Chapter 1131: The Order to Counter-attack

Recently, Akado had been busy with some export contracts for Israel. The Jews were well-funded but were starting from scratch in the Jerusalem area, so they were eager to move German machinery and many other goods to their new home. Some of these items could be exported, and Akado encouraged this, but others were scarce within the Third Reich itself, so each one had to be carefully vetted.

Relations between nations were far from as simple as ordinary people imagined; at the very least, they couldn’t be summarized with simple definitions like “enemy” or “friend.” Logically, Japan and the United States should have been mortal enemies, yet in the twenty-first century, they remained allies, at least on the surface.

From its founding, Israel had maintained a neutral relationship with Germany. Leveraging its special relationship with both America and Germany, its development speed exceeded many people’s imaginations. Bormann was becoming more and more passive in the United States, while old Mr. Enrike was like a fish in water in the Middle East. Riding the “east wind” of Germany’s suppression of Saudi Arabia, he fully demonstrated the shrewd nature of an old, calculating Jew.

“My Führer, the casualty list for the last month has been compiled. We have a total of 19,000 men killed or missing in action on the Eastern Front. The specific list has been sent to the Consolation Committee.” Sindra was as sharp and capable as ever. Her mind was filled with all sorts of matters, yet she never made a single mistake of confusion or omission. Akado was very satisfied with this secretary; she made his work more organized and efficient.

Every day, countless people died in the war, both civilians and soldiers. Some were lucky to leave behind a grave and a name in this chaotic era, but many more left not even a name. From Germany all the way to Ukraine, then to Smolensk, and on to Moscow, on the side of every highway, one could see one cemetery after another. Some wooden crosses still had steel helmets on them—both German and Soviet.

Akado put down the document in his hand and took the statistical roster. The names, one after another, seemed to glaring on the white paper. They were all once-living lives, but now, all that remained was a broken dog tag.

“Have the Consolation Committee write every consolation letter with care. And remember to remind me, I need to speak with Reinhard at the meeting. We must ensure that every single benefit payment is distributed in full to these families who have lost their loved ones.” After a pause, Akado instructed Sindra again: “Have Minister Fanny create a special radio and television program to, at the very least, commemorate these warriors who sacrificed themselves for the country.”

“Yes, my Führer! Understood!” Sindra nodded, then stood at attention and replied, “I will remind you. Also, the new ambassador from Turkey has arrived in Berlin. Minister Ribbentrop held a welcome banquet for him, and Vice-Chairman Krupp hosted the banquet on behalf of the Greater German Party.”

Having Krupp welcome the Turkish ambassador was intentional. Germany was starting to have a surplus of many industrial products, and some machinery was in urgent need of export. After the occupation of Ukraine, a large amount of agricultural products also began to flow into Germany. For a time, the problem of material shortages seemed to be a thing of the past. As a result, many merchants began to resell goods to seek greater profits.

While Germany maintained its wartime material rationing system, many German workers and merchants had money but couldn’t buy the things they wanted. High-end goods like watches and televisions were unavailable, and even bread and candy had “a price but no market.” But now, these things were abundant. As long as you had money, you could buy them in the shops.

Therefore, Krupp, representing a large group of German merchants, was to make formal contact with the Turkish ambassador, hoping to open the Turkish market and dump the massive surplus of “junk” onto the barren land of Turkey. This included outdated machinery, socks, clothes, various pots and pans, and even weapons, ammunition, and gas masks.

After experiencing the American and British counter-attacks and invasions, Turkey was in a state of decay. Its fundamental weakness had been completely exposed within the Axis alliance. Coupled with the German occupation of the Middle East and the Caucasus, Turkey’s remaining bargaining chips were pitifully few. Its once-advantageous geographical location was no longer so important. Its strategic mission of tying down the British, Americans, and Soviets had also disappeared. The only role left for Turkey now was as a dumping ground for surplus goods.

Thus, under German coercion and inducement, the previous Turkish ambassador had finally signed an “Axis Arms Standardization Treaty,” agreeing to purchase all military equipment from Germany to ensure the Turkish army’s combat effectiveness was improved. The treaty also stipulated that one Turkish corps, prioritized with German equipment, would enter the Caucasus as an expeditionary force under Manstein’s command to mop up Soviet partisans in the region.

This was undoubtedly a new, huge cake, just waiting to be carved up by hungry German arms dealers. Germany diverted various rifles to Turkey, charging twice the production cost, which was then used to produce more advanced G43 and MP-44 weapons for the Wehrmacht. 100 obsolete, second-hand Panzer III tanks were sold by the Germans for the price of 130 King Tigers, which could only be called a miracle.

Even more exaggerated was the fighter aircraft project. The Turkish side decided to purchase the more advanced FW-190D fighter. The Germans gouged them heavily. For 50 FW-190D fighters, the Germans demanded a total of 70 million Imperial Gold Marks, allowing the Focke-Wulf company to make a fortune.

Of course, these were stories that would happen a few days later. Akado didn’t yet know how crazy these merchants of the Third Reich truly were. After hearing that Krupp was organizing the banquet, he nodded, then picked up another document on his desk and began to review it intently.

As a “Xueba” (top student) who had been a teaching assistant at a first-class university before “transmigrating,” Akado deeply understood the meaning of “he who travels a hundred miles is only halfway.” He knew that history was full of countless failures that were the result of faltering at the last moment. So he was now constantly urging all the departments under him to guarantee, as much as possible, that all aspects were in order to win the Battle of Moscow.

…

Field Marshal Rundstedt was the first German general to break into the British capital of London, and also the first Army general to be promoted to Field Marshal, aside from the veteran Brauchitsch. His Army Group A was one of Germany’s top-tier forces, and its combat effectiveness was not to be underestimated.

Now, the tanks of his Army Group A vanguard had enveloped Moscow from the north and were continuously pushing toward the city center from the suburbs. An armored detachment was attacking southeast along the Leningrad Highway. What stopped their advance was not the Soviet defenders, but the Moscow Canal.

Several German tanks opened fire from the west bank of the Moscow Canal, fiercely bombarding the city buildings on the opposite side. The Soviet defenders inside returned fire. The battle lasted for an entire day before gradually subsiding.

Because several nearby bridges had been destroyed, the Moscow River completely cut off some Soviet defenders in the west. Their weapons and ammunition were all supplied by transport ships on the river, and the wounded were also evacuated to the east bank by these ships. However, these troops were doomed. They were trapped by the river on the west side of Moscow’s core defense line, holding the high ground at a place called the Trinity Cathedral.

The Tushino district was the first to be occupied by the German vanguard. The Soviet defenders here ultimately chose to give up resistance. They had no weapons to stop the German tanks, their ammunition was exhausted and could not be replenished, and they had to endure a near-constant German artillery barrage every day. Their surrender caused the Soviet defense line west of the Moscow River to completely shatter. After more than ten days of fighting, the Soviet army took the initiative to abandon most of the defense lines in northwest Moscow.

Near the Voskolyakovo Cemetery, an armored grenadier regiment from Germany’s Army Group F was in a fierce firefight with Soviet troops. Many tombstones were used as cover and had been shattered in half by the flying bullets. The Soviets were eventually forced to withdraw due to a lack of ammunition. After the Germans occupied the cemetery, they were forced to erect 300 new graves nearby.

The Germans paid a heavy price for every step forward. Army Groups F and A were pinching the Soviets, but due to the terrain, they could not support each other. They were basically fighting their own separate battles, fighting from dawn until dusk for a single building or a single street. The ruins, barricades, and rows of buildings became a sniper’s paradise. Gunshots rose and fell, day after day. The slightest carelessness could result in getting your head blown off by a bullet from nowhere.

Compared to the attacking Germans, the Soviet side was characterized by desperate persistence. They discovered that List’s Army Group E was beginning to appear at their flank and rear, but they could not pull out any more troops to deal with the ever-lengthening defense lines.

Zhukov was in frequent combat with Guderian in the south, with neither side willing to give an inch. Although the Soviet defenders suffered heavy losses, they still held their main defensive positions, not retreating half a step. But Zhukov himself knew very well that the only reason Guderian wasn’t in a hurry to break his lines was to conserve his strength, not because Zhukov’s lines were so strong.

In this pitiful situation, an operations staff officer walked into Zhukov’s command post and read out Stalin’s latest order: “Comrade Stalin wishes for your forces to conduct a limited counter-attack to the southwest, repel Kluge’s forces, and for Moscow to gain more strategic space.”

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