The Return of the King chapter 058

The Italians dispatched troops from their home country excitedly. They thought it would be a relaxing and pleasant march. Unexpectedly, just as they crossed the Alps and prepared to enter Odili to harvest the land , but ran into a defensive line like an iron wall!

Mainz did not have many troops, so it only gave Model 10,000 troops.

Moreover, most of these 10,000 people are not German troops, but Odili troops. Therefore, Model has to train and integrate these soldiers while fighting, and gradually transform them into regular German troops. It is extremely difficult to complete this task in a short period of time. , but Model did not complain at all. On the contrary, he was very interested and accepted the task happily!

For Model, he had never led an army alone in a battle before, so he yearned very much for leading an army in a war.

The position of regimental staff provided Model with a lot of experience in combat planning, which made his strategic vision surpass that of other generals of the same age.

Even if Model in 1919 was not as powerful as he was in 1942, he was at least half as powerful as he was later.

On the other hand, the Italians, although they had the advantage in military strength, were careless before the war and underestimated the enemy's strength, leading to a serious underestimation of the enemy.

Just like this military operation, the Italians' ambition is to eat up the Odili area, especially the large area bordering the northeastern part of Italy. In this way, the Italians can monopolize the Alps and take over this area. Become the commanding heights in your own country.

With this commanding height, they no longer have to worry about being invaded by foreign enemies!

On the contrary, when they are condescending, the entire European continent is within their attack range. In that case, the Italians' dream of recreating the glory of the Roman Empire may become a reality!

The dream of the Italians is quite good, but it completely ignores a reality: although the Alps can become the commanding heights overlooking the whole of Europe, the Italians who march towards Odili from the Italian mainland are themselves in a Disadvantageous position overlooked by the Odili on top of the hill!

They know that occupying the commanding heights can make it easier to attack the enemy, but they have never thought about how they will be beaten by the enemy after they occupy the commanding heights!

Model was one step ahead of the Italians and entered the battlefield. After conducting on-site inspections, he immediately began to formulate tactics.

In 194, on the Soviet-German battlefield, due to the Battle of Moscow, the German army began to fall into fatigue. The Soviet army, which had recovered its strength, began to frequently attack the German army. During this period, the German army developed a new defense. Tactics, that is elastic defense.

The details of this tactic: taking advantage of the high mobility characteristics of the German armored forces and motorized units, changing the previous line-filling tactic of arranging troops in a front line for defensive defense, concentrating the troops, and only deploying a small number of troops on the front line , and then adopt flexible responses according to the enemy's attack direction.

This tactic is an active strategy in the defensive mode of mobile warfare.

It makes full use of battlefield space and time factors.

Once the enemy's attack focus is discovered, it immediately commands the troops to quickly maneuver and concentrate its forces.

During the attack, it also uses The armored troops are assault groups that take advantage of the enemy's hesitation and confusion, risk exposing their flanks and rear, and boldly make roundabout attacks to attack the enemy's flanks and rear, thus dismantling the enemy's entire defense.

The main reason why this kind of defense will catch the enemy off guard is that the people on the defensive side should only be able to defend passively, while the attacking side can safely and boldly devote all their troops to the attack when they have no worries.

But the flexible defense changed this situation. The German army in a defensive state could actually launch a counterattack, and if it didn't move, it would gather superior forces to attack the Soviet army's back. Once the Soviet army's flank defense line was penetrated, the frontline The Soviet army will easily fall into the enemy's siege!

Starting from June 22, 1941, the Soviet army was surrounded by the German army countless times during the war. Once surrounded, the Soviet army trapped in the encirclement was basically in danger, except for a few Soviet troops who successfully retreated during the Battle of Jifu. In addition, almost all the Soviet troops in other siege battles were wiped out!

Therefore, after seeing the German counterattack, the Soviet army immediately panicked and did not dare to continue the attack. They could only immediately shrink their troops and strengthen the defense on the flanks. In this process, the Soviet army's large-scale troop mobilization would expose a large number of loopholes. Once this kind of loophole is caught, the Soviet army will suffer heavy casualties!

It was none other than Model who pioneered this kind of flexible defense. In the Battle of Mars, faced with the attack of an elite army of 2 million furry bears led by Zhukov, the most famous general of the furry bears, Model relied on the 250,000 soldiers in his hands. The absolutely inferior strength not only thwarted the enemy's counterattack, but also caused heavy casualties of up to 500,000 Soviet troops.

The victory of the Battle of Mars saved the life of the German army, which was already in a disadvantageous situation on the battlefield.

This gave the Führer the opportunity to launch the Battle of Stalingrad.

However, the large number of elite troops and massive supplies, as well as the expectations of the people across the country, had to be The Battle of Stalingrad ultimately ended in the defeat of the German army.

The surrender of General Paulus, commander of the Sixth Army, severely damaged the vitality of the German army!

The reason why this battle is called the turning point of World War II is because after this battle, the German army was no longer able to launch a large-scale active offensive like the Battle of Stalingrad, even in the subsequent Battle of Kursk. It was extremely intense, and its scale was far less grand than the Battle of Stalingrad!

The passive situation on the battlefield made Model, who was good at defense, begin to rise to fame. His reputation as a defensive master also became famous after he continued to thwart Soviet attacks.

In 1919, Model, who had not yet proven his abilities on the battlefield and had not yet won the title of Shield of the Empire, seemed extremely green. However, when facing the careless Italian army, the young German captain's eyes shone. He is ready to show his strength and talent in this war!

And Italian people will become his perfect stepping stone!