The Rise of the Third Reich

The train rattled forward, gradually moving away from Warsaw, the battlefield that had devoured the blood and flesh of countless Germans and Soviets. It first drove along the westbound railway, then turned back to the north, and then drove east.

Major Gustav Schwarzenegger, with a Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on his collar, sat on a chair near the window, looking at the scenery of the Polish plains in midsummer. The fields were green, the warm wind blew in, and the grass was green and the flowers were red. Polish villages were scattered in this picturesque scenery, with smoke curling around, appearing unusually peaceful and tranquil.

This place is not bad either! Major Schwarzenegger thought, why not move to Poland after the war is over, and keep company with those comrades who are buried here.

The Battle of Warsaw that just ended was extremely cruel. In the two-month bloody battle, the German 6th Army paid a heavy price of nearly 120,000 casualties or missing persons - the Soviet Western Front suffered nearly 500,000 casualties and missing persons on the Warsaw battlefield, with an exchange rate of almost 1:4.

The tank company where Major Schwarzenegger was located had been fighting hard on the front line, so the casualties were particularly tragic. The number of casualties and missing persons reached 60, which was more than half of the company's full strength.

The huge casualties also brought great military exploits. Gustav Schwarzenegger was not only promoted to major, but also won the Knight's Iron Cross.

The 5th "Viking" Division of the SS also made a name for itself in Warsaw and became the ace division in the Wehrmacht sequence (the SS in this time and space was just a title, without an independent system, and was part of the Wehrmacht). As soon as the Battle of Warsaw ended, this ace division was upgraded from an armored grenadier division to an armored division, becoming the first armored division under the name of the SS and the 22nd armored division of the German Army.

The upgrade of the Panzergrenadier Division to the Panzer Division is certainly not a matter of changing the name, but a real expansion of the armored forces of the troops. Now the output of the large oil fields in the Middle East is constantly increasing, giving Germany the confidence to greatly expand its armored forces.

Therefore, the 5th SS Panzer Battalion where Schwarzenegger was located was expanded into the 5th SS Panzer Regiment, and the number of armored battalions increased from 1 to 2. When fully staffed, it had 176 Type 4H tanks.

However, Major Schwarzenegger did not become one of the two tank battalion commanders of the 5th SS Panzer Regiment. He became the commander of the 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion.

The tank destroyer battalion is a unit that has only recently begun to appear in Germany. It is a combat unit formed by a tank destroyer called "Rhino" developed based on an improved Type 4 tank chassis.

In fact, the "Rhino" is not the first tank destroyer. There were also "Weasel" and "Weasel" 2 tank destroyers before, but these two "tank destroyers" were used as anti-tank guns and given to the anti-tank battalions of some elite troops. According to Hessmann's plan, all anti-tank battalions of armored divisions, armored grenadier divisions and infantry divisions will be equipped with the "Weasel" II tank destroyer developed based on the chassis of the No. 2 tank in the future.

The "Rhino", a big guy carrying an 88mm gun, was developed by Hessmann in June 1940. At the same time, a "Wild Bee" 150mm self-propelled artillery based on the same chassis was also developed.

The "Rhino" and "Wild Bee" completed their final design around June 1942 and began trial production. Now only a small number of "Rhino" and "Wild Bee" have been produced. However, since the development and finalization time of the "Rhino" anti-tank destroyer was earlier than in history, it did not wait for the 71-caliber 88mm gun, but chose the same 5-gun as the Tiger tank. Although the power is a little smaller, it is temporarily enough when tungsten steel bullets are used.

In addition, the "Rhino" designed according to Hessman's requirements also has a 10mm thick top cover, which can be used to protect against howitzers and rocket launchers, and its battlefield survivability is much stronger.

The 5th SS "Viking" Armored Division was the first unit equipped with the "Rhino" anti-tank destroyer. A total of 42 vehicles (3 destroyer companies, each with 14 destroyers) were obtained, all of which were incorporated into the 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion.

However, Major Schwarzenegger himself has never seen a real "Rhino", because the 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion is a new unit that has just completed training, and it is still waiting for Major Schwarzenegger to take over somewhere - the unit will definitely be handed over to him before the next battle, but the current location of the 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion is confidential, and where the 5th SS "Viking" Armored Division is going is also confidential.

The train was refueled at an unknown Polish train station and continued to move forward. At dawn the next day, it suddenly stopped beside a forest with no village or shop in sight. When everyone was surprised, they heard a whistle, and then someone shouted: "Everyone, take your backpacks and get off the train!" Gustav Schwarzenegger, who was awakened by the whistle, knew that they had reached their destination! He immediately picked up his backpack and got off the train behind a group of grenadiers from the 5th SS "Wiking" Division. The grenadiers lined up in a forest beside the railway, waiting for the staff of the division headquarters to lead them to a camp located somewhere unknown.

Gustav Schwarzenegger walked alone along the railway carrying a backpack to the train where the division headquarters was located. In order for a large establishment like the "Viking" division to move, of course it would require many trains to pull it, so Gustav walked for a long time without even reaching the train where the division headquarters was located, but things suddenly became brighter on both sides of the railway.

The dense woods suddenly disappeared, replaced by a vast flat land that was so huge that the edges could not be seen, and the flat land was filled with countless No. 4 tanks covered with camouflage tarpaulins!

…

"Marshal, the 5th SS 'Viking' Armored Division has arrived at the Nemenchine assembly point."

Lieutenant General Tipelskich, chief of staff of the German Army Group North, quickly walked into the war room and reported the arrival of the 5th SS Armored Division to General Manstein, the commander of the Army Group who was milling around the sand table. information.

The Nemenczny assembly area is located near Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, surrounded by a large forest. When the Polish Federation ruled Lithuania, it was the training ground for the Polish army and has always been a military restricted area. After the arrival of the Germans, the Nemenchine training ground was expanded repeatedly, a large number of well-camouflaged military camps, warehouses and roads were built, and a military railway was also laid. It is now a staging area for the 4th Armored Group Army. The 1st Armored Division, 2nd Armored Division, and 11th Armored Division are all concentrated there. Now another 5th SS Armored Division will be added.

"Got it." Manstein just responded in a low voice. After a while, he asked again, "Have the five heavy armored battalions moved out?"

He was asking about the 501-505 Heavy Armored Battalions. These five battalions withdrew from Warsaw earlier than the 5th SS Armored Division, and then withdrew to Danze for rest and expansion, replacing all "Panther" tanks with "Tiger" tank. At the same time, each battalion also strengthened a medium tank company (equipped with 22 short-barreled Type 4 F tanks) and an assault gun company (equipped with 6 Type 3 assault guns) to strengthen the heavy armor company against Soviet infantry and Soviet infantry. capabilities of military anti-tank guns.

"We set off in one hour, and we will definitely arrive at Nemenczny tonight." Tippelskich said, "With the addition of the 5th SS Armored Division and 5 heavy armored battalions, we can offset the The adverse effects of the transfer of the 56th Armored Corps.”

The 56th Armored Corps was transferred from Army Group North together with the 18th Army. They now belong to the newly established Petrograd Army Group. The Petrograd Army Group now includes the 18th Army, the Russian 1st White Guard Army, the Finnish Southeastern Army, the Finnish Karelia Army, and the French 1st Artillery Group. They are specifically responsible for the siege of Leningrad - of course, not to siege. Fight, wait for the Soviet relief troops to come up and die!

After the 56th Panzer Corps was transferred, the armored assault force of Army Group North was weakened. Under this situation, Manstein asked Guderian to withdraw the 5th SS Army from the Warsaw battlefield. The armored division and 5 heavy armored battalions were placed under his command.

Manstein smiled, crossed his arms and said: "Actually, looking at the performance of the Soviet Red Army in Poland, we now have the 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 12th, The 13th, 14th, 15th and other 10 armored divisions, plus the 5th SS Armored Division and 5 heavy armored battalions, should have enough strength to fight against the Soviet tank sea."

"That's enough!" Tippelskich laughed, "It's enough even without the 5th SS Panzer Division and 5 heavy armored battalions. Because the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th The five armored divisions were expanded in July and August, and the number of armored regiments increased from 1 to 2. In this way, our original 10 armored divisions have a total of 20 armored regiments. There are 3,520 No. 4 tanks!”

Because the two major bottlenecks of oil and non-ferrous metals have been solved, and the integration of industrial capabilities in European countries has been relatively successful. Therefore, the German armored forces are now taking a quantitative approach, choosing the No. 4 tank and the No. 3 assault gun as the main models. It also includes Daimler-Benz, Krupp, Rheinmetall, MAN, Porsche, Volkswagen, Henschel, Skoda, and Polish State Industries (this was the original Polish arsenal, and now Still operated by the Royal Government of Poland), Renault, Soma, Hotchkiss, AMX (the above four are French companies) and other tank manufacturers in the European Community are all under the command of the German Arms Directorate. Their tank production capabilities are concentrated on the No. 4 series, No. 3 assault gun series and No. 2 self-propelled gun series. Therefore, the production capacity of German (European Community) tanks and assault artillery is now much stronger than in history. After the Soviet-German war broke out, all factories were operating at full capacity. By July, the European Community (not including the weak industrial base , Hungary, which was temporarily unable to produce No. 4 and No. 3), the total output of tanks and assault artillery in various countries exceeded 1,500 units.

Now the German Army finally has the conditions to play in the sea of ​​tanks!