In April 1944, in the office of Reichsmann Hersmann, the head of the Wehrmacht, a huge map of the battlefield around Moscow hung opposite his desk. From this map of the battlefield situation www.biquge.info it is clear that a long arc-shaped front appeared to the west and north of Moscow.

The northern part of the front stretched roughly along the upper reaches of the Volga River, starting from Uglich and going down the river west (in fact, northeast-southwest), passing through Kalyazin, Dubna, Konakovo, Kalinin, Staritsa, and then the front changed from northeast-southwest to north-south.

From Rzhev to the south were Sechokav and Vyazma - since this line was the western gateway to Moscow, the Soviet and German armies fought fiercely on the Rzhev-Vyazma line in history, and a total of four major battles and a series of small battles were fought!

And in this time and space, Rzhev was the junction of the German Army Group North and Army Group Center.

The front, which ran south from Rzhev to Vyazma, belonged to Marshal Manstein's Army Group Center, while Admiral Hoth's 4th Panzer Army was the main force of the offensive; The front line from Rzhev to the northeast to Uglich was commanded by Field Marshal Modell's Army Group North, and the main force of the attacking force was the 6th Panzer Army under the command of General Paulus.

The combined field strength of the German Army's Army Group North and Army Group Center (in fact, both of which include the combined forces of many European countries and the White Russian army) has exceeded 2.7 million, accounting for more than 50% of the field strength of the German army (European coalition army) on the Eastern Front.

Considering that the three encirclements of Warsaw, Minsk and the Crimean Peninsula also contained a large number of German (Allied) field forces, the upcoming Battle of Moscow can be regarded as a concentrated blow by the German (Allied forces).

In the same way, the Soviet Red Army has concentrated a large number of living forces on this large arc outside Moscow, preparing for the final decisive battle.

For the Soviet Red Army, Russia was big, but they had no way back, because behind them was Moscow!

In the early morning of 5 April, Hersman, who had just arrived at the office of the General Staff from Cuosen's estate, was reading a briefing from the Japanese Embassy on the war situation in the Hawaiian Islands.

The Japanese had sunk five more American aircraft carriers, including the USS Enterprise and two Essex-class, during the previous week's operations (the Japanese kept Germany weekly on the situation of the war, and Germany also reported to Japan on a weekly basis).

In addition, 2 Iowa-class battleships and several heavy cruisers were heavily damaged, and dozens of small ships and transports were sunk.

The number of US carrier-based aircraft and shore-based aircraft shot down has reached as many as 500, including dozens of powerful P51 and P47 fighters.

At the same time, Japan's own losses were only less than 500 shore-based aircraft that did not return.

If the Japanese war report is to be believed, it will really be another great victory.

It's just that the range is not too big, how did the "baby bottle" P47 appear on the battlefield in the Hawaiian Islands? Even if the "milk bottle" is hung with the auxiliary fuel tank, it will be difficult to fly from Midway, Palmyra Atoll, and Johnston Island to the Hawaiian Islands to fight, right?

Could it be that the Americans have already gotten an airfield on the island of Nihau? If this is the case, the Japanese will have a lot of trouble going forward.

Because the P47 series in this time and space focuses on the development of interception capabilities, most of the models are designed according to the standards of interceptors. Not only is the high-altitude performance superior, but also the firepower is very powerful. The strongest P47D, with eight 12.7mm Browning aircraft machine guns, could easily knock the German Ju288 into holes. Because of the threat of this aircraft, Juncker had to introduce a more robust Ju288 model in early 1944.

In order to compete with the Fw-190 series aircraft used by the Germans to escort the Ju288, the P47 was also designed to be very durable, even if it was beaten by the Fw-190 with four 20mm guns and four 12.7mm machine guns, it would often return home safely.

In order to break away after a successful volley, the Americans also developed a "water injection afterburner" system for the P47D (similar to the German MW50 afterburner system), which can obtain a maximum of more than 2500 horsepower of emergency power at medium and high altitudes.

Plus, because of its powerful firepower and durability, the P47 can also be used as a fighter-bomber to sweep the ground! In addition to eight 12.7mm machine guns, the plane can carry up to 2,000 pounds of bombs – not much more than Japan's Precious Heavy Bomber!

Although it is impossible for this kind of aircraft to defeat the Japanese Purple Electric and Hurricane at medium and low altitudes, eight 12.7mm aviation machine guns can still easily defeat the Japanese "Galaxy", "Swallowing Dragon" and "Flying Dragon".

For the Me264 used to deliver the "Silver Reaper", the P47D is a great threat!

While Hersman was worrying about the Japanese, the voice of Adjutant Colonel Piper sounded outside the office door: "Imperial Marshal, urgent report from Army Group North. ”

"Come in." Hersman put down his briefing and called Piper in.

A copy of the telegram was quickly placed on Hersmann's desk, and the content of the telegram was very simple, only a few lines: In the early hours of this morning, the positions of the headquarters of the 1st White Russian Army and the headquarters of the 3rd French Mechanized Cavalry Division on the front of Rzhev were heavily shelled by Soviet troops. By 7:30 a.m., the shelling had not stopped - Army Group North Command, signed: Moder.

"Quartermaster 1 knows?" Hersman asked his adjutant Piper.

"Marshal Guderian already knows that he is studying the battle situation in the first war room."

Hersmann, the "god of war", has always relied on the wisdom of his subordinates to command operations, so now Guderian, the first quartermaster, is the de facto commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht.

"Okay, I'll be right over." Hersman stood up, straightened his uniform, grabbed his hat and put it on his head, and strode towards the first war room.

When Hersmann arrived in the first war room, Guderian was conducting a flag drill with several elite members of the German army in straight uniforms. Seeing Hersman walk in, all the people stood up and raised their hands, but did not shout, "Hey! Hitler! ”

"Hey! Hitler! The slogan was used only among the SS in the German army, and if the SS officer saluted the Wehrmacht officer, it would not have been shouted.

"How's it going?" Hersman returned the salute, walked over to the sand table, looked at the pile of wooden models on it and asked.

Guderian shook his head and said, "It's not very good, the terrain around Rzhev is not in our favor, there are too many forests, rivers and swamps around. And it's muddy season again, and from today until April 10, there will be rain and snow in that area for several days, and our planes will not be able to dispatch. ”

The central part of the Soviet-German battlefield was not a good place to fight, although it was also a plain, but there were too many forests, rivers and swamps, which was not conducive to the movement of heavy mechanized troops.

In contrast, the steppes between Kharkov and Stalingrad are good battlefields.

However, in order to take Moscow, it was necessary to fight a decisive battle with the Soviet army in the central theater where the terrain conditions were not very favorable.

"The target of the Soviet army should be the units of Army Group North." "But Marshal Moder is ready, he is an expert in defensive warfare, and he will definitely be able to inflict heavy damage on the attacking Red Army, which will be very advantageous for the next step in the encirclement of Moscow." ”

Hersmann's judgment was based on the composition of Army Group Center and Army Group North. Although the two Army Groups were almost identical in number, the forces of Army Group Center were almost all German. The combat effectiveness was very strong, and even if the Soviet army invested all the strength of the Central Front, it was impossible to defeat Manstein's more than one million German troops.

Army Group North, on the other hand, was based in Petrograd and moved south, so it had a large number of White Russian, French, and Polish troops, and its combat effectiveness was relatively weak. The Soviet counterattack had a certain chance of victory.

"I can't say anything conclusive yet," said Guderian, frowning, "and we'll see...... Let the Soviets perform for a few days, and then it's not too late to decide how to fight back when their intentions are fully revealed. ”

In the face of the Soviet counterattack, Guderian behaved very cautiously and did not make an immediate decision. Hersmann knew that this was the cautious of the victors—that now that German victory was in sight, all it needed was to advance steadily and encircle Moscow, which the Soviets had to defend. There is no need to act too aggressive and risky.

For Germany, the key to the Soviet-German battlefield was to make fewer mistakes and not show flaws.

Adventurous surprise attacks were something that the Soviets needed to do.

……

Marshal Zhukov, Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Red Army and Commander of the Central Front, also gathered with Marshal Pavlov, General Rokossovsky, Marshal Shaposhnikov and others at this time to study the war reports transmitted from the front.

This time, the Soviet army did not take any deceptive feints, and directly concentrated their forces to fight Rzhev. Because the rain and snow weather is only a few days, I can't afford to waste half of it, otherwise the sky will be full of German Fw-190s and Fokker Zero D.

These two types of aircraft were no longer very good for use against American fighters in the Atlantic, so the Luftwaffe began to tender for the development of the "ultimate piston fighter" very early, and now the research and development of the "ultimate series" has been completed, and the Ta-152 fighter of Focke-Wolf won the bid for the ultimate piston fighter of medium and high altitude.

The low- and medium-altitude version of the ultimate piston fighter fell into the hands of Fokker, which has a lot of research on carrier-based aircraft. The Fokker 636 (known as the Hawker Sea Fury in the UK), jointly developed by Fokker and Hawker in Britain, won unanimous praise from the Luftwaffe and naval aviation, and became a new generation of low- and medium-altitude kings to replace the Fokker Zero D.

However, the first to be equipped with Ta-152 and Fokker 636 was not the war-torn Eastern Front, but the calmer Atlantic Theater. Because the Fw-190 and the Fokker Zero D are still invincible on the Eastern Front!

At altitudes below 5,000 meters, no Soviet fighter could confront the Fokker Zero D. And above 5000 meters, models such as the Fw-190A/B/C/D are enough to deal with all Soviet fighters.

Focke-Wolf also introduced the Fw-190 fighter-bomber models F series and G series in 1942, which were also quite popular with the German army at the front line, and now replaced the Ju87 as the main model of German ground attack. By the beginning of 1944, the "Tank Killer" series of rocket launchers (German rocket launchers) was also equipped with the Fw-190F, giving it an even more powerful anti-tank capability. If the Fw-190F and Fw-190G fighter-bombers were allowed to take to the sky, the activities of the Soviet tank units during the day would be greatly affected.

So when developing the "Red Guard" plan, Zhukov and others paid great attention to the threat from the air. It is better not to resort to any deceptive feints, but to shorten the time of the attack as much as possible, so that the attacking force can take advantage of the rain and snow to avoid the danger from the air.