Chapter 1323: Chapter 960: Italy Surrenders_3 Chapter 1323: Chapter 960: Italy Surrenders_3 For Germany, contracting the front lines might have allowed them to delay for a longer period.

But the German Chancellor clearly did not accept this course of action. At a new meeting of the Supreme Command, the German Chancellor repeatedly emphasized the importance of the offensive on the Eastern Front and declared that he was prepared to pay any cost to capture Stalingrad.

It is important to note that the number of soldiers Germany and Russia had amassed in Stalingrad had already exceeded 6 million, with nearly 2.3 million from the German Army and over 3.7 million from the Russian army.

The battle of Stalingrad blindly initiated by the German Chancellor had become the largest campaign on the Eastern European Battlefield since its opening, with a level of casualties far surpassing the defense of Moscow.

Such scenes had not appeared in the early stages of World War II, and it was hard to imagine the Germans launching such a large-scale campaign in Stalingrad.

However, for the German Chancellor and the German government, who had by then fallen into madness, any decision they made was no longer surprising.

Furthermore, the name Stalingrad itself held certain significance for Russia; even if it was just a small town, the mere fact that it bore this name made it worthy of being captured by the German Army at any cost.

After all, who else but Stalin was the highest ruler of Russia at the time? The strategic significance of a city named after him was already crucial, and the value derived from the name itself was one of the reasons why the German Chancellor was so bloodshot.

There was good news for Germany, in that the nationwide training of new recruits was nearing its end, with large numbers of new recruits completing their training and heading for the battlefield every day.

Although the German forces on the French Battlefield were currently at a disadvantage, with over a million reserve personnel now being deployed to France, it was basically possible to maintain the balance on the French Battlefield.

As for the remaining millions of the German Army, aside from retaining an adequate number of the reserves in the Army Group as a precaution, the rest of the forces were planned by the German Chancellor to be committed to the battle of Stalingrad, striving to crush the Russians in one fell swoop.

At this moment, one couldn’t help but admire the German Chancellor’s astonishing persuasive power and his talent for oration. Just a few speeches in Berlin were enough to incite a vast number of Germans to join the army eagerly.

It should be noted that the core German population was only about 80 million, but as of now, the total number of the military personnel Germany had mobilized was approaching ten million.

This was an astonishing and frightening number, indicating that one in every eight Germans was participating in the war and that nearly every two German families had someone heading to the battlefield.

If one also considered the workers in military factories and other enterprises serving the war effort, it could be said that every German family was serving the war, with members either heading to the battlefield or working in military enterprises.

Being able to inspire the populace to such an extent, regardless of the German Chancellor’s reputation abroad, at least in the Germany of now, in the hearts of the contemporary Germans, the German Chancellor was still the savior of Germany, a guide leading the country towards dawn.

Both historically and in this world, the actions of the Germans represented one fact, that the outbreak of World War II was not solely Germany’s fault.

The Germans were indeed at fault for waging war, but the factors that forced Germany into a position where they had no choice but to wage war were also one of the primary causes leading to the outbreak of World War II.