In eastern Germany, the "Wolf's Lair" base camp, located between Rastenberg and Kentschen in East Prussia, was shrouded in heavy snow. The entire Central and Eastern Europe was covered in snow. The winter of 1942 came
Very early and very cold.
Since the launch of the "Iron Hammer" plan on the 12th, Hitler has led his members of the Supreme Command to the "Wolf's Lair" base camp to coordinate the overall situation and patiently wait for the good news from West Asia, but no one can believe that only nine days have passed.
The bad news came that cities and air force airports in the Middle East, Turkey, and the Caucasus had been attacked by the Anjia Army air force, and almost all air power had been wiped out.
The role of the air force was fully demonstrated as early as September 1938 when the German Army launched its invasion of Poland. Now that more than 1.8 million of the most elite mechanized troops were required to fight without the cover of fighter planes, Hitler had no idea.
bottom, especially in the current situation where radio communications are seriously interfered with.
At midnight, Hitler could not sleep. During the high-level meeting of the Nazi Party during the day, he denounced Göring, who was in charge of air force affairs. After the meeting, Göring returned to Berlin in despair to supervise the production of fighter aircraft, while Heydrich went to Denmark.
, leading the naval aviation in the battle against Britain, the current main task is to ensure the absolute safety of the aircraft carrier formation when losing air supremacy on the western front.
After sitting in his study for half an hour looking at a map of West Asia, speculating on what might happen on the front line, the agitated Hitler simply got up and walked out of the room equipped with a heating stove. Amid the raises of hands from the officers and soldiers along the way, he climbed up the steps and walked out of the deep burial ground.
In the underground "Wolf's Den", the famous French dog given to him by Marshal Pétain, the head of the Vichy government, to represent surrender and follower, walked around on the snow-covered surface.
Hitler was accustomed to a bat-like daily routine, often working until three or four in the morning before going to bed and getting up at ten in the morning. Until the launch of the damn war with the Chinese, Hitler's routine was very regular, with two hours in the afternoon and two nights every day.
At any time, he would invite the generals working in the headquarters and the female secretary beside him to drink tea and chat, and enjoy Richard Strauss's opera "Festival of Liberty" played on the imported tape recorder to relax his tired body and mind.
However, as the war with the Chinese broke out and quickly reached a stalemate, with the air force now suffering huge losses and the front lines losing control due to radio outages, Hitler had ordered the cancellation of this "harmful activity" which he defined as weakening the will to fight.
Daily routine becomes chaotic.
Three days ago, Marshal Rundstedt and Marshal Manstein received a joint call from an Italian warship off Beirut, saying that after repeated investigations, it was confirmed that the radio signal shielding in the entire West Asia region was caused by the Anjia Army Air Force suspended at 20,000 meters.
It was caused by the interference wave emitted by the airship radar in the high altitude. This interference wave only targeted the German army's communication frequency. The Chinese team's communication was not affected, which proved that the other party had a communication channel.
The two heads of state requested the headquarters to immediately organize German radio experts to develop a specialized radio transmission system to break the strong electromagnetic interference of the Anjia Army. As for directly destroying the opponent's airships, there is currently nothing they can do because so far, no aircraft can fly there.
At such a high altitude, after the "Zeppelin" accident in 1937, all German airships were ordered to be destroyed by Göring. They could not threaten Anjiajun's high-altitude airships equipped with radars. As for the time limit for building new airships, they can only
Start by deciphering electromagnetic signals.
During this hour-long power call, Rundstedt expressed worriedly that he had lost contact with all the troops advancing eastward. Both he and Manstein were very worried about the safety of these nearly two million elite troops. You know
The German troops currently fighting on the north and south wings are almost all newly formed Wehrmacht troops and Romanian, Bulgarian, Turkish and other foreign troops. Their combat effectiveness is worrying. Once the combat groups deep in the salient suffer heavy losses, the entire war situation will collapse in an instant.
In his reply, Hitler criticized the passivity and pessimism of Marshals Rundstedt and Manstein, saying that even if they lost the protection of the air force, the Imperial Army with its strong will and unyielding spirit would be enough to destroy all opponents.
The marshal responded at any time to outflank the assault groups in place, recreating the heroic feat of annihilating millions of Soviet troops in the battles of Minsk, Smolensk and Kiev.
Although Hitler showed great confidence in front of others, this could not alleviate his inner worries at all, especially when he learned that the general commanding the army in West Asia was Yin Jinan, whom he had always regarded highly, this negative emotion was intensified. This
The atmosphere in the "Wolf's Lair" was extremely strange for a few days. The military and political officials who came here to report suddenly found that their leader's temper had become much more irritable, and he looked haggard, and he could not even walk as quickly and powerfully as before.
When Hitler came to the woods outside, the biting cold wind invaded his neck one after another, and his slightly hunched body couldn't help but shiver.
There was silence all around the heavily guarded "Wolf's Den", with white snow piled on the branches of the trees far and near, making it look unusually cold. However, it was precisely because of this silent atmosphere that Hitler felt free and unrestrained, and his body, mind, and vision seemed to suddenly change.
Gotta open up.
The fresh and cold air invigorated Hitler's spirit, and his thinking quickly became flexible. His eyes fell on the vast woods in the night. The snow was pale and dazzling against the night. He caught it with his hands and fell in the air.
Seeing the snowflakes melting in the palm of his hand, Hitler suddenly became dizzy and leaned weakly against a large tree that was as thick as an arm.
"What happened on the front line?" Hitler muttered to himself, leaning against a tree, with all kinds of thoughts running through his mind. If there really was a problem with the entire attack group, then Germany, which had lost these six main armies, would be at great risk.
This war may be lost.
Half an hour later, Hitler returned to the "Wolf's Lair" and came to the war room on the second underground floor. Through the light leaking from the ajar door, he could see Army Chief of Staff Franz Halder conferring with the Army Headquarters.
Discussing the war situation with the staff of the General Staff, Hitler stopped and listened for a while. When he heard someone say "full withdrawal", he couldn't help but angrily opened the door and walked in, asking loudly:
"Why do you think that our German army is not a match for the Chinese? As of the 21st, we have continuously received news that the front line is progressing smoothly. It has only been a few days, why have you suddenly become pessimistic and disappointed? Maybe this is
It was the Chinese people who could not withstand our attack and resorted to a devious strategy. Our retreat just allowed the other side's conspiracy to succeed!"
Franz Halder turned his head, extended his hand to Hitler as a Führer salute, and then replied cautiously:
"My head of state, looking at the entire war situation, the situation is very dangerous. We cannot make any mistakes at this time. This withdrawal is not the original intention of our army headquarters and the general staff, even if Marshal Goering's air force cannot completely suppress it
As long as China's fighter planes can maintain a certain balance of power, we will unswervingly support the head of state to continue the war... Not to mention the Mesopotamia region, even if we attack Afghanistan and the subcontinent, we will make careful plans
And meticulous planning to fulfill the head of state’s instructions!
"However, most of our air force's fighter planes are now lost on the Eastern Front, and the loss of pilots is particularly heartbreaking. Since last week, the British, who have recovered their breath, have launched a counterattack against the Isle of Wight and have continuously dispatched fleets of aircraft.
Bombing our inland cities, Berlin has now become the focus of the opponent's attack, which fully shows that the key air supremacy on the Western Front has fallen into the hands of the British.
"Under such circumstances, if we continue to cling to the Eastern Front, I am worried that the Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands and Iceland we finally won will fall into the hands of the Allies again, and then Norway and Denmark will
It’s dangerous. The only solution now is for us to voluntarily abandon the Mesopotamia plains in West Asia, retreat to the Sinai Peninsula in the west, retreat to the central plateau of Turkey in the northwest, and retreat to the Caucasus Mountains in the north. We must concentrate our efforts to protect the stability of our European territories and maintain the peace and stability of Libya.
The production safety of the Romanian oil fields. After accumulating enough fighter planes, we will try to regain the Baku oil fields and the Egyptian oil fields. The most urgent thing is to preserve our elite army!"
Hitler sneered, strode to the large sand table next to the conference table, and picked up the baton: "Do you know how big an area this is? This colony has long been controlled by the British. It is not only the empire's march into Persia and India.
It is also the most powerful guarantee for us to resume production in the Baku and Egyptian oil fields and improve the current distressed oil situation throughout Europe. It is also the first front to protect the Balkans, Ukraine and Don River regions currently occupied by us. Once
We chose to retreat. Don't even think about going back there again. Years of hard work have been wasted, and hundreds of thousands of brave soldiers have died in vain."
At this point, Hitler thought that whenever there was a crisis, the forward-thinking Wehrmacht generals would always find ways to interfere with their decision-making, and he couldn't help but angrily shouted: "No, we will not leave the Mesopotamia area! I believe in my soldiers.
They will surprise me!"
There was silence in the war room. General Franz Halder didn't understand why Hitler was so persistent. He turned his head and looked at the sand table of the West Asian landscape that was scaled down to a certain proportion. He was silent for a while and said:
"My head of state, no one wants to leave the Mesopotamia Plain. Not only is the strategic location there very important, but there is also a large amount of oil in the Khuzestan region of Persia. If the empire can control it, the outcome of the war between the Axis countries and the Allied countries will be doomed!"
However, the problem now is that the difficulties we face have exceeded imagination. Since the outbreak of the air war in West Asia on the 21st, due to the loss of vital air superiority, our transportation and supply routes have encountered continuous air attacks, passing through Turkey and the Caucasus.
The supplies transported by railways and roads are less than half of what they were before the war!
"This time our troops participating in the offensive are not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, but more than 1.8 million. Coupled with the four to five million troops in the three combat groups, the supplies consumed every day are terrible astronomical figures. We
It is simply impossible to fully guarantee it. If we ignore the objective reality and still persist in fighting, the direct consequences we will face will be that tanks and armor, transportation vehicles will have no fuel, guns and guns will have no ammunition, and starving officers and soldiers can only fight with their bare hands.
"Instead of losing everything in vain at that point, it is better to retreat in advance while our army has a certain inventory and shrink the defense line. Everything will be fine."
Hitler was not completely ignorant of military matters. After listening to Franz Halder’s analysis, a sense of powerlessness came over him. After being silent for a while, he pointed to the sand table and asked:
"Can't the supply problem be solved by transporting it at night? Franz, generals, look at it, Latakia, Tartus, Tripoli, Beirut, Haifa, and Jaffa are all excellent seaports.
We can definitely send the supplies to the ports along the Aegean Sea by railway, then have Italian transport ships send them to the Middle East, and then send them to the frontline officers and soldiers via trucks. The distance is not that far away!"
Franz Halder smiled bitterly and said: "My head of state, there are not large forests in the Mesopotamia Plain, and there are few mountain canyons that can hide large amounts of supplies. During the day, the convoy is very eye-catching in the wilderness. In fact, from the second
From the 11th to now, nearly half of our transport trucks have been lost due to continuous attacks by the Chinese Air Force. It is impossible to have such a large transport capacity. At the same time, let our powerful mechanized corps fight without air cover.
It’s so cruel, and it’s also a huge waste of the empire’s precious resources!”
Hitler was very angry: "Let's talk about it, you all want to escape..."
"Führer!"
Schmundt, Hitler's military adjutant, walked in from the door with a panicked look. When he came to Hitler, he handed him an urgent telegram. Hitler's face changed drastically after reading it, and he asked in a trembling voice: "Is it confirmed?"
Schment nodded: "This is the news from Marshal Bloomberg personally... The 24th Motorized Corps of the Ninth Group Army encountered the Mechanized Corps of the Chinese Army on the east bank of the Selsa River.
When the news was sent out, the war situation on the east coast was already in an extremely unfavorable state. The Chinese tanks and armored vehicles were almost overwhelming and endless...
"Judging from the attack direction of the Chinese ** team, General Hott and his troops, who have lost contact for several days, must be in serious danger! As for the southeast cluster and the southern cluster, the situation was not clear when the news was sent, but according to the Chinese
The frequency of dispatches of the Air Force fleet and the fact that many military stations were deserted after being bombed, I believe the situation is not too optimistic. Marshal Bloomberg asked for reinforcements while holding on to the defense line to find out the truth...
"According to the order of Marshal Rundstedt, commander of the Middle East Army, Marshal Manstein, commander of Army Group B, commanded four defense divisions and the Romanian Second Army and the Turkish Third Army to go out for rescue. Marshal Rundstedt called
It is recommended that once it is confirmed that there is a problem with our protruding strike group, the entire Middle East Army should be prepared to evacuate the two rivers area."
Hitler's face turned red and his voice trembled as he kept saying: "Göring made a mistake for me, the Air Force made a mistake for me..."
Franz Halder was secretly happy. Although he didn't know how miserable the front line was, withdrawing troops and shrinking the defense line was always a good thing for the current German army. He asked quietly in a low voice: "Führer, we need the General Staff to formulate relevant regulations."
Plan?"
Hitler thought for a long time and said dejectedly: "Do it according to your wishes!"
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