Chapter 959 D-Day (20)

On the northern wing of the Eastern Front, Finland also cooperated in the battle. Since Mannerheim repeatedly emphasized that Germany was a comrade-in-arms rather than an ally, and that the main purpose was to seek justice for the Soviet-Finnish War, the armistice agreement was relatively simple. The Soviet-Finnish border was restored to the state before the Soviet-Finnish War, and adjustments were made in favor of Finland in some unclear areas. Molotov had no control over this matter. It was all a direct negotiation between the Vlasov regime and the Finns. In total, it only involved changes in the land boundaries of more than 80 square kilometers, which was relatively insignificant.

Due to the special climate, there were relatively few armored forces on the northern front. Germany sent a batch of aircraft and large-caliber artillery to the Finns, mainly Russian-made 122mm and 152mm artillery, and also sent more than a dozen submarines that usually operated on the northern front to the Finns.

So far, all countries fighting against the Soviet Union have achieved relatively ideal results and signed the agreement in full. The "Sophia Agreement" officially came into effect at midnight on June 28, 1944, and the state of war between the Axis and the Soviet Union was declared to be over.

Subsequently, the Soviet government issued a public statement, announcing the recognition of the establishment of various Eastern countries, and announced that the Russian National Socialist Republic (Western Russia) and the Russian Socialist Republic (Eastern Russia) would form a confederation, collectively known as the Soviet Socialist Union Republic (abbreviated as the Soviet Union), with Moscow as the capital and Stalin as the supreme head of state - in fact, the political center of Western Russia was in St. Petersburg, and the political center of Eastern Russia was in Omsk.

In order to take care of Stalin's face, the countries had to issue another declaration of independence. A total of 21 countries including Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Chechnya, Kalmykia, Cossacks, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan declared independence, and on the same day they were recognized by the Axis camp headed by Germany - collectively known as the Eastern countries.

According to the agreement, except for the German army, the troops of all other countries will withdraw from the Eastern countries, including Italy, Romania, Hungary and other countries. The troops began to withdraw at the end of June and the withdrawal was completed within 3 months.

On June 30, the Southern Army Group entered Stalingrad after the Soviets withdrew. Western Russia renamed it Volgograd. Seeing this city that had stood firm for three years in the flames of war fall into their hands intact, including Manstein, Hoth, Guderian and other generals, all had mixed feelings. After inspecting the dense and layered fortifications and defense systems built by the Red Army, Marshal Kleist, who had been fighting on the front line of the Eastern Front, said with emotion: "No wonder the Führer has always opposed us to attack big cities, especially street fighting. With the defense system of this city, if I were to defend it, I could at least kill 300,000 enemy troops."

Manstein smiled: "Your estimate is still conservative. Heydrich just estimated that he could kill 500,000 of our troops..."

"Fortunately, it's not him who is defending." Heydrich is famous for his ability to defend. Since he thinks he can kill 500,000, then he can definitely do it.

More than 1.5 million citizens of Stalingrad watched with mixed feelings as the German army poured into the city. Although sporadic incidents were still happening, the overall situation was relatively calm. Marshal Hoth condescended to take the position of city defense commander and ordered a curfew from 8 p.m. to crack down on all lawless actions. At the same time, he reiterated military discipline, "Robbery, theft, unprovoked injury and other acts will be shot immediately upon discovery. On this occasion of victory, officers and soldiers of all units should be inspired by the spirit of German soldiers, strictly abide by it, and never change." Under his strong intervention, Volgograd returned to normal order within a few days, and even executed a small number of bad apples. The civil officials sent by Western Russia deliberately arrived in the city a few days late - according to his idea, the Germans would definitely plunder and even prepare for the aftermath, but when he saw the city appear in front of him intact, he couldn't help but exclaimed. "Don't be happy too soon. There must be saboteurs and spies left by Stalin in the city. They will oppose us in secret in the future. We must be careful."

For this reason, Manstein and others rejected the idea of ​​the head of state to come to Volgograd for inspection, believing that the time was not yet ripe. If they really wanted to come, they should at least wait until the Red Army had completely withdrawn.

According to the agreement, the German army will withdraw at the same speed as the Red Army in the future, and eventually achieve the goal of stationing 200,000 troops in Ukraine, 100,000 troops in Belarus, 60,000 troops in the three Baltic countries, 90,000 troops in the Caucasus, 100,000 troops in Central Asia, and 750,000 troops in Eastern Russia (500,000 of which are blocked in the Ural Mountains). The time node was determined before the end of 1945 after repeated coordination. Eastern Russia can retain 2 million troops (acquiescing to Stalin's additional expansion of 200,000-300,000 internal forces), and Western Russia can retain 1 million troops (the clever Vlasov decided to hire 10,000 German officers as consultants).

In addition, Germany has 80,000 troops stationed in Iran, 150,000 in various countries and bases in the Middle East, and 120,000 in the Balkans, retaining a total of 1.65 million troops. It has pledged to reduce the number to below 1 million by 1955. The cost of maintaining the above troops is basically borne by the host countries (Germany pays for its own equipment), which is considered part of the EU defense system.

Even so, there are still people in Germany who are dissatisfied. At a high-level meeting held at the end of June, Himmler, who has long been taciturn, fired the first shot: "Führer, to be honest, I still can't figure out why we have to give up on the Eastern Front. With so many benefits, even for the European Union, our sacrifices are too great. I clearly remember that when you launched Operation Barbarossa, you called on the soldiers to use the German sword to open up a living space for the empire in the east. "

Hoffman nodded - these words were said by Hitler, not him, but he could not object, but had to acknowledge them.

He pondered for a moment: "What are you referring to? Is there no compensation?"

Himmler shook his head: "It's not about reparations. It's hard to get reparations. Stalin is too poor to pay them. If Vlasov pays them, the regime will soon become unstable and collapse. That's not in our interests either." . I am talking about territory, at least the three Baltic countries and Ukraine. Originally, there was Baku, but now that we have oil rights in the Middle East, Baku is not so important. In addition, East Poland should not be allowed to become independent. …”

Hoffmann's face sank, obviously unhappy. He knew that Himmler was taking the opportunity to express his dissatisfaction: the Polish Governor-General Hans Frank was Himmler's man, and he offended Hoffmann on two points - First, he controlled the relevant economic industries and labor resources of the Polish Governor-General, preventing Speer and Milch from intervening, and resisting the Ministry of Armament's general war overtly and covertly; second, on the issue of dealing with Jews, Frank did not agree with the head of state's "new policy". policy", repeatedly contradicted it in private, and continued to find excuses to kill Polish Jews.

Hoffmann finally asked Bauman to investigate and deal with it, and asked Bauman's team, Fritz Sauckel, the plenipotentiary representative of all German labor deployment, to replace Frank. The review of the latter lasted for more than a year, hoping that Müller repeatedly wanted to intervene, but Baumann eliminated all interference and finally obtained the real evidence. The formal trial was completed not long ago and he was hanged; now Baumann is eyeing the second provincial and ministerial official - the governor of East Prussia and the National Socialist Party. Erich Koch, the leader of the party in East Prussia, accused him of being overjoyed with success, obeying the orders of the Führer and being greedy.

However, Koch was also Himmler's team. He believed that Bormann was taking the opportunity to purge his own people. Koch jumped at top meeting after quarantine review?

I have to say that Himmler's election was at a good time. Some people in the party did think that he made too many concessions and was too tolerant to Eastern countries: Ukraine in particular is a natural breadbasket, and it would be a pity to allow it to become independent.

Hoffman nodded: "Very good, Comrade Himmler, you asked a good question, that is, how should Ukraine deal with it. There are nearly 35 million people in Ukraine. What are you going to do? Kill them all. "?"

"I..." Himmler almost wanted to say yes, but after thinking carefully for a moment, he saw Goebbels shaking his head after denying it with his eyes, "We can kill the less docile group, and then let the others do it." We work."

"This idea of ​​yours has already been put into practice." Hoffman laughed. "Didn't Stalin set up collective farms in Ukraine and force the Ukrainians to hand over their food? You saw the result, what we received last year The grain amount is equivalent to 80% of the public grain handed over during the collective farm period. This year it is expected to exceed the amount handed over during the best period of the collective farm. Do I need to extrapolate what will happen in the future? "

"But Stalin got it for free," Himmler argued, "but we paid a huge price in diesel, farm machinery, machinery and other military costs."

"Do you really think Stalin got it for free?" Hoffman said with a serious face. "In order to maintain the Soviet's high-pressure rule in Ukraine, he established and maintained a huge administrative team and national civil servants, as well as many small How many troops are you going to send to suppress counter-revolutionaries and terror forces? How many guerrillas will we kill today? 300,000? 500,000? A German soldier will attack several German policemen tomorrow. People continue to die all year round. I keep throwing money at anti-guerrilla warfare and pensions for officers and soldiers. This cost is much more valuable than the machines and diesel we traded, right?

Machines and diesel can also boost domestic production and employment. Forced high-pressure rule can only continue to create widowed families in Germany. Which policy do you think the German people support? Mussolini couldn't see through this and stayed in Serbia for nothing, refusing to leave. How many people had he died in the past two years? How much military expenditure was spent? Perhaps not as many Italians died on the Eastern Front as in Serbia? "