The decisive battle against the Third Reich

To a certain extent, the strategic purpose of this campaign launched by Hitler with Army Group South as the main force has been achieved.

As mentioned before, either the Caucasus or Stalingrad can achieve the purpose of blocking Soviet energy.

Now that the Caucasus is in the hands of the German army, the Soviet Union's energy supply from Baku has been completely cut off. You must know that that accounts for 71.5% of the energy. The Soviet Union has suffered heavy losses.

At this time, the German army should have slowed down.

The reason is simple. Capturing Baku will mean a decline in Soviet industrial capacity. Over time, after Germany restores its oil refineries and arsenals in the Transcaucasus, Germany's transportation pressure on the Eastern Front will decrease exponentially... Under this situation, the gap between the Soviet Union and Germany will become wider and wider.

But Qin Chuan knew that this was almost impossible.

Because the German army will not stop advancing in the face of such a huge victory, and neither will Hitler, especially when they still have the energy to attack... Stopping the attack means missing a good opportunity to give the enemy a chance to breathe.

This is human nature.

So Qinchuan appeared only thirty kilometers away from Stalingrad... The 21st Armored Division had already arrived here, and the First Infantry Regiment followed up under Rommel's order.

When Major General Strike, commander of the 21st Armored Division, saw Colonel Slain and Qin Chuan reporting to him, he raised his head and said, "I've finally waited for you. I've had enough of those Romanians!"

Later, Qinchuan learned that because the First Infantry Regiment was transferred to fight in the Caucasus, the 21st Armored Division lacked infantry to provide cover for the tanks. General Strike has always wanted to transfer a German soldier from other troops to fill this vacancy, but unfortunately the German troops have their own organization and their own tasks, and no general is willing to reduce his troops.

In desperation, the 21st Armored Division could only temporarily recruit the Romanian 20th Infantry Division for this task... The Fourth Armored Group Army was assigned a large number of Romanian soldiers. One of the three armies and the other division were Romanian. They are mainly responsible for logistical supplies and work such as clearing obstacles and building roads.

The result of implementing infantry and tank coordination with such an army is conceivable. In Strike's words, "We are more worried about our own people on the battlefield than the enemy, because they are always there when we are about to advance." Blocking in front of the tank's tracks, on the contrary, when they need to move forward, they all hide behind the tank!"

After complaining, he warmly shook hands with Colonel Slain and Qin Chuan and said, "Welcome back. This is the best news I have heard recently!"

"Come on, General!" Colonel Slain said, "We are only 30 kilometers away from Stalingrad. Isn't this good news?"

"Do you think this is good news?" General Strike said: "Colonel, if you think the enemy will let us drive into Stalingrad so easily, you are wrong!"

General Strike was right. As the German army advanced towards Stalingrad, the Soviet army's defense became increasingly tight.

Of course, part of this is the reason why Stalin personally went to Stalingrad to organize work before this to form the Stalingrad Front Army and the Southeast Front Army, and established "Punishment Battalions" and "Interception Teams".

"Look at this!" General Strike stepped aside a little so that the two of them could better see the map in front of him: "On the left is the Don River, and on the right is the Volga River. They form a channel in front of us. The cross-section is only more than a hundred kilometers, and the Soviets have deployed two armies on our way forward. But this is nothing. The problem is that we can only advance along the roads and railways... The Soviets are already waiting for us. Understand?"

Qin Chuan understood what Strike meant. This was actually the weakness of the armored forces. They relied heavily on transportation.

If it is in the area south of Stalingrad, there are large areas of plains and grasslands. This kind of terrain is obviously more suitable for the German mechanized troops to fight, but the closer you get to Stalingrad in the north, the mountains, lakes, and rivers are crisscrossed. It was a nightmare for the Panzer Army.

This is indeed the case. When the Fourth Army advanced here, it could only take a defensive position and engage in a stalemate with the Soviet army on the opposite side.

"The left wing is our infantry, and the right wing is our armored force!" General Strike said: "The one standing in front of us is the Soviet 64th Army. They have a total of 12 divisions and 150,000 people, including a Tank Army!"

"How many more tanks do they have?" Colonel Slain asked.

"The specific number is unclear!" General Strike replied: "But this is not a big problem. We have air superiority. After we discover their tanks, we can use fighter planes to destroy them first. The problem is that the Soviets have one after another. The level is narrow, and they aim their cannons at the only way for the tanks to pass. As long as one of our tanks is destroyed, we may block our way forward! "

Tanks will encounter such problems when operating in areas with complex terrain.

"Now, we can only place our hopes on the 6th Army!" General Strike pointed to a point on the map and said: "Karachi, General Paulus plans to launch a surprise attack from here..."

"Then the Don River must be forcibly crossed!" Colonel Slain was a little surprised.

"Yes!" General Strike nodded: "Our attack has attracted the strength and attention of the Soviets. Once successful, it will collapse the entire Soviet defense line, although it is very dangerous!"

General Strike was right, because in history the German army did win this battle... Paulus led the Sixth Army to successfully cross the Don River and capture Karachi, but this was at a cost It was completed with huge casualties and consumed a large amount of supplies, so that the 6th Group was unable to launch an attack on Stalingrad for a long period of time.

"Why don't we change the offensive positions of the infantry and armored forces?" Qin Chuan asked, looking at the map.

"What do you mean?" General Strike asked.

"I mean..." Qin Chuan pointed to the map and said: "The Soviets thought that our tanks would only advance along railways and roads. Therefore, they would put a large number of armored and anti-tank troops on the right wing, and The left wing will only deploy light infantry. If we use armored forces to attack its left wing..."

"But how do we attack?" General Strike said: "There are muddy roads everywhere, and tanks can't pass at all!"

Colonel Slain glanced at Qin Chuan, and he already understood what Qin Chuan was thinking.