The Rise of the Third Reich

On June 8, 1943, when the first ray of light in the morning just emerged from the horizon, the German Army Group North, which had been in a defensive state since mid-May, suddenly began a counterattack. Since the beginning of Operation Purple Plan, the third large-scale German offensive (the first two were against the Belarusian Bulge and against Left Bank Ukraine) finally kicked off.

And this time the target will be Leningrad, the second capital of the Soviet Union!

The Lyuban battlefield, located along the Red October railway line southeast of Leningrad, was covered by intense and unusual artillery fire from the early morning of the 8th, followed by overwhelming fighter air strikes and tanks.

The attack on the 8th went very smoothly. Only half a day after the war started, the German Tipelskirch Group (equivalent to an armored group army) broke through the Soviet defense line across the board. In the main attack direction - just on both sides of the Red October railway line, They advanced rapidly on the plain area about 50 kilometers wide, and the Soviet troops in front of them retreated like an avalanche.

At noon on June 9, the battle lasted only a day and a half. The German 21st Armored Division, serving as the vanguard of the Tipelskich cluster, surrounded Chudovo, 35 kilometers southeast of Lyuban. By the evening of that day, the first unit of the 21st Armored Division had advanced to the area along the Volkhov River less than 8 kilometers southeast of Chudovo City.

Although this speed of advancement is exciting, General Tipelskich and Commander Manteuffel of the 48th Armored Corps are not excited at all.

Because they discovered a "Collective Farm No. 13" in the city of Chudovo - the expected scene of a tank cluster holding a battle in the open plain did not appear. The Soviet army seemed to use tank troops to cooperate with infantry to defend the city.

That night, the German Panzergrenadiers who crossed the Volkhov River for fire reconnaissance made new discoveries. They were attacked by an unknown number of Soviet tanks on the south bank of the Volkhov River!

Obviously, the Soviet tank force is making progress! They have summed up the experience and lessons of the Battle of the Junction and the Battle of the Desna River, and will not easily fight any tank group battles with the Germans... unless they get tanks that can fight against the German Tiger tanks.

"The Soviets are getting smarter and smarter as they fight!"

After studying the report sent by Army Group Northern, Marshal Guderian quickly came to a conclusion.

"On the Kharkov battlefield, the 1st Armored Army also encountered the same situation. The Soviet army used a combination of tanks/assault artillery and infantry for defense, using them as the backbone of defense."

While the fighting started on the front line in Leningrad, the fighting in left-bank Ukraine was also fierce. Konev, the commander of the Southwest Front of the Red Army, was obviously not an easy guy to deal with. Like Zhukov, he learned the lessons of the "Battle of the Junction" and the "Battle of the Desna River" and no longer fought against the Germans. A defensive tactic that combines tanks/assault artillery with infantry.

Although this tactic cannot defeat the powerful German army, the exchange is much better than the above, and the delay time is also longer.

Therefore, although Army Group South (including the 1st Armored Army) now surrounds many Soviet troops, the battle of annihilation is not easy. The city of Chernihiv, defended by two armies (9th and 12th), was not basically captured until June 7, but sporadic resistance in the city continued.

In Pavlograd, the gateway to the Donetsk (Stalinno Oblast) industrial zone (belonging to the Dnepropetrovsk Oblast and also a coal mining industry center), four Soviet army groups withdrew from the Dnieper River defense line The remaining troops of about 200,000 people were surrounded by the German 2nd Panzer Army (attached to Army Group South).

There are also several tank corps/mechanized corps among the besieged troops, and they also adopt defensive tactics with tanks/assault artillery as the core. The 2nd Armored Group Army tried to attack, but found that it was difficult to deal with, so it had to besiege and wait for the subsequent infantry and artillery to attack before attacking.

In addition, Army Group South also discovered that a large number of Soviet troops were retreating towards the Crimean Peninsula - the terrain of this peninsula is quite dangerous, and it is estimated that a bloody battle will be necessary to win it.

Hersman looked at the focus areas on the map where a large number of troops were piled up, shook his head and said: "On the left bank of Ukraine, there are three major battles to be fought in Kharkov, Pavlograd and Crimea; There are four battles on the middle route: Minsk, Smolensk, Bryansk (encircling and annihilating the 48th Army of the Red Army), Truchevsk (encircling and annihilating the 30th and 40th Army of the Red Army), and there is also a Warsaw battlefield; now the northern line It seems that another battle is needed along the Volkhov River, and there is probably a fierce battle along the Pskov-Velkoluki Railway, and there is also Leningrad..."

The fierce battles were one after another!

Moreover, it is not the first year of the Soviet-German War. The Soviet Red Army has also been somewhat tempered, so it is not easy to eliminate them.

"We can always win," Guderian said with a smile. "Now the initiative in the middle and southern routes is entirely mine. The northern route is in a decisive battle and will definitely win. The Tipelskirch cluster has a chance to win." strength, and the French 1st Mechanized Army is almost in place.”

Hessmann nodded. Tipelskirch's cluster would most likely be able to defeat the Red Army along the Holwow River. As for the French 1st Mechanized Army, he didn't have high hopes. Although this army has three reserve armored divisions similar to the German armored divisions, the French armored divisions have not been on the battlefield since the 40-year armistice (the Franco-German armistice). I'm afraid you won't get much advantage if you meet a veteran of the Soviet Red Army.

Therefore, if we really want to be foolproof on the battlefield near Leningrad on the northern route, we still have to deploy several armored divisions and armored grenadier divisions from the southern battlefield where the overall situation has been decided...

When Hessmann was about to discuss with Guderian the transfer of armored units from the southern front to join Army Group Northern, General Zeitzler, director of the Operations Bureau of the General Staff Headquarters, walked in anxiously.

Guderian saw him in a hurry and asked: "Kurt, what happened?"

"Report from the South American Front," Zeitzler said with a frown, "The Air Force Command of the South American Front detected a rather large American fleet protruding from the Caribbean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean!"

"U.S. fleet?" Hersman was also stunned for a moment, "Did you send planes to bomb?"

"Sent," Zeitzler said, "36 Ju288s and 32 He219s were dispatched from the Air Force's Cayenne base... but the air raid group encountered a high-altitude fighter that may have been improved from the Spitfire. During the interception, 8 Ju288s were shot down, 7 were wounded, and 2 He219s were shot down! The air raid was a complete failure, and not a single American ship was sunk or damaged..."

"What?"

Hersmann and Guderian exclaimed at the same time. Air strikes launched by Ju288 and He219 had not been intercepted by American carrier-based high-altitude fighter jets in the past, but they had never suffered such heavy losses and achieved nothing.

This shows that the advantages of Ju288, He219 and remote-controlled gliding bombs in German air anti-ship means have been seriously weakened.

Now, the U.S. Navy can return to the Atlantic battlefield!

…

"There are two things that can be determined now. First, the Americans have developed carrier-based high-altitude interceptors with relatively superior performance...mostly disposable aircraft; second, there is a fairly large American fleet that has broken through our blockade and entered. Atlantic Ocean, and we still don’t know what its purpose is?”

Less than an hour after receiving the emergency report from the South American Front Command, the leaders of the German Navy and Air Force had gathered in the General Staff Conference Room in Zossen and began to hold an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Redl, first reported the situation he had learned, and then said to Hersman: "But we don't have to worry too much, because our European combined fleet has enough strength to defeat the U.S. Atlantic Fleet!"

The European Combined Fleet is now considered to be strong. There are 11 new battleships that can be used to fight the Americans in a decisive fleet battle, including 2 Hindenburg-class, 2 Bismarck-class, 4 Veneto-class, and 3 Richelieu-class. There are also 1 Barbarossa class, 1 Scharnhorst class and 2 Dunkirk class which are also capable of fighting.

The European Combined Fleet also has a large number of fleet aircraft carriers. The large fleet aircraft carriers alone now include 2 Zeppelin-class and 3 Prussia-class (E aircraft carriers).

In addition, after conquering the British mainland, the European Community's shipbuilding capabilities have reached a higher level, so the shipbuilding plan has also been expanded.

Currently, the large battleships under construction alone include three French "Alsace" class, three Italian "Alexandre Duke" class, and four "Schleicher" class which are under construction in the UK - in fact, The British Lions, now purchased by Germany, were named "Schleicher", "Horsmann", "Hammerstein" and "Lundstedt".

The above 10 super battleships will be completed and put into service before the end of 1945!

While building battleships, the German Navy also did not forget to start building aircraft carriers.

Among them, the "Zeppelin" class is regarded as Germany's "dumpling ship" and is under construction. In addition to the two ships already in service, there are still eight ships under construction.

Construction of four "Prussian" class large fleet aircraft carriers (that is, 70,000-ton aircraft carriers) rebuilt from the hulls of H41-class battleships has also begun, and they will all be completed and put into service by the end of 2045.

In addition, the "Kesselring" class (15,000-ton light fleet aircraft carrier) improved from the "Sedlitz" class has started construction of 10 ships at once, and it is also very likely to become a dumpling!