Steel Soviet Union

After hearing Hitler's impassioned speech, all the participating German generals felt that something was wrong, but in the end no one stood up to refute the Führer's speech.

After all, from the perspective of current actual strategic needs, Hitler's statement just now is indeed practical and understandable.

The silence of the senior German generals attending the meeting made Hitler even more complacent for a while. He was convinced that his strategic layout was appropriate and seamless, so much so that he won the approval of all the senior German generals present at the meeting.

"Gentlemen, Moscow is certainly a target that we must capture in the future, but right now we obviously have more important strategic goals to capture first."

"The operational plan for the offensive in the direction of Leningrad in the north and the offensive in the hinterland of Ukraine in the south will soon be formulated by the General Staff Headquarters. At that time, I hope that my generals can implement this operation seriously, completely and truthfully. plan."

"We will wait until winter begins to attack Moscow and Kharkov. With the blood transfusion from the Leningrad heavy industry base and the supply of Ukrainian granary reserves as guarantee, our offensive will be carried out very smoothly by then."

Hearing that Hitler planned to move the next offensive direction of the main German frontline group away from Moscow, adjust it to Leningrad in the north and the hinterland of Ukraine in the south, and temporarily adopt a placement strategy against Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union.

Realizing that doing so might miss a good opportunity to attack Moscow and give Stalin more opportunities to deploy troops, Guderian, who was anxious, immediately wanted to stand up from his chair and argue with Hitler. But sitting next to him, Marshal Bock, the commander of the German Army Group Center and his immediate superior, quietly grabbed Guderian's sleeve.

"Although it is necessary to advise the head of state on his decision-making, at least it is definitely not at this time."

After reading this meaning from Marshal Bock's quiet look, Guderian suddenly realized that Hitler was currently immersed in being complacent about his plan.

Speech objections to superiors and leaders should be carried out according to the occasion and time. This is human nature and the most basic manifestation of communication skills. Even the German army, which has always advocated rigor and rigidity, is no exception.

Hitler, who did not notice Guderian's hesitation and Marshal Bock's small actions, immediately shifted the focus of the meeting to more detailed tactics and equipment.

"Although Moscow is not our next direction of action for the time being, it is still necessary for us to retain the springboard and forward bastion for attacking Moscow in the future."

"Guderian, I have already learned about the battle carried out by your 2nd Armored Group in the direction of Yelniya. Your command ability and the outstanding tactical qualities of the officers and soldiers of the 2nd Armored Group are worthy of praise. But I need to remind you. One point is that the Yelnya protrusion, the springboard used to attack Moscow in the future, must be defended and must not be lost. Maybe this is our starting gate to Moscow in the future. "

Guderian, who had mobilized the most elite fist troops of his 2nd Armored Group and was fighting bloody battles here, naturally supported Hitler's order to stick to Yelnia.

But as the saying goes, a wise woman cannot make a meal without rice.

Even though Guderian, who is known as the father of German armor and the hero of the blitzkrieg, has outstanding commanding abilities that are almost genius-like, the continuous and deteriorating fighting in the direction of Yelniya City has almost turned his hand, including the Imperial Division, into a mess. A group of elite troops inside suffered heavy losses and were completely lost.

The loss of a large amount of technical equipment cannot be restored in a short time through logistical reinforcements at the army group level. The only way to quickly restore the combat effectiveness of the elite fist troops at hand is to directly ask for help from the domestic military-industrial system in the rear area, and now we are directly making requests to Hitler. And elaborating on the dilemma is undoubtedly the best choice faced by Guderian.

A crying child is fed by milk. This proverb from China is naturally the same for Guderian at this moment.

"My head of state, guarding the Yelnya salient is of course the bounden duty of our imperial soldiers to carry out orders. But one thing I want to emphasize to you now is that our armored forces are almost non-existent due to the poor roads in Russia. The transportation network is severely damaged.”

"Nearly all-weather large-scale strategic maneuvers and cross-country travel have filled the filters of tank engines with dust. Many tanks of armored divisions have low attendance integrity due to serious wear and tear on their engines from cross-country dust. Some tanks at the division level have broken down and need to be repaired. The number of tanks available for combat has even dropped to less than 50%."

"If we continue to use armored forces in the next battles this year, these broken down tanks and destroyed tanks must be replenished in time to restore full combat effectiveness. Otherwise, our armored forces' next action plan There will be great constraints and restrictions, my Führer.”

Among the Wehrmacht generals in 1941, Guderian was one of the few who dared to bluntly point out his mistakes and make specific demands to Hitler. His upright and uncompromising character is somewhat similar to Zhukov, who also dared to speak frankly to Stalin.

As Guderian's boss and first-hand promoter, Hitler himself was already accustomed to his subordinate's personality and way of doing things.

He raised his right hand slightly from the table and then casually waved it forward. Hitler and Guderian started bargaining at the meeting site like a vegetable seller and a grocery shopping lady.

"Tell me how many new tanks and engines you need."

Guderian, who had received Hitler's permission, was not afraid of dying. The lion's astonishing words even startled Marshal Bock on the side.

"At least three fully equipped armored divisions' new tanks and a corresponding number of spare engine supplies. With these things, I am confident that the combat effectiveness of our armored forces can be maintained until the end of the Moscow battle."

Hitler, whose expression was almost frozen, stared blankly at Guderian for a long time, as if he had turned into a sculpture. After confirming that he was not joking with him, Hitler immediately looked at Guderian like a vegetable seller who had been bargained too hard. He waved his hand quickly.

"No! The new tanks coming off the production line need to be used to form new armored forces. There is no way to hand over so many new tanks to you except for the fixed supply. I can allocate 300 tank engines to you. You We need to use these engines to ensure that the current combat effectiveness of all armored forces on the front line is maintained, do you understand?”