The Third Reich: The Return of the King

Chapter 1092

The person who was in charge of this task was General Hoth, a general under Model.

He had a steady style and outstanding tactical ability. He was an excellent assaulter. He was one of the few generals under Model who was good at armored warfare and was the sharp blade responsible for attack in Model’s flexible defense.

As the saying goes, a bad soldier makes a bad general. The character and habits of a general can easily affect the character of his subordinates.

As the father of armor, Guderian’s radical combat style deeply influenced the First Army, resulting in the First Army’s more than enough offense and insufficient defense. Most of the generals were radical offensive factions and were very fond of attacking.

Such generals are excellent players for assault operations on the front battlefield, but when they are tasked with tasks such as deep behind enemy lines, which require extremely steady style and keen strategic sense, they seem a bit at a loss.

So Manstein did not select troops from the First Army. He transferred a division from the Second Army to take on the main attack task.

He also transferred a division from the Fourth Army as a reserve force, and also let Steiner’s Viking Division prepare for combat as the second reserve.

Due to the limited transport capacity of the ship, the German army could not transport all the troops at once, so they could only transport troops to land in batches. In this case, the period between the first batch of troops landing and the second batch of troops landing was the most dangerous time for the German landing troops.

At this time, they had to face the blockade of the strong enemy. Not only did they have to open the passage from the beach under the fierce firepower of the enemy and tear open the enemy’s defense line, but they might also be attacked by the enemy from the sea. In this situation of being attacked from both sides, if they could tear open the enemy’s defense line and withstand the enemy’s fierce counterattack, then the combat operation would be considered a preliminary success!

But on the other hand, if they could not withstand the enemy’s attack and were suppressed on the beachhead and could not move, or worse, if they were driven into the sea by the enemy, then even if there were millions of German troops in the rear, they could not provide them with any help. In this case, the losses of the first batch of landing troops would be very heavy!

And even if they took the beachhead, it was not time to relax. They had to capture an enemy city as soon as possible, preferably one with an airport.

Only in this way can the support from the air force arrive quickly. Otherwise, without an airport, the air force can only use airdrops, which are not very transportable and time-consuming and laborious, to resupply.

Moreover, after capturing the city, the German army will immediately switch from an offensive state to a defensive state, using the city and the airport as a support to wait for the arrival of its own reinforcements and attract the enemy’s forces to approach here, preferably attracting the enemy’s main front-line forces to come back for support.

In this way, the US military’s defense line on the front battlefield will become even thinner, and the difficulty of the German army breaking through the US military’s defense line from the front will be much lower!

Therefore, the first batch of German troops are not only responsible for attacking, but also for defense, and both are equally important!

In this case, choosing radicals is a very irrational decision, and generals with a steady style are more suitable. The reason why the people of the Second Army were chosen is because they are good at both attacking and defending, and they are the most suitable candidates.

However, in terms of the main general, the most suitable candidate in Manstein’s mind is actually Steinner.

Although this person was transferred to the navy, Manstein still regarded him as an old man in the army.

Manstein knew Steiner’s strength very well. After all, as the commander of the Viking Division, Steiner’s strength was recognized by the head of state.

So ability is definitely not a problem.

However, Steiner is not only the commander of the Viking Division, but also the commander and person in charge of the Marine Corps. In this case, he alone represents an army. He is involved in the interests of the navy. The navy certainly does not want him to have any mistakes. If he dies on the battlefield, the Marine Corps will have a big problem!

So after comprehensive consideration, Manstein chose Hoth.

Hoth knew the difficulty of this mission very well. If ordinary people receive such a difficult task, they will probably feel scared and retreat in their hearts, right?

But Hoth didn’t think so. Not only did he not feel nervous and afraid, but he was a little eager to try!

For such a difficult task, General Manstein did not choose others, but chose to give it to himself, which shows that General Manstein trusts himself.

And the reason why the other party trusts himself must be because he trusts his strength!

Therefore, for him, this is a great opportunity, an opportunity to make his name known throughout the German army and even the entire empire!

Of course, this is based on the premise that he performs well in this battle. As long as he wins, his strength will be recognized by everyone!

If he messes up, then everyone will definitely not remember a defeated general. His future in the army will not be completely ruined, but at least it will become much bleaker!

Therefore, this is an opportunity, but also a huge risk!

High returns and high risks, like a gamble!

Hoth knew what this battle meant to him, so before the war he had collected all the intelligence he could, including the enemy’s troop distribution, weapons and equipment, the garrison’s unit number, the name and personality of the commander, etc.

In addition, he also considered the impact of the weather, investigated the activity patterns of the enemy’s naval fleet in the Great Lakes region, and after combining all the above intelligence, he made a combat operation to set off in the evening and land in the early morning!

“In the past few days, the navy has launched several attacks near Lake Huron in Lake Michigan, creating an illusion for the U.S. military that we intend to open the west of Michigan and attack from the east!”

There is an island called Game Blanche Island where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. This place is less than five kilometers away from Michigan, which is very close. If the German army occupies this place, they can directly bombard the Eagle Sauce city on the opposite bank from the island.

Moreover, the German army can use this island as a springboard to threaten a large area of Eagle Sauce coastal cities around the island.

Therefore, for the U.S. military, this move by the German army is of great significance. When they are unclear about the situation and do not know whether the German army is really going to attack Game Blanche Island, they have to send more warships to patrol and expel the German fleet to prevent their attack from succeeding.