Chapter 833 Time

The next day, the German bomber group visited the northeastern industrial area of ​​the United States again and bombed it again. The entire northeastern industrial area was almost paralyzed, and most cities were hit by large-scale power outages due to the destruction of various dams by German carrier-based attack aircraft.

Listening to the secretary's report, President Wilkie's hands could not help but tremble slightly. He took out a bottle of medicine from his pocket, poured a few pills into his palm, and swallowed them in one gulp. Recently, his heart disease has become more and more serious. The doctor repeatedly told him that he needed to rest, but how could he rest in peace under the current circumstances.

President Wilkie couldn't help but blame his predecessor Roosevelt for leaving such a mess to him; he also blamed Stalin, saying that he and his generals were simply a bunch of rubbish. They, the United States, spared no effort to support materials and people, but they even let the Germans almost fight all the way to the capital. How could they be so useless?

The more I thought about it, the more annoyed I became, and the more annoyed I became, the more uncomfortable my heart became. President Wilkie took a deep breath and asked. "Have the Germans advanced to Moscow?"

"Mr. President, the Germans stopped more than 100 kilometers away from Moscow and began to set up camp on the spot."

President Wilkie couldn't help but wonder. "Why?" It's less than 100 kilometers away, and you can rush over it with a little effort.

"The Germans are preparing for winter. I'm afraid they plan to survive this winter and launch the final offensive next spring."

Yannick already knew what this winter would be like, so he naturally didn't want to fight in winter. Fortunately, the German army's winter preparations were quite sufficient. From the spring, they arranged prisoners of war from all over the country to participate in logging; after conquering (Eastern) Ukraine and (Eastern) Belarus, they mined local coal mines, and transported tons of oil to the front line to ensure that the troops could easily make fires to keep warm or heat vehicles even in the wild in winter.

As for the soldiers' cotton clothes, under Yannick's order, as early as 10 years ago, Germany not only produced them itself, but also imported a lot of cotton clothes from European countries and even from the United States and the Soviet Union every year. I'm afraid no one would have expected that the Germans were preparing for winter in the war a few years later. In this way, the German army has stockpiled nearly 10 million sets of high-quality down jackets and cotton clothes, as well as a large number of sweater products, which not only allow soldiers from various countries on the front line to have enough winter clothes, but also have a lot left as spare supplies.

However, the Germans' stagnation also made Zhukov, who was responsible for the defense of Moscow, feel relieved. He naturally saw that the Germans did not want to fight in winter, and it seemed that the Germans did not like to fight in winter. Last year's battle against Britain was also the same. Although the German army sent paratroopers to a small town in Scotland, Bumare, on Christmas Day, those paratroopers were only stationed in Bumare until the German army launched a landing operation in the spring.

Now Zhukov can take advantage of this time to build a more solid defense line and mobilize more troops to surround Moscow.

The defense lines he built were similar to those in the original time and space. The first was the Vyazma Line, which was built on the Rzhev-Vyazma-Bryansk line; the second was the Mozhaisk Line, which was a double defense line built between Kalinin and Kaluga; and finally the triple defense circle built around Moscow, which formed the Moscow Defense Zone.

However, these fortifications did not play a big role in the original time and space (because the Soviet army was caught off guard when the Soviet-German War broke out, and it was not until September 27, 1941 that an overall defense posture was adopted). Near Vyazma, the Soviet Western Front and the Reserve Front were quickly defeated by the high-speed mobile forces of the German 3rd and 4th Panzer Groups. The German army opened a gap in the weak area of ​​the defense line and quickly drove to the back of the Soviet defense line. Since the two advance units of the German armored forces had met in Vyazma on October 10, 1941, the construction of the defense line that was still under construction became useless. Four Soviet armies (the 19th, 20th, 24th and 32nd) were trapped in a large "pocket" west of the city.

According to German estimates, the Wehrmacht captured 30,000 Soviet soldiers in various encirclements, reducing the Soviet army's strength by 41%, but fierce Soviet resistance also greatly delayed the German offensive.

The German army was eventually stopped at the Mozhaisk Line, 120 kilometers from Moscow. After breaking through the Soviet defenses, the Wehrmacht's offensive was slowed down by bad weather. Autumn rains turned roads and fields into thick mud, seriously hindering the advance of German vehicles, horses and soldiers. Although the arrival of winter and the icy ground allowed the German offensive to continue, they were still blocked by Soviet resistance.

On November 30, the leading German Panzer Army advanced to Khimki, less than 23 kilometers (19 miles) from the Kremlin. German officers could see some buildings in Moscow with binoculars, but due to weather conditions, the Germans were unable to advance further and stopped on November 30 to establish several temporary defense lines to defend the newly occupied areas.

After December 1, the lowest temperature had dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius. Although it was still an acceptable temperature for the Soviet army, it was unbearable for the German army without winter uniforms. In addition, the German vehicles were not designed to operate in such a cold climate. This resulted in more than 130,000 reports of frostbite cases among German soldiers. Every shell had to be removed from the antifreeze and the vehicle had to be warmed up for several hours before use.

The German offensive had to stop. Guderian wrote in his diary: "The offensive against Moscow failed. We underestimated the enemy's advantages, including his area and weather. Fortunately, I ordered the troops to stop advancing on December 5, otherwise the disaster would be inevitable.".

Soon after, the Soviet army launched a counterattack. By January 7, 1942, the Soviet offensive campaign in Moscow (December 5, 1941-January 7, 1942) had ended with a great victory, completely eliminating the threat to Moscow and achieving a major strategic victory, marking the end of the German "Typhoon" offensive campaign to capture the Soviet capital.

Today, the forces assembled in Moscow are larger than the original time and space (the three fronts in the west have a total of 1.25 million troops, 990 tanks, 7,600 artillery and mortars, and 677 aircraft). In terms of the number of soldiers alone, plus the American expeditionary force, there are more than 3.5 million, and the Far East can mobilize hundreds of thousands or even more troops.

Thinking of the Far East, Zhukov could not help but frown. The German troops that destroyed the Trans-Siberian Railway had not yet been completely wiped out, and the supplies piled up in the Far East could not be transported at all.