Chapter 624 Heavy Thunderstorm 12

"Werner, tonight you will take a squadron of Ju288 to fly to Moscow."

After receiving the order from Guderian, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, Jeshunek, the commander of the 6th Luftwaffe of the German Air Force, immediately called Lieutenant Colonel Werner Baumbach, the commander of the 2nd Long-range Bombing Regiment, to his headquarters in Kurdistan. Headquarters of the Irish Peninsula.

As early as the 1920s, when Germany had not yet gotten rid of the constraints of the Treaty of Versailles, the Courland Peninsula was an important base for the German Air Force, which was still "underground" at the time. The German Air Force's secret military academy and new aircraft test flight base, as well as the experimental center of the FK-BF aircraft manufacturing complex's factory, are all located on the Courland Peninsula near Riga.

After the Baltic Republic joined the German Empire, the Courland Peninsula was built as an important stronghold of the German Air Force/Navy Air Force on the Eastern Front. Not only did several large division-level airports be built, but also a dedicated air force/naval force was built. Underground ammunition depots and underground oil depots used by aviation forces, and a joint air force/naval aviation command center were built.

After the outbreak of the World War, the Luftwaffe air defense forces also deployed radar stations and a large number of air defense towers on the Courland Peninsula, turning the Courland Peninsula into the strongest nest of the Luftwaffe/Naval Aviation on the Eastern Front.

Therefore, after the situation on the eastern front became tense, the headquarters of the 6th Air Force of the Air Force and a large number of aviation regiments mobilized from the western front were stationed in the Courland Peninsula. The 2nd Long-Range Bombing Aviation Regiment, which has 85 Ju288 long-range bombers and 40 He-219 high-altitude fighters, withdrew from the Western Front battlefield in mid-May 1942 and deployed to the most defensive position on the Courland Peninsula. Tight Tulsi base. The Ju288, which has a maximum range of 6,000 kilometers, takes off from here, and its combat radius (combat radius is generally one-third to 40% of the maximum range) can cover the Ural Mountains and northwest Kazakhstan!

It's a pity that the Ju288 is not a four-engine heavy bomber like the B-29. Although the range is not inferior to the B-29, the maximum bomb load is only 3.6 tons (if you want to fly as far as the Ural Mountains, the bomb load will be reduced to 1.8 tons) , and the amount of equipment is not large enough to carry out the strategic bombing mission of destroying the Soviet Union from the air.

However, it is very ideal to use Ju288 to carry out diversionary bombing missions. To prevent the destruction of two regiments of Ju288 (the 4th Air Force has one regiment), the Soviets need to deploy at least 2,000 MiGs that have been strengthened for high-altitude and night combat. -5, a large number of radar stations and 130mm heavy anti-aircraft guns also need to be deployed.

Because the Ju288 is a difficult opponent to defend against. It is a bit like an enhanced version of the British Mosquito. It is faster, flies higher, has a greater range, and the destructive power of the remotely controlled gliding bomb cannot be compared to randomly throwing bombs at high altitudes. , so the Soviet Union had to respond with all its strength.

"General, what good things should we bring to Stalin?" Lieutenant Colonel Werner Baumbach asked.

"Ordinary bombs and leaflets," Jeshunek said, "because it was a night attack, remote-controlled glide bombs were difficult to use. In addition, the Army Policy Council also prepared hundreds of thousands of leaflets to expose the traitorous nature of Stalin."

"Stalin is a traitor?" Werner Baumbach was stunned. "Who did he betray?"

"It is said that he betrayed Marxism-Leninism and world revolution..." Jeshunek shook his head, "It's just that he is not a good person anyway."

"The Army Policy Conference..." Werner Baumbach smiled bitterly and shook his head, "What are these guys thinking? This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! Do they expect the Russians to believe our propaganda?"

"Probably?" Jeshunek shrugged, "Werner, this is none of our business. We just throw paper bombs. Even if no Russians believe it, it's good to disgust Stalin."

Jeshunek did not believe in the psychological war on National Socialism that Hersman and Natalie had discussed. But he is a soldier, and soldiers must obey orders, so Moscow is not the only city where paper bombs will be thrown tonight. Paper bombs must be thrown in Leningrad, Minsk, Kharkov and Kiev. They must also be thrown in the Soviet Union that is marching westward. The Red Army soldiers threw bombs and paper bullets at the same time... of course!

The same thing was done by the Soviet Air Force during the day on June 1. Their SB bombers dropped countless leaflets in Warsaw, Krakow and Lublin, telling them that the world revolution had begun and the Soviet Union was preparing to be the first to liberate Poland. The good news was told to every Polish working people in these cities, calling on them to launch an armed uprising and overthrow the rule of the German Nazis. However, these paper bombs will definitely not have any effect in the city of Warsaw, because the citizens of Warsaw will soon go to Western Europe as refugees - of course the people of Western Europe will welcome them with open arms!

"Compatriots, the Russians occupied half of our motherland and massacred hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters, and now they want to deceive us..."

Warsaw Railway Station was really lively tonight, with loudspeakers constantly playing the speech of the leader of the Polish Solidarity Party. Countless civilians in Warsaw, mostly elderly people, women and children, were carrying packages and suitcases on their backs. While shedding tears, they boarded the platform under the command of Solidarity Party cadres and soldiers of the SS Polish Division. Train bound for Western Europe - The mass evacuation of millions of people is still continuing and is not expected to be completed until around June 10.

At the same time, trains from the west also brought in carloads of German officers and soldiers! These officers and soldiers belonged to the 6th Army of the German Wehrmacht. The current mission of the army was to defend Warsaw, so it was still a pure infantry army.

The troops directly under the 6th Army Command included the 168th Infantry Division, the 29th Polish Volunteer Division of the SS (there were two Polish divisions of the SS, and the other was the 20th Polish Volunteer Cavalry Division, which is now directly under the Central Army Group), the 9th Anti-aircraft Artillery Division of the Air Defense Force, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Smoke Launcher Regiments (rocket launchers), the 49th, 101st, and 733rd Heavy Artillery Battalions, and the 6th and 41st Light Engineer Battalions.

The army's subordinate units include the 17th Army (with the 50th, 62nd and 298th Infantry Divisions), the 29th Army (with the 44th and 289th Infantry Divisions), the 44th Army (with the 9th, 57th, 262nd and 297th Infantry Divisions) and the 55th Army (with the 75th and 111th Infantry Divisions).

There are a total of 13 infantry divisions, 1 anti-aircraft division and 1 smoke launcher regiment (rocket artillery regiment), with a total strength of about 240,000. It is not strong, and there are not many mechanized equipment, but it is enough to guard the fortified city of Warsaw.

The commander of this army is certainly not the unfortunate Paulus, who is still hospitalized in Brest for treatment. General Model, who was sent by Marshal Guderian to serve as the commander of the 6th Army, was a classmate of Hessmann in the military academy. During the interwar period, he served in the General Staff system for a long time and had a good relationship with Hessmann, so his career was better than in history.

Model's current rank is General of Armored Forces, but he has no armored troops to command, and he has become the commander of an infantry army. However, his long-term experience in armored forces can be used in anti-armored operations.

"Walter, can you really defend Warsaw?"

Marshal Rundstedt, commander of the Central Army Group, also took a train from his headquarters in Posen to Warsaw on the afternoon of June 1 to inspect the city defense. After seeing the situation of Warsaw's city defense, Marshal Rundstedt seemed very worried.

Because Warsaw is almost unfortified! There are no fortifications outside the city except for the fortifications left over from the Piłsudski era in the "Warsaw Forest" area.

"We can hold out for a while," Model replied, "2-3 months."

"Can you hold out that long?" Marshal Rundstedt didn't quite believe it, "You don't even have outer fortifications!"

"I don't need outer fortifications," Model spread his hands, "Marshal, I only have 13 infantry divisions. Warsaw's periphery is more than 60 kilometers, and the 13 divisions are scattered on a 60-kilometer defense line. Each division is responsible for 5 kilometers of defense. The troops are definitely not enough."

"Then how do you defend it?"

Model walked to a city sand table model placed in the center of his headquarters operations room, and then pointed to the Warsaw city model with tall buildings.

"Marshal, isn't this a fortress? There are tall buildings everywhere, and there is a Vistula River more than 200 meters wide running through the city."

"Fight street fighting?"

"Yes," Model said, "This is the best way. Tanks are relatively vulnerable in urban combat. In the Western Front campaign, many tanks were destroyed in urban combat. And at that time, the British and French did not have such things as Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade launchers. The range of the Panzerfaust is only 30 meters, and it can destroy the frontal armor of any known tank within this distance. Is there any place more suitable for this weapon than the streets of Warsaw?"

Model paused and said, "And we not only have Panzerfausts and anti-tank guns, we also have the No. 3 assault gun. Each division has a battalion of No. 3, and the No. 3 assault gun is enough to deal with Soviet tanks."

The No. 3 assault gun is an artillery organization, so each division has a battalion. Because it is an artillery, an assault gun battalion has only 18 No. 3s, and 13 battalions have a total of 234 No. 3 assault guns, and the combat effectiveness is almost equivalent to that of an armored division. Model planned to use the Type 3 assault gun as a mobile fortress, and use it together with the tall buildings that the German army had converted into defensive fortresses, that is, to effectively combine fixed fortresses, mobile fortresses and the German Superman to form battle groups.