At the end of August 1939, the Wehrmacht did not have an eight-hour workday, and military discipline was so strict that even the son of the deputy chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht could not violate it -- the Juncker officer corps was particular about generations of service, and the army was full of grandsons of the general's son, the marshal, but all were equal before military discipline.

Rudolph. Feng. Heinsberg-Hersmann received his superior, Werner Browner, commander of the 1st Combat Aviation Regiment of the Navy. After Major Moldes's phone call, he immediately said goodbye to his father and mother without saying a word, and rode his bicycle to report to the airfield where the 1st Combat Aviation Regiment of the Navy was stationed.

There he will be a midshipman - a graduate of the cadet cadet and the air force cadet academy with the rank of second lieutenant upon completion of supplementary training - and a supplementary pilot to experience the atmosphere of war firsthand, while also being ready to take to the skies at any time to meet the enemy...... If the battle at the front does not go well, and the combat aviation regiment suffers heavy losses, he will go to the battlefield.

"Honey, I'm going too," Hersman said to his wife beside him, looking at his son's back as he rode away, until he disappeared at the end of the horizon. "There's an important meeting in the evening, maybe an all-nighter, and I'm not coming back."

He could not return home for the time being, because he was the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, and all the armies that invaded Poland were under his command. He will not return to Tsosen until the end of the Polish campaign. However, the invasion of Poland was a military secret and could not be told to Chloe.

"You're leaving, too?" Chloe bit her lip lightly, she already understood, "I know! Rest assured, my dear, I will take care of the house, no matter what happens! ”

Hersman watched as his wife - the world wars in history had been lost, and the men had either died in battle or had been sent to prisoner of war camps. The burden of German revival would fall on women like Chloe.

"This time we will win!" Hersman said with great certainty. At least not to beat! Because the nuclear fission phenomenon has not been announced, and Hitler has signed an order to allocate up to 10 billion marks for uranium projects (this is a top-secret project and will not be discussed in the Reichstag......

"We will win!" Chloe nodded, "Honey, I'm waiting for your good news. ”

Half an hour later, Senior General Hersman reappeared in the General Staff. The Minister of Defense, Field Marshal Schleicher, and the Chief of the General Staff, Senior General Hameststein, have arrived. They waited for Hersman in the No. 1 war room, standing in front of a huge sand table that showed the overall situation. Hersman's deputy, General Infantry General Halder, the 1st Operations Officer, was also there, who would take over as deputy chief of the General Staff when Hersman became commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front.

"Your Excellency the Marshal, Your Excellency the General," Hesman saluted the two of them, "General Hesman awaits your orders!" ”

"All right," Marshal Schleicher glanced at Hamstein, "come on." ”

Hamestein nodded, and pulled out the order he and Schleicher had signed together. "General Hersman. In view of the current situation on the Eastern Front and the aggressive intentions of the Polish Federation, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff have decided to establish a wartime Eastern Front General Command, and you will be the wartime Eastern Front Commander-in-Chief! ”

All the armies participating in the Eastern Front's operations against Poland, including Army Group South, Army Group North, Army Group Baltic, the Air Force Command of the Eastern Front, and the Baltic Fleet of the Navy, were under the control of the General Command of the Eastern Front led by Hersman.

"Thank you for your trust, I won't let you down." Hersman took the order and saluted again.

The General Command of the Eastern Front was secretly established in Stettin-on-Oder as early as the beginning of August, and is currently headed by the Chief of Staff of the Eastern Front, Lieutenant General Manstein, and the Chief of Operations, Colonel Moder. Communication with army groups, army groups, the Eastern Front Air Force Command and the Baltic Fleet has been established. Just wait for Hersman to take over all the command of the Eastern Front!

And all the 50 active divisions deployed on the Eastern Front (because of the addition of the Baltic Army Group. As a result, 8 more divisions were committed), including 30 infantry divisions, 3 mountain divisions, 7 armored divisions, 4 light armored divisions, 6 motorized infantry divisions and 1 cavalry brigade (semi-mechanized). All were mobilized in the name of military exercises.

In addition, there were a large number of reserve troops, including 16 newly mobilized divisions and 2 Waffen-SS divisions, which were also ready to be deployed.

At the same time, the headquarters of the Western Front, commanded by Field Marshal Blomburg, was established in Cologne. Commanding 26 active infantry divisions and a dozen fortress garrisons, he was stationed on the Siegfried Line, waiting for the French army to come to their deaths - unless the Dutch, Belgian, and Luxembourg were willing to break their neutrality immediately after the outbreak of war, or the French and British prepared to invade them. Otherwise the Western Front is very safe. Because a large section of the Franco-German border is bordered by the Rhine River, and the German side is the famous "Black Forest region", it is not suitable for large armies to enter and exit.

What was really convenient for the French attack, that is, the German army needed to be heavily defended, was the section from the Luxembourg border to Karlsluser on the Rhine, which was less than 150 kilometers. And it was the strongest stretch of the entire Siegfried Line. The French really wanted to attack. I'm afraid the number of casualties will be unbearable!

Therefore, a sit-down battle on the Western Front is almost inevitable.

……

"Comrade Captain! You, you...... Do you know how to command a tank brigade to fight? ”

In a huge barracks near Minsk, the capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Republic, Pavlov, who was about to take on the heavy task in a few days, commanded 8 tank brigades and 3 cavalry divisions to form a flag mechanized cavalry group to raid white Poland, looked at a young captain in front of him, and asked with some worry.

This captain was the commander of the 8th Separate Tank Brigade Mikhail. Yefimovich. Popov!

A lieutenant actually became the commander of an independent tank brigade that should have been a colonel, and this kind of thing probably only happened in the Soviet Red Army - the commanders of armored brigades on the German side were all major generals in their forties, who had been in the army for twenty or thirty years (including in junior military schools)!

But in the Soviet Union, there were people like this "little child" captain with a baby face who looked like him at most twenty-four or five years old (in fact, he was 27 years old), and there were many people who were brigade commanders and regiment commanders.

Because most of the officers above the rank of major in the Soviet Red Army have either been shot or are undergoing labor reform. In many divisions and brigades, the highest officer in the military academy is a captain. Of the 8 brigade commanders and 3 division commanders under Pavlov, 5 were lieutenants, 5 were majors, and only one was a colonel.

"Report to Comrade Commander, I will definitely earnestly study how to be a brigade commander." Captain Popov replied loudly.

A graduate of the Frunze Military Academy, he was a lieutenant and deputy commander of a tank company in June 1937, before the Great Purge swept through the Red Army. Serving in the First Mechanized Army, which was established in 1932, the official movement can only be said to be ordinary. After all, he was just an ordinary officer with no background.

His father was an illiterate fitter and his mother was a housewife, both living in the Lenin Revolution. Although it was the cradle of the revolution, Popov's father and mother were honest people, and they did not dare to lead strikes or join revolutionary organizations.

In a place like the Frunze Military Academy, where the successors of the revolution gathered, Popov could only be regarded as the most inconspicuous character. And his personality is a bit wooden, his academic performance is not very good, he always gives people a stupid feeling, and his interest in participating in political activities is not very high.

This is such a person, mixed up to lieutenant company and deputy, and also joined the Bolshevik Party, the size is a cadre, in fact, he is already satisfied.

But what stunned him began in the second half of 1937! The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was full of enemies, and there were followers of Her Majesty Empress Olga everywhere!

Marshal Tukhachevsky was the empress's man, the commander of the Belarusian Special Military District, General Belov, was also the empress's man, and then the comrade commander of the 1st Mechanized Army, where Popov belonged - that was the hero of the civil war, the idol of the entire mechanized army...... It's also Olga. Faithful servant of Her Majesty Nikolaevna!

Then a counter-revolutionary group plotting to restore Tsarist Russia was unearthed, and the brigade commanders, regiment commanders, battalion commanders, and chiefs of staff of the 1st Mechanized Army were all found to be the Empress's men.

One by one, they were taken from the troop station by the "blue hats" (internal affairs personnel)! During that time, people were really panicked, and even Comrade Popov, a small deputy company commander, was worried all day long, for fear that he was also a member of Her Majesty's Empress.

Fortunately, the terrible days finally came to an end at the end of 1938. Then the 1st Mechanized Corps was disbanded. Captain Popov (who was promoted by the first rank in 1938) and several other lieutenants suddenly discovered that they were the highest-ranking officers in the entire tank brigade......

So the captains who never died in the catastrophe ushered in their own blessings one by one.

Captain Popov turned out to be the commander of a tank brigade that worried Pavlov very much!

Pavlov sighed softly, he could only be used by a major or a lieutenant now. He said: "Comrade Popov, your willingness to learn is very good, this is very good...... But now you're probably going to have to learn in the war, just like we did back then! ”

As he spoke, he took out a red envelope, handed it to Captain Popov, and said: "Open it on time at 12 noon on September 2nd!" This is an order, not in advance! ”

Needless to say, inside the envelope, it was naturally an order to attack! The commanders of the 8 tank brigades and 3 cavalry divisions to which the Red Banner mechanized cavalry group belonged, would have received the same envelope from Pavlov today. (To be continued.) )