, what Moder said next came to naught, and Blaurock, who was full of joy and waiting for good news, came to naught.

"Troops?" I saw Moder laugh, waved his hand and said, "I didn't bring troops." If you want to talk about the counterattack troops that reinforced the group army, I am the only one in total. ”

Reinforcements are just one person! Blaurock almost vomited blood after hearing this.

One more person and one less person, in the face of the crowd tactics of the Soviets, is it useful?