"What?! You want us to immediately launch an attack on the small forest in front!" The commander of the 222nd Regiment of the German 13th Motorized Infantry Division under Cyric said with a helpless expression.
His troops had just captured a small village and captured more than 400 British soldiers there. Just when the regiment commander was about to let the troops repair on the spot and have a delicious lunch, a strict order came from the division headquarters
Already.
"Sir, the troops below are already overwhelmed. I don't know about other battalions, but our battalion has participated in three village battles today. It is exhausted and in urgent need of repairs." The one who spoke was the battalion of the main battalion of the 222nd Regiment.
Captain, Captain Kuhn.
Kuhn's battalion is the battalion with the highest combat effectiveness of the 222nd Regiment and is also the main battalion of the regiment. On weekdays, their training is the hardest in the regiment, and their physical performance is also the highest in the regiment. Ordinarily, in high-intensity combat,
Their performance was the best in the entire group.
Now, even the battalion commanded by Kuhn has begun to complain, which means that the lower-level troops are indeed extremely exhausted, and the remaining physical fitness of the soldiers has reached zero.
"Let the troops use compressed convenience food to deal with it." The regiment leader waved his hand involuntarily: "The order from the division headquarters is for us to move the troops to the target forest as soon as possible and occupy it. And the division headquarters gave this
The deadline set as soon as possible is to leave in one hour."
Departing in an hour?!
The troops had just finished a high-intensity battle, and one hour was not enough time for the soldiers to rest. Kuhn couldn't understand why the division headquarters would interfere with the specific command of the forward troops, and to such an extent.
You must know that the first key point that every German commander learns in military school is that commanders at all levels should try to issue as few specific and binding orders as possible and issue more instructions with clear goals and concise content. As for how to achieve them,
The goals and specific implementation procedures can be flexibly handled by subordinates according to specific circumstances, so as to give subordinates greater freedom.
This is a unique tradition that the German army has always had. It was first constructed by the famous German historical generals such as Scharnhorst and Clausewitz. Every officer in the German army believes that this command method can give
Subordinates have full freedom to mobilize their subjective initiative and creativity to better achieve campaign goals.
In later generations, this command method had a nice name, called "mission-based command method." As the name suggests, it only assigns tasks and allows subordinate troops to flexibly handle tasks according to actual conditions.
There is a saying that one of the reasons why the famous Battle of Kursk failed in World War II was directly related to Hitler's inappropriate excessive intervention in frontline commanders.
When that battle reached a critical stage, the German frontline commander Manstein had a strong strategic reserve composed of the 17th Armored Division and the Norman SS Division that had not yet been used, while the Soviet southern defense line had
began to waver. At the same time, although the front-line German troops had experienced fierce fighting, they still had strong combat strength. They made considerable progress in the battles in the next few days, surrounded several Soviet infantry positions, and occupied some very strategic positions.
The high ground of value.
However, just when Manstein believed that the German army was on the verge of victory, Hitler made a very inappropriate intervention in his command. Due to his misjudgment of the battle situation, Hitler decided to abandon Kursk and put the decisive battle in the battle
The victorious and defeated reserves were transferred to the Western Front in advance, completely discarding all the original ideas of the Kursk Battle and the results of Manstein's nearly perfect tactics and hard fighting.
In addition to frequently making wrong interventions in strategy and campaign command, Hitler in history even frequently overstepped his authority to direct tactical-level combat operations. According to "The Art of Blame-shifting" written by Manstein... no
, according to "The Lost Victory", Hitler directly intervened even in the mobilization of army battalion-level combat units, which made it impossible for many German commanders to display their talents due to Hitler's intervention, which ultimately resulted in the German army being unable to win.
Of course, whether it was during the Battle of Kursk when Manstein said that Hitler tricked him and interfered with troop deployment, or whether he accused Hitler of interfering in the command of grassroots troops at other times, causing him to be unable to win every battle, all these statements were blamed on Hitler.
Suspicion. However, it is undeniable that this kind of specific intervention from top to bottom is indeed not very popular among German officials.
But now, what Cyric issued to the 222nd Regiment was exactly this kind of annoying rigid requirement. He even stipulated the time for the troops to attack!
Not only the commander of the 222nd Regiment, but other officers including Captain Kuhn also held an unreasonable attitude.
What was the reason that caused the headquarters of the 13th Motorized Infantry Division to abandon the fine traditions of the German army and force the lower-level troops to fight fatigue without any regard?!
The doubts of Kuhn and others were quickly answered. Commander Cyric personally sent a supplementary explanation telegram in his own name to explain the situation.
In this telegram, Kuhn and others learned that the vanguard of the 19th Armored Corps commanded by General Guderian would definitely arrive here tonight. If the 13th Motorized Infantry Division could not take down the enemy before the armored troops arrived,
All enemy blocking units, the armored units that should have rushed as quickly as possible to take on the important task at Dunkirk, had to stop and bear the losses before the war in the enemy's blocking.
This will be detrimental to the subsequent operations of the 19th Armored Corps, and may even affect the overall situation!
"General Sirik from the division headquarters has sent a telegram." Kuhn's regimental commander handed the telegram to him and said: "Look, the division commander is also under great pressure. And after today's battle, General Sirik promised to give
It takes the whole division a whole day to repair.”
"Let's not talk about tomorrow's repair time. What I value more is the new guard company promised by the division commander." Kuhn forced a smile: "If there is an energetic company forward, our people can still
Follow this company and continue fighting."
"That's what I've been waiting for!" the regiment leader patted Kuhn on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Your battalion is the best in the whole group. I can only pat you on this attack."
This is also the reason why Kuhn was called here as the leader, because the leader wanted him to do something.
"Don't cry in despair," the regiment leader comforted Kuhn: "Those who are capable work hard. This is the honor of your main battalion."
Glancing at Kuhn, who was unmoved, the regiment leader made another substantive promise: "Well, although the guard company at the regiment is also very tired, it has participated in relatively few combat missions before, so you can join us."
Take it with you."
One battalion and two guard companies, this is all the troops Kuhn will use to carry out the next mission.
