The Rise of Australia - Chapter 970

c952 Moscow, Moscow!

While Australia and the rest of the world were rushing to report on the opening of the Sydney Metro Ring Line, the battle in Eastern Europe thousands of miles away was also at its most critical juncture.

The two protagonists who deserved the most attention were naturally the German Central Army Group, which had already approached Moscow, and the Russian Reserve Army Group, which was responsible for defending Moscow.

In the vicinity of Moscow, the two armies fought so fiercely that even in some battlefields where the firepower was relatively concentrated, the smoke from the gunpowder explosion almost filled the entire battlefield, and the visibility was even only a few dozen meters.

How tragic was the war between the two sides? At present, on average, at least 30,000 soldiers died every day on the battlefields around Moscow, of which nearly 20,000 were Russian troops.

But it was these Russian recruits who had not received much training who resisted the attack of the powerful German Central Army Group and defended Moscow to the death.

Thousands of Russian soldiers shouted “Ura!” and rushed towards the German army in front without hesitation.

Even if they were holding shovels in their hands, it could not stop their courage to move forward.

The Germans had never seen such a fearless situation. Although the German army had strong combat effectiveness, many of their people were not absolutely loyal to the country.

More importantly, the German army at this time was not completely united. The German Prime Minister had a lot of conflicts with the remaining Junker aristocracy, which indirectly led to the conflict between the German government and the General Staff.

As early as the formulation of the so-called Barbarossa Plan, that is, the three-line attack on Russia, some generals of the German General Staff had a lot of conflicts with the German government.

Although everyone’s goal was to defeat Russia in a short time, compared with the full-scale attack on Moscow that most German generals hoped for, the German Prime Minister hoped to strengthen the attack in the north and south, and occupy as much of Ukraine’s vast farmland and the Caucasus’s oil fields as possible.

Of course, when Germany’s resources and manpower were still abundant, these two goals were actually easy for the German army to achieve.

This also led to the fact that the contradiction between the German government and the General Staff was not as big as imagined in the early stage of the war, and Germany’s advancement speed was also very fast, and it seemed that the situation was very good.

But since the German army was blocked outside Moscow, the available resources in Germany have gradually become less and less with each passing day.

At this time, the contradiction between the government and the military has become more and more intense. Although not as big as imagined, it still has a considerable impact on the war.

This kind of thing cannot comment on who is right or wrong, because the two sides have completely different perspectives on things. But it is undeniable that as Germany’s offensive gradually entered a slump, and with the arrival of winter, Germany’s logistics line became increasingly tense, and the morale of the German army was already in chaos.

Another point that affected the war situation was the failure of Germany’s blitzkrieg tactics.

The fundamental reason why the blitzkrieg was invincible was that the enemy had no concept of the rapid advance of the tank troops.

The Poles did not have it, and the Russians did not have it either.

In particular, Russia also carried out a large-scale purge within the army before the outbreak of World War II at its own expense, executing many senior Russian generals including Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky.

How important is Tukhachevsky to Russia? He was known as the Red Napoleon. He was the youngest marshal in Russia before World War II, a genius strategist, and an outstanding general with unique vision.

During his tenure as Minister of Equipment, Russia established motorized forces, which later became armored forces, because of his active advocacy.

It also established an air force of a certain scale, a new navy, and some airborne troops. At the same time, Russia also upgraded its infantry and artillery forces, and such contributions are also one of the important reasons why Russia has strong military strength.

But such a general with extremely unique vision and extremely talented was hastily executed just because of a small alienation plan, coupled with Sudalin’s previous dissatisfaction with him.

His death had a great impact on Russia. If Tukhachevsky could continue to stay in a high position until now, I am afraid that the strength of Russia’s armored forces and air force could be greatly improved, and its performance in the war would not be so poor.

It was precisely because Tukhachevsky was executed early in the Great Purge that Russia’s armored forces did not improve rapidly until Germany launched a blitzkrieg, and so far they have not formed a sufficient scale.

However, the Germans could not achieve complete victory by blitzkrieg.

First of all, blitzkrieg requires strong logistics, which is difficult to achieve in Russia in winter. To put it bluntly, the Russians themselves cannot achieve perfect logistics in peacetime, let alone the Germans in wartime, who can meet their own logistics needs on Russian land.

The lack of logistics is not the reason why the German blitzkrieg is completely ineffective.

In the final analysis, Russia’s land area is still too large. This gives the Russians plenty of time to deal with the German tactics. Even the blitzkrieg, which is so powerful that it is unmatched, actually has certain flaws.

In addition, Australasia exported a large number of T-14A heavy tanks to Russia, allowing Russia to gradually deal with the German armored forces in terms of armored forces.

The T-14A heavy tank is Australasia’s technology 20 years ago, and Arthur is not worried that the Russians will surpass Australasia through such tank technology.

And to be honest, Russia’s own tank technology is really good at present, and its technical level is fully capable of developing simple tanks such as the T-14A heavy tank.

It is better to sell it to Russia together with the drawings, earn some funds and minerals from Russia, and let this tank technology that has been outdated for more than 20 years finally play its residual heat.

Doing so can also comply with the previous “United Nations Declaration” that the contracting parties should devote all their human, financial and material resources to deal with this war.

In short, by selling tanks and technical drawings, Australasia’s contribution to this war can also be increased.

Even if the Russians have achieved considerable results with these tanks, Australasia, which sold tanks to the Russians, can also share some of the contributions.

Then, the T-14A tank has certain loopholes in design. If the Russians attach too much importance to this tank technology and make certain imitations, for Australasia, this is equivalent to mastering the loopholes of Russian tanks in the next few years.

It is worth mentioning that in order to deal with Germany’s blitzkrieg, the Russians adopted a variety of interception technologies.

One of the means was to hide tanks in various ways on both sides of the road, and then launch a two-pronged assault on the German tanks on the road.

Because Russian tanks were camouflaged in various ways, this method really surprised the Germans at the beginning and achieved certain results.

Although the Germans later became cautious and reduced the loss of tanks, this was equivalent to successfully blocking the speed of the German tank troops.

After the blitzkrieg failed, the combat effectiveness of the German army was not so strong.

After all, if they wanted to capture Moscow, the German army had to conquer the bloody fortress built by the Russians with human lives one by one.

Although the German army was also fearless, no matter how great the sacrifice was, it could not scare them.

But unfortunately, they were facing the Russian army that really didn’t care about casualties.

What is the biggest gap between the two armies?

When going to the battlefield, the German officers told their men: “Moscow is right in front of us, charge for Germany!”

The Russian officers told their men: “Although Russia is big, Moscow is behind us. We have no way to retreat. Even if we can stop the damn Germans for a minute, we will fight hard!

For Moscow, for Russia, for victory, Ura!”

Although they were all fearless charges, the Russian army was actually ready to sacrifice before the charge.

A rather exaggerated data is that in the Battle of Moscow, a considerable number of Russian soldiers survived on the battlefield for no more than 24 hours.

In some battlefields where the fighting was more intense, the time it took for soldiers to go to the battlefield and sacrifice was even less than an hour.

Although it is only paper data, it can also reflect the cruelty of the Moscow battlefield.

Although the casualties of the German army were better, the German population was only more than 80 million, and it was obviously unable to compete with Russia in such a battlefield.

As one side grew and the other side grew, the German offensive was blocked outside Moscow.

Even though Moscow was within reach, the German army still could not move forward. For a long time, this was a huge drain on the morale of the German army.

After all, the German army had won every battle before, but now it had fallen in front of Moscow. This sudden contrast would make some German troops feel frustrated and confused.

Once the German army was no longer glorious, the problems that had been covered up by the continuous victories were gradually exposed.

First of all, there was no unity within the German army as imagined, and the loyalty of many German officers and soldiers to the country was not as high as imagined.

After all, to put it bluntly, the current German government is highly concentrated on the German Chancellor. But the German Chancellor is not from the traditional Junker aristocracy, but a failed art student who did not even get into the Academy of Fine Arts.

As we all know, the influence of the Junker aristocracy on Germany is huge, which also makes this class naturally full of superiority over many ordinary Germans.

Although no one expressed such contempt after the German Chancellor took control of the German regime, the interests of the Junker aristocracy were obviously not completely consistent with those of the German Chancellor.

This has led to the current division of the German military into two factions. One faction is the SS faction promoted by the German Chancellor, and the purpose is also to check and balance the senior officers represented by the Junker nobles.

Although the two sides have not completely torn their faces, it is still common for them to take certain means to compete with each other.

Although the Junker nobles are the traditional military class in Germany, they have lost a considerable number of young officers after the defeat in World War I, resulting in the Junker nobles’ influence no longer being the same as before.

The SS faction promoted by the German Chancellor has the support of the government and the Prime Minister, and their promotion speed is comparable to that of a god.

Some people were middle and senior officers of the SS the day before, and they suddenly became senior staff officers of the General Staff the next day and obtained the rank of general.

This speed of change in status is something that the traditional Junker nobles can’t catch up with even if they try their best.

This also led to many Junker nobles being jealous of the promotion speed of the SS generals, and even a little dissatisfied.

It is worth mentioning that this scene also played out in history. Manstein, the famous German general, publicly stated in his memoirs that the failure of the Battle of Moscow was entirely the responsibility of the German Prime Minister.

Manstein said that before the German army attacked Russia, there was no perfect plan at all, nor was there a corresponding coordination and the three-army headquarters of the entire army.

For the entire Barbarossa plan to attack Russia, Manstein expressed his opposition.

Manstein believed that the German army should not disperse its forces to attack Russia’s resource-rich areas, but should concentrate its forces to quickly capture Moscow.

The German Prime Minister who ordered the German army to divide its troops to occupy the resource-rich areas not only led to the failure of this war, but was also a guy who did not understand war at all.

It is worth mentioning that in history, after the opinions of the German Prime Minister were repeatedly opposed by Manstein, the German Prime Minister also angrily stated: “These guys under my command do not understand what war economics is.”

The disagreement between Manstein and the German Prime Minister on the direction of the army’s attack was one of the hot topics discussed in later generations.

However, Manstein still has an advantage in this regard. After all, the German Chancellor in history died after the defeat. There is no need to say more about the winner of the argument with a dead person.

As for who is right and who is wrong in the disagreement, it is actually not important in the era when the result is already very obvious.

But for now, the disagreement between the two sides is still very important. Of course, this is not just a disagreement between the German Chancellor and Manstein on the direction of attack.

To put it another way, this is still a disagreement between the German Chancellor and the Junker nobles. Manstein is also from the Junker nobles. There is also a distinct characteristic among the Junker nobles, that is, they have strong military literacy and ability, have their own unique ideas, and are not easily influenced by others.

In the eyes of the German Chancellor, such characteristics are that they have a personality that a soldier should not have.

In the resume of the German Chancellor, he has only served as an ordinary soldier. In his opinion, the first thing a soldier should do is to obey, and personality and other ideas should be put last.