The decisive battle against the Third Reich

But in fact, even if we reach the Volga River, our mission is not complete.

At nine o'clock that night, the 21st Armored Division advanced to Akatovka on the Volga River.

The German Air Force had obviously bombed it first, because on the other side of the Volga River, several bombed oil storage tanks were smoky and black, and they were connected into a sea of ​​flames. Burning oil was flowing everywhere on the river. The river was covered with a long blanket of fire that flowed with the water.

In the light of the fire, the loud shouts of Soviet soldiers and civilians on the opposite side were faintly heard as they put out the fire. The ships parked in the port were burned. A few explosions and screams were heard from time to time in the raging fire.

"Oh!" The baker said after looking at this situation: "The Air Force should tell us these situations in advance. This must be a good opportunity to cross the Volga River!"

There was a burst of laughter from the surrounding German soldiers.

They knew that the baker was joking. On the other side of the Volga River was the main force of the Soviet Southeast Front. If the 21st Armored Division really fought through it, it would probably be submerged in a sea of ​​​​people by Soviet soldiers within a few hours.

Soon after receiving the order, Colonel Slain shouted: "Keep going!"

"But Colonel!" Bazelle asked: "Where to go? Jump into the river?"

The officers and soldiers laughed again.

Qin Chuan actually understood the mentality of the German officers and soldiers at this time. The jokes they told were not funny, but these jokes were not just jokes, including what the baker just said. They were expressing their contempt for the Soviet army and their arrival at the Volga River. Pride of the finish line.

"Stalingrad!" Colonel Slain shouted: "We are heading towards Stalingrad!"

"Hey!" The German officers and soldiers cheered in unison, as if Stalingrad was about to groan under their feet.

But in fact, the march of the 21st Armored Division was not what the soldiers imagined.

Colonel Slaine explained to Qin Chuan: "We have no defense depth, understand? While compressing the Soviets' living space, we can create another line of defense for ourselves!"

Colonel Slain's words are simple and easy to understand.

Starting from Kotluban, the penetration of the German army has actually put itself in a tight siege... Although the 21st Armored Division cut off the connection between Stalingrad and the Stalingrad Front, it also found itself in the embarrassment of being attacked from both sides. Situation: To the north is the enemy's Stalingrad Front, to the south is the Stalingrad garrison.

It is conceivable that the German army that breaks into the Kotluban section will be attacked by the Soviet army from both sides at any time.

Therefore, in order to avoid being attacked from the front and back, the German army must dig out a little space in this section to build two "back-to-back" lines of defense.

What the 21st Armored Division needs to do now is to open this space first.

This is not a difficult task... just drive the tank a few kilometers south and conduct fire tests. You can stop when you reach the defensive circle of Stalingrad or encounter stubborn resistance from the Soviet army.

However, this move frightened Stalin, because at this time, only the remnants of the Soviet 62nd Army and the 64th Army were stationed in Stalingrad... Most of their troops were annihilated by the Germans on the outer defense line. At this time Although there are two armies, the total strength is only 90,000.

So Stalin immediately sent a telegram to Deputy Supreme Commander Zhukov: "The situation in Stalingrad has deteriorated sharply. The enemy has successfully completed the three-sided encirclement of Stalingrad. The forward is only 3 versts (1 versts) away from Stalingrad. equal to 1.06 kilometers). If the Northern Army does not attack the enemy immediately, Stalingrad is likely to be captured today or tomorrow. Therefore, the commanders of the forces located north and northwest of Stalingrad should be asked. Immediately attack the enemy and assist the soldiers and civilians of Stalingrad without any delay. Delay now is tantamount to a crime!”

But Zhukov's view is different. The main reason is that the Stalingrad Front in the north has insufficient troops and insufficient preparation...

This also starts with Army Group South's attack on Stalingrad.

The German army has three army groups, namely Army Group North, Army Group Center and Army Group South, arranged from north to south to form a roughly flat line of defense to confront the Soviet army.

In this way, it would be no problem if they stayed still, each guarding their own line of defense and covering each other's flanks of friendly forces.

Alternatively, if the German army's supplies and troops are sufficient for three army groups to launch attacks at the same time, there will be no problem. The three armies will advance in tandem to cover each other.

The problem is that after the defeat of the Battle of Moss, the German army was unable to gather so much materials and troops in a short period of time for the three army groups to attack at the same time.

In fact, the Germans only had enough troops to allow Army Group South to launch an attack.

This will cause a problem: when the Southern Army attacks forward, it will naturally form a protrusion, and as the Southern Army wins more and more victories on the front line, more and more troops will penetrate deeper and deeper into the enemy's hinterland, and the flanks will become longer and longer. And it is extremely easy to be penetrated and surrounded by enemies.

This is obviously extremely dangerous, because it will not only threaten the logistics supply line of Army Group South, but also cut off the connection between Army Group South and Army Group Center and Army Group North.

But this problem was solved very creatively by the German army.

The method is to attack along the Don River... The Don River flows southeast from Kharkov to Stalingrad.

This can be said to be a coincidence, that is, the German army happened to plan to launch an attack from Kharkov, and the Soviet Union took the lead in launching a counterattack from Kharkov.

After the German army defeated the Soviet counterattack, they took advantage of the situation and launched a long-planned attack... While attacking, they stationed themselves along the Don River and even prepared to cross the Don River.

This was actually a strategy of the German army to disperse the Soviet forces, because as we all know, it was very difficult to cross the river in this era, especially since the Soviets still had equipment such as gunboats on the river, and the German army extremely lacked the tools to cross the river.

Therefore, the German army actually never thought of crossing the river from the beginning. They placed Romanian troops, Italian troops, etc. along the Don River to cover their flanks. The main force, the 6th Group Army, was heading straight for Stalingrad.

This was also one of the reasons for the failure of the German army in the Battle of Stalingrad. It was still feasible to let the servants with low combat effectiveness cover the flanks in the spring, summer, and autumn, because amphibious operations across rivers were very difficult in this era, and the Soviet army's combat effectiveness was also the same. No, we dare not cross the river rashly and attack these troops.

But once the Don River froze in winter, the armies of these slave states could no longer hold such a long line of defense, so the weak flanks of Army Group South were completely exposed to the Soviet army.