USSR 1941

In the end, under the "coercion" of Major Mikhailvich and others, the colonel had no choice but to call the Stalingrad Front Army Command to prove his identity.

"Yes!" answered the phone: "Colonel Kaplanov is our staff officer. We sent him to invite Comrade Shulka. Lieutenant General Goldov hopes to talk to Comrade Shulka!"

Major Mikhailvich was relieved then.

But he still said to Colonel Kaplanov with dissatisfaction: "Colonel, you don't look like you are here to invite someone!"

"You should know how tense the battle situation is now!" Colonel Kaplanov replied with a bad face: "We can't waste any time!"

"Then you should prepare documents and orders from your superiors!" Major Mikhailvich said, "Instead of thinking that driving a car casually and wearing a military uniform can take our deputy commander away like now." !"

Colonel Kaplanov didn't seem to want to entangle with Major Mikhailvich anymore, he asked impatiently: "So, can I take him away now?"

"Of course!" Shulka walked into the headquarters, and he had already taken this time to change back into his military uniform.

"Colonel!" said Shulka, "do you want to tie my hands?"

Colonel Kaplanov didn't speak, just "hummed" and walked out of the room.

Shulka and Major Mikhailvich looked at each other and smiled.

The Stalingrad Front Army Command is more than 30 kilometers away from Stalingrad. Shulka doesn't know where it is. He only knows that the jeep turns left and right on the road, then turns into a forest, and then is in front of a bunker stop.

Several people jumped out of the car and walked into the entrance only to find that it should be an underground warehouse rather than a bunker.

The warehouse is full of soldiers running to and fro, they are busy loading ammunition on cars and transporting them away in batches.

This has happened in Shulka, because the same thing happened in Stalingrad.

Even the scene in Stalingrad was even more chaotic than this... After hearing the news of the war, the people rushed to flee the city to the east bank of the Volga River, so the stations and docks were full of people coming and going. Soldiers came in and out in batches.

"Comrade Gordov!" Kaplanov walked up to a lieutenant general and saluted.

The lieutenant general was discussing something with a group of generals around the map on the shell box.

Hearing the sound, he raised his head and turned around, glanced at Shulka coldly, then turned to a major general beside him.

"Comrade Shulka!" The major general greeted him and said, "Nice to meet you!"

"General!" Shulka stood up and saluted.

"Perhaps you don't remember me!" said the major general. "My name is Filippovich. I used to be Comrade Rokossovsky's staff officer, when I was a colonel!"

Shulka said "Oh", as if he had guessed what was going on... He had cooperated with Rokossovsky for a while, and Colonel Filippovich met himself at that time.

Now, Colonel Filipovich, who was transferred to the Stalingrad Front Army, should be a major general to be precise. When he was at a loss in the face of the Stalingrad defensive battle, he thought of Shulka.

So, he recommended himself to Goldov.

This is also the reason why Lieutenant General Goldov was indifferent to himself... He simply didn't believe that a captain who was transferred to the "cannon fodder regiment" could do anything good.

"This is Lieutenant General Goldov!" Major General Philipovich introduced: "The commander of the Stalingrad Front is also the commander-in-chief of the two fronts!"

"Comrade General!" Shulka stood up and saluted.

Lieutenant General Goldov nodded, then pointed to the map in front of him and said, "Look at this, Comrade Shulka, you need to understand the current battle situation first!"

Major General Filippovic pointed to the map and explained: "The Germans have occupied Karachi and extended their defenses to the Don River line. From north to south are the 44th Infantry Division, the 60th Motorized Division, and the 14th Armored Army. , 71st Infantry Division... We cannot stop them on the west bank of the Don!"

These Shulka have been roughly seen on the map.

The reason why Stalingrad is important is not only because the city is named after Stalin, not only because it is an important industrial base of the Soviet Union, but also because it has an important strategic position.

There are two main rivers near Stalingrad, the Don and the Volga.

The Don River naturally forms a large bend like a fishhook in the middle, forming a narrow channel with the Volga River at a narrowest of 100 kilometers.

Stalingrad is located on this narrow passage, and it is backed by the Volga River.

It is conceivable that these two rivers are almost the moats of Stalingrad. The enemy can only attack from the two wings besides crossing the river... This is why the Soviet army placed two front armies, one north and one south, on the two wings of Stalingrad. one.

"Where's the problem?" Shulka asked after looking at it for a while, and at the same time turned his gaze to Major General Filipovich.

Shulka knew that there must be some problem that was difficult to solve, so he thought of him.

No one answered, and some unnatural expressions appeared on the faces of the officers.

"No problem!" Major General Filipovich replied: "We just... want to hear your opinion, such as the deployment of troops or other aspects!"

Hearing this, Shulka understood.

They were actually beaten by the German army and lost confidence.

This does not seem to be surprising. Before the Soviet army was full of confidence that they could occupy Kharkov and even surround the German army. Who would have thought that they would be surrounded by the German army and lose hundreds of thousands of elites in just a few days.

Therefore, they do not believe from top to bottom that there is anything else that can stop the German attack, although they have natural dangers.

But the fact is true. The main reason is that most of these assembled troops are remnants and defeated generals. They have little combat experience and, like these commanders, do not believe that they can win.

So, it didn't take long for the German army to break through the Soviet defense line and approach the city of Stalingrad.

This is not a problem of troop deployment, but a problem of morale and the quality of soldiers. The former may be motivated in some way, while the latter cannot be achieved by cramming.

And if the soldiers collapse at the first touch, no matter how strong the defense line looks on the surface, it will be empty.

"Do you have any ideas?" Major General Filipovic asked.

After thinking for a while, Shulka replied: "First of all, it is a question of the possible direction of the enemy's attack. I think the enemy is more likely to attack from the south than from the north!"

Lieutenant General Goldov couldn't help but suddenly raised his head when he heard this, and looked at Shulka in surprise.