Iron Cross

The tactics of pushing forward in a front and fanning out in a fan-shaped manner sounded really stupid, but the German army had just finished resting and had advantages in firepower, mobility and personnel. This short-term assault tactic was very fierce. The German army deployed 4 armored groups on the central front of more than 800 kilometers. The overall force included 12 armored divisions, 8 armored grenadier divisions, and 26 infantry divisions. It rumbled forward like a bulldozer, breaking through the Red Army's effective defense line with the trilogy of assault, infiltration, and destruction. The overall battle seemed to be a small-scale replay of the Barbarossa Campaign, but it seemed to be more rapid than Barbarossa's original advance.

On July 8, the Red Army abandoned Mihayzhovka, and more than 30,000 rear-end troops were either killed or captured. Nearly 10,000 wounded and sick soldiers could not be transferred and fell into the hands of the German army.

On July 9, the German army occupied Kalininsk, and the two Red Army infantry armies guarding this place collapsed.

On July 10, the German army crossed the Don River from Mikhailovka and quickly occupied the positions on the left bank of the Don River. The deep area that Baghramyan led the Central Front to occupy with all his efforts was occupied by the German army.

On July 11, the German army had advanced 200-250 kilometers on the more than 800-kilometer front. The southernmost end of the southern route occupied Kachalinskaya, only 75 kilometers away from Stalingrad; the 3rd Panzer Army in the middle route went straight to the outskirts of Sakhatov from the front, and the 2nd Panzer Army occupied the Red Army City, threatening Sakhatov from the south flank; the northern line went all the way to Penza, and it was possible to turn around and go south at any time to directly attack Sakhatov, which was more than 200 kilometers away.

The next target of the German army's attack was about to be revealed at this time, which was Sakhatov, a hub city located in the middle reaches of the Volga River. 350 kilometers south of Sakhatov is Stalingrad, 500 kilometers north is Kazan, and 400 kilometers east is Kuibyshev - there are many Soviet state institutions and foreign embassies temporarily stationed there. They moved out of Moscow less than two years ago and are now facing relocation again.

Occupying Sakhatov means cutting off the Volga River militarily and semi-encircling Stalingrad from the north, west and south. Although there is still a long way to go before the city is truly surrounded, the strategic situation of the Red Army has deteriorated sharply.

However, the German army also has hidden worries in its optimism. While the progress is good and the front line is reporting victory frequently, Zeitzler also keenly saw something unusual in the battle reports submitted by various units. All units generally reflected that the Red Army had no intention of resisting and collapsed at the first touch. The speed of occupying the target area was amazing, but the number of enemy troops actually eliminated was not large. The four armored armies fought for nearly a week, and the total number of enemy troops actually eliminated was less than 300,000 (including more than 100,000 captured). Not only was the number not as good as the Castle Battle, but the quality also declined greatly.

Zeitzler personally inspected the annihilated Red Army troops and found that most of them were new units formed at the turn of spring and summer this year, with no combat effectiveness, or were personnel with poor combat effectiveness, weak will, and poor equipment in the old units. Looking at a large number of captured wounded and sick soldiers and those who were not injured or sick but were all 40-50-year-old men, he couldn't help but put a big question mark in his heart.

What made the German army even more headache was that there were still a large number of Russians left in the occupied area, and they were starving to the point of skin and bones. Many people had been hungry for 4-5 consecutive days, and they even forgot when they had eaten their fill last time. If it were the former SS special operations team, they might have been pulled out and shot directly when they encountered these people. However, Hoffman had issued an order after the establishment of the Russian Liberation Army, strictly prohibiting the Wehrmacht and the SS from contacting the civil affairs of the enemy-occupied areas. Daily affairs were all managed by the Russian Liberation Army, and the German army should convey relevant civil affairs instructions through the officials of the Russian Liberation Army.

The interrogation soon showed that this group of old, weak, sick and disabled people were intentionally left behind when the Red Army retreated. On the one hand, they were inconvenient to move and could not keep up with the pace of transfer; on the other hand, except for a few people, most of them had lost their ability to work - they were completely a burden, and nothing useful was left for these people.

This kind of thing happened in not just one place or a few places, but in many newly occupied areas. Finally, after urgent consultations, the General Staff decided to allocate some of the military rations of each department to help these civilians.

By July 12, the German army was shocked to find that the total number of troops used for this attack was less than 800,000, but the population of the occupied areas that relied on German rations suddenly increased by more than 200,000, plus the 100,000 captured Red Army prisoners of war, there were more than 300,000 mouths, and food suddenly became tight.

The situation was quickly reported to Schmont, the Eastern Front's quartermaster general. He felt that the matter was very difficult: killing all these people would be the end of it, but on the one hand, he felt he couldn't do it, and on the other hand, serious political problems would arise; keeping them alive was not a problem either. Although they could only be given very little food, there were still 300,000 mouths waiting for relief. With the rapid advancement of the German army, it was foreseeable that the population would increase every day.

He was undecided about how to deal with this group of people, so he could only send a telegram to Berlin for instructions. Vlasov gritted his teeth and sent a telegram saying "I hope to provide relief to the Russian disaster victims without affecting the combat of the troops", which was also forwarded to Hoffman by the General Staff.

Hoffman considered it again and again, and finally ordered: to set up a refugee camp on the spot to keep them from starving to death, and then gradually use the train capacity for transporting supplies to turn back. The refugee camp was maintained by the Russian Liberation Army and supervised by the German army.

Schmont determined the refugee relief standard with the unique precision of the Germans: 4 Russian civilians or 3 Red Army prisoners were given one portion of food equivalent to that of ordinary soldiers in the combat troops, but meat was not included, so that they could barely keep from starving to death. The statistical results showed that it was almost equivalent to increasing the ration demand of 80,000 to 90,000 troops, just using up the transportation and storage potential of the campaign.

Unexpectedly, as soon as refugee camps were set up in various places and food relief was distributed daily, a large number of Russian civilians and Russian stragglers in hiding came out from nowhere and rushed to the refugee camps. They had green eyes and rushed to the food when they saw it. They would not let go even if the Russian Liberation Army punched and kicked them, and they were most satisfied to eat a bite.

By July 15, the number of refugees had exceeded 700,000. The return capacity of the train was only 30,000 to 40,000 per day, and it would take at least 20 days to transport all the remaining people in the refugee camps, and this was based on the premise that there would be no increase in population - no one was optimistic about this.

At this time, the refugees' daily food consumption was equivalent to the rations of 200,000 German troops. After reporting to higher authorities, Hoffman made the final decision. In view of the small consumption of ammunition in the battle, he approved the compression of ammunition supplies and replaced them with food transportation, and required the strengthening of supervision to prevent illegal activities.