The decisive battle against the Third Reich

"I knew it!" Marshal Kruger said with some schadenfreude when he learned that the Soviet Union attacked Orel: "We should not believe that Manstein and the 'legendary sergeant', the Soviets rushed to We launched an attack from the front, and what’s worse is that Orel didn’t have much defense preparation!”

After thinking about it, Marshal Kruger called Hitler.

"Your Majesty the Head of State!" Marshal Kruger reported on the phone: "Orel was attacked by the enemy. It is conservatively estimated that the enemy has two fronts..."

"I know this, Field Marshal Kruger!" Hitler interrupted Field Marshal Kruger.

Hitler is in the "Werewolf", and every move on the Eastern Front will be reported to Hitler's ears immediately. Marshal Kruger does not need to report these.

But in fact, Hitler did not understand Kruger. Kruger only used the report to "remind" Hitler that he should not follow Manstein's advice.

"I ask you to allow us to withdraw from Orel, Your Excellency the Head of State!" Marshal Kruger said: "Because in Manstein's plan, they only made offensive preparations and not much defensive preparations!"

"No, I won't allow you to do that!" Hitler replied: "You should keep Orel, do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Excellency the Führer!" Kruger hung up the phone without saying anything more.

Hitler felt a little strange after hanging up the phone, but after thinking about it he quickly understood, especially since Kruger just mentioned "Manstein's plan."

In other words, Kruger did not actually intend to retreat from the beginning. He just used this to express that Manstein should be responsible for the current situation.

Thinking of this, Hitler couldn't help but frowned. The commanders of Army Group Center and Army Group South were at odds with each other, which was not a good thing for this battle.

On the other side, Manstein was also in trouble.

"The Soviets broke our defensive deployment!" Manstein said with a frown during the meeting: "Obviously we misjudged the direction of their main attack... They invested their main force in Orel!"

Then Manstein pointed to the map and said: "To the north is the Soviet Western Front, the Bryansk Front in the salient, and even the Central Front in the salient may be their reserves..."

Everyone understood the situation once they saw it.

Although the two positions of Orel and Belgodero are the throat positions of the Kursk salient and can cut off the connection between Kursk and its rear, they are also within the angle of the Soviet defense line. Once the left wing or the If the right-wing defense line is broken through by the Soviet army, there will be a danger of being surrounded.

"How is the situation?" General Holt asked.

Huot is the commander of the 4th Armored Group, so of course he is indispensable for such an important meeting.

"It's much more serious than we thought!" Manstein said: "We initially estimate that the Soviets launched two armies and one air force group in the first attack, with at least thousands of tanks and aircraft, and even more artillery. It’s impossible to count, and they seem to have quite detailed information. The first round of shelling caused heavy losses to the radar and artillery positions of the Orel defenders!”

After a pause, Manstein added: "However, they still blocked the Soviet attack, but you know... once the defense line is breached, they are in danger of being surrounded at any time!"

"We should provide them with reinforcements!" Holt said: "I mean, let Army Group Center send them reinforcements!"

Manstein shook his head and replied: "Marshal Kruger refused to do this because he believed that if other troops were transferred to reinforce Orel, it would cause Kursk's frontal defense to be too weak, which would also Under attack from the Soviet army!"

To a certain extent, Marshal Kruger's statement is still correct.

This is the unavoidable problem of insufficient troops and being on the defensive... If you want to hold a certain line of defense, you must distribute your troops evenly, because you don't know at which point the enemy will launch an attack, and you can't just mobilize troops to "tear down the east wall" "Replenish the Western Wall" because the Soviet army with more troops could attack the Eastern Wall when the German army "demolished the Eastern Wall".

This was one of the reasons why Field Marshal Kruger insisted on launching an attack before the Soviets could attack.

"Then!" General Holt glanced at Colonel Slain, and then said: "We may be able to use the 1st Infantry Regiment to reinforce Orel!"

Manstein nodded and asked Slain and Qin Chuan: "What do you think, colonel, lieutenant colonel?"

Qin Chuan understood what Manstein and General Holt meant.

The 1st Infantry Regiment has helicopters that can quickly reinforce and Orel in this bad weather and bad traffic situation.

What's more important is that the 1st Infantry Regiment has ME63, and there are still more than 5,000 of them. They can obviously cause a fatal blow to Soviet tanks on the battlefield, so that the threat of Orel is resolved.

But Qin Chuan didn't think this was the best time.

"Marshal, General!" Qin Chuan said: "There are more than five thousand ME63s. Even if the hit rate is five to one, we can only destroy a thousand tanks, and the enemy's tanks will be much more than ours. By then But we have no ME63 available. What’s more serious is...the armored forces stationed in Orel have never cooperated with the ME63, and they don’t know how to fight with us!”

The latter is the key. The importance of coordination is obvious. If they can cooperate with each other on the battlefield, they will have a combat effectiveness of one plus one greater than two. Otherwise, it will be just the opposite.

"I know this, Lieutenant Colonel!" Manstein replied: "But we have no other choice now. The Soviets have deceived us, which makes it impossible to implement our original attack plan. At the same time, we cannot give up Austria." Liao Er, otherwise there will be a gap in our defense line, and the Soviet troops that are ready to attack will flood into our defense line like a tide and threaten our rear! "

Qin Chuan understood what Manstein meant.

The original attack plan was for the 2nd Armored Group Army in Orel to attack south, and the 4th Armored Group Army stationed in Belgorod to attack north. In this way, only half of each could attack the Soviet troops in the Kursk salient. .

Therefore, the 2nd Armored Army and the 4th Armored Army each equipped a "Tiger" tank battalion (thirty "Tiger" tanks) for forced advancement.

But now, the Soviets were attacking Orel, and Manstein's plan went bankrupt instantly.

After thinking about it, Qin Chuan said: "Why don't we continue to attack as planned? Even without the cooperation of the 2nd Armored Group Army?"

Manstein and Holt couldn't help but look at each other.