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Although it is clear at the strategic level that the attack on Moscow is just a false goal, the Central Army Group spared no effort to deceive tactically. The real goals and contents of the castle battle were only conveyed to the division level, while the armies of various Eastern countries were only conveyed to the army level.

It’s not that they can’t trust the commanders of Eastern countries, but relatively speaking, there is a greater possibility of intruding spies among them, whether it is race, historical heritage or mutual relations, the difficulty of intruding these troops is completely different from the difficulty of intruding into purebred German troops. Even the Eastern countries themselves have admitted that in addition to the Gestapo, they also have members of the anti-counterfeiting institutions independently established by various countries. The facts have proved that this preventive measure is not an unfair concern. Since the first day of the establishment of various Eastern divisions, spy cases have always existed.

However, although the Central Army Group was very busy, Hoffman was unsure of how much this tactical deception could be successful. The reason was very simple. The same trick had been used once: when the Blue Operation began last summer, the Central Army Group sent the map of Moscow and surrounding cities to the regiment level, and at the same time, it also pointed a large number of fake road signs in the direction of the attack, and finally successfully deceived Stalin and the General Staff of the Red Army.

Even though Operation Blue and the campaign to rush to the Caucasus had begun, Stalin still firmly believed that the German offensive target was Moscow and had maintained heavy troops in the direction of Moscow. In the summer battle, not only did he not send the most elite troops to the southern line, but he also rashly launched the famous Timuxingo offensive near Kharkov (the first Kharkiv battle). As a result, not only did Timuxingo's offensive be defeated, but the battle situation on the southern line also collapsed. After more than half a year, he had to draw elite troops from the Moscow direction to fill the gap.

This time Model re-used his old tricks, sent it to the regiment level to the map, pointing the road signs to the target, etc. Hoffman thought it would be difficult for the other party to be fooled. However, after seeing the overall strategic map of the Eastern Front and the distribution map of the enemy- and our forces, he was full of confidence in victory.

If you don't look carefully, you will think that the situation on the Eastern Front seems to have returned to the situation before the German army retreated voluntarily in September 1942: the northern front continues to block Leningrad, the central front is aimed at Moscow, and the southern front is forcing Stalingrad.

But if you look closely, you will find that the actual situation of the German army is much more beneficial than 9 months ago: Turkey participated in the war, the Transcaucasus was occupied, the Caucasus Plain fell into the hands of the axis, the famous Baku oil field was lost, Stalingrad faced pressure from the south, west and north, Manstein's army was even as far as Astrakhan; Iran participated in the war, and the Caspian Sea became a common battlefield for the Soviet and Germans, and the gateways of Central Asian regions such as Turkmen, Uzbek and Kazakhstan were opened.

The United hinterland faces major threats; Arctic routes and southern routes are completely interrupted, and only the Pacific routes can still import a little aid materials, and the Red Army accepts less than 15% of the peak period; non-Russian nation-states have independent and established consolidation regimes, the Russian People's Liberation Army continues to grow, and in addition to maintaining order in the rear, the Eastern countries alone invested more than 500,000 troops to confront the Red Army, which greatly consolidated the offensive force at the axis.

The comparison of troops hidden under the map situation is even more incomparable to technical weapons. Hoffman knows much more clearly than his marshals and generals:

In history, the Soviet army lost about 7.9 million people in 1941 (the total number of dead, wounded and captured), and in 1942, it lost about 7.4 million, and between January and April 1943, the total loss of about 2.4 million. In nearly two years, the Red Army suffered nearly 14 million people (the reason why the number of years is added to the total is that some of the wounded people in the previous year suffered re-invested after returning to the army was calculated as two or even multiple times); in comparison, the Axis Alliance lost nearly 3 million people during the same period, of which the German army lost more than 2.4 million.

After Hoffman crossed, the situation changed significantly, and the Red Army still suffered nearly 14 million losses. Although the Red Army suffered more severe damage on the southern front (Caucasus, Volga River Basin), the historical Mars Operation and Kharkov counterattack were gone. As one went up and down, the losses were finally maintained at a relatively close number of losses. However, the losses of the Axis Alliance were greatly reduced during the same period, with a total loss of nearly 1.8 million. The number of more than 1 million troops lost in the Battle of Stalingrad was greatly reduced, and the troops lost in Operation Mars also decreased sharply. More importantly, the number of captured people was very small. So far, the total number of captured people in the entire Axis Army was only more than 100,000 (most of which were captured in the Battle of Moscow). In history, by May 1943, the total number of captured Axis was nearly 500,000, and German prisoners alone accounted for more than 300,000.

This means that the German army has added nearly 1.2 million troops. Although Hoffmann reduced nearly 250,000 troops in Italy, Romania and Hungary, increased two armies by nearly 250,000 troops in Africa, allocated 100,000 troops to the Marine Corps, and adopted the policy of demobilizing veterans over 40 years old and allowing workers from domestic military-industrial enterprises to return one after another (the number involved is nearly 300,000), overall, there are still 300,000 more troops.

After Turkey and Iran joined the war against the Soviet Union and added another 500,000 auxiliary troops from the Eastern countries, the total combat force against Russia increased by 1.2 million. Therefore, the total number of people on the Eastern Front exceeded 5.5 million for the first time, and has never been reached in history. At most, it was just over 5 million when Barbarossa first launched.

Compared with the 4.5 million vs 6.5 million troops in the fall of 1942, the troop strength comparison on the Eastern Front has now become 5.5 million vs 7.5 million. The Red Army was forced to reduce the troop strength of the Far East and Siberia to less than 1.5 million (the history is nearly 2 million).

Although the combat effectiveness of increasing troops except the German army is not too strong, it is much stronger than the Red Army's urgent red-eyed policy of Ding Jianjun. Hoffmann has read the report submitted by Galen. Now, among the ordinary infantry divisions in the Red Army with the 3xx number, more than 90% of ordinary soldiers are reserve personnel born before 1900 (over 43 years old). Among the infantry divisions with the 1xx and 2xx number, more than 60% of ordinary soldiers are over 40 years old or younger, with only guards, with the number less than 100 and rebuilt earlier infantry divisions and most armored units. In contrast, the German army has basically no ordinary soldiers over 40 years old (very few still strongly demand to stay and serve after multiple mobilizations).

The information submitted by Galen also showed that the Red Army was forming a female soldier division (including pure female soldiers except officers and professional sergeants), with a total number of people likely ranging from 500,000 to 600,000. At the same time, the age of male recruitment was further expanded to 16-61 years old. In order to rapidly increase the strength of the troops, Stalin, who was anxious and red-eyed, no matter what crimes he committed in the past, would be released and organized into an army. Even the most dangerous "political dissidents" were not cared about. In the labor camps of Gulag, the internal affairs troops directly sentenced the most "dangerous" group in front of others, all the survivors were incorporated into the army. Even the Polish prisoners (Katin only killed Polish officers, and nearly 300,000 Polish soldiers were thrown into the labor camps) were disbanded and organized into the army.

After solving the above unstable factors, the internal affairs forces under detention, monitoring and management have further "freed up" people to join the front-line troops. Many people even fought side by side with the previously imprisoned class enemies. The exciting scene of Hoffmann dared not imagine it!

By fishing through the exhale, Stalin once again forcibly raised the entire team to more than 10 million: except for the 7.5 million people confronting the axis and the 1.5 million people on standby in the Far East and Siberia, there were only less than 1 million troops left in the huge Soviet hinterland. Because of this emptiness, Manstein proposed the majestic "Central Asia Plan", hoping to use 500,000 mechanized troops to sweep. Unfortunately, Hoffmann dared not agree to him now. There was no significant supporter in the command centers such as the Supreme Command, the Army General Staff and other command centers. Even Marshal Longdested, who knew Manstein and had an extraordinary relationship, could not believe that this was proposed by Manstein after hearing this plan. He believed that "the head of state proposed this whimsical and unrealistic plan is almost the same." The news came to Hoffmann's ears and rolled his eyes.

Perhaps we also know that similar strategic deceptions will be difficult to work again. In terms of the choice of offensive paths for the Castle Campaign, Model prefers the Tula plan, and the reasons include three points:

First, Orel, the starting point of the Tula plan, is closer to the Southern Army Group Front. When a large-scale battle is launched, the flank cover of the Holden Cluster can be obtained. When Kursk, Voronezhdu and others are in the hands of the German army, it is more tactical to start from Orel;

Second, Tula's plan faced the Bryansk Front, which was weaker than the Western Front, which was responsible for the defense of western Moscow;

Third, the battlefield faced by the Tula plan is more favorable than the battlefield of the plan of the Lazev Viazima, with wider attack channels and more suitable for large-scale assaults in armored clusters.

The biggest shortcomings of the Tula plan are also obvious that they are too close to the Southern Army Group and Stalingrad. Even if they get what they want, once the Southern Wing Battle starts and evolves into a decisive attack, the attracted Red Army will soon be able to join the Southern Wing Battle through mobile deployment, and the time will not exceed 15 days. This time is far from enough to complete the third phase of the Spring Awakening Campaign to eliminate 1-2 fronts of the Red Army and occupy Stalingrad.

So, a funny scene appeared: Manstein, who did not participate in the Castle Campaign, insisted on choosing the Lezhev-Viazima plan, and Model and Weix, who participated in the Castle Campaign, insisted on choosing the Tula plan.

The two sides argued over this for half a month during the truce. Even Zeitzler, who was responsible for the coordination task, was undecided. Because the rainy season ended late, the attack time was postponed from early May to May 17, and then continued from the 17th to the 25th... (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!