USSR 1941

Sure enough, Manstein received a warning from the 6th Army.

The warning came from Lieutenant General Strekel, commander of the 11th Infantry Corps.

Lieutenant General Strekel had previously served under Manstein and was transferred to command the 11th Infantry Corps before the Battle of Stalingrad.

Because of this relationship, Manstein had more frequent contact with Strekel, because it allowed him to know more and truer information about the situation of the Sixth Army.

Strekel sent the telegram to Manstein's headquarters less than five minutes after Paulus addressed the army announcing its surrender.

"Your Excellency Field Marshal!" Strekel said in the telegram: "That bastard Paulus has announced his surrender, and he also said another message... The reason why the Don Army was able to hit Karachi was because the Russians let them You did it! What am I supposed to do? Stop him?!"

Manstein, who was holding this telegram, was so surprised that he couldn't recover for a long time. He never thought that he would fall into the enemy's trap one day, although he was forced.

Then he immediately ordered to the adjutant: "Stop the attack, immediately stop the attack!"

Manstein looked at the map, and then ordered: "Warning to the 75th Infantry Division, they are likely to be attacked by the enemy immediately. At the same time, order the 91st Infantry Division to reinforce immediately!"

"Yes, Your Excellency the Marshal!"

After thinking for a while, Manstein asked the messenger to call Strekel back: "You don't need to do anything, Lieutenant General, Paulus is right, you should obey his order to surrender! There is nothing you can do, all All resistance is futile and unnecessary!"

Strekel was silent for a while before calling back: "Yes, Marshal! It's a pity that I couldn't fight with you on the front line at the last moment!"

"You should be grateful!" Manstein replied: "Because for you, everything is over!"

Then Manstein no longer had time to pay attention to Strekel, because he had to work with the staff to command the troops to retreat in a rhythmic manner.

This can be said to be Shulka's mistake, to be precise Zolotarev's mistake.

Shulka felt that Bergman was controlling Paulus on the Sixth Army side, so there was no need to tell Paulus about "luting the enemy deep".

If analyzed objectively, the Sixth Army at this time is doomed to have only one way to surrender.

Even if they have already hit Karachi because of the Don Army and temporarily boosted their morale, so what?

So what if Paulus changed his mind about surrendering because of the hope of breaking out?

Even if the 6th Army and the Don Army attack Karachi, what will change?

It was too late for the 6th Army, the encirclement of the Soviet army had been stabilized, and as long as the Soviet army launched an attack behind Manstein, the morale temporarily gained by the German army would disappear immediately. Paulus and Manstein Because it will also "suddenly realize", "waking up like a dream" and then "correct the evil and return to the right".

Therefore, Shulka never worried about the situation with the 6th Army from the very beginning.

Not so Zolotarev, who has been worrying.

No wonder he was worried that the 6th Army's big piece of fat was too tempting. He, including the Supreme Command, did not want the 6th Army's surrender to go wrong, even if it was just a little bit.

Therefore, when Zolotarev reported the plan to the Supreme Command, the Supreme Command and Zolotarev decided to disclose to Paulus the plan to "lure the enemy deep" through Bergman.

The reason is simple. If Paulus knew that Manstein's Don Army had stepped into a trap, he would know that the Sixth Army had no possibility of breaking through. The possibility of the Sixth Army's failure to break through meant that Paulus would not change his original intention, so There are fewer variables.

At the same time, the Supreme Command made a smart decision to keep Shulka from knowing about the whole process.

Of course, Akadyevich didn't know either... This might also be said to be a credit grab by the Political Department, but there was a problem with the credit grab.

As a result, the German forces on the flanks of Army Group Don suddenly became tense.

"What's going on?" After receiving the report, Shulka rushed to the trench and looked at the opposite side with a telescope. The Germans were already ready to fight on the trench.

"Information leaked!" Akadyevich said angrily, "Obviously, the enemy already knows that we are about to launch an attack! There are traitors among us!"

Shulka checked the time, and there were still two hours before the attack time.

After thinking about it, Shulka probably guessed what was going on.

"No, not a traitor!" Shulka shook his head.

"What do you mean?" Akadyevich was a little confused.

"I'm not sure yet!" Shulka replied.

Then he turned around and went back to the headquarters to call the group army headquarters.

"Comrade Trufanov!" Shulka pretended not to know anything, and said, "The Germans are preparing for battle. They seem to know something!"

"Yes, Comrade Shulka!" replied Trufanov, who hesitated a moment, and then said: "Let Comrade Zolotarev explain to you!"

After a while, Zolotarev's embarrassing voice came from the phone: "It's an order from the Supreme Command, Comrade Shulka! We revealed the plan to Paulus, and Paulus leaked the information!"

Shulka was not surprised by this at all, so he behaved calmly.

But Akadyevich, who was on the side, couldn't help it. He snatched the microphone from Shulka and cursed: "You bastards, how could you do this and leak the plan to the enemy... Do you understand treason? You will pay for this mistake..."

Shulka patted Akadyevich on the shoulder and motioned him to calm down.

"It's meaningless to say this now!" Shulka reminded: "We should find a way to remedy it!"

This is the difference between a professional soldier and an intelligence worker.

As a soldier, Shulka knows what is the most important thing on the battlefield, what should and should not be done, what is meaningful and what is just a waste of precious time.

And Akadyevich was an intelligence agent, and his first reaction was to hold him accountable.

But Akadyevich also knew that Shulka was right, he nodded and gritted his teeth and said on the phone: "This account will not be settled just like that!"

Then he returned the microphone to Shulka.

Shulka knew that what Akadyevich said was just angry words, and if it was the order of the Supreme Command ... no one would be able to pursue it.

But Shulka didn't care about that. He picked up the receiver and asked: "What shall we do now, Comrade Zolotarev?"

"Advance attack?" asked Zolotarev.

Shulka replied with only three words: "I agree!"