USSR 1941

In the end Zolotarev chose to side with Shulka.

To be precise, he did not choose Shulka to stand aside, but he believed that he could not bear the risk of this possible failure, even if it was only "possible"... The Battle of Stalingrad involved too many aspects, and it even With the fate of the Soviet Union at stake, Zolotarev dared not take the risk.

On the other side, Manstein sent an air force to reconnaissance the area east of Milove.

And soon there was an answer.

"Your Excellency Field Marshal!" the adjutant reported to Manstein with a telegram: "An enemy armored force has been spotted, at least one armored division and one infantry division. They are advancing towards Karachi along the railway and road, and there are still 60 kilometers away from Karachi. !"

Without hesitation, Manstein ordered: "Order the air force to stop the enemy's advance at all costs!"

"Yes!" the adjutant turned and then looked back, and asked, "Need to send the 23rd Armored Division back to Karachi?"

"It's too late!" Manstein shook his head helplessly.

The Russian armored force is only 60 kilometers away from Karachi. If it travels day and night, it is expected to arrive at Karachi tonight and start the attack.

The 23rd Armored Division is currently in Milove, a hundred kilometers away from Karachi. Even if the 23rd Armored Division returns to Karachi immediately, it will not be able to quench its thirst. What's more, it will be attacked by enemy air forces or guerrillas along the way. Interception... Among them, air power is okay, because the German army has an advantage in air supremacy. All the Russian army can do is to blow up a railway station or blow up a railway as it did before. The German army only needs to repair it along the way.

The difficulty is the ubiquitous guerrillas. The railway line of more than 100 kilometers is an excellent target for the guerrillas. Unless the German army can make ten steps, one post and five steps, there is no way to prevent the guerrillas from sneaking on the railway line. Plant an anti-tank mine or explosives or something.

More importantly, the Russian army only sent one armored division and one infantry division towards Karachi... Although this may only be the first batch of troops they attacked Karachi, it also means that the 51st Army may still have troops in the direction of Milove .

If Manstein transfers the 23rd Armored Division back to Karachi, then the Russian army may organize an attack on Milove again... This is the benefit of the large number of Russian troops, which makes Manstein difficult to care about.

Therefore, Manstein did not do this. He ordered the 23rd Armored Division to continue to stay in Milovey to organize the defense line.

Karachi direction,

He planned to transfer an armored regiment from the 6th Armored Division on the northern flank of Karachi to defend the south, and at the same time let the air force bomb the Russian army attacking Karachi with all its strength.

Manstein's idea is to let the German Air Force continue to bomb these Russian troops attacking Karachi, so that when the Russian troops arrive in Karachi, they are already remnants, and then use the air force to cooperate with an armored regiment. If you want to block the Russian army, you should No big deal either.

This is the advantage of having air supremacy. With air supremacy, the ground troops can easily leverage much more enemy troops than them. For example, at this time, Manstein dared to use an armored regiment to attack an armored division of the Russian army.

In order to survive this crisis smoothly, Manstein also urgently won an airborne division from Hitler... the Eighth Airborne Division.

Although the Eighth Airborne Division is organized as an airborne division, it is only regiment-level.

The shortage of German airborne divisions was not only because the German army stretched the front too long, but also because the German army used airborne troops to airborne Crete in Africa and suffered heavy casualties (three-quarters casualties), which made Hitler think that the airborne combat The era has passed, so the airborne troops have been reduced... This can be said to be an irony. In the early days of World War II, Germany, which used the airborne troops superbly, thought that the era of airborne troops would pass. The operational role was then to develop airborne forces on a massive scale and play a role in the Normandy landings.

After completing these three things, Manstein's hanging heart was only half let go.

He believes that even if the Russians make a surprise attack on Karachi, it will be nothing more than a false alarm for the German army in the end.

However, the development of the battle situation was not as Manstein estimated.

The reason is that Shulka is also prepared for this... Of course, Shulka will not think that this alone can guarantee the victory of the battle.

It's still far away from the target, and the enemy still has air supremacy.

"The problem of air supremacy is very troublesome!" Trufanov said: "We will have to march in daylight, which will expose us to the attack of the enemy's air force!"

"All fighter planes are used to protect our tank troops moving forward!" Shulka said: "It is time for the air force to play a role. This is a critical moment. We need the air force to provide us with security for a day! If not, at least half a day !"

After a pause, Shulka pointed to the map and said, "At the same time, we need the Don River Front Army to attack the northern flank of Karachi with all its strength!"

These orders were even issued through the Supreme Command.

Zolotarev reported in vaguely misleading and certainly intentionally misleading terms: "An enemy armored division is in our path, and in order to be victorious we need more air forces Cover, and at the same time, the Don River Front Army needs to attack the northern flank of Karachi with all its strength!"

This is also reasonable from the point of view of the Supreme Command.

Needless to say, the air force cover, everyone knows that without the air force cover, the Russian tank troops would not be able to fight the German armored divisions at all, even if the performance of the Russian tanks is better than that of the German tanks.

As for the Don River Army's attack on the northern flank of Karachi, this can easily be understood as putting pressure on the German army and dragging the Don River Army.

Since Stalin's instructions to the Supreme Command were to provide full support for the 51st Army, these requirements were unswervingly implemented.

First, the order was issued to Rokosovsky, and the Don Front Army took turns attacking the northern flank of Karachi with the 4th, 27th, and 30th Guards Infantry Divisions.

This almost non-stop attack instantly ruined Manstein's plan to draw troops from the north to the south.

Major General Leonard, the commander of the German 6th Armored Division, reported to Manstein: "Your Excellency, the Russians are rushing towards us like a tide, and we are caught in a two-sided attack... To the north are three enemy divisions. To the south is Karachi, where there is an enemy army! If your order is carried out, I mean move an armored regiment to the south flank, we will be surrounded by the enemy and collapse!"

Only then did Manstein realize the seriousness of the problem, and he could only answer: "The order is cancelled, hold your positions!"