Imperial Overlord

It's not that Rommel doesn't want to increase his own logistical transportation, but that the Axis powers now don't have much ability to dispatch to the Mediterranean.

The surrender of the United Kingdom left a lot of blanks for Germany to fill: Gibraltar still has many warships idle, how can there be time to increase Rommel's transport ships?

It has to be said that Britain's simple surrender will cause trouble to Germany in a short period of time, no less than the British resistance, and even more in some respects.

For example, the shipping capacity in the Mediterranean Sea, which was still barely enough, dropped by 10% all of a sudden due to the deployment of crew members!

This decline could be much greater and faster than the losses caused by the British resistance! Germany, which has lost these crew members, can only rely on the Italian crew of unsatisfactory quality to run the transport.

The shortage of crews has thrown the construction of the German Navy into chaos. The massively built warships had to stop and wait for the replenishment of personnel.

At this time, it is even more difficult to replenish the number of transport ships. Germany has already allowed the United Kingdom to recover at full speed and joined the wave of shipbuilding.

But all of this is still a drop in the bucket. The ships produced in the UK in a short period of time have difficulty even filling the British-German route, let alone supplementing the Mediterranean Shipping.

The Soviet-German war made Rommel even worse: there is no material in Germany, where is the transportation?

Eighty percent of the arms and other materials will be sent to the Soviet front. Now, even 5% of the arms production capacity provided to Rommel cannot be guaranteed.

You must know that there are more than 3 million German troops on the Eastern Front. If you include the logistics force and the servant army, the number exceeds 5.5 million.

With so many troops, the food consumed by people eating horses and chewing for a day is enough to break the legs of the transportation department. What's more, there are gasoline ammunition, as well as emergency repairs and prisoners and other issues!

Italy is better, but Germany has intercepted most of Italy's steel, so the Italian industry has always been in a semi-operational state, and it is impossible to expect them to replenish too many materials.

In this case, the Führer ordered Rommel to continue the attack, on the one hand, it was a tactic to promote peace, and on the other hand, it was also a bluff.

Just when Rommel was gathering his troops near Gaza and preparing to attack the Jerusalem area, Li Le was also deploying the next stage of the Eastern Front's offensive mission in Wolf's Den.

Pointing to the huge map in front of him, Li Le looked at his generals and said slowly: "To encircle the Soviet army near Minsk and annihilate this living force is our most important task at this stage!"

"The North Army Group must cooperate as much as possible with the Central Army Group's actions. After encircling Minsk, try to fight another encirclement and annihilation near Smolensk!" He said while drawing a large circle near Smolensk.

Historically, after a series of victories in Minsk, Germany turned to victory and started the Battle of Kyiv.

This allowed the German army to create a dazzling victory in the Battle of Kyiv, but at the same time, the German army itself left the few roads and railways in the Soviet Union that could be relied on.

Without the support of these railways and roads, the German armored forces struggled in the farmland in Ukraine for at least two months, and have not returned to the better lines of communication in the north.

Although the huge victory in the Battle of Kyiv allowed the German army to gain a forward position to attack the Caucasus, the lost strategic time could never be recovered.

Li Le's plan was completely contrary to Hitler's previous battle plan. His views leaned toward Army Commander Brauchitch and Chief of General Staff Harder, hoping that everything could be solved by blitzing Moscow.

Hitler did not agree to attack Moscow first because his troops lacked fuel to make this strategic choice.

Keli Le has the support of Libyan oil fields and has the basis for this choice. Therefore, Li Le decided to give priority to trying to cut off the Soviet Union's command nerve and disrupt the strategic command of the Soviet army.

In fact, it is not that Hitler is inferior to Li Le, but that he does not have the trump card of the Libyan oil field, so he cannot choose to attack Moscow first.

Assuming Hitler chose to attack Moscow, and the Soviet Union continued to resist after the chain of command was paralyzed, then the gasoline in the hands of the Germans would not be enough to travel south from Moscow to Stalingrad!

This is by no means alarmist. Although Romania has been supplying German oil, it can only be used by Germany for daily consumption.

The extra consumption of strategic mobilization is superfluous consumption, which uses the country's strategic oil reserves, which cannot be supplemented by Romanian oil in a short period of time.

Therefore, for Hitler, the blitzkrieg of Moscow was a big gamble. If the Soviet Union surrendered, Germany would win, otherwise, Germany would lose.

As a national leader, this kind of gamble is irrational. Hitler chose to attack Kyiv and advance into the Caucasus. As long as the oil fields in the Caucasus are captured, Germany may continue to support it!

Unfortunately, he failed. In the process of attacking the Caucasus, Germany lost the initiative and suffered huge losses under Stalingrad.

He lost not only troops, but also the depletion of oil reserves due to strategic decisions, as well as precious time.

Now, Li Le is not short of oil. Libya's oil has almost met the needs of North Africa, Italy and France, and a large part of it has been fed back to Germany.

In this case, Li Le can have more choices without worrying about the consumption of oil.

"It's only April. As long as we attack the city of Moscow in May, we will have about 5 months to capture Moscow!" Li Le finally pointed the pointer in his hand at the position of Moscow and told himself said the generals.

"As long as Moscow is captured before Rudong, it will not be easy for a Soviet Union that has lost its headquarters to survive the winter." This is the tactical reason for Li Le's attempt to capture Moscow.

Winter in Russia is cold, of course Li Le knows this! And he also knew that the winter of 1941 seemed to be colder than the winters of the past few years!

Occupying Moscow also destroyed the Soviet Union's overall command hub. Without overall planning, how will the civilians in a huge empire like the Soviet Union survive such a cold winter on their own?

Even the top Soviet leaders who have lost Moscow can still stabilize the situation, but they will inevitably invest less energy in the military!

As long as the Soviets could not devote their entire experience to a military counterattack, the German advantage would still exist when the following spring came.

"My head of state, the army has no opinion on the order of the attack." Standing beside Li Le was the army commander-in-chief Marshal Brauchitch.

He has almost put away his own little thoughts now, and he is wholeheartedly fighting the Soviet Union for the head of state.

Barbarossa can be said to be the pinnacle of his strategic commanding art and the pinnacle of his exploits as a German marshal.

If he can conquer the Soviet Union, no matter how great the prestige of the head of state, he will definitely be remembered in the history books as the commander-in-chief of the army.

Keitel also supports this plan, because he is already a direct descendant of the head of state in the military.

If you don't support the Führer at this time, then your brain is sick. So he quickly expressed his support and said, "The Supreme Command also believes that there is nothing wrong with this plan!"

For the Army, as long as it fights in the central part of the Soviet Union, where the Soviet Union's road and railway networks are denser, and in the north-central part of the country, its mechanized advantages can be fully exerted.

"Let Marshal Bock begin to attack... Force the troops in Ukraine to retreat to Kyiv! Remove the Soviet threat to Romania!" Li Le glanced at Marshal Brauchitch and instructed.

Germany's attacks on the southern front have always been casual, including the servants of Italy and Romania, and they have not deliberately attacked the Soviet army.

This is Germany's strategic plan, and it is also because there are too many infantry troops here and it is not suitable for rapid advancement.

Counting on the defense of the troops of servant countries such as Italy and Romania is not a problem, but expecting them to advance 100 kilometers a day is a bit of a nonsense.

"Understood, attacked Rostov?" Seeing the Führer looking at him, Brauchitch asked quickly.

Since the two sides have the same general direction of attack, the commander-in-chief of the Third Reich Army is willing to listen to enough heads of state.

"Attack Rostov! If necessary! You can try to attack in the direction of Kyiv slowly!" Li Le gave his thoughts.

His bottom line is very simple: "The progress of the attack is subject to the strategic actions of Army Group Center and Army Group North!"

"I understand! After this meeting~www.wuxiaspot.com~ I will send a message to Marshal Bork, asking him to attack Rostov!" Brauchitch stood at attention, raised his chin and commanded.

Attacking Ukraine can destroy the Soviet Union's grain-producing areas here and affect the Soviet Union's winter reserves.

If he is lucky, Marshal Bock may also meet the welcome of the local people in Ukraine, and he can easily rush to the surroundings of Kyiv by virtue of his identity as a liberator.

Once the Soviet defense plan is disrupted, Germany can take the initiative in the first winter, or even expand its advantages.

Of course, Li Le knew that the Americans would not stand idly by, they would definitely support the Soviet Union and help the Soviet Union survive the first winter.

Since the Americans will not stand idly by, for the German Army, how to defeat the Soviet Union in 1942 and continue to expand its advantages is a problem that has to be considered.

"Then the meeting is over! Tell Marshal Lundstedt! I'm waiting for the news of his victory in Minsk!" Li Le heard Brausch's answer, put down the pointer, waved his hand and said.