The large mechanized army centers in the 1940s and 1970s were completely different. The large mechanized army centers in the 1940s were actually trucks, not tanks on the surface. However, in the 1970s, with the advent of infantry armored vehicles, tracked armored vehicles, wheeled With the massive popularity of armored vehicles, the center of mechanization has truly shifted to the latter.
Tanks are very important and will determine the outcome of the war, but in the era of great mechanization, what really determines long-term victory is the transportation capacity of war supplies and the mobile deployment of large-scale troops.
It was not until the 1980s that the core of modern military affairs shifted to new large-scale military transport aircraft. In fact, there was still a problem during several changes, and that was the troop transportation capacity.
The empire has the best and largest number of military trucks in the world, with a complete range of light, medium and heavy models.
Different from the past, today's military half-track truck (similar to the German Opel mule in World War II) can have the transportation capacity of 15 horses, is faster and consumes less money. Hundreds of thousands of trucks can ensure not only large-scale transportation but also large-scale transportation. The transfer of large-scale materials and troops can also ensure the combat scale and firepower level of the troops.
??For this point, Nazi Germany has actually never been able to fully understand it.
The empire's automobile industry has provided the Central Defense Force with the most comprehensive and advanced military vehicles in the world, while ensuring sufficient quantity and strong production capacity. It is based on this foundation that the Central Military Department can have With strong confidence, they formulated a quick attack plan. According to this plan, the Imperial Central Defense Forces will implement the Great Leap Forward within a month, capture Kazan, annihilate the main force of the Soviet Red Army in the east, and then annihilate the Soviet troops deployed in Kazakhstan. garrison to ensure the empire's occupation of the entire eastern Soviet Union and the Kazakh region.
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A few days later, with the approval of Emperor Song Biao, Army Lieutenant General Chen Jiayou held a press conference in Beijing as the chief of the inner court. On behalf of the central government, he informed that the Sino-Soviet negotiations on the Kazakhstan Revolution had broken down and that China would consider passing military measures within the Asian Alliance. Action decision was made to send troops to liberate Kazakhstan.
This is the first time that the inner court has bypassed the central government and directly issued a report on external matters, because the Central Military Department is not suitable to represent the central government, and the central government headed by Gu Weijun is actually unwilling to issue such a report.
In the end, the chief of the inner court could only directly issue this notification. Once the news came out, the whole world was in an uproar. All countries and politicians knew very well that this meant that China might send troops to attack the Soviet Union.
From the perspective of international politics, China is not an unreasonable aggressor. Based on the interests of the Asian League, China asked the Soviet Union to allow Kazakhstan to invade, but the Soviet Union refused, ultimately forcing China to decide to promote military resolutions within the Asian League. After the Asian League countries voted, they jointly sent troops to liberate Kazakhstan.
That¡¯s just what I said.
Many years later, looking back at the United States' manipulation of the United Nations and NATO to invade North Korea, Serbia and Montenegro, and Afghanistan, it was actually the same method. As long as there is a suitable reason, justice will always be controlled by the world's hegemon.
Although there is a suspicion of taking advantage of the fire, the empire still actively promoted the matter within the Asian League Council. In fact, before the imperial court issued this notification, the empire had already reached an agreement with the major member states of the Asian League, and the empire in Siberia Military deployments in Central Asia were also launched at the same time.
Preparations for this war began after the second secret talks between China and the Soviet Union. Preparations were fully launched in July 1940, but before that, the empire had actually been preparing for this war for twenty years. Long.
Such a foundation allowed the empire to make preparations to send troops to the Soviet Union in a short period of time. When the empire's resolution to promote military operations within the Asian League Council was passed, the country had already begun another large-scale mobilization, starting from the central region. The 22 transferred army divisions all arrived in the Siberian Military District and Central Asia as scheduled within a month, bringing the size of the empire's army garrison in Siberia and Central Asia to 27 armored brigades, 14 tank divisions and 30 mechanized infantry divisions. The Air Force It will also reach a scale of 13,000 combat aircraft within two months.
People think that the reason for this war is that the Soviet Union did not agree to allow Kazakhstan to annex. In fact, this is obviously not the case. The Soviet Union agreed, but it was not the unconditional annexation emphasized by the empire, and the empire never really asked the Soviet Union to annex Kazakhstan unconditionally. Stan**.
In many rounds of secret talks between China and the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union initially did not agree to allow the Kazakh region to annex. At the same time, it required China to continue to supply strategic materials and military equipment and transfer military technology because the Soviet Union believed that it was helping China resist Nazi Germany. As a result, the negotiations broke down.
Subsequently, the Soviet Union began to agree to separatism in the Kazakh region. In exchange, China must meet the military, technical and material assistance requested by the Soviet Union. The negotiations continued to break down. In essence, China did not veto the grant of military, technical and material assistance.Instead of receiving sufficient support from the United States, they demanded more territorial transfers. This was a condition that the Soviet Union was completely unacceptable to.
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The situation developed very quickly, so fast that neither Germany nor the Soviet Union had time to react.
On September 15, 1940, on the 10th day after Lieutenant General Chen Jiayou issued a briefing on behalf of the imperial court, the Asian League Council passed a representative voting resolution in Beijing, establishing the Asian League Northern Alliance Army on this day, and appointed Army General Zhao Tingzhu as the commander of the Asian League. The Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Alliance Forces authorized the Northern Alliance Headquarters to liberate the Kazakh region.
During this period, Martin Bormann, Secretary-General of the General Office of the German Nazi Party, made an urgent and secret visit to China as the special envoy of the head of state to negotiate on the bottom line of China's sending troops to the Soviet Union. Germany was very conflicted about this. It welcomed China's sending troops but was also worried about it. China quickly occupied the eastern part of the Soviet Union and stole territory that should have belonged to Nazi Germany.
Before the official dispatch of troops, the empire still sent Lieutenant General Chen Jiayou, the chief of the inner court, to meet with Martin Bormann and solemnly promised that the empire¡¯s goal was only to liberate Kazakhstan, and at the same time ensured that the members of the Asian League would no longer be eroded by Sovietism.
At the same time, the Soviet Union also hurriedly expressed its willingness to negotiate with the Asian League on the Kazakhstan revolution. However, during this period, all the messages from the Soviet Union to the empire were just a piece of waste paper, and no one cared about it at all.
It can also be said that the empire blindly believes in force. The problem is that the empire does have the force to solve all problems. The empire's ambition is not just as simple as Kazakhstan. The Soviet Union itself is very clear. The empire's goal is to completely cut the Soviet Union in two and separate it. The Soviet Union was completely expelled from Asia.
After the Asian League Council passed a vote and granted all military powers to the Northern Alliance, the development of the situation was no longer bound by political forces.
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Omsk.
The city in the northwest of the empire.
On the empire's map, it was clearly marked as a military fortress city. The entire city looked like an imperial fortress of unprecedented scale. Chen Qicai once commented on the city when he inspected Omsk in 1933 - even without an army. , it can also defend against an army of one million.
This is the value of Omsk.
Over the past two decades, Omsk has gradually become an authentic Chinese city. The local Russian residents now account for only 1/7 of the total local residents. Most of the residents are new residents who have migrated from Shanxi and Shaanxi.
Omsk has a certain amount of oil reserves, but the production volume is not large. Because it is located at the junction of China and the Soviet Union, the local commerce and industrial economy have always been prosperous, and various Soviet government agencies have procurement offices here.
In the entire surrounding Siberian Province, more than 110 million acres of arable land have provided a good foundation for Omsk's grain processing industry, textile industry and machinery industry. It is also one of the largest oil industry cities in China. Although the locally mined oil Not much, but the oil imported from the Soviet Union was processed here every year.
In just twenty years, it became the most prosperous city in Novosibirsk.
General Zhao Tingzhu has lived here for three years. In the past three years, he has been secretly responsible for preparing for the war against the Soviet Union. It can be said that he is very well prepared and understands everything.
Comparing to life in Beijing, General Zhao Tingzhu prefers life in Omsk, because the land is large and sparsely populated. Omsk has been the largest city in China since its founding, with wide roads and a ridiculously high greening rate. The climate here is similar to that in Northeast China, which is perfect for General Zhao Tingzhu, so much so that he wants to work here until he retires.
Here, his cooperation with Wei Lihuang is a bit like Marshal Hindenburg and Chief of Staff Ludendorff of Germany in World War I. He entrusted most of the work to the energetic Wei Lihuang, and he almost only used Just sign the document.
That¡¯s what it said.
After all, Zhao Tingzhu is a senior army general who has fought in a hail of bullets. He is too familiar with war, as familiar as an old farmer farming. He does not need to attend too many meetings, as long as he sees Wei The report submitted by Lihuang can make a correct judgment.
The most important point is that regarding this war, he took too long to prepare. In the past twenty years, he has never stopped thinking about this war. After thinking about it countless times, he came to the conclusion The conclusion is extremely simple - speed and efficiency.
Nothing else matters. As long as there is maximum speed and efficiency, the Empire will easily win this war.
Speed ??and efficiency are precisely the central guiding ideology of the Imperial Army's great mechanization reform. With the Empire's current level, it is too easy to defeat the Soviet Red Army again.
It is precisely because of this thatGeneral Zhao Tingzhu could appear a little casual. He left the headquarters in a jeep at 10 o'clock in the morning and handed over all the annoying and trivial headquarters work to Wei Lihuang, while he went to inspect the troops below.
Novosibirsk has started to get cold in October, which is about the same as Beijing in November. By December, it will be too cold here and in the Soviet Union for large-scale military operations. Therefore, there is only one and a half months left for the Northern Alliance. .
Omsk¡¯s road conditions are very good, and the asphalt roads are extremely spacious. Thanks to the local chemical industry, the cost of local road construction is indeed very low.
The whole journey was very smooth, and General Zhao Tingzhu quickly arrived at his destination - the First Armored Division.
This was the army he founded.
He can still remember the situation when the First Division was first established. At that time, it was just separated from the framework of the Manchurian Infantry Division. He completed a series of bandit suppression operations in Changchun and Jilin areas, and based on this, he absorbed Recruiting veterans who had participated in the Liaoyang Campaign, he formed the Northeast First Infantry Division, which later became the Empire's First Infantry Division. It was then reorganized from the First Infantry Division into a mechanics division, and finally became the First Armored Division in the hands of Wei Lihuang.
The Armored Division is currently the main force of the Imperial Army.
In the organizational system of the Imperial Army, an armored division is usually equipped with 1 tank regiment, 2 armored infantry regiments, 1 self-propelled artillery regiment, 2 air defense battalions directly under its jurisdiction, as well as other command battalions, reconnaissance battalions, and chemical defense battalions. Similar to the Soviet Union, Unlike armored divisions, the empire's armored divisions usually have a baggage regiment.
During the war, the strength of each division is generally doubled, and the situation of the 1st Armored Division is no exception. The regiment-level organization is still the same as in the past, but the companies under each battalion are doubled on average. The tank regiment is equipped with MBT33 The tanks have also become new MBT35 main battle tanks, and the number has increased from the original 332 to 664.
For the armored division, the armored infantry regiment is the main combat force.
As the core force of the empire's large mechanized army, the armored infantry regiment is equipped with a large number of infantry fighting vehicles and a small number of tanks, and is systematically equipped with tracked infantry fighting vehicles, armored reconnaissance vehicles, demining vehicles, command vehicles, anti-aircraft vehicles, Tank destroyers, armored transport vehicles, radar warning vehicles, and even cooking companies and medical companies have specialized field logistics vehicles.
Through a large number of exercises and tests, the current main combat ideas and tactics of the Imperial Army require a more concentrated use of tank units. In every war, several tank divisions or tank brigades will be used as a charge force to tear apart the opponent's defense line. , while the armored infantry regiment advanced in coordination with the tank regiment and the tank companies subordinate to each battalion of the regiment.
On the frontal battlefield, armored infantry fighting vehicles must fight together under the protection of tanks. Their task is to cooperate with tanks in fighting, rather than being the center of the battle. However, in the entire major battle, a large number of armored infantry fighting vehicles must play a role The key main role.
In terms of tactics, infantry is not the center, but in terms of battle, infantry is the main force.
The empire's army combat thinking is actually very simple. It can be summed up in one sentence: "Armored vehicles must be systematically implemented for comprehensive operations, and tanks and artillery must be used as intensively as possible to focus on operations." At the same time, the higher the mechanization rate, the faster the combat. The faster it is, the more efficient it is.
With regard to the depth and refinement of mechanization understanding, neither the Soviet Red Army nor the Nazi German Army has reached the level of the Imperial CSKA.
In the view of Zhao Tingzhu, a strong supporter of the mechanized army reform, the mechanization work of the Soviet Red Army is really average. Although the number is large, it is actually still at a relatively low stage.
General Zhao Tingzhu is also very satisfied with the newly commissioned MBT35 main battle tank. Based on the MBT33 main battle tank, this new tank has been extensively upgraded and improved. It has a more powerful engine and a more flexible gearbox, as well as more For a stable torsion bar suspension system, newer and larger-caliber rifled guns, including sharper sabot-piercing projectiles.
Compared with the latest MBT40 tank, there is definitely a big gap. The advantage is that the cost is moderate and the production capacity is huge. If the empire goes all out, the annual output of MBT35 main battle tanks may exceed 30,000 units. Even at this stage, it has reached 12,000 units. vehicles/year high speed level.
This huge advantage in production capacity means that the Northern Alliance currently has 5,870 MBT35s, as well as more than 7,700 MBT33s and no less than 4,000 MT22 light tanks.
The Northern Alliance currently has 22 tank regiments, as many as 73,000 armored vehicles of various types, a total of 114,000 military trucks, and a total number of troops of nearly 2 million. According to the standards of the Imperial Army, the total mechanization rate of the Alliance is close to 75.
This is the basis for the Northern Allied Forces to implement the Thousand Miles Operation in one month.
Zhao Tingzhu¡¯s understanding of war is like an old farmer who knows the quality of his crops.He is confident and knows exactly what his troops can and cannot do.
Zhao Tingzhu came to the First Armored Division today to meet Wei Lihuang and Huang Baitao. After the Battle of Busan, Huang Baitao withdrew the Fourth Armored Division from the Korean battlefield and was transferred to the Novosibirsk Military District. He is currently the commander of the First Army of the Northern Allied Forces. The military rank was also promoted to Army Lieutenant General.
Wei Lihuang, who was transferred to the Novosibirsk Military District at the beginning of the year, proposed a new tactical concept of "comprehensive combat reorganization" after withdrawing from the Korean battlefield, which is similar to the combined battalion theory of modern military development in the 1970s, but Wei Lihuang has not yet Considering that far, the combined battalion theory is not suitable for large-scale mechanized legion operations.
Many experiences and lessons from the Korean War have made Wei Lihuang realize that the large-scale mechanical military must continue to be refined. Simple tank brigades, tank regiments, and armored infantry regiments not only have a single function in actual combat, but are also easily restrained.
Although during the entire Sino-Japanese War, only a few well-equipped elite Japanese divisions posed a threat to the Imperial Army, the overall equipment level of the Japanese army was still incomparable to that of the German army and the Soviet Union. For Wei Lihuang, this meant The Imperial Army could easily suffer greater trauma during its large-scale military offensive against the Soviet Union.
His solution was to continue to refine the mechanization changes based on General Chen Wu, and to prepare for the establishment of some regiment-level combat units with comprehensive combat capabilities. On the Korean battlefield, General Chen Wu's Northeastern Defense Force was already in the central The adaptation and testing of the synthetic battalion was implemented with the approval of the military department, and the results were very good.
Different from the situation on the Japanese battlefield, the scale of the decisive battle between the regiments on the Soviet-German battlefield was larger. The scale of the combined battalion was too small to pose a direct threat to the enemy. This made Wei Lihuang consider more about regiment-level battles. Military command units implemented major changes.
In order to ensure the coordinated operations of armored fighting vehicles, infantry and tank units, and to ensure the concentrated advantage of tank units in large-scale tank decisive battles, the Imperial CSKA has always adopted the organization of armored divisions with attached tank brigades. However, in the practice of the Sino-Japanese War The coordinated operation of armored divisions and tank brigades has proven difficult.
Under different formations, how does the infantry of an armored division continue to cooperate with the tank brigade in the process of following combat vehicles, as well as the coordinated command among the corresponding regiment-level combat units at all levels? Which regiment-level commander is responsible for the command? It is a difficult problem to coordinate in itself.
Therefore, Wei Lihuang decided to split the tank brigades of the Northern Alliance into affiliated tank battalions and assign them to each armored infantry regiment. The commanders of the armored divisions at all levels directly command the tank troops. The tank troops must cooperate with the armored infantry troops to implement tactics. Attack, but Wei Lihuang was also hesitant in choosing the leaders of various regiments.
Tanks are a professional arm and are more complex than artillery. It is difficult for frontline commanders who only have experience in commanding armored infantry units to correctly command tank operations.
After arriving at the station of the 1st Armored Division, General Zhao Tingzhu met Wei Lihuang and Huang Baitao, who were actively preparing for new collaborative combat training. After shaking hands with them respectively, the three of them exchanged a few words with each other and then headed to the training venue together. Watch the troops conduct collaborative combat training.
In the past few days, Wei Lihuang has been conducting collaborative combat training and testing within the integrated armored regiment.
Wei Lihuang has also been promoted to Army General and served as the Chief of Staff of the Northern Allied Forces. With the support of General Zhao Tingzhu, he is energetic and shrewd and is more in charge of the operations of the Northern Allied Forces.
He is rapidly coordinating the reform of the armored divisions, splitting the armored brigades and then arranging them to serve as auxiliary tank regiments in the armored divisions. Although there is still a long way to go from the comprehensive regiment theory he envisioned, it has already been established within the Imperial Army. It is a very big tactical change, and in the First Armored Division and the Fourth Armored Division, efforts to directly change the organization into integrated combat armored regiments are also advancing rapidly. These two divisions will be the two most important army reform pilots in the empire. Division Headquarters.
The Central Military Headquarters and General Zhao Tingzhu have paid great attention to such reforms, and are also closely exchanging relevant reform test information with the Northeastern National Defense Forces. If Wei Lihuang's reforms in the Northern Allied Forces are successful, it will effectively solve the problem of divisions and brigades. Regarding the problem of coordinated operations, this reform will soon be extended to the entire army, becoming the third major change in the history of the Imperial Army.
After watching the collaborative combat exercise training of the 1st Armored Division, General Zhao Tingzhu nodded appreciatively, and his colleague Wei Lihuang praised: "This change you led is indeed very important."
Wei Lihuang was silent for a moment and replied: "On the Korean battlefield, we have discovered that deploying tanks too closely will lead to a significant reduction in the combat range covered by the tank division, curbing the deterrence of the tank unit and the ability to assault the defense line. However, If the density of deployed tanks increases to more than 140 meters, the battlefield will be filled with small enemy troops everywhere, resulting inTank units are easily destroyed by enemy small-scale fire weapons. 140 meters is the most effective effective range of the M35 assault rifle for intensive shooting. In other words, the forward space of the tank unit should be filled by a large number of infantry. The firepower of two infantry squads can ensure that a tank can be within two hundred meters of the surrounding area. security within. If we can further promote this change so that the regiments under the armored division generally become integrated combat regiments and achieve effective control of the battlefield at the regiment level, it will greatly improve our army's ability to coordinate command and advance penetration. Tactical value, improve the offensive level of our army. In fact, no matter how many tanks we put into a large-scale campaign, it is unlikely that one tank brigade will versus one tank brigade. "
General Zhao Tingzhu is still at a non-committal stage regarding this inference. He just trusts his chief of staff and is willing to use his own reputation and record as a bet to give the other party's talents enough room to display. Of course, many recent tests have indeed verified it. Wei Lihuang's judgment is that especially on the Soviet-German battlefield, large-scale German troops were frequently restrained in the Soviet Union's relatively stable coordinated operations. The number of damaged tanks increased sharply, and more than half of the tanks were not destroyed by Soviet Red Army tanks. wreck.
In General Zhao Tingzhu¡¯s understanding of military and war, war is like this. Every battle will destroy more enemies than the other side, save more enemies, capture more supplies, and harvest more supplies. In the end, it will become irreversible. absolute advantage.
During the empire's attack on the Soviet Red Army, as long as one more enemy tank was destroyed each time, one more infantry squad was eliminated, one more main battle tank was saved, and one more new tank was received from the domestic rear military industrial base, one month later, Northeast China The coalition forces will use their absolute quantitative and qualitative advantages to annihilate the Soviet Red Army in the Kazan area.
This is a universal axiom for all wars. This was true in the second and third Sino-Japanese wars, and it was also true in the first Sino-Soviet war.
General Zhao Tingzhu spent two hours at the station of the First Armored Division to observe the coordinated combat training of the army's comprehensive combat group. The results surprised him. The overall advancement speed and efficiency were indeed greatly improved. The armored regiment takes advantage of the advancement and breakthrough of its only subordinate tank battalion and uses a large number of infantry fighting vehicles and infantry to coordinate operations. It can easily capture the positions of the opponent's three infantry regiments, and the probability of the tanks being attacked is also greatly reduced. .
After watching the exercise, General Zhao Tingzhu, together with Wei Lihuang and Huang Baitao, returned to the division headquarters of the 1st Armored Division and returned to the division office, where Zhao Tingzhu obtained multiple recent training exercise reports.
??Judging from the report alone, the reform of effectively integrating integrated combat regiment tactics at the regiment level to ensure efficient coordinated operations has been quite successful, and the number of tanks destroyed has also been significantly reduced.
There are only three people in the conference room of the division headquarters: Zhao Tingzhu, Wei Lihuang and Huang Baitao.
General Zhao Tingzhu smoked Liumu's black pipe while reading the exercise reports one by one. After a long time, he said to Wei Lihuang: "It's a pity that we were too late. The military has already set the final date for dispatching troops. , in short, we need to make all preparations before October, and we don¡¯t have time to continue rectification.¡±
Wei Lihuang was not in a hurry and replied: "Then make changes while fighting. Only a real war can test the correctness and shortcomings of tactical changes."
General Zhao Tingzhu said: "Isn't that the truth?"
He really admired the large-scale military changes that Chen Wu had made in the Northeast Defense Force, which reduced the basic command unit of comprehensive operations to the battalion level. It was really a big change, and the effect was indeed obvious.
Their Northern Allied Forces were too late in time and could only carry out reforms at the regiment level. This also required gradual system changes during the war. In terms of division-level changes, the Imperial Army had done a relatively complete job. Now the pure tank brigade has been basically split up.
It¡¯s not that pure tank brigades are bad, but the advantages and disadvantages are too obvious, so a small amount can be retained. Most tank brigades are broken down into regiments and battalions, and assigned to each armored division as a unit directly under the jurisdiction of the army.
Of course, artillery units still mainly fight in groups, especially the empire's heavy artillery and self-propelled artillery units. Large-scale artillery divisions can still become the central force of the imperial army. The same is true for Sud, which is destined to be the largest artillery in the world this time. The decisive battle between empires!
It is said that China was the first to develop a tank brigade, because China was the earliest and most courageous on the road to large-scale mechanization. Sud and Germany really copied the Chinese Army's model, but China is also quick to reflect on it. At present, the purity of the Northern Allied Forces There are only three tank brigades left.
The Soviet Red Army did the opposite. From the initial tank brigade establishment, it expanded into tank divisions, tank brigades, and tank brigades.Army, its 3rd and 6th Tank Armies are really large-scale mechanized combat forces of unprecedented scale. It can also be said to have brought the Soviet Union's Steel Torrent tactics to the extreme.
¡°Whether the extreme model of the Soviet Red Army has more combat effectiveness, or whether the Imperial Army¡¯s current comprehensive combat armored division organization has more combat effectiveness, this requires war to test and answer.
One thing is certain, that is, the number of artillery, tanks, armored vehicles and trucks of the empire is really overwhelming the Soviet Red Army. Not only does it have an absolute advantage in quantity, but it is also on the same level in terms of quality. It is the well-deserved king of the world's mechanized army. . (To be continued. Please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!)