USSR 1941

On the other side, in the direction of Prodovitoye, Major General Wolf, the commander of the German reinforcements, met with Dumillescu, the commander of the Romanian 4th Army.

"Where is your army, General?" Dumilarescu asked a little angrily: "The enemy has launched a full-scale attack on us, not only Prodovitoye, but also Stalingrad, Tsibenko, and Kobe. Sha Lei, this is a full-scale attack, understand? Our 3rd Army on the left is also under attack, the Romanian army is fighting bloody battles on the front line, your army has arrived for five hours, I don’t even know where you are!”

Major General Wolfe silently listened to Dumilarescu's complaints, then pointed to a location on the map and replied: "We are here in Vodianaya!"

"Vojanaya?" Dumilarescu looked at Wolfe suspiciously: "What are you doing there?"

Vojanaya is just a small town to the south of Prodovitoje. There is probably a company of Romanian troops stationed there, and no news of being attacked has been received yet.

"We only have two divisions, General!" Wolf replied, "Although I could put it into the defense of Plodovittoye, I don't think it would have much effect, because Plodovittoje is that big. , but the enemy will continue to pour in, and then surround us from the left and right!"

"you mean……"

"Obviously, General!" Wolfe continued: "To defeat the enemy's offensive, we must not only take the defensive position, but counterattack. At the same time, the counterattack cannot be counterattacked from the front, because it will only make the battle focus, and then It is a large number of casualties and the consumption of supplies. In these respects, we are obviously inferior to the enemy who came prepared. So..."

Wolfe pointed at Vodianaya, and then drew an arc from the flank to Prodovittoye.

So Dumilerescu understood that the German major general in front of him wanted to attack the Russian side and cut off his supply line.

"It's not easy to do this!" Dumilarescu said: "The enemy's forces are much larger than ours, and we probably have an army in front of us!"

Although the Romanian army also has a group army, this group army is scattered on the defense line of tens of kilometers and faces the attack of the two Russian army groups at the same time. In the direction of Prodovitoje, the Romanian army has only one Romanian 6th army, plus an Italian army. The two divisions reinforced by the division and Germany have a total strength of only 6 divisions.

The 51st Army of the Soviet Army has 4 Guards Infantry Divisions, 4 Mechanized Divisions, 2 Cavalry Divisions, an Independent Motorized Infantry Brigade and two Tank Brigades.

The force is almost twice that of the Romanian and German coalition forces.

In this case, the Soviet army can randomly draw a few from the attacking force to surround the German commando.

"You're right!" Major General Wolf replied politely: "That's why we have to wait!"

"Wait? Wait for what?"

"Wait until they concentrate their main force around Plodovitoye!" Major General Wolf replied: "If I guess right, they will divide the troops into three troops, attacking from the front and outflanking the left and right wings. In this way Come to Plodovitoye and you will be surrounded by them! This is when we will attack!"

Dumilarescu stared at the map in silence for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

This plan is indeed feasible.

First of all, in the rainy weather, the two German divisions could hide near Vojanaya without being discovered by the enemy, which created conditions for the German counterattack and penetration.

Secondly, the Russian army concentrated its main force near Prodovitoye, and it was too late to return to the German army when it suddenly attacked from the flank, especially in this muddy environment.

As a result, the German army is likely to tear apart the Russian rear defense line with such force, and may even reoccupy the Don River defense line before the main force of the Russian army returns to help...Once the German army occupies the Don River defense line, the Russian army will have a big problem: get through The Russian army on the Don River could not get supplies, and its combat effectiveness dropped sharply, while the Russian army that did not cross the Don River was unable to attack because they had no troops.

At that time, it will not be a question of the Romanian army being besieged, but a question of the Russian army being trapped on the west bank of the Don River to be besieged.

Thinking of this, Dumilarescu no longer hesitated.

"That's it!" Dumilarescu said. "So, when are you going to attack?"

"It's best two to three days!" Major General Wolf replied: "You know, in this way the enemy will concentrate more troops near Prodovitoye, and at the same time our preparations will be completed in two or three days. Fuller and the weather will get better and we can get more air support!"

"No problem!" Dumilarescu agreed.

The reason why Dumilerescu answered this way is that he thought that the Romanian 6th Army and the Italian Division would be able to deal with the Russian army with ease, not to mention that they could win the battle, but they could hold the well-fortified and well-supplied Plodovitoje. , There is no big problem for three days.

But Dumillerescu soon discovered that wasn't the case.

First of all, the troops of the 51st Army are mostly elite troops except for the supplementary recruits. Their combat quality and equipment are not comparable to the Romanian army, especially at this time. The Soviet army is also equipped with a large number of rocket launchers suitable for positional and street warfare. .

The second is that the Soviet army has sufficient troops, and they attack almost continuously day and night, so one day can actually be used as two days.

The first to rush to Plodovitoye was the 61st Cavalry Division. The cavalry commander Lieutenant General Shapkin meant to grab credit, or it could be said to express a silent protest to Army Commander Trufanov... ...the strategic decision was not to choose the cavalry as the main attacking force.

If you analyze it at a deeper level, Lieutenant General Shapkin is unwilling to admit that the cavalry will withdraw from the war arena.

This is a very complicated psychology. They have been riding horses all their lives, practicing on horseback how to kill the enemy and what formation to charge. They are glorious, and they are well-deserved "advanced" arms.

Suddenly one day, everyone cast suspicious eyes on them and told them: "Cavalry is outdated, get off your horses!"

Shapkin will never admit this. He believes that the cavalry must have a reason for its existence. If infantry can play a role on the battlefield, there is no reason for the cavalry to withdraw from the war.

Perhaps to prove this point, Shapkin did not follow Trufanov's order to assist and cover the advancement of the mechanized troops, but indulged and even hinted that his subordinates would speed up and go straight to Plodovitoye.

During this period, the cavalry even won a few battles. They rushed into the Romanian army's barracks before the enemy could react and killed them for a while.