Tens of thousands of German officers and soldiers were crippled by frost, and it was difficult for those who did not suffer severe frostbite to maintain any combat effectiveness. In the absence of supplies, horses were slaughtered in large numbers to feed their hunger, a direct consequence of which was that the lack of horses made it impossible to pull away all the artillery that required 14 horses to pull. They noted that the Soviet army towed artillery with tractors and, even though it lost most of its field artillery at the beginning of the war, still preserved a large number of medium and heavy artillery, and therefore significantly better equipped than itself.

By December 5, 1941, the 74 divisions of the German Central Cluster had lost their offensive capability due to bad weather, and were forced to turn into a frontal defense with a width of more than 1,000 kilometers south of Kalinin, Kryukovo, and Tula to Yelets, and the troops were either exhausted or unable to move at all.

It is true that the Soviets encountered the same problems as the Germans in their movements, but the German Army Group Center was fighting on the other end of a thousand-mile-long line of communication, and the Soviets were barely forty miles from their main bases. Any condition that hinders movement is bound to benefit the defender.

For the Soviet army, the early and cold winter will not affect them too much. Because they had sufficient clothing and food, and the Soviet tanks, in the weather of minus 30 or 40 degrees, drove away.

Most importantly, the Soviet army was given extremely valuable respite due to the cessation of the German offensive. By the end of October, the Soviet High Command considered the situation stable and began to transfer back some units as reserves, so that they could rest and receive further training. The Soviets began to make great efforts to compensate for the heavy losses suffered in Vyazma and Bryansk in the first two weeks of October and to prepare for the next German offensive.

According to Soviet historical records, a large number of military vehicles departed from Tomsk, Omsk, Sverdlovsk, and Kuibyshev, traveling 500 to 600 miles a day, without changing the nose and crew on the way. In October and November, the Soviet High Command made a great deal of logistical preparations for the defense of Moscow, organizing a large number of carry-on transport companies, animal transport vehicle companies, and sled transport companies, because the ability of horses to maneuver in mud or soft snow was far superior to that of wheeled motor vehicles. However, as a result of a good estimate of the difficulties caused by the inadequacy of transport and poor weather and terrain conditions, the forward troops were stockpiled with seven days' rations, six bases of fuel and three bases of ammunition.

And since October, a large number of aid supplies from Britain and the United States have also been sent to Moscow. The weather has tilted the scales of victory in favor of the USSR.

Up to this time, the reason why Germany had been able to achieve such brilliant results in the battles against the Poles, the French, the British, and the Soviet Army was entirely due to the fact that the German army had achieved great superiority in mobility and firepower through the concentrated use of tanks and tactical air force, and because of its good means of communication and bold command. Once mobility is lost, firepower is also lost, and the German tactical thinking of blitzkrieg is ineffective. The almost unbelievably harsh conditions of Russia and the muddy sea stopped all vehicles and destroyed the horses. The tracked vehicle could continue to drive, but the efficiency was greatly reduced, the fuel consumption was staggeringly large, and the fuel supply was interrupted, and soon the tracks stopped turning. There was little air support. Low clouds and poor visibility make it difficult to provide any form of sustained air offensive or airlift support.

The German infantry continued to march forward, marching knee-deep, and sometimes waist-deep, muddy water. However, they are no longer part of a powerful war machine that moves well together. With no tanks or air support, few artillery and mortars at their disposal, and sometimes even anti-tank guns left behind, the infantry could only walk a few miles a day at most. There is a shortage of fire support, ammunition, equipment and food, clothing, cold supplies, tents, and medicine, because even the necessities of life cannot be transported to the front. Suddenly, almost overnight, the Germans had to rely on a number of unsupported, exhausted, and dissatisfied infantry battalions that were the vanguard of the assault force to win the victory in the march to Moscow.

After thorough preparation and careful planning, the Soviets switched to a counteroffensive on December 5.

The German army, which was supposed to celebrate Christmas in Moscow, was now gradually and sometimes rapidly repulsed by the Soviets. By the end of February 1942, the Germans had been pushed back by the Soviets to between 150 and 400 kilometers from Moscow, and Halder recorded in his diary the heavy losses of German soldiers: by February 28, the total number of soldiers lost was 1005636, equivalent to 31% of the total German force. Among them, 202251 were killed, 725642 were injured, 46,511 were missing, and 112627 suffered frostbite. And this is not counting the heavy losses of Hungarian, Romanian and Italian units in the USSR.

As early as 1812, Napoleon, who was invincible in Europe, led an expedition of 600,000 troops to Russia. The French army relied on advanced tactics and fierce artillery fire to capture the city of Moscow in just a few months. But it was only an empty city, and the Russians burned everything they could when they retreated, leaving nothing useful for the French. A few weeks later, the bitter cold of minus 40 degrees Celsius descended, bringing a fatal curse to Napoleon's army, due to the lack of winter clothing, under the pressure of hunger and cold, in the winter of 1812, Napoleon's army was forced to retreat from Moscow in the bitter cold of minus 40 degrees, 600,000 soldiers were frozen and starved to death along the way, and by the beginning of December, only 15,000 of the 600,000 Napoleonic army remained.

It can be said that it was indeed the weather that saved Moscow and saved the USSR in history. Now there are two problems in front of Zhang Jun, the harsh winter of the Soviet Union will come in October, and the other problem is that Germany is about to face a two-front war, although Zhang Jun is trying his best to avoid the dilemma of Germany facing a two-front war, but the reality is that it cannot be done.

Although Germany was strong at this time, it was also a relatively difficult thing to easily take Moscow, especially from July to September, only three months, it was still a bit unrealistic to solve the millions of Soviet troops in the strong fortifications.

What to do? What to do? Zhang Jun meditated alone in the study, drinking tea for a while, and looking at the map for a while, but he didn't think of a good way.

By two o'clock in the morning, Zhang Jun had already made up his mind and began to write a campaign plan, since the Anglo-French alliance had become the main threat to Germany at this time, it was necessary to eliminate them, and Germany in history also first engaged in the Anglo-French alliance and blitzkrieg France, and it only took a month to defeat the Anglo-French coalition army. The war in France lasted only seventeen days, and of course Zhang Jun absolutely did not allow the Dunkirk retreat to appear.

At this time, the Soviet Union had fallen into 80% of Germany's strength, and they had to face countless armies in the entire Soviet Union, and these armies also had strong support from Britain, France, and the United States. Therefore, even if Germany needs to draw troops from the Soviet front to send back reinforcements, it is impossible to mobilize too many troops, two million is the limit, so that the German troops left in the Soviet Union plus the SS are only five million, and the Soviet Union has lost millions of troops, but the total strength at this time has reached 12.8 million people, can these more than 500 German troops take Moscow?

Can it or not, if Germany wants to forcefully attack regardless of casualties, it can still take Moscow, then Germany's losses will be irreparable, and what will Germany use to support the next war? Therefore, this strong attack regardless of casualties was vetoed by Zhang Jun, and the size of Germany's population absolutely did not allow this.

In this way, Zhang Jun came up with two necessary conditions: first, the war between Britain and France must be fought immediately to completely eliminate the sharp knife hidden in the belly of Germany, and second, a large number of troops cannot be drawn from the Soviet Union.

Therefore, when Zhang Jun formulated the French campaign, he had to be limited by these two conditions, so where did Zhang Jun find millions of troops to carry out the French campaign? Zhang Jun, as the head of Germany's armament department, of course knew about Germany's troop strength at this time.

At this time, there were more than two million regular troops in Germany, and they were mainly deployed in front of the Maginot Line to defend against the Anglo-French forces, so this also laid the foundation for the execution of the French campaign, and didn't Himmler recruit a million SS soldiers for Zhang Jun? Now in intensive training, this 100 SS Zhang Jun plans to quietly transfer to the border area between the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and then from the Ardennes to the heart of France.

Zhang Jun used such troops, but Germany was completely empty, there was no reserve force, this Zhang Jun also thought about it, during the Battle of Kiev, some of the Wehrmacht troops still suffered relatively large casualties, and now use this as an excuse to transfer one million Wehrmacht back to Germany for recuperation, and this million Wehrmacht is Germany's last mobile force and strategic reserve force. And the German ** team under the city of Moscow can only complete the encirclement of Moscow, and if necessary, it can solve some strongholds outside Moscow, and then it is to surround but not fight.

As for the specific plan of the entire campaign, Zhang Jun does not need Zhang Jun to do it, Zhang Jun only needs to recall the French battles in history, this plan is actually perfect, that is, Hitler finally gave a ridiculous order to let the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Anglo-French army slip away from Dunkirk.

Zhang Jun spent a night to write the general battle plan of the French campaign, and the next morning, hurriedly said goodbye to Windsor and Rommel and flew directly to Berlin, originally Princess Windsor was going to ask Zhang Jun what he was thinking, but when Windsor saw his tired look and haggard figure, the words to his mouth were swallowed back by Princess Windsor, if Princess Windsor asked Zhang Jun, Zhang Jun would definitely give Windsor a detailed explanation, and even explain why Germany did this.

But Windsor didn't ask because of her sincere feelings for Zhang Jun, and Windsor didn't ask, there was another very important thing, Windsor asked Zhang Jun for a radio, Windsor said that when he was homesick, he could contact his parents, Zhang Jun, a stupid pig with a brain, actually agreed to Windsor's request, and also taught Windsor how to fight.

…… (To be continued.) )