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January 12, 1944. The Moscow TASS news agency broadcast to the world with the background music "Holy War": "After 183 days of bloody fighting, the Soviet Red Army finally liberated the entire territory of Romania...... The annihilation of the fascist Dekou and its servant army of 325,000 men, the banner of the Red Army is now flying high over Romania......"

The liberation of Romania did not mean that Romania was safe, and next door to Romania, Yugoslavia and Hungary were heavily armed with German troops, and these large armies that Hitler had originally intended to use to retake Romania would certainly not sit idle, and a larger battle was already quietly brewing.

This will be the first time that the Soviet Red Army has conducted such a large-scale defensive operation since the Battle of Kursk, and this battle will be the last large-scale strong dialogue between the Red Army's anti-tank artillery, which has been tempered by three years of bloody and bloody fighting, and the German armored troops, which have galloped thousands of miles across Europe for five years.

As early as December 1943, when the Soviet Union and Germany were engaged in a fierce battle around the entire front, Hitler, who had lost a red eye, had already made up his mind that he must counterattack again and must counterattack again, only counterattack can thwart the steady advance of the Red Army, and only counterattack can win victory. Anyway, the only thought in the Führer's already abnormal brain at that time was to fight back!

His fanciful mind painted a picture of a "grandiose" plan: to launch a massive strategic counterattack along the lines of Bekeszcho and the Bega Canal in Hungary and western Yugoslavia, insert the weak Romanian Second Front from the flank, and then outflank Konev's rear of the Romanian First Front to encircle and destroy it. Then recapture Romania in one fell swoop.

There may be people who do not understand the intentions of the Führer. Because it doesn't mean much to recapture Romania. When the Red Army was battered by the Red Army in the areas of Belarus and Ukraine, Poland was already wide open, and the Red Army could drive straight into the country and soon reach the edge of Germany proper. What is the purpose of transferring valuable armor and living forces to Romania at this time? Obviously, Belarus and Ukraine need these troops more to plug the gap!

But the Führer thought differently, he believed that the existing German troops in Belarus and Ukraine should continue to rely on the "fortress" defense on the spot, and he believed that "fortresses" such as Brest could completely block the advance of the Red Army, but the Red Army on the front was still too strong, and it was completely impossible to repel the enemy with the pitiful capital that the Germans had in hand.

The only way is to find another way to get a knife down from the enemy's weak flank. Hitler's idea was to wipe out Konev's forces in one fell swoop, and then plunge directly into Ukraine from the north of Romania, bypassing the powerful front of the Red Army and smashing in from the flanks. He believes that this will greatly change the passive situation in Ukraine. It can also be taken back by the way, although the Romanians are a little instigated, but the oil is real, and now the Third Reich is really short of oil, and it will not last long only on the Hungarian Najkauny oil field, and the strategic bombing of the Allies has been aimed at the Najkauni oil field, God knows if it will be bombed into ruins again.

In Hitler's opinion. If this plan succeeded, it would not only contain the offensive of the Red Army. More crucially, the best way to stabilize the small partner of Central Europe, which has become more and more restless. The confident Führer himself gave the project the code name "Spring Awakening", presumably in the hope that the national fortunes of the Third Reich would be rejuvenated through the harsh winter. On the other hand, this also shows how much Hitler attached importance to this plan.

For this reason, on January 2, 1944, Hitler specially appointed his confidant general, the commander-in-chief of the SS and the general of the Waffen-SS Panzer Corps, Tserp. Dietrich and his 6th Panzer Army were withdrawn from the Italian battlefield and sent to southern Germany for regrouping, where they were secretly transferred to Hungary.

By mid-January, most of the Sixth Panzer Army had completely withdrawn from the Italian battlefield and was massing in the area of Broome, southwest of Bitburg. At the end of January, Dietrich was also summoned to Berlin, at that time he did not understand Hitler's thoughts, thinking that he was only to let his troops withdraw and recuperate, after all, his young men fought fiercely against the British and American allies on the battlefield in Italy, and they really needed to rest.

However, Dietrich also had some bad thoughts at the time, but he did not expect the Führer to be so crazy. It wasn't until he visited his old friend Guderian that he realized that something was wrong. Because Guderian had revealed his plan to him, Dietrich knew that the Führer was going to throw him and his boys into hell.

For Dietrich, this plan is not realistic at all, the mountainous terrain of northern Romania is not suitable for armored forces to play assault, and the big hole in the front is not filled, wishful thinking to go to the so-called weak areas of the enemy to carry out counterattacks, isn't this a disregard for the head?

At that time, Dietrich was furious, and Guderian, the new chief of the General Staff, was also made laughing and crying by Hitler's whimsy. In Guderian's opinion, in Belarus and Ukraine, the Red Army had six fronts in great strides. At this moment, Army Group Center and Army Group South have fallen into a situation of shortage and chaos, and in order to avoid the complete collapse of this front and the occurrence of a catastrophic collapse, it is necessary to put in as many reinforcements as possible as soon as possible.

As Hitler became more and more self-serving, he could not listen to anyone's opinions, and at his strong request, the Spring Awakening Project was not only not terminated but on the fast track.

After the war, General ******. Wink, who had served as Guderian's aide-de-camp, wrote in his memoirs: "It was with a painful and extremely complicated feeling that we drew up this battle plan, and the situation in the Polish direction was already precarious. You know, by mid-January, Rokossovsky's heavy group had advanced to a position only 30 kilometers from Brest, and was about to launch a second large-scale assault. What are the terrible consequences of a failure in the south? We had a total of 21 armored divisions on the Eastern Front at that time. At least 7 of them are deployed in Hungary. 4 are located in East Prussia. 3 were in Yugoslavia, and only 7 armored divisions remained deployed on the most important Belarusian and Ukrainian fronts. However, any objections we raised were of no avail, and it was clear that Hitler had ceased to trust the Army and the General Staff...... For the sake of the future of our country and the honour of the Wehrmacht, we have to give it a go in Romania, even if the chances of success are slim......"

At that time, no one could convince Hitler, who had already fallen into a state of self-congratulation and seemed to be full of ambition, did not give Guderian and Dietrich any chance to refute at all, so that Dietrich finally said to his wife and children with a heavy heart: "I have a hunch that the Third Reich is over!" ”

In the face of opposition. Hitler still stood by his guns. He excitedly retorted: "If they don't get gasoline, their tanks won't move, their planes won't fly, they have to be aware of this, but our generals don't know anything about wartime economics!" ”

Hitler's wishful thinking was to crush the "second-rate" units of the Red Army in Romania and achieve a long-lost victory in Romania, which would not only restore Germany's military alliance in the Balkans, but also relieve the enormous pressure on the German army on the entire Eastern Front.

On 30 January, Hitler triumphantly told the government's chief press officer, Dr. Dietrich (the Germans have too many names): "I'm going to beat the Russians, they certainly didn't expect the 6th Panzer Army to enter Hungary." As soon as we are active in Romania, the Russians are finished! ”

January 31. The 6th Panzer Army was renamed the "6th SS Panzer Army", abbreviated as the SS 6th Panzer Army. And this means that Hitler has made up his mind, and his lackeys know that once the Führer has made up his mind, everything is irreversible.

At this point, Dietrich immediately rushed to southern Germany without stopping after receiving the order, and began to plan how to secretly enter Hungary with his troops. In order to confuse the Red Army, Dietrich was given a fictitious post - commander of the senior engineer corps in Hungary. Soon the four SS Panzer Divisions under the 6th SS Panzer Army set off from Cologne, Koblenz and Bonn, and the huge number of personnel and weapons and equipment enabled the German State Railways Administration and logistics transport troops to move a full 290 wagons. Due to the uninterrupted and terrible Allied air raids, the two Panzer Corps crawled slowly on the road for 10 days before entering Hungary.

Hitler's battle plan was roughly as follows: the main attacking force consisting of the SS 6th Panzer Army Group, the 6th Army of Army Group South, and the Hungarian 8th Army would launch an offensive from the area between the Bega Canal and Bekesjo Bao with the cooperation of Yugoslav Army Group E, and then break through to the ribs of Konev's Romanian First Front in one fell swoop, dividing Konev's troops in two. At the same time, the 2nd Panzer Army was to attack from the front and contain Konev's main forces.

If this plan succeeded, the Germans would not only be able to hold the precarious Hungarian state, but would also regain the northern part of Romania in one fell swoop.

If we look at the deployment of the Red Army forces in this area, the main targets of the German army are actually Konev's 1st Romanian Front and a part of Vasilevsky's 4th Ukrainian Front, which is about the strength of four armies. However, it must also be noted that at this time the Military Commission was also planning to strengthen the strength of Konev and Vasilevsky, preparing to reinforce three army groups in the direction of Romania, so as to achieve the idea of Konev and Vasilevsky to quickly seize Hungary and enter Czechoslovakia and Austria.

Just before the Spring Awakening Project was about to be launched, Guderian also noticed an unexpected development, on February 4, 1944, the 7th Guards Army under the command of the Third Ukrainian Front captured Mukachevo on the Czechoslovak-Hungarian border. In other words, the Ukrainian Third Front was quite close to Hitler's intended battlefield. Once Konev and Vasilevsky make any mistakes, the Ukrainian Third Front can completely kill from the oblique stab and turn the battlefield upside down.

In order to eliminate this danger, on February 11, Army Group South, under extremely difficult circumstances, decided to launch a local offensive to recapture the vanguard of the Ukrainian Third Front that Mukachevo had driven away. However, to the disappointment of the Germans, the offensive was quite unsatisfactory. Army Group South, which was already weak, simply had no ability to resist the elite Red Army. As soon as the offensive began, it was crushed head-on by the powerful armored forces of the Red Army.

In desperation. Army Group South could only strengthen the defensive line at Guderian's request, and try to hold off the Ukrainian Third Front before the Spring Awakening plan succeeded.

After talking about the plans and deployment of the German army, let's look at the reaction of the Red Army. At that time, the Military Commission more or less realized that something was wrong, because according to their calculations, the German army in Belarus and Ukraine should have more than this strength, and the German army should still be able to draw troops to plug the hole. However, according to the reconnaissance and contact of the front, no German reinforcements were found, which is quite unreasonable.

In particular, aerial reconnaissance showed that the Germans did move forces in the home and Italian directions, which in turn did not appear where they were most needed. So where did they go?

At first, both the Military Commission and the ****** were inclined to believe that this was a suspicious formation by the Germans, or that the Germans wanted to carry out a strategic counterattack in Ukraine or Belarus, but no matter how much they strengthened aerial reconnaissance, they could not find any clues.

At this time, Li Xiaofeng's opinion began to work, and in January Li Xiaofeng said: "Hitler was a complete madman and a mentally ill person, do not try to figure out his thoughts from the perspective and thinking of a normal person, but think from the perspective of a madman." I think his idea is very simple, even if he throws a lot of reinforcements in Belarus and Ukraine, at most it will slow down the advance of our army a little, which does not make the slightest sense to Germany. What that madman always wanted was victory and a comeback, so he could only attack from the weak flanks of our army. There is no breakthrough in East Prussia, and the only place where we can achieve our goal is Romania......"

At first, no one believed Li Xiaofeng's judgment. Because it's so crazy and unbelievable, normal people don't think like that. What's more, Hitler's level in the previous two years was still two brushes, and he should not have made this low-level mistake.

It wasn't until the KGB's spies in Hungary discovered Dietrich's so-called SS Sixth Panzer Army number and a large number of tanks that the Military Commission believed that Hitler was indeed mentally ill.

However, there was no particular nervousness for ******, for the simple reason that they also thought that the Spring Awakening Plan could not succeed like normal German generals, on the contrary, they believed that the Germans took the initiative to send meat to the board, and if they could inflict another heavy blow on the German army in Romania, then the German Army Group South would collapse. In that case, the Ukrainian 3rd, 4th and Romanian 1st Fronts would drive straight to Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Austria, which would help to speed up the course of the war.

Even Li Xiaofeng believes that "the Germans have put their precious vital forces in the wrong direction, which will make their troops on the front line in Belarus and Ukraine face the dilemma of no reinforcements." It is also a good opportunity for my combat units in Belarus and Ukraine. If Comrades Konev and Vasilevsky can seize the opportunity to crucify the troops used by Hitler to counterattack, and at the same time, the three fronts of Belarus and the first and second Ukrainian fronts will launch a large-scale offensive, which will completely crush the troops of the German army in the middle line and lay a good foundation for the liberation of Poland and even Germany in the future! ”

This idea immediately attracted the attention of the ****** and the Central Military Commission, but there are still many problems in realizing this idea. One of the most serious and critical problems is logistics.

With the Red Army essentially recovering Belarus and Ukraine, the front stretched more than a thousand kilometers forward, and the region had previously been badly wounded by the tug-of-war between the enemy and us. A large number of bridges, as well as railways and roads, were damaged and destroyed, and traffic was problematic.

At the same time, the number of mechanized units of the Red Army was growing explosively, and the burden of meeting the consumption of tens of thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, assault guns and self-propelled guns at the same time was considerable. Anyway, after calculation, the Central Military Commission would fight in two theaters at the same time, and with the current industrial capacity and supply capacity of the Red Army, it would not be possible at all. The most realistic scenario is to start in Romania first, and after dealing with the enemy over there, then start in Belarus and Ukraine.

But then the great opportunity is missed, so is there a way to solve this problem? Sverdlov suggested: "Can you ask the United States for more assistance, if they fully support us, the logistics will not be a problem!" ”

Both Li Xiaofeng and Trotsky could only smile bitterly at this proposal, because it was unlikely. The first is that Operation Overlord is already imminent, and in order to meet the needs of landing in France, the Americans are also hoarding supplies and have no spare strength to support the Soviet Union. And the second reason is that even if the Americans have spare strength, they will not support the Soviet Union, after all, what follows is a strategic race, in order to curb the expansion of the Soviet Union in Western Europe after the war, the Americans will try their best to sprint to Germany, how can it be possible to cheer the Soviet Union at this time? Thank goodness for not dragging your feet!

[It's about to be 515, I hope to continue to hit the 515 red envelope list, and the red envelope rain will be able to give back to readers and promotional works on May 15. A piece is also love, and it must be better! (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to SC-VX, old students, Xuan Yufeng and Comrade Juventus!