USSR 1941

It is no wonder that Trufanov and Zolotarev were puzzled, how could they know the enemy's plan and still follow the original plan and wait for the enemy to attack.

However, Shulka's "original plan" is not all the original plan.

It at least appears to be "the original plan".

Manstein spent a lot of thought on allowing the armored division to quickly rush to the designated location to intercept the enemy.

It is well known that the German armored divisions move quickly. This is not only because of the good maneuverability and high security of their tanks, but also because the German army usually has air supremacy on the battlefield, so they can always get accurate information and know where the enemy's defense line is. weak point.

But this time the march was different. Manstein calculated on the map that even if the 23rd Armored Division he sent set off overnight to Miloway without stopping, it would only arrive on the second night... This is still an ideal speed, during which the tank driver needs time to rest, the tank unit may be intercepted by enemy air power, or the tank may malfunction.

Among them, the heavy tank battalion transferred back by Manstein is the "Tiger" tank. If it is allowed to travel more than one hundred kilometers, the "Tiger" of the entire tank battalion may be None of them started.

In fact, the problem is not only the maneuverability and safety of the "Tiger" tank. Since the "Tiger" tank is too heavy, whether roads and bridges along the way can bear its weight needs to be considered.

All of this will slow down the marching speed of the armored division exponentially.

Therefore, Manstein did not think much, and immediately decided to transport by rail.

"Is railway transportation too risky, Your Excellency the Marshal?" the adjutant asked: "The tank is packaged on a flatbed car and has no combat effectiveness. Once attacked by the enemy, it will suffer heavy losses and have no power to fight back!"

This is common sense, so it is usually not used to transport tanks by rail near the war zone or the front line... As the adjutant said, once the train journey and route are known to the enemy, or in case of being ambushed by the enemy, the enemy only needs a few tanks You can capture all the tanks of a whole train.

"We can only do this!" Manstein replied: "Of course, we must do a good job of keeping it secret!"

Manstein's secrecy measures were well done, and he even ordered the troops to evacuate all the Soviet civilians in the nearby villages and towns...just in time for them to build a line of defense, so men, women, and children were all sent to the flanks as hard labor.

on the other hand,

More than a dozen fighter planes patrolled the air to keep enemy reconnaissance planes from approaching.

Therefore, although the 23rd Armored Division withdrew and loaded vehicles in the daytime, it can be said that no outsider saw it.

Then the Germans camouflaged these trains full of tanks... a frame was nailed on the outside with wooden boards, and it was impossible to know from the surface that the tanks were loaded inside.

In the end, the train departed after dark and was escorted by night fighters.

In this way, the train carried the armored division smoothly for the crucial 80 kilometers that night... If the tanks were used to drive the 80 kilometers, it would take a lot of fuel and time.

For the remaining 30 kilometers, even Manstein, who dared to take risks, did not dare to continue to advance by train.

On the one hand, this is because the front is a high-incidence area for bombing by Soviet fighter planes.

On the other hand, the railway has been blasted section by section, and the train must stop and go, which will increase the risk in series.

The most important thing is that the sky is already bright, and the train on the rails is the best target for the enemy's air force.

So Manstein ordered the truck to be unloaded on the spot.

The "Tiger" tank is more troublesome, because the track needs to be replaced... This may take several hours, so the other tanks rushed to the destination first.

While the 23rd Panzer Division was advancing, Manstein kept an eye on the enemy's movements.

This was necessary because all he wanted was for the 23rd Armored Division to stop the enemy from reaching Milovey to join forces with the Southwest Front.

However, it is not difficult for the German army to achieve this, because they have an air force, and reconnaissance planes follow the Soviet army's leading tank group in the air, and then report their positions to the command headquarters in due course.

Therefore, Manstein's movement of the Soviet tank troops can even be accurate to "li".

Sometimes, Manstein believed that the speed of the Soviet tank army was too fast, and he would artificially force the air force to "slow down".

As for how to force it, it goes without saying that the fighter planes drove away the enemy's fighter planes, and then the bombers and attack planes bombarded the enemy tanks indiscriminately.

Everything was going smoothly, and Manstein estimated that the 23rd Panzer Division would meet the enemy's vanguard an hour earlier.

But at this time Manstein was a little puzzled.

"Is there something wrong, Your Excellency the Marshal?" Seeing that Manstein's expression was not right, the adjutant asked suspiciously.

"Everything went so smoothly!" Manstein replied: "Does the enemy really know nothing?"

"Of course they don't know anything!" replied the adjutant. "It's all done in secret! Besides, the Russian tanks have suffered heavy losses in the bombing of our Air Force... If they knew something, it wouldn't be like Now we are marching towards Miloway in spite of everything and casualties!"

"This is exactly what I find strange!" Manstein replied: "If they didn't know it before, it was already daylight, and our tanks were successfully unloaded from the train and deployed, heading towards their vanguard. Moving forward, why are they still not responding and still moving in the same direction?"

This is indeed a bit strange, after all, the German army is an armored division.

An armored division advances along the road and forms a long snake-like formation. Tanks, cars, artillery, etc. can be seen from a long distance by enemy reconnaissance planes. This cannot be easily stopped by fighter planes.

Then, if the Russians already know that a German armored division is advancing towards them and will meet in an hour, they should stop immediately to organize defenses or wait for the follow-up troops to accumulate strength and prepare for battle.

But the Soviet army did nothing, and continued to advance in the original direction, with the striker pointing directly at Milove, where the Southwest Front Army was located.

Manstein guessed correctly, Shulka and others did know that an armored division of the German army appeared on the flank.

Trufanov even praised Shulka fiercely: "Good guy, you guessed it right again!"

But the tank units of the 51st Army are still moving in the same direction, because their purpose is to attract the enemy's armored division...if they can be called "tanks".

Although Manstein had doubts, he had no choice but to let the 23rd Armored Division move on and fight another battle.