Rise of Australia

Chapter 952 Moscow, Moscow!
While Australasia was buzzing with news about the opening of the Sydney Metro Ring Line, the battle thousands of miles away in Eastern Europe was reaching its most critical juncture.

The two well-deserved protagonists are naturally the German Center Army Group that has approached Moscow and the Russian Reserve Army Group responsible for defending Moscow.

Around Moscow, the armies of both sides fought fiercely. Even in some battlefields where firepower was more concentrated, the smoke from the gunpowder explosion almost filled the entire battlefield, and visibility was only a few dozen meters.

How brutal is the war between the two sides? Currently, on average, at least 3 soldiers die every day on the battlefields around Moscow, of which nearly 2 are Russian troops.

But it was these Russian recruits who had not received much training who resisted the attack of the powerful German Center Army Group and defended Moscow to the death.

Thousands of Russian soldiers shouted "Ura!" and rushed towards the German army in front without hesitation.

Even if they are holding shovels in their hands, it cannot stop them from moving forward courageously.

The Germans had never seen such a fearless situation. Although the German army had strong combat effectiveness, many of their people were not absolutely loyal to the country.

More importantly, the German army was not completely united at that time. There was a big conflict between the German Chancellor and the remaining Junker aristocracy, which indirectly led to the conflict between the German government and the General Staff.

As early as when the so-called Barbarossa Plan was being formulated, which was to attack Russia on three fronts, some generals of the German General Staff had considerable conflicts with the German government.

Although everyone's goal is to defeat Russia in a short period of time, compared to the all-out attack on Moscow that most German generals want, the German Chancellor hopes to intensify the attack in the north and south and occupy as much of Ukraine's vast farmland and the Caucasus' oil fields as possible.

Of course, when Germany still had abundant resources and manpower, these two goals could actually be easily accomplished by the German army.

This also led to the fact that in the early stages of the war, the contradiction between the German government and the General Staff was not as great as imagined. Germany's advancement was also very fast, and the situation seemed to be very good.

But since the German army was blocked outside Moscow, the available resources in Germany have been gradually decreasing day by day.

At this time, the conflict between the government and the military became increasingly intense. Although not as big as imagined, it still had a considerable impact on the war.

It is impossible to say who is right or wrong in this matter, because both sides have completely different perspectives on the matter. But it is undeniable that as Germany's offensive gradually entered a slump and the arrival of winter made Germany's logistics line increasingly tense, the morale of the German army was already in chaos.

Another factor that affected the war situation was the failure of Germany's blitzkrieg tactics.

The fundamental reason why blitzkrieg was invincible was that the enemy had no idea about the rapid advance of tank troops.

The Poles didn't, and neither did the Russians.

In particular, before the outbreak of World War II, Russia launched a large-scale purge within the army at its own expense, executing many senior Russian generals including Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky.

How important was Tukhachevsky to Russia? He was known as the Red Napoleon. He was the youngest marshal in Russia before World War II, a genius strategist, and an outstanding general with a unique vision.

During his tenure as Minister of Equipment, due to his active advocacy, Russia established motorized troops, which later became armored forces.

It also established a certain scale of air force, a new navy and some airborne troops. At the same time, Russia also upgraded its infantry and artillery forces. Such contributions are also one of the important reasons why Russia has strong military strength.

But such a general with extremely unique vision and great talent was hastily executed just because of a small plot to sow discord and Sudalin's previous dissatisfaction with him, resulting in the young marshal holding a high position being hastily executed.

His death had a huge impact on Russia. If Tukhachevsky had been able to stay in his position until now, the strength of Russia's armored forces and air force would have been greatly improved, and its performance in the war would not have been so poor.

It was precisely because Tukhachevsky was executed early in the Great Purge that Russia's armored forces were not improved urgently until Germany launched the blitzkrieg, and have not yet formed a sufficient scale.

However, the Germans could not achieve complete victory through blitzkrieg.

First of all, blitzkrieg requires strong logistics, which is difficult to achieve in winter in Russia. To put it bluntly, the Russians themselves cannot achieve perfect logistics in peacetime, let alone the Germans in wartime, who can meet their own logistics needs on Russian soil.

The lack of logistics was not actually the reason why Germany's blitzkrieg was completely ineffective.

After all, Russia's land area is too large. This gave the Russians plenty of time to deal with the German tactics. Even the blitzkrieg, which was so powerful that it was unmatched, actually had certain flaws.

In addition, Australasia exported a large number of T-14A heavy tanks to Russia, allowing Russia to gradually deal with German armored forces in terms of armored forces.

The T-14A heavy tank is Australasia's technology from 20 years ago, and Arthur is not worried that the Russians will surpass Australasia with such tank technology.

And to be honest, Russia's own tank technology is indeed quite good, and the technical level is fully capable of developing simple tanks like the T-14A heavy tank.

It would be better to sell it to Russia together with the blueprints, earn some funds and minerals from Russia, and let this tank technology, which has been outdated for more than 20 years, finally make use of its remaining heat.

Doing so would also be in line with what was stated in the previous "United Nations Declaration," that the contracting parties should devote all their human, financial and material resources to respond to this war.

Simply put, by selling tanks and technical drawings, Australasia's contribution to this war can also be increased.

Even if the Russians achieved considerable success with these tanks, Australasia, which sold tanks to the Russians, could also get a share of the contribution.

Then, the T-14A tank has certain loopholes in its design. If the Russians attach too much importance to this tank technology and imitate it to a certain extent, for Australasia, this is equivalent to mastering the loopholes of Russian tanks in the next few years.

It is worth mentioning that in order to deal with Germany's blitzkrieg, the Russians adopted a variety of interception techniques.

One of the methods was to hide tanks in various ways on both sides of the road, and then launch a two-pronged assault on the German tanks on the road from both ends.

Because Russian tanks were camouflaged using a variety of methods, this approach did surprise the Germans at first and achieved certain results.

Although the Germans later became more cautious and reduced the loss of tanks, this was equivalent to successfully blocking the advance speed of the German tank forces.

After the blitzkrieg failed, the German army's combat effectiveness was not so strong. After all, if they wanted to capture Moscow, the German army had to conquer the bloody fortresses built by the Russians with human lives one by one.

Although the German army was fearless and brave, no amount of sacrifice could scare them.

But unfortunately, they were facing the Russian army who really didn't care about casualties.

What is the biggest difference between the two armies?
When going to the battlefield, the German officers told their men: "Moscow is right in front of us. Charge for Germany!"

The Russian officers told their men: "Russia may be big, but Moscow is behind us. We have nowhere to retreat. Even if we can stop the damn Germans for just one minute, we must fight to the death!"

For Moscow, for Russia, for victory, Hurrah! "

Although they were all fearless charges, the Russian army had actually been prepared for sacrifice before the charge.

A rather exaggerated statistic is that during the Battle of Moscow, a considerable number of Russian soldiers survived on the battlefield for no more than 24 hours.

In some battlefields where fighting was more intense, the time it took for soldiers to go to the battlefield and die was no more than an hour.

Although it is just data on paper, it can also reflect the cruelty on the Moscow battlefield.

Although the German army suffered better casualties, the German population was only more than 80 million, and it was obviously unable to compete with Russia in terms of manpower on such a battlefield.

As the force of the offensive weakened, the Germans were completely blocked outside Moscow.

Even though Moscow was within reach, the German army was unable to advance a single step. This had long been a huge drain on the morale of the German army.

After all, the German army had been victorious in every battle before, but now it has suffered a setback in front of Moscow. This sudden contrast will make some German troops feel frustrated and confused.

Once the German army lost its glory, the problems that had been covered up by its continuous victories gradually became exposed.

The first is that the German army was not as united as imagined, and many German officers and soldiers were not as loyal to the country as imagined.

After all, to put it bluntly, the current German government is highly centralized in the German Chancellor. But the German Chancellor is not from a traditional Junker aristocracy, but a failed art student who failed to get into the Academy of Fine Arts.

As we all know, the Junker aristocracy had a huge influence on Germany, which also made this class naturally feel superior to many ordinary Germans.

Although no one expressed such contempt after the German Chancellor took control of the German government, the interests of the Junker aristocracy were obviously not completely consistent with those of the German Chancellor.

This has led to the current division of the German military into two factions. One faction is the SS faction promoted by the German Chancellor, whose purpose is also to check and balance the senior officers represented by the Junker aristocracy.

Although the two sides have not completely torn their faces apart, it is common for them to use certain means to compete with each other.

Although the Junker nobility was the traditional military class in Germany, they had lost a considerable number of young officers after the defeat in World War I, resulting in their influence no longer being as great as before.

The SS faction promoted by the German Chancellor was promoted at a lightning speed because they had the support of the government and the Prime Minister.

Some people were middle or high-level officers in the SS the day before, and the next day they suddenly became senior staff officers of the General Staff and were awarded the rank of general.

The speed of this change in status and identity was something that the traditional Junker aristocracy could never catch up with even if they tried their best.

This also caused many Junker nobles to be jealous of the promotion speed of SS generals, and even feel a little dissatisfied.

It is worth mentioning that this scene also happened in history. The famous German general Manstein publicly stated in his memoirs that the failure of the Battle of Moscow was entirely the responsibility of the German Prime Minister.

Manstein said that before the German army attacked Russia, it did not have a complete plan, nor did it have a corresponding general headquarters for the entire army.

Manstein even expressed his opposition to the entire Barbarossa plan for attacking Russia.

Manstein believed that the German army should not disperse its forces to attack Russia's resource-rich areas, but should concentrate its forces to quickly capture Moscow.

The German Chancellor who ordered the German army to split up and occupy important resource-rich areas not only led to the failure of the war, but was also a guy who did not understand war at all.

It is worth mentioning that in history, after Manstein repeatedly opposed the German Chancellor's opinions, the German Chancellor once angrily said: "These guys under me don't understand what war economics is."

The disagreement between Manstein and the German Chancellor on the direction of the army's offensive became one of the hot topics of discussion in later generations.

However, Manstein still had the upper hand in this regard. After all, the German Chancellor in history had died after the defeat, and it goes without saying that the winner would win an argument with a dead man.

As for who is right and who is wrong in the disagreement, it actually doesn’t matter in the end because the result is already very clear.

But for now, the differences between the two sides are still very important. Of course, this is not just a disagreement between the German Chancellor and Manstein on the direction of the offensive.

To put it another way, this is still a disagreement between the German Chancellor and the Junker nobles. Manstein was also born into the Junker nobility. The Junker nobles also have a distinct characteristic, that is, they have strong military literacy and ability, have their own unique ideas, and are not easily influenced by others.

In the eyes of the German Chancellor, such characteristics are a personality that a soldier should not have.

In his career as a German Chancellor, he had only served as an ordinary soldier. In his opinion, the first thing a soldier should do is to obey, and personality and other thoughts should be put last.

(End of this chapter)