The Rise of the Third Reich

Dmitri Grigorievich Pavlov, who had thick features, a bald head and a very tall body, took the military uniform from his wife with trembling hands and put it on, only to realize that it was on inside out. , when his wife saw it, she just sighed softly, stepped forward to help her husband put on his clothes, and then handed a large leather bag to her husband, which contained several changes of clothes.

Pavlov is not going to travel far away, but... he is always ready to go to jail. He knew he was guilty - wrong route! It was a mistake to follow Tukhachevsky’s wrong military line! This is unforgivable and you deserve to be caught in the Lubyanka 2nd mistake!

Therefore, after returning to the Soviet Union from the Spanish front (where he served as a tank brigade commander), he very consciously handed over his review to the organization. Then he waited obediently to be arrested - many of the people who came back with him had already been arrested!

There were people from the air force, the army, and the backbone of the armored soldiers who were with him. Many people were shot, but the order to arrest Pavlov had not yet been issued.

"The higher ups must have forgotten..." Pavlov thought to himself.

He kissed his wife goodbye - he now wanted to cherish every minute and everyone around him.

"My dear, wait until I come back." After saying this, Pavlov turned around and walked out the door, then took a car to go to work at the headquarters of the Red Army Automobile and Armored Corps.

"Maybe he will be arrested today," he thought on the way. "People from the General Administration of Political Security may be waiting there, and they will arrest people as soon as they enter the door, and then everything will be over..."

On the way, he even wanted to escape and hide somewhere without people, maybe in the Siberian forest.

But this was just a thought. Pavlov did not escape after all. Instead, he followed the fixed route to get off work every day and took a car to the headquarters of the Automobile Armored Corps. This is the unit where he worked after returning from Spain. He is now the director of the Automobile and Armored Forces (when he returned to China, the previous Director of the Automobile and Armored Forces was arrested, so he was put in power), but this does not mean that the higher-ups will not touch him. In fact, most of the people in this panic-stricken Automobile and Armored Corps headquarters were newly appointed (almost all the original people were arrested), but some people were still arrested often.

In this case, no one is in the mood to do anything. Pavlov also didn't have many official duties. He spent most of his day writing a report on the use of automobiles and armored forces in the Spanish Civil War.

And what he wrote in the report was the disadvantages of concentrated use of tanks... He still knew what Tukhachevsky's wrong military line was! Therefore, we can no longer follow the same path as Tukhachevsky. We must deeply examine ourselves and correct our attitude.

Of course, his report was not written in vain. There are always pros and cons to everything, and the same goes for armored units. There are advantages to the centralized use of tanks, but the disadvantages are also significant.

First of all, the cooperation between tank troops and infantry is often out of touch. If the tanks impact too hard, the infantry cannot keep up;

Secondly, the concentrated use of tanks is prone to being bombed by the enemy's air force. The tanks and vehicles in the group are excellent targets on the road. Once bombed, they will suffer heavy losses...

"Comrade Pavlov!" Someone suddenly shouted, startling Pavlov who was thinking about something.

The following should be "You are under arrest", right? Just when Pavlov was desperate and waiting to be knocked down by the iron fist of Soviet justice.

"Dmitri Grigorievich, what's wrong with you?" The voice sounded a little familiar, and it seemed to be Voroshilov's voice. "Why don't you answer me?"

Pavlov turned around quickly, and standing in front of him was Voroshilov with a gentle expression.

He's definitely not here to arrest me! Pavlov breathed a sigh of relief and quickly gave Voroshilov a respectful military salute: "Comrade Voroshilov, why are you here?"

"I just came from the Kremlin," Voroshilov said with a smile, "I have some questions to ask you." He added, "Comrade Stalin asked me to ask."

Stalin asked? Pavlov's heart felt relieved again, but he could only invite Voroshilov into his office honestly, and then let him go.

"Comrade Stalin wants to know that you cannot organize an offensive according to Tukhachevsky's theory of large-depth operations?"

As soon as Voroshilov sat down, he asked a question that scared Pavlov half to death.

"Well, it depends on the situation..." Pavlov took a deep breath and told the truth. "If I were asked to command a cavalry mechanized group consisting of several cavalry divisions, several independent tank brigades and other reinforced units, I would still be competent."

The Soviet Union's mechanized forces started very early. As early as 1932, the First Mechanized Army was established-composed of 2 mechanized brigades, 1 infantry machine gun brigade, 1 anti-aircraft artillery battalion and other units. However, the organization of this mechanized army is not very reasonable, with 500 tanks, 215 armored vehicles, 60 artillery pieces and 200 vehicles. The number of tanks was sufficient, but the number of cars was clearly insufficient. This is mainly due to the fact that the Soviet tank industry is very strong, but the strength of the automobile industry is obviously insufficient.

Even the elite mechanized army has a shortage of cars, as can be imagined for ordinary infantry units. The lack of a sufficient number of vehicles turned the Soviet mechanized forces into "short-legged mechanization". They could carry out assaults from dozens of kilometers to more than 100 kilometers, but it was difficult to conduct long-distance assault operations - historically, the Soviet Red Army What truly achieved mechanization was the hundreds of thousands of trucks aided by the United States.

If a "thunderstorm assault" really happened in history, the Soviet Red Army might successfully advance a hundred kilometers, but it would be absolutely impossible for millions of people to "blitz" 700 to 800 kilometers into Berlin. Without hundreds of thousands of trucks for logistics, this would be an impossible task.

Now Stalin and Voroshilov are facing another "difficult to complete" task. They wanted a smaller mechanized cavalry force to assault 450 to 500 kilometers in a short period of time to capture Lublin or Cheium, east of Lublin and close to the Uhelka River, a tributary of the Bug River.

"How is it?" Voroshilov finished his request, and then asked pleasantly, "Can you complete the tasks assigned by the party?"

Answering "yes", Pavlov immediately became the commander of a newly formed mechanized cavalry group. If the answer is "no", then the comrades of Lubyanka No. 2 will soon come to arrest him.

Pavlov did not dare to say "cannot", but he did not dare to nod easily, "Comrade People's Commissar of Defense, the Poles have a defense line in Western Belarus. If my mechanized cavalry group army suffers excessive losses during the breakthrough..."

In Pavlov's thinking, the Soviet mechanized troops were used to tear apart the opponent's defense line.

"The task of breaking through the enemy's defense line will be the responsibility of Comrade Zhukov, deputy commander of the Belarusian Special Military District," Voroshilov replied. "The mechanized cavalry group under your command does not need to participate."

The Belarusian Special Military District is one of the two most important military districts in the Soviet Red Army (the other is the Ukrainian Special Military District). During wartime, the Belarusian Special Military District will become the Western Front. The military district commander is the front commander, while the deputy commander can serve as the army or cluster commander.

"I also need trucks suitable for the size of the mechanized cavalry group, and a powerful infantry group that can follow up in time to surround Pinsk and Brest."

Pavlov pondered and said: "The mechanized cavalry group cannot be used to siege the enemy's cities or fortified areas. It can only be responsible for the following infantry. Because the job of the mechanized cavalry group is to defeat the enemy's hastily organized blocking troops and cut off The enemy has several heavy military groups to communicate with each other, so we must pursue rapid enough advancement and avoid unnecessary entanglement with the enemy.”

"There is no problem with this!" Voroshilov assured, "The plan will be formulated by you, Comrade Zhukov and Comrade Kovalev, commander of the Belarusian Special Military District."

"Okay," Pavlov no longer hesitated, stood up and gave a military salute to Voroshilov, "I promise to complete the tasks assigned by the party!"

…

"Your Excellency, General, this is the Navy Command's report on the 'P-class armored ship project war game'."

As soon as Hersmann walked out of his office at the General Staff Headquarters in Zossen, his adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Hans Speidel, came over with a folder in his arms.

"We will study it on the way," Hersman turned to Canaris and Graeme who came out with him. "You are both from the navy and know better than me. We will study it together on the way to Scapa Flow."

"What are you studying?" Commander Graham of the Naval Air Force shook his head. "How can their own war game produce results they don't want?"

Canaris is a serious admiral, so he naturally wants to speak for the navy. He said: "Marshal Redl will not lie in this regard. The main force is two P-class ships and one 'Seidlitz' class. The formation is quite powerful and will become a formidable force in the Atlantic as long as it is not damaged by British aircraft."

"The key is still the Fokker Zero," said Graeme. "There are only 30 carrier-based fighter jets on the Seydlitz. Whether these aircraft can protect the formation is the key to the success of the formation in breaking diplomatic ties in the Atlantic. The key...after all, the British have more aircraft carriers."

“You don’t have to worry about the performance of the Fokker Zero,” Hessman said with a smile. “It is entirely possible to sacrifice upgrade possibilities, dive performance, low-altitude survivability and safety in exchange for the advantages of climb rate, speed, and hovering performance. And... …It’s hard to say how many aircraft carriers the British will have available by then!”