The Rise of the Third Reich

"General Bock, I ordered the cancellation of the 19th Armored Corps' combat plan to attack Lviv. The Armored Corps immediately gathered up and prepared to be transferred to the western front."

September 10, 1939, Stettin Eastern Front Headquarters. General Ludwig von Heinsberg-Hersmann was on the phone with General Fedor von Bock, commander of Army Group North, and he was giving Bock the latest order.

"General," von Bock's hoarse voice came from the phone receiver, "Is the situation on the Western Front very tight?"

The current situation on the Eastern Front can only be described as great! On the morning of September 8, the first part of the 16th Armored Corps of Army Group South (the main force was the 4th Armored Division) was at the intersection of the Buchula River and the Vistula River, and the "Manstein Tactical Group" (the main force) moving southward It is the 10th Armored Division) to join forces.

After completing the rendezvous, the Polish Army Group southwest of the Vistula River, west and north of the Butzula River (composed of the main force of the Poznan Army, the First Section of the Marina Group Army, and the First Section of the Lodz Army Group) was completely surrounded. According to air force reconnaissance, the number of Polish troops is likely to exceed 150,000.

In Radom, about 90 kilometers southeast of Warsaw, the remnants of the Prussian Army Group, the Polish Army's previous general reserve (they had been defeated on the east bank of the Pilica River), were also surrounded by the 15th Armored Corps.

On the southern front, the Carpathian Army's defense line had also collapsed. The Army was divided and surrounded by the infantry and Slovak troops of the German 14th Army. It was only a matter of time before the entire army was annihilated.

On the northern front, the Polish Modlin Group Army was also retreating steadily, and most of it was annihilated. A small number of troops retreated to the south bank of the Narew River northeast of Warsaw to join forces with the newly formed Weshkov Tactical Group, temporarily relying on Narew. A very thin line of defense was established at Leif River. However, such a defense line could not withstand the attacks of the German Third Army and the 19th Panzer Corps (controlled by Army Group North).

In addition, the Polish Narew Tactical Group originally deployed in the southeast of East Prussia has now begun to move south, and its destination is likely to be the Brest Fortress or Lublin. If the 19th Armored Corps is used to pursue now, the possibility of destroying the Narev Cluster is very high.

"The situation on the Western Front is not too tight," Hersman said while holding the phone receiver. "The Dutch are still delaying, and the British and French forces also need some time to mobilize. The reason why the 19th Armored Corps is being moved westward now is because of the objectives of the Polish campaign. It has been basically achieved.”

"What? Basically achieved?" Admiral Bock seemed surprised, "But the Poles still have many troops, and the city of Warsaw has not been occupied."

“There is no need to occupy Warsaw for the time being,” Hessmann said. “The Third Army should withdraw from the current front and gradually return to East Prussia; the Fourth Army and the Manstein Group should fight east of the Vistula River. After annihilating or expelling the Polish Poznan Group and the Prussian Group, the Southern Army Group's front will also shrink to the west and south."

"General, I don't understand, why should we do this?" Admiral Bock asked, "Do we want to start negotiations with Poland?"

"Negotiations are already going on secretly," Hersmann told von Bock on the phone. "Our current position is to restore the Polish-German border in the '1918 Treaty' and to station troops in the former Austrian East Galicia. It does not consider the destruction and annexation of Poland..."

Of course Poland will be annexed! But there is no need to shout hysterically and make the Poles fight for your life. What's the need? Hessmann doesn't care how annexation happened in history. Anyway, in this time and space, there is absolutely no need for Germany to be so ugly.

What a wonderful thing happened in Lviv this time. The Ukrainian people are crying and shouting for Germany to annex. This is the spirit of tyranny!

Therefore, after the "Lvov Incident", Hessmann immediately had a phone call with Schleicher and Hitler and determined the latest plan to resolve the war on the Eastern Front:

1. Do not consider destroying Poland and occupying Warsaw at the moment - that will only make Stalin easier. If the German army captured Warsaw and at the same time captured Poland itself, it would mean the demise of the Polish Federation, and the Polish army on the eastern front would lose the fighting spirit to resist the Soviet Union. This time Stalin played a trick on Germany in declaring war on Poland and the United Kingdom and the United States. Naturally, Germany would not completely defeat Poland and let the Soviet Union eat meat comfortably.

2. Use the western border of Soviet Russia stipulated in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as the military demarcation line for the occupation of Western Ukraine. The west was completely controlled by the Germans, while the east was controlled by the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

3. Germany will not participate in the resistance activities of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, but it can open Western Ukraine to accept right-bank Ukrainian refugees - refugees now, but in a few years they may be good National Socialist fighters full of hatred for the Soviet Union!

4. Germany currently does not annex Western Ukraine, but actually controls Western Ukraine in the form of military occupation. It will wait for the winner of the war between the Soviet Union and Poland before holding a referendum - this is to give the Poles some illusions.

5. Start peace negotiations with Poland, first proposing to use the "1918 Polish-German Treaty" as the basis to accurately determine the western border and occupy all of Lithuania. At the same time, Germany proposed occupying Western Ukraine until the end of the Soviet-Polish War, and occupying all of Poland west of the Bug River when Poland was defeated by the Soviet Union, in order to prevent Poland from being completely occupied by the Soviet Union. Germany's occupation of Poland and Western Ukraine would last until the end of the world war.

6. Germany promised to remain neutral in the future Soviet-Polish war, and would not support the Soviet Union, nor would it support Poland. Because the Soviet Union did not fulfill its obligation to go to war with Poland, Germany would not destroy all Polish troops for the Soviet Union. However, the demarcation line that divided Poland before was still valid. Germany would not occupy the land belonging to the Soviet Union! This is Hessman's way. The occupation was also upright and made people convinced. Of course, Hessman's approach was also based on the fact that the Polish army still had some strength. On the Western Front alone, the Polish army had at least four army-level tactical groups, including the Poznan Army Group, the Warsaw Army Group, the Lublin Tactical Group, and the Narew Tactical Group. Moreover, three of the army groups (groups) were composed of elite troops, and their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated. Although they could not deal with the German army, if they were transferred to the east of the Bug River, it would probably be a hard bone for the Soviet Red Army to chew. Let Stalin chew it slowly! Germany just ended the war on the Eastern Front early so that it could concentrate on preparing for the decisive battle on the Western Front. Although the Battle of Poland lasted only 10 days, a lot of problems were exposed. There were problems caused by insufficient training of troops (especially armored troops), insufficient command experience (no one had ever commanded an armored unit in battle), and problems in tactical thinking - the German generals were too conservative in the use of armored troops.

Of course, the biggest problem was still the weapons and equipment! The most troublesome thing was the tanks. Although the German army crushed the Polish defense line with tanks, the German tanks were far less powerful than they looked.

The armor and firepower of the No. 2 tank were insufficient, and it was easy to be damaged on the battlefield. The 37mm gun was enough to cause great losses to them. The 38t tank performed well, but the number was not large enough, so it should completely replace the No. 2. The No. 3 tank seemed to have no chance to perform. Its 50mm L42 gun failed the test, so it could only temporarily install a 37mm gun, which was the same power as the 38t tank gun (the same model).

The 75mm L43 gun of the Panzer IV was also unqualified. It was not easy to develop a long-barreled tank gun because it could not be too large or too heavy. The only way was to find a way with materials and processes, which required time and repeated tests. But Hessman was not a metallurgist in his previous life and had no knowledge of this field. Therefore, the military industry did not have enough time. Although the gun was barely developed, the quality was not up to standard and the service life was too short. The commanders of the armored forces liked to use this "large-caliber" gun too much (because they lacked self-propelled guns). As a result, only 10 days after the war, most of the guns of the Panzer IV had already replaced the barrels once, and the reserves of the barrels were in urgent need of attention.

In short, there were a lot of problems, and it really took some time to solve them before the French could be knocked down.

…

“Oh? So, the Germans don’t plan to occupy Warsaw?” Rydz-Śmigvy saw the “six-point peace conditions” given by Hessmann in the Brest Fortress. In the past few days, he was deploying counterattacks while moving the headquarters, which resulted in a series of command confusions, so that the counterattack that should have started long ago was not launched until the morning of September 11.

The Polish army’s headquarters has now moved to the Brest Fortress east of the Bug River. So Natalie spent a whole day riding in the car of the Italian Embassy to arrive at the new headquarters of Rydz-Śmigvy from Warsaw with a radio and a message from Hessmann.

"No, they will eventually occupy Warsaw," Natalie Lesinskaya smiled bitterly, "When your hundreds of thousands of troops are completely defeated by the Soviet Red Army, the German army can occupy Poland openly according to the armistice agreement." "The occupation must be open and aboveboard!" Rez-Smith snorted coldly, "When did these Germans become as hypocritical as the British?" "In fact, most of them are quite honest," Natalie shrugged, "But the current Eastern Front commander General Hessman is quite hypocritical, and he also strongly advocated an armistice with Poland. But you still have to accept the hypocritical armistice, am I right?" The Polish Marshal sighed, Natalie was right, Poland must accept it, because the Soviet Union will soon take action in the east, this is the war that really cares about the survival of the Polish nation!