BXBX NOVEL Chapter 345: Set off
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December 25th was Christmas in 1941.
Guderian's headquarters is located 9 miles south of Tula, which can almost be said to be the front line.
Guderian sat on a chair in despair, was silent for a while, then took out a pen and paper and wrote a letter to his wife: "The cold and poor living conditions, insufficient winter clothes, serious loss of personnel and supplies, meager fuel Supplies, all this has turned our military operations into a kind of torture, and the heavy responsibility has made me more and more frustrated. Although many words of encouragement have been said by all parties, no one can take the burden from my shoulders!"
After writing the letter, it was sealed and sealed, and then Guderian gave the letter to the adjutant and asked him to hand it over to the wounded who were sent back.
Then, he took off the military cap from the wall and put it on his head, and ordered: "Retreat!"
"What?" The adjutant couldn't help being taken aback when he heard the words: "But the head of state ordered..."
"I said it!" Guderian interrupted the adjutant: "Retreat!"
"Yes, General!" The adjutant stood up and passed on the order.
Guderian looked at Moscow and said to himself: "The attack on Moscow has failed, and we have suffered a defeat!"
Then, without looking back, he jumped onto the barrel cart and retreated to the rear with the guards.
As a responsible commander, Guderian doesn't care about the order of the head of state, what he cares about is the lives of the soldiers... If it is possible to win, he will fight with the soldiers at the forefront and persist until the last moment, but he knows this Winning is no longer possible.
That is to say, the decision of the head of state is wrong, and Guderian will not let the soldiers pay the price of their lives in order to obey the head of state.
However, Hitler got the news that night, so Guderian was immediately dismissed from his post.
The commander of the 4th Armored Group Hoppner was also dismissed for the same reason. There was even a General Sponack who was awarded the Knight's Cross and was sentenced to death.
If Hitler still had a glimmer of hope for the capture of Moscow before, then at this time he should clearly realize that this battle cannot go on...All the troops and even the commanders who have been directing the battle on the front line are retreating. It is enough to show that the German army has no desire to fight.
But Hitler's order remained unchanged: "No step back!"
Although the German army can no longer take a step forward at this time, even if it is waiting on the defense line, Hitler still wants his soldiers to wait there... Perhaps, the enemy will collapse first under this pressure, who knows?
But of course the facts are not what Hitler thought.
When Hitler replaced the front-line generals in large numbers in an attempt to stabilize the morale of the army, the Soviet army was actively preparing for a counterattack.
Zhukov made a phone call to the headquarters of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade.
"How are you getting ready?" Zhukov asked.
"We still need a few days!" Katukov replied: "The number of bazookas is not enough, and the ammunition is not enough!"
"You can wait for the follow-up to make up for the shortage!" Zhukov said: "Unless you plan to miss the counterattack time!"
"Of course not, Comrade Zhukov!" Katukov replied.
Counterattack is an exciting thing, and Katukov is certainly not willing to miss this opportunity.
In fact, even if Katukov is willing to give up, Zhukov will not let him do so.
Because the counter-offensive is of great significance, although the German army has no offensive strength, it does not mean that they have lost their combat effectiveness.
Therefore, if the Soviet army's painstakingly organized counterattack is blocked or even repelled by the German army, it must be a severe blow to the morale of the Soviet army and the people... The Soviet army can't even defeat the lingering enemy under careful preparations. Does that mean waiting The enemy has calmed down, is it time for the Soviet army to be defeated?
Therefore, the counter-offensive only allows victory and not failure, at least the enemy must be pushed back a certain distance so that Moscow has room to defend.
Under this premise, the 1st Guards Tank Brigade is of course indispensable.
So, the First Guards Tank Brigade immediately packed up and took the train to Moscow.
The fighters have experience with this... They are probably the only unit that was taken to Stalingrad twice during the Battle of Moscow for training and then sent to the battlefield immediately.
It took a little longer this time, and it took more than thirty hours on the road.
This is because there are trains bound for Moscow everywhere along the way, transporting people, materials and equipment, one train after another is extremely crowded.
During the period, Shulka and others even saw a train derailed and overturned on the side of the road due to an accident.
The scene of the accident was a mess, with many wounded and supplies scattered everywhere.
If it is normal, you should first choose to evacuate these wounded from the accident scene to the hospital for treatment.
But this cannot be done in wartime, because it will delay the forward delivery of materials and troops.
Thus, the wounded set up tents on the spot and camped in the ice and snow. The engineers who arrived just repaired the railway and resumed its traffic, and then trains drove past the accident site one after another.
For those wounded camped in the wilderness at minus 30 degrees... Shulka didn't know what would happen to them.
Sometimes Shulka would think, what would happen if such an accident happened to the train of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade?
After much deliberation, Shulka believes that the ending may still be the same: the soldiers who can still fight may be taken away, and the wounded will stay first.
This is indeed cruel, but it is a helpless choice.
What's more, those soldiers who were taken away may not be a good thing. The destination they rushed to was a battlefield full of bullets.
The next afternoon, the train arrived in Moscow.
However, the soldiers did not get permission to get off the train, and of course they did not unload their equipment. The train waited quietly in a temporary parking tent.
The so-called temporary parking canopy is a branch of the railway, which can allow trains to park here without affecting other trains passing by. A large canvas is stretched on the top... This is obviously to avoid being discovered by enemy planes and then bombed.
Because there will be more and more snow accumulation, such a parking awning must be "cleaned" every once in a while.
The method of "cleaning" is very simple, that is, a few teenage children hold a bamboo pole and poke the top to make the snow slide down from it.
Although they were still childish and flushed from the cold, it was surprising that a pistol was pinned to their waist... This is war, and even children cannot escape its clutches.
"Do we have enough bazookas?" The instructor asked worriedly, "We only equip 300 rocket launchers!"
"If they did supplement us later!" Shulka looked back: "Then it shouldn't be a problem, because... we can concentrate these three hundred on the front line!"
(end of this chapter)