Guderian crossed his hands to his chest and looked down at the map.

"Do you feel that the combat effectiveness of the enemy forces in front of us has deteriorated?"

"Yes," replied the chief of staff, very cheerfully, "it is not the same army as the American army two days ago, I mean, they give me the impression that it is not the same army." ”

Another staff officer immediately interjected: "Maybe the elite troops are all gone?" ”

"No, based on the intelligence we have obtained, the elite of the US military is still alive." The chief of staff shook his head, "And I personally feel that the sudden decline in the combat effectiveness of the Americans is due to the fact that their operational planning has suddenly become a mess, and the previous sense of order has disappeared." ”

"That's right, it's a matter of command. The enemy's reaction speed in the face of our army's offensive has also slowed down, and he has lost the feeling of seeing and dismantling the moves. Guderian smacked his lips, "Could it be that something went wrong with the commander of the Americans?" Like sick? ”

"Do you suspect that Patton's lieutenant is in command now?"

"Possibly." Guderian didn't say much.

At this time, the communications soldier entered the large map room of the headquarters with a telegram, went straight to Guderian's standing salute, and reported loudly: "The urgent telegram from Potsdam, the urgent identification code used, has been sent by the telecommunications department without a second verification. ”

The telegram is generally not sent once and then stopped, especially in the era of World War II, it is too normal for a part of the message to be missed in the transmission, so the general telegram will be sent several times, so that the receiving unit can obtain the complete message by checking and supplementing it many times. The same was true for the German telegrams, but if the beginning of the telegram had a special code for the emergency program, the telegram could have been sent to the Afrika Army Command and placed in front of Guderian after the first decoding was completed.

Guderian took the telegram, glanced at it, and quickly found the village mentioned in the telegram on the map, poked the name of the village with his finger, and at the same time looked up and asked the chief of staff: "Check at once which unit has been to this village in the past two days." This place is now behind the battle line, and I guess which division's reconnaissance unit stumbled through by mistake, so let's check the reports sent by the various reconnaissance units. ”

The chief of staff glanced at the name of the village, then turned around and began to organize the staff officers to rummage through the reports submitted by the reconnaissance units in the last two days. After a while, a staff officer shouted: "I found it, we have a reconnaissance battalion that has been there, and the report says that the place looks like a headquarters at or above the division level, and it is mentioned that there are American combat vehicles stationed there, and there is quite a lot of anti-armor fire on the perimeter." ”

"That's not a divisional headquarters, that's George Patton's command center." Guderian put the telegram on the table, his face was quite happy, "George Patton was unfortunately killed when this unit raided his command center, which is why the American army has become so good in the past two days. Now commanding the battle is Patton's deputy, Bradley, who now seems to be a mediocre in military command. ”

"I see," the chief of staff also smiled, "then should we step up our offensive and settle the battle once and for all before the Americans send in other people who know how to fight?" ”

"That's right, we want to break through the current enemy's defenses in one fell swoop, defeat them to the point where they have no power to fight back, force them to retreat to Algiers, and even we can have a war of annihilation in this desert. Chariot units can still maneuver quickly without roads, but infantry units and baggage units can't do this, and if we cut off these roads, the goal of destroying the enemy's living forces is still very likely to be achieved. ”

Guderian drew a few times with a pencil on several roads on the map.

"It is these roads, as long as we can control them all, the enemy infantry and baggage teams that have not had time to withdraw through the Guò road will become our bag, unless they decisively abandon their heavy equipment and retreat back through the desert on foot, there is almost no way to escape."

"Even if they cross the desert on foot, we can hunt them down with our armoured troops, just as the cavalry did in the wars of the last century when they chased down infantry units that could not sustain phalanxes."

After the chief of staff finished speaking, Guderian nodded: "That's right. Anyway, let's revise our original attack plan. ”

Guderian had revised his offensive plan only two days earlier in light of the changes on the battlefield, and the revised plan was much more cautious and conservative than the original plan. These changes were arguably in response to the personal abilities of the enemy commander Patton, who was well aware of the fact that his previous battle plan was too aggressive and too unrealistic against an opponent like Patton.

But now that Patton is dead, and Guderian is facing Bradley, he feels that he can reinstate his original battle plan and not have to be so cautious.

As the saying goes, a soldier will be a nest of bears. If the general is not good, it is useless for the troops to fight, and the troops led by the fierce generals can play the effect of elite troops even if they are mediocre. It was the American army led by Patton who stopped Guderian's footsteps before, and it is impossible to say whether the American army led by Bradley can do the same thing. Anyway, Guderian didn't believe Bradley could stop him.

**

Two days later, after reading the phased combat report sent by North Africa, Lin Youde was overjoyed.

"As soon as Patton hung up, sure enough, the combat effectiveness of the American army was not good, and our army's offensive was smooth all of a sudden," he put the combat report on the table, and tapped the cover of the report with his finger and said, "Bradley, in another time and space, is lucky, good things are always encountered by him, so all the way to the top, in fact, when he fought with the German army under relatively equal conditions, almost all of them were deflated, and the battles he won were all fought when he had a huge advantage." Therefore, Barton in another time and space basically didn't like him, and Barton had already seen that this former subordinate had a few pounds and taels. ”

"The United States has allowed such a mediocre person to become the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff......" Viola muttered with a look of disbelief.

"People are originally engaged in personnel," Lin Youde shrugged, "He has been working in the Veterans Administration Bureau or something after the war, relying on veterans to establish a fairly wide range of contacts, and more importantly, people have been Marshall's secretary and are appreciated by Marshall." ”

"It's really incomprehensible that a country that would allow such a person to climb to the highest command position in the military is the number one military power in another time and space." Ysera also joined the conversation, "I think this shows that there is a problem with the officer training system in this country, can such a system produce famous generals?" ”

Lin Youde smiled: "Because the hard power of the United States makes them have a strong combat capability even under the command of mediocrity." By the way, the number one military power has suffered twice, once in North Korea and once in Vietnam - and later taught to be a man in Somalia, but that can only be regarded as a regional conflict, not a war. That's the answer to your question, my daughter. If the United States is unable to win a war on its own by virtue of its hard power, it will almost have lost the war, because it does not have the kind of famous generals who can turn decay into magic -- I mean, its army does not have that kind of famous general. ”

Lin Youde's words made Isera nod again and again, and his daughter's response made Lin Youde even happier, so he continued to speak: "The most terrifying thing about the U.S. military in another time and space is their scientific and technological superiority and their logistics support capabilities, these two points together give the U.S. military an incomparable firepower advantage, in addition, the U.S. military is also relatively advanced in terms of combat systems, and their post-war experience has always been good, forming many mature and reliable combat systems, These systems were instilled in the ranks of the U.S. Army in the form of combat doctrines. This allows the grassroots units of the US military to effectively use their advantages to effectively kill and injure the enemy. ”

"How do you feel that the latter part has something to do with Dad's thoughts on building your army?"

"Because a large part of my thinking on army building comes from the U.S. military." Lin Youde spread his hands, "In our time and space, there is a saying called 'take-it-ism', as long as it is good, we should take it and use it, and remove its dross and extract its essence." ”

Ysera nodded slightly, and then Viola forced the topic back to the point: "Since the offensive has resumed smoothly, does it mean that the fighting in North Africa will end in a short time?" ”

"It can't be said 'in a short time', after all, according to Guderian's original battle plan, this winter offensive will last for nearly two months."

Guderian's battle plan was divided into three parts, each part of which was implemented for about ten days, and between each part was reserved for transporting supplies and overhauling the tanks.

"And now because of Patton's excellent performance, Guderian's first phase of the offensive has run out of time," Lin Youde looked at the map and continued, "However, I'm not sure if the American army will be destroyed, and once the so-called avalanche effect occurs, I think Guderian's battle plan will still have a chance to be completed ahead of schedule." ”

"Wait a minute, Dad," Ysera called out abruptly, "your instructions to the secret envoy to the peace talks in Lisbon, Portugal, to hold them off until North Africa decides the winner, isn't that tantamount to forcing them to delay for a few months?" I thought you meant to let them drag it until Guderian made some big progress...... Won't the negotiations break down if it drags on like this? ”

"Don't worry," Lin Youde smiled at his daughter, "A few months is nothing, I've seen armistice negotiations that drag on for two years, well, in a place called Panmunjom." ”

(Mommy slept and fell into a pillow again, and as a result, I wanted to sleep all day today, and I had a headache...... Wait for me to sleep, and tomorrow the condition is a little better and then make up for today's two watches)