The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Lopatin has a revenge mentality.

If you are an ordinary person, then there is no problem in "repaying hatred and repaying kindness". But as a general, he has to consider the general strategy more than blindly commanding with hatred.

For example, at this time, Lopatin should carefully consider how to minimize the losses in the factory area, or how to avoid following the enemy and always being one step behind the opponent.

But Lieutenant General Lopatin was not such a commander who could think calmly at critical moments... This also led to his being dismissed soon after and replaced by Chuikov, another famous Soviet general.

At this time, Lopatin had actually lost his fighting spirit and confidence... This was not only because the factory was burned down, but also because the 62nd Army had suffered heavy casualties again and again before this.

This is actually understandable, because people will have this mentality. When they are defeated, they will fall into negative emotions and be unable to extricate themselves. At this time, he even had the idea of ​​​​abandoning Stalin and evacuating to the other side of the Volga River... because of what he was thinking It was all a fierce attack by the German army, and Stalingrad could not be defended under such an attack. It was more because of Stalin's insistence on his orders that he could only hold on in Stalingrad.

People who lose self-confidence can easily make random decisions and give random orders. The angry Lopatin took it for granted that the German army would return from the same route, so he ordered the troops stationed in the west to approach the industrial area step by step.

Who would have thought that the German army would turn around and attack in the direction of Renok, that is, northward along the Volga River... This attack has an advantage, at least there will be no enemies in the direction of the Volga River. At the same time, the Soviet army in the direction of Lenok will face a pincer attack by the German army from two directions.

So the German troops returned to their own camp neatly and beautifully. Before leaving, they even burned down a bread factory and laid many mines along the retreat route, causing a lot of trouble for the Soviet troops that followed.

The news soon reached Moscow.

Stalin was smoking a pipe and reading the newspaper in his office at the time. He was accustomed to having a little leisure time of his own before work every day.

At this time, the staff officer hurried into the office and whispered: "Comrade Stalin, the telegram from Stalingrad..."

Stalin nodded. He originally thought it was another telegram from Lopatin requesting supplies and troops, but after taking a look at it, he almost dropped the pipe from his mouth.

"What's going on?" Stalin asked after a while: "The Germans were able to penetrate the heavily defended defense lines into the hinterland of Stalingrad and burn down such an important factory?"

"Comrade Stalin!" the staff officer replied: "I heard it's because the Germans disguised themselves as our people..."

"This is just an excuse!" Stalin interrupted the staff: "If it is so easy, why can't Lopatin let his soldiers disguise themselves as Germans and sneak attack the German headquarters or ammunition depots?"

Of course, this question cannot be answered by the staff, and there is no need for the staff to answer it.

After thinking about it, Stalin said to his staff: "Order Chuikov to come to my office!"

"Yes, Comrade Stalin!"

The staff knew that Stalin could no longer bear to be disappointed with Lopatin, and at the same time he wanted to remove Lopatin regardless of the taboo of changing generals on the spot.

Chuikov appeared in Stalin's office a few hours later.

"Comrade Chuikov!" Stalin asked straight to the point: "What do you think of Stalingrad? Comrade Lopatin is not sure of withstanding the German attack. In fact... he thinks we should abandon Stalingrad!"

"No, Comrade Stalin!" Chuikov replied without hesitation: "We cannot hand over Stalingrad to the enemy, even if its factories have been burned down by the Germans. I swear to either defend this city or die there!"

Stalin was very satisfied with Chuikov's answer. What he wanted was this determination, and what Lopatin lacked was this.

"I will let Comrade Zhukov fully assist you in defending Stalingrad!" Stalin said: "You are already the commander of the 62nd Army!"

As a result, Chuikov became the supreme commander of Stalingrad. He first flew to Kapustin Yar, which is the east bank of the Volga River, that night, and then crossed the Volga River in the dark and rushed to Stalingrad.

On the other side of the German army, they immediately received full cheers and applause from the German soldiers when they returned to their defense line... The German army never skimps on praising the victors, although they encountered the 1st Infantry Regiment on the way passing by. Most of them were German soldiers who had never met before, but they were in awe as soon as they heard that this was the 1st Infantry Regiment that burned Stalingrad last night.

After returning to the state farm, the 1st Infantry Regiment also received praise from Paulus: "Warriors, your heroic actions inspired each of us. Although many of them have just heard of your deeds, they were I saw the fire in Stalingrad. To my surprise, many people had already guessed that it was your masterpiece. This shows that the 1st Infantry Regiment has amazing prestige among us. So, you last night. What you lit was more than just a fire. What you lit was the confidence that we would be able to defeat the enemy and conquer Stalingrad. What you burned was not just the factories of the Soviets. What you burned was their will to resist! No. 1 Infantry regiment, I am proud of you!”

The soldiers couldn't help but cheer loudly. Compared with some physical rewards, this kind of spiritual praise made them more excited.

This can be said to be an honor, a belief, or a kind of persistence.

Qin Chuan ignored this. He dragged his exhausted body back to his tent, leaned his rifle aside, lay down like a corpse and didn't even want to move his fingers.

The high-intensity fighting in recent days has made him somewhat unbearable, so he also somewhat understands the desire of the officers and soldiers fighting on the northern defense line to stabilize the front before launching an attack on Stalingrad... Tiredness is also the enemy of German soldiers.

The German army is different from the Soviet army. The Soviet army can send troops with no combat experience onto the battlefield to charge, but the German army thinks that it is meaningless murder. This is also the reason why the army of the slave country is more engaged in defense or logistics tasks rather than charging on the front line.

The consequence of this is that the German army always has to fight on the front line with the Soviet army that is several times larger than itself.

But it seems that those servant countries cannot be blamed... This is a war started by Germany.

At the same time, Qin Chuan also knew that this fatigue might just be the beginning.