Chapter 827: Stretched Thin

A map like this was a work of art, painstakingly sketched by German spies to be as close to reality as possible. If they had used the maps in the hands of the Soviets, the Germans would have been lucky to make 20 kilometers a day in the wilderness.

The speed of the German advance was indeed not slow. With the cooperation of the Soviet troops commanded by Zhukov, the German forces had advanced several hundred kilometers in just 15 days, even encircling Smolensk, which Stalin had claimed he did not want to lose. But along the way, the German transport situation had fallen into a “disaster.”

First, there was the old problem of the different railway gauges between the Soviet Union and Europe. Although Germany had helped the Soviet Union improve the construction standards of some of its railways in the early days, it had not solved all the problems. At least in the Moscow region, where the railways were relatively dense, the Soviets had still used their own standards due to cost issues. This had put the German army in the embarrassing situation of being unable to use the railways near Smolensk.

Then there was the fact that the Soviet roads were also not the kind of asphalt roads that the Germans had in mind. Most of the Soviet roads were paved with dirt, which, by German standards, were only temporary roads. These roads, coupled with the snowfall, had reduced the efficiency of the German road transport by almost half.

The German army, due to production capacity issues, was already making do with a hodgepodge of vehicles: captured British, French, and Belgian vehicles, as well as requisitioned civilian vehicles from the homeland. The situation was slightly better with the German military off-road vehicles. The performance of these vehicles from different sources in the mud was also not the same, which seriously affected the speed of the German advance.

Horses and mules had become the main means of transport for the German army to supply the front lines. This level of efficiency was a source of great suffering for Army Group A, the most mechanized unit on the central front. The King Tiger tanks, the Tiger tanks, and the large number of Panther tanks and armored cars had become real gas guzzlers, making every step forward for Rundstedt extremely difficult.

The situation now was not how fierce the Soviet resistance was, but the seemingly endless road that made the German army lose the courage to take another step forward. Because with every step forward, they would lose more canned food, more fuel, more ammunition and supplies. It sounded despairing.

“And we need time to clear out the partisans, the resistance fighters, and the pro-Soviet civilians behind us,” Rundstedt continued with resignation to Akado. “These people will try every means to destroy our transport system, attack our transport convoys, blow up bridges, and destroy railways. We must detach troops to drive out and suppress these enemies.”

“All sorts of things have tied up our resources. In fact, the arrival of the Waffen-SS units has relieved some of our pressure, at least in my army,” Rundstedt did not forget to show his support for Akado at this moment. “But these troops need better training. This is the best way to reduce their casualties.”

“I agree with that. The army can train these Waffen-SS units to make them better at completing their combat missions,” Akado nodded, giving this marshal who supported him enough face.

Seeing that Akado had agreed with his view and had given him enough face, Rundstedt quickly continued to pour out his grievances. After all, a real war could not be one where the commander-in-chief just drew a line on a map and the troops went wherever he wanted. “My Führer, another problem is the security of the flanks of the Southern and Central Groups.”

As he spoke, he pointed to a vast area on the map and said to Akado, “With the continuous advance of the war, our Southern Group has advanced too quickly, resulting in a serious shortage of troops on the long front line that stretches from the vicinity of the west bank of the Volga River all the way to the outskirts of Smolensk.”

“Along such a long defense line, between the Southern Group and the Central Group, are, in order, the 1st Ukrainian Army. This army group suffered considerable losses in the battle to capture Kharkov,” Rundstedt said, pointing to the northern area of Manstein’s M Army Group. “Next to this army group is General Model’s D Army Group.”

He then pointed to the flank of F Army Group and continued his introduction, “General Kluge’s F Army Group’s flank is also short of troops. That is a Romanian army group, and further south is the Italian expeditionary force.”

The current disposition of the German forces was as follows: in the far north was a Finnish army group, and then List’s E Army Group. These two army groups formed the German Northern Group, with the main direction of attack being the important northern Soviet city of Leningrad.

In the middle was Field Marshal von Rundstedt’s A Army Group. Further south was General Kluge’s F Army Group, plus the 1st Romanian Army and the Italian expeditionary force. These units had just been formed into the Central Group for the attack on Smolensk and the direction of Moscow.

And further south were Model’s D Army Group, the 1st Ukrainian Army, Manstein’s M Army Group, and Guderian’s G Army Group. This formidable force formed the Southern Group, with the aim of conquering the Soviet Caucasus oil-producing base without fail.

The original idea was simple: to place the most skilled defender, Model, among the less reliable Axis allies, to rely on D Army Group to reinforce a weak link in the entire defense line. But as the war progressed and the German offensive continued to advance, the entire front line was stretched, making it impossible for D Army Group to effectively cover the flanks of the various groups.

Even without any military talent, Akado could also see Field Marshal von Rundstedt’s worries. It had to be admitted that this defense line was fragile and, as the war progressed, it could not be effectively supplemented or strengthened in the short term. Once the Red Army launched a counter-attack on these sectors, then the several German army groups of the Southern Group, even if they were not encircled and wiped out, would also have to end the battle for the Caucasus due to a forced retreat, handing over a favorable situation to the enemy.

Fortunately, the Soviet Union was now in a hurry to contract its defense line and did not have that many troops to commit to a counter-attack. Or rather, the entire Soviet high command had been stunned by the successive victories of the German army. To this day, they had not correctly analyzed or considered such a thing as a counter-attack. So this defense line was still relatively safe for the time being. But once Zhukov was free to act, then to count on these allies to hold the line was less realistic than to hope for some other miracle.

Sometimes Akado did feel very helpless. There really was such a country in the world, its territory so vast it was astonishing. The invincible tanks, planes, and cannons were as small as insects before it. The blitzkrieg that had crushed France in one blow had to be used several times on this country, and still the war could not be ended.

“On this matter, we will have to ask the relevant person in charge of the army’s logistics department. As for when N Army Group, O Army Group, and P Army Group can be committed to battle, we urgently need to strengthen the forces in several directions. This is not a joke,” Akado said, looking at the several generals sitting in the distance. They were the officers in charge of the German army’s logistics and equipment.

One general was taking out a handkerchief and constantly wiping his sweat. Another was desperately cleaning his monocle. It was clear that they did not want to answer the Führer’s question directly. After all, the timetable they had given was really too embarrassing to speak of. But with the matter at hand, they had to grit their teeth and say it, even if they didn’t want to.

“My Führer, it is not that the logistics department is delaying. It is that the equipment and personnel required by these army groups are simply too far short,” a general finally answered with a mournful voice. “When General Hoth’s J Army Group was formed, weapon production was already struggling to keep up. We had to take some of the assault rifles and G43s that were originally intended for other units, and then everyone had to make do with the Mauser 98k rifles from the inventory.”

“And that’s just the shortage of rifles. Cannons, Panzerfausts, trucks, armored cars…” As he spoke, his voice was already tinged with a sob. It seemed he had been driven mad by the people from the various army groups who had come to press him for all kinds of supplies. “I’m not complaining. In fact, the weapons and equipment provided by the industrial department are already so numerous that it has surprised us in the logistics department. But the speed of our military expansion is simply too fast. Two years ago, we had less than a million troops. Now we have to find weapons, ammunition, food, and equipment for an army of 7 million.”

The German army did not actually have 7 million troops, but some of the SS security units needed to be armed, and Germany’s allies would from time to time import weapons from Germany to improve their own military strength. This back and forth had caused a situation where the distribution of German weapons was stretched thin.

The several army groups that had been formed later had basically been scraping the bottom of the German army’s inventory. Most of Manstein’s troops were using Mauser rifles, and although his unit had a large number of cannons, they were a collection of calibers and models from Britain, France, Belgium, and Germany. The logistical pressure was actually very huge.

On the surface, the German armored forces were advancing rapidly at the front. But behind the scenes, the logistics department was scraping together everything they could, and the thousands of tons of fuel they had painstakingly accumulated were disappearing as if they had evaporated. Now, the production capacity of the Romanian oil fields was frankly not enough for the German army to squander. The current offensive had already begun to consume Germany’s domestic strategic reserves.

The German Navy had already stopped large-scale sorties due to the fuel issue. In the entire area near Iceland, only the submarines were still active. Even the routine patrols of reconnaissance planes had been canceled on a large scale. The German garrisons in France only retained sixty percent of their strategic reserve fuel, and in Germany, less than seventy percent. Akado was aware of all these figures.

Advance chapters at Nightjar Reads · nightjarreads.com