The decisive battle against the Third Reich

After receiving the telegram, Stalin realized the seriousness of the matter, so he immediately sent a telegram back to Mehlis:

"You have adopted a strange and irresponsible bystander position for the affairs of the Crimean Front... Comrade Mehlis, you are not a bystander, but a responsible representative of the Supreme Command, responsible for everything on the Front. Responsible for success or failure, mistakes in front army leadership should be corrected on the spot... If you don't take various measures to organize the resistance, but just passively criticize from the side, then your problem will be more serious!"

Stalin's telegram made Mehlis realize that he could not distance himself from the failure of the Crimean Front, so he could only return to his command post and continue to command.

But this may be another tragedy, because the result of his command was to angrily dismiss the commanders of the 47th Army and the 44th Army, Generals Chernyak and Kolganov, and reduce their military rank to colonel. Major General Bogdanov, commander of the 51st Army, could not escape this fate, but he was killed in the subsequent battle with his troops to pursue the German army, so he was exempted from this punishment.

These were the only ways that Mehlis could threaten people. Of course, he didn't know that dismissing the frontline commander at this time would severely damage the morale of the Soviet soldiers... The Soviet troops on the frontline were panicked and at a loss what to do.

This is a good thing for the German army that has broken through the Soviet defense line. The "Grodek" Motorized Brigade blocked the pursuit of the Soviet army with the 50th Infantry Division behind it, and advanced all the way towards Kerch Port, advancing 50 kilometers in one day... A day here refers to a day and night.

This speed may be considered slow. The Panzer III tank can reach a speed of 40 kilometers per hour on the road, and can travel 50 kilometers in more than an hour at full power.

However, advancement and marching speed during war are completely incomparable, because there will always be situations along the way, such as being ambushed by the Soviet army, entering a minefield laid by the Soviet army, or having a road blown up by the Soviet army. Bridge and so on.

So this speed can be considered quite fast. You must know that the African Corps can advance forward in the open desert for at most one hundred kilometers a day, let alone marching and fighting on the road.

"This may be the easiest battle we have ever fought!" Werner laughed: "We haven't played on the court until now. I feel like I'm just here for sightseeing!"

"If we keep this speed..." The baker struggled to light a cigarette in the rickety car, and then said: "Tomorrow we can reach Kerch, and there will definitely be a fierce battle there!"

"I don't think it will be a fierce battle, Second Lieutenant!" Dominic said: "Perhaps you have also heard that the Soviets only have one group army in the direction of Kerch. Although I don't know the combat effectiveness of this group army, but..."

Speaking of this, Dominic reached for the baker's cigarette and lit the cigarette in his mouth, and then continued: "But the Soviets always put the troops with strong combat effectiveness in the front and the troops with weak combat effectiveness in the back, so we There won’t be any hard fight. If I’m not mistaken, they will be waiting for us in Kerch with their hands raised!”

The German troops in the carriage couldn't help laughing after hearing this. Each of them was excited about the great victory that was about to be achieved in this battle... The three Soviet armies had already been left behind by them.

In principle, the "Grodek" Motorized Brigade itself is also surrounded by the Soviet army. After all, there are Soviet troops in front and behind, and the Soviet army has much more troops than the German Motorized Brigade.

However, "encirclement" on the battlefield cannot be concluded based solely on military strength.

Although the Soviet army behind the German motorized brigade has three armies, it cannot get supplies, ammunition and fuel. Therefore, it is conceivable that as the war situation continues to develop like this, the three Soviet army armies will only fight harder and harder. Weakness eventually evolved into a situation where we had guns but no ammunition, and we had cars but no gas.

On the contrary, the German "Grodek" motorized brigade destroyed the Soviet supply lines along the way and at the same time obtained sufficient supplies and equipment from the Soviet army... Although the weapons of the German army and the Soviet army were different, they still There are many things available.

For example, with regard to landmines, the 28th Chasseur Division at the front of the German army seized truckloads of mines from the Soviet supply team and transported them to the 50th Infantry Division at the rear as soon as they were transferred. Landmines do not recognize their owners, especially when the Soviet Union used a large number of square wooden shell mines, which the Germans called "little coffins." Because these mines were made of wooden shells, they could not be detected at all. The shrapnel produced during the explosion was also wood fragments, so Usually it is only injured but not killed...but it is more intimidating because of this, because the wounded will be much more troublesome than the corpses.

Another example is cannons, machine guns, Bobosha submachine guns, etc.

Among them, especially the Deggarev light machine gun (rotary machine gun) and Bobosha submachine gun, the German soldiers kept piling into the car, and there were more and more cars all the way... This was related to the communication and coordination of the Soviet army. The lack of smoothness also had a lot to do with it. The Soviet army was too large and its communication equipment was extremely backward. Many troops did not have radio communications until the regiment level. Therefore, even though the Kerch command had long known that the German troops had broken through the defense line and attacked Kerch, However, the transportation and supply teams on the way were unable to notify them in time, so one team after another rushed into the arms of the German army.

Even when they reached 39 kilometers, the German army captured a supply transfer station. This transfer station was a supply station that the Soviet army used to transport supplies by sea from Kerch or the Taman Peninsula or even the Caucasus region on the other side of the Black Sea... because the road was muddy. , so sea transportation will be much more convenient than land transportation.

On the other hand, the Soviet army did not dare to locate the transfer station too far forward, otherwise it would be easily bombarded by enemy artillery fire.

What is a bit strange is that such an important place as the transfer station should have received the news early and prepared to blow up the supply station, but this did not happen. Even after the German army occupied the transfer station, there were still several transport ships The ship docked at the port loaded with supplies.

Qinchuan vaguely knew the reason: at this time, the command of the Soviet Crimean Front was not thinking about how to stop the German army from advancing, but how to shirk responsibility. As a result, there would be all kinds of things in the command that the German army could not imagine. mistake.

This batch of supplies was so large that the German army could not even count it. The warehouse was filled with bullets, artillery shells and food.

It's a pity that these bullets and artillery shells are not used by the Germans. At the same time, they are still very dangerous to the Germans... Once this batch of supplies falls into the hands of the Soviet troops pursuing them from behind, it will restore their combat effectiveness.

So, just to be on the safe side, Manstein decided to blow them up on the spot.