Chapter 406: The First Appearance of the Great Defense in Depth
After Mussolini's execution, his Falangist Party was dissolved by order of King Emmanuel III, and the executive power easily fell into the hands of King Emmanuel III, a promise given to him by Führer Rommel. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info
And the military power in Italy fell into the hands of General Edward, a student of the Führer Rommel, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the Italian armed forces by King Emmanuel III of Italy.
Edward, a fervent admirer of Führer Rommel, began to reorganize the Italian army at the behest of Führer Rommel, and those who were unsuitable or unwilling to serve as soldiers were released home by Edward, and Edward did not want an Italian army without combat effectiveness.
Italy has a total of more than 1.8 million troops, including the navy and air force, when Edward began to reorganize the army, many Italian soldiers asked to retire, Edward said first, the army is completely voluntary, he did not hesitate to let those Italian soldiers who do not want to be soldiers retire, and pay them a good amount of severance.
Of course, Edward's recruitment work was also carried out at the same time, and there were also militants in romantic Italy, Edward's recruitment work was basically smooth, and a month later, the number of Italian retirees reached a terrifying one million, and the number of soldiers recruited was only 450,000, so the total strength of Italy was reduced to 1,250,000.
The three divisions of the Italian SS were then dispersed to the Italian army for training, and the effectiveness of Edward's reorganization would have to wait until a few months later, when the Italian army arrived on the battlefield in the Soviet Union.
Mussolini disposed of it in this way, and the three oil fields given by Germany to Italy were also fulfilled as promised, and Mussolini's arrogance and ignorance made history change unexpectedly again.
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Petrovsk, the bridgehead from Ukraine to the Soviet Union, 300 kilometers straight is Stalingrad, Stalingrad is the most important railway node of the Soviet Union, and trains from the Far East go from here to Moscow.
The aid sent by the western United States was by this railway, and the oil from the Baku oil fields also passed through Stalingrad to Moscow.
The importance of Stalingrad was almost related to the life and death of the Soviet Union, and the defense force of such an important city was unprecedented.
According to intelligence, in order to keep this important city, Stalin deployed most of the troops drawn from the Far East in Stalingrad, so that Stalingrad's strength reached 650,000.
The Soviet Far Eastern Front had more than one million troops, and these troops were not greatly affected during the Great Purge, because the Soviet Far Eastern Front had to face the threat of Japan, so Stalin did not dare to carry out a large-scale purge in the Far Eastern Front.
Stalin's unintentional move gave the Soviet Union the most capable front, that is, the Soviet Far Eastern Front, and Zhukov led the Far Eastern Front to beat hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops to the ground in Nomenkan.
Stalin sent one million troops from the Far East to participate in the war, and only 350,000 were deployed in Moscow, and the remaining 650,000 were deployed in Stalingrad, which shows how much Stalin attached importance to Stalingrad.
Of course, Führer Rommel would not be making historical mistakes, and Germany absolutely could not divide its forces to attack Stalingrad, which was heavily defended, and that would be an act of seeking death.
In order to cut off the railway link between Moscow and Stalingrad, the German Army Group South only had to attack and advance between Moscow and Stalingrad, and it would be unwise for Germany to attack a heavily defended fortified city if it did not want Baku's oil.
So the offensive line of Army Group South was Petrovsk - Kharkov - Kamashin - Moscow.
Kamyshin is a small city between Stalingrad and Moscow, 350 kilometers from Moscow and 240 kilometers from Stalingrad.
As long as the Germans occupied the city, the railway from the Far East to Moscow would be cut off, as would the railway from the Baku oil fields to Moscow, and the capture of Kameshin, who had little defense, would obviously be much easier and less expensive than the capture of Stalingrad, but the effect would be the same.
Guderian now has more than 300,000 German regular troops on hand, and the rest of the troops either have other tasks or clear the remnants of the Soviet army in western Ukraine, while the Soviet regular army defending Petrovsk has more than 300,000, and the militia does not know how many.
Guderian couldn't figure out why the Soviet troops were like bamboo shoots after the rain, when a group was annihilated, a group immediately popped up, in fact, this is the advantage of the dictatorship -- all the forces that can be mobilized can be mobilized at any time.
The General Command of the Eastern Front was able to provide Guderian with very limited military information, only some aerial photographs. From the analysis of the photographs, the Soviet troops abandoned most of the outlying positions in Petrovsk, and they concentrated their main forces around Petrovsk.
From the analysis of aerial photographs, the Soviet army laid out several lines of defense in Petrovsk, each of which was unique, with various anti-tank trenches and artillery positions at intervals.
The depth of the entire defense line is very deep, the firepower is very appropriate, and there are still many people building various fortifications on the position.
Based on these latest developments, Guderian hurriedly sent a telegram to Manstein, explaining the real state of affairs in the Petrovsk region of the USSR. It was not that Guderian was timid and did not dare to attack the Soviet troops in Petrovsk, but that Guderian was afraid that once he could not break through the huge depth of the Soviet defensive position, it would affect the overall strategic plan of the entire Barbarossa.
When Manstein received the telegram, he also felt that the situation was urgent, and hurriedly sent an urgent message to Rommel:
"Führer Rommel, I think we're in trouble, the Soviets have invented a tactic specifically to restrain our blitzkrieg, called the Great Depth Strategy, come and see."
Rommel had just finished dealing with Mussolini's affairs, and before he could breathe a sigh of relief, Manstein's urgent message arrived.
Regarding the Soviet army's initial large-depth defense, Rommel felt that no matter how urgent the matter in his hands was, he must rush over it as soon as possible, and then use a devastating and fierce offensive to destroy the Soviet army's large-depth defense, thus making the Soviet army doubt this defense theory.
Before Rommel left Berlin, he also dealt with one thing, he ordered Field Marshal Paulus to lead a German armored division and two mechanized infantry divisions to attack Jerusalem by sea, and then help the Jews build a state.
Now the entire Afrika Korps is in charge of Marshal Paulus, and with his ability, there is no pressure to hold North Africa, and there is absolutely no problem in helping the natives of the Middle East to bully.
Paulus was captured by the Soviet army under Stalingrad in history, it was not a matter of his ability, but the trend of the times, Germany became the end of the crossbow because of the division of troops, and Paulus was powerless.
The plan to disturb the Middle East was thus quietly begun by the German Field Marshal Paulus, who was accompanied by more than 500 ships of various kinds provided by the Jews, a dozen frigates provided by the Americans, and more than 50,000 Jewish troops.
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[Fallen leaves want to ask for a monthly pass for the brothers, recommended. (To be continued.) )