Chapter 103 Street Fighting

Berlin, Imperial Palace.

At this moment, Wilhelm held a confidential report delivered from the Soviet side.

Inside were two pieces of information. One was about the Gold Train. Moscow authorities had confirmed that the Gold Train had fallen beneath a cliff twenty kilometers from the town of Alexeyevsk, although the cause of the accident was temporarily unknown. Nevertheless, the train could only have fallen there, as there was nowhere else for it to go. This news finally calmed the furious Stalin down. Despite the fact that the Gold Train had fallen into a deep cliff and later triggered a mudslide, requiring considerable effort just to clear away the mud and rocks, at least the gold remained within Soviet territory. Therefore, he only issued orders to excavate the train as quickly as possible and didn't investigate whether there were other conspiracies behind it.

The second piece of information was that Nikita Chruschtschow, the First Secretary of the Moscow Oblast Party Committee, also fell into that cliff, buried by the mudslide. This news made Wilhelm involuntarily exclaim. He didn't expect the butterfly effect of his time travel to be so extensive. Considering that in the original timeline, Chruschtschow didn't pass away until 1971, now he had met his demise 35 years earlier.

However, this individual didn't seem to have any outstanding achievements during World War II. His main tasks included inspecting the readiness and morale of the troops, personally interrogating German prisoners, conscripting some prisoners for propaganda work, and so on. Therefore, Wilhelm didn't pay much attention to this matter.

What excited him the most was that his plan had been successfully executed. In the near future, those 560 tons of gold would be in the German treasury. Just thinking about it was exhilarating!

Whistling happily, Wilhelm asked as he picked up the report, "Any casualties in the air force?" Considering that the original Spanish government air force consisted of outdated aircraft, the only threat to the German Bf 109s would be the Soviet-supplied I-16 fighters.

The Chief of the Air Force, Kaselin, reported, "Three casualties. One dead, one severely injured, and one lightly injured."

"Shot down by enemy planes?" Having only three casualties so far was already quite good.

Kaselin looked a bit embarrassed and hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Uh, no, it was an accident that occurred when the pilots were landing."

Wilhelm sighed slightly. Of course, he knew that the Bf 109's single-wing design brought about insufficient structural strength, and the landing gear could only be installed at the wing root. This resulted in a small gap between the landing gears, making landing challenging and unfriendly to novices, who could easily cause accidents.

However, to improve this issue would require an overall redesign, and it was better to design an entirely new aircraft. "This is an unavoidable situation. We can only emphasize safety during takeoff and landing with the pilots." After saying that, he focused on the report again.

Franco, German, and Italian joint forces were overwhelming in the recapture of Madrid. The government forces without reinforcements were merely fighting a desperate battle, and it was only a matter of time before they were completely defeated. On the other hand, one of the most important battles of the Spanish Civil War, the "Battle of Barcelona", was proceeding fiercely.

The joint forces were undoubtedly victorious, firmly controlling the northern region of Spain. They were relentlessly advancing eastward with the goal of cutting off the border connection between the Spanish government forces and France.

In practical combat, the German armored division's attacks in the field were highly effective. They quickly captured the major city of Salamanca in central Spain, and subsequently annihilated two main columns of the Republican forces that were surrounded near Salamanca. They successfully split the region controlled by the government forces in half. Following this, the joint forces expanded on this success, taking the major northern town of Leon in the second month, opening up the supply line to La Coruna.

"Have we lost a total of 16 tanks so far?"

Rundstedt's face showed a pained expression. "Among them, 9 were destroyed in street fighting. Your Highness, I believe tanks should not be easily deployed in urban warfare."

Wilhelm lightly tapped his fingers on the desk, pondered for a moment, and asked, "How were our tanks destroyed? They shouldn't have single-handed rocket weapons like the 'Panzerfaust', right?"

Rundstedt nodded. "They don't have similar weapons. Some tanks were ambushed by enemy tanks, others had their engines hit by anti-tank rifles, losing power. There were also tanks destroyed by Molotov cocktails and cluster grenades... In short, they have various methods to deal with tanks; urban warfare is a nightmare for tank units."

A nightmare for tank units? Wilhelm shook his head without commenting. It should be noted that, whether in the urban battles of World War II or the later conflicts like the Iraq War, they all affirmed a conclusion contrary to public opinion: tanks have always been effective weapons in city street fighting.

The U.S. military, in particular, concluded from the Iraq War that excluding tanks from urban combat was a mistake. In the large-scale offensive on Fallujah, the U.S. military, with tanks and armored vehicles at its core, achieved victory with minimal losses of just over 50 Marines. They killed and captured over 3,000 enemy combatants, proving that tanks were the best equipment for urban warfare.

Due to the excellent protection, precise and powerful firepower, and agile mobility of tanks, they are indispensable conditions and advantages in urban street fighting attacks. When tank units are accompanied by infantry support, they can undoubtedly achieve the goal of eliminating entrenched enemies and reducing friendly casualties in street fighting.

In urban warfare, the main purpose of tanks is to provide heavy firepower that infantry cannot carry, cover infantry for high-speed assaults, and serve as a strong support point for infantry to rely on in combat. Without armored forces, infantry would undoubtedly suffer greater casualties in the city.

Moreover, without the ubiquitous RPGs of the future, tank units have strong survival capabilities.

"General Rundstedt, you have to consider how many casualties infantry would have to endure to win without the support and cover of heavy armored tanks in street fighting. I believe tanks are still the weapon of choice for urban warfare. If things go wrong, it's a tactical issue, not a problem with the tanks themselves. Of course, using a pure tank force to assault city streets would be suicidal." A typical example is the fierce street fighting in Grozny. In a situation where coordination with infantry was lacking, armored forces recklessly attacked the city without infantry support. The result was that out of 26 T-80 tanks, 20 were destroyed, and only 18 of the 120 infantry fighting vehicles withdrew from the city. In the following three days of the attack, around 250 T-80 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers were destroyed, illustrating the brutality of such warfare.

"But when tanks coordinate with infantry in street fighting assaults, the effectiveness is much better than with a pure infantry force. We need to train a specialized infantry-tank coordinated street fighting force." Wilhelm forgot such an important aspect. It should be noted that the turning point of World War II was when the German army lost the Battle of Stalingrad. The reason for the loss was precisely the failure to engage in street fighting.