Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 2332 The most outstanding army is actually the Italians
In October, winter in Russia arrived as promised, and the Battle of Volgograd was still in progress.

With the experience of defending Moscow last year, the German army has greatly improved its logistics supplies. Soldiers’ winter clothing is the first requirement. In the icy and snowy environment, if the thermal insulation effect is not good, the combat effectiveness of soldiers will be greatly affected.

The thermal clothing of the Russian army is more suitable for the Russian environment than the cold-proof clothing issued by the German army.

Many German soldiers took off their clothes from the dead Russian soldiers and put them on themselves. This behavior is strictly prohibited on the battlefield, because if you wear the clothing of the opposing army, you will no longer enjoy the Geneva Convention after being captured. "protection of.

At this point in the war, the "Geneva Convention" has disappeared. Whether it is the Germans or the Russians, as long as they capture the opponent's soldiers and execute them on the spot, there is no possibility of surviving.

After three months of bloody battles, the Germans finally pushed the front line to the banks of the Volga River, occupying 80.00% of the urban area, and the Russian army in the city was compressed into two rectangular strips.

At this time, the Volga River began to freeze, and the Russian logistics supplies were seriously affected.

The fighting in the city was extremely fierce. Near the tractor factory, workers continued to produce in a factory building just one street away from the battlefield. The newly produced tanks were driven to the battlefield by worker volunteers before they even had time to paint and install shooting sights. .

The battle was so miserable that the two divisions under the Russian 62nd Army lost about 70.00% of their troops and were still fighting.

The Germans were even worse. So far, the Axis powers have lost nearly 70 people in Volgograd, as well as more than 1000 tanks, more than 2000 cannons and mortars, and 1400 aircraft.

On October [-]th, Paulus was forced to truce for three days. While replenishing supplies, he sent new troops to replace the heavy-loss combat troops.

At this time, the German army's defense line in Russia was as long as 2000 kilometers. With the current strength of the German army, it was impossible to maintain such a long front line. There were no troops to defend the 350 kilometers from Volgograd along the Don River to Voronezh. Take a shot, you can break through the German defense line from here at any time.

The troops in Mustache's hands were already stretched and unable to send out German troops, so he had to draw three armies from the servant army to fill the line of defense.

This is just a drop in the bucket. The three armies simply cannot cover the 350-kilometer defense line. In some areas, the defense line of a field platoon is as long as one to two kilometers. If the Russians counterattack, it will have no effect at all.

The Russian counterattack is coming.

In the defense of Moscow last year, Mustache gained a new understanding of the determination and resilience of the Russians.

This is not enough.

On the one hand, Big Beard sent troops to firmly attract the main force of the German army to Volgograd, and on the other hand, he was accumulating strength.

By mid-October, Big Beard had secretly assembled three front armies consisting of 10 combined armies of various arms around Volgograd, including 1 tank army, 4 air force armies, and several independent armies, tank armies, and brigades. There are 143 million people in 110.6 divisions, including 15500 artillery and mortars, 1463 tanks and assault artillery, and 1350 aircraft.

At this time, Army Group B, which was attacking Volgograd, had 80 divisions and 3 brigades, about 100 million people, 10290 artillery pieces, 675 tanks, and 1216 aircraft.

It can be seen from the comparison of military strength that Russia is getting stronger and stronger, while Germany is constantly being weakened, and its losses cannot be replenished in time.

The Chief of Staff of the German Army, Franz Halder, realized the hidden dangers of the German front, and suggested to Mustache to abandon the attack on Volgograd, and ordered Army Group B and Army Group A, which was attacking the Caucasus, to retreat westward.

Mustache is not reconciled to failure, and will not listen to any advice. All remarks related to stopping the attack are considered betrayal by Mustache.

At the end of September, Mustache removed Halder from the position of Chief of Staff of the Army and took over from General Kurt Zeitzler, Commander-in-Chief of the German Army in France.

When disagreements arose within Germany, the bearded man approved the counter-offensive plan drawn up by Zhukov and Vasilevsky, and personally named the counter-offensive plan "Operation Uranus".

On October 10, Operation Uranus officially began.

The Southwest Front Army, under the command of Lieutenant General Vadudin, carried out the main attack from the bridgehead positions in the Sierramofivich and Klitskaya areas on the west bank of the Don River, breaking through the frontal defense of the Romanian 3rd Army, and aimed directly at Karachi on the east bank of the Don River.

The Volgograd Front Army was commanded by Admiral Yeremenko. Its mission was to attack from the south to the northwest of Volgograd, break through the defense of the Romanian 4th Army, join forces with the Southwest Front Army in Karachi, and complete the encirclement of the German army in Volgograd.

At the same time, the Don Front Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Rokossovsky. Its task was to carry out auxiliary assaults from the northwest to the southeast of Volgograd to cover the main attack of the Southwest Front Army.

On the day the plan began, Russian troops attacked the Axis defense lines from the ice and snow.

There is a huge gap between the Romanian army and the Russian army in terms of numbers, will, and equipment level.

The Southwest Front Army in charge of the main offensive consists of 18 infantry divisions, 8 tank brigades, 2 motorcycle brigades, 6 cavalry divisions, and 1 anti-tank brigade, and is supported by the 2nd and 17th Army of the Air Force.

Facing the crazy attack of hundreds of thousands of Russian troops, the Romanians could not stop it at all. It took only 24 hours for the Southwest Front Army to break through the defensive positions of the Romanian Third Army.

The Volgograd Front Army commanded by Admiral Yeremenko launched an offensive a day later than the Southwest Front Army.

11月1号，伏尔加格勒方面军的第51、57、64集团军也在南部转入反攻，突破罗马利亚第4集团军的防线，主要由骑兵组成的罗马尼亚人迅速被歼灭。

The Axis forces were at the end of their strength at this time, and the Russians counterattacked very quickly. The No. 2 Southwest Front crossed the Don River in batches, and the No. 3 Southwest Front and the Volgograd Front joined forces in Karachi, completely completing the siege of Volgograd.

In the encirclement, there are 6 corps and 5 divisions of the German 22th Army, Romanian and Italian troops, and part of the Croatian army, with a total of about 27 people.

The speed of the Russian counterattack far exceeded the expectations of the Germans.

When the Russians had just launched a counterattack on the 31st, Zeitzler, the new Chief of Staff of the German Army, suggested that Mustache ordered Paulus to evacuate.

Mustache's confidence also began to waver.

Goering, who made mistakes during the French campaign, once again assured Mustache that the Luftwaffe he led was capable of passing through the "air bridge" to provide air supplies to the 6th Army in Volgograd.

Mustache once again believed in Goering's evil.

It is amazing to say that although Goering has made countless mistakes, Mustache's trust in Goering has never wavered.

Even if Goering said that the Luftwaffe could take off from Berlin and bomb Pretoria, it is estimated that the mustache would firmly believe it.

Paulus failed to wait for Mustache's retreat order, and what he waited for was the order to reorganize the 6th Army into the "Volga Barrier Army".

Mustache ordered Paulus to persist in the fight no matter what, even if the battle lasted to the last one soldier, one shot and one bullet, he could not retreat from Volgograd.

Soon Goering's promise to Mustache was completely shattered. After entering the winter, the environment in Russia was extremely harsh, and the dispatch of the Luftwaffe was greatly affected.

The current Russian army is no longer the Russian army of last year. It has assistance from southern Africa and the United States. The Russian army is equipped with a large number of anti-aircraft weapons. The airdrop of the German Air Force to the 6th Army has been greatly affected.

The German army in the encirclement needs about 700 tons of supplies every day.

The Luftwaffe transport limit is 300 tons.

The actual airdropped materials to Volgograd were reduced to only about 100 tons.

Moreover, not all of these materials were air-dropped on the positions of the German army, and some of the materials were even air-dropped on the positions of the Russian army.

In the end, the German army received only about ten percent of the required supplies every day.

After completing the siege of Volgograd, the Russians began to gradually shrink the encirclement.

At this time, Mustache still didn't realize that disaster was imminent, and was still adjusting his attack according to the development of the battle situation.

On the 2nd, Mustache ordered the expansion of the 11th Army Group led by Manstein into the Don Army Group, with Manstein as the commander, and the 6th Army surrounded in Volgograd, led by Huot The 4th Panzer Army and the remnants of the Romanian 3rd and 4th Armies were handed over to Manstein's command.

An ironic thing happened. The Romanian 3rd and 4th Armies were the first to be counterattacked by the Russian army in "Operation Uranus".

The defense lines of these two armies were breached by the Russian army, but the Romanians miraculously preserved most of their strength.

They were able to escape from the Russians, but they couldn't escape the insistence of the mustache. The Romanians who had no fighting spirit were forced to return to the battlefield, and they would continue to fight the Russians.

Mustache hoped that Manstein could force the Russian army's offensive to a halt and regain lost positions.

Manstein was not optimistic. He believed that the chance of success for the German army was that the 6th Army would break out from Volgograd to the southwest, while Hoth's 4th Panzer Army would attack northeast from Kotelnikovo, south of Volgograd. Pincer the Volgograd Front Army commanded by Yeremenko, and after completing this task, turn around and attack the Southwest Front Army commanded by Tuvacin.

This plan represented the abandonment of the German attack on Volgograd.

Mustache disagreed with Manstein's plan, not only did not agree with Paulus' breakthrough, but also did not allow Paulus to surrender, and ordered Manstein to fight a bloody road to break through the encirclement of the Russian army.

Looking at the jagged battle lines on the map, Manstein felt extremely heavy. The war potential shown by the Russians far exceeded the pre-war expectations of the Germans.

Even if Manstein completes the order given by Mustache, breaks the encirclement of the Russians, and joins the 6th Army.

God knows if the bearded man still has a reserve team in his hands. If millions of Russian troops appear across the Don River, even Manstein's 11th Army will be surrounded.

This possibility is not impossible. Although the Germans have repeatedly raised their forecasts for Russia's war potential, the Russians can still break through the upper limit of forecasts.

So far in the war, Russia has lost tens of millions of people. The Germans killed so softly, but the Russians couldn't kill them all.

On November 11, Manstein launched the "Winter Storm" operation in accordance with the order of Mustache, in an attempt to rescue the 12th Army that was surrounded in Volgograd.

Manstein is still capable, and the German army has not completely lost confidence. The 4th Armored Army led by Huot broke through the defense line of the Russian 16st Army on the Aksay River on the 51th, and the 19th Armored Army of the No. 57 forward unit broke through on the 30th. The army is only [-] miles away from the southern encirclement.

At this time, Manstein found helplessly that if the 4th Panzer Army continued to advance, it might repeat the mistakes of the 6th Army and be surrounded by the Russian army.

In violation of Mustache's order, Manstein ordered the troops to stop the offensive, and ordered the 6th Army in Volgograd to break through and join the 4th Armored Army.

Paulus also made a mistake at this time. He did not dare to disobey Moustache's order, and refused Manstein's order to break out on the grounds of insufficient fuel.

This was the last chance for the 6th Army to break through.

On the 20th, the Russian army, which was slowed down, began to counterattack. Facing the frenzied attack of the Russian army, the Fourth Panzer Army had to retreat, and the front line gradually moved away from Volgograd. Operation "Winter Storm" completely failed.

At this time, the temperature in Volgograd has dropped to minus 45 degrees Celsius, and the ice surface of the Volga River is getting thicker and thicker. Russia can smoothly deliver supplies to the frontline troops through the ice surface.

The German Air Force's airdrops to Volgograd are becoming more and more difficult. All the materials of the 6th Army have been exhausted, and they are about to run out of ammunition and food. The daily ration distribution of soldiers has dropped below the standard necessary for survival. All were exhausted, shells began to run short, and thousands of soldiers died every day from disease, cold, and malnutrition.

Schmidt, chief of staff of the 6th Army, suggested to Paulus to break out.

Paulus had a premonition that the end was coming, so he sent Lieutenant General Hubie, the commander of the 14th Army, to fly out of the encirclement to see Mustache and report the situation of the 6th Army to Mustache, hoping that Mustache would allow the Sixth Army to break through.

The mustache is now frantic, not only rejecting Paulus' request, but also granting Paulus the scepter of the German Field Marshal, and sending a telegram to Paulus saying: In the history of Germany, no field marshal has ever been captured alive.

The meaning is obvious. Mustache hopes that Paulus will die at the last moment, and he cannot surrender anyway.

As for victory, don't even think about it. No matter how optimistic the Germans are, they are completely disappointed with the situation in Russia.

It is winter now.

Russians in winter are invincible.

The little man has proven it.

Now Mustache proves it again.

At the end of November, the Russian army launched a new round of offensive, codenamed "Operation Jupiter", trying to break through the Italian army's defense line in the Don area and capture Rostov.

If this plan was successful, the remainder of German Army Group South would be completely besieged in the Caucasus.

As a result, no one expected that Italy once again gave Mustache a surprise.

(End of this chapter)