Iron Cross

On the afternoon of November 6, the vanguard of the German army rushed into Kuibyshev, and what greeted them was only ruins and scorched earth; the next morning, Togliatti, the second city on the right bank of the Volga River, fell into the hands of the German army, and it was basically a scorched earth. .

At this time, the temperature had begun to drop, and the German troops who could not find a house could only huddle in tents in the wild. Fortunately, it was not the day when dripping water turned into ice, otherwise they would really suffer.

The atmosphere in the rear command post has been very tense. After the 4th Group Army rushed over, everyone was paying close attention to the enemy situation in front. Once they reported being surrounded, they would quickly launch rescue. Even reinforcement batches and action routes were prepared, but when The battle report that came back was very simple, but its content caused astonishment in the headquarters: "Our army fully occupied the scorched earth of Kuibyshev and Togliatti..."

"Have the Russians upgraded from a wall-to-wall clearing to a scorched-earth war?" Zeitzler quietly breathed a sigh of relief and said sarcastically in a contemptuous tone, "If they really have a way and are really successful, Stalin should give them a medal, such as calling them Kutu. The Medal of Zov is very good..."

"Report, the Order of Kutuzov already exists. It is a new medal established by the enemy half a year ago. According to the regulations, it is mainly awarded to those who are good at planning and implementing the battles of front armies and group armies, or to skillfully enable their troops to avoid enemy assaults and successfully implement counterattacks. The military chiefs and commanders of the assault..." A puzzled young staff officer continued.

Weeks waved his hand distractedly, stopping the somewhat confused young staff officer from continuing, and asked, "What are you going to do now?"

"The central part is advancing in an all-round way, the 4th Army is expanding its occupation area, and the 3rd Army is crossing the river from Ulyanovsk to occupy Dimitrovgrad on the right bank; Marshal Hoth's Armored Army is being asked to cross the river to attack Puga. "Jove; the Kazan and Saratov wings will remain stationary for the time being." Zeitzler glanced at the map and gave a series of orders.

"How far away?"

"First set a distance of 150-200 kilometers, and each unit will launch a reconnaissance offensive in company and battalion units until the autumn turning period. The main force should not move lightly and remain in the right bank area."

Model looked at the map thoughtfully. According to Zeitzler's idea just now, the middle road will protrude for at least 200 kilometers. This giant protrusion will become sharper, more slender, and very unsightly. Generally speaking, fronts that don't look good on the map are probably not easy to defend either. But it won't work if you don't fight like this. The Red Army won't fight you at all now. They have only one word - escape! The enemy would have slipped away faster without pushing past. The left bank finally managed to kill nearly 100,000 Red Army troops. The right bank was even more ruthless, with not even a ghost visible.

After thinking about it for a while, he gave up other ideas - now that the Red Army's movements and strategies were unclear, no matter how much he thought about it, it was in vain. The only good news was that it seemed that there would probably be no traps or encirclements.

"Report, the air force has discovered traces of the enemy's retreat, about 120 kilometers away from our army. Do we need to speed up the pursuit?"

Zeitzler shook his head and looked at the other officers with questioning eyes. The others also shook their heads in agreement.

"Let the air force delay and disrupt the enemy's retreat as much as possible, while the ground forces still advance as planned."

Schment, director of munitions on the Eastern Front, seemed worried: "This cannot continue. After occupying the left bank area of ​​the Volga River, our army's transportation line has been extended by nearly 250 kilometers. If the enemy continues to implement the policy of clearing the land and scorching the earth in the right bank area, our army's supply routes will accumulate It will be extended by 400-500 kilometers, winter is coming soon, I'm afraid..."

Although the German army never expected to seize materials or food and other supplies from the Soviet army, advancing 500 kilometers in a short period of time will make people feel powerless, especially now that there is a Volga River in the middle, and the two sides are connected by pontoons. Having to transport personnel and equipment as well as a large amount of supplies, this route appears to be too fragile. Now the German army is not short of supplies, with plenty of oil and food - oil output in the Middle East is increasing rapidly, the autumn harvest in Eastern countries is basically over, and everything is full of food. The ammunition was basically not consumed because the enemy retreated quickly and there was no fighting. However, once the transportation route was cut off, there would definitely be big problems in the future. Schment's worry was not groundless.

“What about the Volga Ice Age?”

Another staff officer quickly reported: "Generally, there will be an ice period from the end of November to the end of March of the following year, but the ice layer is relatively thin at the beginning. It will not be until at least mid-December that the ice layer can support the movement of personnel and ordinary vehicles, such as the passage of tanks or other vehicles. Heavy equipment is basically only available from January to February throughout the year. In addition, the Russian authorities have built a large number of reservoirs in various places. In the past, they would release water from the reservoirs to adjust the flow and appropriately buffer the impact of the ice age. It is difficult to say this year..."

Everyone gasped. This was very dangerous information. Assuming that the German army used the ice age to transport supplies and personnel, the Red Army might "replace troops with water" and suddenly release water, causing heavy damage. The Volga River is so long that it is impossible to control all the reservoirs. Or tributaries, it is impossible to search every place rigorously.

"We made a report with the head of state and reported the problems we faced. The specific solutions proposed are as follows: We hope that the main team of transport aircraft supporting Marshal Rommel can be transferred back to the central battlefield as an emergency material transportation reserve, but it is not necessarily put into operation now. This is one; it is required to urgently allocate a batch of S-boats and landing craft through railway transportation from the country and the south to facilitate the movement of supplies on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, so that the pontoon bridge can be maintained if it is destroyed. This is the second; the engineering force steps up to repair the bridge, especially that Several railway bridges are the top priority, and this is the third one." Zeitzler paused, "The situation in the right bank area is unknown. Before the end of the muddying period, it is planned to deploy no more than 250,000 troops to do a good job. Be prepared for any emergencies.”

"Are you worried that the enemy will eat us?" Holt asked curiously.

"No, I'm worried that they won't come." Zeitzler said with a smile, "If I push 500,000 in one breath, the enemy will definitely not have such a good appetite, and I'm afraid they will shrink faster. But that's not necessarily the case with 250,000. This bright bait may make the enemy bold enough to pounce on us, so that we can fight with the enemy in early winter. "

"What if you don't come?"

"Then we'll wait until after the muddying period before taking action. As for the rest, only God knows..."

The three commanders, Weeks, Model and Holt, exchanged their opinions and believed that the chief of staff's approach was still positive and prudent. They should first consider luring the Red Army out for a fight. The north and south wings could be used, and the right bank protrusion in the center could also be used. Okay, it's better than staring at the current situation and not being able to find anyone.

On October 8, the second group army crossed the river one after another. By the time the muddying period gradually began on October 15, the German army had passed through three pontoon bridge areas, totaling nearly 250,000 troops. The headquarters waited with high hopes for the Red Army to rush up, but to everyone's disappointment, the reconnaissance showed that the enemy troops were still retreating rapidly, with no intention of rushing over to fight. Except for occasionally catching the guerrillas fighting, they basically had no intention of fighting. There have been battles at battalion level and above. What you see is nothing but scorched earth. The once vibrant banks of the Volga River seem to have turned into no man's land overnight.

One situation attracted great attention from the command. The Volga River Basin was originally a relatively developed industrial area in the Soviet Union. However, when experts inspected the industrial debris, they found that many industrial equipment had been dismantled in advance, and those that could not be dismantled were also organized. , carried out arson or explosion in a systematic manner, and the destruction was quite complete, and it did not look like a temporary action. Judging from the traces on the scene, many operations were carried out half a month or even a month ago - at that time, the plan for the Dawn Battle had not even been discussed.

"What a terrible opponent. Emperor Napoleon's defeat was not unjust at all. The Russians have almost infinite depth..." Weeks sighed with emotion on the plane inspecting the battlefield. Although the 500 kilometers of territory on both sides of the Volga River is huge A piece of land, but placed on the huge territory of the Soviet Union, it was only a very small strip.

The top brass of the Russian People's Liberation Army cursed the Red Army's sabotage, thinking it was a prodigal act, but they could only curse, and Stalin couldn't hear it anyway.

"Is Stalin or the Red Army General Staff directing this battle?"

"Is there any difference? Is there still a purely military line that is not at the mercy of Stalin?"

"One thing is certain. At least we have occupied both sides of the crucial Volga River. No matter where the center of gravity of the front shifts, we can deal with it calmly."

"One more thing is more certain. We have entered no man's land. At first, the 600,000-strong army only had to guard a small area on the center front. Now suddenly the Russians forcefully give you 400,000 square kilometers, which is almost as big as Poland. The troop density suddenly dropped."

"Some second-line troops can be deployed appropriately, such as an additional 200,000 troops."

"Of course you can, provided you have a way to provide more transportation capacity for 200,000 people, otherwise everyone will starve and freeze..."

At the combat situation analysis meeting in the headquarters, various staff officers expressed their views and opinions on the next combat strategy. Although the combat objectives of the second phase of the Dawn Battle were "successfully" or even exceeded, that only refers to the area occupied by the map. The main force of the Red Army, which the German army wanted to capture and fight for, was completely missing, and the number of enemy troops eliminated only increased to less than 120,000, and only less than 300,000 civilians were encountered.

This number is lower than the Red Army's own statistics, because during the process of troop transfer and retreat, troops with low morale and mainly new recruits often break up or mutiny. Many middle-aged uncles and young soldiers immediately throw away their military uniforms after fleeing the troops. They took off their clothes and turned back into civilians in the eyes of the Germans, and then swarmed them to ask for food. They had heard various rumors that the Germans basically did not kill civilians now. Not only did they not kill them, they also moved them to various Eastern countries or New Zealand. Russia went to settle down, and some smart people were even considering going to the army in St. Petersburg to make a living.

"The latest order from the head of state: During the turmoil period, the army will suspend the offensive and use all its strength to transport Russian civilians to the rear. Stalin wants no man's land so much, we will make it happen for him. Both sides of the Volga River will be completely cleaned up and a 500-kilometer isolation zone will be created!"