bookpower Chapter 791
Chapter 791
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Model asked Mainz for the Type 3 tank, he had already thought about giving the extra tanks in his hands to the South Army in North America to form a new armored force to improve their combat effectiveness.
In the flexible defense tactics that Model is good at, finding the enemy’s loopholes and then taking the initiative to attack is a very important part of this tactic.
Only defense without counterattack is a passive and rigid defense tactic. The enemy’s offensive troops will not feel any threat and will put all their troops into the attack without hesitation. In that case, the pressure faced by the defenders will be very great, and they will be more passive at that time.
Model’s flexible defense can not only defend, but also attack. While defending, he also maintains the ability to counterattack at any time!
If the enemy puts all his troops into the attack, Model will mercilessly invest his troops to seize the enemy’s loopholes for counterattack. This counterattack is also a huge threat to the offensive, and it is easy to cause the collapse of the flank if you are not careful.
If the attacking side fails to react in time, the gap of collapse will be rapidly expanded in a very short time. At that time, the roles of both sides will be completely changed. The side that was attacking before will become the defending side, and the side that was defending before will become the attacking side.
Most armies in the world cannot adapt to this kind of offensive and defensive change in a very short time, which leads to many armies not being able to take advantage when facing Model.
In the late stage of World War II, when the Soviet and Allied forces began to take the initiative and the German army was retreating, Model began to emerge in the German army, and his expertise in defense began to emerge.
On the Eastern Front, in Operation Mars and the Battle of Rzhev, Model defeated the strong with the weak, and defeated Zhukov’s attack with one-eighth of the enemy’s strength, which earned him the reputation of a firefighter on the Eastern Front.
On the Western Front, in Operation Market Garden and the unknown Battle of the Hürtgen Forest, Model’s military talent was undoubtedly revealed. Facing a large number of German remnants defeated by the Allies, he was able to reorganize these troops in a very short time, and used a group of remnants to drag the Allies to the Ardennes Forest and other places, causing the Allies’ dream of ending the war before Christmas 1944 to be shattered!
In Operation Market Garden, the Allied airborne troops were almost completely wiped out, and they suffered heavy casualties from the miscellaneous troops in Model’s hands. Montgomery, who had defeated Rommel in the North African battlefield, suffered a huge defeat in this battle, which was one of the few defeats in his military career!
In the entire German army, there was almost no second one who could use the remnants of various defeated troops on the front line like Model, quickly organize them, reorganize them into new troops, and then use such incomplete troops to fight, and still win!
Whether it was the famous Soviet generals, such as Zhukov, Vatutin, Konev, Rokossovsky, etc., or the Allied generals, such as Montgomery, Patton, etc., none of them had ever taken advantage of him!
This man has outstanding advantages and disadvantages. His biggest disadvantage is that he disregards life, whether it is the lives of the Germans or the enemies, and even the lives of civilians in the occupied areas.
His cruel scorched earth policy in the occupied areas caused a large number of civilian casualties, which led to the people in the occupied areas hating the Germans. The resistance in the occupied areas was extremely fierce, and the pressure on the Germans to maintain public security was extremely great, which weakened the strength of the Germans on the front line in disguise.
In this plane, Model’s advantages were retained, but his disadvantages were improved a lot, which made him more powerful and more dangerous!
“Armored forces are our trump card for counterattacks, but ordinary infantry cannot be missing, otherwise our defense will be a big problem!”
Model’s flexible defense must first be based on defense. Only after the defense line is stabilized can we think about counterattacks.
Therefore, he also attaches great importance to ordinary infantry divisions!
“The Southern Army has a lot of troops, but their weapons and equipment are scarce. If this problem cannot be solved, it will be difficult to form an excellent infantry division!”
After hearing Model’s plan, Eisenhower looked a little embarrassed. He felt that Model’s request was a little bit impossible for him to do.
He had seen Model’s Second Army. There was no doubt that this was a very elite army.
The Southern Army was far behind the German Army. They were not even as good as the US Army, let alone the German Army!
In this case, if they were required to meet the standards of the German Army, it would be a bit too much to ask!
“The head of state has already considered the issue of weapons and equipment. Vanelk will transfer a large amount of machinery and equipment from the north, and then set up our own military factory in Florida. With the military factory, our weapons and equipment, at least the weapons and equipment of the infantry, can be self-sufficient and do not need to rely on the assistance of the empire!”
Eisenhower was relieved when he heard Model’s words. He was actually worried that it would be unrealistic to rely on supplies from Europe. Such a long distance, coupled with possible accidents at sea, made the supply from Europe very unstable. If their supplies were intercepted or sunk at sea, they might not have supplies for a long time!
Therefore, it is better to build our own arsenal and solve this problem in a self-sufficient way!
“However, we only have 11 million people, and almost all young and strong men have to be mobilized to join the army. Where can we find so many workers to produce our weapons and equipment?”
Eisenhower was happy for a while, but immediately thought of another very difficult problem: their labor force was seriously insufficient!
“This is simple. According to the standards of wartime mobilization, we can send adult women and children over 14 to factories to help with production, and then leave some young and middle-aged men in some departments that require heavy physical labor. According to 60% of the working population, we can mobilize 6.6 million laborers. Even if 2 million men are recruited to join the army, there are at least 4 million laborers available!”
Seeing Eisenhower’s hesitant expression, Model patted him on the shoulder, with a serious expression and said seriously:”This is a battle of life and death. The first thing we have to consider is the issue of survival. At this time, considering why children and women are not suitable to join the factory, it would be a bit idle. You seem to be protecting them now, but if we can’t win on the battlefield, have you thought about what will happen to them?”
“Don’t forget, there were tens of millions of slaves on this land!”
Model’s words made Eisenhower shudder. He thought of the black slaves in the southern plantations. If they failed in this battle, their fate would not be much better than those slaves!
What awaited them was either being completely wiped out or being conquered and used as slaves!