The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The German army was determined to win Stalingrad, from top to bottom.

Qinchuan could understand their thinking. After all, in principle, the German army had launched a counterattack since Kharkov... In fact, it should be said that it had been fighting very smoothly since the Battle of the Crimean Peninsula. The Soviet army was always in a wave. Another wave of being annihilated by the German army, even though the Soviet army's strength and equipment were several times that of the German army. This also caused the Soviet army's strength advantage in facing the German army in the south to disappear, and even the strength comparison has been reversed. In other words, the total strength of the Soviet army in the south was weaker than that of the German army.

Of course, the German army will only be larger than the Soviet army when the troops of the slave countries are added.

Therefore, the German officers and soldiers would take it for granted that...it would not be difficult to capture Stalingrad with only 90,000 people.

But Qinchuan was not so optimistic, because he knew that Stalingrad would become a veritable meat grinder in history. In more than five months of continuous tug-of-war, the Soviet and German armies would suffer more than 200 casualties near this city. Thousands of people.

But at least one thing Qinchuan believed was beneficial to this battle... He captured the Sevastopol Fortress and the Kerch Peninsula for the Germans on the Crimean Peninsula, freeing up the Air Force to reinforce Army Group South in advance. Launching an offensive, this bought the Germans nearly a month.

Simply put, it's June, six months instead of five until the cold winter months of December begin.

Can this month change the outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad?

Qinchuan was not sure, because he knew that the Battle of Stalingrad was not fought in one city from beginning to end, but in the German army against two Soviet fronts: there was a Stalingrad front in the north that continued to delay and consume the German army, and the Stalingrad front in the east continued to delay and consume the German army. There is a Southeastern Front that is constantly injecting fresh blood into Stalingrad through the Volga River like adding fuel. Among them, the artillery of the Southeastern Front is still shelling Stalingrad from the other end of the Volga River, but the German army is helpless against these enemy artillery on the other side of the river.

Therefore, although the German army finally occupied 80% of Stalingrad, there was no guarantee that it would be able to occupy all areas within a month.

What's more, the German army has fallen into an almost unsolvable trap... Since the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, the fundamental reason why the German army has been able to defeat the superior Soviet army with inferior troops and equipment again and again lies in the quality of the German army. Good combat experience, but the Soviet army is a new recruit who has hardly fought in a battle, and the commander basically gives blind orders.

However, as the war situation remains in a tug-of-war, although the Germans still have the upper hand in this tug-of-war, a problem will inevitably arise:

More and more qualified German soldiers with combat experience are dying on the battlefield, and they are being replaced by new recruits who have basically no combat experience and have even been trained for less than three months... Since the Battle of Moscow, in order to quickly replenish the troops on the Eastern Front , the previous training camp system of the German army has existed in name only, because recruits no longer enter the training camp first to take on second-line or lighter tasks to adapt for a period of time before entering front-line combat, as before, but they are directly added to the front-line troops from the rear.

Because of this, the troops attacking with the Germans this time included many troops from slave countries. Even Hott's 4th Armored Group included more than one-third of the Romanian army.

In other words, since personnel recruitment cannot keep up with attrition, the quality and combat effectiveness of the German army will inevitably decrease.

On the contrary, the Soviet army's combat effectiveness is constantly improving because they have learned on the battlefield.

Under the ebb and flow of one another, the gap in combat effectiveness between the Soviet and German armies is gradually narrowing, and the German army's battle may become increasingly difficult in the future.

Of course, the fortunate thing is that the German army successfully captured Baku, which exponentially reduced the Soviet Union's war energy. Otherwise, even Qinchuan may not be able to withstand the attack of a sea of ​​tanks after the Soviet army moved to the east and resumed production of industries.

"Major!" Colonel Slain sat down next to Qin Chuan at some point.

"Colonel!" Qin Chuan wanted to stand up and salute but was stopped by Colonel Slaine.

"What do you seem to be worried about?" Colonel Slain asked: "You know? Seeing your expression like this is what scares me the most, because almost everything you said has come true!"

"That's just a coincidence!" Qin Chuan replied.

"Are you worried about Stalingrad?" Colonel Slain asked.

Qin Chuan nodded: "Stalingrad is different from any city we have captured before!"

"Yes!" Colonel Slain nodded in agreement: "The point is that it is Stalingrad, a city named after Stalin, so it is conceivable that... Stalin will defend it like he defends Moscow!"

"I have a question, Colonel!" Qin Chuan said: "We have the experience of failure in the Battle of Moscow. Why won't the Battle of Stalingrad be like the Battle of Moscow? I mean, why won't they learn the lessons of failure? ?”

This is what Qin Chuan has always wondered when studying German history in modern times: How similar were the German defeats in the Battle of Moscow and the Battle of Stalin, both because of the coming of winter... If the Battle of Moscow was because the Soviets consciously introduced the German army If we go deep and clear the country, then why did we make the same mistake in the Battle of Stalingrad? At least, the Germans will prepare a few more sets of cotton-padded clothes before winter comes!

But none of this happened, and German soldiers were still freezing during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Colonel Slain couldn't help but sigh, and handed the half-bottle of vodka to Qin Chuan, then looked at Stalingrad in the distance under the setting sun, and replied: "Greed, Major, because of greed. We all know that we are short of supplies, and we all know that the cold winter will come again in a few months. But... we all think: maybe by transporting more ammunition, we can defeat the enemy and win the final victory. So I would rather transport ammunition than wear cotton clothes to keep out the cold!”

When Qin Chuan heard this, he understood that in fact, the Battle of Moscow should be like this... It was either cotton clothes or ammunition, and the top German commanders chose the latter.

"I hope this time!" said Colonel Slain, "it will be different from last time!"

"Yes!" Qin Chuan picked up the bottle and took a sip, saying, "I wish it would be different!"

Of course Colonel Slain didn't know that what Qin Chuan actually meant was... "I hope it's different from history."