The commander of the first battalion was Brauchitsch, but the commander of the second battalion was Manstein, yes, it was the famous imperial general Manstein who would be famous all over the world. Not only was the battalion commander Manstein, but the third battalion commander was also the future famous general Rommel, one of whom had previously served as the chief of the operations division in the cavalry division, and the other as a captain and company commander in Italy. Originally, Manstein and Rommel did not want to come, but Hitler personally wrote to them and gave them two benefits in the letter, and the two of them hurriedly stepped on the train to Berlin without saying a word.

The advantage of this is that they can command a tank battalion!

In fact, Hitler wrote letters to many celebrities, such as Guderian, but Guderian led a cavalry platoon in Poland at this time to fight the Polish national insurgents, and the task was arduous, and he could not leave for the time being, saying that he would have the opportunity to come to the Berlin regiment again in the future.

This is the message fed back to Hitler by Guderian's division, and I don't know if this is true or an excuse.

Hitler also looked for Moder, but at this time, Moder was the chief of staff of the Fourth Army, and the regimental temple in Berlin was too small to accommodate the great god Moder.

In Hitler's memory, there is another famous German general, that is, Rundstede, who seems to be very powerful in his impression, and Manstein and Bokezi are known as the three major German strategic experts. Hitler ordered the Security Service to investigate, and finally found out that Rundstead was actually friends with Bock, both members of the Army's Patriotic Union, and it seemed easy for Bock to invite Lundstead, but in the end, it was investigated that Rundstead was now the chief of staff of the 15th Army on the Western Front, and the officer was too big, and the regiment in Berlin was obviously condescending, unless Hitler gave up his position and let him be the regiment commander.

Rundstead couldn't be invited, but Bock recommended Rundstead's cousin Gothhard Heinrich to Hitler, for Rundstead's cousin Heinrich, Hitler also had a deep impression, it is said that in the later stage of the Soviet-German war, the Third Reich was defeated like a mountain, only the defense line commanded by Heinrich was impregnable, neither Zhukov nor Konev broke through his defense line, known as the top defense expert, Guderian said that he had rich experience in dealing with the Soviets, and the Soviets never defeated him.

In addition, Hitler also invited a lot of people, and von Kleist, the former chief of staff of the Guards Cavalry Division, was pulled by Hitler to the Berlin regiment as deputy commander.

There was also the fact that Schellner was invited to be the deputy commander of the 1st Battalion, and Schellner had gained fame and was awarded the Order of Blue Max last year when he used a reinforced company to block the 1st Romanian Regiment for two days and two nights. Originally, Schellner didn't want to come to the Berlin regiment, but Crown Prince Victor had a friendship with Schellner, and Victor personally wrote a letter to invite, so Schellner naturally came.

It's good to have the support of Crown Prince Victor, and you can transfer whoever you want.

The Berlin regiment is now full of talents, with deputy regimental commander Kleist, regimental chief of staff Weiklich.

The commander of the 1st battalion, Brauchitsch, and the deputy battalion commander, Schellner.

The commander of the 2nd battalion, Manstein, and the deputy commander of the battalion, Gotthard Heinrich.

The commander of the 3rd battalion, Rommel, and the deputy battalion commander, Kluge.

Hitler's subordinates can be said to be full of talents, not only the battalion and above are all elites, but also Halder, Paulus, Steinner and other future famous generals, looking at the regimental list, Hitler has a feeling in his heart that "all the heroes of the world are in my mine".

Having so many elites join is both a good thing and a bad thing.

For example, on this day, Hitler was writing a training program in his office when there was a knock on the door, and then Manstein, the commander of the second battalion, walked into Hitler's office and asked bluntly: "Commander, where are the tanks in our battalion?" ”

"Well, the tank will have it, be patient." Hitler beckoned Manstein to sit down and poured him a glass of water.

As soon as Manstein sat down, Rommel also went into Hitler's office to ask Hitler for tanks, followed by Kleist, the main reason why the three of them came to the Berlin regiment was that Hitler promised to let them command the tanks, but they had been in the Berlin regiment for more than ten days, and the shadow of the tanks had not been seen, so it was inevitable that they would doubt Hitler's promise.

At this time, although the tank was very primitive and bulky, and the technical conditions were still very weak, it was only a few machine guns installed on the tank, which were generally not taken seriously, and the middle and senior officers paid attention to shells and machine guns.

The density of firepower and the number of artillery are important factors that determine a war. But even so, the appearance of the tank attracted the attention of many people, including Rommel, Manstein and Kleist.

"Are you fooling us, there are no tanks at all." Suspicion was written on Rommel's arrogant face.

Kleist also said: "Yes, I heard that the empire has only produced a total of fifteen A7V tanks until now, and these fifteen are all on the front line, how can it be in the Berlin regiment?" ”

During the First World War, Germany did not attach importance to tanks, the Entente countries had hundreds of tanks, and Germany only had a dozen, and these dozen tanks were very precious, and it was unlikely that the German high command would attach rare tanks to the newly established Berlin Regiment.

"Want to see tanks? Then come with me. ”

Hitler did not hide it either, and took the three of them to sit in the military opel of the regimental headquarters, and soon came to the Krupp factory on the outskirts of Berlin, the main factory of Krupp is in the Ruhr industrial area, and this is a branch factory in Berlin.

Ozil, the head of the Berlin area of the Krupp plant, personally came to receive them.

"Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, the first A7V tank you need has been assembled and is ready to be delivered."

Ozil walked in the front to lead the way for Hitler, the lieutenant colonel in Ozil's mouth refers to Hitler, originally Victor promised Hitler the colonel regimental commander, but this promotion was widely controversial in the high command, because the regiment commanders before this were all lieutenant colonels, and the colonel's military rank was a bit high.

Even Hindenburg and Ludendorff objected, and Victor was not able to force it, so he was appointed lieutenant colonel.

Hitler, Manstein, Rommel, and Kleist walked into the Krupp factory, and there was a steel monster in the factory, which was the first tank developed by Germany - A7V.

The A7V tank is eight meters long and three .5 meters wide, and it looks like a behemoth, and the prototype of the A7V tank is a tractor.

The power system is two Daimler inline 4-cylinder, water-cooled gasoline engine power units with a maximum power of 100 horsepower.

This powertrain allows the A7V tank to reach a top speed of only 15 kilometers per hour and a maximum speed of 8 kilometers per hour off-road, which is equivalent to an adult jogging.

This speed was a bit slow, but there was no way, the better 200 horsepower engine was still being designed, so two civilian gasoline engines from Daimler had to be chosen.

Daimler's engine, Opel's car handling technology, the chassis of a Holt tractor, a 57-mm low-speed gun from the Krupp plant and armor protection made up the A7V tank at the Krupp plant.

"Lieutenant colonel, you said that armor steel plates are used, but such special steel plates are provided to the navy and air force in priority by the empire, and now even our Krupp company is in short supply, so ordinary steel plates are still used." Ozil said.

"It's okay in this regard, ordinary steel plates can also be used." Hitler didn't care, in fact the A7V tank had a front bezel of 30 mm and a side baffle of 15 mm, while the British Type I tank had only 6-9 mm, all ordinary steel plates.

In addition, the A7V tank has six Maxim machine guns and one gun, and compared to the British Type I tank, the A7V tank is much stronger in terms of firepower and protection.

The shortcomings of the A7V are also fatal, weighing 30 tons and having about 20 members, which makes the A7V tank very bulky and slower than the British and French tanks. It also has shorter tracks than the hull, meaning it can only climb small slopes and narrow trenches. The bottom of the car was only 0.2 meters above the ground, and it was not easy to climb over the trenches due to the heavy weight of the car, and the two Daimler engines with a total of 200 horsepower in the car were overwhelmed and often broke down.

These problems are all design flaws, and since Krupp delivered the first batch of A7V tanks to the army last year, these problems have been intermittently fed back from the soldiers at the bottom.

But Krupp did not even pay attention to these shortcomings, because the German top did not attach importance to tanks at this time, and the cost of building the first batch of tanks was enough to form an artillery regiment, and the gains outweighed the losses, so the German military no longer wanted to continue to build tanks.

Anyway, it was built for nothing, and it was only equivalent to a mobile fortress, which had no effect except to support the front-line infantry.

So, the development of German tanks came to a standstill.

This situation was not improved until Hitler accepted Viktor's order to form an elite Berlin regiment, and Hitler began to contact Krupp half a month ago to ask him to improve the A7V tank, and Krupp also lived up to Hitler's expectations, and soon improved the chassis of the Holt tractor, reduced the length of the tank and raised the chassis of the tank, so that the tank would not even be able to cross the trench. The weight of the tank has also been greatly reduced, it can only carry fifteen people, and two Maxim machine guns have been reduced, and the machine gun firepower has been reduced a lot, but the corresponding speed has been greatly improved, the previous maximum speed was only 15 kilometers per hour, and now it can run 25 kilometers, which is only slightly slower than that of a truck.

The current technology could only design such a tank, and Hitler was very satisfied: "I need thirty such tanks, how long will it take for Krupp to produce them?" ”

"It will take at least two months." Ozil held out two fingers and gestured.

Hitler shook his head and said, "In half a month I will have thirty tanks." ”

"Impossible, the first is that there are not enough manpower, and the second is that there is not enough steel, and it really can't be produced in half a month." Ozil grimaced.

"If you don't have enough manpower, you can divide the order to other mechanical military factories, and as for the steel, I will ship a large amount of steel to you within two days."

For steel, Hitler's idea was to ask for help from Victor, there must be a lot of steel in the royal warehouse, and he could extort a little from Victor, if there was really no steel in the royal warehouse, Hitler had to ask for help from the Hillemin company, and there was still some steel in the Hillemin company.

Ozil replied: "That's fine, we have a good relationship with Daimler and Opel, and I want to give them a little bit of the tank order, and they will be very happy." ”