USSR 1941

  Chapter 883 Hesitation

  While the Soviet generals were discussing how to defend Kursk, the German generals were of course discussing how to attack Kursk.

  In fact, not everyone thinks that the German army should attack Kursk. Among them, the famous German general Guderian firmly opposed to attacking Kursk (Manstein first agreed and then opposed).

"It will not be a secret!" Guderian said: "Anyone knows that we are going to attack Kursk, even a fool can see it! But because of this, we cannot attack Kursk unless we attack immediately !"

   It should be said that Guderian is right, because wars are always fought by surprise.

  If the attack target is determined from the beginning and the enemy knows it, then there are only two situations to launch an attack: one is to have absolute strength to crush the opponent, and there is no need to worry that the enemy is prepared. The second is to launch an attack immediately so that the enemy has no time to prepare, so there is no difference between knowing and not knowing.

  The German army does not have both conditions.

For the former, if the war had just broken out, the German army might still have the absolute strength to overwhelm the Soviet army, but until now... the total number of German casualties on the battlefield has reached 4 million, which made Hitler announce for the first time that Germany entered A state of total war.

The so-called "full-scale state of war" refers to the national industry, agriculture, etc. serving the war, such as increasing the working hours of the German people to 80 hours a week, and asking women to replace men of the right age to work and let men pick up guns and go away In addition, Hitler also began to recruit people aged 50 or older to make up for the lack of troops.

  However, the result of this is that a large number of high-quality soldiers with rich combat experience, sufficient training and physical strength are replaced by old, weak, sick and inexperienced recruits.

   Therefore, the German army at this time looks powerful on the surface, but its combat effectiveness is far inferior to the state when the Soviet-German war broke out.

  The combat effectiveness of the Soviet Union has grown due to honing in battle.

  Guderian is very aware of this, so he believes that even if Kursk is surrounded by the German army, it should not attack easily.

   "The Soviets always knew we would attack!" Klug said, "But they were defeated by our attack, and this time was no exception!"

  Klug is the staunchest supporter of the attack on Kursk. He even believes that this is the last chance for the German army to defeat the Soviet Union. If this opportunity is given up, the German army's advantages will gradually be lost in future wars...

   It makes sense for Kluge to think so, because Britain and the United States have been aiding the Soviet Union all the time, and they have continuously shipped a large amount of weapons and materials to the Soviet Union. On the contrary, the equipment and materials of the German army are getting more and more tense.

  So, in the long run, the German army can either prevent Britain and the United States from sending supplies to the Soviet Union, or they can make a quick decision. It is obviously not good for Germany to continue to delay.

   It should be said that both views are reasonable, so Hitler hesitated in the middle.

   "The current Russians are no longer the original Russians!" Guderian said.

   "I know!" Cluse replied: "We are not who we were at the beginning!"

   "Oh, are you talking about those recruits who have no combat experience?" Guderian objected: "You let these recruits face the enemy to prepare fortifications for several months?"

"No, I'm talking about 'Tiger', 'Panther', and other new types of equipment!" Klug confronted: "All the enemy's fortifications will be vulnerable to these equipment, and no fortifications can stop them." Their attack!"

   "The enemy will not sit idle, they know we will attack Kursk!"

   "So what? Our greatest advantage is that the enemy doesn't know about our new equipment!"

  …

In fact, the new equipment developed by the German army during this period is not only the "Tiger", "Leopard" and those things that the Soviet commander guessed, but also the 42-type light machine gun with much more advanced performance, and the " "Wasp" assault gun and "Bumblebee" howitzer, as well as "Ferdinand" tank destroyer and so on.

  The appearance of these new equipment blowouts gave the German offensive a lot of confidence.

  Hitler was silent for a long time, and then asked after a long time: "So, if we don't attack, what can we do?"

   "We can consider attacking other places!" Guderian replied: "But it shouldn't be Kursk, because the Russians have a whole winter to prepare, and they will make Kursk a perfect trap!"

   "We don't have enough troops to attack anywhere else, my general!" Hitler replied: "But there is no problem in attacking Kursk, because it will save us 20 divisions!"

"This is what I want to say, Your Excellency the Head of State!" Guderian said: "We choose to attack for strategic purposes rather than whether we can save troops. let us down..."

  Hitler fell silent again.

  He knew that Guderian was right. War should be considered more from the perspective of strategic goals rather than because there is only one option for other factors... because if there is only one option, it means that the enemy will hold it seven inches.

  However, Hitler was very helpless.

  Because the problem of attacking Kursk actually involves not only the issue of military strength, but more importantly, political factors:

  Because of the failure of Stalingrad, there have been many voices of dissatisfaction in the country.

  In addition, Italy and Romania have been shaken, and intelligence shows that there are calls within them to overthrow the current regime and flee the war.

   Therefore, if there is no victory, a victory that can calm everyone and reverse the situation in the Soviet Union, Hitler will fall into a very passive political situation, and may even fall apart.

Thinking of this, Hitler said: "We should never give up the counterattack, my general! If you have a better counterattack plan, I will seriously consider it. But if not, we can only attack Chur without a doubt. Sk!"

   "Yes, Your Excellency the Führer!" Guderian replied helplessly.

This has actually determined Kursk's offensive, because Guderian is not a god, of course he has no way to find a so-called "proper" offensive plan in the case of insufficient troops. If there is one, he has proposed it long ago up.

   But even if Hitler said so, he still didn't make up his mind.

  In this regard, he is very similar to Stalin, who is prepared first and then waits to see the situation before deciding whether to launch a counterattack.

  (end of this chapter)