This order had three purposes: first, the construction of the "Hedgehog" fortress would immediately halt the defeat of the German army to the west; secondly, to hold these important strategic and tactical points will be able to withstand the offensive of the Red Army; Thirdly, after achieving the first two objectives, the advance of the Soviet army will be slowed down. Although Hitler's order to resist caused huge casualties to the German army, there is no doubt that it was the right decision in the chaos of the time, and it saved the Germans from a collapse like Napoleon's army.

The chessboard-like defensive positions established by the Germans on the orders became an important part of the Soviet advance, and although the effect was only temporary, it could only delay the enemy for a short time, but such a situation enabled Hitler to reorganize and motivate the troops on the Eastern Front to face the winter offensive launched by the Soviets in order to repeat the victory of the initial counteroffensive, at which point the Soviets could no longer achieve a victory on the scale of the first 10 October.

After stabilizing the situation, the Germans immediately launched the Battle of Kharkov, which brought the battle to a temporary standstill, as both sides were exhausted. Both the German and Soviet armies are desperately trying to supply, and the German army's supply line is very long, and the Soviet Union is fighting on the territory of the country, so it is much more convenient to supply.

The Southern Army Group led by Li Mo is much better, and the supply speed is not slower than that of the Soviet Union at all, because Li Mo attaches great importance to repairing the railways in the Soviet Union, and at the same time, there is also Ukraine, a large food and arms base, as a backup, Li Mo's supply speed is even faster than that of the Soviet Union, and this Li Mo has more confidence for the next Kursk Armageddon.

The supply of the German Army Group North and Center was not ideal, the long railway lines, the sabotage of the partisans, the policy of ethnic discrimination, etc., made these millions of German elites not only have to be supplied, but also have to send a large number of troops to deal with the Soviet partisans. The recovery of the combat strength of these German troops was obviously much slower than that of the Soviet army, but these people still did not realize the importance of the loose national policy, that is, they did not implement the set of national loose policies pursued by Li Mo. It's really self-inflicted, and you can't live.

Stalin, in order to delay and deplete the German army, began to launch a local counteroffensive. At the beginning of the second week of January 1941. The Soviet offensive began, and one of the main forces of the Kalinin Front, the 3rd Shock Corps, broke through to the right flank of the German Army Group North. A breakthrough was opened in the German line on 8 January, and the German 16th Army led by General Busch was forced to begin a retreat under continuous pressure, allowing the Soviets to make some gains in a very short period of time.

At this time, the temperature had dropped to more than minus 20 degrees, which could be said to be peeing into ice, and Army Group North and Army Group Center could be said to have suffered in the Soviet counteroffensive, but Stalin did not dare to brush Li Mo's tiger whiskers, and Army Group South was well supplied. There were plenty of troops, the fighting spirit of the soldiers was very good, and Stalin was not a fool.

In just two months, from February 18 to April 21, 1941, the entire 16th Infantry Corps of the German 2nd Infantry Army, about 100,000 people, was surrounded by Soviet troops in the Dymiyansk area. In the process of being forced to retreat 100 kilometers, such a critical situation of encirclement and partition ran through the entire German defense line on the Eastern Front, and happened to countless German units.

In the face of such a dangerous situation, Hitler personally flew to the front and boosted morale, but the situation was still difficult to change, and the rout of Army Group North and Center remained uncontained. Hitler, who had no choice, remembered Limer, the former enemy commander-in-chief of Army Group South.

Army Group South under the command of Li Mo still stands like a mountain and sticks to the periphery of Stalingrad, and the Soviet troops do not dare to take a step beyond the thunder pool. However, Army Group North and Center had more than 4 million German troops and more than 1 million European Union troops being defeated by the Soviet army, which Hitler could not tolerate.

Even if Hitler knew that Li Mo was a dumb man and would not follow his command to fight many times, for the sake of Germany's victory, Hitler had to entrust this Marshal Li Mo, who liked to make his own decisions, to a heavy responsibility, and Li Mo was appointed by Hitler as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy on the Eastern Front.

At this time, Li Mo was under one person, above 10,000 people, and there were more than 5 million German troops on the entire Eastern Front. More than 2 million EU troops are all under the unified command of Li Mo. That would never have happened in history, and Hitler even held the post of commander-in-chief of the army himself. Limer's butterfly finally made Hitler make the greatest move, and he did not monopolize power.

Based on the current harsh battlefield situation and harsh climate. Li Mo hurriedly made major adjustments to the tactics of the Central Army Group and Army Group North, the most important of which was to establish and improve countless defensive systems similar to chessboards, and now these two army groups were losing ground under the counteroffensive of the Soviet army.

Even if they retreat into Poland, the weather will still be cold, so it is necessary to contain the rout of these two German heavy groups, otherwise the blood in the early stage will be in vain.

The "hedgehog" defense system is to establish countless large ring defense rings, each defense circle can be a division, can also be an army, of course, these defense circles are basically at strategic points, they may be surrounded by the Soviet army, or even annihilated.

But this can only be the outcome that a few defensive circles will encounter, because most of the defensive circles arranged by Li Mo are separated by a distance of 20 kilometers, and the adjacent defensive circles can be supported by artillery, and the Soviet army wants to annihilate the German army in a defensive circle, and the price to pay is at least about ten times, and the Soviet army cannot afford this loss.

The defensive node of the entire Eastern Front was now the town of Holm of Army Group Center, which was surrounded by a large area of impassable marshy terrain in the middle of a solid piece of hard land, on which the town of Holm was located, which was not only the only land bridge across the swamp, but also the intersection of two north-south and east-west roads.

This land bridge and two roads through the swamp will serve as a springboard in the spring, and both the Germans and the Soviets will use it for any strategic action in the future. From Limer's point of view, this strategic point of view is even more unavoidable, because each of these important points can launch a rescue operation against the 2nd Infantry Corps encircled in Dimyansk.

What's more, Holm was also on the launching line of Hitler's planned second offensive against Moscow and Leningrad, which would be detrimental to future offensive operations if it fell into Soviet hands. Given the importance of the place, Limer decided to include it in his signed "Defend to the Last Man" order list of areas that must be defended.

As a result, around the humble town of Holm, both warring sides developed major battle plans. (To be continued)

PS: Acknowledgements:

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fluefox1: Gift the Führer's Wrath chapter

Chapter 429 Brief Calm 20 Parts...... R655