With the fall of Bremen, the Democratic Republic of Germany had lost half of its eastern and northern territories. Only a few precarious small ports such as Norden and Emden remained at the sea. Although the Ruhr area, the country's industrial center, had not changed hands, it was already full of food. Destroyed by the Soviet air force, military production had to be dispersed and moved to the countryside. The tenacious German army not only faced serious problems in equipment, soldiers, supplies, etc., but the continuous high-intensity combat also exhausted most of the front-line troops. Fortunately, under the control of the Joint Staff, each department, regardless of the size of the casualties, They were able to retreat calmly and orderly, retaining the spark of hope for this war with a huge disparity in power.
Hannover, which was originally a military center far away from the front line, was now under bombardment by the Soviet army day and night. Even if the head of state had a hundred thousand reluctances, he could only follow the transfer of the base camp and the joint staff. The journey to Aachen, a city on the western border of Germany, was not far away. Linn, who had returned from an inspection on the northern front, spent several hours in the same car with the head of state. Different identities have different positions, and different positions correspond to different interests. The differences in interests that the two leaders should have are completely eclipsed by the current predicament of the enemy. Most of the time, they are thinking about common problems; on most problems, they can reach a common understanding. During the chat, they even talked about the bleak time five years ago, recalling their respective situations and thoughts, and suddenly felt that their lives were endlessly wasted.
The changes in the war situation made the more pragmatic imperial decision-makers prepare to evacuate Hanover early, but it was only in the past few days that Aachen was finally selected as the next destination. In order to avoid Soviet air attacks, the base camp convoy set out at night and arrived at its destination at dawn. The Imperial Base Camp staff is housed in a quaint holiday manor located in the woods on the southern outskirts of Aachen. The maple trees with tall trunks and huge crowns add a mysterious atmosphere to the manor. In Lin En's view, the surrounding area was so dense that the surrounding woodland had become a hidden gathering point for the army. It was not an exaggeration to mobilize troops in this way. In the past, when the Soviet troops withdrew from Germany, there were many spies and spies installed, and the war ended here. Destroying the core of the German armed forces was of great significance to the Soviets. Once they learned the whereabouts of the German high command, they would attack at all costs. Bombing, paratroopers, commando infiltration - all means must be used.
After a night¡¯s drive, the old and frail head of state showed signs of fatigue, but he simply took a shower and returned to the generals to listen to the latest report on the war from the Joint Staff. In northern Germany, the Soviet army, which paid a high price for winning the Battle of Hamburg-Bremen, has not made any new attacks for the time being. The German navy, which has withdrawn from the Baltic Sea area, continues to block the Skagerrak Strait in northern Jutland and the Helgoland Bay that ships must pass in and out of Bremen and Hamburg. However, just last night, the imperial submarine group was in Skagerrak. Nothing was found in the Gerak Strait, but torpedo boats operating in Helgoland Bay discovered destroyer-class Soviet ships, which means that the Soviets may have cleared the Kiel Canal, which was blocked by blasts before the Germans retreated. It provided a convenient and safe passage for Soviet ships to enter the North Sea from the Baltic Sea; in central Germany, the Hanover-G?ttingen line where the Soviet and German armies faced off spent a relatively calm night, but the Soviet troops that continue to increase their troops are likely to Launching a thunderous strike, the Joint Staff's plan is still to use defensive forces to block and consume the Soviet army step by step, and then organize a new line of defense in the North Rhine-Westphalia region; in southern Germany, the Soviet troops entering Germany from Austria ended The Battle of Munich was launched two days ago. More than 300,000 German citizens relied on fortifications to fight to the death to stop the enemy. Although the Soviet army was close to the center of Munich for a time. But their offense was weak. The two Soviet armies that moved south from eastern Germany and entered Germany from the Czech Republic were successfully blocked by the German army in northern Bavaria. The Munich Battle was developing in a direction that was unfavorable to the Soviet army.
After hearing this generally not too bad news, the head of state reacted very calmly and no longer dictated frontline command matters as he did during World War II. This is probably also a key factor in the German armed forces being able to persist in mobile guerrilla warfare to this day. The informal impromptu meeting would have ended there, with the F¨¹hrer sleeping for four or five hours in his bedroom. Eat, walk, work, repeat until the end of the day. The arrival of Kleist and Dietrich postponed the meeting. In the name of Minister of Defense of the Free Empire of Northern Scandinavia, Kleist is currently mainly responsible for military coordination and troop mobilization between the mainland and Northern Europe. The former SS general Dietrich was not only a loyal follower of the F¨¹hrer, but also one of Adolf Hitler's most trusted capable officers. Although he did not leave prison until the founding of the Democratic Republic of Germany and regained his freedom, he returned to the F¨¹hrer's tent. , Dietrich was entrusted with the important task of serving as the commander of the 5th Imperial Guards Corps. It is worth mentioning that the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Corps are the absolute main force of the Imperial Army. They have participated in military operations in Europe and Denmark since 1949, and have made great contributions to the liberation of Germany from Soviet occupation. In the early stage of the Second Soviet-German War, it was also the absolute elite of the German armed forces. The 4th Corps was originally a reserve force.The corps, with slightly inferior personnel and equipment, has gradually grown into an indispensable main force after war experience. The 5th Corps commanded by Dietrich has included the vast majority of foreign soldiers in the Imperial Army since its establishment. . During the Third Reich, although the original intention of forming the Armed SS was to create an "armed force of pure Aryan origin loyal to the F¨¹hrer," as the war progressed, the massive consumption of soldiers and the Wehrmacht's restriction on recruiting SS troops Many restrictions made it increasingly difficult for the Waffen-SS to recruit a sufficient number of pure-blooded Germans. On the other hand, due to the political fluctuations caused by the war, many European countries carried out hasty and ill-conceived attacks on their own right-wing groups and their personnel. The persecution caused a large number of right-wing elements, revolutionaries, Nazis, dissidents and admirers of the Nazi regime from European countries to pour into Germany and join the SS. The Armed SS began to relax its recruitment requirements. And actively recruit European volunteers from foreign countries. By the middle and late stages of the war, hundreds of thousands of foreign volunteers had become an important force of the SS, and demonstrated amazing combat effectiveness and endurance in a series of arduous combat operations. In the Battle of Berlin, the "Charlemagne" Volunteer Division, The troops under the "Nordic" division, the "Viking" division and even a "Free India" division participated in this final bloody battle with almost fatal determination. Their fanatical spirit also made them the most powerful fighting force on the battlefield of World War II!
As far as Linn knew, in the first three years when the imperial power retreated from Northern Europe, there were only a few hundred non-German personnel in the "Sanctuary" base. It was not until the East-West expansion and the turning point in the world situation that the empire began to expand the size of its army, starting from Spain and Switzerland. Some of the personnel secretly recruited by countries such as Argentina and Argentina were former foreign volunteers of the SS. The number of non-German personnel in the Imperial Army increased, but until 1949, when the Soviet army withdrew from Germany, these "foreign aid" The total number of people is only more than 2,000. Obviously, as the most influential Waffen SS general during the Third Reich, one of Dietrich's important missions was to recruit old troops and expand the corps. After Kleist reported the latest increase in the Imperial Army, the 58-year-old former SS general reported that more than 7,000 foreign volunteers had recently passed the review to join his regiment. Different from the previous batches of volunteers, most of these people are novices without combat experience and need at least a month of training to become soldiers with the most basic combat qualities. In the next few days, there will be multiple The foreign troops who completed the training arrived in the mainland to participate in the war. They included a Spanish anti-tank infantry battalion, a Finnish mountain company, a Swedish anti-tank infantry company, a Dutch infantry company, an Italian infantry company and a company of anti-tank infantry from French-speaking countries. In addition, the first batch of Hungarian volunteers who arrived in Northern Europe have been assembled. Although their number is not enough to form a combat company, more than 90% of them are qualified soldiers, and with the connivance of the Hungarian government, more Hungarian volunteers were trying to make their way to Bulgaria through Soviet-controlled Croatia and then to Western Allied-controlled areas by sea, a rather difficult and long road.
The troops of one company and one battalion were inconspicuous in the war against millions of Soviet troops, but when Dietrich said sonorously and forcefully which country or nationality they were composed of volunteers, the people present could still feel the spirit. Inspired by God - Inspired by faith and mission, many young people from different countries and nationalities come together. This requires such respectable courage and courage. The experience during World War II made the Germans realize that foreign volunteers are not only excellent soldiers, but the best of them can also become excellent battlefield commanders, whether in battles on the Eastern or Western Fronts, more or less. There have been many examples of foreign volunteer officers directly commanding foreign troops and even German troops. This can fully illustrate that in the German army, which is dominated by anti-Bolshevik and pan-European ideas, the distinction between nationality and ethnicity is not strong. respect and trust, and also gained more and more trust.
After listening to the reports of Kleist and Dietrich, the head of state murmured: "Hold on, you must hold on! The enemy is getting weaker day by day, and we are getting stronger day by day. Time is in our favor, we must hold on!"
Standing next to the head of state, Lin En could hear the words he said clearly, but the generals farther away could not break through the limitations of human hearing. On such an occasion, Lin En lost no time in echoing: "In this war of attrition that is different from the past, freedom fighters from all over the world are continuously gathering under our flag, and the weapons and equipment provided free of charge by Western countries have also made We have great stamina. Every day we persist, we are one step closer to victory. This concept should run through the minds of each of us and enhance the confidence and belief of every officer and soldier to continue fightingGermany will win. !¡±
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