In terms of distance alone, Xhosa is still relatively far from Ossa. However, because the Second Armored Army is extremely mechanized and can implement a fully mechanized march, this distance is only relatively speaking. Manstein The general plan was to use Xhosa to penetrate the left flank of the Central Soviet Army, and then break through the left defense line of the Central Soviet Army in one fell swoop, thus forming a two-sided attack with Army Group A. Guderian did not send this message because he was worried that the telegram would be deciphered. An action plan was notified to Manstein. In his reply to Manstein, he simply stated that his troops had accelerated their marching pace and estimated that it would take up to forty hours for the vanguard to reach the battlefield.
It was not uncommon for warring parties to intercept and decipher each other's secret messages during World War II. For example, units at the division level or above of the cadet army had specialized intelligence departments. They were not only responsible for monitoring and deciphering the German's secret messages, but they also had specialized action groups that went deep into the enemy's rear to seek help. To monitor the enemy's daily communications, the structure of the Far East Expeditionary Force was almost copied from that of the Self-Study Army. Therefore, Zhang Zizhong's headquarters also has such an intelligence department, and its combat power is quite impressive.
Guderian's Second Armored Group played a decisive role in the Battle of Stalingrad. It can even be said that the reason why the German army was able to escape from the Russians' human sea tactics and win was because of the Second Armored Group. The group army outflanked the Soviet Red Army's retreat, which caused supply difficulties for the Stalingrad defenders. In the end, they had to fight and retreat due to lack of ammunition supplies, which was equivalent to giving up Stalingrad.
The Soviets paid special attention to the Second Armored Group because they had suffered so much at the hands of the Second Armored Group. As for the Far East Expeditionary Force, the Supreme Command had already issued a document to Zhang Zizhong that required special vigilance and attention. German generals and troops, so although the two sides have not yet had a chance to exchange hands, once information about the Second Armored Group appears on his desk, Zhang Zizhong will pay special attention to it.
The Second Armored Group would reach the battlefield in forty hours. Timoshenko and Zhang Zizhong received the relevant report at about the same time. The former immediately called the latter and proposed launching an offensive in advance: "We must not follow the Germans' rhythm Let's go. The Allied Army's breakthrough on the southern front is the best time for us to launch an offensive. While the German Second Army is still a certain distance away from the battlefield, even if we cannot completely defeat Army Group A, we can still take the initiative on the battlefield in our hands. .”
Timoshenko was originally firmly opposed to responding to the Germans' recent decisive battle, but now he is eager to take the initiative to attack. From this, it is not difficult to see that Guderian and his Second Armored Army have indeed left a heavy shadow in his heart. It's not that Zhang Zizhong has not considered using the Japanese breakthrough to take the initiative to attack, but he still doesn't know the strength of the German army very well, and because he always has a vigilance in his heart, he is worried about being used by the Soviet Russians "I don't know how to die" "Dead", so with a stable mentality, he decided to take another look.
Now that Timoshenko has taken the initiative to ask for a decisive battle in advance, Zhang Zizhong has also taken into account the huge imbalance in the strength of the two sides after the Second Armored Group Army joined the battlefield. Therefore, although there are still various concerns in his heart, he still feels that it is "worth a try": "It is not a bad idea to launch an offensive in advance, but our reinforcements are on the way. If we attack now, our army's strength will be greatly reduced."
The so-called reinforcements in Zhang Zizhong's mouth are naturally the Japanese Peace Army. He just received the news yesterday that the Supreme Command informed him that four divisions of the Japanese Peace Army with about 60,000 people are being assembled and will be on their way to Austria in a month at the latest. Zhang Zizhong was very dissatisfied with the fact that the Japanese were fooling him again in the country, but he also knew the specific situation in the country, so although he was dissatisfied, in view of the outstanding performance of Suki Dairobu, he felt that "there is always a general It’s better than nothing, and it’s not bad to use the Japanese to charge into battle without any psychological pressure.” So he could only pretend to be angry and aggrieved and called back to the Supreme Command, saying that he accepted the arrangement of the Supreme Command, but asked the Supreme Command to Be sure to support more helicopters and "Phoenix" tank destroyers according to your requirements.
The "Phoenix" tank destroyer is a new type of tank developed by the Xuebing R&D Institute on the basis of the Mandrill and Thunderbolt self-propelled rocket launchers. The purpose of developing it by the Xuebing R&D Institute is to cooperate with the "Siberian Tiger Tank Destroyer" "Form a complete anti-tank combat capability, so that our armored forces also have anti-tank destroyer capabilities. As for why this latest tank appeared on the Soviet battlefield, the reason is because the "Phoenix" is inferior to its predecessors. The "Jiguang General Tank" and "Mandrill Heavy Tank", and the "Siberian Tiger Tank Destroyer" are too simple in structure, and the anti-tank missiles they are equipped with are not very accurate, which makes Ouyang Yun very suspicious of its battlefield capabilities. The survivability of the first "Phoenix" prototype was determined by his casual words, "It needs to be tested on the battlefield." Under Pan Meiren's personal arrangement, this "Phoenix" was directly installed on the vehicle. He entered the air fortress and then appeared among the armored units of the Far East Expeditionary Force at lightning speed.
The Soviets generally did not dare to confront the German Second Armored Group because the Tiger heavy tanks and Elephant and Rhino tank destroyers equipped by the Germans were too sharp, especially the Elephant and Rhino tank destroyers. The Soviet Russians simply had no tanks of the same type that could compete with them, so after repeatedly suffering heavy losses, the Soviet Russians completely lost the courage to fight the Second Armored Group Army.
The Far East Expeditionary Force headed by Zhang Zizhong is different, because Jiang Tongmin's helicopter unit has proven the status of the Haidongqing armed helicopter as the "chariot nemesis" in actual combat, and Xiang Wenlong's "Northeast Tiger" unit also has considerable anti-tank capabilities. Ability, so Zhang Zizhong is not worried about confrontation with the German armored forces at all. If the Haidongqing armed helicopters and Siberian Tiger tank destroyers gave Zhang Zizhong the confidence, then the "Phoenix" brought him a surprise.
Like Ouyang Yun, when he first saw the "Phoenix", Zhang Zizhong was not optimistic about this weird tank that had a relatively simple structure but seemed to be quite bulky. Then, when he saw the "Phoenix", it destroyed one of the Germans with one shot. A "Rhinoceros" was pierced through, and then a missile blew up the turret of a Tiger. He was stunned and hurriedly asked about the model of this tank, and then muttered about asking the commander-in-chief It requires enough "Phoenix" vehicles,