Chapter Eighty-six
Fawcett arrived at the front line in Belarus in October, and the train basically drove directly onto the railway of the first line to unload the car, putting Fawcett and his tank directly on the front line. As a result, Fawcett had to prepare to resist the Soviet army's impact as soon as he got off the train.
At this time, the strategic situation of the German army was already a mess. In the north, the Northern Group Army had been repelled, and the Soviet Red Army had entered Finland, fully recovering the Baltic coast, with its vanguard entering Lithuania. The German Northern Group Army was now just a nominal existence, with the remnants retreating into Polish territory. In the south, the Southern Group Army had also been defeated, retreating into Romanian territory like a receding tide, and the Soviet Red Army had recovered more than half of Ukraine's land. The Central Group Army still occupied a small part of Ukraine and most of Belarus, but the strategic situation was extremely poor, with the Soviet army having formed an encirclement of the Central Group Army from both the south and north wings. The only thing that could let the Germans breathe a sigh of relief was that the Soviet Red Army had also suffered heavy losses in its 1944 strategic offensive, and might be unable to launch a decisive attack on the Central Group Army's salient for half a month. However, looking at the similarly heavy losses of the German southern and northern group armies, the German General Staff was also powerless to turn the tide of the war around.
Moreover, after a whole month of troop deployment in September, the Soviet Red Army had concentrated a large number of troops and weapons directly opposite the Central Group of Armies, and both wings were also preparing to launch a pincer movement to cut off the rear of the Central Group of Armies. The Central Group of Armies was already at a disadvantage in terms of troop strength and weaponry - the number of new tanks compared to the Soviet Union's new Stalin 3-style tanks was tragic, and artillery was even more disadvantaged, with only air power able to balance out the Soviet Red Air Force.
Fawriel spent the entire month of October on the front lines, and the E50B army group had only over 200 vehicles. However, he also saw the new E-series - the massive-bodied E100. The E100 was equipped with a 128L68 cannon, slow but incredibly defensive, its only drawback being that there were too few, fewer than 10 in total, all of which were newly formed into the 611 and 612 super-heavy tank battalions. As a defensive stronghold firepower point, the E100 was quite qualified, born with a mocking face and resistant to beatings, making it incredibly attractive to enemy fire, allowing nearby Tiger Kings and E50s, Black Panthers to take advantage of the situation.
By late October, the German General Staff finally ignored the Führer's tantrums and began the long-overdue general withdrawal of Army Group Centre. A week earlier, the Russians had launched a full-scale attack on three fronts!
The German troops retreated in disarray, destroying all visible Soviet houses, factories, fields and roads along the way. But this could only stir up even greater anger among the Soviet Red Army without slowing down their offensive pace for long. Favniel and his 503rd battalion were fighting on the front line of Belarus directly facing the Soviet Red Army's impact. Every day they had to repel at least a dozen waves of Soviet Red Army attacks, then try to crawl back in the intervals between attacks while covering the engineering troops blowing up highways, railways and various bridges, suffering heavy losses! Before the battle began, the battalion still had 13 E50Bs, 17 Tiger Kings, and a total of 20 Black Panthers and No. 4 tanks, but just one week later only 9 E50s and 11 Tiger Kings were still operational, with all other tanks lost beyond repair. The Central Group Army finally withdrew from Belarus and Ukraine in mid-November after suffering heavy losses, thanks to the desperate resistance of the German troops on both flanks who disregarded casualties, the Central Group Army was able to retreat to Poland and Romania in an organized manner. They abandoned tens of thousands of soldiers and hundreds or even thousands of tanks and artillery pieces, returning to their starting point in 1941 in disarray. Meanwhile, the Soviet Red Army's morale was high, although they also suffered heavy losses, but after three years of arduous and heroic fighting, they finally recovered all their territory, and their leader called on them to "kill this fascist beast in its lair!" The Soviet Red Army was ready to attack Poland and Romania at any moment until they reached Berlin!
The situation on the Western Front was equally bleak, and the Allies used their incredibly powerful logistical capabilities to squeeze the Germans out of the line like a rising tide. In October, after a month of bitter fighting, the Germans were finally unable to defend against the Allied offensive in three directions, they gave up the southern line, allowing the Allies to advance into Vichy France, and the main force withdrew from Paris directly to the Ardennes region and the German-French border, Belgium and the Netherlands. The German commander responsible for defending Paris did not carry out the order to "turn Paris into a sea of fire", but instead ordered the garrison in Paris to surrender, fortunately, most of the troops stationed in Paris at that time were Vichy French and auxiliary troops from other parts of Germany.
In November, Montgomery's reputation was severely damaged. The "Market Garden" operation he launched ended in defeat. The British 30th Corps, which launched the attack, failed to break through the German defenses, and the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the British 1st Airborne Division and Polish Parachute Brigade were all destroyed, with not a single soldier escaping from the Dutch armored encirclement. Lieutenant Colonel O'Brien's performance was outstanding, his hunters having an easy time destroying the lightly armored vehicles of the airborne troops, as if they were shooting targets in training, easily knocking out the American and British trucks and armored cars that had barely landed. The German losses during the entire "Market Garden" operation were minimal - only 2,000 soldiers killed, 4,000 wounded, 20 tanks and assault guns lost, and 35 aircraft shot down. In contrast, the Allied losses were massive - 40,000 soldiers killed or captured, 1,500 trucks and armored cars destroyed or captured, 600 artillery pieces destroyed or captured, and 120 transport planes, fighters, and bombers shot down. Montgomery's reputation was severely damaged, and he almost asked to be relieved of his command.
The German High Command seems to have been given an injection of tonic, they passed a plan for launching an armoured counter-attack in the Ardennes region in December - the plan was to launch a powerful tank offensive in the Ardennes region, aiming to capture the coastal area and cut off the supply lines of the Allied forces that had already broken into Belgium, with the aim of annihilating the main force of the Allies in Belgium and thus gaining an opportunity for separate peace negotiations with the Allies.
On December 19, 1944, the Germans concentrated a large armored force in the Ardennes region, totaling 501 and 502 independent heavy tank battalions, the 101 and 102 Heavy Panzer Battalions of the Waffen-SS, other elite forces of the Waffen-SS - the 9th, 10th and 12th SS Panzer Divisions with a total of 450 tanks, including 45 E50s, 60 Tiger IIs, 34 Tigers and 200 Panthers and a small number of heavy assault guns, even three newly produced E100s were also thrown into this battle.
Fawkes is going to lose another friend...
