Iron Cross

The leading troops of the Guards Banner Corps led by Second Lieutenant Ribbentrop moved forward quickly and successfully broke through the outposts in charge of Yeroshenko and Joseph of the Red Army before advancing forward. With the support of a company of panzer grenadiers, the tank platoon skillfully penetrated The two Red Army battalions joined together and defeated the Red Army who tried to resist, opening the way forward for the 1st Armored Battalion.

The eldest son of the German Foreign Minister did not hide comfortably in Berlin to enjoy his life, nor did he try to find a more leisurely position to protect himself or gild himself (although a group of senior officials welcomed this handsome guy as their aide-de-camp), but Like many children of senior generals, he directly joins the frontline fighting. Despite his young age, he is already a veteran who has been wounded and made several meritorious service. He also has full and complete prestige in the platoon. This prestige is not based on family background and The status is entirely established by commanding ability and hard work spirit. Many times, everyone will ignore the prominent family name and treat him as a caring and trustworthy elder brother. Although the number of jokes about Minister Ribbentrop in the army usually ranks second after Goering, Rudolf Ribbentrop himself also criticized some of his father's practices, but out of respect, The Guards Corps, especially his battalion, was different from other troops in that it was less likely to comment on the foreign minister's jokes.

By the time the earliest report of the battle with the Germans reached the ears of Commander Chistyakov of the 21st Army Group, 15 minutes had passed by the German armored vanguard. This was considered a relatively quick report, and other reports were even more sluggish. . The large amount of messages Chistyakov received in the early hours of the morning were all sent by various units in a panic. They were not only full of errors and omissions, but also contradictory. If you study them carefully, you will find that these messages cannot withstand scrutiny and are obviously caused by panic. The staff officers in the command headquarters were deeply troubled by their nonsense and aimless ignorance. In the end, they could only turn their attention to their commander, hoping that he could accurately judge the situation. Chistyakov really wanted to call these division commanders one by one to wake them up, but he was a man after all, not a god. In the dark, he really couldn't find out the situation. Now he can contact the troops as soon as possible and give a normal reply. The commander is already considered a leader, and many people did not react until 2 hours after the German attack was launched.

Forced by helplessness, after ordering the original attack time to be advanced to 5 o'clock, Chistyakov issued a second order to the entire army around 3 o'clock in the morning: requiring each division to guard their camps and quickly identify The enemy situation and losses will be dealt with in a unified manner after dawn...

Of course, the blame cannot be entirely placed on division-level officers, because they also rely entirely on the level-by-level reports from grassroots officers. Judging from the actual battle situation, the information sent from all parties is not wrong - at the two armored spearheads After taking the lead in breaking through the gap, it did not expand the gap as in previous battles, but penetrated directly in depth. Therefore, for the Red Army troops blocking the German offensive route, as long as they gave way to the passage and fled to both sides, the German armored forces would not If you continue to entangle and chase them, but if you escape deeper, you will feel like someone is chasing you along the way. This different direction of escape and response results will cause obvious mental pressure and misunderstandings in the minds of the parties involved: the troops hiding on both sides believe that the attackers are only a small group of German troops with few troops; while the troops fleeing in depth believe that the enemy is not only There were so many and the attack was so fierce that there was no way to stop and breathe. Therefore, the reports sent to Chistyakov were so full of contradictions and conflicts. But there is only one result that is the same. Once they try to retake the original position, the German armored forces that follow will continue to open gaps.

Since the window period to eliminate the 21st Army was very short, the offensive strategy formulated by Manstein's troops was not a complete and classic encirclement tactic. The regiment cannot be chewed down in a short period of time. As long as they persist for the first few days, subsequent Red Army reinforcements will continue to drive in from the frozen Don River. At that time, they will be able to encircle the German army. Therefore, the prescription he prescribed for the troops was to penetrate deeply and penetrate widely. The entire tactical execution process was like making deep knife marks on a piece of pie. When these marks are still on it, the pie still looks like a piece of cake. As a whole, but as long as the edges are pulled hard around, the entire pie will soon break into pieces - as long as the troops are deployed in place and spread around together, those lines hidden in the gaps between the troops will quickly turn into deadly thin net.

Time passed in chaos. What is strange is that, without receiving any warning or notification, the troops of the 24th Army on the Don River pontoon were still crossing the river continuously, while the three divisions of the 21st Army were left behind. Still moving forward according to the original plan, this is not because Chistyakov is indifferent to this, but because he believes that if these troops in the rear are attacked, they will inevitably report to the 24th Army headquarters, and the handling method is to either speed up the advance or suspend it. In short, there will be a correct response to the advance. Anyway, he has handed over control of the pontoon bridge. Of course, whether the follow-up road is smooth or not should be worried about by the 24th Group Army that continues to advance.

From 3 to 5 o'clock, more and more troops reported that German troops were attacking them, not only German tanks, but also a large number of German infantry, but they still made a big joke in reporting the number of enemy troops. After the staff counted the number of people and numbers reported by the troops, they found that there were more than 100 divisions attacking the 21st Army. Chistyakov was so angry that he slammed the table on the spot: What a joke, the entire Southern Army Group does not have so many troops added up. If Manstein really used 100 divisions to attack him, it is estimated that the Don River Bend would be as crowded as Moscow's Red Square at this time - is this possible?

Chistyakov felt that it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to control the troops. He walked around the headquarters uneasily, like an angry lion. In the distance, the guns and artillery of various divisions and regiments were roaring, and it was obvious that there was a dense exchange of fire. The situation on the battlefield was chaotic, but no one could fully and comprehensively tell him the actual situation.

"Comrade Karpov sent a telegram asking whether we should still launch the attack according to the plan?"

Chistyakov hesitated for a few minutes, and finally said firmly: "The front-line troops will launch the attack at 5 o'clock as originally planned."

Buchin advised him: "Why don't you reconsider postponing it? The situation is so chaotic now, and a forced attack may aggravate the chaos."

"I want to do the same, but unfortunately the enemy will not give us time to respond and adjust calmly." Chistyakov sighed and explained the reasons for his insistence on the attack. "If it is only a small German force that infiltrates, then our army's attack will not harm the overall situation, because it will be easy to wipe out these troops after the enemy situation is found out at dawn; if the enemy is a large force attacking, then the number and defense force of the enemy in front of us will be greatly reduced. Even if we cannot break the enemy's defense system, we can disrupt his normal deployment, which will buy time for our subsequent adjustments."

Buchin thought about it and thought what he said made sense, so he stopped persuading him. Until now, the two men have not realized that Manstein's target is the entire 21st Army, let alone that they have been surrounded by the German army. The two men only regard the night attack as harassment and attack by the Germans - without even artillery preparation, what kind of large-scale attack is it?

Manstein's tactics are actually very risky, because although he dispatched 160,000 troops, the 21st Army plus the subsequent 24th Army also had nearly 140,000 troops. The German army did not have much advantage in terms of manpower, and because the German army took the initiative to penetrate at night, the troops were actually surrounded by the Red Army. If the Red Army commander now cleverly saw through this plan and tightened the fence to encircle and suppress, even if he just concentrated his forces to chase and intercept the two steel spearheads at all costs, it would be enough to give Manstein a headache. Therefore, since Heinrich and Weller, everyone was sweating for this.

Manstein smiled and comforted everyone: "We need to think of more unique ways to fight the Russians. As far as I know about the Russians, their command system is rigid and mechanical. Without clear orders from the top, the lower-level officers don't know what to do. I witnessed too many such stories in the Kiev siege last year. Any Red Army unit, no matter how many troops are destroyed, can continue to resist as long as the command system still exists. But as long as the command structure is destroyed, the entire unit will be like a lost soul and don't know what to do, especially the army and division-level command centers. The army has a special significance. Without them, the troops under them would not fight at all. "

Everyone agreed with Manstein's point of view: there were more than 600,000 troops in the entire Kiev encirclement, and the quality and fullness of the troops were even higher than the current Red Army troops. However, because the senior officers either commanded recklessly because they did not understand the general situation, or gave up automatically because of pessimism and disappointment about the future, more than 600,000 people were captured in a confused manner. In comparison, the price paid by the German army was almost negligible - so it can be said that Stalin's father's purge policy was still very effective.

Although Manstein looked very confident, the tense atmosphere in the command center was not relieved until the troops sent the exact location and combat situation. From the report, the advancement of each division was very good. The 16th Armored Division and the Guard Flag Division, which served as the spearhead of the assault, even ran faster than the scheduled time.

"You see, I was right." Manstein said with a smile, "Don't think the Russians are too strong. In night battles, melees, and close combat, Ivan and his men may not be able to bring out their advantages."