The decisive battle against the Third Reich

"Captain!" Manstein said to Qin Chuan with a somewhat dissatisfied tone: "I seem to need to remind you that our troops, artillery, tanks and even aircraft are only half of the enemy's!"

"I know, General!" Qin Chuan replied.

Of course Qinchuan knew that the only advantage the German army had before this was air power. The 8th Air Force led by General von Richthofen invested more than 1,000 fighter planes to completely control the skies over the Crimean Peninsula... This number occupies It accounted for two-fifths of the total number of German fighter aircraft of all types on the Eastern Front.

But now, because of the Soviet attack on Kharkov, Richthofen hurriedly diverted 800 of his fighters to support Kharkov, leaving only 200 fighters on the Crimean Peninsula. The Soviet army has 400 fighters on the Kerch Peninsula alone, not counting the possible new reinforcements of fighters.

"You know this?" Manstein asked: "You still insist on attacking rather than defending?"

"Yes, General!"

"Okay!" Manstein spread his hands and looked at the map and said: "I would like to know... the enemy is rushing towards us in overwhelming numbers, and there is no other passage on the Kerch Peninsula. How can we launch an attack on the enemy? Attack? Go around by sea?"

"No, General!" Qin Chuan replied, and then pointed to the map and said: "For now, we really have no chance to attack, because the enemy 47th Group Army and 51st Group Army are attacking us from the left and right. The 44th Group Army The army group will follow as a reserve team!"

This is also what Manstein said just now... The Kerch Peninsula is only 18 kilometers wide. The two armies, one on the left and one on the right, will advance side by side. They will defend the entire line of defense watertight. The German army will attack head on from any point. The Soviet army collided and then fell into an arduous tug-of-war and war of attrition. The war of attrition and tug-of-war was exactly what the Soviet army wanted, because they had more people and more equipment and could afford it.

It is for this reason that everyone in the conference room, including Manstein, disapproved of the offense.

Manstein knew that Taichuan had more to say, so he did not interrupt Qin Chuan, but just said "hmm" to indicate to Qin Chuan to continue.

"So we have to artificially create an opportunity!" Qin Chuan said, "Or it can be said to be a gap!"

Qin Chuan pointed to the map and said: "My plan is divided into two stages. The first stage is to retreat. To be precise, it is to retreat while defending. In this way, the Soviet 47th Group Army and the 51st Group Army will They will no longer go hand in hand, there will be a gap between them!"

Manstein immediately understood what Qin Chuan said and continued: "Then, we will use mechanized troops to quickly penetrate this gap and break into the enemy's rear?"

"Yes!" Qin Chuan nodded.

"Captain!" Colonel Adam objected: "I don't believe the Soviets will be so careless. They will let the 44th Group Army follow closely to fill this gap!"

It is normal for Colonel Adam to say this, because the German army would not have made this mistake.

but……

"They are the Soviets!" Qin Chuan said: "We all know that the Soviet army has backward communication equipment and poor coordination capabilities. Yes, they may indeed ask the 44th Group Army to fill this gap, not to mention whether they can arrive in time. Even if they arrive... it won't be difficult for us to concentrate our efforts to break through the 44th Army's defense line!"

The officers in the conference room nodded in agreement. They had been fighting the Soviet army for many years and knew that the Soviet army did have these problems.

"I have another question!" Colonel Adam added: "We know that the roads in the Crimean Peninsula have been muddy due to melting ice and snow and spring rains, which will make it difficult for mechanized troops to advance quickly. If they are trapped... we The main force will be surrounded in the narrow Kerch Peninsula and unable to escape, which will cause a devastating blow to our army group!"

"Colonel!" Qin Chuan replied: "This problem... the Soviets should help us solve it!"

"What do you mean?" Colonel Adam looked at Qin Chuan doubtfully.

"I believe that this attack by the Soviets was not launched suddenly, but was prepared for a period of time!"

"Yes, of course!" said Colonel Adam. "Of course they planned it!"

"So..." Qin Chuan said, "What preparations do you think they will make?"

Colonel Adam couldn't help but said "Oh", and then he understood the meaning of Qin Chuan's words.

"The captain is right!" Manstein said: "In order to allow tanks to be deployed on the front line, and to ensure the supply of the front line, they will build roads on the Kerch Peninsula!"

After a pause, Manstein continued: "The Soviets put three armies in front, and there is only one army group dozens of kilometers inside. As long as we are fast enough and our attack power is strong enough, we can follow their supply lines all the way. We may not need supplies until we reach Kerch Port, because that is the Soviet supply line, and there will be endless fuel, ammunition and food along the way!”

The German officers couldn't help but nodded. Of course they would not reject this plan. This was exactly the blitzkrieg they had been looking forward to, but they just couldn't find the opportunity to launch the lightning station before.

"Well done, Captain!" Manstein nodded to Qin Chuan: "Very good plan! You are right, we only wanted to block the enemy's attack, but we did not see the opportunity to attack right in front of us. If we cannot win this battle, then the 11th Army and I... are too incompetent!"

I don’t know who started it, but there was a round of applause in the conference room.

Only Qin Chuan himself knows that this credit cannot actually be attributed to him... In this battle in history, the Soviet army also launched a fierce attack like now, but the German defense line was unbalanced on the left and right sides, and the right wing, that is, the part near the sea in the south, was the enemy. Feodosia is another important port on the Rimu Peninsula, so it is garrisoned by the powerful German 30th Army. The left wing is garrisoned by the 42nd Army, which has poor combat effectiveness (Note: the German 42nd Army is mainly composed of Romanian troops).

As a result, the battle naturally developed into this: the Soviet army was invincible on the left wing but was unable to move forward on the right wing. The two wings staggered and soon formed a fatal gap.

If the Soviet army was commanded by Tolbukhin, then this problem may not arise. After all, the Soviet army has too many troops to mobilize.

However, the headquarters of the Soviet Crimean Front consists of a mediocre commander (Kozlov), a political commissar (Mekhlis) who knows nothing about military affairs but is overbearing and frequently intervenes, and a It is also composed of the Chief of Staff (Vecchini) who is also inexperienced and can even be said to be Mehlis's follower, so tragedy cannot be avoided.