USSR 1941

Fortunately for Rokossovsky, when the German army met the Soviet army, it only launched a few tentative attacks and did not make a full-scale attack.

This gave the Soviet army more time to build trenches and equip, supply, and establish safer and more reliable supply lines.

In fact, this is not due to Manstein's kindness or missed opportunity, but "every family has its own hard-to-read scriptures", and the German army also suffered from the German army.

The first is Manstein's serious shortage of troops.

At this time, the troops commanded by Manstein were actually not the 11th Army, but the newly formed Don Army... The 11th Army continued to defend the Crimean Peninsula, and the strength of the Soviet Army in the Crimean Peninsula should not be underestimated. If the 11th Army is pumped to the direction of Stalingrad, I'm afraid the backyard will catch fire.

Therefore, Manstein drew some troops from the 11th Army, and then moved around in other locations to form the Don River Front Army and rushed to Stalingrad for rescue.

Originally Manstein hoped to form two assault groups: one in the Kotelnikovo area and one in the Tormosin area.

In this way, a pincer attack can be formed against the enemy blocking the front... The pincer attack is a common tactic of the German army. Although it is an old tune, it is always timeless. Dispersion also forms the advantage of "offense is greater than defense".

This is actually easy to understand.

If there is only one army attacking from one direction, then the enemy can completely concentrate its forces according to the main attack direction of the German army, and even where the main attack direction of the German army is shifted, the enemy's main force will also be transferred there, so the Soviet army almost only needs the same force as the German army. It can be defended, and there is no such thing as "offense is greater than defense".

However, if the German army has two troops and they are separated by a certain distance, the German army can sometimes attack from the left wing and sometimes from the right wing. Since the German army's combat effectiveness is generally much greater than that of the Soviet army, it is often difficult to move the main force of the Soviet army back and forth between the two places. Gu.

Now the problem lies here. Although these two assault groups have been formed, one of them cannot participate in the battle.

"Your Excellency Marshal!" the adjutant reported to Manstein who was hiding in the car and looking at the map: "I'm afraid the assault group in the direction of Tormosin will not be able to arrive!"

Manstein asked casually: "How long will they have?"

"No, Your Excellency Marshal!" The adjutant replied with some embarrassment: "They... the head of state just transferred them to the north,

Used to stop the outflanking of the Russians! "

Manstein suddenly looked up at the adjutant with disbelief in his eyes.

"That's my army!" Manstein said: "So, what should I use to rescue Stalingrad?"

Of course the adjutant could not answer this question.

Manstein wanted to call Hitler, but after looking at the map, he shook his head helplessly and gave up.

He knew that even calling Hitler would be useless, and that it would undoubtedly be a waste of time.

Because the north does need military defense... The situation on the map is clear, the enemy still has a large encirclement in the general direction, the 51st Army is to the south, and the Southwest Front Army is to the north.

The 51st Army Group in the south was temporarily blocked, but there was an entire front army in the north, and it was heading south at a speed of tens of kilometers every day.

If the Southwest Front successfully joined forces with the 51st Army, even Manstein himself would be surrounded, let alone the rescue of Stalingrad.

So Manstein could only admit this reality, that is, the Don River Front Army was transferred by half of its troops by Hitler just after it was formed, which disrupted Manstein's overall offensive plan.

This made Manstein very passive, and the two troops became one, so all the changes would be gone. It seemed that he could only face-to-face with the Soviet army, and this is obviously not what the German army is good at... To be exact It's not cost-effective. What the Soviet army likes most is this kind of war of attrition without interludes and tricks.

At this time, Manstein said that there was an army group (Don Army), but in fact there were only 6 divisions: the 6th tank division, the 23rd division, 4 infantry divisions and some reinforcements.

There were also two Romanian cavalry divisions, but Manstein had no idea what they could do, other than scouting or protecting supply lines.

If there is any consolation, there are two heavy tank battalions equipped with "Tiger" tanks.

It is impossible to divide such a small force into two parts to attack the Soviet defense line... Doing so will only make you be divided and surrounded.

This is also the reason why Manstein had to stop the attack, although he knew that it was also a difficult time for the enemy and he should organize the attack in the shortest time.

After staring at the map for a while, Manstein ordered: "Order the 6th Tank Division to move to the north, the 23rd Division to move to the south, and the 35th Infantry Division to build defenses in the front!"

"Defense?" The adjutant couldn't help being taken aback when he heard the words: "But Your Excellency Marshal, the head of state wants us to attack immediately!"

"That was before!" Manstein replied: "If the Führer had not transferred the Tormosin assault group, I would have carried out his order!"

The adjutant didn't dare to say anything, turned around and conveyed the order.

In fact, Manstein's deployment is brilliant.

The reason is that the German army has too few troops. There are only 6 divisions available, while the Soviet army has at least 9 divisions in Karachi alone. friendly forces.

This disparity in strength made Manstein have no choice but to take advantage of it: use elite tank troops to attack and compress the supply lines on Karachi's two wings.

As for the front, turn from offense to defense, let the infantry build trenches to confront the enemy, hoping to use a small amount of troops and infantry to withstand the frontal attack of the Soviet army.

Because the German army's actions were during the day, Rokossovsky got the information from the German army immediately.

"Comrade Rokossovsky, the Germans are building fortifications!" said the staff officer.

"Build fortifications?" Rokossovsky frowned.

It is already surprising that there is no offensive, and the German army has built fortifications, which is not what rescue Stalingrad should do.

But soon, Rokossovsky understood why the Germans did this.

Rokossovsky did not hesitate, and immediately called Lieutenant General Tolbukhin, commander of the 57th Army.

"The enemy wants to surround Karachi!" Rokossovsky said.

"Surround Karachi?" Tolbushin replied suspiciously, "They don't have that many troops..."

"No, they have!" Rokossovsky replied: "Because your back is on the Don, and tank troops are no match for the enemy!"