For Himmler, the guy who slipped around and slapped the horse, everyone despised him incomparably, but this guy was too powerful, and everyone understood that he was very ambitious, and generally did not dare to point it out directly, Hitler was able to become the head of the most powerful country in the world in one fell swoop from an orphan who did not graduate from high school, and his ability was absolutely undoubted, at least in terms of employing people, which was absolutely second to none.

Hitler didn't like to listen to the words of the horse at this time, what he needed was victory, and he said impatiently to Himmler: "Okay, Himmler, I know your loyalty, but you are not a general, you don't know how to fight." ”

Himmler was speechless, and the others were very happy in their hearts, Himmler always liked to pretend not to understand, and to come up with ideas, which made the Führer take a bite and deserved it.

Goering said: "Führer, although the combat effectiveness of the Soviet army has suddenly become much stronger during this time, but after all, it cannot be compared with our army, I think that Stalingrad should be able to be taken in the harsh winter, but we must ensure that there are enough arms and weapons on the front line, if we go to transport a large number of winter clothes and other materials now, then I am afraid that our logistical pressure is very great and unbearable." ”

Jodel was about to point fingers again, paid attention, and hurriedly said: "Führer, although we are still on the offensive, but the front line does not occupy much advantage, street fighting can not give full play to our advantages, if we fight on the plains, I will definitely support the first far away to send fire, food and grass, because I believe that our loyal soldiers will be able to take the Soviet army in the next two months, but the street fighting can not give full play to our advantages at all, basically our soldiers are consumed to death in the city, but the Slavs have a population of more than 100 million, The combined population of our Germanic nation is a little more than half of theirs, and if we continue to consume them for a long time, we will certainly not be able to consume them, we are not Chinese, there are four or five billion people. ”

"Now we still have to spend heavy troops on defense on the Western Front, Britain and the United States will log in at any time, and if our soldiers are exhausted, there will be no soldiers to defend the fruits of our victory. Therefore, the Führer, when the fruits of victory have not beckoned to us, we should try to preserve the vitality as much as possible, Stalingrad cannot be defeated this year, we can fight again next year, as long as the soldiers are still there, we can take it at any time, but if there are no soldiers, even if we take it, what will we rely on to resist the counteroffensive of the Soviet army in the future, Führer," Jodel became more excited the more he spoke, as a staunch Nazist and nationalist, he was more sensible, and hoped that the country he fought for could open up a greater living space for future generations, instead of fighting the war vigorously like the First World War, except for the land reparations, there was no benefit.

Hitler thought about it for a moment, and Yodel was one of his most important generals, and he still had considerable influence on him.

Hitler said to another general whom he held in high esteem: "What do you think, Keitel? ”

Field Marshal Keitel, Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht High Command, was nicknamed a "lackey" among the senior German generals, because he was favored by his proximity to Hitler. After World War I, Keitel remained in the military. In October 1931 he was appointed Colonel of the Organization Department of the Army Administration, promoted to Major General in 1933, and was ordered to form the 22nd Division in Bremen.

In 1935, Keitel was appointed directly from division commander to head of the War Office, and in February 1938 he was promoted to chief of staff of the Wehrmacht, making him Hitler's closest military adviser. But he was unable to convince Hitler on major decision-making issues, despite his advice when Hitler decided to attack Poland.

Keitel has been promoted to general. He had no contact with the wave of rebellion within the Army. He believed in Hitler's ability to judge in military matters. Although Hitler's actions were very different from his personal opinions, he always made obedience his duty.

After the end of the Western War, Britain's future Prime Minister Winston Churchill frankly admitted: "The Germans clearly had the upper hand in planning, command, and firmness." They unswervingly implemented their battle plans. They fully understand how to massively use the Air Force in all aspects. ”

This is a high evaluation of Keitel's military prowess. But his military qualities were even worse, when the Germans were successfully advancing on the Western Front with the defeat of the Allied forces, he went so far as to support Hitler with General Jodl and gave an inexplicable order to save the main forces of the British Expeditionary Force and the French troops besieged with them, which of course aroused the opposition of Brauchitsch, the commander-in-chief of the German Army who commanded the campaign operations, and later military history.

After the Western War, Keitel was awarded the rank of Field Marshal in July 1940. His promotion caused dissatisfaction among many generals, such as German Field Marshal Manstein wrote in his memoirs "The Lost Victory": "...... There is no doubt that such an action is sufficient to devalue the prestige of such an official rank,...... At the end of the Polish campaign, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the two Commanders-in-Chief of Army Group were able to meet this requirement. However, Hitler did not promote them to the rank of marshal in order to express his gratitude to the army. Now he made a dozen marshals at once. In addition to the commanders-in-chief who had fought two excellent battles, there was also the head of the Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces, who was neither a commander nor a chief of staff of the Army Headquarters...... His organizational exploits are indispensable, but they are by no means comparable to that of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army. ”

When Hitler was determined to attack the East, Keitel again disagreed and put forward a proposal not to attack the Soviet Union. Hitler paid no attention to this. It was from this time that Keitel pandered more to Hitler in every way. On July 25, 1941, in order to achieve a decisive victory in the shortest possible time, Field Marshal Raeder wrote an opinion to the High Command recommending a military sweep in the Mediterranean Sea and the strengthening of combat forces in North Africa, in accordance with the principle that the basic forces should first be concentrated in the war to defeat the British. Keitel knew that Hitler's mind was on attacking the Soviet Union, and in order to avoid causing Hitler's displeasure, he proposed a complete revision of the proposal.

In the course of the Eastern Campaign, Keitel's command structure took the temporary measures for the success of individual generals in some battles as a panacea, replacing flexible and responsible command with Hitler's formula of advancing and not retreating, and of the energetic and ingenious actions of the original Army General Staff, which used space and alternated offensive and defensive operations, and became more and more convinced of this formula. It is almost entirely denied that the retreat of the army was a means of warfare to restore freedom of movement or to conserve troops. Keitel's strategic views were imbued with Hitler's pathological characteristics, he had grown accustomed to the myth that the Führer would never make mistakes, he believed in the Führer's instincts, desperately maintained trust in the Führer, and felt in his heart that Hitler was "the greatest commander of all time", this was not ordinary flattery, he had been subdued by Hitler's magic. For example, in the Battle of Stalingrad, the German High Command was fully aware that it would be very difficult for Paulus's Sixth Army to send reinforcements to relieve the siege after it was surrounded, but it followed Hitler's refusal to allow the Sixth Army to break through and strictly ordered it to hold on. As a result, 6 infantry divisions, 3 motorized divisions, 3 tank divisions, 1 anti-aircraft artillery division, and one Romanian infantry division, 1 cavalry division, as well as 1 regiment of the Croatian army, a total of 26,500 people, were buried. The inflexible command of the German High Command was to blame for the defeat, but the German propaganda apparatus presented the unforgivable mistake of the High Command as a legitimate and inevitable mistake, which made all the generals who knew the truth feel that Keitel and others were particularly hateful.

In the course of the Eastern Campaign, Keitel unreservedly agreed with Hitler to remove those highly decorated generals. He even aided in the abuse, approving the execution of many high-ranking officers whose sole charge was failure to obey Hitler's orders to defend to the death.

Of course, none of this has happened yet, and if history doesn't change, it's all close at hand.

Although Keitel pandered to Hitler everywhere, he was even more observant of words and feelings, knowing when to say nice things and when to say more constructive opinions, so that Hitler knew his talents, and with Himmler's foolishness, Keitel immediately knew what Hitler wanted.

Keitel said: "My Führer, I think Yodel's words are very reasonable, where our soldiers stand, where is our land, we have no reason to let the soldiers freeze and starve, so we should send the supplies for the winter as soon as possible, after all, the needs of 6 million people can not be transported all at once, so it is better to start now." In addition, according to the thermal expansion and cold contraction, our weapons and may really have the kind of malfunction problem that the Chinese say, so we must start to take precautions now and prepare anti-freezing materials such as gun oil for the front line. ”

Hitler saw that his two favorite generals both suggested this, and felt that what they said was very reasonable, so he said to Himmler: "Himmler, how are our winter supplies prepared?" ”

Himmler panicked, because Germany was not prepared for the war to be fought until the arrival of the harsh winter, so there was no plan to prepare these materials at all, if hundreds of thousands of him went from the occupied areas to do it, but the materials of 6 million people, he had no choice, he could not afford this responsibility, he decided to tell the truth to Hitler.

Himmler looked flustered and said, "Führer, we always thought that the war would end before the harsh winter, so we had no plans to produce those supplies. ”

After Hitler listened, his face turned pale, he motioned for everyone else to go out, Himmler stayed, and when only Himmler and everyone else went out, Hitler suddenly roared at Himmler: "I am the Führer, I am the Führer, do you still need me to ask about this kind of small matter, is it that the soldiers on the front line do not have toilet paper to wipe their butts, and I want me to remind you to send toilet paper over...... I don't care what method you use, you have to get the supplies from the front line to the front line, otherwise, hey ......"

The people outside snickered in their hearts, but Himmler came out with a bitter gourd face, and he was like a tiger!