Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

After wandering around for a day, Yannick discovered that the Soviet industry was even more backward than he imagined. Most links were operated by hand, and very few mechanized equipment were used. If I had known this, I would have asked the Soviets to ask for more food. Even if they added one million tons, the Soviets would obediently give it to them.

After dinner, Tukhachevsky came to Yanik's room again and took out a document. "Your Highness Yannik, Comrade Stalin has agreed to set aside a place for your country to train soldiers. The location is in the Kazan area."

Kazan?

Mentioning Kazan in the Russian military history community will cause a debate. The focus of the debate is on two issues: First, before World War II, was there a secret school there specifically to train armored soldiers for Nazi Germany? Second, was there a secret school that later became the Nazi German Army? Was General Heinz Guderian of "Blitz Heroes" trained at this school?

According to some declassified information, this Kazan tank school is real. For a long time, the code name used by this school was "KaMa" - Kama is the name of a river in Siberia, and a nearby city is also called Kama. Souder's cooperation with this school continued until Late summer 1933.

As for Guderian, when the Kazan Tank School was established, Guderian was already the chief of staff of the German Motorized Forces. However, he did come to Kazan and inspected the work as a general. The Kazan Museum also preserves the full report of Guderian’s trip to Kazan by the GPU (one of the predecessors of the KGB). The report revealed that in addition to visiting Kazan schools, Guderian also visited Kazan’s scenic spots and historic sites. Among them were the Peter's and Paul's churches, where services were held and resentment was expressed that the churches were in such a desolate state.

After the formal chat, Tukhachevsky couldn't wait to order people to place the battlefield terrain maps and military cards they brought on the conference table. "Please, Major Guderian."

"..." Even Yanik didn't expect that Tukhachevsky would be so eager to compete with Guderian. Could it be that he wanted to test Germany's armor usage model?

It's a pity that Guderian's "Blitzkrieg" theory took several years to come up. This gave Yannick the opportunity to see how much this "Red Napoleon" weighed. "Since Your Excellency the General is so interested, Major Guderian, you must not embarrass Germany." With that said, Yanik already had a premonition that Guderian at this time was no match for the "Red Napoleon".

"..." Guderian was even more depressed. Germany now doesn't even have a single tank. Where did he get the experience of using armored regiments to fight? But fortunately, he was a cavalry officer during the last war and felt that he only needed to replace the horses with tanks and armored vehicles.

Thinking of this, he bravely stood opposite Tukhachevsky and began to place the war cards.

As the two men continued to move their troops, Yannick saw that Guderian's method of using troops was still unique to veteran cavalry officers. He led a cavalry unit to quickly break through the enemy's position, then went deep behind the enemy's rear, encircled and annihilated the enemy's forces. The one with vitality.

When the deduction was halfway through, beads of sweat began to appear on Guderian's face. He quickly shook his head in frustration. "Sorry, Your Highness, I lost."

"..." Yannick glanced at Tukhachevsky, who was obviously still unfinished, and spoke to Rommel, who was watching the battle. "Captain Rommel, in the next game you two will face the General."

"Haha, Mr. Yannick really thinks highly of me. One against two, I don't have much confidence." Having said that, Tukhachevsky calmly laid out his cards.

In this round, Rommel and Guderian were defeated equally cleanly.

Even Yannick was a little depressed now. "Major Manstein, you are here too." Manstein gained a lot of experience and information due to his visits to armored forces in some European countries.

Seeing the four people moving their tiles back and forth, Yannick couldn't help but think of the famous battle between the three heroes and Lu Bu.

The result of this game was that Guderian and Rommel's troops were completely wiped out, while the remaining troops of Tukhachevsky and Manstein could not do anything to each other, and they could only be considered a draw.

Although Yannick seemed calm on the surface, his heart was already in turmoil.

Tukhachevsky is worthy of the title of "Red Army Napoleon". Even Zhukov, the God of War, calls him "He is the dean of military thought and the biggest star among the military superstars of our motherland."

It's impossible for him to show his full strength in these three games, right?

This guy must be eliminated, otherwise who can be his opponent on the real battlefield? !

Seeing Guderian, who had suffered a disastrous defeat in three consecutive games, and Rommel, who had suffered a disastrous defeat in two games, looking downcast, Yannick was both angry and amused. He clapped his hands and praised. "It's really wonderful! Your Majesty the General is really a master of military affairs. Even if Napoleon was alive, I'm afraid he would have to stay away." Damn, if flattery can kill someone, he can flatter Tukhachevsky for three days and three nights. Not even a glass of water to drink.

Tukhachevsky showed a humble smile. "His Royal Highness Yannick is serious. These guys are also very powerful. If given time, they will be capable of being a general in their own right."

Yannick snorted in his heart. Needless to say, they are all the brightest generals in the empire in the future. "But I just discovered a few problems, and I would like to ask your Excellency, General, for your advice."

"Your Highness Yannick, it's okay to say it." Tukhachevsky, an orthodox soldier, also looked forward to Yannick pointing out the problems in the deduction.

"From the deduction just now, I saw that the general is good at using infantry-tank coordination tactics. What I want to ask is that there is a gap between the speed of tanks and the speed of infantry. How can the infantry ensure that they can arrive at the battlefield at the same time as the tanks before entering the battlefield? ? Could it be that the tanks deliberately slowed down to accommodate the infantry?"

Tukhachevsky was stunned. In the previous deduction, he had exercised great restraint in reducing the use of this infantry-tank coordination tactic. But His Highness not only noticed it with sharp eyes, but also asked such an extremely professional question, which made him look at Yannick with admiration again.

After thinking for a while, Tukhachevsky gave the most concise answer. "Our plan is to carry infantry behind the tank to ensure coordination between infantry and tanks." How many infantry can be carried on a tank? His real idea was to prepare a large number of armored personnel carriers to ensure the coordinated advancement of tanks and infantry. But it was impossible for him to reveal this idea to Germany, which might become an enemy in the future.

Regrettably, the domestic production capacity of the Soviet Union has not yet met his requirements, and it is temporarily impossible to realize his dream. However, he believed that once the industrial equipment imported from Germany was in place, the Soviet Union's production capacity would make a leap forward. Within ten years, infantry-tank coordination would be possible on the battlefield, right?

Yannick chuckled in his heart, where is the fool? It seems that this general is also guarding against Germany? It's a pity that you don't know my origin. I am extremely familiar with all the tactics of World War II. However, he didn't point it out, made a look of realization, and continued to ask. "Oh, that means your Excellency, General, is planning to put these infantry and tanks into the same unit, right?"

Tukhachevsky nodded. "Yes."

Yannick took a few soldier cards and laid them out on the map. "So if we are going to fight a battle, will there be other units behind this mixed infantry and tank unit, such as an infantry division?"

Tukhachevsky replied. "Yes, after all, the infantry division is still the main force, and the armored force is only used to break through."

Yannick moved the arranged soldier cards a few times. "According to your Excellency the General's vision, what will this armored force do after it breaks through the enemy's defense line? Should it advance in depth? Or turn around to form an encirclement and assist the infantry in destroying the enemies in the encirclement?

"..." Tukhachevsky only felt his eyelids twitching slightly. The questions asked by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince were sharper and sharper than the last, hitting the point directly. The first question may be explained as an accidental thought, but the subsequent series of questions cannot be accidental.

His Excellency, the Crown Prince, understands armored soldiers far better than anyone else!

"If it were me, after the armored troops break through the enemy's defense line, they should continue to advance in depth to destroy the enemy's rear." Tukhachevsky's answer became more cautious, and almost every sentence was spoken after careful consideration. .

Yannick continued to play with the soldier cards in his hand. "Then even if you break through the enemy's defense line and prepare to advance in depth, if it is dozens of kilometers, that's okay, but what if the depth reaches hundreds of kilometers? The supplies carried by the armored forces themselves are simply not enough, so how do you plan to ensure the safety of logistics? If the retreat is cut off, wouldn’t the armored units without fuel supplies become meat on the enemy’s chopping block?”

Tukhachevsky also picked up a few military cards and placed them in Yannick's hand. "After the armored troops, I will arrange a mechanized infantry unit to protect the flanks and rear of the armored troops. If necessary, it will also take on the additional task of providing infantry support to the armored troops."

Yannick couldn't help but sigh in his heart that he was indeed the founder of the great depth theory. It was only 1928, and Tukhachevsky seemed to have established a complete set of great depth theory.

This theory was put forward by the Soviet Army in the 1930s on the basis of summarizing the experience and lessons of the First World War in order to adapt to the development of weapons and equipment. It is an important guiding ideology for the implementation of offensive campaigns. It emphasizes using lethal weapons to suppress the enemy's entire defense depth at the same time, breaking through the enemy's tactical defense territory in a selected direction, and then quickly deploying clusters to expand the results into battle. If possible, use airborne troops to carry out airborne landings to quickly achieve tactical victory. Develop into a battle victory to achieve the intended goal as quickly as possible.

In a few examples, our army faced three to five enemy armies and built a defense zone 30 kilometers long and 20 kilometers deep. According to the fighting style during World War I, we first concentrated firepower on the enemy's first line of defense, and so on. After consolidating the results, gradually advance. However, according to the theory of large-depth battles, the attack should not pursue width, but depth. We should concentrate our firepower and suppress the enemy's entire depth from 3 to 5 kilometers in front, quickly penetrate the enemy's entire defense area, and then invest in reserve forces. , to expand the results. The theory of a large-depth battle has great requirements on military strength. It is generally assumed that the front army of a large-depth battle will have 3-4 assault group armies, 1-2 ordinary group armies, 1-2 infantry corps, a reserve force, a rapid grouping of front army aviation, and Strengthen the Corps. Therefore, in World War II, the Soviet army frequently fought battles involving millions of people.

This is not good news.

"What if the enemy arranges some solid fortification areas at some transportation hubs where the armored troops pass through, and there are sufficient anti-tank firepower and certain supplies in these areas? What should you do if you encounter such an area? If you attack by force, That would cause heavy losses, and it would also slow down the advance speed of the armored troops; if you take a detour, your logistics troops will be harassed by the garrison in these areas, so what should you do?"

Just when Yanik was trying every means to destroy the large depth theory envisioned by Tukhachevsky, Guderian, Manstein and others were also eye-opening. The two of them talked like a heated debate for more than half an hour. Seeing Tukhachevsky stand up and leave with a somewhat ugly look on his face, Yannick didn't know what he was thinking, but he just hoped that he would stop thinking about it. these things.

After sending Tukhachevsky away, Yannik ordered the others. "I'm going to Daming tomorrow. You guys stay here and have a good visit."