The atomic bomb could not be counted on for the time being, and the Soviet Red Army's ability to attack fortified positions was stronger than expected. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 So Hersmann had to go to Chief of the General Staff Kesselring and First Quartermaster Halder to discuss countermeasures.

However, by the time Hersmann arrived in Tsosen, Guderian, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, had already made a way and explained his countermeasures in a telegram sent to the General Staff.

"Send 9 separate heavy armored battalions to Warsaw and Lviv? To fight B-4 howitzers with Tiger and Panther tanks? ”

"Yes, Marshal Guderian according to Carol. Major General Rommel's report before his disappearance concluded that it was not the B-4 howitzers that were really difficult to deal with, but the battle groups with the B-4 howitzers at their core. Only by putting in a tank-centered battle group can you fight against a B-34 battle group with T-1 tanks or KV-4 tanks. ”

Of course, there are many ways to deal with the B-4 battle group, bombing with aircraft, shelling with artillery, fighting with anti-tank artillery, counterattacking with German superhuman infantry, and so on. However, throwing tanks into a counterattack is certainly the most effective and all-weather.

"Why the heavily armored battalion?" Hersman seemed to be a little reluctant, and he originally planned to use the "Tiger" and "Black Panther" in counterattack operations. "Can't you use tank No. 4?"

General Halder, the 1st Quartermaster General, explained somewhat helplessly: "After a period of trial, Marshal Guderian believes that the mobility of the Tiger and Panther tanks is not ideal. There were too many mechanical failures of both tanks, too many auxiliary vehicles were needed, and the Tiger tank was so heavy that most of the bridges in Poland, Ukraine and Belarus could hardly bear its weight. Therefore, Marshal Guderian believed that the Tiger and Panther tanks were more suitable as defensive weapons than offensive weapons, and that the most suitable battlefields for them were Lviv and Warsaw. ”

"Tiger" and "Black Panther" were actually disliked! Guderian was really picky. However, Guderian's opinions are not entirely unreasonable, and there are indeed many problems with the tiger and the panther. Although the results of the various tests conducted in Germany were satisfactory, in the hands of the Eastern Front Command, many problems were exposed. And some of these problems are not in the vehicle itself, but in road conditions and logistics.

The current "Panther" tank weighs 45 tons, which is several tons more than the Soviet KV-1 heavy tank. And the "Tiger" tank is 56 tons heavier. In Germany, where the infrastructure is better, the passage of these two tanks is not difficult. When it comes to Poland and Western Ukraine, where the road conditions are relatively poor, they have to act cautiously, for fear of crushing the bridges and roads.

In addition, the "Tiger" and "Panther" also have much higher logistical requirements than the No. 4 tank. Each of the nine heavy armored battalions has its own repair and logistics companies, and each heavy tank company is equipped with an emergency repair team, and in the establishment of each heavy tank company, 22 "Haw Par" butts are followed by 30 wheeled vehicles of various types. The entire heavily armored battalion has several hundred vehicles in motion, which can pull several kilometers on the road.

In contrast, the No. 4 tank, which has long been mature and cannot be matured, has much lower requirements for logistical support. And the traffic capacity is relatively strong, so you can go anywhere.

Marshal Guderian also expects the counterattack to begin in the muddy season after October 1. Halder continued, "It will be more difficult for heavy tanks to pass, so it is better to use them in the battle before October 1." ”

There are two periods of the so-called muddy season, one is late autumn and the other is early spring.

In the former, the rain and snow are intensive, but the temperature is not enough to form frozen soil, making the roads muddy and difficult to pass. In the latter, the snow melts due to rising temperatures, causing flooding and muddy roads.

Of course, muddy roads due to rain, snow or snowmelt exist only in places with poor infrastructure, not in Germany and Western Europe, and not in Poland.

The senior German officers who have been in contact with the Soviet Union for a long time know that the Soviet Union has a muddy season, and October 1 is about the beginning of the autumn muddy season every year, and it will last for about one month until the road surface is frozen due to the cold weather.

Guderian, for his part, intended to take advantage of the unfavorable situation caused by the muddy season to the logistics and transportation of the Soviet Red Army to carry out a full-scale counterattack. Annihilated the Soviets in Poland, where the roads were relatively good, and then pursued the battle to Soviet soil, forcing the Red Army to abandon a large number of weapons and equipment in the process of retreating.

And the pursuit warfare in the muddy season does not use the Tiger and Panther, which are less mobile, have more mechanical failures, and have a particularly large dead weight. So Guderian planned to use these two expensive and powerful tanks to fight the defense of the city, and to kill and damage the Soviet army to the maximum extent possible on the battlefield where there was little need for movement. And the Soviet B-4 battle group is obviously the best target for the German heavy armored battalion, because the tanks covering the B-4 cannot defeat the powerful "Haw Par" in any case, and the "Haw Par" artillery has a long range and great power, and it can completely destroy the B-4 howitzer at a long distance.

……

"Air raids! Hide! ”

Yakov was sitting on a road west of the Polish city of Minsk (not Minsk in Belarus, but in Minsk, near Warsaw) in Poland, eating Russian fried rice. Hearing someone shouting, Dzhugashvili skilfully picked up the fried rice full of delicious fried rice and flew into the woods - he didn't want to waste a rare delicacy because of the German air raids.

Today, because the 9th Mechanized Corps has triumphantly arrived under the city of Warsaw (in fact, there are still 30 kilometers to go), the whole army has improved its food to celebrate, and no longer eats unpalatable field rations, but uses Russian fried rice brought from the East Asian continent to support the world revolution and Polish sheep brought from nearby villages. Because he was an officer, Yakov was also given a large Polish sausage and a piece of pickled cod.

I have to admit that the Polish peasants in dire straits are still more particular about eating and drinking, and many livestock and poultry can be copied from any village, and some of the more wealthy peasants can still find Baltic pickled cod at home. The food is so reactionary, it can't be liberated!

Flying in were eight very ugly twin-engine attack aircraft, this is not the first time that such aircraft have appeared, and they have been attacking from time to time since the 9th Soviet Mechanized Corps approached Warsaw. However, before this, Yakov had never seen such a powerful ground attack weapon in any of the Soviets' own briefings.

In Yakov's opinion, this weapon is probably the German version of the Il-2, which is not very large, and the armor should be relatively strong, and it can fly at low altitudes under the threat of ground artillery. And it has very strong firepower, at least 2 20mm cannons, several aviation machine guns, and a 37mm or 50mm cannon in the belly! Yakov had seen such an aircraft burn a T34 tank with a cannon in its belly.

But the number of the German version of the Il-2 attack aircraft does not seem to be much, 8 per sortie, and often 8 Fokker Zeros escorts, although they inflicted certain losses on the 9th Mechanized Army, but the losses were still within an acceptable range.

"Sudden ......"

The exchange of fire between the ground and the air soon began, with eight HS-129 attack aircraft fearlessly weaving through a network of Soviet vehicle-mounted 25mm anti-aircraft guns (truck-mounted), 37mm anti-aircraft guns, and anti-aircraft machine guns. The planes fired a series of tracer bullets, which smashed several vehicles belonging to the artillery column of the 9th Mechanized Corps into holes, and one ammunition truck was blown up into a huge fireball, and the huge explosion also affected two trucks towing 122mm howitzers in the vicinity, and even the vehicles and guns were overturned to the ground.

But the good fortune of these 8 HS-129 aircraft ended here, Yakov, who was holding a large lunch box of Russian fried rice, suddenly heard someone shouting "Ula!" Ulla! He knew that it was an attack plane from which Soviet planes had arrived to expel the Germans.

He looked up into the sky and saw 16 Yak-1 fighters whizzing down from the sky, and the 8 Fokker Zeros escorting those German attack planes immediately met and resisted, while the 8 German attack planes that were attacking ground targets immediately turned around and flew in the direction of Warsaw City, and one of them was still dragging black smoke behind its buttocks, as if it had been injured by ground fire.

"Captain Dzhugashvili, is the head of artillery, Captain Dzhugashvili?" At this moment, Yakov saw a herald of the military headquarters galloping through the wheat field on horseback.

"I'm here!" Yakov shouted.

"Comrade Chief of Staff, please go to the military headquarters for a meeting immediately!" The herald rode up to Yakov and handed him a handwritten notice with the signature of the chief of staff of the 9th Mechanized Corps.

It must be the Battle of Warsaw! Yakov took the notice, and already guessed the general content of the meeting. The first phase of the Thunderstorm Plan is now basically complete. Now it is time to start the second stage, that is, the capture of Warsaw and the siege of Lviv.

According to the intelligence before the start of Operation Thunderstorm, the German garrison in Warsaw was not very large, between 100,000 and 200,000, and there were no large armored units. In addition, the German Nazi government could not believe the people of Warsaw and began to evacuate the population before the Soviet attack. The loss of the support of the masses meant that the Germans, up to 200,000 men in Warsaw, could only fight alone, so they could not resist the attacks of the Soviet Red Army, which was several times as numerous.

While munching on Russian fried rice with lots of Polish lamb, Yakov thought: "Warsaw, the heroic city, will soon return to the Polish people!" (To be continued.) )