Chapter 152: The Ten Largest Group Army

readx; About fifteen kilometers north of Quechach, Griffenburg, a town that is still not well-known in Europe and rarely heard of even by ordinary Austrians, became the headquarters of the 3rd Division of the Chinese Army. From the point of view of the geographical environment and traffic environment of Griffenburg, this small place is not suitable for the large-scale stationing of heavily armored mechanized troops, but in many cases, the troops of the army do not do what they want, but make necessary adjustments according to the strength of the potential enemy.www.biquge.info

Because Austria is a long and narrow country, and its western part of the territory that separates Italy and Germany from each other, the shortest distance between north and south is only fifty or sixty kilometers, that is to say, if the American army is determined to attack from Austria to the German mainland, the straight-line distance is only a few tens of kilometers, although there is an Alps in the middle, but the troops can always climb through after detouring, and one of the roads is along the railway network between Austria and northern Italy, starting from northern Italy, After passing through Innsbrück, we continue along the railway to Mittenwald on the German mainland, and then continue north to Munich.

The other northward passage is from northwest Italy, and then through Tarvisio, near the junction of Italy and Yugoslavia, along another railway line between Italy and Austria to the north, through Villach in Austria and directly across the north, if you continue to go north along the railway line, the final destination will also be Munich, and if you do not attack along the railway line, then the US army can attack in the northeast, and then enter the eastern territory of Austria, Continue north into central Germany mainland and in the direction of the Czech Republic.

In terms of the topography and traffic, there are two cities in western Austria that are of great strategic importance: Innsbruck and Villach.

These two cities are the most important transportation hubs in western Austria, not only the necessary places for the US army to break into Austria and attack Germany, but also an important channel for the Chinese army to provide logistics supplies to the garrison in western Austria.

Therefore, the deployment of troops of the Chinese Ninth Army in Austria was basically carried out around these two cities, and Innsbruck in the west was mainly deployed there because the terrain was not suitable for heavy mechanized troops, so it was mainly deployed there in the mountains and motorized infantry divisions. Further east, the terrain of Villach is relatively better, and the city and Ljubljana in northwestern Yugoslavia are the main deployment cities of the Ninth Army, around which the Twelfth Panzer Army, the absolute main force of the Ninth Army, is deployed.

The reason why the Ninth Army deployed the main force of the Twelfth Panzer Army at the junction of northeastern Italy and Austria and Yugoslavia is because the current potential strategic enemy of the Ninth Army is the US army, and where to attack the US army, the answer is to directly move westward from Ljubljana, and at the same time move south in Villach in the north, the flat terrain of this area is enough for the heavy mechanized troops of the Ninth Army to exert all their combat effectiveness, in order to be able to defeat the US army in the shortest possible time, The strategic encirclement of the US forces deployed in the northwestern region of Italy, so in addition to the 17th Panzer Corps and the 24th Army deployed in the area with Ljubljana as the core, the Ninth Army also deployed the 12th Panzer Corps, the absolute main force, in Villach in the west. At that time, if there was a real war, the 17th Panzer Army and the 24th Army would attack head-on, while the 12th Panzer Army would quickly move south and penetrate directly into the rear of the American army.

In addition to the direct deployment of the 16th Armored Division in Villach, the 12th Armored Army is extending the front to the west, successively deploying the 103rd Division and the 3rd Division, and the 3rd Division is located in the westernmost position of the 12th Armored Army.

Looking at the deployment of the Ninth Army on the Italian border, the 25th Mountain Division, the 134th Infantry Division, the 3rd Division, the 103rd Division, the 16th Panzer Division, the 2nd Division, the 64th Division, the 5th Panzer Division, the 78th Division, the 79th Division, and the 81st Division were deployed from west to east. There were six heavily mechanized divisions, four motorized infantry divisions, one mountain division, five artillery brigades, five anti-aircraft battalions, and four tank battalions as auxiliary reading units.

The third division was deployed in Griffingburg, a large part of the reason is that the U.S. Army seized Kechach in the early stage, and deployed a whole U.S. Army Ninth Division behind Kechach, in order to prevent the U.S. Army from using this bridgehead and attacking north after the outbreak of war, so the relative Chinese Army also deployed heavy troops in this area, and this heavy force is the third division.

However, this is all the same situation in the past, and since Chen Jingyun decided to teach the Americans a profound lesson a few days ago and force them to reach the negotiating table on the German issue, this situation has changed to a certain extent, because Chen Jingyun's words are to let the Ninth Army Group Army and the US Army fight on a small scale.

When General Du Yanpeng of the Ninth Army received the order from Chen Jingyun, he was also distressed for several days, because Chen Jingyun said to let him fight, but some said that he should fight a small fight, on the one hand, it was to slap the Americans in the mouth, but on the other hand, it was necessary to control the situation at the same time, and not to further expand the scale of the battle, so as not to cause a full-scale war between the two countries. It was the strategic support point of the US military in northeastern Italy, and this fight was equivalent to directly triggering a large-scale war between the entire Ninth Army and the US 5th Army stationed in Italy, and if the two major armies of the two countries fought, it would be no different from a full-scale war.

In order to choose to engage in a skirmish there, Du Yanpeng thought about it for several days. After all, this matter is not a trivial matter, relatively speaking, it is more difficult than commanding a large-scale battle, and the pressure brought to Du Yanpeng by this incident in the past few days can be described as very great.

As one of the commanders of the top ten group armies of the Chinese army, and also the commander of the ninth group army stationed in Europe, Du Yanpeng's status within the army has risen greatly, and there is a momentum to further move towards the rank of marshal, but the pressure here is even greater, and now the world's eyes are staring at whether a major war will break out between China and the United States, and paying attention to China's military trends, such as the deployment and movement of China's ten major group armies.

As of today, China's 10 million army has a total of 10 group army headquarters, responsible for China's internal and external major theaters, and there are a total of 31 infantry corps, 14 armored corps, and a large number of reading force units such as 30 infantry divisions and dozens of artillery brigades.

For example, the First Army is deployed in Southeast Asia and West Indonesia, and the Third Army is deployed in the Honko, Ryukyu, and Taiwan regions. These two group armies were in the limelight last year, and this year they are also on the front line of Sino-US confrontation in the Pacific, but the confrontation between China and the United States in the Pacific region is still mainly based on the navy and air force, and the army is only secondary, and now people are not interested in them much.

As for the Second Group Army deployed in the southwest region, the Sixth Group Army deployed in Berga Province, Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang Province, and other regions, the Seventh Group Army deployed in East China and the Central Plains, and the Eighth Group Army deployed in North China and the Far East, these four major group armies are all units belonging to the domestic region, and they are mainly engaged in defensive work, and there was no trace of them fighting against foreign troops throughout World War II.

As for the Fourth Army deployed in Central Asia and Iran and the Fifth Army deployed in Siberia, these two armies are very important to China itself and are China's main strategic forces, and the two major armies concentrate at least one-third of the strength of the Chinese Army, but they are mainly oriented to the Soviet army, so the Americans are generally not too familiar with them.

In 1945, outsiders, especially Americans, focused on the movements of China's two major armies deployed in Europe, while the Tenth Army, because it was stationed in Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary and other regions, was mainly oriented to the Soviet army.

In the eyes of the people of Western countries, Du Yanpeng, the commander of the Ninth Group Army, is already more famous than Marshal Song Junpeng, commander-in-chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force, not to mention the generals in China, foreigners don't know who they are.

In the face of the close attention of the army and the outside world, Du Yanpeng has always been very cautious and cautious, leaving no mistakes to outsiders and the opposing faction.

Therefore, he carefully selected a number of places before he chose Quechach.

First of all, this place is located in Austria, that is to say, this is originally Austrian territory, and when the time comes, in the name of helping the Austrian Wehrmacht recover the lost land, he will not be too passive in the future diplomatic bargaining, second, a very important point, although this important surname of Quechach is also large, but compared with several other towns occupied by the US army, it is not worth mentioning, so after recapturing Quechach, it will not affect too much the strategic balance of the Chinese Ninth Army and the US Fifth Army. This also means that the U.S. military does not necessarily have to take it back. In addition, the third point is also more important, that is, around Quechakh, the strength of both China and the United States is not much, and the United States is full of calculations, that is, a ninth division and auxiliary units that cooperate with him, such as the 751st tank battalion, and now the infantry division of the US Army does not have a tank battalion and many auxiliary troops on the establishment table, for example, although the 751st tank battalion belongs to the command of the ninth division, it is not strictly speaking a unit of the ninth division. However, the Readpower Tank Battalion, which was assigned to the Infantry Division, has formed a fixed establishment in the past few years, so it can also be seen that the 751st Tank Battalion is actually the inherent strength of the Ninth Division.

Although the number of units under the command of the battle group of the Chinese mechanized troops is uncertain, because the B battle group is far away from the other main forces of the division, it is also relatively fixed in terms of strength, with two mechanized infantry battalions, a tank battalion, a self-propelled howitzer battalion, a self-propelled rocket artillery battalion, and a reconnaissance company. In addition, in addition to the B battle group of the 3rd Division, the 6th Division of the Austrian Wehrmacht, which had just been established for a few months, was in operation.

The area of operation of the 3rd Division of the Chinese Army was too large to devote all its forces to Quechach, so it would be good to deploy a battle group, and as for the shortage of infantry, it could only be supplemented by the 6th Division of the Austrian Wehrmacht.

Therefore, the strength of the Allied and Allied forces in the vicinity of Quechakh is about one division each, and the actual strength deployed on the front line of Quechach is at most two or three battalions.

The limited strength of this counselor, coupled with the lack of large-scale reinforcements in the vicinity, does not turn into a large-scale engagement anytime soon, which is very important for controlling the scale of the engagement.

Based on the above reasons, Du Yanpeng chose the place of Kechah as the site of the military conflict.

Of course, these things are unknown to Bao Erqing and the others, they only know that they need to fight now, and keep fighting until victory or death!