April is a very critical January. All tank production was allocated to the Eastern Front for the 1943 Armored Division. After deducting the damage to the Spring Awakening Campaign, the Eastern Front had a net increase of 14OOs (including No. 4 and Tiger). Due to the delay in the battle time of the battle scheduled to start in early May, the Eastern Front received nearly half of the output of nearly half of the month. Therefore, Model asked for 4Os to actually give 6Os.

In the past, the requirements for equipment supply were all discounted. Model said he wanted 4Os, but he thought that he would have to thank God if he had passed the Os. He came 6Os in one breath. Of course, it was just that the car crew was not enough.

Hoffmann had read Sperer's report before coming. In addition to the tanks equipped by the Reserve Army, training schools, transferring to the 6th Navy team, and selling to other allies, the total number of tanks equipped by the National Defense Forces and SS has reached more than 7 ooo, of which No. 4 tanks exceeded 6 ooo, and 75% were concentrated on the Eastern Front. Although there is still a big gap from the ultimate target of 12 o52 (the Defense Forces Armored Division, 7 SS Panzer Divisions, 3 battalions per division; 16 National Defense Forces Armored Grenadier Divisions, 4 SS Panzer Grenadier Divisions, 1 battalion per division, a total of 131 battalions, and 92 battalions per battalion), this number is undoubtedly quite amazing compared to the initial stage of Barbarossa and the same period in history.

What is even more amazing is that after the last No. 3 tank returned to the factory and transformed into assault guns in April, the first-line armored troops were all No. 4 tanks, and more than 90% were G and H models. It is harder to find a No. 4 tank with a short tube than a command tank. When thinking about the Battle of Kursk in history, the German army stepped up equipped the latest Leopard tanks on the one hand, and there were many No. 3 tanks on the other hand, Hoffmann sighed.

The benefits of only equiping No. 4 were not visible at first, but now it is obvious that the ability to repair, maintain and replenish is greatly improved.

According to the past practice of mixing No. 3 and 4 in the Armored Division, under the same supply capacity conditions, different accessories must be prepared for the two tanks (parts can be universal), and sometimes even No. 2 tank accessories must be added. Now only one set is enough. For maintenance personnel, they used to master the maintenance capabilities of No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 tanks. Although they figured it out in many places, the training difficulty has increased. Now most people can only repair No. 4, and the level of getting started is very fast. In the past, No. 3 and No. 4 shells were different, one was 5m and the other was 75mm, and now they are dedicated to 75mm, which also reduces the pressure.

When the total number of tanks is only 2 ooo and the maximum number of oo, multiple models can still be used to mix it, but when the total number of tanks exceeds 7 ooo, the single supply requirement will not cause the poor logistics officers to collapse.

Logistics supply is where Hoffman attaches the most importance to and spends most effort in military construction. In order to take care of the increase in production of No. 4, he cleared No. 2 and No. 3 in advance, while pushing back the production of the Leopard, making the power of the No. 4 cluster reach the extreme. As a time traveler, he certainly knew that the reason why Germany did not explode in the sea of ​​tanks in history was not because it did not have corresponding industrial capacity, but because it was restricted by resource factors. Germany not only lacked enough oil, but also lacked metals and other resources. But now this point no longer exists. The constraint on 15oo upwards is the real constraint on industrial production capacity. After all, he finally brought the production of tanks to the same level as the United States and Russia. Russia has the ability to produce more than 15oo T-34 tanks per month, and the United States has the ability to produce more than 15oo Sherman tanks per month. Although Germany has the Tiger tanks of the performance group, a full number of No. 4 tanks is still indispensable.

He smiled and said to Model: "If you think there are too many, I can recycle some and hand them over to the Northern Army Group."

"No, no, I mean, can we allocate more vehicles to us so that my troops can complete the standardized transformation as soon as possible."

As soon as he finished speaking, the honest Marshal Weix shouted dissatisfiedly: "You are still slow? I haven't even started to reorganize the armored division in my hand! Why don't we change it?"

Everyone laughed suddenly, and the command center was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

The so-called standardized transformation is to organize and add personnel according to the 1943 divisional divisions (8th Company of the 6th Battalion, 4th Regiment). In April, the first batch of 6 armored divisions and 24 infantry divisions had been reorganized. Originally, there were two elite troops of the 7th Armored Division and the Imperial Division in the first batch of armored divisions, but because they had been participating in the war on the African front, they were temporarily replaced by the 6th Armored Division and the SS Skeleton Division (the former qualifications are still retained). In addition to these two troops, there were four troops of the Great German Division, the Viking Division, the 3rd and 16th Armored Divisions, which completed the strengthened subtype reorganization.

In addition to the 1943 standard armored division, the fourth armored battalion (originally equipped with No. 3 assault guns) inside became a Tiger Heavy Armored Battalion, and there was an additional Himmler organ company. The reason why Rommel's armored army was enviable is that he held two ace armored divisions (3 tanks per division) that had been reorganized (3 tanks per division). Himmler once suggested that the SS armored division be formed separately into the SS armored army. Hoffmann considered it and initially agreed, but said that it would be implemented after the summer battle was completed.

The reorganization of the second batch of 10 armored divisions and 40 infantry divisions began in May. The Southern Army Group had the fastest, with % completion, the reorganization rate of the Central Army Group exceeded 20%, while the Northern and Eastern Army Groups had the slowest. The adjustment of this batch of organization is expected to be completed by January, and then the organization of the third batch of remaining troops. Spel believes that it is impossible to complete the reorganization of all troops in 1943, and Hoffman has agreed to postpone it until June 1944.

In addition to tanks, other technical weapons, including anti-tank guns, armored vehicles, rifles, etc., are being replaced simultaneously. Taking anti-tank guns as an example, after the 37mm anti-tank guns were fully withdrawn, the 5m anti-tank guns were also completely withdrawn. In the future, the troops will only have one anti-tank gun, either the German army's own 75mm anti-tank gun shells and No. 3 assault guns, and No. 4 tanks; or the captured Soviet 76.2mm anti-tank guns and t-34 are universal. This is also a deepening of the concept of strengthening logistics support. In addition to the 75mm medium-sized anti-tank guns and the German army also has 88mm heavy anti-tank guns and assault tank destroyers (using the t-34 chassis, equipped with 88mm artillery).

Except for the above-mentioned anti-tank guns, all other 28mm, 42mm and 75mm cone-bore guns were developed and produced. Although Germany was no longer short of tungsten at this time, Hoffman did not want a wide variety of products to interfere with production. All 28mm cone-bore guns have been transferred to the paratroopers so that they can exert light effects.

The troops did not have any objection to this. They believed that the 75mm anti-tank gun was easy to use, but on the one hand, it was a little bulky (weight 1.5 tons) and occupied too many gun crew members; on the other hand, it used 75mm caliber artillery to deal with armored vehicles. The light tank seemed too powerful and needed a relatively light anti-tank gun. After the demand was reported, Hoffman scolded them and scolded them for being unconscious. "You won't use the Dongfeng or the whirlwind to launch the air defense artillery flat? Can the air defense troops only hit the plane and not the tank? How did the 88mm tank gun come from?" So the air defense and anti-tank firepower of the reorganized troops began to be combined, which further strengthened their combat qualities.

Although Hoffman repeatedly emphasized that the new troops would not be expanded before the existing organization was completed and the divisions would be strengthened through division expansion and disarmament operations, the expansion was actually underway: the SS had 5 more divisions, the National Defense Forces had 12 heavy armored battalions and 2 armored divisions (armored instructors and Flying Fortress Armored Divisions). The 12 heavy armored battalions equipped with 54 Tiger tanks alone would be measured by the standard that the armored divisions generally had only more than 10 tanks in the late stage of the Moscow Battle, which would mean that 6 more armored divisions were added at one breath.

During the Battle of Castle in history, Germany used more than 2Ooo tanks to attack more than 5Ooo of the Soviet army and used 8O0,000 troops to attack 18O0,000. Although the German army had the advantage in combat effectiveness and equipment performance, Hoffman did not want to repeat the same mistakes and was still very cautious about this.

After the greetings and jokes, Zeitzler formally introduced the overall combat plan:

"According to the battle plan, our army will launch an attack at dawn on May 25 (tomorrow), first use 2ooo aircraft to clear the enemy's gathering areas and key defense areas in the front line, grasp the battlefield air supremacy, and then prepare artillery fire in the early morning to create a favorable situation for assault cluster attacks; at 9-1o points, the aviation army launches a second round of air strikes, focusing on attacking the enemy's depth and railway transportation lines to prevent them from reinforcements and gathering forces to the front line... The combat schedule requires the encirclement of Tambov before May 31, and then use 7-1o days to encircle and annihilate it before the Red Army's heavy army group rushed to the battlefield to support it. Then, take advantage of the favorable opportunity when the enemy has been mobilized to carry out the next battle.

If the enemy calls for heavy troops to reinforce from Moscow, the 3rd Armored Army advances to Tula and Liangzan; if the enemy calls for heavy troops to reinforce from the southern wing, the 4th Armored Army turns to the southern wing and performs southern army group operations; if the enemy only uses the grassland front to reinforce, then one of our 2, 3, and 4 armored army leaves one of our 2, 3, and 4 armored army to monitor the enemy of Tambov, and the rest turn to carry out encirclement and attack; if the enemy sits on the watchful eye of Tambov's enemy being encircled and annihilated, our army rests on the spot and no longer attacks."

The last strategy is the most controversial. Although Stalin was sitting on the verge of the Bryansk Front, it is unlikely that if it really appeared, everyone wanted to continue the attack? Only Hoffman believed that the goal of the Castle Campaign was limited, and the protrusion formed after extending too much forward was too large. The defense must be consolidated before the next attack was considered.

After fierce debate, the General Staff finally agreed to the idea. (To be continued.)8
Chapter completed!