The Rise of Australia - Chapter 972

c953 Turn to the southeast

The German army was defeated, and the degree of the defeat was quite exaggerated.

This was something that no one had expected since the war began. Even the Russians who caused all this did not expect that the Germans would experience such a large-scale defeat in Moscow.

In this battle, Germany and Russia invested more than 5 million troops in total, of which the German army was about 1.8 million and the Russian army was about 3.4 million.

However, the huge gap in numbers between the two sides was not the fundamental reason for Germany’s failure in this battle. In the final analysis, it was the weather and logistics that defeated Germany.

It can be seen from the casualties on both sides. The German army suffered about 600,000 casualties, of which less than 220,000 soldiers died. Although the remaining soldiers had different injuries, a considerable number of them were not in danger of life.

For Germany, this was just an acceptable defeat. Although this was a heavy blow to Germany’s offensive in Russia, at least the current German army can still launch an offensive again, and the hope of victory has not been shattered.

For the Russians, this was a very tragic victory, and the results were much more tragic than those of the defeated Germany.

The German casualties were only about 600,000, while the Russian casualties were as high as 1.5 million, nearly three times that of the German army.

What’s more exaggerated is that the death toll of the German army was only about 220,000, but the death toll of the Russian army was as high as 970,000, and there were more than 530,000 soldiers with varying degrees of injuries.

According to the current medical conditions in Russia, it is only a matter of time before the death toll exceeds one million. Because Russia’s medical conditions are simply unable to bear up to 530,000 wounded soldiers, not to mention that a considerable number of them are seriously injured.

The casualties are close to three times that of the Germans, which is already exaggerated enough. The death toll of the Russians is close to five times that of the Germans, which is why it is said that the Russians experienced a tragic victory.

However, the good news is that after successfully defending Moscow, not only did the German offensive against Russia stagnate, it also bought Russia precious adjustment time, but also directly shattered the Germans’ ambition to quickly eliminate Russia. Germany’s so-called Barbarossa plan has actually failed, because it is impossible for them to launch another offensive against Moscow in a short period of time.

After all, the entire 1.8 million troops failed to attack Moscow. If Germany wants to re-launch the offensive and avoid repeating the same mistakes, it must take out more than 2.5 million troops.

But for the current Central Army Group, let alone 2.5 million troops, even 1.5 million troops are difficult to gather.

What’s more, for Germany’s current commander, the German Chancellor, it has become the least cost-effective plan to gather more than 2 million troops to attack Moscow.

On December 11, 1937, the day after the failure of the Battle of Moscow, the German High Command held a meeting to discuss the next plan for the war against Russia.

This meeting is very important for Germany at present. If the next battle plan cannot be determined, the impact of this failure in Moscow will become greater, and the Germans’ hope of winning the war will become slimmer.

The German Prime Minister did not emphasize the performance of the Central Army Group in Moscow during the meeting, but proposed a new battle plan to the people of the High Command, which is to give up the attack on Moscow and lead the main force south to Sudalingrad.

You know, for the offensive direction of the German army, Moscow and Sudalingrad are very different.

Moreover, Sudalingrad is deeper into the Russian interior than Moscow. If the main force is to be mobilized to attack Sudalingrad, it means that Germany will not be able to launch a corresponding offensive against Moscow in a short period of time.

In order to ensure sufficient troops to attack Sudalingrad, it is necessary to reduce the strength of the Central Army Group.

In this way, let alone attacking Moscow, even defending the current front is a huge challenge.

The German Prime Minister’s proposal was opposed by the German Commander-in-Chief. The German Commander-in-Chief’s opinion is that Moscow is the obviously more important city than Sudalingrad.

As Russia’s transportation hub in Europe, Moscow plays a key role in connecting the upper and lower levels. If Moscow can be occupied, Germany can divide Russia into two, and the cut-off Russia will not be a big deal.

The second reason for opposition is that the German front line for attacking Sudalingrad will be too long.

Moscow is far enough away, but Sudalingrad is a city farther away than Moscow. More importantly, Sudalingrad is located in the south of Russia, which is completely opposite to the road Germany took to attack Moscow.

If troops are sent to Sudalingrad, it means that the road to Sudalingrad will be very difficult, and the railway between Germany and Russia will also need to be repaired before it can be used.

In the view of the German commander-in-chief, the attack on Sudalingrad requires an extremely long time to prepare, and even if it is successful, it is not a fatal blow to Russia with a vast territory.

Instead of spending energy attacking Sudalingrad, it is better to regroup troops and then counterattack Moscow.

As long as Moscow is occupied, Russia’s resistance will become insignificant. This is basically in line with the Junker nobles’ previous combat philosophy, that is, a simple and straightforward attack on the enemy’s capital.

This concept runs through the entire World War I and the early stage of World War II. For most European countries, a decisive battle is the first choice to end the war.

But the German Chancellor obviously didn’t think so.

There is a saying that goes, if you can’t solve the problem, then solve the person who raised the problem.

The German Chancellor obviously couldn’t convince the Army Commander-in-Chief in the headquarters with many Junker nobles, but this didn’t bother the German Chancellor.

Just one day later, on December 12, 1937, a telegram from the Supreme Command of the German Empire directly changed the situation of the German military.

According to the content of this telegram, the German Chancellor dismissed the positions of the Army Commander, the Chief of the General Staff, the Commander-in-Chief of the Central Army Group and the Commander-in-Chief of the Second Panzer Group, and appointed himself as the Commander-in-Chief of the German Empire Army, and personally took over the command of the German Army.

Because of the defeat of Moscow, even if the Junker nobles were dissatisfied, they could not resist the telegram from the Supreme Command.

After all, this order was nominally issued by Kaiser Wilhelm II, and it was supported by the German government. They couldn’t just rebel, right?

After all, to put it bluntly, the German Chancellor at this time was not a lonely man. After the SA was reorganized from the SS, the military power held by the German Chancellor has surpassed that of the Junker nobles.

Coupled with his excellent oratory skills, the German Chancellor has gained a lot of support in the political and civilian circles.

With the support from the political and civilian circles, the ruling power of the German Chancellor has become more stable. Under such circumstances, let alone the Junker nobles who had lost a large number of generals in World War I, even the Junker noble class at its peak before World War I had to use some means to regain their power.

After solving the problem, the German Chancellor finally had no worries.

As the new commander-in-chief of the German Army, he could easily give his own orders to the army, and to a certain extent, he could completely bypass the headquarters.

Those Junker noble generals in the headquarters and the staff were helpless in the face of such a situation.

There was no way. The German Chancellor, who held military power, political power and public support, had power in his hands that they could not shake.

On December 14, after friendly consultations by the German command, the plan proposed by the German Chancellor to attack Sudalingrad was finally unanimously voted to be passed.

In his speech that day, the German Chancellor passionately stated that in addition to conquering the extremely important city of Sudalingrad, the goal of this offensive was to take the opportunity to go south to capture the entire Caucasus and occupy the oil fields and industrial bases there.

As long as the lifeline from the Caucasus to Moscow is cut off, other parts of Russia will lose a lot of energy and material supplies, and the balance of victory will still tilt on the German side.

The German Chancellor’s words are not fabricated. According to some information previously disclosed by Russia, it can be basically confirmed that the Caucasus is a very important resource source for Russia.

The Caucasus has nearly 86.5% of Russia’s oil reserves (at that time, not now), 65% of natural gas reserves and 56.5% of manganese ore. It can be said that it is currently the most important energy supplier for Russia.

If the Caucasus is lost, Russia’s tanks that don’t know where they came from will completely lose their power source. Tanks are just iron lumps that cannot move without oil.

Moreover, Germany can also get in touch with the Middle East through the Caucasus. In the long run, if the attack in Sudalingrad goes smoothly, Germany will have a certain size of army to attack the Middle East and destroy the Persian Gulf, a very important oil resource producing area in Britain and Australasia.

The German Prime Minister became more and more excited, and couldn’t wait to send a telegram to Guderian, who commanded the German armored group, asking Guderian to lead the Second Armored Group to move south quickly, and after a short rest in Kiev, join forces to move east to Sudalingrad.

When Guderian received this telegram, he was completely confused. He had never expected that within a few days of Moscow’s defeat, the High Command had already made a new plan for his Second Armored Group.

But the question is, did these guys in the High Command consider the loss of equipment and supplies of his Second Armored Group and the fatigue of the soldiers?

Although the tank soldiers don’t need to walk by themselves, the problem is that sitting in the tank is not as comfortable as imagined.

Especially in December, the severe cold in Moscow is also a big challenge for these tank soldiers.

The space inside the tank is not as wide as imagined, and some places are even designed to be narrow, which is very challenging for the flexibility of the soldiers.

This is also why when recruiting tank soldiers in later generations, the height is generally required to be kept below 1.7 meters.

After all, only those soldiers who are shorter can be more flexible in such a narrow environment.

Even for the entire battlefield, the smaller the soldier, the higher the survival rate. After all, the bigger the person, the bigger the target the enemy can aim at, which will also increase the chance of being hit by the enemy or being hit by stray bullets.

Where is the Second Armored Group led by Guderian now?

They are located in Tula, south of Moscow, at the junction of hills and plains.

The Second Armored Group was deployed here, in addition to guarding against the enemy’s tank troops from bypassing the main German army, another reason is to find opportunities to raid the rear of Moscow.

But unfortunately, since the entire Battle of Moscow, the Russians did not give the German armored group a chance to launch a blitzkrieg. The tank forces of both sides were more of a consumption of each other, and the Russian tank forces were acting like a fool.

The distance from Tula to Kiev and then to Sudalingrad has exceeded 2,000 kilometers, which is definitely a huge challenge for the exhausted Second Armored Group.

Even if they can rest for a while in Kiev, it is impossible to offset the fatigue and exhaustion in the hearts of the German soldiers.

More importantly, the rush to launch the Sudalingrad Campaign a few days after the failure of the Battle of Moscow made Guderian very confused and even puzzled.

They could have carefully prepared for more than two months, mobilized more armored and artillery forces, maintained a comprehensive lead in weapons and equipment, and then considered attacking Sudalingrad.

After all, although Sudalingrad is not as important as Moscow, it is definitely one of the most important cities in Eastern Europe for Russia.

It can even be said that Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sudalingrad are currently the three most important cities in Eastern Europe for Russia.

Is it true that the command can formulate a combat plan to hastily launch an attack on Sudalingrad?

Little did they know that it was precisely because of the importance of Sudalingrad that the German Chancellor resolutely chose to attack Sudalingrad after the failure of the Battle of Moscow.

After all, the three words Sudalin alone were enough to make the German Chancellor temporarily lose his mind.

In addition to Guderian’s Second Panzer Group, some artillery units of the German Central Army Group, which were withdrawing from Moscow to the rear, also received such an order.

Like Guderian, many generals expressed objections, but they could only execute orders obediently.

After all, expressing objections and directly disobeying orders are completely different concepts. For the German army at this time, they have no idea of ​​directly disobeying military orders.

Germany is preparing to attack Sudalingrad, while the Allies have already begun to celebrate the victory of Moscow.

Of course, the happiest people are naturally the British.

The Russians defeated the Germans at the cost of huge casualties. This deal was a huge profit for the shrewd British.

More importantly, this victory played a positive role in promoting the entire Allied Powers.

Not only did it break the German army’s invincibility, it also made the situation of Germany’s two-front war more difficult.