"Comrades, this is the commander of the 37th Army, Andrei. Andreevich. Comrade Vlasov, who was my classmate in the training class of the Leningrad Higher Cavalry School, is now my superior. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoFrom now on, our 9th Mechanized Army, together with the 4th Mechanized Army and the 14th Mechanized Army, will be under the command of the 37th Army. ”

At Rokossovsky's Provisional Army Headquarters, Yakov met for the first time with the commander of the 37th Army, Lieutenant General Vlasov. This is a middle-aged man with a long body, a long face, an old-fashioned expression, and a pair of black-rimmed glasses with lenses as thick as the bottom of a beer bottle on the bridge of his nose. From a distance, it gives the impression that it is difficult to get along with, and reminds Yakov of his father Stalin.

"Comrades, according to the instructions of the Western Front Command, the 37th Army, after completing the replenishment, will carry out a tentative offensive to the south in a roundabout way......"

Lieutenant General Vlasov was obviously not very sociable, and he did not say anything to the cadres of the 9th Mechanized Corps to woo him, and he did not even glance at the artillery chief Yakov - he must have known that Stalin's son was in the 9th Mechanized Army - but spoke directly about military matters.

Yakov thought to himself: Vlasov's character of not being able to make friends is good for the Soviet Red Army in the era of the Great Purge. If you don't have friends, you can't easily be implicated by a latent reactionary element. But to tell the truth, there were too many reactionary elements in the Soviet Bolshevik Party and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army...... The reactionary leaflets of the Germans were right: how could such a party, which had been infiltrated by the enemy inside and out, be able to win the victory of the revolution and succeed in building the Soviet Union into a socialist industrial power?

"Comrades, although this attack is only tentative, it is very likely that it will come head-to-head with the German armored forces, and all units must make full preparations." Vlasov was expressionless, and spoke in a flat tone about the upcoming battle.

Now the vanguard of the Western Front of the Soviet Red Army has reached the vicinity of Warsaw. Although there were many ring fortresses behind the buttocks, which had to be demolished slowly by the B-4 demolition team, this did not prevent the Battle of Warsaw from unfolding.

And how to fight the Battle of Warsaw is naturally not something that the Red Army can decide unilaterally. Perhaps the Germans would abandon Warsaw and continue to lure the enemy deeper, so that Warsaw could be won without a fight. It is also possible that they will organize a battle in Warsaw.

Unsure of the intentions of the Germans, General Pavlov prepared to conduct a trial. With 3 mechanized corps, it made a detour south of Warsaw and advanced all the way to Otwartsk on the Vistula River. If there was no stubborn resistance from the Germans along the way, then pretend to cross the river and make a gesture of preparing to encircle Warsaw.

At the same time, the 4th Army, consisting of the 16th Mechanized Corps, the 1st Tank Corps, and the 28th Infantry Corps (motorized troops), would make a detour from the northern front and advance to Legionovo near the Vistula River north of Warsaw. And then he also put on the appearance of preparing to force his way across the Vistula River to encircle Warsaw.

If the Germans did not have the reactionary determination to defend Warsaw, General Pavlov would have been glad to take Warsaw, the capital of the future SSR.

If the Germans were determined to defend Warsaw, then they would definitely prevent the Soviet troops from crossing the Vistula. Because once the Soviet army established a bridgehead west of the Vistula, then the back of Warsaw could be cut off by powerful Soviet armored forces at any time, and 10-200,000 Warsaw German troops would be surrounded.

Vlasov concluded: "Today is June 5, 1942, and we have three days to replenish and recuperate. Beginning on 8 June, the units handed over the positions they currently occupied to the units that arrived later, and then concentrated them. On June 9 **** Army Group began to advance towards the Otvodsk attack! ”

……

Inside the German Ministry of Defense at 73 Wilhelmstrasse, Adolf has just returned from a visit to France. Hitler was wandering around a large sand table, and as he walked around, he said to Hersmann with some concern: "Marshal, there will be no problem with Warsaw, right?" ”

Hitler's visit to France was not entirely successful, with French President Petain and Prime Minister Darlan both verbally promising to declare war on the Soviet Union. However, they postponed the declaration of war until after the Battle of Warsaw, citing the fact that "France needs time to rebuild its reserve armoured divisions".

It was clear that the French wanted to see which way the wind was blowing before deciding whether to go to war with the Soviet Union. If Germany could defeat the Soviet Union in Warsaw, then Petain and Darlan would not have worried that the red flag would be planted in Paris, and the rebuilt 3 reserve armored divisions would be handed over to the German divisions.

By the way, the 3 reserve armored divisions of the French began to be rebuilt after the Battle of the Mediterranean, after France joined the European Community. The tanks and various armored vehicles are all German-style weapons produced under German license.

The tank used in it is also Type 4H, the assault gun is No. 3, and the self-propelled gun is the "Wasp", but they are all produced by French factories.

Moreover, the establishment standards and training methods of these three divisions, as well as even the combat manuals and regulations, were also copied from the German armored divisions, so their combat effectiveness was quite good.

In addition, Petain promised Hitler to rebuild the powerful French artillery as soon as possible to serve the German Eastern Front - compared to the three French reserve armored divisions, the French artillery was the real coveted force.

The French have been leading the way in the creation of cannons since hundreds of years ago! Even by the time of the First World War, there were Schneider cannons, which were technically inferior to the Krupp cannons.

Moreover, during the inter-war, the Germans were long restricted by the Treaty of Versailles and could not develop new artillery. France, on the other hand, did not fall behind and continued to lead in artillery research.

At the time of the Western Front, the French artillery was definitely stronger than the German artillery. And a powerful artillery is not just about how many cannons there are, but also about having well-skilled artillery. These high-flying French artillerymen are still alive and well, and Schneider's ability to build cannons has been forgotten so quickly.

If the French factory and artillery officers and soldiers could be used to form a reserve artillery that could rival the Soviet artillery, then the German battlefield on the Eastern Front would be foolproof.

Thinking of this, Hersmann assured Hitler: "There will be no problem in Warsaw, the headquarters of the Eastern Front has just transferred 5 heavy armored battalions to Moder, and the 5th SS 'Viking' Division has been reinforced to the 6th Army in Warsaw, and now Moder has more than 270,000 troops in his hands." ”

The "Viking" division was the original Viking regiment, which was reorganized into the 5th "Viking" division of the SS after Norway joined the European Community. Because it was reorganized from a corps into a division, this division was super sufficient, and it was the largest of the more than 300 divisions in Germany, with nearly 30,000 men.

Moreover, the "Viking" division was also a formidable Panzergrenadier Division, with the 5th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment (only 1 tank battalion) and other Panzergrenadier Divisions, as well as the 9th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment "Germania", the 10th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment "West", the SS Panzergrenadier Regiment "North", the 23rd SS Panzergrenadier Regiment "Noch", the 24th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment "Denmark", the SS Panzergrenadier Battalion "Finland" and the SSPanzergrenadiers of up to 5 regiments, 1 brigade and 1 battalion of the "Wallonia" assault brigade (also panzergrenadiers)!

In addition to its large number of personnel and excellent equipment, the training level of the 5th SS "Viking" Division has always been one of the best of all SS units.

Although the "Viking" division as a whole has not participated in combat so far, all the units under the "Viking" division have been drawn to participate in combat operations on the Western Front and in the Balkan campaign.

In addition, many of the officers in the "Viking" division were drawn from various SS units that had participated in actual combat, and they had considerable experience.

"Gave the Viking Division to the 6th Army?" Hitler nodded, "Then I'll be relieved...... If you put the Viking Division and 5 heavily armored battalions together, it is equivalent to the strength of an armored army! ”

……

"Now our 6th Army finally has some armored troops."

Modell straightened his military uniform, then paced the headquarters next to the train station in Warsaw with his hands behind his back, a little excitement on his face.

In just a few days, the 6th Army has already gone from an infantry army group to an army group with powerful armored clusters.

Five heavily armored battalions had 220 Tiger or Panther tanks, while the 5th SS "Viking" Division had 88 Type 4H tanks, 54 No. 3 assault guns and 18 Wasp self-propelled guns. If the two forces were mixed, a massive armoured cluster of 380 tanks/assault guns would be formed.

"Commander, we still have 2 smoke generator regiments, and this is 108 self-propelled rocket launchers."

Chief of Staff of the 6th Army, Atul. Major General Schmidt's calculations were even better than Moder's, and he crossed his fingers and said: "In addition, the Wehrmacht 1st Cavalry Division and the SS 8th Cavalry Division have now retreated across the Vistula. These two cavalry divisions can be used as motorized units. We could take them to Warsaw and mix them with the 5th 'Viking' Division and 5 heavy armoured battalions into a makeshift armoured group. ”

"It's a good idea." Modell nodded, "That's it...... Report to Army Group Center. Let's just say that the Soviets are likely to outflank the west bank of the Vistula, and our army needs to send armored clusters to counterattack in order to avoid a premature encirclement of Warsaw. (To be continued.) )