Chapter 790: Stop

The Rein Hardt tank crew’s luck had not been very good lately. Back during the French campaign, they had been like a magnet, always running into unlucky French armored units. At that time, they were the idol of the entire German armored force, the super ace crew with the highest number of enemy tanks destroyed.

But starting from the German landing in Britain, the Rein Hardt crew’s luck seemed to have run out. The Wittmann crew had begun to appear frequently in the areas where the armored forces of both sides clashed, while Rein and his crew had been unable to find any large-scale enemy armored units, constantly doing the work of covering the infantry.

The number of Soviet tanks in the southern theater was pitifully small. The area was full of infantry, infantry with only rifles. They didn’t even have many anti-tank guns that could threaten a Tiger tank, let alone any armored targets that could get Rein and his crew excited. They had run into T-26 tanks a few times, but in this day and age, destroying a T-26 no longer brought any excitement.

Even with friendly forces on all sides on the road of advance, Rein still strictly followed the alert standards and held his weapon. He hadn’t learned anything else in that damn school, but it had taught him that as a soldier, he could never be without his weapon at any time.

The entire G Army Group was advancing towards the distant Caucasus at the fastest possible speed they could manage. Since the outbreak of the winter campaign on the Eastern Front, although the entire G Army Group was not the most dazzling in terms of combat results, it was indeed the army that had traveled the most among all the armies of the Third Reich.

They had started from central Ukraine, headed north to attack Kharkov, taking one city after another with unstoppable force. Then, at the gates of Kharkov, they had made a dashing turn and, with the same frantic speed, had headed south, encircling hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops in Donetsk in one go, creating the most favorable conditions for the subsequent German strategy in the Caucasus.

The two sides were now competing in speed. If the German army was fast enough, then the Soviet army would first lose a large amount of Caucasian territory and would not even have time to organize an effective defense to stop the German advance. If the Soviet army was fast enough, then they could first set up their own defenses in the Caucasus region, and the German offensive would have to face the Soviet Union’s strong defense line.

It could be said that in terms of the greatest contribution to the entire winter campaign, it was undoubtedly the E Army Group, commanded by List, which had held its position to the last moment and had changed the course of the battle in cooperation with the paratroopers. But in terms of its far-reaching impact on future campaigns, it was Guderian’s G Army Group’s brilliant stroke of heading south that made the Soviets feel the most uncomfortable.

The entire G Army Group was now like a sharp sword hanging over the entire Caucasus, ready to strike at any time and make the behemoth of the Soviet Union bleed to death.

Unfortunately, this sharp sword was now in dire need of rest and refit. More than half of the cars and tanks in the massive G Army Group were using severely worn parts, and the fuel in the entire army group’s logistical reserves was seriously insufficient. The soldiers had not had a decent rest for more than two days, and some of the units that were marching on foot had fallen far behind.

Even General Guderian, who had always insisted that a timely attack would yield better results, had to admit that his own troops truly needed rest and replenishment this time. Because in many of the armored units’ tanks, the ammunition reserves were more than half empty.

Misfortune struck on the afternoon of March 13th. Due to the fatigue caused by the frequent forced marches, Guderian’s driver had actually fallen asleep while driving, and his armored command vehicle had overturned into a drainage ditch on the side of the road. The infantry marching on both sides let out a cheer. They finally had a good reason to stop and, under the pretext of helping, take a rest for a while.

In this accident, Guderian himself was lucky enough not to be injured, but his chief of staff had hit his head on the radio equipment and had to be stitched up and bandaged. The entire advancing G Army Group, not knowing what had happened at the army group headquarters, had automatically stopped to wait for “new orders.”

If this had happened in the past, then G Army Group would not have stopped to wait for any orders. The various units would still have continued to attack frantically. Comparing the performance of the various units during the Battle of France, one can see just how tired this unit was now.

The 3rd SS Panzer Division, which had always been the most adept at attacking among the units under Guderian’s command, had now been replaced to a second-line position, because this unit had already lost two-thirds of its tanks in the continuous offensive. Although these tanks had not been destroyed, but had been paralyzed on the roadside for various reasons, it was an indisputable fact that this unit could no longer continue to advance.

“Is this the corps headquarters? My panzer division has no more replacement parts. Half of the tanks are paralyzed on the road, either from severe track wear or engine failure. The repair battalion is already overwhelmed. It will take at least two days for my unit to be able to continue marching,” General Freericks said, contacting the 1st Panzer Corps headquarters by radio. In theory, he was now under the command of this panzer corps, so he should also report the situation to his superiors when he stopped advancing.

Who knew that on the other end of the radio, the corps headquarters’ staff were even more shameless. They had already stopped advancing themselves. “We can’t contact the army group headquarters. We are currently sending out runners to confirm the situation. The corps commander is sleeping. You can also take this opportunity to rest and wait for further orders.”

Wait for further orders? This phrase was truly unfamiliar to the entire German panzer force. General Freericks smiled and turned off the radio, then gave the order for his troops to stop and rest. Apart from the repair battalion at the very rear, which was busy repairing the tanks, and the maintenance detachments of the various combat units, this panzer division had all stopped.

This also became the first time the entire 3rd SS Panzer Division had stopped to rest since the campfire camping that night. All the soldiers were enjoying their hot meals, gathering together to play cards, chat, and enjoy a rare moment of leisure. They had been fighting on the battlefield for more than a month and a few days, so this rest had not come suddenly, but had come too late.

“Hey, Rein! I heard that General Guderian’s driver drove his armored command vehicle into a ditch,” Markus, a gossip-monger of a soldier, was one of the most well-informed people in the entire army group. But his news was sometimes a bit too exaggerated. “I hear our commander’s nose was knocked crooked, and his whole jaw fell off.”

“Markus! The general is giving a speech of condolence on the radio right now. If his jaw had fallen off, who would be on the radio announcing the order for the entire army group to rest for a day?” Rein asked Markus with a raised eyebrow, leaning against his commander’s hatch.

Markus, hearing this, knew that his gossip was of no interest to Rein. He could only shrug his shoulders and turn to leave. Andre passed him and said with a smile to the young Markus, “It’s not good to spread rumors. If you’re really caught by the military police, you’ll be in for it.”

While Markus was gossiping with Rein, Guderian, whose jaw was said to have fallen off, was on the phone with the Führer. He helplessly admitted that his troops needed to rest and must be restored to their good condition from over a month ago before the next battle began.

“It must be admitted that in the Battle of Donetsk, we were victorious. But the price was very high, which is that we can now only watch as the enemy strengthens the defenses of the Caucasus, with no ability to attack,” Guderian said painfully in a telegram to the Wolf’s Lair.

Akado’s reply was very simple: “I trust you, and you should also trust your troops. Since they need to rest, then let them rest!”

If G Army Group was a sharp sword, then M Army Group, following behind it, was a heavy battle-axe. This army group had been through the cruel trench warfare of the Crimean fortress and had transformed into the unit in the entire Third Reich that was best at siege warfare. Its commander, Manstein, could also be said to be one of the most balanced of the German commanders in both offense and defense.

On the flanks of these two powerful army groups, the one responsible for cover was the master of defensive warfare, General Model, leading D Army Group. The characteristic of most German units was to be as aggressive as fire in their attacks, while Model’s D Army Group was an anomaly with the opposite character. His unit was as unmovable as a mountain in defense, and he was even better at defensive counter-attacks than General List. It could be said that if the Soviet forces in the winter campaign had run into Model’s defensive positions, it would really be hard to say if they could have disengaged.

As the fist, G Army Group; as the siege unit, M Army Group; and as the flank cover, D Army Group. It could be said that for the Caucasus region, which had to be occupied, Akado and his High Command had come up with the best possible golden combination. This was also enough to show that the Führer was determined to win the entire Caucasus region.

But anyone could see that this Southern Group of the Third Reich needed to rest and refit for a period of time before it could recover to a level sufficient to support their offensive. Otherwise, it was possible that they would collapse on their own during the attack. And so, the entire Southern Group had stopped its advance, as if waiting for its opponent to set up its formation on the road ahead.

The German army had annihilated a large number of the Soviet Union’s effective strength in the Donetsk region, but in the end, because of this successful encirclement, it had lost the opportunity to take advantage of the vacuum and capture the Caucasus. The Soviet 2nd Guards Front had gotten ahead of the German army, leading the 100,000 elite Soviet infantry who had retreated from Kharkov to this place, temporarily stabilizing the situation in the entire Caucasus region.

However, as time passed, the entire Caucasus region was covered with dark clouds. The atmosphere of war had already enveloped this place. The life-or-death battle for oil was about to begin here.

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