The Rise of the Third Reich

The plan to launch a feint attack on Leningrad was formulated after repeated studies by the General Staff of the Defense Forces. Attracting the main force of the Soviet Red Army to the direction of Leningrad through a feint attack was a necessary condition for successfully seizing the oil-producing areas of Ukraine and the Caucasus.

According to the information available to the General Staff, the size of the Soviet Red Army is now very large. Since the Soviet Union has a larger population than Germany, the Bolshevik Party’s mobilization ability is also stronger than Germany’s current Junkers + Nazis joint system. Therefore, the number of people probably exceeded 8 million before the Soviet-German war began, and it is definitely above 10 million now.

The combined number of the Western Front, Southwest Front, and Northwest Front used to attack Poland, Western Ukraine, and the Baltics was approximately 4 million, accounting for up to two-thirds of the total number of Red Army Army field troops.

In addition, the Bolshevik Party of the Soviet Union was still the Laozi Party of the Third International, and now under the banner of world revolution, it could call on internationalist fighters to support the world revolution. According to the intelligence obtained by the German General Staff, many internationalist fighters have responded to the call and rushed to the Soviet Union.

Although the Soviet Union currently has no shortage of manpower, a banner as big as world revolution must be decorated by some internationalist fighters. Therefore, the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army established a dozen pretentious Third International Divisions in one fell swoop, allowing them to go into battle when necessary.

Therefore, even if all the Western Front and Southwest Front troops were annihilated, the Red Army would still have sufficient strength to defend. Although the equipment and training level of the Red Army's reserve forces cannot compare with the elites commanded by the Western Front and Southwest Front, the numerical advantage cannot be underestimated.

The forces currently used by the German army on the Eastern Front are three army groups: the Southern, Central and Northern Army Groups, which govern 14 armies, 4 armored armies, the Polish Defense Forces, the Ukrainian Defense Forces and the Lithuanian Defense Forces, with a total of 152 divisions and 122 troops. Brigades (the National Defense Forces only have brigades and no divisions), totaling 3.95 million people.

Although the number of people is quite large, 900,000 of the 3.95 million people are from the Polish Defense Forces, Ukrainian Defense Forces and Lithuanian Defense Forces. Not only are these defense forces relatively weak in combat effectiveness, but their mobility is also poor. It is okay to defend their hometowns, but they must It is not possible to follow the main German army in a blitzkrieg war.

Therefore, only 3.05 million people can really be put into the offensive, and these troops account for about 75% of the German Army field troops. Moreover, the remaining more than 900,000 German Wehrmacht field troops are either fighting in Ireland or stationed in important locations in the Middle East, Guyana, Europe and the west coast of Africa. It is difficult to mobilize them for the Eastern Front offensive.

As for the issue of further mobilization, it was raised as early as when Hersman was chief of the general staff. However, because the Nazi Party was unwilling to allow German women to enter factories to replace men, the mobilization work did not go smoothly.

Moreover, in Germany itself, excluding the Allied Powers, more than 8 million people have been mobilized to join the army - more than 4 million of them are in front-line field troops, and the rest are mostly in the navy, air force, air defense forces and logistics agencies In service, there are hundreds of thousands of homeland defense troops and millions of new recruits receiving training in the barracks.

Therefore, Germany's potential for further mobilization is not too great. After all, Germany's population base (only counting Germany itself) is only this small, and the number of troops that can be mobilized is definitely not as large as that of the Soviet Union.

Therefore, in the "Blue Plan" formulated under the leadership of Hessmann, there was no intention to overthrow the Bolsheviks, nor was there any big goal of directly attacking Moscow. Some are just a few small targets, such as Ukraine, such as the Caucasus oil-producing areas, such as severely damaging the Western Front and the Southwest Front.

At the same time, the "Blue Plan" is not a quick decisive battle plan, but a preparation for a protracted confrontation. Seizing the Soviet Union's heavy industrial base in Ukraine and the oil-producing Caucasus is a need for protracted operations.

However, it is not easy to achieve these small goals. After all, Stalin and the Supreme Command of the Soviet Union are not three-year-old children. If they don't have enough drama, they will not believe that the Germans want to turn the Leningrad of the Soviet Union into the Petrograd of the Russian Empire.

…

"Leader, if we want to convince Stalin that our goal is to restore the Russian Empire, we must lift Empress Olga out and rebuild the White Russian army."

Hessman slowly expressed his thoughts. He picked up the cup on the table and took a sip of coffee, and then said: "And the attack in the direction of Leningrad must be fierce enough. It is best to hit Leningrad." Suburbs. As long as the Tsar's flag can fly over Tsarskoe Selo, Stalin will have to believe it."

It is difficult to break into Leningrad from the Polo, because in addition to the Soviet Red Army defending Leningrad, there will also be millions or more Soviet working people participating in the battle - from the August Revolution to the present It has been more than 20 years, and there are probably not many old people in Leningrad who still care about the benefits of the Czar. The "Soviets" educated by the Bolsheviks are the majority in Leningrad!

Therefore, the Nazi army marching under the banner of Queen Olga could not confuse them, but it was still possible to advance from the border of Estonia and the Soviet Union to Pushkin Village (Tsarskoye Selo) on the outskirts of Leningrad, but it would only be an advance of a hundred or dozens of kilometers. That’s all.

"It would be best to let Empress Olga herself return to that... Tsarist Village." Hitler interjected. "She is a symbol. For some Russians, she is a legitimate monarch blessed by God. By the way, that's right. The church and the Queen can go back together."

The return of the empress is of course a big tree attracts the wind, and she also brought God with her. God is much more popular in Russia than the Romanov dynasty. If Stalin doesn't take it seriously, it might become true!

"If Empress Olga moves into the Catherine Palace, Stalin will definitely not dare to take it lightly." Chief of the General Staff Marshal Kesselring also agreed with Hitler's opinion. He looked at Hessmann, "I just don't know if the empress is willing to return to the Imperial Village?"

Hitler also looked at Hessmann at this time. Hessmann knew what the two meant. He shrugged and smiled: "I will go to Tombea Castle, and I should be able to reach a consensus with Her Majesty the Empress."

Tombea Castle is in Tallinn, Baltic States. It was there that Empress Olga was crowned as the Empress of Russia. At the same time, she was also the Grand Duchy of the Baltic Grand Duchy. Later, the Baltic became a republic, and her Grand Duchy was also gone.

However, she never officially announced that she would give up the Baltic monarchy. After William II ascended the German throne again, all German monarchs were also crowned dukes or duchesses, and took back at least one castle as their own palace. Queen Olga also brought up her Baltic Grand Duchess. At first, old William ignored her, but things changed after William III ascended the throne. In 1941, Olga was crowned the Duchess of Tallinn (without territory, only annuity) of the German Empire on the condition that Germany recognized the merger of the Baltic Grand Duchy, and took back the Tombia Castle.

So in early 1942, the Queen moved her permanent residence from the Yegenstorf Castle in Switzerland (which was given to her by an American tycoon in exchange for the title of earl) to the Tombia Castle close to her homeland.

After discussing how to fool Stalin, the meeting of the Supreme Command continued. There is another important matter to be discussed at today's meeting, which is the matter of fighting with Japan in the Indian Ocean.

This was agreed upon long ago. The European and Japanese combined fleets would cooperate to seize important islands in the Indian Ocean, such as Ceylon and Madagascar (controlled by Free France), and completely open up the Indian Ocean transportation lines. In addition, South Africa would be seized as compensation for Japan's occupation of the Dutch East Indies.

Now the Japanese side has finally put together a fleet to prepare for the westward expedition to the Indian Ocean, but they have made some additional requests - because the Indian Ocean islands such as Ceylon and Madagascar are all under the control of the European Community, Japan is purely "helping", so it is normal to make some requests.

However, the request made by Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Oshima to Hitler who returned from Paris this afternoon was ridiculous. The Japanese wanted to get the Tiger tank! Not just a few or dozens of them to fill the facade, but to imitate them in Japan. The Japanese wanted design drawings, prototypes and franchised production rights. It is said that the Japanese Army is preparing to equip several of their tank divisions with Tiger tanks!

The German armored forces were troubled by the Tiger tank, and Japan actually thought it could handle it. Hessman didn't know what to say.

However, it is not surprising that the Japanese made such a request, because they had observers on the battlefield in Warsaw and they certainly knew how powerful the Tiger tank was. On the night of July 21 and the early morning of July 22, this tank with many problems but powerful power and the Panther tank with similar performance won another "big score" tank battle.

On this night, the armored forces of the Soviet 3rd Army and the 9th Army, which tried to encircle the "Reinhardt Army-level Armored Group", suffered a disastrous defeat in Ruda and Radzymin respectively. Even equipped with T-34/57 and ZIS-2 anti-tank guns, the German "Tiger and Panther" were still not something the Soviets could deal with.

When the morning sun of July 22 shone on the plains near Ruda and Radzymin, more than 350 charred and twisted metal wreckages were there with faint black smoke, most of which were T-34 and KV-1, and the destroyed and irreparable "Tiger and Panther" and Type 4H tanks added up to only 23 vehicles.

In addition, four relatively intact T-34s and one KV-1 were captured, one of which was the Soviet Red Army’s trump card T-34/57 tank!