The train creaked forward, moving away from Warsaw, the battlefield that had devoured the flesh and blood of countless Germans and Soviets, first along the westbound railway, then turning back to the north and then east. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

On the neckline hangs a knight's iron cross of Gustav. Major Schwarzenegger's huge body sat in a chair near the window, looking out at the scenery of the great Polish plain in the middle of summer, the fields were green, the warm breeze was blowing, and the grass was green and red as far as the eye could see. Polish villages are scattered in this picturesque landscape, and the smoke of the cooking is unusually peaceful.

It's not bad here, either! Major Schwarzenegger thought to himself that he would move to Poland until the war was over, and be the companion of his comrades who were buried there.

The Battle of Warsaw that had just ended was extremely brutal, and in the two-month bloody battle, the German 6th Army paid a heavy price of nearly 120,000 casualties or missing - the Soviet Western Front suffered nearly 500,000 casualties and missing on the battlefield of Warsaw, an exchange rate of almost 1:4.

Major Schwarzenegger's tank company suffered particularly heavy casualties because it had been fighting the front line, with 60 casualties and missing, more than half of the company's full strength.

The huge casualties were also exchanged for great combat exploits, Gustav. Schwarzenegger was not only promoted to the rank of major, but also received the Knight's Iron Cross.

The 5th SS "Viking" Division also made a name for itself in Warsaw, becoming the ace division of the Wehrmacht (this space-time SS was just a title, there was no independent system, it was part of the Wehrmacht). As soon as the Battle of Warsaw ended, this ace division was upgraded from Panzergrenadier Division to Panzer Division, becoming the first Panzer Division under the SS name and the 22nd Panzer Division of the German Army.

Of course, the upgrading of the Panzergrenadier Division to the Panzer Division is not a matter of changing the signboard, but it is really necessary to greatly expand the armored force of the troops, and now the production of large oil fields in the Middle East is rising, so that Germany has the confidence to greatly expand the armored forces.

As a result, Schwarzenegger's 5th SS Panzer Battalion was expanded into the 5th SS Panzer Regiment, and the number of Panzer Battalions increased from one to two, with 176 Type 4H tanks at full strength.

However, Major Schwarzenegger did not become one of the commanders of the 2 tank battalions of the 5th SS Panzer Regiment, he became the commander of the 5th SS tank destroyer battalion.

The Tank Destroyer Battalion is a unit that has only recently begun to appear in Germany, and is a combat unit organized by a tank destroyer called the Rhinoceros, which was developed based on the modified chassis of Tank 4.

In fact, the "Rhino" is not the first type of tank destroyer, there were also "Weasel" and "Weasel" Type 2 tank destroyers before, but these two "Tan Annihilation" were used as anti-tank guns and given to the anti-tank battalions of some elite troops. According to Hersman's plan, in the future, all anti-tank battalions of Panzer Divisions, Panzergrenadier Divisions and Infantry Divisions were to be equipped with Weasel 2 tank destroyers based on the chassis of Tank No. 2.

The "Rhino", a big guy carrying an 88mm gun, was developed by order of Hirschman in June 1940, and a "Wild Bee" 150mm self-propelled gun based on the same chassis was also developed.

Both the "Rhino" and the "Wild Bee" were finalized around June 1942 and began trial production, and only a small number of "Rhino" and "Wild Bee" are now produced. However, because the development and finalization of the "Rhinoceros" anti-tank destroyer was earlier than in history, it did not wait for the 88mm gun with a caliber of 71 times, but chose an 88mm gun with a caliber of 56 times the same as the Tiger tank.

In addition, the "Rhinoceros" designed according to Hersman's requirements also has a 10mm thick top cover, which can be used to protect against the bombardment of howitzers and rocket artillery, and the battlefield survivability is much stronger.

The 5th SS Panzer Division "Viking" was the first unit to be equipped with "Rhino" anti-tank destroyers. A total of 42 vehicles (3 destroyer companies with 14 destroyers each) were obtained, all of which were incorporated into the 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion.

However, Major Schwarzenegger himself had not seen the real "rhinoceros", because the 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion was a new unit that had just completed its training, and it was still waiting for Major Schwarzenegger to take over somewhere - the troops would definitely be handed over to him before the next engagement, but the current location of the 5th SS Tank Battalion was classified, and the whereabouts of the 5th SS Panzer Division "Viking" were also classified.

The train was watered at a small railway station in an unknown Poland and continued on its way, but in the early hours of the second day, when it was dawn, it suddenly stopped beside a wooded field with no shops in front of the village. When everyone was surprised, they heard a loud whistle, and then someone shouted: "All, bring your backpack, get off!" ”

Gustav woken up by a whistle. Schwarzenegger knows it's time to arrive! He immediately grabbed his backpack and got off the train following a group of grenadiers from the 5th SS "Viking" Division. The grenadiers assembled in a column in a wooded area next to the railroad and waited for the staff officers of the division headquarters to lead them to a camp in an unknown location.

Gustav. Schwarzenegger walked alone along the railroad with his backpack to the train where the division headquarters was located. Of course, many trains had to be pulled by the size of the "Viking" division, so Gustav walked for a long time and did not reach the train where the division headquarters was, but the sides of the railway suddenly opened up.

The dense woods suddenly disappeared, replaced by a vast flat land as far as the eye could see, and the flat ground was filled with tanks No. 4 covered with camouflage tarps, and countless others!

……

"Marshal, the 5th SS 'Viking' Panzer Division has arrived at the nemenchny assembly area."

Lieutenant General Tipelskich, chief of staff of the German Army Group North, walked briskly into the war room and reported the arrival of the 5th SS Panzer Division to the commander of Army Group Manstein, who was circling around the sand table.

The Nemenchny assembly was located near Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, surrounded by a large forest. During the era of the Polish Commonwealth ruling Lithuania, it was the training ground of the Polish army and was always a military exclusion zone. After the arrival of the Germans, the Nemenchine training ground was repeatedly expanded, with the construction of a large number of well-camouflaged barracks, warehouses and roads, as well as the laying of a military railway. Now it was a staging ground for the 4th Panzer Army, where the 1st, 2nd, and 11th Panzer Divisions were concentrated, and now an SS 5th Panzer Division was to be added.

"Got it." Manstein only whispered, and after a while asked again, "Have the five heavily armored battalions been deployed?" ”

He asked about the 501-505 Heavy Panzer Battalion, which had been withdrawn from Warsaw earlier than the 5th SS Panzer Division, and then withdrawn to Danzig for rest and expansion, replacing all the Panthers with Tigers. At the same time, each battalion was reinforced with a medium tank company (Type 4F tank with 22 short barrels) and an assault gun company (equipped with 6 No. 3 assault guns) in order to increase the ability of the hoplite company against Soviet infantry and Soviet anti-tank guns.

"It will be pulled out in one hour, and we will definitely be able to reach Nemenchine tonight." "With the addition of the 5th SS Panzer Division and 5 heavy battalions, the adverse effects of the transfer of the 56th Panzer Corps will be offset," Tipelskich said. ”

The 56th Panzer Army was transferred from Army Group North along with the 18th Army, and they now belonged to the newly formed Petrograd Army Group. The Petrograd Army Group now has the 18th Army, the 1st White Guard Army of Russia, the Southeastern Army of Finland, the Karelian Army of Finland, and the 1st Artillery Group of France, which are specially responsible for besieging Leningrad -- of course, encircling but not fighting, waiting for the Soviet troops to come up and send them to death!

After the transfer of the 56th Panzer Army, the Panzer Assault Force of Army Group North was somewhat weakened, and in this case, Manstein asked Guderian to bring the 5th SS Panzer Division and 5 heavy battalions withdrawn from the battlefield of Warsaw under his command.

Manstein smiled, folded his arms and said: "Actually, looking at the performance of the Soviet Red Army in Poland, we now have 10 armored divisions, including the 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th. Together with the 5th SS Panzer Division and 5 heavy battalions, there should be enough strength to fight the Soviets' sea of tanks. ”

"Enough!" Tiperski laughed and said, "Even without the 5th SS Panzer Division and 5 heavy battalions it will be enough." Because the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th Panzer Divisions were expanded in July and August, the number of Panzer Regiments increased from one to two. In this way, our original 10 armored divisions have a total of 20 armored regiments, and there are 3,520 No. 4 tanks alone! ”

Because the two major bottlenecks of oil and non-ferrous metals have been solved, and the integration of industrial capacity in European countries has also been relatively successful. Therefore, the German armored forces are now taking the path of quantity, choosing the No. 4 tank and the No. 3 assault gun as the main models. Moreover, including Daimler-Benz, Krupp, Rheinmetall, MAN, Boscher, Volkswagen, Henschel, Skoda, Polish National Industry (this is the original Polish arsenal, which is still operated by the Royal Polish Government), Renault, Soma, Hatch Cash, AMX (the above four are French companies) and other European Community tank manufacturers, under the command of the German General Directorate of Armaments, concentrated their tank production capacity into the No. 4 series, Assault gun series No. 3 and self-propelled gun series No. 2. After the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, all the factories were running at full capacity, and by July, the total output of tanks and assault guns in the countries of the European Community (not including Hungary, which had a weak industrial base and was unable to produce No. 4 and No. 3) exceeded 1,500 units.

Now the German Army finally has the conditions to play with the sea of tanks! (To be continued.) )