0p0 Third Reich Episode 353
Third Reich Episode 353
However, Mannerheim also played a trick here. It was the German Allied troops, not the German army, who agreed to enter the country.
After all, if the German army is really allowed to enter Finland, the problem will be even more troublesome.At that time, if Stalin heard about this, he might have planned to fight the Soviet army in Germany first, and maybe he would come to Finland first to launch the first round of liquidation war.
However, Mannerheim's cleverness coincided with Reinhardt's idea of saving German troops.
In the end, the troops sent by the Allies to Lapp Province included a new Norwegian infantry division and an Italian infantry division via Lapp Province to Serkenes in northeastern Norway and then into Finland.
With these two divisions, the Finns themselves feel more at ease.After all, this can also become their helper in the future.
However, Mannerheim did not fully pin his hopes on the Allied forces.
After reaching secret agreements with Germany, Italy, and Norway, the Finnish army immediately ordered a partial mobilization on February 2, and then expanded the mobilization on February 10, deploying defensive troops on the eastern border.
As of February 2, the total number of Finnish armed forces composed of combat troops, home defense forces and border guards has reached 16, of which 55 are combat troops.
The Finnish Army was newly organized into 12 divisions, 5 armies, 3 army headquarters, and 1 naval headquarters.The army is equipped with 556000 ordinary rifles, 14500 rapid-fire rifles, 5400 machine guns, 13700 submachine guns, 3500 artillery pieces, mortars, 86 tanks, 22 armored vehicles, 761 anti-aircraft guns, and 180 anti-aircraft machine guns.
But Reinhardt's purpose is to completely bring Finland into the fold, and he plans to get help from hundreds of thousands of Finnish troops in the future war against the Soviet Union.
So later, when the Finnish military delegation, headed by Mannerheim's chief of staff, General Heinrichs, visited the German Supreme Command.Reinhardt signaled Paulus to tell the Finnish delegation that the Soviets had concentrated large numbers of troops along the Soviet Union's western border, necessitating German action in response.
The German side pointed out that Germany had no intention of launching a war against the Soviet Union, but in case the Soviet Union attacked, Germany would be forced to take military action in the extreme north, including mobilizing two divisions in Finland to fight.After the final negotiation of this plan, the Finnish side also agreed to this request.
On the surface, Reinhardt sent two divisions to defend the independence and freedom of the Finns, and then let these two divisions fight for Germany when needed.It seems a bit like an image of a hard-working and nice old man who didn't get much in return.
But this is just a sign. In fact, after agreeing to Reinhardt's request, the Finns have not realized how miserable they will be in the future if they want to protect themselves.
As long as war broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union, Reinhardt unilaterally declared in a radio speech that German soldiers "are allied with their Finnish comrades" and "fight together on the coast of the Arctic Ocean."
Well, even though Finland has not yet formed an alliance with Germany at this time, and even the Finnish government issued a statement that morning, denying Reinhardt's statement and declaring neutrality, but with the two divisions in Finland, they launched an attack on the Soviet Union from Finland. If the offensive on the northern flank of the army, Stalin will definitely regard the alliance of Defen as a fait accompli.
From Stalin's point of view, troops have already appeared in Finland to attack the Soviet Union, so Finland must have formed an alliance with Germany.
Under these specific conditions designed by Reinhardt, it is difficult to imagine that Finland will not be involved in the future Soviet-German war.
In the end, Reinhardt believed that Finland could only do nothing but join the German army and really go to war with the Soviet Union in order to regain lost ground.
After that, Reinhard also deliberately proposed that, like in Spain and Norway, after the war between Sufen and Sufen, let German generals with excellent military talents command part of the army in Finland to maximize the effect.
But Mannerheim knew that if he accepted this proposal, he would definitely bow to Reinhardt in the future, at least after Spain and Norway accepted this request, they never broke away from Germany's control.
As a result, Finland once again rejected Reinhardt's "good intentions".
The cautious Mannerheim always demanded that the Finnish army's war be limited to recovering the land occupied by the Soviet Union, and he was unwilling to make further commitments.
In his view, this move will neither cause the Soviet Union's deep hatred, but also agree to the request to fight with the German army.
Mannerheim's calculations are very precise. If the situation permits, the Finnish army can start fighting simultaneously with the German army, but once the Finnish army regains the lost ground, it has fulfilled its promise and can leave the German army to stop.
However, he did not expect Reinhardt to be more accurate: If the Soviet army launched a large-scale counterattack against Finland because of the provocation of the Italian infantry division and the Norwegian infantry division of the allies, do you think the German army will divide its troops to rescue?
Only fools go!
Text Chapter 542 Rommel, don't move
Just as Reinhard let go of his hands and feet and was preparing to fight in the English Channel, Rommel, who was far away in Africa, was also preparing to launch a new round of large-scale offensive.
The two German divisions that served as his team have been completely assembled in Algeria. Before that, they also successfully defeated the offensive of the Commonwealth army in Algeria and consolidated the line of defense.
Today, the Algerian Governor-General Berente, who has always had revenge, has made up his mind and agreed to take out 2 French native divisions and 3 colonial divisions to personally lead them to participate in the next military operation of Rommel's African Army.
Before Mussolini was admitted to the hospital, the Italian troops of the three divisions of the German-Italian African Army that he promised to put in had already assembled on the eastern border of Algeria.
In addition, an Italian infantry division sent by Garibaldi to support the highland operations, and more than 2 Italian prisoners of war were rescued after the battle for the highlands.
More important divisions, under the auspices of Italian Deputy Prime Minister Rossi, in the German-Italian African Army, the tank equipment of the Italian armored division was also normally shipped to Africa and received by the troops.
In other words, at this time Rommel and his coalition forces have gathered to attack the total strength of 2 armored divisions and 9 infantry divisions.Although this army was composed of three countries, the combat effectiveness is also uneven.However, this is enough!
After all, Garibaldi's more than [-] Italian troops had already invaded Libya in advance.Now, only Rommel and Berente need to march eastward, and Garibaldi and Libya.Then, the recovery of Libya is just a natural result.
But just when Rommel was full of ambition, a telegram sent by Reinhard himself was sent to his headquarters.
"General Rommel, the Supreme Command has called and asked us to stop all large-scale military operations. General Paulus, the chief of staff, reminded us to maintain the status quo as much as possible. Guarantee the defensive advantage and wait for Vichy to continue to send the newly expanded 7 After the first French division, he joined hands with the strengthened French army to launch large-scale operations in Africa."
After reporting the telegram from the Supreme Command, Rommel's chief of staff felt sorry for the commander.
The chief of staff knew how much preparation Rommel had made for the upcoming African conquest plan.In Rommel's plan, his stop line in Africa should not be the central part of Libya planned by Berlin, but should include the whole of Libya, including Egypt, until the glorious end of the Suez Canal.
Of course, the reason why Berlin set the stop line in central Libya is actually because the Libyan territory that Reinhardt asked Mussolini to collect is concentrated in the west connecting it with Algeria, that is to say, in the east. Those areas are only retrieved for Italy, which is of little significance.
However, as a pure soldier, what Rommel valued was not those political calculations.
Frowning, Rommel gritted his teeth and said to himself: "With the just-concluded victory, the current situation in Africa has completely turned to our Allied Forces. If we don't seize the opportunity, we will chase after the Commonwealth Forces." If you fight fiercely, the opponent can have a chance to breathe, and then re-establish a new line of defense..."
Hearing this, before the Chief of Staff of the African Army Group could speak, Lieutenant General Hans, the commander of the Second Infantry Army of the African Army Group, saw the clue and asked first: "Wait, don't you want to defy the commander-in-chief?" According to the order of the Ministry, start the war according to our original plan?"
"Why not!" Rommel did not evade, but asked Hans back: "Garibaldi has brought more than [-] Italian troops deep into Libya. Now we are rushing into Libya with the second batch of troops. , is basically a win-win situation!"
"This is just a tactical method. In terms of the grand strategy, we should wait until France sends more reinforcements to launch an attack, which will be safer." Hans obviously differed from Rommel's concept, shaking his head and retorted.
It is no wonder that this is the case, although Rommel's previous independent command of the Spanish campaign and Hans' previous independent command of the Norwegian campaign were both classic battles of annihilation with a small number of German troops as the core force and victory with less.
However, there is a world of difference between the two in terms of commanding style.To put it simply, Rommel is good at active attack, while Hans tends to be more defensive and counterattack.
When two people like this get together, it is inevitable that there will be a collision of ideas.
However, Rommel did not agree with Hans's judgment on tactics and strategy.
Rommel, a well-known tactician in history, immediately pointed out to Hans' point of view: "War is war, and the outcome of war has nothing to do with the level of strategy and tactics. Strategy is the overall situation, and tactical campaigns are local. Although on the surface It seems that strategy can determine the direction of war and the allocation of resources, while tactics can be seen as thinking to achieve strategic goals and serve them.”
"But in fact, in a war, the strategy often changes because of a battle!"
Rommel changed his subject and said conceitedly: "There is always only one goal in war. That is to win by violence. Therefore, when we find that a partial battle is enough to improve the current strategic advantage, what should we do? , instead of restricting yourself with a rigid strategic direction, but do your best to defeat your opponent at the tactical level and win a brilliant victory!"
This was the first time Hans had heard such remarks.
Prior to this, he had always firmly believed that the master-slave relationship between strategy and tactics was fixed, just as in the Polish campaign, he led the 30th Infantry Division to resist desperately and serve Manstein's encirclement and annihilation strategy.
But now, his new superior has shown him a concept of war that is diametrically opposed to Manstein's.
Moreover, as a German commander who also independently commanded the Polish campaign, Hans actually felt that what Rommel just said seemed to be correct.
"This is my way of fighting, maybe it is really different from others." Rommel smiled and explained to his colleague.
Hans nodded, but didn't speak.It can be seen that he is still struggling with Rommel's defense of strategy and tactics.
Seeing that the other party was silent, Rommel said to Hans humorously: "Do you know who you reminded me of just now?"