Chapter 579 The 500,000 counterattack forces brought by Model
In fact, Model certainly did not use himself as reinforcements for counterattack.
This time, the total number of troops he brought for the counterattack exceeded 500,000!
Moreover, he was not responsible for this counterattack alone.
He has two absolutely reliable teammates!
The first is the Sixth Army. Their new commander, General Paulus, went to the army almost at the same time as Model. Paulus, who is Reinhard’s confidant and knows enough about the Sixth Army, can replace Reichenau.
General, this is absolutely good news for the SS.
In this counterattack plan, Paulus, who always only obeyed the orders of the Führer, would not let the SS fight alone.
As for the general strategy of the counterattack plan, Model had already confirmed it with Paulus before setting off, and the other party made it clear that he would definitely participate in the action.
Of course, the Sixth Army alone would not be able to muster 500,000 counterattack troops even if all of them joined the battle.
Model's real trump card lies in another teammate in the south.
The Eleventh Army was personally led by the already famous German general Manstein!
Manstein's promotion was actually an exceptional promotion.
Although he has a huge reputation, after all, he has been serving in the General Staff Headquarters. Unlike generals like Rommel, who can have the opportunity to go to the front line to establish military exploits.
Reinhardt's method of promoting Manstein was to first let him serve as a commander in the 56th Army.
Based on Manstein's meritorious service in the Polish Campaign and the French Campaign, he was promoted from the position of chief of staff who could only make plans to a military commander who actually commanded the troops. This was not considered random.
However, Reinhard obviously did not ask Manstein to command an army. This was not in line with Manstein's position in his mind.
The reason why Manstein was appointed as the commander of the 56th Army was just to add a layer of qualifications to him. To put it bluntly, it was just a layer of gold plating.
After only three months as army commander, Manstein was arranged by Reinhardt to train and form a group army on the grounds that he had good training for the troops, and was appointed as its commander.
And an ordinary army group was not enough. What Reinhard handed over to Manstein was the most special group army-the 11th Army.
The reason why the 11th Army is special is that in addition to having a German army, it also has the ability to command an organized Romanian army. In other words, Manstein is actually commanding a total of two armies of the Allies.
Army!
After all, relations between Berlin and Moscow have been deteriorating since before the war began a few months ago.
Reinhard failed to prevent the Soviet Union from seizing the three Baltic countries and two Romanian provinces, and Stalin also failed to prevent Reinhard from sending German police officers to Romania and Finland.
The disappointment on both sides added to their growing anger. All senior officials close to the two leaders knew that the fragile peace between the Soviet Union and Germany could be shattered at any time.
Take the officer corps sent by Germany to Romania, for example. Their external propaganda mission is to help Romania train and form a new modern army.
In fact, their real mission was to establish a link between the German high command and the Romanian army so that they could coordinate the two armies well in combat against the Soviet Union in the future.
Now, the Romanian army has ushered in their first opportunity to join forces with the German army.
Today's Romanian army, with the help of Reinhardt, has reorganized a total of 20 front-line main infantry divisions. These infantry divisions have been fully modeled on the German infantry divisions, consisting of 3 infantry regiments and a total version of a motorized reconnaissance unit.
, a total anti-tank reconnaissance company (equipped with 6 German-assisted Schneider 1936 47mm guns). In addition, each Romanian division was also equipped with a combat engineer battalion and an artillery regiment under the guidance of the German Army Corps.
In addition to the 20 Romanian main infantry divisions selected by the German army because of their best physical fitness, the remaining Romanian reserve divisions are composed of poor quality and outdated weapons and equipment.
The equipment level of these reserve divisions is still at the level of World War I, and some of the weapons and equipment provided by Germany to aid Romania have long been divided up by the 20 main divisions. Where can these reserve divisions get their turn?
Therefore, the mission of these troops is only to stay in the country to recharge, and will not accompany the German army to perform combat missions.
Of course, even if the equipment exchanged by Germany for the purchase of Romanian oil is accepted, and the scale is organized according to the German army, the theoretical firepower of a Romanian division is only half of that of a German infantry division.
If factors such as troop training, officer quality, and logistical supplies are taken into account, the combat effectiveness of these so-called Romanian main infantry divisions will be even lower.
The most outstanding thing in Romania as a whole, and also the largest military cooperation project between Dro, is the formation of the Romanian First Armored Division!
Because Romania was an ally with France at the beginning, 20 years ago, they asked the French to help them establish a tank training school and randomly purchased 76 French FT-17 tanks.
Because they were taught by the French, Romanian tanks, like the French army, were initially dispersed among the infantry and used as support forces.
Later, the Germans came because of the Romanian oil fields. The Third Reich, a country that had defeated France, hit it off with Romania and became Romania's new partner.
Both sides get what they need. Romania provides the oil that Germany wants, while the Germans sell weapons that Romania covets to strengthen its army.
Although what Germany initially sold to Romania was not German weapons, they were basically rifles, cannons, and tanks captured from Czechoslovakia. However, these were also very good weapons for Romania.
With the financial support of oil exports and the well-intentioned incidental teaching after the Germans exported tanks, the Romanians learned to intensively use tanks.
The technical cooperation between the German Rhine Consortium and the Romanian Ford Company has allowed the Romanians to initially possess the low-level industrial level of processing and repairing parts, repairing and maintaining tanks themselves.
After the Soviet Union invaded the two northern provinces of Romania, the German envoy came to further in-depth cooperation with Romania. Only then did 12,000 simplified version of the mass-produced Mauser 98k rifles be sold to Romania.
In order to facilitate production, these 98k rifles not only use stamping component technology like other weapons used by the German army, but also change the bottom of the butt to a cup-type stamping component.
In addition, these simplified versions of the 98k produced also changed the front guard from cutting parts to spot welding, the bottom of the magazine and the bow guard were also changed to stamped steel plates, and even the classic bayonet holder was omitted.
However, this is still the best small weapon Romania can buy.
As for Romania's 1st Armored Division, which was filled with light tanks, Reinhardt generously provided 100 Stalker tank destroyers, giving the Romanian armored forces the ability to deal with Soviet T-34 tanks.
As for the planned delivery of the second batch of 120 Hunter tank destroyers in the later stage, they will have to wait until the second oil trade agreement between Romania and Germany is signed before they will enter the Romanian army and be distributed to the main Romanian infantry divisions.
The officer corps previously sent by Germany to Romania has transformed into a German liaison officer within the Romanian 3rd Army. It is responsible for closely linking the Romanian 3rd Army with the German 11th Army so that it can be easily controlled by the German 11th Army Headquarters.
joint command.
The German troops of the 11th Army were waiting at the Romanian border long before the Soviet attack. Now, together with the Romanian 4th Army and the 5th Army under the personal command of Romania's new Marshal Antonescu, they have also decided to join the Allies.
Counterattack against the Soviet Union.
In this way, Model's 500,000 counterattack troops are actually assembled!