"6 regimental armored clusters, currently moving in unison along several roads from Vilnius to Minsk, have knocked out sixteen of our company-sized strongholds...... The attack is quite sharp! ”

On the night of August 26, Major General Liapin also believed that six regimental armored clusters were advancing towards Minsk. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Because in the daytime battle on the 26th, these 6 "regimental armored clusters" can be said to be overwhelming. The strongholds guarded by the 254th and 256th infantry companies of the 16th and 256th divisions of the Red Army were cleared very easily, and they advanced 25-30 kilometers. Two of the regimental clusters also burst through the flanks of the city of Oshmiane, where the headquarters of the 256th Division and one infantry regiment were stationed, helping the following infantry (Panzergrenadiers of the 5th SS Panzer Division) to encircle the city.

"Comrade commander," Major General Liapin said to his immediate superior, Vasilevsky, "these 6 regimental armored groups should belong to 2 panzer divisions, most of which are the sharp knives of the German Army Group North!" If we don't find a way to hit them hard, the Germans will quickly advance under the city of Minsk. ”

"Hit them hard?" Vasilevsky looked at the six big black arrows on the map and frowned, "They may just be the vanguard of six armored divisions." ”

Since the Soviet Air Force had now lost most of its air supremacy over the battlefield, it was difficult to detect what was going on behind the German troops. And the reports of reconnaissance units and partisans were varied.

Some say that the German vehicles lined up on the roads and in the wilderness, and there was no way to see the edge.

Others said that the troops behind the six armored clusters were all infantry marching on foot, and the same number was staggering, and the line was lined up to the edge of the sky.

"Now is certainly not the time to fight back," Vasilevsky thought for a moment and said with a smile, "the Germans have only advanced 30 kilometers, they are not far from their rear, we can still bring them closer." It's never too late to put it in Molodecino or Zaslavl. ”

Molodechino is more than 100 kilometers from the Liby-Belarusian border, while Zaslavl is more than a dozen kilometers outside Minsk and even further from the Liby-Belarusian border, more than 150 kilometers. Since the Soviets had long made up their minds to fight a large-depth defense on the battlefield in Belarus, they destroyed roads and bridges as much as possible (the problem of road destruction is not a big problem, because Belarus is a large plain, it is not difficult to bypass the destroyed area, but it is quite troublesome for bridges to be blown up), and this 150-kilometer road is not easy to walk.

Moreover, the Red Army would also set up strongholds on the road of the German advance, arrange ambushes, and weaken the Germans along the way, in order to create more favorable conditions for the final decisive battle.

"Comrade commander, we can emulate the short assault tactics adopted by the Germans in the Battle of Warsaw." Rear Admiral Liapin then advised, "We need not seek to deliver annihilating blows to the enemy. 6 German regimental armored clusters that were in unison and not far from each other were difficult to annihilate. But we can use Lieutenant General Vatutin's assault 1st Army to give them a head-on blow, aiming to annihilate 5,000 German troops and destroy more than 300 tanks and various armored vehicles. ”

"It's not enough to assault the 1st Army, there are too few infantry." Vasilevsky thought for a moment and said, "Plus the 24th Army of Comrade Rakutin's 52nd Army." First let the 52nd Army go to the north of Raszavr to set up defenses, give the enemy armored cluster sufficient consumption, and then let Comrade Vatutin command the assault 1st Army to strike at the enemy's flank! ”

……

On the afternoon of the day after Vasilevsky and Lyapin were planning their counterattacks, at the headquarters of Army Group North in Riga, Manstein and the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Tipelskich, studied the battle reports sent back from the front.

Progress went surprisingly smoothly, especially with the 4th Panzer Army, which was the main attack, the 5th SS Panzer Division, the vanguard of the army, advanced 30 km on the first day and another 10-15 km on the morning of the 27th.

"General, it's going very well, it seems that the Soviets don't want to fight us in a decisive battle in the border area."

"Of course." Manstein smiled, "After more than 2 months of fighting with us, the Russians must have known that their armored forces could not beat us." In this case, they are completely right to choose the tactic of exchanging space for defense. And what is there at the Liby border? It's just a bunch of collective farms, and it doesn't matter if you lose them. ”

"But the Russians must be preparing a counterattack." "By the time of the Battle of Warsaw, the Soviets already had T-34/57 tanks that could fight the Tiger tanks. Now, more than a month has passed, and with the shoddy skills of the Soviets, there must be more T-34/57 tanks. ”

Now the comparison between Germany (the European Community) and the USSR in terms of mechanized equipment production is roughly as follows: the USSR has a large advantage in tank production; Aircraft production was almost the same on both sides; The production of automobiles on the part of Germany (the European Community) has a great advantage; Ship production is also a great advantage for Germany (the European Community).

The reason for this is related to the fact that Germany did not have a large tractor-making industry before the war. On the one hand, Germany was constrained by the Treaty of Versailles during the interwar and could not engage in the tractor industry; On the other hand, there was no such demand in Germany, where the agricultural tractor industry was based on big agriculture, and small family farms in Western Europe did not need many tractors at that time.

Both the USSR and the United States had large tracts of land to cultivate, and the USSR developed agricultural collectivization, which required a great demand for agricultural machinery. Therefore, the Soviet Union was able to develop four major tractor manufacturing bases and accumulated a large number of skilled workers capable of producing tractors.

So the capacity of tanks in the USSR was not a problem at all, now the question is only quality.

In addition, although 57mm guns are difficult to process, the Soviet Union has built nearly 10,000 guns in history!

In the area of artillery, the Soviets also had an advantage in production capacity over Germany. However, now France, a country rich in cannons, has fallen to Germany, so the European Community has an advantage in cannon production.

Of course, this is all comparing the Soviet Union with the European Community, not counting the United States, which is the arsenal of democracy.

And for the United States, production is not a problem, quality is not a problem, and the dollar is not a problem. The question was simply how to transport the planes, artillery and tanks that were produced to the Soviet Union.

In its original history, the Americans had four routes to aid the Soviet Union: the North Atlantic route, the North Pacific route, the Mediterranean route, and the Indo-Iran route.

And now the Indo-Iranian route is definitely out of play. The Suez-Red Sea-Persian Gulf route has been opened, the European Combined Fleet has an additional Indian Ocean sub-fleet, and the Japanese Navy has also entered the Indian Ocean. The foreign traffic of the British territory of India has been blocked!

In addition, Iran on the Indo-Iran route is now under German protection, and Rommel's troops are still stationed in Iran.

In the original history, the United States transported more than 4 million tons of supplies to the Soviet Union through the Indian Ocean-Iran route, but now it is completely gone.

As for the Mediterranean route, even less to count on, the American ships could not even cross the Strait of Gibraltar. Historically, a total of 680,000 tons of supplies were transported to the Soviet Union, which was almost negligible for the Soviet-German war.

The North Atlantic route is second only to the Indo-Iranian route in terms of traffic volume in history, and in total less than 4 million tons of stuff were transported to the Soviet Union. Now this road has been cut off since the beginning of the Soviet-German war because the sea control in the North Atlantic was temporarily held by Germany. Now Molotov is operating at both ends of London and Washington, and wants to restore this lifeline as soon as possible.

And the North Pacific route was historically the most important lifeline for the USSR!

The capitalist ship of history, under the banner of GCISM, transported nearly 8.7 million tons of supplies to the Soviet Union - the Japanese did not cut off this lifeline in the most difficult time of the Soviet Union! It is conceivable how much these Japanese devils were afraid of the Soviet Red Army, and they must have suffered in Nuomenkan and Zhang Gufeng.

In this time and space, the invincible Imperial Japanese Army did not dare to cut off the lifeline of the Soviet Union in the North Pacific.

Even if the Germans transferred the production drawings of the Tiger tank to Japan, provided prototypes, gave production licenses, and even agreed to provide key components, the Japanese devils would not dare to provoke the terrible Soviet Far Eastern Front.

"Ambassador Oshima, we can understand that you are afraid of the Soviets......"

Because of the Tiger tank export issue and Oshima Hiroshima, Hirschmann, of course, knows the importance of the North Pacific lifeline. So I took out the issue of cutting off the North Pacific route and discussed it with the Japanese.

Today he received the final answer - the Japanese would rather not have the technology of the Tiger tank than cut off the Soviet Union's lifeline in the North Pacific Ocean.

"So how about we send submarine forces to the Pacific? As long as you agree, we can still provide you with the technology of the Tiger tank. ”

Of course, Hersman will not just let go of the North Pacific route - more than 8.7 million tons in four years! And behind this number are the lives of the German Nazis!

He said to Hiroshi Oshima: "We have a lot of submarines now, all of which have nothing to do but park in the harbor and rust, if you can allow our submarines to use the ports you control. These submarines will be able to fight in the Pacific Ocean, not only to cut off the North Pacific routes, but also to deal with the US-Australia routes, which will also be beneficial for you to enter Australia. ”

After Hawaii was occupied by Japan, the war in the Pacific revolved around the U.S.-Australia route. The Americans desperately sent troops and supplies to Australia, and did not hesitate to let several large fleet aircraft carriers serve as escort ships. And the Japanese were bent on cutting off the US-Australia route, and they also dispatched aircraft carriers to break diplomatic relations.

However, no great results were achieved, because the South Pacific Ocean was too vast, and the Japanese aircraft carriers were too precious to take risks, and even if they discovered the American transport group, as long as they did not destroy the escort mothership or did not find the opponent's aircraft carrier, they would not dare to let go of their hands and feet to bomb the merchant ships. As a result, opportunities are often missed! (To be continued.) )