Chapter 346: Chapter 346

The map room at the Oberkommando des Heeres was full of people.

A dozen officers in field-grey stood shoulder to shoulder around a long table.

Pins flashed on the map of Poland.

A clock ticked through paper and patience.

Franz Halder pushed a pile of papers forward and looked up. "We accept three principal axes. North from East Prussia, center from Pomerania, and south from Silesia and Slovakia. Convergence across the Vistula toward Warsaw. Envelopment, not attrition."

Generaloberst Walther von Brauchitsch folded his hands. "Tempo," he said. "If we slow, they will escape the noose."

Halder tapped the map. "Tempo and air cover. The Luftwaffe must have unopposed air superiority for the first forty-eight hours. They will interdict Polish airfields and break field artillery."

A colonel on Halder's left, maps creased at his wrists, read from a page. "Army Group North von Bock will commit the 3rd Army from East Prussia and the 4th Army across the Corridor. Their task sever the corridor and prevent Polish redeployment from the north."

Guderian impatient crossed his arms. "Names and maps are comfortable. How do you intend to cut the Corridor and still keep pace southward?"

He pointed at a thin strip of pins. "Armor massing, not dispersion. Concentrate the panzers; do not scatter them to flatter infantry vanity."

Halder did not argue.

"We place your motorized spearheads where the roadnet allows and tie infantry to the flanks. XIX Corps will be the deep punch from Pomerania it will aim for the Vistula and the rear of Polish northern formations."

A Luftwaffe major slid a sheet toward Halder. "Stukas on call," he said. "Dive raids to pin artillery and cut road junctions. Heavies to hitting airfields at dawn. If the air holds, the ground will move as we need."

Göring's signature arrogance seemed to sit in the paper itself.

Brauchitsch leaned forward. "And the south?"

"Army Group South under Rundstedt will push from Silesia and Slovakia," Halder said. "Reichenau and Blaskowitz will drive into central Poland and fix the forces so the northern and central axes can wheel and close."

A logistics officer, face pinched, raised a hand. "Fuel and rails. If we move at the tempo you demand, supply windows must be tight. Silesian railheads are our throat. Lose them and the spear chokes."

Halder nodded. "Pioneer detachments will secure bridges intact where possible. Engineers precede armour to preserve crossings. Units will be ordered to seize not destroy bridging where the timetable requires."

Guderian snapped his fingers. "Give me a bridge and a radio. I will hand you the map with holes in it."

An operations major read battalion allocations in the tone of a man reciting dry bread rations.

"Motorized groups for the spearheads, attached reconnaissance battalions for flank security, infantry divisions in follow to reduce pockets. Guderian's corps will have reserve panzer behind it for exploitation. Kleist's motorized group will operate where road density allows further exploitation southwards."

"You speak like the plan is elegant," Guderian said. "It will be elegant until the first flooded ford or the last uncharted bridge breaks. Then it will be ugly, and the ugly will take men."

Halder looked at him, unamused. "We include contingencies. We time link-ups. We risk diplomatic noise. We rely on speed."

A young staff officer, pencil hovering, asked the question everyone wanted to sidestep. "If the West protests, if Britain or France moves beyond rhetoric what then?"

Brauchitsch's face went as flat as a chalkboard. "We expect noise. We assume neither will commit ground forces instantly. Our window is the brief political hesitation after a diplomatic protest."

Halder added quietly, "Their armies are not poised for immediate expeditionary action into Poland. That is the political calculation."

A man from Propaganda leaned forward. "We should consider the narrative. A pretext an incident will persuade the public. If the headlines justify action, the domestic will hold."

Guderian snorted. "Politics or not, give me the roads and the radios. Massed armour creates shock. Shock creates panic. Panic shatters formations on its own."

Halder shaded his eyes with the back of his hand. "Which armored formations will be our spearheads? We must nominate without indecision."

A colonel read names like inventory. "Northern sector, 3rd Army supported by elements of XX Corps and XIX motorized. Central thrust, X Corps with panzer elements pushing through the Tuchola Forest corridor. Southern sector, 10th Motorized and selected panzer regiments under Kleist in reserve for exploitation."

Guderian leaned in. "Place the XIX Corps across the corridor. Give me priority for fuel. Allow radio control. Permit me to wheel past the first defensive belt and then cut lateral lines. If I do so, supply will be a tail you must feed, but the tail will be thin if the front folds."

Halder's pencil stabbed the table. "Accepted in principle. You will have priority in that sector." Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novęlfire.net

A junior officer with an engineer's map opened a small folder. "Bridges at the Vistula Modlin and the dozen minor points we have prepared fascines and pontoons. Pioneers will be attached to leading formations. Demolition control teams will be embedded to make quick decisions."

He looked up. "We will try to seize intact crossings, not blow them."

The Luftwaffe major said, without waiting for thanks, "The first wave hits at dawn. Airfields destroyed. Then interdiction on the roads. Then close support. We will keep the Polish Air Force grounded if we can. The Stuka will be devoted to support for armored thrusts."

Halder folded a map and read from it like a catechism of objectives. "D-day at the hour we set will commence. Objective dates: initial breakthroughs and capture of railheads in forty-eight hours; encirclements to be completed within two weeks; Warsaw isolated before the end of the third week. The goal is destruction of field armies west of the Vistula."

"Which regimental leaders will we trust with these tasks?" Brauchitsch asked.

Halder named them not as honor but as instruments.

"For northern operations, Küchler's command will be supported by generals with experience in rapid movement; in central actions, von Kluge will press across the Corridor; Rundstedt's southern corps Reichenau, Blaskowitz will fix and pin. Guderian handles exploitation. We will attach reconnaissance battalions and pioneers to the leading regiment. Command structure will be clear. Liaison officers will be plentiful."

A weather officer, quietly ignored until now, spoke. "Rain or mud will dictate pace in the plains and the southern foothills. A wet autumn obliges slower movement in some valleys. If we want tempo, we must stage to avoid the worst weather windows."

Guderian barked a laugh that was more a cough. "We stage and then rush. We win by shock. The moral effect of a panzer smash is both tactical and strategic."

Halder tapped his notes. "We will issue the orders. The Führer will be briefed. He will want speed."

He looked at the door as if the wallpaper behind it wanted to speak as well.

When Hitler arrived he did not want maps.

He wanted assurances. "Quick," he said. "Decisive. Tell me when our men drink from the River Vistula in the capital."

Halder recited his timetable. "Forty-eight hours for air control. Two to three weeks for encirclement. Supply windows aligned daily."

Hitler's smile was small and satisfied. "Then make it quick. Make it clean. And make sure the headlines explain it without calling it war."

They wrote the orders.

They signed the papers.

Names and times were inked and initialled.

A final paragraph logistics, liaison, and the inevitable instructions for security detachments to follow the field armies was added to ensure that "order" in the occupied areas would be something the regime could control.

Outside, Halder lingered by the door and said to Guderian, "If the tempo holds, their will breaks."

Guderian spat into his hand and rubbed it on his boot. "Then make them break quickly," he said, and walked away.