USSR 1941

After a while of silence, Shulka asked, "I want to know the situation in Karachi!"

"The Germans are still attacking Karachi!" Zolotarev replied: "The 57th Army is fighting the enemy in Karachi. Because of insufficient supplies, the 57th Army can't help us!"

Zolotarev misunderstood Shulka's meaning. Of course, Shulka would not hope for a counterattack by the 57th Army...they have been cut off by the German army, and all supplies are secretly transported by "underwater transport lines".

Although this transportation line has not been discovered by the enemy, the transportation volume is not large after all, so it can only meet the requirements of the 57th Army's defense of the city, so don't even think about the counterattack... The amount of ammunition for the counterattack is predictably much larger than that of the defense. For example, artillery preparations, such as fire cover or fuel, and if there is no ammunition during the attack, the blow will be fatal, so there must be a certain amount of ammunition reserves.

So of course, Shulka was not asking about that.

"What I want to know is the situation of the enemy!" Shulka said: "The German Don Army, it is said that their strength is not much!"

"Yes!" Zolotarev nodded: "Our preliminary estimate is that the enemy in Karachi only has 7 divisions."

This estimate is roughly accurate. The total strength of the Don Army has 8 divisions, two of which are Romanian divisions.

"Two of them are armored divisions!" Zolotarev pointed to the map and said: "These two armored divisions used their powerful combat effectiveness to cut Karachi from the left and the right to attack Karachi from the flanks. There are two infantry divisions building a flank line of defense! Two infantry divisions are on the front, and another infantry division is on the way to reinforce or flank our army, but it was blocked by the bombing of our air force and there have been casualties!"

"Only one infantry division?" Shulka said.

"Is there something wrong?" asked Zolotarev.

"Is there only one infantry division attacking us?" Shulka said: "Isn't this force too small! Moreover, the infantry division's anti-tank capabilities and combat effectiveness are not strong. It may be okay if it is used to build a defense line to fill in the gaps. Come to flank our 51st Army?"

Trufanov also nodded, and then said: "So their focus should be reinforcements from Kharkov!"

"Impossible!" said Shulka, "I'm afraid the railway line and road in the direction of Kharkov will not be smooth!"

"Yes!" Trufanov replied: "The Southwest Front is blocking its supply lines!"

This was Shulka's strategy from the beginning.

Because of its position behind the German army, the Southwestern Front assigned many reformed aviation units. While the Southwestern Front penetrated southward, these aviation units bombarded the supply lines behind the German army, especially when the German army carried out Stalingrad air transport. period.

In fact, for a period of time, the German army actually gave up front-line railway transportation because the German Sixth Army had been surrounded and supplies could not be transported to the Sixth Army by rail.

As a result, the Soviet army bombed as soon as it wanted to, and the Luftwaffe turned a blind eye to it.

It was not until Manstein's Don River Army came up that it hurriedly started road repairs to resume transportation, but at this time the railways and roads were already riddled with holes, and the transport capacity was greatly reduced. This was also due to the lack of troops of Manstein's Don River Army one of the reasons.

Therefore, it was difficult for the German reinforcements from Kharkov to arrive in time.

"If the Germans want to stop us!" Shulka said, "or if they want to hold us back, it must be troops from Karachi besides the Air Force!"

"You mean to say..."

"The enemy's reinforcements in the direction of Karachi are not just an infantry division!" Shulka said: "An infantry division can't stop our offensive at all, and the 51st Army can still advance against the enemy's bombing, and then seek to join forces with the Southwest Front Army. "

Trufanov nodded in agreement and said, "If the Germans want to hold us back, it must be the Panzer Division!"

"Yes!" Shulka said: "Only the armored division can block our offensive momentum, and even cut off the 51st Army!"

No one dares to underestimate the combat effectiveness of the German armored divisions, especially the combat effectiveness of the armored divisions when the German army has air supremacy.

Because at that time, it was not a question of tank competition between the two sides.

If it's just a competition between tanks, the Soviet T34 tanks are no worse than the German "No. 3" and "No. 4" tanks. It can even be said that they are better than the German tanks in terms of firepower and defense.

The problem is that the Germans pay attention to coordination, so this kind of tank-to-tank fight usually does not occur. They will use fighter jets to control the air, and then use bombers and attack planes to destroy Soviet tanks one by one. The Air Force serves the role of reconnaissance and separation aircraft.

Therefore, even if the performance of the Soviet tanks is better, they will eventually be defeated, and then it will turn into the massacre of the Soviet infantry by the German tanks.

To put it simply, because the German army has air supremacy, the German armored divisions want to occupy or intersperse somewhere, especially in the wild, almost without success.

Therefore, it is hard to imagine that the German army would send only one infantry division to stop the advance of the 51st Army. The Soviet army only needs to divide its forces to deal with it.

"So, the Germans will send an armored division against us?" Zolotarev said. "Then, the troops they are attacking Karachi are..."

"I don't know what it is!" said Shulka, "but I think the Germans must have an armored division on the way, and they will try to hide their tracks!"

"Why hide it?" asked Zolotarev, "for the suddenness of the battle?"

"Not all!" Shulka replied: "They are worried about our army's counterattack in the direction of Karachi... If they transfer an armored division away from Karachi, then there will be loopholes in their defense in Karachi!"

Trufanov understood right away.

"We should contact Comrade Rokossovsky immediately!" Trufanov said: "The Don Front should launch a counterattack against the enemy!"

"No!" Shulka stopped: "I guess, the Germans will keep the armored division north of Karachi, because the main force of the Don River Front Army is in the north, so it won't make a big difference if the Don River Front Army counterattacks! And I The army's strength in the south of Karachi itself is relatively weak!"

"So what should we do?"

Shulka straightened up and said, "I think we did what we were supposed to do, and everything went according to plan!"

"According to the original plan?" Trufanov and Zolotarev cast doubtful glances at Shulka.