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Text 107. Entering the Sea of ??Azov

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    On March 9, 1943, the island of Crete in the southern part of the Aegean Sea was still slightly cool, but the apricot flowers on the island were already blooming everywhere, making people feel the obvious breath of spring.  The port of Chania, located in the north of Crete, is busy. A large number of army officers and soldiers began to board ships at the port. Lieutenant General Hao Mengcheng, commander of the 32nd Group Army and the commander of the 94th Division, as the advance force of the Eastern European Front of the Republican Army  Yang Xiaoou set off from the port on the flagship "Quanzhou" cruiser of the escort fleet commander Rear Admiral Hu Jingxian.

    "Quanzhou" rendezvoused with the assembled transport fleet on the sea, and the entire fleet marched toward the beginning of the Dardanelles Strait in a mighty manner according to the prearranged formation.  This is the first time the Republican Army has entered the Black Sea. The entire fleet consists of 92 transport ships and 32 frigates. The Navy has dispatched a screen fleet consisting of 2 aircraft ships, 6 cruisers, 12 destroyers and 12 frigates.  to perform escort missions.

    The 14th Air Force of the Army Air Force, which is affiliated with the Eastern European Theater, has already moved to Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula via the Balkans and Romania.

    The entire Mediterranean has become the domain of the Allied Powers. Since the Soviet Union's Black Sea Fleet was completely annihilated, this area has become the domain of the Republican Army and the Italian Navy. Moreover, the German Mediterranean Fleet commanded by Admiral Lukins has been in the Black Sea.  Support the land operations of the Shende Army.

    After a day of sailing, the fleet entered the Dardanelles Strait. The entire Aegean Sea was calm. Turkey and Germany had a very close relationship. Ankara was facing pressure from Britain, the United States and Soviet Russia.  Allow the Republic Fleet to enter the Black Sea through the Bosporus Strait, and also consider that the Republic Navy is not familiar with the situation in the Black Sea Strait.  The German Navy also sent Rear Admiral Bundy to lead a destroyer fleet to pilot the Republican Fleet.

    On March 11, the 32nd Group Army received an order from the theater headquarters. Due to the tight fighting situation of the German army on the front line in the North Caucasus, the group army changed its planned landing in Odessa to landing in Novoroshitok on the Taman Peninsula.  The fleet turned west from the Crimean Peninsula and headed for the Taman Peninsula.

    At 4:20 pm on the 11th, the transport fleet sailed into the port of New Rositok. This area was still under the control of the Germans, but the rumble of artillery could already be heard in the distance.

    Kleist, commander of the German Army Group South Ukraine, who had just been promoted to field marshal, personally rushed to the port of Novoroshitok to welcome the arrival of Republican reinforcements.  Due to lack of troops.  Marshal Kleist was badly beaten by the Soviet army in the North Caucasus campaign. Now that help has arrived, he feels overjoyed.

    Marshal Kleist held a ceremony to welcome the arrival of the Republican Army on the flagship of Admiral Lukins. The commander and staff of the 32nd Group Army, headed by Lieutenant General Hao Mengcheng, arrived by transport boat from the "Quanzhou"  Aboard the battleship Bismarck.  In comparison, the German battleships were several stories taller than the Republican cruisers, and they were much larger, which gave Marshal Kleist a sense of superiority.

    After a brief welcome ceremony.  The 94th Army Division first began to land on the dock. When the huge Panther tanks were lifted from the transport ship to the dock, Marshal Kleist had just found some sense of superiority on the Bismarck.  Nothing left.

    "Theseare all of you equipped with Panther tanks?" Kleist carefully looked at these behemoths that had just been unloaded from the transport ship, and said to Hao Mengcheng beside him in surprise.  Germany's Panther tanks have just begun production, and the total number of equipment currently is only 350. As a field marshal.  Of course, Kleist had seen these new tanks, which were one-third larger than the Panzer IV.

    "Uh, no, Panther tanks only started mass production in the second half of last year. Currently we only equip less than 20 armored divisions, and only 6 armored divisions equipped with Panther tanks will appear on the Eastern Front battlefield." Hao Mengcheng  said.  The lieutenant general did not expect that the Southern Ukraine Army Group, which has 440,000 people in Kleist's hands, currently has less than 370 tanks of various types, and its armor strength is not even as good as an armored division of the Republican Army.

    "Oh. My God, how many tanks do you have in each army group?"

    "We are not a heavy armored army like the 3rd, 9th, 13th, and 18th Group Armies. We have only one armored division and two mechanized infantry divisions, with a number of tanks of 432 heavy tanks and 56 light tanks. The tanks of the heavy armored army  The number is 720 vehicles," Hao Mengcheng said.

    This surprised Kleist. Originally, he thought that the Sino-Italian coalition's investment of only one million troops in Ukraine could only offset the Russians' military advantage and maintain the battlefield situation from collapse.  After Hao Mengcheng briefly introduced the situation, he had a preliminary understanding of the organization of the Republican Army. The armored strength of the Republican Army was much stronger than he thought. Only then did he understand why General Guderian had been emphasizing the need to  Learn from the Chinese way of organizing.

    The armored force that the Germans were once proud of is like a baby compared to the Republican Army. Technically speaking, Germany does not lag behind Republican China, but there is a huge gap in the amount of equipment

    Republic of China or the areas under its control are rich in chromium, nickel, molybdenum, tungsten, manganese and other important rare metal resources. With the continuous improvement of metallurgical technology, various high-performance alloy armor steel and gun steel are widely used.  Artillery, tanks and warships were being built.  On the contrary, Germany lacks some important rare metal resources, and a large amount of high-quality alloy steel is used for submarine manufacturing. On the contrary, its tanks are now lagging behind the Republic of China in terms of armor and artillery performance.

    This is not due to technology, but to the limitations of raw materials. For example, the quality of the high-quality special steel produced by Krupp's joint venture factory in Xinyu, China, is far superior to that in Germany, while the joint venture between MAN Company and Wuhu Internal Combustion Engine Factory  The factory can produce the best air-cooled tank diesel engines in the world, but due to the lack of high-quality alloy materials in Germany, its durability performance simply cannot meet the requirements of military products.

    The Panther made in Republic of China is equipped with an 810-horsepower tank diesel engine, the most powerful in the world, while the Panther tank made in Germany can only be equipped with a 700-horsepower Maybach gasoline engine.  The consequence of this is that the Panther made in the Republic of China weighs 47.6 tons with thickened armor, but can run 52 kilometers, while the top speed of the Panther tank produced in Germany can only be limited to 46 kilometers per hour.  Moreover, due to the lack of alloy parts, the durability and reliability of German-made tanks are far lower than those equipped by the Republican Army.

    Resource issues have been plaguing Germany's production. Without the 10 million tons of crude oil supply from China and Italy each year, I am afraid that the German army's fuel supply will be in crisis.  Although Germany's annual steel output is 32 million tons, its annual output of high-quality alloy steel that can meet military production requirements is only 1.5 million tons, which is far from meeting demand.

    This is Germany¡¯s problem. If the Republican Army had not opened up the resource transportation channel in the Mediterranean, the German Empire would soon have declined due to the depletion of resources.  However, since the resources and production of rare metals are limited, the Republican Army must first ensure its own material supply, and then consider supplying Germany. But there is also Italy in the middle. On the Republic's priority list, the Italians will definitely be ranked  The Germans were in front, although this was a very ineffective ally.

    Due to the strong support of the Republic of China, although Italy's steel output is only more than 3.7 million tons, the equipment level of its army is no worse than that of the Germans. The P35/41 tanks produced by Fiat and Ansaldo factories weigh 36 tons and are equipped with  The performance of an M41 90mm/L53 tank gun is even better than the German 88mm tank gun.

    In order to "grow face" for himself, Mussolini dispatched the army's four most elite armored divisions in the 270,000-strong "expeditionary force" sent to Russia. This means that the Italians' equipment is actually better than that of the Eastern Front.  The German army was much better.

    With the 32nd Army successfully landing in Novorosshitok, General Zhang Yi'an then landed in Odessa with the 9th Army.  On March 16, the 18th Army and the Italian "Ram" Armored Division landed on the Taman Peninsula. The collapsing German army finally stabilized its position.  (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian.com to vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Mobile users please go to read
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