Iron Cross

The third strike was called "Dawn". Although Hoffman did not think that the Eastern Front issue could be completely resolved in 1943, the opening of the Soviet-German peace talks and the change of hands of Leningrad marked the dawn of a complete solution to the Eastern Front war that lasted more than two years. In addition to the military decline, the Stalin regime was also struggling politically. When the entire front "surrendered", various officers and soldiers surrendered to the German army from time to time. Most of them surrendered sincerely, and occasionally there were very few spies.

It is obviously very difficult to identify them one by one. Hoffman did not want the newly surrendered Red Army to directly join the war against the Soviet Union. He first pulled them to the rear for training, brainwashing, and reorganization before using them. This not only cleared a large number of unqualified personnel - a large part of the surrendered people were either middle-aged uncles in their 40s with unshaven beards, or young soldiers under the age of 18, with very low combat effectiveness; in addition, conspirators and spies could be exposed among them.

Under this snowball-like expansion, the Russian Liberation Army has expanded to 4 army groups, more than 50 divisions, and nearly 700,000 people. After the traditional red, white and blue national flag reappeared in St. Petersburg, this speed can be called an avalanche. Not only soldiers, but also a large number of civilians, local officials and even internal security forces have begun to surrender to the new Russia - they depicted the embarrassment currently faced by the Soviet regime and believed that Stalin and the Bolshevik regime would soon be over.

Hoffman knew that the situation was not so optimistic. Stalin still had strength in his hands. He still had at least 6-7 million troops. It would take 3-4 years to completely solve them. It would not succeed if more than 2 million Germans were killed or injured - this price was certainly small compared to history, but he did not want to pay such a high price. The dawn of victory has appeared, and the United States is still eyeing it from the other side. The cost of 2 million German boys being killed and injured is a bit too heavy.

After the Red Army gave up St. Petersburg, it also gave up a large area of ​​land - because these areas could not be defended at all. The confrontation line between the two armies advanced to the Volkhov and Novgorod lines. For the Red Army, the overall area to be defended was reduced by about 200-300 kilometers, which could free up about 300,000 troops. For the German army, the battle situation was even more favorable. The materials transported from Germany could go directly to St. Petersburg via the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Gulf of Finland, greatly reducing the pressure on the railway trunk line passing through Poland. More importantly, after losing St. Petersburg, the transportation hub, the supply line between the coastal areas and the inland areas in northern Russia was almost cut off. Now even if Britain and the United States open up the Arctic route and can transport materials to Murmansk, they can no longer be transported smoothly to the inland areas.

"The Dawn Campaign was the last major campaign of the year. After studying the battlefield situation and the comparison of enemy and our forces in the early stage, the General Staff made several changes to the campaign policy, and the final campaign resolution was as follows."

The General Staff headed by Zeitzler originally had a grand plan, hoping to force Stalin to surrender or destroy the main force of the Red Army through this major campaign, but under the intervention of Hoffman, the campaign policy was changed several times, and the goal was gradually adjusted downward to destroy the Red Army's heavy troops of more than 1 million to 1.5 million, greatly weakening the Red Army's will to fight and resist, and forcing the Bolsheviks to negotiate or sign an armistice agreement on our terms.

The overall battle is divided into three major battlefields: the north line, the center line, and the south line. According to Zeitzler's arrangement, the main strategic steps include:

The first stage, starting from September 23, with the main forces of the Central Army Group, the Eastern Army Group and part of the Southern Army Group (mainly the **** Group), launched a full-scale offensive on the central front, using the tactics of a straight line to push the current overall front forward 400-500 kilometers before October 15, requiring the occupation of Saratov, Ulyanovsk, Kazan, Samara, and deterring Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk.

In order to plug the loopholes in the central front, the Red Army is expected to draw troops from the left and right wings for support. The second phase will be treated at two levels:

If the Red Army mainly draws troops from its right wing (north), the Finnish Army and the Northern Army Group will be the main force to launch an offensive campaign to fully seize the Volkhov and Novgorod lines, occupy the right bank of Lake Lagado, and completely separate the Soviet Arctic coastal territory from the inland;

If the Red Army mainly draws troops from its left wing (south), the Southern Army Group will be the main force to launch an offensive campaign to seize Astrakhan and establish land relations with Central Asia. Regarding this goal, Zeitzler had a clear disagreement with Hoffman at the beginning. He believed that at least Stalingrad should be taken down, but Hoffman believed that it was not necessary and still insisted on opening up the connection with Central Asia.

The second phase of the campaign is expected to be completed in early November.

If the political goal is still not achieved after the second phase of the campaign, the third phase of the offensive campaign will be launched, and the winter campaign will be launched by early December to prepare for the attack on Nizhny Novgorod and block Moscow's connection with the east. After the third phase of the campaign is completed, Moscow will be surrounded from the east, south, west and north (not completely surrounded), and then the goal of the spring campaign in 1944 is to close the encirclement and completely trap Moscow.

The General Staff believes that according to the predictions of climate experts and the experience of the first Moscow Campaign, late October to early November is the autumn muddy period. By late November, the temperature in the Moscow front line will still remain around zero degrees, and the land will freeze, which is very conducive to the advancement of armored forces. It is expected that by early December, the lowest temperature in the area will be around minus 5 degrees (minus 10 degrees in extreme periods). Under the premise of sufficient warm materials and winter equipment, this temperature will not cause serious impact. But in any case, the offensive on the Moscow front line should be stopped around December 15.

The most notable feature of this campaign is that the German army's material collection and equipment improvement have reached a certain level. They are no longer afraid of the cold winter in Russia. They even dare to boldly use the characteristics of frozen land in early winter, which is conducive to the movement of mechanized troops, to launch an offensive, completely breaking the outside world's belief that "Germans attack in summer and Russians attack in winter".

"We are going to tell Stalin that we can actually fight in winter. At least the weather in Russia in December is not uncommon in Germany." Zeitzler smiled confidently, "We know he is trying to delay time, but we want to tell him that it is useless to delay time. We still have three months to use."