My German Empire - Chapter 23:

After wandering around for a day, Wilhelm discovered that the Soviet industry was lagging behind from what he imagined. Most of the production lines were operated manually, and the number of mechanized equipment was very small. If he knew this, he would have asked for more food from the Soviets. Even if he had demanded another million tons from the Soviets, they would obediently give it.

After dinner, Tukhachevsky came to Wilhelm’s room again and took out a document. “His Royal Highness Wilhelm, Comrade Stalin has agreed to set aside a place for your country to train soldiers. The location is in the Kazan area.”

Kazan?

The mention of Kazan in the Russian military history will cause a great controversy in the future. The focus of the debate is on two issues: first, whether there was a secret school for the Nazi German armored soldiers before World War II which later became the Nazi Army. Secondly, did Admiral Heinz Guderian, the Blitz Hero ever train in this school?

According to some declassified information, this Kazan tank school was real. For a long time, this school had been using the code name “Kama” (KaMa)-Kama is the name of a river in Siberia, and a nearby city is also called Kama. The cooperation to form this school was continued until Late summer of 1933.

As for Guderian, when the Kazan Tank School was established, Guderian was already the Chief of Staff of the German Motorized Forces. However, he did come to Kazan to inspect the work as a general. The Kazan Museum also contains a report on Guderian’s trip to Kazan by GBE (one of the KGB’s predecessors). The report revealed that Guderian had visited Kazan’s school as well as some historical sites.

After talking about business, Tukhachevsky couldn’t wait to put the topographic map of the battlefield and model soldiers on the conference table. “Please, Major Guderian.”

“…” Even Wilhelm didn’t expect that Tukhachevsky would be so eager to fight Guderian. Could it be that he wanted to test the German armored forces application model?

It’s a pity that Guderian’s “blitzkrieg” theory took several years to germinate. This gave Wilhelm the opportunity to see how much this “red Napoleon” weighs. “Since the general is so interested, Major Guderian, you can’t shame Germany.” That is the case, but Wilhelm had a foreboding that Guderian was not the opponent of this “Red Napoleon” at all.

“…” Guderian was even more depressed. Now Germany doesn’t even have a tank. Where can he get the experience of armored combat? Fortunately, he was a cavalry officer in the last war and felt that he only needed to replace his horses with tanks and armored vehicles.

Thinking of this, he bit his lips and stood opposite Tukhachevsky and began to place his pawns.

As the two continued to move their troops, Wilhelm saw that Guderian’s military use was still unique to the old cavalry officers. He led a cavalry force to quickly break through the enemy’s position, and then went deep behind the enemy, circumventing and encircling the enemy.

When the deduction was halfway through, Guderian’s face already revealed fine sweat. Soon he shook his head in frustration. “Sorry, my lord, I lost.”

“…” Wilhelm glanced at Tukhachevsky, who was obviously still interested, and said to Rommel who was watching the battle. “Captain Rommel, the two of you will fight against the general in the next round.”

“Haha, Your Excellency Wilhelm really thinks highly of me. One-to-two, I don’t have much confidence.” Even if he said so, Tukhachevsky rushed to place his pawns.

In the next round, Rommel also had the same clean defeat as Guderian.

Even Wilhelm was a little depressed. “Major Manstein, you join too.” As a result of visiting armored forces in some European countries, Manstein has also gained a lot of experience and information.

The result of this round was that the forces of Guderian and Rommel were completely annihilated, while Tukhachevsky and Manstein could not defeat each other with their remaining forces, which can only be considered a tie.

Although Wilhelm was calm on the surface, there was already a storm in his heart.

Tukhachevsky is worthy of the title of “Napoleon of the Red Army.” It is impossible for him to show all his strength in these three games, right?

This guy must be eliminated, otherwise, who can be his opponent on the real battlefield? !

Seeing Guderian who lost three games in a row and Rommel who lost two games in a row, Wilhelm was angry and funny. He clapped his hands and praised. “It’s really wonderful! Your Excellency is really an excellent commander, even if Napoleon was alive, I am afraid he has to retreat in front of you.” Fuck, if flattering can kill people, he can shoot Tukhachevsky for three days and three nights straight without even drinking a glass of water.

Tukhachevsky gave a humble smile. “His Royal Highness Wilhelm is joking, the three of them are also good at commanding. In due time, they will become excellent generals.”

Wilhelm snorted inwardly. Anyone can tell, they are all the brightest generals in the future empire. “But I want to point out a few problems, I would like to discuss with you.”

“His Royal Highness Wilhelm, it’s okay.” Tukhachevsky, an orthodox soldier, is also very much looking forward to Wilhelm being able to point out the problems in his deduction.

“From the deduction just now, I saw that the general is good at using infantry coordinated tactics. What I want to ask is, there is a gap between the speed of tanks and the speed of infantry. How do those infantry ensure that they can reach the battlefield at the same time as the tanks before they are put on the battlefield? Is it because the tank deliberately slowed down to accommodate the infantry?”

Tukhachevsky was taken aback. In the deduction just now, he had extremely restrained and reduced the use of this kind of coordinated tactics. But this highness not only noticed it sharply, but also asked such a very professional question that made him reevaluate Wilhelm again.

After a little thought, Tukhachevsky gave the most concise answer. “My plan is to carry infantry on the tank to ensure the coordination between the infantry and the tank.” How many infantry can be carried on a tank? His real idea is to prepare a large number of armored vehicles to ensure the coordinated advancement of tanks and infantry. It’s just that he can’t reveal this idea to Germany, which might become an enemy in the future.

Regrettably, the domestic production capacity of the Soviet Union has not yet reached his requirements, and his dream cannot be realized temporarily. However, he believes that when the industrial equipment imported from Germany is put in place, the Soviet Union’s production capacity will have a leap-forward breakthrough, and within ten years, it may not be impossible to achieve synergy between the battlefields.

Wilhelm cursed twice in his heart, fooling him? It seems that this general is also guarding against Germany? It’s a pity, you don’t know where I came from. I cannot be more familiar with all the tactics used in World War II. However, he didn’t point it out either, and made a suddenly realized expression, and continued to ask. “Oh, that means the general is going to put these infantry and tanks in the same unit?”

Tukhachevsky nodded. “Yes.”

Wilhelm took a few pawn cards casually,Put it out on the map. “Then if there is a battle to be fought, are there other units behind this infantry plus tank unit, such as a whole infantry division?”

Tukhachevsky replied. “Yes, after all, the infantry division is still the main force, and the armored unit is only used for breakthroughs.”

Wilhelm moved the placed pawn card a few times. “According to the general’s vision, what will this armored force do after it breaks through the enemy’s line of defense? Will it advance in depth? Or will it turn around to form an encirclement and assist the infantry in destroying the enemy in the encirclement?

“…” Tukhachevsky felt his eyelids twitch slightly, thinking that the questions that the royal prince asked became more and more sharper, hitting the most critical point. The first question may be explained by accident, but the subsequent series of questions cannot be accidental.

The royal prince’s understanding of armored soldiers far exceeds that of others!

“If it were me, the armored force should continue to advance deep and destroy the enemy’s rear after breaking through the enemy’s line of defense.” Tukhachevsky’s answer became more cautious, almost every sentence was said after careful thought. .

Wilhelm continued to fiddle with the pawn in his hand. “Then if you break through the enemy’s line of defense and prepare to advance in depth, it’s okay if it’s tens of kilometers, but what if the depth reaches hundreds of kilometers? The supplies carried by the armored forces are simply not enough. Then how do you plan to ensure the safety of logistics? Should the back road be cut off, isn’t the armored unit that has lost its fuel supply just the meat on the enemy’s cutting board?”

Tukhachevsky also picked up a few pawns and placed them accordingly. “I will arrange a mechanized infantry unit to protect the flanks and rear of the armored force. If necessary, it will have to take on additional tasks of providing infantry support to the armored forces.”

Wilhelm couldn’t help but sigh in his heart that this general deserves to be the founder of the theory of large depth attack. It is only 1928 and Tukhachevsky seems to have already established a complete theory on large depth attack.

This theory was put forward by the Soviet Army in the 1930s on the basis of the experience and lessons learned from World War I, and it was an important guiding ideology for the implementation of offensive campaigns to adapt to the development of weapons and equipment. It emphasizes the use of lethal weapons to simultaneously suppress the enemy’s entire defense depth, break through the enemy’s tactical defensive area in the selected direction, and then use airborne troops to form rapid clusters covering the whole battlefield, ending the battle with victory as soon as possible.

For example, suppose our army has three to five enemy armies in front of us. It has built a 30-kilometer long and 20-kilometer deep defensive area. According to the style of the First World War, a first line of defense is created to concentrate firepower on the enemy and wait for consolidation. After the result of the first battle, move forward gradually. However, according to the theory of large-depth battles, the offensive should not pursue breadth but depth. We should concentrate on a small stretch of 3-5 kilometers, suppress the firepower , quickly penetrate the enemy’s entire defense area, throw them into chaos by attacking the reserve team , expanding the results. The theory of large-depth battles has great requirements on military strength. Generally, the front army of large-depth battles has jurisdiction over 3-4 assault groups, 1-2 general groups, 1-2 infantry corps, and a rapid group of front aviation troops, to strengthen the Corps. Therefore, in World War II, the Soviet army often consisted of millions of people.

This is not good news.

“Then what if the enemy deploys some solid fortification areas on some of the transportation hubs that the armored forces pass through, if there is sufficient anti-tank firepower and airborne troops, what do you do when you encounter such areas? If you attack, It will cause heavy losses, and it will also reduce the advancement speed of the armored troops; if you take a detour, your logistics forces will be harassed by the garrison in these areas, so what do you do?”

Just when Wilhelm tried his best to destroy Tukhachevsky’s theory of large depth, Guderian and Manstein also opened their eyes. In this way, the two of them had a heated debate for more than half an hour. Tukhachevsky’s expression was a little ugly when he left.

After sending off Tukhachevsky, Wilhelm told the others. “I’m returning to Germany tomorrow. You stay here and take a look around.”