Boom boom boom boom...

The dull sound of artillery continued to reach the underground command post where General Moder was located. Because the Soviet Red Army's artillery was too powerful, the Germans in Warsaw now hid underground if possible, and Model's 6th Army Command was no exception, hiding in the basement of the former Polish Ministry of Defense Building.

"Joelg, Valentine, I'm sorry to bring you two from comfortable Lithuania to Warsaw."

At this time, two German generals came, one of the former commanders of the 41st Armored Army, General Joelge Hans Reinhardt, and the other was Major General Hans Valentine Huber, the commander of the 16th Armored Division.

"Walter, I heard you have a great armored force to command me before coming here." Admiral Reinhardt looked at the dark and damp basement where Model was, and asked with a smile, "Where is my armored force? I can't wait to see them."

"So too, General." Major General Hu Bei, who was a little fat and seemed to be an uncle next door, also asked with a smile.

"The troops are in Womianki," said Model. "I am reluctant to put 132 Tiger tanks and 88 Panther tanks in Warsaw and get bombed."

He was talking about five heavy armored battalions including 501-505. After the Battle of Legionovo Vovoming, these five battalions were adapted and adjusted. Three battalions were all equipped with Tiger tanks and two battalions were all equipped with Black Panther tanks.

"Those five heavy armored battalions?" Reinhardt raised his eyebrows. Although he, like most German armored soldiers commanders, opposed the large number of equipment of "Tiger" tanks and "Black Panther" tanks. But he still hoped to command an armored cluster composed of "Tiger" and "Black Panther".

The two views are actually not contradictory, because the "Tiger" tank and the "Black Panther" tank are undoubtedly very good tanks. Although there are still minor problems at present, many armored soldiers commanders still like them very much. The objections are based on strategic perspectives, hoping to get more and more mobile tanks.

Model continued: "There are also the 1st Cavalry Division, which originally belonged to the 9th Army, the 5th SS Tank Battalion, the 5th SS Armored Artillery Battalion, the 'North' SS Regiment, the 'Wallon' Brigade, the SS SS 'Finland' Battalion and the Hungarian Mechanized Army, and three smoke launchers regiments. These troops will form a temporary army-level armored group called the 'Reinhardt' cluster."

Then he said to Major General Hubei: "Five heavy armored battalions, the 5th SS Tank Battalion, the 5th SS Armored Artillery Battalion, the 'Wallon' Brigade, and the 'Finland' Battalion of the SS will form a division-level armored cluster, called the 'Hube' Heavy Armored Division, which will be commanded by you."

"It's really good," Reinhat nodded and asked again, "Walter, how do you plan to use this army-grade armored group?"

"Start a short attack," Moder said.

“Where is it?”

"Legionovo Vovoming's front line!" Model said, "Now the Soviet army has made progress in the middle and south roads of Warsaw City, and only the northern road is still holding troops, which means they are accumulating strength and preparing to take a big offensive. Moreover, the air force reconnaissance found that the Soviet army was gathering heavy troops around Vovoming recently, so I want to take the initiative to launch a counterattack before they launch an attack."

The way of attacking before the enemy launches an offensive is more advantageous in the era of mechanized warfare. Because the era of mechanized warfare will focus on "large-depth offense and defense". The depth of the defense side is very large, and the defense depth of dozens of kilometers is at least, and it is not impossible to have a depth of hundreds of kilometers or even two hundred kilometers. The attacking side must push forward as much as possible, and will also hoard a large amount of materials near the front line to ensure that the attack kinetic energy is not consumed by its own transportation line.

In this case, the transition between offense and defense is very slow, and it is impossible to be on the offensive state the first day, and you will be able to make a big deep defense in a blink of an eye.

If an army in an offensive state is suddenly attacked by the opponent and cannot dismantle the enemy with an offensive, it will soon fall into extreme passivity. In history, the Soviet Red Army caused the Germans to suddenly beat him up, and this factor exists - the Soviet Red Army at that time did not defend in depth, but concentrated its troops near the border line in large quantities, which is a typical offensive layout.

Model paused and said: "If our counterattack on the Legionovo Vovomin line succeeds again, then the Soviet Command will most likely think that we will launch a counterattack near Warsaw, thereby concentrating more troops on Warsaw and creating the most affordable conditions for the attack of the Northern Army."

...

The counterattack preparations of the Northern Army Group have been in full swing. According to the "Blue Plan", the main task of this army group is to launch a counterattack in the three directions of Minsk, Brest and Leningrad to break the Soviet attack on Poland and severely damage the Soviet attack troops.

However, the three predetermined counterattack targets are to choose one, two, or three at the same time, but there are multiple plans.

Among these three targets, the nearest is Minsk, the capital of Belarus, which is also the base camp of the Soviet Western Front, stockpiled a large amount of military supplies, and surrounded by a large number of fortifications built in the early years of the Stalin defense line.

In addition, the Soviet reserve front was concentrated in Smolensk and could reinforce Minsk at any time.

Therefore, it is not a big problem to break through to the vicinity of Minsk, but it is not easy to capture Minsk.

Brest, closest to the Polish front, was the starting point for the Soviet Union to launch a thunderstorm assault. It was originally a fortress of the Poles, and was seized by the Soviet Union in 1939 and was then operated as the most important stronghold of the Soviet army on the frontier of the Western Front. According to intelligence, the Soviet army stored a large amount of materials there, which could support the main force of the Western Front to carry out long-term combat.

In other words, even if Minsk falls and the liaison between the Western Front and Moscow is interrupted, the Western Front can rely on Brest's materials to maintain the battle and turn towards Ukraine.

It is extremely difficult for the Northern Army Group to seize Brest. Because Brest is at least 250 kilometers away from all possible locations where the Northern Army Group launched a counterattack. There are very few good roads available along the way. After the Soviet Union seized Ukrainian land on the right bank west of the Bug River in Poland, it carried out preventive road damage, and completely destroyed all north-south roads on the former Western Belarusian land, and at the same time, the east-west roads and railways were strengthened.

Therefore, if the German army attacked and captured Brest from Lithuania, it would have to conduct an off-road marching of almost 250 kilometers. The speed of the mechanized troops' off-road marching cannot be compared with that of the highway marching. It is faster to advance a few kilometers in an hour. Even if there is no enemy blocking, it will have to take forty or fifty hours. If the day and night marching is not implemented, it will take at least four days.

The last target of counterattack was Leningrad, the historical Petrograd, the capital of the Russian Empire. This was a very political goal. Considering the close relationship between the Hohenzollern dynasty and the Romanov dynasty, once Leningrad fell into the hands of Germany, the name of Petrograd will be restored and Queen Oliga will be returned to the Winter Palace where she was thinking day and night.

However, since Germany has controlled Estonia for more than 20 years, the Soviet Red Army has always been very concerned about Leningrad's defense. This city is basically a large fortress, and it is still the base camp of the Northwest Front Army, so it is very difficult to capture it.

If we want to attack two or all of the three pre-selected targets at the same time, the force required to be invested will be astronomical! And considering that Leningrad, Minsk and Brest Fortress are both strong cities, Germany also needs to invest powerful siege artillery.

However, the German army, which emphasized mechanization and field combat, was actually insufficient in its ability to attack strong cities and positional warfare. Unless Germany could receive support from powerful French artillery, it would be difficult for them to capture cities that were heavily guarded by the Soviet army and had strong defenses in a short period of time.

"The French government agreed to declare war on the Soviet Union when we need it!" In the meeting room of the commander's headquarters at 73 William Street, Berlin, Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, who had just returned from Paris, loudly reported a great news that had long been expected by Hessmann.

He continued: "When we want the French to declare war, they will declare war! On the issue of fighting the Bolshevik aggression, the French and German people stood completely together!"

This is for granted! Hessmann said: There are V2 ballistic missiles, sarin gas, and atomic bombs that will inevitably be made. What reasons do Betan, Darlang and Weigang not completely surrender?

Moreover, Germany will support France in using fascism and Nazism to deal with various dissatisfactions in North Africa!

Hitler looked at Hessman with pride and asked, "Marshal of the Empire, we will definitely defeat the Soviet Union completely now, right?"

"Of course," Hessman nodded with a smile, "Now our troops are much more abundant at once... I think the French can form their powerful artillery divisions and reserve artillery groups, and apply them to the counterattack plan of the blue scheme. With the help of French artillery, we can be on par with the Soviet Union in the number of medium-caliber suppression artillery, and far exceed the Soviet Union in the number of large-caliber superheavy artillery!
Chapter completed!