The Rise of the Third Reich

In the early morning of May 1, 1939, just after 5 o'clock. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was sitting on a half-track (this was a copycat car, copied by BMW from the French Citroën P21 half-track), feeling the bumps of the car body. He was supposed to listen to reports at the exercise headquarters and judge the progress of the exercise through changes in the sand table and map.

However, Hitler proposed yesterday afternoon that he wanted to witness the breakthrough of the 1st Armored Division - perhaps because he was worried about Hessmann's deception - beside him, General Hessmann, the infantry general who accompanied him to the front line of the exercise, was looking down. He was looking at an exercise progress report he had just received.

On one side of the road, one after another, wheeled armored vehicles and trucks formed a line that stretched as far as the eye could see. Every vehicle was filled with heavily armed soldiers. From time to time, someone spotted their beloved Prime Minister passing by and saluted Hitler with a raised hand salute. Hitler returned the salute excitedly, as if inspecting his troops.

"General of the Infantry, why don't they move forward?" Hitler suddenly became interested in the long queue of cars here. "Everyone is sitting in the car. What is going on?"

"Prime Minister, they are waiting for a breakthrough from the front." Hersman closed the report in his hand. "According to the plan submitted by the blue side, they will advance along the Baltic Route 6. Route 6 is an important road through the Courland Peninsula. Roads are very suitable for the rapid advancement of armored forces, so they are also the focus of the red side’s defense.”

He looked at his watch, "The bombardment will begin in a few minutes. It won't last for days and nights. After 45 minutes of artillery preparation, there will be an assault of the tank group! It is estimated that the red side's defense system will be launched within two hours." Collapse. At that time, the convoy here will be led by tanks and advance at a speed of 10 to 15 kilometers per hour... For the army after 1914, this is as fast as lightning!"

Hitler turned and looked at the seemingly clueless German convoy. He estimated that there were at least 1,500 vehicles of various types lined up, and the entire motorized infantry division was on wheels. The tractor industry in Germany now is similar to that in history, but the automobile industry Industry has become much stronger, so there are enough vehicles to provide the motorized troops - if they can really advance on the battlefield at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour, no, even 5 kilometers per hour, the enemy will be caught off guard.

Because since heavy artillery became a weapon in the army, the army's movement speed has become very slow. Especially when leaving the railway, relying on animal power and walking to advance under heavy enemy resistance is almost like a turtle. If we can advance 5 kilometers in one day, the headquarters in the rear will open champagne to celebrate.

Therefore, in the last world war, the enemy whose defense line was breached always had enough time to rely on the railways and roads controlled by its own side to mobilize troops and rebuild a new defense line behind the breached defense line.

If the attacking side can increase the speed of advancement to 5 kilometers per hour, that will be 120 kilometers per day, which is completely impossible to defend!

"How will the red side prepare to defend themselves?" Hitler asked with a frown.

“On the Usma Lake section, with a front of about 8 kilometers, the Red Army deployed an infantry division and built a defense line consisting of an anti-tank trench, three defensive trenches and four artillery positions, and also laid out fake mines. area and a large number of barbed wire fences, and there is a reserve defense line behind the main defense line. In addition, the Red Army also deployed two regiments and two anti-tank artillery batteries at Fort William, 12 kilometers northwest of Usma Lake.”

The deployment of the red side that Hersmann told Hitler was naturally kept secret from the blue side headquarters. Similarly, the red team is completely unaware of the blue team's attack plan.

However, even if Falkenhausen guessed Guderian's main attack direction, the exercise headquarters would not allow him to concentrate all his forces around Lake Usma. Because what needs to be verified through this exercise is the ability of armored forces to break through traditional defense lines.

"One division is placed on the 8-kilometer defense line, and there are two regiments 12 kilometers away..." Hitler thought for a while and then asked: "What about the artillery? How is the artillery deployed?"

"There is a divisional artillery regiment, six infantry regiments (including two regiments at Fort William) each with an infantry artillery battery, and five anti-tank artillery batteries (including two at Fort William)." Hersman Answer, "There are currently two infantry artillery batteries and two anti-tank artillery batteries deployed on the main position on the Usma Lake front line. There are also two infantry artillery batteries and two anti-tank artillery batteries on the reserve position. In the artillery position There are also eight artillery batteries on board. In addition, there are three anti-aircraft artillery batteries deployed."

"How many cannons are placed on the front line of Lake Usma?" Hitler did not know the current artillery establishment of the German Army and the Baltic Army, so he simply asked the specific number.

"There are 16 150mm cannons, 8 of which are K16 type, and 8 of which are IG33 infantry guns; there are 36 105mm cannons, all of which are Le.FH18 howitzers; there are 16 75mm cannons, all of which are IG18 Infantry guns; 84 37mm Pak35 anti-tank guns; 36 20mm Flak28 anti-aircraft guns."

"The number of cannons is not many." Hitler frowned slightly. Having fought in the First World War, it sounded to him that there were only so many cannons on such a critical line of defense, which was really a bit "shameful". It wouldn't be the case with the German army in 1917 and 1918.

What he reported was roughly the artillery allocation situation of the 1932-type infantry division of the National Defense Force, which was slightly different from the historical 1935 division. However, just like the situation in history, the current German artillery firepower is not very powerful. It ranks behind France and the Soviet Union in Europe, and the performance of most artillery is not excellent.

Of course, the problem still lies in the Treaty of Versailles. The more than ten years of "no order" era has successfully severely damaged Germany's artillery development and production - military technological progress, like other technological progress, is inseparable from the support of orders. of. Without large orders from the military, it would be impossible for Krupp and Rheinmetall to spend large sums of money to develop new cannons.

However, Hessmann did not care about the lack of German artillery strength, because he knew that artillery that lacked mobility was of little use in the era of mechanized warfare - especially now that the German Air Force had benefited from the leadership in air-cooled engine technology and had more weapons than ever before. The biggest advantage is that the enemy's towed artillery is just a living target for the air force.

"The firepower of the Czechoslovak army is only this, and the Polish infantry divisions cannot reach this level." Hersman squinted his eyes and said to Hitler, "And deploy one division on an 8-kilometer front, and there are two more nearby. A regiment that can be reinforced at any time, such a defensive deployment is impossible in most cases. "

Hitler nodded silently, and then a thunderous roar came from the distance.

"Has the bombardment begun?" Hitler asked.

"Yes, it's started," Hersman said. "In 45 minutes, the tank assault will also begin. Prime Minister, the exercise headquarters has prepared a forward observation post for us. We will experience the mechanized warfare era there. Breakthrough!"

…

Major General Erich von Manstein is now the commander of the 18th Army Division of the Wehrmacht. His division participated in the "Iron Fist-1935" exercise and guarded the defense line east of the Usma River.

In the early morning of May 1, when the "Blue Army" bombardment began, he had just gotten up and was eating breakfast in his command post with a coffee cup and bread.

"Is there no one staying in the position?" Manstein asked worriedly, listening to the sound of shelling.

This is a live-fire exercise, not a real fight. So a quarter of an hour before the "Blue Army" bombardment started, the exercise headquarters called to inform. After receiving the notice, the "Red Army" will take the equipment and leave the position, while leaving the "dummy" and "fake equipment" to be bombed. The reason for this is to test how much of the equipment can be destroyed by the 45-minute bombardment. A 37mm anti-tank gun on a frontline position.

The 37mm anti-tank gun is currently the most powerful anti-tank weapon in the hands of German infantry. In theory, an infantry division should have 84 to 90 such artillery pieces. But the vast majority of infantry divisions do not even have one-third the number. Manstein's 18th Division was temporarily strengthened because it had to participate in exercises, so that the anti-tank guns could be fully equipped.

During defensive battles, most of these anti-tank guns will be assigned to regiments. Typically, each infantry regiment will receive 18 to 20 (with some left for scouts) 37mm anti-tank guns.

Two regiments were deployed on the main position on the front line of Lake Usma. A total of 40 37mm anti-tank guns were placed - 40 anti-tank guns guarding an 8-kilometer-wide front, with an average of 5 anti-tank guns per kilometer. Tank gun. If these five guns are destroyed, then the infantry can only rely on anti-tank guns to resist the tanks...

"General, all personnel and equipment have withdrawn." A staff officer responded immediately. "We can wait patiently for the shelling to end."

No one in the 18th Division headquarters knew how long the bombardment would last, but everyone believed that the bombardment would not be too short. Because the position they built was quite strong for the infantry, if only dozens of cannons participated in the bombardment, it would be impossible to cause enough damage without repeated bombardment for more than 24 hours.

"Patience?" Manstein shook his head and walked to the map table. "Our opponents are the 1st Armored Division and the 3rd Motorized Infantry Division. They have 400 tanks and self-propelled artillery..." He squinted his eyes. . After listening for a while, "At least 80 or more cannons are bombarding, and two artillery regiments have gathered opposite us."

"Is this our main attack direction?" a staff officer asked, "Should we report it to the headquarters?"

"Report," Manstein paused, "and request reinforcements!"

"Calling for help? Now?" the staff officer said, "They haven't started attacking yet? What if it's a trap?"

Manstein raised his coffee cup, took a sip, and then said with great certainty: "The decisive battle is to the east of Lake Usma, so request reinforcements now!"