Chapter 23 Planning 4

After wandering around for a day, Yanik found that the Soviet industry was even more backward than he had imagined. Most of the links had to be operated manually, and very few mechanized equipment were used. If he had known this, he would have asked the Soviets for more food. Even if he added a million tons, the Soviets would have given it obediently.

After dinner, Tukhachevsky came to Yanik's room again and took out a document. "Your Highness Yanik, Comrade Stalin has agreed to set aside an area for your country to train soldiers. The location is in the Kazan area."

Kazan?

Mentioning Kazan in the Russian military history community will cause a lot of controversy. The focus of the controversy is on two issues: First, was there a secret school there before World War II that was dedicated to training armored soldiers for the Nazi Germans? Second, did General Heinz Guderian, who later became the "blitzkrieg hero" of the Nazi German army, receive training in this school?

According to some declassified information, this Kazan Tank School really exists. For a long time, the school was codenamed "KaMa" - Kama is the name of a river in Siberia, and a nearby city is also called Kama. The Soviet-German cooperation in this school lasted until the end of summer 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, and he came to inspect the work as a general. The Kazan Museum also preserves the full report of Guderian's trip to Kazan by the GPU (one of the predecessors of the KGB). The report revealed that in addition to visiting the Kazan School, Guderian also visited the famous places of interest in Kazan, including the St. Peter's and St. Paul's Church, and also went to church, and expressed his resentment that the church was in such a desolate state.

After talking about business, Tukhachevsky couldn't wait to put the battlefield topographic map and military cards he brought on the conference table. "Please, Major Guderian."

"..."Even Yannick didn't expect Tukhachevsky to be so eager to fight with Guderian. Could it be that he wanted to test Germany's armored use mode?

Unfortunately, Guderian's "blitzkrieg" theory took several years to emerge, which gave Yannick the opportunity to see how powerful this "Red Napoleon" was. "Since the general is so interested, Major Guderian, you can't embarrass Germany." That's what he said, but Yannick had a premonition that Guderian at this time was not the opponent of this "Red Napoleon".

"..."Guderian was even more depressed. Germany didn't even have a tank now. How could he have experience in using armored corps to fight? Fortunately, he was a cavalry officer in the last war and felt that he only needed to replace horses with tanks and armored vehicles.

Thinking of this, he stood opposite Tukhachevsky with a stiff upper lip and began to place the military cards.

As the two of them kept moving the troop cards, Yannick saw that Guderian's way of using troops was still unique to the old cavalry officers, leading a cavalry unit to quickly break through the enemy's position, then go deep into the enemy's rear, outflanking, and encircling and annihilating the enemy's living forces.

When the deduction was halfway through, Guderian's face began to sweat. Soon he shook his head in frustration. "Sorry, Your Highness, I lost."

"..." Yannick glanced at Tukhachevsky, who was obviously unsatisfied, and said to Rommel who was watching the game on the side. "Captain Rommel, the next round you two will play against His Excellency the General."

"Haha, Your Excellency Yannick really thinks highly of me. One against two, I don't have much confidence." Having said that, Tukhachevsky calmly placed the troop cards.

In this round, Rommel and Guderian were defeated equally cleanly.

This time, even Yannick was a little depressed. "Major Manstein, you come too." Having visited the armored forces of some European countries, Manstein gained a lot of experience and information.

Watching the four people moving the soldier cards back and forth, Yannick couldn't help but think of the famous three heroes fighting Lu Bu.

The result of this round was that Guderian and Rommel's troops were annihilated, while Tukhachevsky and Manstein's remaining troops could not do anything to each other, and it could only be considered a draw.

Although Yannick was calm on the surface, his heart was already in turmoil.

Tukhachevsky, worthy of the title of "Napoleon of the Red Army", even the God of War Zhukov said that "he is a master of military thought and the biggest star among the military stars of our motherland".

It is impossible for him to show all his strength in these three rounds, 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, looking dejected, Yannick was both angry and amused. He clapped his hands and praised. "It's really wonderful! Your Excellency the General is really a master of military tactics. Even if Napoleon were alive, he would probably have to retreat." Damn, if flattery could kill someone, he could flatter Tukhachevsky for three days and three nights without even drinking a glass of water.

Tukhachevsky smiled modestly. "Your Highness Yannick is serious. These people are also very capable. If given time, they will also be able to be generals on their own."

Yannick snorted in his heart. You don't need to say that. They are all the brightest generals in the empire in the future. "But I just found a few problems and would like to ask your Excellency the General."

"Your Highness Yannick, please feel free to talk." Tukhachevsky, an orthodox soldier, was also looking forward to Yannick pointing out the problems in the deduction.

"From the deduction just now, I saw that the general is good at using infantry-tank coordination tactics. What I want to ask is that there is a gap between the speed of tanks and the speed of infantry. How can the infantry ensure that they can arrive at the battlefield at the same time as the tanks before entering the battlefield? ? Are the tanks deliberately slowing down to accommodate the infantry? "

Tukhachevsky was stunned. In the previous deduction, he had exercised great restraint and reduced the use of this infantry-tank coordination tactic. But His Highness not only noticed it with sharp eyes, but also asked such an extremely professional question, which made him look at Yannick with admiration again.

After thinking for a while, Tukhachevsky gave the most concise answer. "Our plan is to carry infantry behind the tank to ensure the coordination of infantry and tanks." How many infantry can be carried on a tank? His real idea was to prepare a large number of armored personnel carriers to ensure the coordinated advancement of tanks and infantry. But it was impossible for him to 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 met his requirements, and it is temporarily impossible to realize his dream. However, he believed that once the industrial equipment imported from Germany was in place, the Soviet Union's production capacity would make a leap forward. Within ten years, infantry-tank coordination would be possible on the battlefield, right?

Yannick chuckled in his heart, where is the fool? It seems that this general is also guarding against Germany? It's a pity that you don't know my origin. I am extremely familiar with all the tactics of World War II. However, he didn't point it out, made a look of realization, and continued to ask. "Oh, that means your Excellency, General, is planning to put these infantry and tanks into the same unit, right?"

Tukhachevsky nodded. "Yes."

Yannick took a few soldier cards and laid them out on the map. "So if we are going to fight a battle, will there be other units behind this mixed infantry and tank unit, such as an infantry division?"

Tukhachevsky replied. "Yes, after all, the infantry division is still the main force, and the armored force is only used to break through."

Yannick moved the arranged soldier cards a few times. "According to your Excellency the General's vision, what will this armored force do after it breaks through the enemy's defense line? Should it advance in depth? Or turn around to form an encirclement and assist the infantry in destroying the enemies in the encirclement?

"..." Tukhachevsky only felt his eyelids twitching slightly. The questions asked by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince were sharper and sharper than the last, hitting the point directly. The first question may be explained as an accidental thought, but the subsequent series of questions cannot be accidental.

His Excellency, the Crown Prince, understands armored soldiers far better than anyone else!

"If it were me, after the armored troops break through the enemy's defense line, they should continue to advance in depth to destroy the enemy's rear." Tukhachevsky's answer became more cautious, and almost every sentence was spoken after careful consideration. .

Yannick continued to play with the soldier cards in his hand. "Then even if you break through the enemy's defense line and prepare to advance in depth, if it is dozens of kilometers, that's okay, but what if the depth reaches hundreds of kilometers? The supplies carried by the armored forces themselves are simply not enough, so how do you plan to ensure the safety of logistics? If the retreat is cut off, wouldn’t the armored forces without fuel supplies become meat on the enemy’s chopping block?”

Tukhachevsky also picked up a few military cards and placed them in Yannick's hand. "After the armored troops, I will arrange a mechanized infantry unit to protect the flanks and rear of the armored troops. If necessary, it will also take on the additional task of providing infantry support to the armored troops."

Yannick couldn't help but sigh in his heart that he was indeed the founder of the great depth theory. It was only 1928, and Tukhachevsky seemed to have established a complete set of great depth theory.

This theory was put forward by the Soviet Army in the 1930s on the basis of summarizing the experience and lessons of the First World War in order to adapt to the development of weapons and equipment. It is an important guiding ideology for the implementation of offensive campaigns. It emphasizes using lethal weapons to suppress the enemy's entire defense depth at the same time, breaking through the enemy's tactical defense territory in a selected direction, and then quickly deploying clusters to expand the results into battle. If possible, use airborne troops to carry out airborne landings to quickly achieve tactical victory. Develop into a battle victory to achieve the intended goal as quickly as possible.

In a few examples, our army faced three to five enemy armies and built a defense area 30 kilometers long and 20 kilometers deep. According to the fighting method during World War I, we first concentrated our firepower on the enemy's first line of defense, and so on. After consolidating the results, gradually advance. However, according to the theory of large-depth battles, the attack should not pursue width, but depth. We should concentrate our firepower and suppress the enemy's entire depth from a front of 3 to 5 kilometers, quickly penetrate the entire enemy's defense area, and then invest in reserve forces. , expand the results. The theory of a large-depth battle has great requirements on military strength. It is generally assumed that the front army of a large-depth battle will have 3-4 assault group armies, 1-2 ordinary group armies, 1-2 infantry corps, a reserve force, a rapid grouping of front army aviation, and Strengthen the Corps. Therefore, in World War II, the Soviet army frequently fought battles involving millions of people.

This is not good news.

"What if the enemy arranges some solid fortification areas at some transportation hubs where the armored troops pass through, and there are sufficient anti-tank firepower and certain supplies in these areas? What should you do if you encounter such an area? If you attack by force, That will cause heavy losses, and it will also slow down the advance speed of the armored troops; if you take a detour, your logistics troops will be harassed by the garrison in these areas, so what should you do?"

Just as Yannik was trying to destroy Tukhachevsky's deep theory, Guderian, Manstein and others were also amazed. The two of them talked fiercely for more than half an hour, and when Tukhachevsky stood up and said goodbye with an ugly face, Yannik didn't know what he was thinking, but just hoped that he would stop thinking about these things.

After seeing Tukhachevsky off, Yannik told the others. "I'm going to Daming tomorrow, you stay here and take a good look."