The decisive battle against the Third Reich

In the end, General Strike agreed to Qinchuan's plan.

In fact, this was not something General Strike agreed to, but a decision made by Paulus, Holt and others after being reported to General Rommel.

Paulus had actually seen the purpose of the Soviet offensive on the northern defense line, but he had no choice but to have insufficient troops and supplies, and the air force could not take care of both the northern defense line and the blockade of the Volga River at the same time, so he could only watch helplessly as Soviet reinforcements continued to arrive from The Volga River flows into Stalingrad.

While Paulus was frowning about this, Rommel walked into Paulus's headquarters in high spirits.

"General!" Rommel said: "Let me guess, I think you must be worried about Stalingrad!"

"General Rommel!" Paulus replied angrily: "If you came here to laugh at me, then you have succeeded!"

From a certain perspective, Hoth's 4th Armored Army and Paulus's 6th Army are still in a competitive relationship...Hoth once wanted to take Stalingrad with the 4th Panzer Army alone until their armored forces were The idea was abandoned only after the south was blocked by the Soviet 64th Army.

Similarly, Paulus also hoped to take Stalingrad while the 4th Panzer Army was blocked.

"No!" Rommel handed Paulus a document and said, "On the contrary, General. I'm here to solve your problem!"

Paulus looked at Rommel in confusion, then opened the document dubiously.

Before long, he looked at Rommel in surprise, and then started to read it carefully.

After a long while, Paulus nodded slightly and said: "A very good plan, General Rommel, bold and novel, and more importantly, it hits the enemy's key point directly. No wonder others call you the 'Desert Fox', now it seems... you The ability is not just in the desert..."

"No, no, General!" Rommel replied with a smile: "Although I am happy to hear these compliments from you, but... this is not my plan!"

"Hot's?" Paulus couldn't help being a little surprised when he heard this: "As far as I know, Hott is not a person who dares to take such risks!"

"You're right, General!" Rommel replied: "In fact, it was made by one of my men!"

"Subordinate?" Paulus couldn't believe it.

"I think you must have heard of the 'Legendary Sergeant'!" Rommel replied.

Paulus couldn't help but said "Oh" and then nodded.

If you haven't heard of it before, then two recent events have made Paulus no longer unfamiliar with this "legendary sergeant". One is to capture Baku, and the other is to intersperse with Karachi for the first time. The 6th Army opened the situation.

Of course, these are not the achievements of "Legendary Sergeant" alone, but it is said that they were all successful under the plan of "Legendary Sergeant".

Paulus flipped through the plan again, then nodded and said, "If I have a chance, I should meet this 'legendary sergeant'!"

"You mean you agree to this plan?" Rommel asked.

"Of course!" Paulus nodded: "Why not? I will order my troops to cooperate with them!"

So the plan called "Red Barricades" was decided.

It is called the "Red Barricade" plan because the main targets of this plan are two Soviet factories... the "Red Barricade" artillery factory and the "Dzerzhinsky" tractor factory.

That night, the Soviet army once again organized an attack on the northern German defense line.

This is a tactic commonly used by the Soviet army, which launches almost non-stop attacks on the German defense lines day and night.

The reason is, needless to say, not giving the German soldiers any time to rest.

This point can be said to have hit the vital point of the German army. The 6th Army itself was severely short of troops because it had to form a northern defense line while surrounding Stalingrad. Therefore, it was unable to rotate attacks in batches like the Soviet army. Being able to take the time to rest between battles, plus the previous fight all the way from Kharkov to here, everyone was severely exhausted and exhausted.

From this point of view, it makes sense for Major General Wittelsheim, commander of the 14th Armored Corps, to use the word "dangerous" to describe the northern defense line. This does not mean that the northern defense line is in danger, but that the German soldiers have already It is difficult to maintain the defense line when it is close to collapse.

But from another perspective, this is actually Major General Wittelsheim adding his own subjective consciousness to the strategy... Strategically, quite a few people know that they should launch an attack on Stalingrad as soon as possible, but because of the northern defense line At the same time, Major General Wittelsheim himself was also facing such danger and pressure on the northern defense line, so he subjectively tended to defend the northern defense line without making objective judgments.

That night, the Soviet army's attack on the German defense line was particularly fierce. Artillery fire poured into the German defense line in sheets. From time to time, there was the terrifying roar of rocket launchers. The fire near the German defense line was loud and the sound of killing was loud.

Captain Utvinko, who was stationed on the outer defense line, was the commander of the 98th Infantry Division of the 62nd Group Army of the Soviet Red Army.

But being called a division commander can only be considered a battalion commander, because the 98th Infantry Division had suffered heavy casualties in the previous battle in Karachi, with only 465 people left in a division of more than 10,000 people. This is one of the reasons why Captain Utwenko became the division commander.

"Comrade Captain!" A subordinate was awakened by the sound of artillery and asked Utvinko with a hesitant look in his eyes: "I heard that the Stalingrad Front's attack was not going very smoothly. Is this true?"

Utvenko answered confidently: "Listen to the sound of the artillery, we have beaten the Germans to the point where they have no chance to fight back!"

Utvenko said beautifully, but his heart was another matter, because just yesterday, he saw with his own eyes that the 16th Tank Army was annihilated on the state farm.

Of course, such discouraging words cannot be said on the front line, so Utvenko added: "It won't be long before our people will break through the German defense line to reinforce us. The German invaders are doomed to fail and they will not have a good end! Look, they haven't launched an attack on Stalingrad until now. Do you think the Germans are kind? No, they just don't have enough troops and ammunition! So, cheer up, we will be able to drive the Germans out soon!"

The soldiers nodded repeatedly after listening to these words. At least one thing is true, that is, the Germans have not launched an attack on Stalingrad until now.

At this time, a burst of dense gunfire suddenly sounded from the direction of the state farm, tracer bullets drew bright lines in the air, and there was a faint "rumble" of tank engines.

"It's the T34!" Utvenko was a tank soldier and could easily distinguish enemy tanks from friendly ones by the sound of the engine, so Utvenko immediately made a judgment: "It's our people, they broke through the German defense line and hit here!"

The soldiers couldn't help but cheer.