Later generations of military enthusiasts always complained that Germany failed to mobilize in time during World War II, resulting in the blonde Aryan supermen always facing the Soviet Red Army, which was superior in numbers and power on paper, on the Soviet-German battlefield. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info But they tend to ignore the fact that mechanized equipment needs to be fed with plenty of fuel!

And the amount of fuel that Germany has directly determines how many tanks and planes the "Germanic Supermen" can use.

Of course, in the later stages of the war, when Germany entered the passive defense stage, mechanized troops no longer needed to maneuver over long distances, and the logistics line was relatively shortened, they could use less fuel to support more mechanized equipment.

However, compared with the United States and the Soviet Union, the two oil tyrants who have successfully mastered a total of 300 million tons of oil, Germany can only support 10 million tons of various oil and how many armored troops and aircraft can be supported by heels.

Fortunately, Germany, under Hersmann's guidance, chose to win the Mediterranean and the Middle East oil sea first...... This gave the Soviet Union an extra year to prepare for war and arm a more powerful Red Army, making it impossible for Germany to launch a large-scale all-out offensive in the first year of the Soviet-German war.

However, after taking the Middle East oil sea, Germany's oil bottleneck has been greatly eased. The EC now has an expected annual production of 34 million tonnes of oil (1943) and 8 million tonnes of synthetic fuels (including various fuels from coal and oil shale). In addition, the capacity of the 15 upcoming synthetic fuel plants (coal-to-liquids) in the UK is not counted, and if these plants are put into operation, the EC will receive millions more tonnes of fuel oil a year.

However, the production of fuel, which has increased several times compared to history, does not all translate into advantages for the German mechanized troops. Because of this time and space, in order to win over European countries, Germany had to use valuable oil resources to maintain the normal operation of the economies of various countries.

According to the 1943 distribution plan, France, Rome (Italy), and the United Kingdom (mainland and India) received 250,000 tons of oil quota each month, Germany (including Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Slovenia) 300,000 tons, and the rest of the European Community together 250,000 tons. In total, 15.6 million tonnes of valuable fuel fuel is used for the training needs of the economies of various countries and the domestic armed forces (the training oil of the German army is not included in the target of 400,000 tonnes per month).

About 42 million tons of oil minus 15.6 million tons, leaving 26.4 million tons, which seems like a lot. But Germany in this time and space has one more oil-guzzler than in history - the navy!

With the continuous entry into service of a large number of new ships, the size of the European Combined Fleet is getting bigger and bigger, and the total tonnage is now close to 3 million tons! It is 50% more than the total tonnage of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and the fuel consumption is naturally astronomical.

If the fleet goes out en masse, then the fuel consumption in a day is at least 20,000 tons! And this is without counting the fuel consumption of the aircraft owned by the combined European fleet. Therefore, for this combined European fleet alone, the General Directorate of Fuel Reserves of the German Wehrmacht has allocated a quota of 4 million tons of heavy oil/diesel and 500,000 tons of aviation gasoline for a year.

In addition to the United European Fleet, the European Combined Transport/Escort Command is also a large fuel user.

The command controls more than 15 million tons of cargo and tanker ships with a full load displacement and has more than 150 escort ships, including 18 escort carriers. Therefore, the annual fuel quota (mainly diesel) is not less than 2 million tons (a significant part of the ships are coal-burning).

After deducting the Navy's 6.5 million tonnes of fuel quota, only 19.9 million tonnes of fuel was available to the Wehrmacht.

Of these, 1.9 million tonnes belong to the "strategic reserve", which is reserved for emergencies. The remaining 18 million tons were the total amount of fuel available to the Luftwaffe (including the Marines), the Army, and all foreign armies operating under the command of the Wehrmacht's General Staff in 1943. This is more than double the number of years in history when the German army had the most abundant fuel supply.

However, with twice as much oil, the German army, including the armies of the countries fighting for Germany, had at least twice as many aircraft, tanks and various vehicles in reserve!

Therefore, the Wehrmacht has to continue to live carefully on the fuel issue.

"The first half of '42 almost spent the previous accumulation, and from the second half of '42 onwards, there was only some savings per month. In addition, the Navy captured many American oil tankers before the armistice with the United Kingdom. As a result, we had 1.496 million tonnes of reserves at the end of March. "The answer to the question of fuel reserves is the director of the Defence Forces Reserve Directorate, who is now Air Force General Edward. Milch.

He didn't mix as well in this time and space, serving as the head of the Air Force Armaments Bureau and the commander of the Air Force Transportation Command. Now he is the head of the reserve bureau in charge of all strategic material reserves of the Wehrmacht, but such a position is very suitable for him.

"How much richer can you get every month?" Hersman asked.

"About 200,000 tons," Mr. Milch said, "it's oil, and if it's refined into gasoline, it's not that much." ”

"Fight for six months," Hersman pondered, "to start attacking in May and finish in November." That's about 1.5 million tonnes of reserves, plus 1.4 million tonnes of the rich April-October, for a total of 2.9 million tonnes. He thought for a moment and asked, "The army and air force should still have some reserves, right?" ”

"Yes," Guderian replied, "the situation in the Air Force is not clear, the words of the Army...... Not counting the reserves of units below the army level, there are definitely 1 million tons of oil products now. In addition, about one-third of the oil issued each month is reserved for battle. ”

"The same goes for the Air Force," said Milch, "and with the reserves of the Air Force, Navy Air Force, and Army, we have a maximum of 5 million tons of oil by the end of October this year, and another 3.5 million tons of battle reserves from April to October, so that the maximum is 8.5 million tons." ”

Hersman touched his chin and said, "Leave another 300,000 tons of emergency reserves, 1 million tons for South America and India, and the remaining 7.2 million tons for the attack on the Soviet Union." ”

"Up to 1,200,000 tons per month," Guderian shook his head, "that's not a lot compared to our vehicles and planes!" ”

"Then ...... Then fight at the gates of Moscow! Hirschman calculated for a moment and said, "The straight-line distance from Nerves, Lithuania to Moscow is only 780 kilometers, so we must have enough oil to fight Moscow, right?" ”

"Enough." Guderian nodded and said, "If we want to outflank Ukraine and advance to Stalingrad, our oil supply will be very tight." But if Moscow is the target, then there is no problem. But Moscow is not easy to fight......"

"You don't have to really fight," Hirschman shook his head, "you can fight a decisive battle with the Soviet Union's Western Front and Kalinin Front near Smolensk, and then press close to Moscow after victory, and then fight a decisive battle with the Soviet reserve front, and finally go south to Kharkov and Donetsk with lightly armed troops with less mechanized equipment, all the way to the Sea of Azov." ”

"Going south with lightly armed troops with less mechanized equipment?" Guderian thought for a moment and asked, "Marshal of the Reich, do you think that after our victory outside Moscow, Stalin will mobilize a large army from Ukraine to the north?" ”

"Definitely," Hirschman smiled, "Leningrad is besieged, and Moscow is in danger...... Stalin should have known the consequences of the fall of both cities! ”

Now there is a legitimate court of the Russian Empire on the Germans' side! If Empress Olga had received both Moscow and Petrograd, then the Bolshevik rule in Russia would undoubtedly have come to an end.

So Stalin was bound to fight in Moscow!

"Of course, it is possible that Stalin, the great leader of the Bolsheviks, would have accepted our offer of peace," Hersman said with a laugh, "and that the war would have been won." ”

……

"Strengthen the Southwestern Front, weaken the Reserve Front and the Kalinin Front?" Joseph. Stalin's brow furrowed deeply, looking at the outline of the battle plan that Pavlov and Shalashnipov had just sent. "Will the weakened Kalinin Front be able to complete the Leningrad relief operation?

And also...... What if the Germans focus their attack on the middle? ”

"Comrade General Secretary," said Marshal Pavlov, "we have already considered that the Second Battle for the Relief of Leningrad will be postponed until June 1. Because by that time, we will basically be able to determine what the main goal of the Germans is. ”

Stalin smoked his pipe, thought for a moment, nodded and said: "They will definitely launch a big offensive this year, because their ally Japan will obviously not be able to hold on for a long time...... If they could not defeat us in 1943, then in 1944 they would have to fight alone. ”

"Yes," Gorashnikov said, "and the climate of the Soviet Union dictated that the best time for the Germans to attack was between May after the muddy season in the spring and October or November when the muddy season in the autumn arrived." They had to beat us in just 6 months, so it was impossible to waste a whole month. Therefore, the time of the offensive must be in May. ”

"Yes, it must be May." Stalin also agreed with this judgment, because the Germans had been preparing for a rest since the late autumn of last year, and by May they had been resting for half a year, and there was no problem of insufficient preparation.

"So...... If their attack is aimed at the middle," Stalin asked, "are we sure of defeating them?" ”

"Yes!" Pavlov said, "According to the plan, Comrade Zhukov will unify the command of more than 2.5 million troops of the Kalinin Front, the Western Front and the Reserve Front to fight a decisive battle with the Germans!" (To be continued.) )