Brauchitsch had never faced such a predicament, not even during the most difficult time of the First World War! At the moment, it seems that the Eastern Front is only in a temporary stalemate, but the morale of the front-line troops has plummeted, especially the first-line German troops in the Belarusian direction are almost exhausted!

As a result of the continuous fierce fighting, not a single unit in von Bock's hands was intact, and the soldiers lost the confidence to take Minsk for the winter! The winter of the Soviet Union has already arrived, and what I did not expect is that this year's harsh winter will arrive earlier than in previous years!

Although the rear front line is not very long, the muddy season some time ago seriously hindered the delivery of logistics, coupled with the lack of preparation for the harsh winter of the Soviet Union, and now the front-line troops are facing the difficulty of insufficient cold supplies!

According to the report below, the three army groups have already suffered a large number of non-combat casualties, and a large part of them are frostbitten and frozen to death, and most of the soldiers who have lost their combat ability due to illness are also related to the weather!

At present, the temperature in Ukraine is not very low, but it does not take tens of degrees below zero to freeze to death - a cold rain in the field with a temperature of more than ten degrees can make a soldier fall a large piece!

According to Bock's report, a third of his troops now had to camp in the field, and those military tents were simply not able to withstand the cold, and the mud and low temperatures had swept away the morale of the troops, and discontent was growing among the soldiers!

The bitter cold of the Soviet Union in the true sense has not yet arrived, and if it continues to be consumed with the Russians as it is now, the severe cold will be able to make it lose 100,000 soldiers, not to mention that the Russians are frantically increasing their troops to the west!

Taking the initiative to retreat some distance, regrouping the troops, and waiting for the beginning of the next spring to launch a large-scale offensive was the best Brauchitsch could come up with. Pen ~ fun ~ cabinet www.biquge.info and at present the armament department is working hard to develop and produce new equipment - the Russians have a very obvious advantage in the new equipment, the commander-in-chief of the army has visited the demonstration of the use of captured Soviet weapons: their assault rifles and new tanks alone have caused themselves difficulties that are difficult to overcome for the time being!

Hitler was not unaware of this, he had also seen demonstrations of the use of Russian rifles: the armament department only gave one suggestion - if you want to compete with the Russians in individual firepower as quickly as possible, a comprehensive copy of the Russian assault rifle is the best solution!

Hitler agreed with the opinion of the armament department for the first time, which will lead to the fact that several major factories for the production of small arms have started new production lines, fortunately, the technical threshold for imitation of Russian rifles is very low, not much more difficult than the K98, and the production cost and man-hours are much lower than the MP38 submachine gun! But the original production line was still running, because the Russians could not wait for their side to be completely redressed before continuing the war.

In the case of Russian tanks, Germany could not copy them after making small-scale design changes to suit their own production habits and characteristics, as in the case of rifles, whether for technical reasons or for pride - Hitler and the engineers demanded that a new tank with better performance than the T34 should be created to cope with the T34 swarm, which was as numerous as steppe rats!

In addition to tanks and assault rifles, the Russians also gave Braucich the biggest shock in terms of equipment, that is, the new concept of infantry anti-tank weapon РПГ-7 bazooka: in the autumn, in the mountains of southwestern Ukraine, one of his own reinforced infantry battalions of more than 20 tanks was ambushed, and more than 20 tanks were all destroyed by Soviet infantry in 20 minutes, and the culprit was that kind of bazooka!

Tests have shown that the current German tanks are simply not able to withstand rockets fired from any angle, which also makes the equipment department feel a crisis, although the bazookas only work on tanks at close range - the German troops on the front line have to change the way of attacking cities simply because of the threat of bazookas, and tanks do not dare to easily enter the city! But the engineers in the armament department were not slow: now the Germans were also equipped with imitations of Russian rocket launchers, although the power was not yet fully at the level of the Russians, but the structure was simpler and the production was more convenient.

The bazooka, which was named "Iron Fist", was already able to penetrate the front armor of the Soviet T34, although there are not many of them now, but soon they will be massively equipped: the Russians are still too complex, and the "Iron Fist" is simpler and disposable.

Before the war, the Russians had time to perfect their own production system, which would have caused the Russian military factories to produce bazookas completely on an assembly line, but Germany did not have this time, and the simplicity of the process was the most important. The amount of ammunition consumed by the war is staggering, and sometimes it is the right choice to reduce the quality of some weapons and ensure that the quantity is more - judging by the rockets captured during this time, the Russians are also systematically reducing the production process indicators: simpler, crude, but faster! That's the way the Russians have always been, as long as it works!

It takes time and space to revive morale, replenish and integrate troops, and gradually change the army! The bitter winter is the best time, the Russians know better the power of the bitter cold, and this winter is a battle, and it will not be a large-scale battle - only after the real cold comes! Brauchitsch knows this very well.

This year, the continuation of the stubborn attack in Belarus, regardless of casualties, will definitely do more harm than good, and the troops already need to rest, in case this will be a large-scale counter-assault by the Russians, although it is impossible to drive themselves to the west of the Bug River, but the losses of the front-line troops will not be small!

Before attending the meeting, Brauchitsch decided on his point of view: whether Hitler accepted it or not, his opinion was to withdraw a paragraph of his own accord.

Goering's air force did not have much advantage in the contest with the Russian air force, and yesterday's losses were staggering, and the strength of several air forces was greatly weakened, and it is possible that the Soviet air force will occupy air superiority in some areas. The German Army is exhausted, air supremacy is in jeopardy, and it must rest!

"My Führer, my opinion is to take the initiative to retreat a section of the Belarusian line of defense and gain time and space for regrouping and restoration."

Brauchitsch boldly offered his advice, which was met with Hitler's rebuke: "Never! Never! ……”

How could the Third Reich take the initiative to retreat in the face of Soviet Russia?! Hitler would never disagree, even if Brauchitsch thought about himself in its entirety!

Keitel also disagreed with Brauchitsch: the Russians are also doing their best in Belarus, and maybe with one more attack, the Russians will collapse! Whether or not to capture Minsk was very important for Germany, and the commander-in-chief of the army understood that Hitler was justified.

Faced with the unanimous opinion of Hitler and the Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht High Command, Brauchitsch was soon defeated again - again asking von Bock to continue the offensive on Minsk!

"Winter" after the occupation of Minsk, Hitler was not entirely insane, the occupation of Moscow this year is a fool's dream, he will understand. (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )