Still remember that in another time and space, people often went to Normandy or Dunkirk. Who else remembers the glory of ten battles and the defense of Moscow that turned from defense to attack?
Not to mention the Ten Battles and the Battle of Moscow, even the real turning point of World War II, the Battle of Volgograd, is rarely mentioned. World War II became an anti-Japanese war led by Britain and the United States, and had almost nothing to do with Russia.
The Southern African media under Roque will certainly not allow this to happen. Although Southern Africa and Russia have differences, Roque will not call a deer a horse and completely obliterate Russia's contribution to World War II.
Not to mention World War II, without Russia's restraint, the Allies might not have been able to win World War I.
Eisenhower and Montgomery only saw the overwhelming power of the Anglo-American Allied Forces in Austria, but did not see the tenacity and tenacity of the German army in the face of the Russian army. Patton may have criticized the bearded man himself, but for Russia, Patton still
Be respectful.
"The Russians have nothing to respect. They are just a giant bear squatting in the Arctic Circle. They are greedy and shameless. They may send their troops south at any time. The whole of Europe lives in the shadow of Russia." Yang Smuts has no idea about Russia.
Good impression.
Right.
Russia covers more than 20 million square kilometers and has 200 million people.
Most European countries cover hundreds of thousands of square kilometers and tens of millions of people, which is not at the same level as Russia.
Therefore, Europeans' fear of Russia comes from the bottom of their hearts. Only in the past few decades has Germany replaced Russia as Europe's biggest threat.
"In any case, the Russian battlefield has consumed the greatest number of German troops, so we can take advantage of this opportunity. Otherwise, we may never be able to open a second battlefield." Patton has no prejudice against Russia. Russia does have ambitions, but are Britain, France and Germany just that?
There's none?
In fact, they all have it. Britain has a continental balancing policy, France has appeasement, and Germany was the last to unify. It has strength but no room for survival. The war will be fought sooner or later, and it has nothing to do with Russia.
Of course, it cannot be said that Russia is innocent. The carving up of Poland by Russia and Germany fully proved Russia's ambitions. Just like Winston described Italy, Russia also has a good appetite, but it is a pity that it is full of rotten teeth.
"I know what you want to say. From a war perspective, Russia is indeed worthy of respect-" Yang Smuts was still worried that Patton's ideas were dangerous: "-but from a national perspective, you have to understand,
Russia is our biggest opponent right now."
Young Smuts was still an Englishman at heart, and he valued Europe far more than other southern Africans.
"Haha, I understand, I know what to do -" Patton laughed and did not continue. After all, Europe's problems must be solved by the Europeans themselves.
France is a good example.
The situation in France is different from other European countries.
For a long time, "freedom and democracy" have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in France. France is one of the countries in Europe that has been most severely infiltrated by the Communist International.
The Communist International is also very powerful in Italy, but it has always been more thunderous than rainy. At present, the party with the highest support rate in Italy is still the Catholic Democratic Party led by Alcido Gasbelli.
The situation in France is very complicated. After a winter, the Free France led by de Gaulle and the conservatives led by Reynard fell behind the Comintern led by Félix Gouan. After comprehensively analyzing the situation in France, Roque
, suggested that de Gaulle and Reynard jointly run for office and form a coalition government. Only in this way can they be able to compete with Félix Guin.
Patton's respect for the Russians does not mean that the Southern African Expeditionary Force must retreat when encountering Russian troops. They will still fight for those who should fight, and grab those who deserve guns. They will not be polite at all.
Lei Zhen was not polite. On the night when Kesselin arrived at the front line, Lei Zhen, as the commander-in-chief of the Remagen Southern African Expeditionary Force, issued a combat order.
There are currently four divisions in the town of Remagen, namely the 9th, 21st Armored Division, 22nd Infantry Division, and 30th Mountain Division.
Of these four divisions, only the 9th Armored Division and the 22nd Infantry Division are fully staffed. The 21st Armored Division has only one armor regiment and one artillery regiment. The 30th Mountain Division has only one brigade. The division headquarters are still on the other side. There is no
There was time to cross the river.
"Although we only have 40,000 people in the town of Remagen, the 11th Armored Corps and the 33rd Infantry Division are moving behind the German army. The commander-in-chief has decided that once the battle starts, at least four airborne divisions will be dropped into the German hinterland. We will
Our mission is to hold on to Remagen, and after all the detour troops and airborne troops are in place, we will counterattack across the board—" Lei Zhen was extremely excited, and he had not slept a wink for two days and two months.
The war is approaching, and Lei Zhen, as the commander, is indeed sleepless at night.
Although Lei Zhen is confident, the battle plan is still quite risky. The expeditionary force will defend based on the town of Remagen, with the Rhine River behind it. If Kesselring attacks with all his strength at all costs, the result is hard to predict, and the entire army may be annihilated.
.
This also has a lot to do with the defeat of the British and American coalition forces in the Netherlands.
Before the launch of the Spring Offensive, the Allied forces reported frequent successes in various battlefields. Even the Germans themselves believed that the Third Reich was at the end of its rope and was irreversible.
The defeat of the British and American forces gave Kesselring a shot in the arm. Before that, Kesselring himself believed that the situation was irreversible, so the German army was not advancing very fast.
After the defeat of the British and American coalition forces, Kesselring's troops accelerated significantly. German telegrams discovered by the Allies showed that Mustache's latest order to Kesselring was: He hoped that Kesselring could annihilate the Southern African Expeditionary Force crossing the river as quickly as possible.
, and then returned to Berlin to resist the Russian army and buy time for the German army's negotiations.
That's right, so far, Mustache still doesn't have the consciousness to commit suicide, and still fantasizes about seeking the best interests for Germany through negotiations.
At this time, the role of Switzerland as a permanently neutral country can be seen.
When Germany swept across Europe, it captured Poland, occupied France, and even colonized Greece, except for Switzerland, which it spared without committing any crimes.
The Swiss are very proud, believing that the mountainous terrain within the territory and the policy of all-people soldiers played a major role.
In fact, it's all nonsense.
When the Germans were at their strongest, France only resisted for 38 days. If Germany and Italy attack Switzerland after conquering France, how long can Switzerland sustain?
It is difficult to judge this kind of thing about Guan Gong and Qin Qiong. The only thing that is certain is that Switzerland will definitely not last 38 days.
The reason why Mustache did not attack Switzerland was to leave himself a retreat. Now this retreat has finally come into play. Since last winter, Germany has sent signals through Switzerland, hoping to negotiate with the Allies.
Many people may not have thought that the most interested person in this German request was not Roark or Roosevelt, but Winston.
Winston certainly wanted to negotiate so that Britain could continue to implement the policy of continental balancing and manipulate European countries into its hands.
De Gaulle firmly disagreed. He insisted on the spirit of the Casablanca Conference and demanded Germany's unconditional surrender without any room for negotiation.
Last winter, Mustache's condition was that Germany's pre-August 1939 border be recognized.
After the Spring Offensive, the conditions for Mustache became March 1940.
In March 1939, Germany annexed Czechoslovakia and invaded Poland on September 1. By April 1940, the German army turned south and launched attacks on the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
Mustache's conditions were obvious. Before the spring offensive, Mustache was willing to vomit out the annexed Polish territories.
After the defeat of the British and American coalition forces, Mustache was not even willing to give up Polish territory.
"I hope that the British and American coalition forces can launch a new attack on the German army in time to cope with our offensive." Tony Anderson still has illusions about the British and American coalition forces, hoping that the British and American coalition forces can help the Southern African Expeditionary Force share the pressure.
"Don't place your hopes on others, we have to get used to relying on our own abilities to solve problems!" Lei Zhen didn't have extravagant hopes, and the British and American coalition forces really couldn't be relied on.
At this time, we cannot pin our hopes on the British and American coalition forces. The British and American coalition airborne troops have just suffered heavy losses, the ground troops are unable to advance, and the sea landing is far away. The Southern African Expeditionary Force can only rely on itself.
Kesselring also knew that time was urgent, and on the night of arriving at the front line, he ordered the German army to launch a full-line offensive.
Compared with the German army in 1939, there is indeed a big gap in quality between the current German army and the German army in 1939.
The German army in 1939 was very good at infantry-artillery coordination and infantry-tank coordination. Blitzkrieg was a common occurrence. It caught European countries by surprise, so it was invincible in its attacks across Europe.
The elite German troops of 1939 have all perished in Russia. Not to mention the lack of training, the current German army has a serious shortage of weapons and equipment, and logistics is not guaranteed. So much so that the first wave of German attack troops actually used people from the First World War.
Naval tactics.
This stunned the front-line commanders of the Southern African Expeditionary Force.
"Are you sure this is a German, not an Italian?" Qining, who was at the forefront of the defensive position, couldn't believe it. In just a few years, the Germans seemed to have returned to the time of World War I.
If it was an Italian, it would be easy to explain. After all, Italians are best at making noodles, not fighting.
"It's absolutely true, these are all damn Germans!" Cargill, who had just received a Medal of Valor, couldn't wait. He wanted to upgrade the Medal of Valor to a Medal of Heroes.
In a previous battle, Kargil destroyed a German tank and received a medal of valor and a cash reward of R500.
Qining was very fair. The Medal of Valor belonged to Cargill personally, and the 500 rand in cash was divided equally among all members of the team. Cargill had no objection. After all, he could not fight against the German tanks with his own strength.
Compared with previous sporadic battles, this time the Germans came out in full force. Nearly a hundred German tanks participated in the first wave of attacks, as well as thousands of infantry accompanying the tank attacks.
In Cargill's view, this is just one military medal after another.
It's a pity that these military medals are destined to miss Kargil.
Before the German tanks came into attack range, the scream of artillery shells piercing the air suddenly came from the air.
In the Southern African Expeditionary Force, even the infantry divisions were equipped with hundreds of artillery pieces.
In the past ten days, the expeditionary officers and soldiers have relied on tanks and armored vehicles as fulcrums to establish strong defensive positions. At this time, armored vehicles are actually more useful than tanks, because grenade launchers are more useful than tank guns when dealing with light infantry.
.
The first to fire were the heavy artillery.
The Southern African Infantry Division is equipped with two battalions and 24 120mm artillery pieces. This is the most powerful firepower of the Army Division. The only ones more powerful than the 120mm artillery pieces are the 203mm heavy artillery subordinate to the group army.
Against light infantry, the 120mm artillery is sufficient.
Even the early Panzer III tank could overturn the Panzer III tank if its shock wave caused a near miss by the 120mm artillery.
Lei Zhen has rich experience and has concentrated nearly 120 artillery pieces from four divisions, lining up along the banks of the Rhine River to provide maximum fire support for frontline troops.
Note: In addition to towed artillery, the armored division is also equipped with self-propelled artillery, and the number of artillery is larger.
More than a hundred artillery pieces fired a salvo, and the power was still amazing.
This kind of large-scale fire support was relatively common during World War I, but became less and less common after the outbreak of World War II. Even if there was fire support, it would not last for a week or two like in World War I.
The key is to improve tactics.
During World War I, the human wave tactic was very popular. Although infantry and artillery coordination existed, few countries really used it well.
After the outbreak of World War II, there was not only infantry-artillery coordination, but also infantry-tank coordination. Infantry and tanks almost rushed forward on the blast points of artillery shells. Pre-war shelling was almost meaningless except for consuming artillery shells. Before the German attack
The preparation for the bombardment only took 15 minutes.
This is not Kesselin's carelessness.
It is true that the German army's artillery shell inventory is limited and they are unable to conduct a long-term artillery bombardment.
Moreover, these new recruits, who had not undergone strict training, did not master the coordination of infantry and artillery well and could not pose a real threat, so Kesselring could only settle for the next best thing.
The Southern African Expeditionary Force was the defender, so there was no need to consider coordination issues. The artillery had previously gridded the terrain around the town of Remagen and was familiar with all the coordinates, so the artillery bombardment was particularly effective.
Generally speaking, artillery bombardment requires test firing. First, one or two shots are fired to determine the impact point of the projectile, and then intensive bombing is carried out.
The artillery of the Expeditionary Force had already produced range cards, and there was no need to test-fire at all. They started with intensive bombing, so the scene was particularly spectacular.
Through the telescope, Qining clearly saw that a No. 4 tank was directly hit by a shell. At that moment, the No. 4 tank seemed to have collapsed first, and then expanded rapidly. The fire was radiating and the ammunition exploded. Following the No. 4 tank,
The accompanying infantrymen behind were unable to dodge and suffered heavy casualties.
The infantry accompanying the other No. 4 vehicle was even more unlucky. The artillery shells fell directly into the infantry array. After the violent explosion, about 60 German infantrymen disappeared without a trace. Many of them were torn into pieces, and even more unlucky ones were directly vaporized. Only
