Red Moscow

The joy of capturing Zaporozhye has not lasted for a day, and the situation of the Southwest Front has become more and more dangerous. The 48th and 57th Panzer Corps, which belonged to the German Fourth Panzer Army, launched an attack at the same time.

Before dark, the units of the two armored armies, after annihilating many Soviet troops along the way, captured Pavlograd, joined the imperial division going south, and successfully cut off the retreat of the Soviet Sixth Army.

General Knobelsdorf, commander of the 48th Panzer Corps, and General Kissina, commander of the 57th Panzer Corps, met in the city. The two stood on a three-story building, looking at the smoldering city in the distance, Kissina proudly said: "General Knobelsdorf, the loss of this city by the Russians means We cut off their Sixth Army retreat."

"Twenty days ago, Paulus' Sixth Army was completely wiped out in Stalingrad." Knobelsdorf said thoughtfully: "Now the Russian Sixth Army is also encircled by us. Will they be wiped out like Paulus did, or will some of them break out?"

Although his troops had an absolute advantage, Kissina did not get complacent about it. He thought for a while and replied: "I think there are many difficulties in annihilating the Russian army. First of all, we The limited force of the Chinese army cannot form a real encirclement of them, and the encirclement is full of loopholes. Secondly, the Donetsk River is still covered with thick ice, and the Russians with light weapons can easily escape us through the ice encirclement."

"Ordinary Russian soldiers want to escape, let them go." Knobelsdorf said: "But their command organization must not let it go. Even if their commander cannot be captured alive, they must be severely injured."

The fall of Pavlograd greatly exceeded Vatutin's expectations. After staring at the map for a while, he called Lieutenant General Ivanov, his chief of staff, and asked with a straight face: "Comrade Chief of Staff, why are there no troops that can stop the enemy from defending Pavlograd?" Attack? You know, the fall of this city means that the retreat of the Sixth Army has been cut off, and they will no longer be able to obtain supplies from the rear. Once their ammunition and food are exhausted, what awaits them will be The fate of the entire army will be wiped out."

"Comrade Commander." Lieutenant General Ivanov waited for Vatutin to finish speaking, and carefully reminded him: "The letter forwarded to us by General Rokossovsky a few days ago reminded us that The German army may launch a full-scale counterattack locally, and Pavlograd will be the focus of the enemy's attack, so we must be careful."

Vatutin naturally remembered the letter sent by Rokossovsky a few days ago. The situation was very good at that time, and Vatutin naturally had no interest in reading Rokossovsky's contradictory letter. At this moment, when Ivanov mentioned it, he quickly told the other party: "Hurry up, go get the letter. I want to see what General Rokossovsky said."

After a while, Ivanov came over with Rokossovsky's letter, handed it to Vatutin and said: "Comrade Commander, please read this letter. The enemy's deployment and attack General Rokossovsky made a detailed analysis of the direction in his letter. I really did not expect that all the things he predicted were fulfilled."

Vatutin snatched the letter from Ivanov's hand, unfolded it and quickly browsed it. The more he watched, the more frightened he became. Rokossovsky's letter wrote in detail the direction, time and possible force of the enemy's possible attack. Vatutin did not know these contents, but Sokov sorted them out from his own memory, and thought they were the conclusions drawn by Rokossovsky's analysis. He couldn't help saying to Ivanov with emotion: "Chief of Staff, General Rokossovsky is really amazing. The content he analyzed is basically the same as what we encountered. If I had seen his letter earlier, Chances are our losses will be much smaller."

When Ivanov heard what Vatutin said, the muscles on his face couldn't help twitching violently a few times. He clearly remembered that after Rokossovsky sent someone to deliver the letter, the messenger sat on the bench for a long time before delivering the letter. The letter was handed over to him. At that time, I felt that Rokossovsky's analysis was somewhat reasonable, so I reported the matter to Vatutin. Unexpectedly, after the other party heard this, not only did not arouse alarm, but on the contrary, he blamed himself for making a fuss.

However, under the current circumstances, who is right and who is wrong is no longer a trivial matter. What needs to be done now is to save the Sixth Army from the brink of destruction. So Ivanov asked cautiously: "Comrade commander, not only the Sixth Army is encircled by the German army, but also the 24th Tank Army, the 267th Infantry Division and the 106th Infantry Brigade. If they are all eaten by the German army Otherwise, the strength of our front army will be severely damaged."

Vatutin did not expect that his troops had just captured Zaporozhye yesterday, driving Manstein and his headquarters from the city. Unexpectedly, before he could laugh out loud, the German army launched a counterattack, encircling one of his own army groups in less than a day. He pondered for a long time, then raised his head and asked Ivanov, "Chief of Staff, what do you think should be done?"

"I think Popov should be ordered to quickly group to stop the current offensive." Ivanov suggested to Vatutin: "Let General Popov turn around and come back to join the Sixth Army. With the strength of the two troops, we can completely It can break through the encirclement of the German army."

"Break through the encirclement of the German army?" Vatutin looked at Ivanov and asked with a sneer, "Where are you going to break through? Then flee back to our current position?" He raised his hand and slapped the table loudly. Said, "Order Popov to continue to attack the enemy's defenses in depth according to the original plan. At the same time, send a report to the commander of the Sixth Army and ask him to resolutely hold the existing position at all costs. Absolutely not Throw an inch of land to the enemy."

As chief of staff, Ivanov felt that Vatutin's order was completely wrong. If this order is really conveyed, then waiting for the fate of the Sixth Army and Popov's rapid grouping will be a devastating blow. Therefore, he solemnly reminded Vatutin: "Comrade Commander, this is related to the lives of tens of thousands of commanders and fighters. Please consider this matter carefully."

"There is nothing to consider." Vatutin said stubbornly: "Immediately convey my order, otherwise I will delay the battle, and I will personally send you to a military court."

Seeing that Vatutin was so unreasonable, Ivanov sighed softly, and ordered someone to send Vatutin's order in the form of a telegram. But when he sent a telegram to Popov again, he had an extra thought, and specially asked the operator to add at the end of the telegram: If the situation is out of control, you are allowed to issue various combat orders according to the specific situation.

Popov, who received the telegram, immediately understood what his old friend Ivanov meant. The other party told him that if the troops were severely damaged, then according to the prior agreement, he would lead the remaining troops to withdraw to the defense area of ​​the 41st Guards Division in Lugansk, where they would continue to deal with the Germans.