Chapter 704

In the headquarters of the E group army on the busy east line of the German army, the commander Liszt and his staff are sketching something on the map. His defense line is in the territory of Belarus on the whole Soviet German defense line, which is the closest to Minsk in a straight line.

A staff officer put several blurred aerial photos on the desktop, then pointed to one of them and introduced to general Liszt: "general, this is a comparison of two aerial photos of the same place. It is obvious that the Soviets built a lot of camouflages around here. As for what they want to hide, there is no exact analysis at present."

Another camouflage officer frowned, pointed to the enlarged partial photos, and said: "if we are operating this kind of camouflage net, it is estimated that it should be large equipment such as tanks or aircraft, or cars or howitzers. In a word, if it's not deception and camouflage, these expanded areas should be large-scale equipment. "

Although it was known that the Soviets were preparing for a large-scale winter offensive, the German army did not know the specific attack direction of the Soviets, so each group army was trying to analyze the possibility of the Soviets attacking in their defense area. After all, it was related to the success of the first stage of defense.

In Liszt's defense area, the Soviets were relatively calm, but the German army held the air supremacy of the eastern battlefield, so the regular reconnaissance planes finally found some suspicious places.

For example, there are more vegetation areas around some forests. Obviously, these are the camouflages set up by the Soviet Union. As for what's inside, the Germans can't tell clearly. There may be tanks, there may be infantry barracks, there may even be nothing, just some fake camouflage to confuse the opponent.

"In terms of distance, our heavy guns can't hit this area. If we use bombers, the risk will be greater." One staff officer thought that this problem was rather intractable and belonged to the category where both sides of the army and air force were not suitable for firing: "we don't have many large caliber guns, and the range is limited. Most of these places are 20 kilometers deep, so it's obviously not realistic to use guns. The air force reported that it was unable to confirm the situation there and suspected that there was ground air defense firepower from the other side. "

In the east line, the fighter planes of the German air force had ruled the sky, but the Soviets were not completely waiting to die. They used decoys and preset anti-aircraft gun positions to lure German pilots to attack, so as to ambush German dive bombers and small bombers and achieve the purpose of counterattack.

So even though the German air force could come and go freely over the Soviet Union, the air force was still cautious about taking off aircraft for bombing. Moreover, just relying on the comparison of the two photos as evidence, requiring the air force to take off aircraft to bomb a forest of no strategic value, it is obvious that any air force commander should carefully consider it.

Liszt was silent. In fact, as a senior German military commander, his instinct deeply buried in his bones made him feel that the targets marked in the contrast photos showed a strange danger, which made him unable to move his eyes. He thinks that these anomalies are definitely not so simple, but he lacks effective evidence to support his point of view.

The whole Soviet German defense line is now in the shape of an S. the upper part is most of Belarus controlled by the Soviet Union, and the lower part is most of Ukraine cut off by Germany. In fact, the German attack plan is just the opposite of the Soviet Union. The German action plan is to encircle the Soviet troops near Minsk and completely annihilate the Soviet troops near Minsk.

This is determined by the geographical environment of the occupied areas of the two sides. Taking this map of the actual control line of the two sides, the first idea of most generals is to flatten this twisted S-shaped defense line - it may be obsessive-compulsive disorder, but the more reason is that attacking from the side is always easier than attacking from the front.

It's similar to the principle of attacking a person with a knife. If you cut a person's stomach with a knife, you may only leave a bloody wound. However, if you hit a prominent place, you may cut off the other person's arm. As far as the result is concerned, the effect of cutting off the arm looks more shocking.

However, the supreme command of the German army drew up an overall plan which was contrary to the Soviet Union's attack from north to south. In the overall strategy, the German army adopted the tactics of two wings advancing side by side. In the north, the a group army led by Marshal lundstedt was the main attack, while in the south, the G group army led by general goodrian was the main attack, Jointly complete the whole "new Barossa" attack plan.

But before the beginning of the attack, it is more important to see whether the defense and counterattack of the five army groups, including Kluger, Liszt, modle and Wilkes, and the M army newly established by Manstein at the southernmost end, can be carried out smoothly.

Just like on the football field, the strikers who destroy the city and pull out the stronghold are brilliant, but a team can win more depends on the stable play of the middle and back fields. Those steady defenders or midfielders may not be familiar stars, but they are absolutely decisive in a team.

Although the generals such as goodrian and Rommel are more attractive, it is impossible for all generals in a country's army to shine so brightly. More soldiers are as simple as steel, but they are absolutely irreplaceable in their own posts. It can be said that it is with them that the myth of invincible empire is really built.

Among the German generals on the eastern front, except that Kluger was absolutely loyal to the head of state and obedient to his orders, all the other generals were truly capable field experts carefully selected by akkado. One of them is the group army commander weikes, who is steady and regular in fighting. This field expert is good at packing up the encirclement and annihilation battles. He is an excellent front-line commander. He performs very well in the encirclement operations in Poland. His German infantry is also known as the national defense force for its elite. He is a general with no obvious shortcomings. Another general, maudel, was known as the "imperial city wall" because he was good at commanding defensive operations. In Poland, he led his troops to defend their positions, annihilated a large number of living Soviet forces with local counterattack, and finally bought time for the main forces to encircle the main forces of the Soviet Union. Therefore, he is well known by the world. If goodrian and Rommel are the imperial double in attack, then maudel is a steady general who is immovable in defense. However, the most defensive general was not in the position where the Soviet Union was about to launch a general attack. Instead, he led his group army, waiting for a possible large-scale attack by the Soviet forces near Kiev. This is also the reason why akado insists on this arrangement, because he hopes that after the counterattack begins, goodrian and Manstein's two army groups can have a solid rear. General Liszt, like Wilkes, is a general with no obvious weakness. When the German army invaded France, he was already the main German general in Poland on the eastern front. He dared to put him on the eastern front to deal with the possible attack of the Soviet Union. This is a kind of affirmation for Liszt. He completed the task excellently and built the rudiment of the multi mouth defense line, It laid a solid foundation for the victory of the first stage of the Soviet German war. Now he is responsible for the defense of the area south of Minsk. For this reason, he has carefully constructed three lines of defense. If you look down from the sky, these lines of defense are a bit similar to the shape of a field. In the longitudinal direction of the defense, there are trenches designed to transfer troops. The empty areas of the field are filled with mines and obstacles, forming a good flank cover. At the confluence of the trenches, he strengthened the machine gun blockhouses and anti tank artillery, so as to eliminate as many effective forces of the Soviet offensive forces as possible. In fact, the whole position is the improvement and development of the crenel type defense line. To put it bluntly, it is a bit like a simple World War I position, with more investment than the typical World War II defense line and more permanent fortifications. This is also an obvious feature of the first stage of the German "new Barbarosa plan", that is, to spend the dangerous early time with permanent fortifications, to buy time for the German armored forces, and to protect the forward offensive positions. As long as the dangerous early time is passed, the starting point of the German armored forces will extend a long distance ahead of another time and space in history, In this way, Moscow, which could not be reached in another time and space, became the bag of German armored forces“ Report Just as Liszt was thinking about whether to ask the air force to reconnoiter these suspicious places again, an officer pushed open the door of the combat headquarters and walked up to general Liszt: "long live the Fuehrer! General modle calls. The Soviet Union has begun to bombard his forward position on a large scale. The battle has begun! "“ Kiev first? The Soviets are a little interesting this time... "Liszt went to the front of the map, squinted at the position of Kiev in the whole picture of the huge east line, and knocked twice with his hand near brovalre outside Kiev. A man whispered," is it a feint? Or does Zhukov really want to knock down the front of Kiev? " After thinking about it for more than ten seconds, he turned around and looked at the air force liaison officer in the corner of the headquarters. He said, "order, the Air Force reconnaissance plane unit directly under our group army, take off the plane immediately and investigate the suspicious places in the photos! If those camouflages are not false targets, they should move now! I have a hunch! This time the curtain is open, it's my turn to play