The Third Reich: The Return of the King

Chapter 1050

“Pershing is really good at playing defensive battles. His tactics are a big threat to our flanks, so we can’t attack as quickly as before!”

After learning that Guderian’s First Army’s offensive was not going well and the advance speed began to slow down, Manstein flew from Richmond to Minneapolis to inspect the situation in the Western Theater.

“After entering Minnesota, the urban density here suddenly increased a lot, and the road and railway network was everywhere, like a spider web. In this case, although the pressure on our logistics supply has been reduced, the directions to be guarded have also increased a lot. The enemy may attack from all directions and threaten our rear!”

Guderian’s blitzkrieg is not without weaknesses. The main weakness of this tactic is that it is not suitable for breaking dense defenses!

Just like the ancient cavalry, they need space to gallop around and maximize their speed advantage.

The terrain here is very flat, but there are cities everywhere on the flat terrain, making it difficult for them to bypass the enemy’s defense!

If they bypass one city, there will be another city blocking them. If they bypass the second city, there will be a third city. It is simply endless!

Moreover, after the US military replaced a large number of Pershing tanks, the combat effectiveness of their armored forces has increased a lot, and the threat to the German army is also great. If it is a fair confrontation on the battlefield, then the Germans will The German army is not afraid of them.

But the problem is that these American armored forces are hiding in the city. They will not come out to confront the German army head-on. But if the German army bypasses them, they will immediately become active, continuously harassing and attacking the German army’s exposed logistics supply lines!

For mechanized troops, their operations require the consumption of a large amount of supplies, including fuel, weapons and ammunition, fresh water and food, etc. Although they can carry some of these things themselves, they cannot carry a lot. Carrying too much will affect their advancement speed and make the troops lose their speed advantage.

Moreover, if they carry too many supplies, the German army will need to allocate a large number of troops to protect these transportations. The vehicles carrying supplies will also invisibly drag down the German army and affect the German army’s combat effectiveness!

Therefore, most of the German army’s supplies are in the rear of the main force, following the main force.

Generally speaking, after defeating the enemy on the front battlefield, the rear of the German army should be safe. In this case, the German army does not need to waste too much manpower to protect its own logistics supply convoys.

But the situation at this time is completely different from before. Faced with a large number of urban agglomerations, the German army cannot eliminate them all one by one. If they want to do so, they need to fight one city after another, and this will require repeated fierce street fighting.

According to the urban density of the Eagle Sauce in the Great Lakes region, if they want to advance to the city of Chicago, then I don’t know when the fight will end!

It is summer in the Great Lakes region now, and the temperature is relatively normal, but after autumn, the temperature here will drop rapidly, and after winter, it will not be a good time to fight here.

The winter in North America is also very cold. As the northernmost geographical location of the United States, the temperature in the Great Lakes region is also the lowest.

Fighting in the severe winter weather conditions is a great test for the German equipment and personnel, so if it is not necessary, the German army does not want to drag it on for that long!

However, if the current situation continues, it may really drag on for that long!

So, Manstein was silent after listening to Guderian’s words!

“This is indeed a problem. Pershing is a very smart guy. He did not equip all the tanks to the armored forces to form an armored division to fight against us. Instead, he chose to disperse these key weapons to each city, so that the defenders of each city can have strong defensive capabilities while also having certain active offensive capabilities!”

“Although the offensive capability of the US military is not worth mentioning in front of our main force, this kind of attack is still a great threat to our logistics troops. This has caused a disconnect between our front and rear troops, which in turn affects our operations. If this problem cannot be solved, the further we advance, the heavier our logistics burden will be!”

Manstein analyzed it and judged that the other party had dug a trap for him, and this trap seemed to be deliberate and had been designed long ago!

What a great Admiral Pershing, he is indeed as steady as a mountain and has two brushes, worthy of his title of famous general!

“Is there any good way to break the opponent’s iron bucket formation?”

Guderian scratched his head and asked Manstein.

As one of the three famous generals of the empire, Guderian actually didn’t want to show weakness in front of Manstein, because that meant that he was not as good as the other party, which was difficult for him to accept with his arrogance.

However, at the moment he really had no way to solve the dilemma he was facing. If he didn’t think of a good way, I’m afraid Manstein would transfer his First Army to other battlefields and let the Third or Fourth Army take over his mission.

Compared with the First Army, the Third and Fourth Armies are basically suitable for positional warfare and street fighting. If a fight really came to a head, the First Army would not be as good as these two armies in this regard. Of!

Guderian knows his own business, and he knows very well where his shortcomings are. He is good at fast breaks, and he can actually do a serious positional battle, but that would be a waste of talent! The good situation in the Western Theater was won by their First Army from the beginning, and now they are about to attack the enemy’s lair. At this time, Guderian naturally does not want to give up this, and the greatest credit!

He hopes to lead the army into the White House and capture the president and his people alive!

But to achieve this goal, he must first solve the current dilemma, otherwise this credit will have nothing to do with him!

“Of course there is a way!”

Manstein did not refuse. After hearing Guderian’s words, he immediately started thinking.

“Armored forces can only exert their power when they are concentrated. Splitting them up like Pershing did is actually not worth the cost. Although they have a certain counterattack capability, they have lost the capital for large-scale armored combat. We can make a fuss about this point!”

“What do you mean?”

General Reinhardt of the First Army became curious when he heard what Manstein said!