Chapter 903 Soviet Counterattack (4)
ps: A little late, sorry...
The rumbling sound of tracks came from the spring soil of the Caucasus Plain. The endless steel column was marching quickly. Judging from the numbers, they were all SS troops - belonging to the right wing group of the SS Thor's Hammer Special Armored Army (hereinafter referred to as the Hausser Group).
The entire marching formation was led by the Guard Flag Division, with the Imperial Division and the Skull Division as the two wings, followed closely by the Hitler Youth Division and two armored grenadier divisions, and then the other infantry troops marching in trucks, spreading out for more than 100 kilometers. The highest commander of the group, Paul Hausser, the SS General who was nicknamed "Dad", was watching the battle map on a Sdkfz.251 armored command vehicle and issued combat orders without hesitation.
Originally, according to his rank, he could have enjoyed a Tiger heavy command vehicle (modified from a Tiger chassis, with the artillery camouflaged with wood and not capable of combat), but he thought this closed heavy command vehicle was not spacious enough, and still preferred the half-track armored command vehicle of divisional commanders. He then gave the Tiger heavy command vehicle to General Theodor Eicke, commander of the 3rd Death's Head Division of the Waffen SS. It was not that Eicke was afraid of death, but precisely because Eicke was not afraid of death and often rushed to the front line, Hausser believed that he needed to be equipped with this heavy command vehicle.
The fate of Theodor Eicke was changed due to the change in the situation on the Soviet-German battlefield. Originally, he died in the third Battle of Kharkov in 1943, but now he is still alive and well and commanding the Death's Head Division.
Speaking of these SS commanders, except for the continuous rise in military ranks, their positions have not changed for a long time. For example, Eick has been the division commander since he was ordered to form the Skeleton Division in 1939, and he is still the division commander now. Many Wehrmacht officers of the same period may have been only colonels in 1939, but now several of them have even become the commanders of the army group. As for the lucky ones like Manteuffel, who was the battalion commander in 1941 and now serves as the commander of the 7th Armored Division and even the cluster commander (army group level), they are even worse.
But the first rule of SS members is obedience. After witnessing these iron lineups and elite forces, even the most picky commanders can't say anything - if you want to get promoted, a lot of generals and lieutenant generals in the reserve army are waiting to exchange positions with you. Without the army-level organization and Hoffman is only keen to supplement the old troops and no longer blindly expand new troops, it is extremely difficult to become a powerful division commander, and it is even more difficult to become the commander of the main division, and it is even more difficult to be the commander of the elite division who can first complete the 1944-type organization reform. Theoretically, a colonel can be a division commander now. In fact, except for some anti-aircraft artillery divisions and guard divisions, there are not many major generals who are division commanders. Most of the front-line division commanders are lieutenant generals, and generals are also common.
Hausser, who served as the commander of the army group for the first time, was full of confidence. He was not only a typical old Prussian officer, but also dignified and polite. He received a good orthodox education and military education-very different from Dietrich, Eicke, etc.
He retired from the army with the rank of lieutenant general (1932). In World War I, he also served as the combat staff of the 1st Reserve Army, the commander of the 38th "Count Moltke Field Marshal" Regiment and the staff officer of the General Staff. He even went to the navy for 3 years of training and aviation training. It can be said that he is a comprehensive talent who is proficient in land, sea and air.
It was extremely difficult to be promoted to general in the 100,000-man Weimar Republic Wehrmacht. This qualification was far inferior to Guderian, Rommel, Zeitzler and others, and even Manstein was not his opponent (32 years of lieutenant colonel). The only ones with older qualifications than him in the German armed forces system were the old marshal Rundstedt and the commander of the reserve army Blomberg. If Hausser had not chosen the National Socialist Party and continued to work in the Wehrmacht, at least he would have been the commander of an army group and the title of marshal, but he never regretted his choice.
Thor's Hammer is just a special number. In the end, this batch of SS troops will be formed into two armored armies, and the position of commander will fall to him and Sepp-Dietrich without any accident.
He now has unprecedentedly powerful armored divisions, each of which has 378 tanks (tank destroyers), more than 200 artillery pieces and more than 800 half-track armored vehicles of various types. He had four such armored divisions, and unlike the American armored divisions with 400 tanks (tank destroyers), these divisions were all genuine medium or heavy tanks, whether the 38-ton Leopard or the 48-ton Tiger, all of which were the best in the field of tanks, and even the Assault tank destroyer (T-34 chassis) was an unrivaled equipment in this field.
The Soviets' new IS-1\IS-2 still posed a certain threat to the troops, but Hausser was not without a way to deal with it. He still had four heavy armored battalions equipped with Tiger 2 tanks in his hands - the time for the Thor's Hammer Army to invest was delayed until late May, and the number of Tiger 2 tank heavy armored battalions equipped reached 8 - Hausser's group took 4, Marshal Hoth took 1, and Guderian took 3. Hausser believed that there must be better tanks than Tiger 2 being prepared in the country, because he had heard people talk about the existence of top-level Tiger Kings.
What satisfied him was not only the large number of tanks, but also the armored grenadiers and armored artillerymen who were all advancing in half-track armored vehicles. This gave the entire division unparalleled mobility. In order to ensure the operation of such a large amount of mechanized equipment, the entire division was also equipped with more than 3,000 European standard trucks.
The German Army's standard military truck used to be the Opel Lightning, which played a huge role in the blitzkrieg in Western Europe and still performed well in North Africa. However, on the Eastern Front, the Opel Lightning encountered the problem of insufficient traffic on standardized roads. Although its nominal load capacity was claimed to be 2.5 tons or even 3 tons, it actually needed to be discounted under bad road conditions. Overall, the performance was pretty good, better than the trucks of Mercedes, Borgward, and NSU. But the most fearful thing about equipment is comparison. After seizing the American-made General Motors GMC ten-wheel truck, the Armament Department gradually became dissatisfied with Opel, so it ordered the production of a new truck based on the Opel Lightning combined with US military technology - code-named European Standard Truck.
After 3 months of design, the new truck was quickly finalized. In order to take into account the versatility of parts, the front of the car is basically the same as the existing front of Opel, but the chassis and transmission have been replaced, which is actually exactly the same as the American product. In other words, it is the head of Opel plus the body of the American ten-wheel truck. Of course, German designers did not simply copy and paste. They replaced the American GMC270 gasoline engine with the MAN 247GL diesel engine, and the maximum power was upgraded from 104 horsepower to 116 horsepower.
This engine has been successfully developed for several years. It was originally intended to be used in wheeled armored vehicles. Earlier, there was a 1038GL engine (190 horsepower) intended to be used in the Type 2 tank. However, Germany has always been limited by the shortage of crude oil. Synthetic fuel only produces gasoline, and the result of supplying all diesel to the navy is that it is difficult to see diesel engines in the army.
Since taking over the Middle East, Germany's oil supply has greatly improved, and the production of synthetic fuel factories has gradually decreased or even stopped. The saved coal has been invested in power generation-due to the existence of the super bomb project, the Third Reich's electricity consumption has increased sharply.
After the material trade with Japan was launched, a large amount of natural rubber was imported (this is Japan's second largest product for trade, the first is gold and silver), and the original consumption of crude oil to synthesize artificial rubber became unnecessary. Natural rubber is not only cheaper but also more durable. This part of fuel consumption continues to decrease, and even tanks have begun to change from the original hard steel wheels to some rubber products.
The diesel supply has greatly improved, and the T-34 chassis vehicles have been put into service in large numbers, but new problems have begun to emerge. Since the navy's diesel consumption has also remained stable - the British-Canadian route has been repeatedly interrupted by the main aircraft carrier formation, and submarines can't find anyone to break the trade. Except for the S boats and the new XXI submarines, many old submarines have begun to break down. An unexpected new situation has emerged - the consumption of gasoline and diesel is unbalanced, and there is actually a situation of diesel hoarding in the country. Waste is reluctant, and in order to effectively match, the only way is to reduce gasoline consumption and increase diesel consumption, so diesel trucks are on the agenda.
Hoffman agreed with this flexible and adaptable idea, so the German (European) standard truck was born. This truck has a standard transport capacity of 3 tons under bad road conditions, and can easily achieve a load of 5-6 tons on roads or other well-traveled ground. During the 1944 model replacement process, not only all heavy equipment was replaced with new models, but standard trucks were also fully launched.
It is not undisputed that the main SS armored divisions were the first to complete the 1944 model replacement. After all, the last time the 1943 model was replaced, the SS and the Wehrmacht were half and half, but under Hoffman's insistence, all parties finally passed. Among the first batch of 9 armored divisions to be replaced, 7 were SS divisions, and the other two places were given to the Flying Fortress and the Armored Training Division. The next step was a large-scale replacement of the Wehrmacht.
Hausser knew this well: the war was imminent, and the supply of new tanks must give priority to the original unit replenishment. Other armored divisions were busy with combat and might not be able to spare time for replacement. And the time sequence is not just a full demonstration of the Wehrmacht's recognition of the sacrifices and military exploits of the SS over the years? Although some people have pointed out that if all troops were to be equipped according to the 1944 model, the finances and national strength would not be able to bear it, he tried not to think about these things.
The Fuhrer once confidently shouted the slogan: "The living conditions of American soldiers are world-class, and the equipment conditions of German soldiers are world-class." Hausser believed it without a doubt. As long as the Fuhrer said it, it would be done. Besides, the Fuhrer did not say that all the equipment would be replaced...