"Admiral Bock, I order the cancellation of the operational plan of the 19th Panzer Corps to rush to Lviv, and the Panzer Corps is immediately retracted and ready to be transferred to the Western Front."

September 10, 1939, Headquarters of the Eastern Front in Stedin. Ludwig. Feng. Senior General Heinsberg-Hersmann was working with the commander of Army Group North, Fedor. Feng. Admiral Bock was on the phone, and he was giving Bock the latest orders.

"General," came Feng from the receiver of the phone. Bock said in a somewhat hoarse voice, "Is the situation on the Western Front very tight?" ”

Now the situation on the Eastern Front can only be described as a great one! On the morning of 8 September, the 16th Panzer Corps of Army Group South (the main force was the 4th Panzer Division) joined forces with the southbound "Manstein Tactical Group" (the main force was the 10th Panzer Division) at the confluence of the Buchula and Vistula rivers.

After the completion of the division, the Polish army cluster southwest of the Vistula River and west and north of the Buchula River (a patchwork of the main forces of the Poznan Army, the Primorsky Army, and the Lodz Army) was completely encircled. According to Air Force reconnaissance, the number of this Polish army is likely to exceed 150,000.

At Radom, about 90 km southeast of Warsaw, the remnants of the Prussian Army Group, the former general reserve of the Polish army (they had already been defeated on the east bank of the Pilica River), were also surrounded by the 15th Panzer Corps.

On the Southern Front, the defensive line of the Carpathian Army had also collapsed, and it was only a matter of time before it was divided and surrounded by the infantry of the German 14th Army and the Slovak army.

On the northern front, Poland's Modlin Army was also defeated and most of it was annihilated, and a small part of the troops retreated to the south bank of the Narev River northeast of Warsaw to join up with the newly formed Veshkov tactical group, temporarily relying on the Narev River to establish a very thin defensive line. However, such a line of defense could not withstand the attacks of the German Third Army and the 19th Panzer Army (held by Army Group North).

In addition, the Narev tactical cluster of the Polish army, which was originally deployed in the southeast of East Prussia, has now begun to move south, most likely to the Brest fortress or Lublin. If the 19th Panzer Army is now used in pursuit, the possibility of destroying the Narev cluster is very high.

"The situation on the Western Front is not tight," Hersman said, holding the telephone receiver, "the Dutch are still delaying, and the Anglo-French forces will need some time to move." The 19th Panzer Corps is now being moved west because the objectives of the Polish campaign have been largely achieved. ”

"What? Basically achieved? Admiral Bock seemed taken aback, "But the Poles still have many troops, and the city of Warsaw has not been taken." ”

"There is no need to occupy Warsaw for the time being," said Hersmann, "and the Third Army should withdraw from its present front and gradually return to East Prussia; The Fourth Army, the Manstein cluster, was supposed to fight east of the Vistula. After the annihilation or expulsion of the Polish Poznan and Prussian clusters, the front of Army Group South would also shrink to the west and south. ”

"General, I don't understand, why do we do this?" Admiral Bock asked, "Are we going to negotiate with Poland?" ”

"Negotiations are already going on in secret," Hersman told Von on the phone. Bock, "Our position at the moment is to restore the Polish-German border in the '1918 Treaty', and at the same time to station troops in former Austrian Eastern Galicia, without considering the ...... of destruction and annexation of Poland"

Poland, of course, is to be annexed! But there is no need to shout hysterically, to make the Poles and you desperate. What is the need? It doesn't matter how it was annexed in history, Hersmann doesn't care, anyway, in this time and space, there is no need for Germany to be so ugly.

How good what happened in Lviv this time, the Ukrainian people are crying and shouting for Germany to annex it, this is the spirit of hegemony!

Therefore, immediately after the "Lviv incident", Hersmann talked to Schleicher and Hitler on the phone, and determined the latest plan for resolving the war on the Eastern Front:

1. The destruction of Poland and the occupation of Warsaw are not considered at the moment - that would only cheapen Stalin. If the Germans took Warsaw and at the same time Poland proper, it would mean the end of the Polish Confederation and the Polish army on the Eastern Front would lose the fighting spirit to resist the Soviet Union. This time, Stalin played a trick on Germany on the issue of declaring war on Poland and Britain and the United States, so Germany naturally would not completely knock Poland down and let the Soviet Union eat meat comfortably.

2. The western border line of Soviet Russia as stipulated in the Treaty of Brest shall be the military demarcation line for the occupation of Western Ukraine. The west is under the full control of the Germans, and the east is controlled by the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

3. Germany does not participate in the resistance of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, but it can open Western Ukraine to accept Ukrainian refugees from the Right Bank - refugees now, and in a few years they may be good fighters for National Socialism who hate the Soviet Union!

Fourth, Germany does not annex Western Ukraine at present, but actually dominates Western Ukraine in the form of military occupation, waiting for the war between the Soviet Union and Poland to be decided, and then holding a referendum - this is to give the Poles a little illusion.

5. To start peace talks with Poland, first proposing to determine the western border and occupy all of Lithuania based on the "Polish-German Treaty of 1918". At the same time, Germany offered to occupy Western Ukraine until the end of the Soviet-Polish War, as well as to occupy all of Poland west of the Bug River when Poland was defeated by the Soviet Union, in order to avoid complete occupation of Poland by the Soviet Union. The German occupation of Poland and Western Ukraine would remain until the end of the world war.

6. Germany pledged to remain neutral in the future Soviet-Polish war and would not support the Soviet Union, nor would it support Poland - because the Soviet Union had not fulfilled its obligation to wage war against Poland, Germany would not destroy all Polish troops for the Soviet Union. However, the dividing line between the previous partition of Poland is still in effect. Germany will not occupy the lands that belonged to the USSR!

This is Hersman's way, and the occupation is also dignified, and it must be convincing.

Of course, Hersmann's approach was also based on the fact that the Polish army actually had some strength. On the Western Front alone, the Polish army also has at least four tactical clusters at the army group level, including the Poznan Army, the Warsaw Army, the Lublin Tactical Group, and the Narev Tactical Group.

Moreover, three of the group armies (clusters) are still composed of elite troops, and their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated. Although it could not deal with the German army, if it was transferred to the east of the Bug River, it would probably be a pile of hard bones for the Soviet Red Army. Let Stalin gnaw slowly!

Germany had just ended the war on the Eastern Front early, so that it could concentrate on preparing for a decisive battle on the Western Front. Although the Polish campaign lasted only 10 days, a large number of problems were exposed. There are problems caused by insufficient training of troops (especially armored forces), problems caused by lack of command experience (no one has ever commanded armored forces to fight), and there is also a problem of tactical thinking - the German generals are still too conservative in the use of armored forces.

Of course, the biggest problem is still in the armament! One of the most troublesome is the tank. Although the German army crushed the Polish lines with tanks, the German tanks were far less powerful than they seemed.

The second tank lacked both armor and firepower, and was easily damaged on the battlefield, and the 37mm gun was enough to inflict great losses on them. The 38T tank performed well, but there were not enough of them, and it should have completely replaced the number two. Tank No. 3 didn't seem to have much of a chance to perform, and its 50mm L42 gun failed at the time of testing, so it had to temporarily install a 37mm gun, which was as powerful as the 38t tank gun (and the same model).

The 75 mm L43 gun of the No. 4 tank was also unqualified - it was not easy to develop a long-barreled tank gun, because it could not be too big or heavy, and it was necessary to find a way in materials and processes, which required time to be tested again and again. However, Hersman did not study metallurgy in his previous life, so he did not have this knowledge. Therefore, there is not enough time for the military industry, although the gun was barely developed, but the quality is not up to par, and the service life is too short. The commanders of the armored forces were too fond of using such "large-caliber" guns (because they lacked self-propelled guns), and as a result, only 10 days after the start of the war, most of the guns of the No. 4 Tank had already had their barrels replaced, and the barrel reserves were in short supply.

In short, there are a lot of problems of all kinds, and it will indeed take a while to solve them before we can guarantee that the French will be brought to the ground.

……

"Oh? So, the Germans are not going to occupy Warsaw? Rez-Shimigvi had seen the "six-point peace conditions" offered by Hersmann in the Brest Fortress, and in the past few days he had been deploying a counterattack while moving the high command, which had led to a series of confusion in command, so much so that the counterattack, which should have begun long ago, was not launched until the morning of 11 September.

The high command of the Polish army was now moved to the Brest fortress east of the Bug River. So it took Natalie a whole day in a car from the Italian embassy to arrive at the new headquarters of Rez-Shimig from Warsaw with the radio and a message from Hersmann.

"No, they're going to take Warsaw eventually," Natalie. Leshinskaya seemed to smile bitterly, "When your hundreds of thousands of troops are completely defeated by the Soviet Red Army, the German army will be able to occupy Poland openly according to the armistice agreement." ”

"The occupation must be above board!" Reiz-Himigvi snorted coldly, "When did these Germans become as hypocritical as the British?" ”

"Actually, most of them are quite realistic," Natalie shrugged, "but the current commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, General Hersman, is quite hypocritical, and an armistice with Poland is also something he strongly advocates." But you still have to accept a hypocritical truce, am I right? ”

The Polish marshal sighed, Natalie was right, Poland must accept it, because the Soviet Union will soon attack in the east, and this is the war that really cares about the survival of the Polish nation! (To be continued.) )