In fact, of course, Moder did not use himself as a reinforcement for a counterattack.

This time, the troops he brought for the counterattack operation, the total number of which exceeded 500,000!

Moreover, he was not alone in charge of this counterattack.

He has two absolutely reliable teammates!

The first was the Sixth Army, whose new commander, Colonel General Paulus, went to serve in the troops almost simultaneously with Moder. The replacement of General Reichenau by Paulus, who was Reinhardt's confidant and knew enough about the Sixth Army, was absolutely good news for the SS.

Paulus, who had always obeyed the Führer's orders, would not leave the SS alone.

As for the general strategy of the counterattack plan, Moder had also confirmed with Paulus before departure, and the other party made it clear that he would definitely participate in the operation.

Of course, relying on the Sixth Army alone, even if all of them joined the battle, they would not be able to muster 500,000 counterattack troops.

Moder's real hole card lies with another teammate in the south.

The 11th Army, led by the already famous German general Manstein!

Manstein's promotion was actually an exceptional promotion.

Although he has a huge reputation, in the final analysis, he has always served in the staff headquarters, unlike generals like Rommel, who can have the opportunity to go to the front line to establish combat achievements.

And Reinhardt's promotion method for Manstein was to let him go to the 56th Army as a commander first.

It is not a mess that Manstein's exploits in the Polish and French campaigns promoted him from the position of chief of staff who could only plan to the commander of the army who actually commanded the troops.

However, Reinhardt obviously did not let Manstein command an army, which did not fit Manstein's proper position in his heart.

The reason why Manstein was sent to be the commander of the 56th Army was just to add a seniority to him, to put it bluntly, it was to gild a layer of gold.

After only three months as a military commander, Manstein was arranged by Reinhardt to train and form an army group on the grounds that he had trained his troops well, and became a commander of the army group.

And the usual army group was not enough, Reinhardt handed over to Manstein a most special army group - the 11th Army.

The 11th Army was special in that it was able to command a Romanian army group, in addition to a German army group. In other words, what Manstein commanded with integrity was actually the Allied army with a total of two armies!

After all, relations between Berlin and Moscow have been deteriorating since months before the war.

Reinhardt failed to prevent the Soviets from seizing the three Baltic states and two Romanian provinces, and Stalin failed to prevent Reinhardt from sending German officers to Romania and Finland.

The frustration on both sides exacerbated the growing anger of the other side, and all the senior officials close to the two leaders knew that the fragile peace between the Soviet Union and Germany could be shattered at any time.

For example, the German officer corps sent to Romania was tasked with helping Romania train and build a new, modern army.

In fact, their real task was to establish a link between the German high command and the Romanian army, so that they could coordinate the operational cooperation between the two armies in the future war against the Soviet Union.

And now, the Romanian army has ushered in their first opportunity to fight jointly with the German army.

Today's Romanian army, with the help of Reinhardt, has reorganized a total of 20 front-line main infantry divisions. These infantry divisions have been fully modeled after the German infantry divisions, consisting of three infantry regiments, a motorized reconnaissance detachment, a total of anti-tank reconnaissance companies (equipped with six German-aided Schneider 1936 47mm guns), and each Romanian division is equipped with a combat engineer battalion and an artillery regiment under the guidance of the German officer corps.

In addition to the 20 main Romanian infantry divisions selected by the German officer corps for their best physical fitness, the rest of Romania consisted of 6 reserve divisions with poor quality and outdated weaponry.

The equipment level of these reserve divisions is still at the level of World War I, and some of the weapons and equipment provided by Germany to Romania have long been divided up by the 20 main divisions.

Therefore, the task of these units is only to stay at home to fill their numbers, and they will not carry out combat missions with the German army.

Of course, even if the equipment exchanged by Germany for the purchase of Romanian oil was accepted, and the scale was formed in the manner of the German army, the theoretical firepower of a Romanian division was only half the standard of a German infantry division.

If we take into account factors such as the training of soldiers, the quality of officers, and logistical supplies, the combat effectiveness of these so-called Romanian main infantry divisions will be even lower.

And the most effective project in the whole of Romania, and also the largest project of Droz's military cooperation, is the formation of the 1st Romanian Armored Division!

Because Romania was an ally of France in the first place, 20 years ago, they asked the French to help them set up a tank training school, and they bought 76 French FT-17 tanks at random.

Because they were taught by the French, Romanian tanks, like the French army, were scattered among the infantry and used as support forces.

Later, because of the Romanian oil fields, the Germans came. The Third Reich, a country that had defeated France, hit it off with Romania and became Romania's new partner.

Both sides took what they wanted, with Romania providing the oil that Germany wanted, and the Germans selling the weapons that Romania coveted for a strong army.

Although the German first sold to Romania were not German weapons, most of them were rifles, artillery, and tanks captured from Czechoslovakia. However, it is also a very good weapon for Romania.

With the financial support of oil exports, coupled with the goodwill of the Germans after exporting tanks, the Romanians learned to concentrate on the use of tanks.

The technical cooperation between the German Rheinland consortium and the Romanian Ford Company has allowed the Romanians to initially have their own low-level industrial level of processing and repairing parts and repairing and maintaining tanks.

After the Soviet Union invaded the two northern provinces of Romania, German envoys came to further deepen cooperation with Romania. Only then was 12,000 mass-produced Mauser 98K rifles sold to Romania.

In order to be easy to produce, these 98k rifles, like other weapons used by the German army, also adopted the technology of stamping components, changing the bottom of the butt to a cup stamping assembly.

In addition, the simplified version of the 98k produced also changed the front guard from a cutting part to a spot weld, the bottom of the magazine and the bow guard were also changed to stamped steel plates, and even the classic bayonet mount was omitted.

However, it is still the best light weapon that Romania has ever acquired.

As for the Romanian First Armored Division, which was full of light tanks, Reinhardt also boldly took out 100 Stalker tank destroyers, giving Romanian armored forces the ability to deal with Soviet T-34 tanks.

As for the planned delivery of the second batch of 120 Stalker tank destroyers at a later stage, they will not enter the Romanian army and disperse to the main Romanian infantry divisions until the signing of the second oil trade agreement between Romania and Germany.

The officer corps that Germany had previously sent to Romania was transformed into a German liaison officer within the Romanian 3rd Army, responsible for linking the Romanian 3rd Army with the German 11th Army, so that it could be jointly commanded by the German 11th Army Command.

The German units of the 11th Army, which had been waiting on the Romanian border long before the Soviet attack, were now joined by the Romanian 4th Army and the 5th Army, which was personally commanded by the new Romanian Marshal Antonescu, had also been confirmed to join the Allied counterattack against the Soviet Union.

In this way, Moder's 500,000 counteroffensive troops are actually complete!