The Third Reich: The Return of the King

Chapter 1149

The surrender of Rokossovsky and his Soviet army became the fuse of the Soviet-German War.

The Soviet army’s large-scale construction of fortifications in the border area undoubtedly ignited the spark of this fuse.

“We can’t let the Russians build a defense line so easily!”

Although Manstein didn’t think that the Soviets could stop the Germans’ eastward advance with such a defense line, the defense lines built by the Soviets would undoubtedly hinder their attack. The

Germans’ time was very precious. They needed to end the war before winter came, so they had to kill to the capital of the Russians in the shortest time, conquer it, and then sweep across the country with thunder.

In this way, we can avoid the war from falling into a war of attrition.

“Immediately send a telegram to General Bock of the Northern Army Group, and have his troops depart from Riga immediately and march northward along the Baltic Sea!”

Manstein decisively issued the order to march.

As the first field army group to arrive, Bock’s Northern Army Group took the lead in launching the action.

Bock’s Northern Army Group has three field armies under its command, namely the Eighth Army, the Eleventh Army and the Fifteenth Army.

These three armies were formed after 1928, and their qualifications are not old. They are relatively new troops in the German army.

However, their commanders and deputy commanders are all veterans.

“General Reichenau, you must immediately lead the 11th and 15th Army to the north. We must reach the city of Leningrad in the shortest possible time. This city is the core of our northern theater of operations. If we take it, our mission will be mostly accomplished!”

Although General Bock is cautious and prudent, it does not mean that he is dull.

His excellent overall view makes him clearly understand the importance of the city of Leningrad!

As the largest city in the bear country and the only large city close to the Baltic Sea, Leningrad has become extremely important since the time of Peter the Great. It is the window for the bear country to connect with the Western world.

The city has 4.5 million residents and has extremely strong industries, especially shipbuilding and heavy industries.

In addition, as the largest port city in the bear country, it undertakes most of the bear country’s foreign trade. Once it is occupied, it can largely cut off the bear country’s channels for obtaining supplies from the outside world.

And this will undoubtedly have a huge blow to the bear country.

Therefore, once the war breaks out, in view of the importance of this city, the bear side will never give up here. They will definitely deploy heavy troops here to defend the city and prevent the German army from easily occupying it.

The atmosphere of Leningrad The weather is quite cold, and there are a lot of snowfields and forests around.

Fighting here is obviously very uncomfortable for the German troops from Central Europe, so they must fight quickly and decisively, and never drag it on until winter. Once it drags on until winter, they will be in a difficult situation.

In view of this, Bock ordered Reichenau to take the two main field armies to take the lead, while he himself led the Eighth Army to attack eastward, pretending to attack the Soviet front line of defense, in order to attract the attention of the Soviet army and cover the actions of friendly forces.

General Bock’s feint attack soon took effect.

After Moscow’s order was issued, Timoshenko and Budyonny did not dare to neglect it, and immediately began to strengthen the defense line.

However, the two have been on the front line for a long time, and they know very well that the tranquility on the front line at this time is just a moment of calm before the storm. Once they take action, the German army on the opposite side will definitely not sit idly by.

“Have you heard? Manstein has been transferred from Warsaw to Königsberg, and he is less than a hundred kilometers away from the front line!”

At a Soviet position somewhere, two senior Soviet generals who were inspecting here started talking.

Hearing Budyonny’s worried words, Timoshenko laughed dryly and said,”I heard about it, so our every move may be carried out under the opponent’s nose!”

“You say, given Manstein’s character, if we do this now, will he take action?”

Timoshenko found that Budyonny seemed to be very afraid of Manstein.

But it was no wonder, because the opponent was the invincible Manstein!

This guy has never suffered a defeat so far, and the number of victories he has won is simply countless!

When thinking of this guy’s terrible record, not to mention Budyonny, even Timoshenko himself felt a little scared.

“Given his character, I don’t think he would miss such an opportunity!”

Timu Xinge sighed and replied

“Opportunity?”

Budyonny looked at his companion puzzledly and asked

“Of course, Moscow asked us to build the defense line as soon as possible, but did not equip us with enough engineering teams, which meant that we had to build the defense line by ourselves. Once we mobilized troops to do this, wouldn’t it give the German army an opportunity to take advantage of it?

You know, after Rokossovsky took away a large number of front-line troops, the troops on the Eastern Front were already stretched to the limit. At this time, we had to build the defense line and garrison the positions. In this way, there was a shortage of manpower on both ends, and as a result, the defense line could not be built, and there would be loopholes in the defense!”

Timoshenko looked very pessimistic, at least from his words he didn’t hear any hope for this war.

Budyonny’s heart skipped a beat, and when he thought about it carefully, wasn’t it just as Timoshenko said?

Moscow only knew how to issue orders, but didn’t consider their actual situation at all, nor would he sympathize with their difficulties!

And they didn’t dare to go against Moscow’s will, so they could only draw part of their already stretched forces to build the defense line.

However, their forces were already empty, and if they drew people to do other things, it would be even more empty. At this time, as long as the German army on the opposite side realized this problem, then what was waiting for them might be a nightmare.

“Oh no, Manstein is very good at catching opportunities. He may have discovered our loophole. We must plug it immediately, otherwise it will be all over!”

Budyonny said with a pale face.

“Report, the German army launched a large-scale attack on our army on the northwest side of the defense line!”

Before Budyonny finished speaking, the battle report from the front came in.