＜ Episode 193 >
There is a term called Fulda Gap.
Although it is an obsolete word now, it was a word that had a very important military meaning during the Cold War.
Fulda Gap comes from Fulda, the border city of East Germany when East and West Germany were divided.
If you look at the territory of East Germany, there was a protruding part in the direction of West Germany, and the city at the end was Fulda. there was. This problem resulted in Frankfurt not becoming the capital of West Germany.
Therefore, during the Cold War, NATO forces deployed a truly massive force in the region to prevent the Warsaw Pact offensive early.
85 km.
It was a straight line distance from Fulda to Frankfurt.
The speed at night of the Russian T-32 tank is 30 km/h, and the speed of the MK-1 at night is 17 km/h.
Therefore, it means that the T-32 tank can travel on its own in 3 hours and the MK-1 tank in 5 hours without intermediary supply to reach Frankfurt.
Although he did not know who the enemy leader was, he cut the 5th Army’s escape route with an extremely sophisticated and standard maneuver defense, and drove them to the end of the offensive and surrounded them.
Currently, the reserve force was running to block the breakout of the open defense line and defend Nuremberg, and in case the 5th Army stagnates by holding on to the unknown German forces in the first batch, another task force was used to block the reinforcement of the reserve force and retake Nuremberg. was going to hear
At least he would have been a German commander.
But, does Germany really have such a generous military force? They blew up Prussia at the beginning of the war and unilaterally beaten it, pushing them all the way to Nuremberg, giving up most of their territory.
Suezya, which was a field army-level battle at best, consumed a lot of troops on the northern and central fronts, and right now, a large number of troops are stationed in Bremen, and a huge enemy force is lurking in the vicinity of Bonn.
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Moreover, due to the shortage of oil, the utilization rate of the tanks will not be very high. If so, it is highly probable that even if the British and Italian forces were mobilized, it would not have been possible to mobilize such a large number of troops.
They counterattacked from the south, but the line of defense they really need to protect is the north where Ruur is located.
Therefore, there are not many troops currently guarding Frankfurt.
And the enemy’s supreme command center must be in Frankfurt.
This was something that I and Konef both agreed on.
Originally, I didn’t interfere much with the army’s movements, but as the situation was a situation, I generously unraveled future knowledge and materialized the operational plan with Konef and the other staff as if roasting beans in a lightning bolt.
The Junkers tended to set up their headquarters not too far from the front lines, which resulted in an increase in the number of generals killed in the German army during World War II.
This campaign is probably the work of Manstein, who turned Vasilebsky’s jaw in a similar way in the 3rd Siege of Kharkov.
It is clear that the counterintelligence network, whether Reinhard Heidrich or anyone else, was greatly strengthened, to the point of paralyzing Ohrana’s intelligence network, so I used my future knowledge to predict the claims of this offensive.
In any case, Manstein is a Junker, so Manstein would have set up his headquarters in Frankfurt. I didn’t have much time to verify, but it was quite probable. At least he wouldn’t have crossed the Rhine.
Therefore, it attacks major targets, including Frankfurt, with a reinforced Guards Panzer Corps. The opponent came out with a bunch of new tanks, Panthers and Tigers, but this is Russia’s best elite unit.
It bypasses the enemy’s defense depth while disrupting the enemy’s neural network with a new weapon that was commercialized recently. However, unlike the basic Russian tactics, Konev planned to move them to target enemy command and control facilities and airfields.
To this end, a number of airborne units and large-scale air corps were additionally attached, causing chaos and disorganization in the enemy, limiting the enemy’s freedom of movement, limiting the effect of the enemy’s actions, and destroying the enemy reserve.
In this way, it ultimately destroys the enemy troops in a counter siege.
Of course, the German military is not only prepared for such a case, but since the mission-type command system is thoroughly established, confusion can be minimized. But, at least in this situation, the mission-based command system is highly likely to be meaningless.
Why? There are not only German troops on the battlefield, but Italian and British troops are mixed together.
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Moreover, based on the number of tanks reported, it appears that the Manstein had driven most of the Tigers and Panthers produced to date for this offensive.
In that case, the Junkers who command the most elite units with strategic reserve and the latest weapons, but the Nazis do not get along well with the Junkers, and even this has a proper cause.
Did the suspicious Stalin not suspect that the Junker generals might defect to Russia with Germany’s last strategic reserve?
If you had doubts, would you send them to the battlefield with the remaining doubts? Or would he have tried to force each battalion commander from making autonomous judgments by taking some ‘means’?
At the very least, based on the intelligence that has been received continuously, it can be inferred that Junker and the German people’s support for the Nazis is not as fanatical as in the original history, and the Nazi power is not absolute.
If that’s all true. And Stalin, a terminally ill patient with suspected disease, and Hitler who hated Manstein from the beginning.
Will the Germans ever be allowed to move autonomously?
If that were the case, at least at this moment their fear of betrayal would return to venom.
No, the only means that could be used other than this was a total retreat.
If the 5th Army is annihilated without being able to withstand it, and the reserve units sent late are also individually defeated, that is just the total collapse of the Southern Front. A considerable number of enemies stood in front of the Central Front, to the extent that Konev had to rush to Moscow to seek Stavka’s cooperation.
Of course, we will not lose if we come back now and retreat all the way. It is enough to spit out Nuremberg and retreat to the original historical East-West German border, then rearrange it and push it out again.
However, he did not like the idea of giving Germany a chance to reorganize.
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Moreover, even if the gambler fails, it was judged that the damage suffered would not be that much different from when the total retreat was ordered.
At most, maybe one or two corps difference? And considering the scale of the war, one or two of them are just children’s jokes.
On the other hand, what if successful? Although the result of the annihilation of the 5th Army will not change, it can drastically reduce the number of long-term casualties.
Failure is not a big loss, but success is a huge gain.
There was no reason not to try.
Yes, totally in public.
***
“Are you okay?”
Olga’s voice reached my ears.
There is a man in the Guards corps rushing full speed into Frankfurt.
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Maria’s son, Nikita.
If, really, if the operation failed, the Guard Corps would suffer enormous damage. If I had just retreated, the Guards could have been saved, but I decided not to.
And there is no guarantee that Nikita will survive there.
“If he knew all the circumstances, he would have been willing to do it. It was his choice in the first place.”
“……”
How does Olga feel for her nephews? In my opinion, perhaps the closest emotion is love and hate.
I didn’t have a hundred mouths to say about that, but nevertheless I…
“I’ll respect the kid’s choice, no, I believe in more than that.”
Those who inherit my blood will never die on the battlefield.
Even if you struggle until tears fall, in the end, you will come back alive and laugh awkwardly.
“May God protect the child.”
Olga recollected quietly.
“Please protect all of our families.”
***
“Russian forces are advancing south two hours ago.”
How far is it from Fulda to Frankfurt? It would not be an exaggeration to say that we have already arrived in front of Frankfurt.
“Why was the report late?”
“The Russian military is using new weapons to disrupt radio communications. Besides…”
“They said they sent a gangster, I get it.”
Jammers have been around since World War II. In the original history, it was deployed during the air warfare on the British mainland and tried to interfere with the communication of German fighter pilots, but it was not of much use because the German army changed the communication frequency.
The Russian Army, who took the initiative from that, developed a powerful device that paralyzes all communication networks and underwent field tests, but it also had the disadvantage of being too bulky and consuming a lot of power.
To add to this, the Russian army occasionally sent out phantom radio waves, centered on the defectors. It is mainly impersonating a certain unit and sending simultaneous radio waves that the enemy has launched an offensive, or reporting that it is okay in a normal place after a real offensive, or requesting artillery and air support immediately because the offensive has started from a wrong place.
As a result, the German military introduced an additional procedure to check whether this was real or not, which inevitably slowed the German information exchange considerably. Ignoring the radio does not solve the problem, but sometimes the Spetsnaz installed eavesdropping devices on the wired communication network and sent false statements or reports. For the Germans, it was a tribute.
In the midst of this, a lot of radio waves were transmitted and the communication network in the airspace was cut off, so it was uncertain whether the offensive actually took place in Fulda or whether the Russian Army deliberately turned their gaze to save the 5th Army. It was too late to recheck.
“At most, I should have an hour or two to spare.”
The model sighed and took the baton.
“In order to tell General Manstein to prioritize the annihilation of Hanau’s enemy forces, the main building will lead the available forces and stop the Russians. How much space does the heavy tank battalion have?”
“One battalion left.”
The Panthers that were sent to this campaign were at the level of whether or not they could barely complete one armored division even if they collected all of them, and the heavy tank battalions were smaller than that, so they all went directly to the headquarters and subtracted here and there.
It was a miracle that at least one reserve squad remained at this time. You have to deal with a large-scale Russian army of unknown size with miscellaneous tanks and infantry from No. 4 to No. 1 in one Tiger battalion.
‘The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tanks are meaningless to deal with the non-infantry Russian army, the 4th tank is also objectively pushed, and the only thing to believe is the Tiger, anti-aircraft guns and new anti-tank guns.’
The model glared at the enemy troops marked in red.
“To find as many reserve units as possible, specifically… mainly those who can somehow reach Frankfurt in an hour.”
“All right.”
***
“Anti-tank gun inside the red-roofed house!”
It was only after a friendly half-tracked armored car was hit that it was able to locate the location.
A bigger problem was that the performance of the enemy anti-tank guns was unexpected.
The Russian Army, who roughly specified the location of the anti-tank gun, decided that it would be impossible to penetrate the T-32’s front armor, and tried to blow it up with one shot.
The 7.5 cm anti-tank guns and 8,8 cm anti-aircraft guns, which are one of the few anti-tank guns capable of destroying the T-32, are large and heavy. The places where heat can be radiated are also limited. If it were an anti-tank gun that could be dragged to such a place, it would not be able to exceed a caliber of 5 cm, so if you were not careful, you had to be able to cook slowly if you did not see the sides and rear.
The problem is that it’s cracked.
Nikita’s face hardened when he saw a tank pierced through the front armor and caused an explosion.
“Shoot down! hey! Load white phosphorus bullets!”
While screaming, Nikita kicked the men under the tank with her feet.
He was in a position that was difficult to hit, so he was just going to burn the crew with white phosphorus.
When the white phosphorus bullets were loaded at a great speed, the main gun immediately started spitting fire, and after a while it was filled with white smoke.
“Ahhh!”
And then came a scream that seemed out of this world.
German soldiers, suffering from burning pains all over their bodies, rolled on the floor in pain.
“Damn, headquarters, headquarters, can you hear me? This is Hydra 1!”
– Speak.
“Additional advance was impossible, and the enemy’s anti-tank positions were full. inform The enemy’s new anti-tank gun was confirmed, and unlike the 7,5 cm, the front armor of the friendly tank was penetrated despite its small size. Beware of anti-tank projectiles that have a slow projectile speed.”
– Commander of the regiment. If the 1st Battalion encounters the 3rd Battalion after 5 minutes, immediately return to the original battalion and carry out resupply and maintenance. The 3rd Battalion is moving for a shift. More than.
“i get it.”
Nikita cut off communication.
It didn’t seem like it would be an easy fight.