The huge station was mired in steam, covered with snow and bustling with workers.
The freight trains stopped neatly like giant dragons, and heavy cranes were still hoisting anti-war artillery pieces.
There are only two absolutely smooth routes left at the station. Every ten minutes, a military train with thick smoke hurriedly passes by.
Monday, October 12th.
Yang Mingzhi has no intention of staying in Perm any longer and must continue his journey today.
The snow stopped, and it was already nine o'clock in the morning, but the rising sun was still close to the horizon. The situation will get worse in the future, after all, Perm's latitude is very high.
The temperature was still very low. Yang Mingzhi was wrapped in a thick woolen coat and a Cossack velvet hat on his head. The military column behind him occasionally released a large amount of warm and moist steam.
"Just send them here." Yang Mingzhi said to the more than 20 people seeing him off, "I came here in a low-key manner, and I should also evacuate in a low-key manner."
"General, if possible, I would like to chat with you again." Balzen was full of reluctance.
"Didn't we talk a lot yesterday? I've already said everything I want to say."
Balzen nodded and said: "Yes, I will summarize it quickly after I wake up."
"That's enough." Yang Mingzhi looked at the other people, "A new war is coming. You train the troops as I said. Don't think that when I return to Novosibirsk, our contact with each other is very dull. On the contrary, I
When we get back, we will supervise their hard-working production. Brothers, I must ensure that your three divisions complete the change of equipment."
Just now, Yang Mingzhi had been chatting a lot with the Balzen trio and their entourage in the station waiting room.
Especially Natasha, this girl took the whole morning off just to see off her "uncle" commander in person.
The military train suddenly blared a long whistle, and a large amount of steam spewed out from the front of the train.
"Let's stop here!" Yang Mingzhi suddenly turned around and grabbed the railing of the bicycle.
Suddenly, a strong arm grabbed his clothes.
It's Natasha...
Today, Natasha deliberately put on makeup. She put on lipstick and powder, which perfectly covered the freckles on her face. She was extremely beautiful today, but because of her tears, two more tear marks appeared on her cheeks.
Yang Mingzhi turned around: "My dear, you are crying again, don't be sad, I will still send a telegram. When you called me at the hotel, your sister Besica also knew that you are living a very comfortable life now."
"But……"
"Don't worry, everything is getting better and better." Yang Mingzhi couldn't help but patted her face, "Let's just say goodbye."
Natasha knew she couldn't change anything, so she shouted loudly: "Uncle, say hello to Sister Besica for me!"
"Okay." Yang Mingzhi said and boarded his luxury carriage.
Then, he sat by the car window, watching his comrades gradually disappear, and watching Perm gradually disappear under the winter ice and snow.
A black dragon galloped across the ice field, and the military train arrived at Yekaterinburg at nightfall. Yang Mingzhi knew clearly that he had climbed over the Ural Mountains and returned to Asia again.
Next is another long journey.
The snowfall that just ended has plagued most of Eastern Europe and all of Siberia. In comparison, Siberia has the thickest snow.
After entering Asia, the temperature during the day is less than zero, and the situation is even worse at night. Ten degrees below zero is very normal.
Yang Mingzhi felt that he was riding a Snowpiercer train through and through. Fortunately, the coal car had plenty of fuel, and the dining car had ample food reserves, as well as a lot of vodka and red wine for drinking.
However, in the Smolensk region, with the full return of sunshine, the mud swamps that were slightly frozen due to the cold wave have now become pure mud again.
For more than a year, the German army had had enough of Russia's mud. Of course, the Soviet army also hated the mud.
The temperature has risen, and Model's mood has improved slightly.
The land conditions continue to deteriorate, and Wolfsburg ordered itself to "be more proactive". Now it just wants to organize a division to launch an attack. The mud will also remind people of the "September Mud Road" that marched into Moscow last year.
There is another biggest benefit of mud, and it is the most critical benefit.
Soviet tanks would also be stuck in the mud, and infantry would have to face knee-deep mud, so the Soviets would not be stupid enough to launch an attack in October!
Model concluded that the front will be stable in October, but I am afraid that the duration of stability will be very short-lived.
In November every year, there will be heavy snowfall in Russia, and the cold current moving south will bring extreme cold!
Although the Russian-style warm winter in the winter of 1942 was completely tolerated by the German army, it was also tolerated by the gasoline and lubricants of the German ordnance.
What's more, the German army's fuel now contains higher-grade antifreeze. Even in the cold winter of 1941, the German army's logistics department believes that the troops can handle it.
The German army's logistics department has a high degree of confidence, and the psychological dynamics of the majority of soldiers are very subtle.
Model had a large number of soldiers who participated in last year's expedition, and they felt the malice of the Russian winter. It was their first time entering Russia, and they encountered one of the three coldest winters in the twentieth century. But
They don't know this. They think that the extreme cold of nearly minus 30 degrees in winter is normal in the vast Russia.
At present, both Model and Paulus' troops are facing great challenges, and of course Paulus is under the greatest pressure.
On a macro level, the weather is getting colder and colder, and the German army needs more fuel, more food, and more winter clothes.
Germany's own cotton production was not abundant, so before the outbreak of the war, Germany had been Brazil's largest cotton importer. During this era, Brazil was a major cotton producer in South America, and exporting cotton was also an important cash crop for earning foreign exchange. Even then
When the war broke out, Brazil was still sending cotton to Germany. Until Brazil, under pressure from Britain and the United States and other countries, suddenly severed diplomatic relations with Germany during the cotton harvest season in 1942, and then declared war.
Brazil began to cooperate with the Allies and signed some trade agreements, so the cotton originally sent to Germany became one of the strategic materials sent to the Soviet Union in accordance with the Lend-Lease Act after the Americans changed hands.
On this issue, Americans can be regarded as a model of excellent businessmen. According to the inventory of materials needed by the Soviet Union and the materials that may be lacking, they will be accurately transported to them.
The angry mustache immediately ordered the U-boat cruising in the Atlantic Ocean to look for the Brazilian freighter and sink it upon discovery.
In the month after the severance of diplomatic relations, ten Brazilian cargo ships sank into the ocean along with a large amount of cotton and soybeans.
Currently, Germany still has a considerable amount of cotton in stock. Facing the harsh situation, Germany has to step up its search for cotton and wool from Western Europe. German textile factories are also turning on their full power to produce cotton coats and blankets.
Mustache and Wolfsburg's staff certainly do not want the war to continue into the winter and remain at the current stalemate, but the reality is that the German army can no longer make major breakthroughs on both fronts.
Yang Mingzhi's return journey once again passed through many cities in the Asian part of the Soviet Union that were along the railway line and were established in areas where nomads had been active since ancient times. These cities all had good light industry capabilities.
Although the entire Soviet Union's light industry capacity is poor, the situation in some areas is much better. Especially in the vast Kazakhstan region, which is the largest wool producing area in the Soviet Union and currently supplies almost half of the Soviet army's wool products needs.
After all, according to a pure rationing system that supplies the army with exactly the same cotton coats and sweaters, one Kazakh wool output this winter can quickly turn into more than four million sets of standard sweaters.
In fact, the cotton textile production capacity in the areas currently controlled by the Soviet Union alone can fully meet the clothing needs of Soviet soldiers. It is undeniable that the reinforcements from allies are the icing on the cake when it comes to clothing, and when it comes to military boots, they provide significant help to the Soviet army.
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Before the war, the Soviet Union equipped its army with standard high-top military boots, but the production of military boots required cowhide. Since the Soviet Union did not have a developed cattle breeding industry, it took a long time to produce high-top military boots and then supply them to the army, which was not large in number.
There is no problem at all.
Before 1941, the Soviet army had as many as 1.5 million combat troops. It was no problem to uniformly equip so many troops with high-top leather boots. After that, the army expanded to more than 5 million people in half a year, and the inventory in the warehouse was as high as 1.5 million.
The factory's production capacity can barely meet the needs of the army.
When the war broke out, various factories were still working hard to produce. However, the army was defeated and the army lost more than two million people in the first half of the war.
The troops had to be further expanded, and the expansion was even more crazy. Even if the workers in various military boot factories in the Soviet Union maintained a strong fighting enthusiasm, they had to face the embarrassment of being exhausted. Fortunately, the U.S. and British allies used their inventories to
, and the private sector collected as many as three million pairs of military boots and threw them all to the Soviets. Since most cargo ships could withstand U-boat attacks, most of the boots landed ashore and were quickly distributed to grassroots soldiers.
They are not standard high-top military boots, they even come in a variety of styles. Based on the principle of pragmatism that wearing them is better than freezing or grinding your feet, the Soviet army accepted these shoes.
It was already the early winter of 1942, and it was already the third year that the British had been plunged into war.
German submarines are still rampant in the Atlantic, and this situation is gradually being curbed by the British and American navies. Even so, a large number of Allied transport ships are sinking in the Atlantic every week.
As a result, the strategic supplies that Britain received from the colonies were not as abundant as expected, and Britain had no choice but to launch a frugal national policy after the war broke out.
Britain did provide a lot of military clothing and boots to the Soviet Union, but Britain's own situation was not good either.
The once gorgeous British-style clothing has become outdated. All tailor shops and garment factories have received orders from Parliament, and they have to reduce the fabric materials used in new production styles of clothing.
As a result, simplicity became popular in the entire society. Men's trouser legs were shortened, and women's new clothes no longer had gorgeous decorations. Not only did casual clothes become simpler, military cape-style windbreakers became popular in society.
This is true in the UK, and the situation in the US is quite similar.
They may not have imagined that the simple fashion that became popular during the war, as well as the new military-style clothes that were popular to cater to the society's enthusiasm for military service, would continue to be popular after the war ended.
It is very interesting that the military coat was originally a standard issue for soldiers in the field. After the war, its improved version gradually became the favorite of young ladies.
Britain saved a lot of fabrics and leather, and while partially supporting the Soviet Union, it also made more uniforms for its own army and the withdrawn French army.
Large amounts of aid from the wealthy United States are still on the way, and the amount of leather that Britain can support the Soviet Union is also limited. For the Soviet Union, leather factories everywhere can only find other ways, so sheepskin, horsehide and donkey skin, such leathers are all
Started to be used to make military boots and belts.
The shortage of leather also caused the military department to make compromises. Therefore, after winter entered, leather factories began to produce low-top military boots. This was a way to cope with the lack of leather.
In addition, other ingredients are added to the main material of these low-top military boots, such as a mixture of felt and linen.
They are low-top military boots. In the past, high-top military boots could cover most of a soldier's calf. Now, after wearing low-top boots, soldiers have to wear leggings again.
Therefore, in the autumn of 1941, after the battle, only a thousand remnants of the 284th Division fled to the swamps and began to recruit troops. They were seriously short of high-top military boots and had to wear all the shoes they could find. Seizing the German military boots was a kind of
The most important way to obtain shoes is that German soldiers all wore low-top military boots.
At that time, Yang Mingzhi had been asking the troops who had regained their strength to step up physical training, forcing everyone to wear leggings for high-intensity running training. In fact, if the army at that time were all equipped with high-top military boots, linen leggings could basically be dispensed with.
Due to the current bad situation, most of the newly formed troops cannot be supplied with high-top military boots, and they have to accept new low-top boots, even if they still like the previous ones.
They had to adapt to the new situation, put on leggings, and returned to the situation in Tsarist Russia.