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In eastern Germany, the "Wolf's Lair" base camp between East Prussian Rastenberg and Kenteschen was shrouded in a torrent of snow, and the entire Central and Eastern European region was covered in snow, and the winter of 1942 came particularly early and was particularly cold. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

After the launch of the "Iron Hammer" plan on 12 July, Hitler led members of his Supreme Command to the "Wolf's Lair" base camp to coordinate the overall situation and patiently wait for the good news from West Asia, but no one could believe that only nine days later, the bad news came that cities and air force airfields in the Middle East, Turkey, and the Caucasus had been attacked by the Anjia Air Force, and almost all air power had been wiped out.

The role of the air force was fully demonstrated as early as September 38 when the German ** team launched an invasion against Poland, and now Hitler had no idea about letting more than 1.8 million of the most elite mechanized troops fight without the cover of fighter planes, especially when radio communications were seriously interfered with.

At midnight, Hitler was sleepless, and during the daytime high-level meeting of the Nazi Party, he denounced Goering, who was in charge of air force affairs, and after the meeting, Göring went back to Berlin to supervise the production of fighter planes, and Heydrich went to Denmark to lead naval aviation to fight against Britain, and the main task at present was to ensure the absolute safety of the aircraft carrier group in the case of losing air supremacy on the Western Front.

After sitting in his study for half an hour in front of the map of West Asia, speculating about what might happen at the front line, Hitler, who was in an irritable mood, simply got up and walked out of the room with a heating stove, and walked up the stairs to the "wolf's den" buried deep in the ground with the famous French dog given to him by Marshal Petain, the head of the Vichy government, which represented submission and follow.

Hitler was accustomed to a bat-like routine, often working until three or four o'clock in the morning and getting up at ten o'clock in the morning. Until the start of the damned war with the Chinese, Hitler's routine was very regular, and every afternoon and late at night, he would invite the generals working in the high command and the female secretaries around him to drink tea and chat, and enjoy the Richard played on the imported tape recorder. Strauss's opera "Freedom Festival". Relax your tired body and mind.

But. With the outbreak of war with the Chinese and its rapid stalemate, the air force now suffering huge losses and the front line being cut off by radio, Hitler has ordered the abolition of what he defines as a "harmful activity" that weakens the will to fight, and the daily routine has become disordered.

Three days ago, Marshal Rundstedt and Marshal Manstein made a joint telegram from an Italian warship off the coast of Beirut, saying that after repeated reconnaissance, it had been confirmed that the radio signal blocking in the entire West Asia region was caused by the interference wave emitted by the radar of the airship suspended at an altitude of 20,000 meters by the Anjia Air Force, and this interference wave was only aimed at the communication frequency of the German army. The communication of the squadron has not been affected, which proves that the other side has a communication channel.

The two Führers demanded that the High Command immediately organize German radio experts to develop a special radio transmission system to eliminate the strong electromagnetic interference of the An Jiajun. As for the direct destruction of the opponent's airship, there is nothing that can be done for the time being, because so far, no plane has been able to fly to such a high altitude until the accident of the "Zeppelin" in three or seven years. All German stockpiles of airships were destroyed by order of Goering. It is impossible to threaten the high-altitude airship installed with radar installed by the An Jiajun, and as for the time for the new airship, it can only start from cracking the electromagnetic signal.

During this hour-long telegram, Rundstedt said worriedly that he had lost contact with all the troops advancing eastward, and that he and Manstein were very worried about the safety of these nearly two million elite troops, knowing that almost all the German troops remaining to fight on the north and south flanks were newly formed Wehrmacht units and Romanian, Bulgarian, and Turkish ** teams. The combat strength is worrying, and once the combat cluster deep into the salient suffers heavy losses, the entire battle situation will collapse in an instant.

In his reply, Hitler criticized the passivity and pessimism of the two marshals Rundstedt and Manstein, saying that even if they lose the protection of the air force, the imperial ** team with a strong will and indomitable spirit is enough to destroy all opponents, and the two marshals should respond to the assault cluster in place at any time, and reproduce the heroic style of annihilating millions of Soviet troops in the battles of Minsk, Smolensk and Kiev.

Although Hitler showed confidence in front of people. But this could not alleviate the worries in his heart in the slightest, especially when he learned that the general of the other party's army in the West Asia region was Yin Jinan, whom he had always valued very much, this negative emotion was even worse. The atmosphere in the "wolf's den" has been extremely strange these days, and the military and political officials who have come here to report suddenly find that their Führer has become much more irritable, and he is described as haggard, and even walking is not as agile and powerful as in the past.

When Hitler came to the woods outside, the bitter cold wind invaded his neck one by one, and the slightly hunched body couldn't help but shudder.

There was silence around the heavily guarded "wolf's den", and the branches of the trees near and far were covered with snow, making it look unusually cold. However, it was precisely because of this silent atmosphere that Hitler felt free and unrestrained, and his body, mind and vision seemed to be broadened all of a sudden.

The fresh and cold air lifted Hitler's spirits, and his mind quickly became flexible, and his eyes fell on the vast woods in the night, and the snow was white and dazzling against the background of the night. Catching the snowflakes falling in the air with his hands, and seeing the snowflakes melting in his palms, Hitler suddenly felt dizzy and leaned weakly against a big tree.

"What the hell is going on at the front?" Leaning against the tree, Hitler muttered to himself, thoughts flooding through his head. If there is a real problem with the entire attack group, then Germany, which has lost these six main army groups, has a great chance of losing the war.

Half an hour later, Hitler returned to the "wolf's den" and went to the war room on the second basement floor. Halder was discussing the battle situation with the staff officers of the Army Command and the General Staff, and Hitler stopped to listen for a while, and when he heard someone say "retreat on all fronts", he couldn't help but angrily push open the door and walked in, and asked loudly:

"Why do you think that our German army is no match for the Chinese? As of the 21st, we have received continuous news that the front line is progressing smoothly, and it has only been a few days, why have you suddenly become pessimistic and disappointed? Perhaps this is precisely the strategy of the Chinese who could not resist our attack, and our retreat just allowed the other side's conspiracy to succeed! ”

Franz. Halder turned his head, extended his hand to Hitler in a Führer salute, and then replied cautiously:

"My Führer, looking at the whole battle, the situation is very dangerous. We can't afford to make the slightest mistake at this time. This withdrawal. It is not the original intention of our Army Command and General Staff, even if Marshal Goering's air force cannot completely suppress the Chinese fighters, as long as a certain balance of power can be maintained, we will definitely unswervingly support the Führer to continue the war...... Not to mention the Two Rivers region, even if it is an attack on Afghanistan and the subcontinent, we will make a careful and meticulous plan to fulfill the instructions of the Führer!

"However, now most of the fighters of our Air Force are lost on the Eastern Front, and the loss of pilots is especially painful. Since last week. The relieved British have launched a counterattack on the Isle of Wight and have continuously sent aircraft groups to bomb our inland cities, and Berlin has now become the focus of the other side's strikes, which fully shows that the key air supremacy on the Western Front has fallen into the hands of the British.

"In this case, if we still have to cling to the Eastern Front. I'm worried about Shetland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland, which we managed to take. It would fall into the hands of the Allies again, and then Norway and Denmark would be in danger. The only way to do this is to take the initiative to abandon the two river plains of West Asia, retreat to the Sinai Peninsula in the west, retreat to the central plateau of Turkey in the northwest, and retreat to the Caucasus Mountains in the north, and concentrate our efforts on protecting the stability of our European territories and maintaining the production security of Libyan and Romanian oil fields. After accumulating enough fighters, try to recover the Baku oil fields and Egyptian oil fields. It is imperative that the preservation of our elite army is the most important thing! ”

Hitler sneered, strode over to the large sand table next to the conference table, and picked up his baton: "Do you know what a large area this is? This colony, which had long been under the control of the British, was not only the gateway to Persia and India, but also the most powerful guarantee for the resumption of oil production in Baku and Egypt, the improvement of the current dire oil situation throughout Europe, and the first front line to protect the Balkans, Ukraine, and the Don River that we currently possess. Once we choose to retreat. Don't want to go back there in the future, not to mention the hard work of many years, hundreds of thousands of brave soldiers died in vain. ”

Speaking of which, Hitler thought that whenever there was a crisis, the Wehrmacht generals always tried to interfere with their own decision-making, and could not help but shout angrily: "No, we will not leave the Two Rivers region even a single step!" I'm sure my soldiers will surprise me! ”

There was silence in the war room, and Franz. Admiral Halder didn't understand why Hitler was so persistent, he turned his head to look at the sand table of the West Asian landscape in miniature proportions, was silent for a while, and said:

"My Führer, no one wants to leave the Plain of the Two Rivers, where not only is the strategic location very important, but there is also a lot of oil in the Khuzestan region of Persia, and if the Empire can control it, the outcome of the war between the Axis powers against the Allied countries will be doomed! However, the problem now is that the difficulties we face have exceeded our imagination, since the outbreak of the air war in West Asia on the 21st, due to the loss of vital air supremacy, our transport and supply lines have been subjected to continuous air raids, and the transportation of supplies through the railways and roads of Turkey and the Caucasus is less than half of what it was before the war!

"This time, the troops we participated in the offensive were not tens of thousands, but more than 1.8 million, plus four or five million troops in three combat clusters, and the daily consumption of materials was a terrible astronomical amount, and we could not fully guarantee them at all. If we persist in fighting regardless of reality, the direct consequence will be that our tanks, armor, and transport vehicles will run out of fuel, and our guns will run out of ammunition, and the starving officers and men will have no choice but to confront each other with their bare hands.

"Rather than losing in vain to that point, it is better to retreat in advance while our army has a certain amount of inventory, and everything will be fine in the case of shrinking the defensive line."

Hitler was not entirely ignorant of military affairs. Halder's analysis, a sense of powerlessness came over me. There was silence for a while before he pointed to the sand table and asked:

"Isn't it possible to solve the problem of replenishment by means of night delivery? Franz, generals, you see, Latakia, Tartus, Tripoli, Beirut, Haifa, and Jaffa are all excellent seaports, and we can send supplies to the ports of the Aegean coast by rail, and then send the Italian transport ships to the Middle East, and then to the front-line officers and soldiers by truck, the distance is not far! ”

Franz. Halder said with a wry smile: "My Führer, there are no large woods in the Lianghe Plain, and there are few mountain valleys that can hide a large number of supplies, and the convoy is very conspicuous in the wilderness during the day, in fact, from the 21st to the present, our transport trucks have lost nearly half of them under the continuous attacks of the Chinese Air Force, and it is impossible to have such a large capacity." At the same time, it would be too cruel for our mighty mechanized corps to fight without air cover, and at the same time a huge waste of the precious resources of the Empire! ”

Hitler was very annoyed: "Speaking about the past, you all want to run away......"

"Führer!"

Hitler's military adjutant Schmund walked in from outside the door with a panicked look, and handed him an urgent telegram after coming to Hitler's side. ”

Schmund nodded: "This is the news from Field Marshal Bloomberg himself...... The 24th Motorized Corps of the Ninth Army encountered the ** Mechanized Corps on the east bank of the Celsar River, and when the news was sent, the battle situation on the east bank was already in an extremely unfavorable state, and the tanks and armored vehicles of the Chinese were almost vast and endless......

"Judging from the offensive direction of the central ** team, Admiral Hult and his troops, who have lost contact for several days, must be more than lucky! As for the southeast cluster and the south cluster, the situation was still unclear at the time of the news, but based on the frequency of sorties of the Chinese air force group in the past few days, as well as the fact that many military stations were bombed and empty, it is believed that the situation will not be too optimistic, and Marshal Bloomberg asked for reinforcements while holding the line to find out the truth......

"On the orders of the commander of the Middle East Army, Field Marshal Rundstedt, the commander of Army Group B, Field Marshal Manstein, led four divisions of the Wehrmacht, as well as the Romanian Second Army and the Turkish Third Army, to the rescue. Marshal Rundstedt telegraphed and suggested that as soon as it was confirmed that there was a problem with our outstanding strike cluster, the entire Middle Eastern Army would be ready to withdraw from the Lianghe area. ”

Hitler's face turned red, his voice trembled, and he said again and again: "Goering misunderstood me, and the Air Force misunderstood me......"

Franz. Halder was secretly happy in his heart, although he didn't know how miserable the front line was, but it was always a good thing for the current German army to withdraw and shrink the defensive line, and asked quietly at the moment: "Führer, do you need the General Staff to make relevant plans?" ”

Hitler pondered for a long time and then said, "Do as you want!" ”

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