The Luftwaffe top brass could seriously sum up the advantages and disadvantages of the two sides in the air battle that had just ended, and adjust their own deployment accordingly, while the German Army had no leisure to deal with these matters, because at this time the Chinese offensive had already begun, and the attack like a hammer was aimed at the Austrian and Turkish armies blocking the front. "Don't look at the Austrian and Turkish armies, there are 150,000 troops, but I still think they can't complete the set task!" At the German high-level meeting, Guderian said with a gloomy face. The so-called established task is not to let Austria-Hungary and the Turks block the Chinese offensive, but to use the fortresses of bunkers to delay the Chinese offensive in the early stage of the war, and in the middle of the war, rely on the city of Kirkuk to attract the main Chinese forces near the city to facilitate the general offensive of the German army.

"The Turks may not be able to do it, but General Schrager's Austrian army is still relatively strong, and it is obvious to all on the Italian battlefield." Rundstedt on the side said that combat effectiveness cannot be determined by winning or losing alone, although the Austrians in northern Italy can not be said to be very good, but it is also the level of the general German army, not to mention their numerical superiority, even if the armored forces can quickly break through the defensive line, they still need a large number of mechanized infantry to completely eat these troops. According to the analysis of the intelligence collected by the Germans, the number of mechanized infantry in China is not abundant, in this way, if Huaxia wants to break through these fortresses, it can only be slowly sharpened with long-range artillery, and it is okay to finally defeat it, but the consumption of Huaxia will also be very large, if it is not allowed to fight, it will leave a few thorns on the rear front of Huaxia, so Rundstedt believes that no matter how Huaxia fights, the Allies seem to be sure to make a profit.

Together with Schrager, he studied how to deal with an armored attack. If your own armor is not mobile, the best thing to do is to use static defenses and fortifications to deplete. Then identify the weak links of the opponent and concentrate on counterattacking. Considering that Austria and Turkey did not fight independently, their task was only to delay the opponent's attack. It was the two German Panzer Divisions in the North and the four Panzer Divisions in the South that really played a decisive role. Although the transportation center in the north let Huaxia bomb once, there will be some obstacles in transportation, but it is definitely not a fatal problem, and the 4 armored divisions in the south can attack at any time, so Schrager's troops do not need to consider the problem of taking the initiative to attack, as long as they can hold it in the early stage, attract the opponent's troops, and wait until the German army launches an attack and then blossoms in the middle.

And the Austro-Hungarian and Turkish were also deployed in this way, with the outer line of defense in addition to a few well-prepared support points. Everything else can be discarded. THE MAIN FORCES OF THE ARMIES OF BOTH COUNTRIES ARE CONCENTRATED WITHIN A RADIUS OF 30 KM CENTERED ON KIRKUK, WHERE THE TROOPS OF THE TWO COUNTRIES HAVE BUILT RELATIVELY COMPLETE TRENCH SYSTEMS AND FORTRESS GROUPS, AND EQUIPPED WITH ANTI-AIRCRAFT AND LONG-RANGE ARTILLERY AT KEY SUPPORT POINTS. Coupled with minefields and various obstacles, as well as a large number of tank destroyers and other mobile forces, as well as relatively sufficient reserves, Schrager once confidently said that if Huaxia wanted to break through these lines, then they would march on waist-deep blood! The Austro-Hungarian forces were mainly responsible for the periphery when the opposing side broke through the defenses outside the city. Turkish and Austro-Hungarian infantry could still defend themselves with barricades, sewer lines, and fortified houses until the attackers had exhausted all their forces. Don't look at the level of equipment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is a grade lower than that of the Germans, but after all, it has also participated in the trench confrontation in World War I, and the repair of fortifications and defense are still relatively level.

If only that's all there is to it. Schrager's tactical level is already acceptable, but in fact Schrager has done more than the average person thinks. As a defender, in addition to taking into account the bunker, sufficient troops and supplies. It also needs to keep the attacker from going all out. Although the Germans promised to attack on the periphery, they did so on the principle of self-reliance. Drawing on the experience of the British in raiding German transport lines, Schrager also allocated some of his mobile forces to attack China's fragile supply lines and small forces. After some arrangement. Not only Schrager was very satisfied with the entire battle plan, but even the German officers represented by Rundstedt were very much satisfied with this plan. With a powerful decoy and the German tanks' numerical superiority, it is impossible to lose this battle!

While the Germans are full of confidence, China is also full of confidence. If the confidence of the Central Powers is based on historical experience, then China's self-confidence is based on the help of the travelers and the transcendence of historical experience. The Germans proved that the staff officers always had a foolproof plan for the last war, and the Huaxia proved how important vision and new strategies really were.

In the presence of tanks, the coordination of armored forces and other units will be the main force to break through the opponent's defenses, and the Germans did the same. The Huaxia side did the same at first, but after many exercises and demonstrations, the Huaxia commanders found that there were many problems with the simple armored breakthrough tactics. First of all, the first problem is that the tank needs to face the enemy's layers of fortified defenses, minefields, buffer zones, and the opponent's armored fire brigade. The opponent's main line of defense will be preceded by several lines of defense, and there will be large gaps between them, and there will be various obstacles. Tanks are more troublesome to destroy completely, but paralysis is not too difficult, and a broken track, damaged walking equipment, or a shell hitting the hull and turret connection can make a tank out of battle. Even the strongest tank will still lose its effectiveness if it is constantly attacked.

When the armoured forces penetrate several layers of the opponent's defense, the available tanks on the front line will be reduced to a very low standard, and at this point you may run into the opponent's armored reserves, and then collapse under the blows of the opponent's superior forces and firepower. If the other party knows the direction of your attack, then congratulations, you are even worse, and the other party will concentrate terrifying firepower and forces to stop you. Faced with this situation, Xu Jie finally put forward a point of view, that is, if the mechanized infantry can also have a certain ability to attack fortifications, and at the same time tear several holes in the opponent's front, with the rapid attack of the armored division, will the attack effect be better.

Instead of having to penetrate the enemy's line as quickly as a tank and then go deeper, mechanized infantry used a large number of assault guns and flat-fire guns to shatter the defenses of a position one by one, and then create a gap that the enemy could not plug. The forces on the defensive side are generally very scattered, (it is said that in World War 2, a division on the Soviet-German battlefield was responsible for a defensive line of 20 to 30KM. Defending alone will not stop the opponent's attack. The defensive line is only a sluggish effect, and the key is to see the blocking of counterattack troops and artillery fire. For mechanized infantry divisions with a large number of assault guns and tank destroyers. It may not be easy for the opponent to repel it, and the infantry can quickly build a defensive line and consolidate the breakthrough after occupying the position. In terms of defense, mechanized infantry divisions, which are relatively inexpensive, are no worse than armored divisions. This attack is slow, but effective.

In this battle, codenamed Operation Babylon, the Huaxia troops equipped the rest of the mechanized infantry divisions with a large number of Type 29 assault guns, although the combat vehicle equipped with 122MML35 artillery is not as popular as the Type 29 tank destroyer, but the evaluation among the grassroots troops is still very good, the 24.5KG high-explosive grenade fired by this tank can completely dispose of most of the fortifications with one shot. And because of the relatively large elevation angle, this gun itself can also perform the task of long-range suppression. The actual effective range is about the same as that of howitzers. And according to the range test. If armor-piercing shells were used, it would have been enough to deal with the German tank No. 4. In addition to the excessive weight of the shells and the slow rate of fire, this assault gun had almost no drawbacks in combat performance! (Well, because it comes with 2 loaders, the body space is a bit cramped.) In addition to the Type 4 assault gun, the Chinese Army also increased the number of truck guns and other improvised self-propelled guns, the only thing that decreased was the number of heavy mortars. According to the attack plan, in addition to the use of mortars to suppress the forward positions of the enemy when preparing for fire before the attack. The number of mortars that accompanied the breakthrough of the troops was significantly reduced.

"Why did the Chinese Army, which has always liked to use mortars, reduce the number of mortars in the offensive by a large amount?" This was a puzzle to the Allied army officers who came to watch the battle. "The key issue is the amount of ammunition carried, the accuracy and the damage effect." In the end, Zhou Xuan explained it like this. Mortars are much less accurate than long-barreled rifled guns, and even if you change the mortar to rifled, it still won't work. Hitting a target requires more ammunition than a barreled gun, and mortars are not very destructive, so this is not a big fight. Everyone knows that the top defense has been increased, although the mortar has the advantage of a large falling angle, but the muzzle velocity of the artillery is too low. IT IS A BIT DIFFICULT TO FACE THE FORTIFICATIONS THAT HAVE STRENGTHENED THE TOP, BUT IF YOU WANT TO BLOCK THE 122MML35 GUN ON THE FRONT OF THE FORTIFICATIONS, I AM AFRAID YOU NEED TO GET A LAYER OF VERTICAL ARMOR OF ABOUT 100MM! The last problem is that the range is not enough. In the face of the opponent's howitzer suppression, it is difficult for mortars with a range of about 5,000 meters to play a role. It's not as easy to use as an assault gun, and people can use it as a long-range gun after raising the elevation angle. Leveling can hit tanks and pillboxes. What's more, if you want instant fire suppression, rockets can do better than mortars. Not to mention the firing range, and the super-large projection definitely exceeds the instantaneous projection of the mortar.

In this battle, there were two assault forces in China, one was a fast mobile assault armored division, and the other was a slower, but steady mechanized infantry division with a large number of self-propelled guns and strong defensive power. "To be honest, the difference between the two is not very big, except that there are fewer tanks and tank destroyers, and there are more assault guns and infantry fighting vehicles and combat defense guns." An American, after understanding the difference between the two divisional units, once commented on this.

"Xu Huaide's department took the northern route, Zhou Xuan's department took the southern route, and the Iranian 1st Armored Division took the middle route. Zhao Sicheng's 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division and Tian Yong's 4th Mechanized Infantry Division followed suit and eliminated the opposing strongholds along the way, while the Iranian 2nd Panzer Division and General Gallen's Russian Division served as general reserves. The air force is in charge of General Qin Yue, and will concentrate 2 air corps, 9 air wings, and about 800 planes to provide us with air cover and ground support. The first was to complete the siege of the Kirkuk region, to destroy some important outposts on the outskirts of the other side, and to establish a solid supply line. The second stage is to continue to develop the offensive and cut off the entire Eastern Railway. The third stage was to use this as a bait to inflict heavy damage on the German armored forces that came to relieve the siege. Peng Yi briefly described the entire campaign plan for the last time, as for what to do after the end of these three stages, not to mention that Peng Yi didn't think about it, Xu Jie couldn't be sure, if the Germans were willing to negotiate peace after the end of this campaign, then they would negotiate, if not, then they could only further expand the war. The entire attack group will turn south and attack the southern part of the two river basins.

When this plan was first proposed, some people questioned whether it was enough to hold off the 100,000 Austrian-Turkish troops in Kirkuk with a strength of less than two divisions. As a result, before Peng Yi could answer, the Russian officers attending the meeting said that it was enough, among the Russian veterans, Austria-Hungary was not to be afraid, and the Turks were as soft as a puddle of mud, an officer who had participated in the Dönitz Guards once said that a division of the Guards could block the attack of 2 Austro-Hungarian divisions or 4 Turkish divisions, plus this time there was air force support, just look at it and it is really not a big problem. At the same time, the Russians' statement was supported by Zhou Xuan, who had participated in the campaign in northern Italy, and although the latter did not quantify it, he believed that the Austro-Khalinarian army had some combat effectiveness in a defensive state, and that the Austro-Hungarian army, with its heavy logistics and lack of motor vehicles, would be disorganized by itself.

So after unifying the mind, the largest tank Armageddon in history is about to kick off, and the total number of tanks, tank destroyers and assault guns invested by both sides has exceeded the 3,000 mark! Although the absolute number of troops participating in the war cannot be compared with the major battles in World War 1, the material power invested by both sides for this war is far greater than any other battle in history! And the three-dimensional battles of highly mobile armored forces and a large number of air forces have also fundamentally changed the shape of warfare!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip~~~, as well as the book friend mingplus, magic jack, sleeping animal, Tianlong 999, and the monthly pass support of the near crush ~~~. The author's subscription the day before yesterday hit a record low, not only lower than the average subscription, but also only one-fifth of the highest subscription this month! Tears run in the side position. (To be continued......)