Bismarck

That’s right…looking at the situation now, we’ll have to use a radar experiment to shut everyone up!

"Really... our radar expert hasn't said anything..."

Looking at the captain and others who looked skeptical, Bismarck, who believed that the truth was in the hands of a few people, could only mutter helplessly.

Looking at the silent otaku mouse in the corner who had been cooperating with him since he came up with his idea, Bismarck instantly felt that his sister treated him best.

"Okay, okay, no more words, I have to go to work too!"

After he calmed down, Bismarck found a set of work clothes from somewhere and put them on. Then he grabbed a tool box and walked out.

Looking at his Persian cat like this, Lütjens on the other side had a dull look on his face: "Hey, where are you going? You don't even need to go to repair the ship?"

"How can I not go! Even if the stealth shell is welded, I still have to connect the weld interfaces and the potential conductive wires!" Bismarck speechlessly rolled his eyes at his captain, holding a toolbox in one hand and one hand on his waist, standing at the door, and scolded him a few more times: "By the way, Lily has been in the hospital for almost two months, and you didn't even ask how she is now - you are a father, but you have no sense of responsibility..."

"I...this..." After being scolded by his own secretary Cat, Lütjens' old face rarely turned red.

"I'll finish my front bridge and show it to you guys. Then I'll go to Kiel to see Lily. Captain, please keep an eye on the rest of the renovation work!"

After saying that, the secretary walked out of the door with a slightly pouty face, leaving the captain in the room, looking confused as the subordinates around him said nothing but looked like they were comforting a patient with tracheitis.

........................

Although the entire ship was in a mess due to the ship's maintenance, Bismarck, who had fought many battles and had mastered all kinds of mechanical equipment on her body, had no difficulty in operating the mechanical equipment on her body - or in other words, as long as she was working on her body, her mechanical processing ability was beyond the reach of even senior technicians!

Not to mention the innate instinct of "body control"!

"Once the stealth shape is ready, we'll ask Zeppelin to borrow their radar for a scan and see what they have to say then!"

Bismarck, feeling angry, stood beside a punching machine in her workshop, which was padded with thick cushioning sleepers and rubber pads and had a specially reinforced bottom structure, and punched the folded edges on her stealth outer plate. These folded edges were to be welded together with the outer plate to form her stealth jacket, and were also one of the most difficult parts to deal with in the stealth of a warship!

According to the stealth requirements, the angles of these folds must strictly correspond to the angles of the outer plates, and the width of the folds must be as short as possible, and the angles must be obtuse (so as not to cause concentrated reflection of electromagnetic waves under the irradiation of the opponent's radar). Because of the strict requirements, not only can "temporary corrections" not be allowed, but even the welds of the folds and other flat outer plates must be strictly aligned, and then the outer surface must be ground to be integrated with the steel plates on both sides, flat and smooth. In this way, the radar waves can be "reflected as a whole" to other directions - otherwise the stealth effect will be useless.

Even though the Germans were rigorous by nature and she had repeatedly stressed the technical requirements, even if she ignored the sailors' complaints, there would probably still be many places that did not meet the requirements due to the hasty welding - there was no other way but for her to use her own abilities to make overall changes when the time came.

After all, this stealth shape is one or two years ahead of the Japanese supply submarines! She not only left a copy of the relevant requirements to the sailors and the shipbuilding industry, but also left a copy of the specific transformation requirements to her three sisters!

Without preparations for invisibility, she had no confidence that she could survive this difficult war in the face of the Allied forces' increasingly powerful battle fleets and overwhelming missile bombers.

Not just for the Captain, but also for Lily.

Although it has been fifty days now and she can barely get out of bed, she still can't take care of herself...

In the last assassination attempt, she injured her right shoulder blade and lung, and she still couldn't use her right hand. And because of the injury to her lung, she couldn't do even the slightest bit of physical exercise - for example, running from her bed to the air-raid shelter on the eve of an air raid, because with her current physical condition, she wouldn't be able to run halfway before her lung injury would be strained; in addition, colds and coughs should also be avoided as much as possible.

But it was already early winter at the end of November. Although Kiel was not very cold in theory, the sea breeze was very strong. Lily had just recovered from a serious injury and was weak, so she had to prevent colds.

This serious injury caused extraordinary damage to her body.

To put it bluntly, now Lily can't even bend too sharply to put on shoes, otherwise she will strain her back - it takes a hundred days to heal a broken bone, and now her shoulder blade has only just grown a little bit. If it is not healed well, she may become disabled for life - she doesn't want her best friend to end up like this!

When she thought of this, she now felt that she had been too lenient with the Bonhoeffer family and Frog's gang.

It was really a relief for them that they were not beaten to the point of having all their body fractures and being unable to take care of themselves!

"These villains can't win the war, so they go to harm my Lily for the rest of her life. They really deserve to die... Never mind, let's finish this quickly and go to Hamburg as soon as possible. There will be another war soon, so I have to go and stay with Lily for two more days..."

Bismarck, who was worried about Lily's recovery, cursed the traitors and public intellectuals who had long been in prison, while gritting her teeth and operating the punch press beside her to punch the hem of the invisible coat. Behind her, one hem after another was neatly loaded onto the wheelbarrow by the waiting sailors and pulled to the construction site of the battleship.

With the efforts of the warships and sailors who are working hard, a simple stealth shape is gradually taking shape.

Chapter 823: Prelude to Counterattack

While Persian Cat was modifying his bridge and thinking about visiting Lily, the factory area in the southwest of Moscow had become a mess.

Whether it was to block the exits of several main roads in the forest area, such as the Vladimir Highway, near Balashka, to straighten the front line by withdrawing infantry to encircle the Podolsk salient, or to contain the powerful Saransk Front as much as possible by fighting a desperate battle among the large forests and swamps east of Ryazan, all of these had been repeated day after day, even cycled, in the past ten days or so.

In a brutal war, everyone sees the person on the other side as a mortal enemy. In the last second, I may kill two or three enemies with a grenade and a long burst of fire, and in the next second, I and two brothers beside me will die under the muzzle flash of the opposite machine gun or the explosion of a landmine.

Relying on the vast forest, they were caught in a stalemate confrontation, just like the alternation of day and night in the past few days, with the battle going back and forth, seemingly endlessly, alternating.

The difference is that the Soviet soldiers were stubbornly resisting the French invasion in order to defend their communist motherland, while the German soldiers were making their last stand "for the cause of expanding the territory of the great German nation."

The answers to justice and evil, aggression and resistance, survival or destruction are the chapters of history written with corpses and blood.

In this life-or-death war, everyone has no choice, whether to kill or be killed - even the generals who are racking their brains over the maps in the headquarters.

Behind the chaos on the front line, the commanders of both sides were taking the opportunity to mobilize their second-line troops.

After the assembly of the General Reserve Front behind Moscow was disrupted by the last-ditch French bandits, Stalin used Moscow as bait, transferred a group of troops from the Saransk Front to the north to stabilize the front, and urgently ordered the other half of the General Reserve Front's assembled troops, 500,000 people, who were still on the way, to be divided into three groups and rushed to the assembly area in the forest northeast of Moscow. At the same time, in order to ensure the "control" of the three German armies southeast of Moscow and prevent them from breaking through the Podolsk salient, Stalin even ordered Lieutenant General Yelyomenko of the Podolsk salient to defend with all his strength, and once again, quietly released the defense of the factory area towards the two attacking demons Guderian and Rommel.

Then Guderian, who wanted to make a big news, didn't know what his mentality was. Under the excuse that "anyway, the order to attack the rear of Podolsk and open up the connection with the 9th Army of Khrushchev was confirmed by the Führer himself", the focus of the attack was consciously or unconsciously moved from the position east of Podolsk, "forcing the Russians to abandon this salient through a flank attack", to the factory area southeast of Moscow - and even opened a way to contact Khrushchev in the area between Podolsk and the south of Moscow! And also pulled Rommel together, the three corps relied on the concentrated armored forces, with the support of the armored train, seized the railway freight station southeast of Moscow, and also tried to use this as a starting point to further launch an attack on the central city of Moscow in the north!

Even the man with a mustache, who always felt something was wrong, could not say anything about whether he was handsome or not when "the front line was straightened, and the 36,000 remnants of Yeremenko's army were surrounded, and the railway hub in the south of the city was captured, and it was only a stone's throw away from the central city of Moscow."

After all, just a few kilometers away is the Kremlin, the pearl on the Moscow River and the political center of the Soviet Union!

Moreover, he has already done all the necessary preparations.

In fifteen days, Marshal List's 300,000 troops of Army Group C had already reinforced the trenches and bunkers that already existed on the front. At the same time, more than 20 engineering divisions forced the Soviet people and prisoners of war in the occupied areas to build a second line of fortifications that ran from north to south, relying on the rivers and forests here. The third line of defense further back was also being stepped up. Even though it was impossible to complete it in full due to time constraints, at least some major hub cities and geographically easy-to-break-through areas had been made the focus of construction. Behind this "three-layer defense" was Hitler's brainstorming, after exhausting his thoughts, and putting together two armies from the troops guarding Leningrad in the north and the troops monitoring the Crimean Peninsula in the south of the Black Sea, plus some "security forces" that were temporarily transferred, and they were also stepping up their mobilization from the rear to the front. In short, Hitler was racking his brains and doing his best to accumulate and fill - one could even say he was cramming - the gaps in troop forces on the entire battlefield.

However, in this case, the threat to the Sevastopol Fortress and the city of Leningrad, which are still holding out despite limited logistical efficiency, will become greater, and the threat and bleeding of the rear by the guerrillas will become more troublesome.

But no matter what, chronic bloodletting seems to be a possibility - at least it's better than sudden death, right?

only……

"…Can it really be that smooth? The Soviet counterattack should be in the next few days…"

Although he thought he had made all the preparations he could, he still felt uneasy when looking at the gloomy sky in East Prussia outside the window, and the man with a mustache couldn't help muttering to himself.

-

The German army, having gambled all its capital, has gone crazy, and the Soviet Union's counterattack is also ready.

Relying on tenacious defense, the Soviet motherland bought a full six months with tragic sacrifices! The three million troops and seven thousand tanks that have been accumulated are about to launch a roar of revenge against the French and Russian invaders who have been rampant for a year and a half!

November 28, 1942, late at night, 11:30, Ulyanovsk, Soviet Union.

The heavy curtains blocked the bright lights in the Southwest War Zone Headquarters, and the whistling cold wind could not cover the enthusiasm in people's hearts. The dark clouds and the scattered snowflakes concealed the traces of the millions of troops entering the starting positions and the futile searches of the French scouts.

Although more than 100,000 troops were dispatched to the north to reinforce Moscow, the Saransk Front, which was assembled to prepare for a counterattack, still had 670,000 troops. Together with the Volga Front on the other side of the Volga River, the total force was 1.3 million troops and 2,700 tanks, attacking the Franco-Saxon invaders List Army Group from both sides!

In order to prevent the plan from being leaked, the starting position was set 20 kilometers behind the Soviet front-line positions, but tens of thousands of artillery and anti-aircraft guns had already been divided into small groups and infiltrated the pre-built artillery positions and anti-aircraft gun cover positions in batches within the previous week. The roads leading to the front line also took advantage of the heavy snow at the beginning of winter to set up camouflage nets in the woods on top of the roads and even used steel cables to bend the tall pine forests to cover the roads. At the same time, tall snow walls were built on both sides of the roads with dirt and snow piles. In addition, the front line had been keeping a strict vigilance on the positions, the second line had repeated patrols by the NKVD Internal Guards with military dogs, and there was assistance from the Soviet militia who hated the inhumane and bloody atrocities committed by the German invaders under the banner of "genocide". Although the German army dispatched hundreds of reconnaissance troops, they were all caught or killed under the repeated searches by the Soviet military and civilians within a depth of 20 kilometers, and they were caught in the dragnet and never returned!

Under such watertight cover and camouflage measures, the soldiers on the front line entered the starting position for the counterattack early and got enough rest and replenishment. In addition, the Soviet Union's remaining trucks and tractors, as well as the discarded light tanks that were converted into tractors, which were not very abundant at present, were now concentrated in hidden military stations on both sides of the road.

Everything is ready, only the military order is missing! Now the troops have entered the starting position. As soon as the attack order is issued, more than ten artillery divisions commanded by Marshal Kulik, an old comrade from the Soviet Revolutionary War, will directly launch a large-scale artillery bombardment lasting for several hours at the breakthrough point. At this time, the armored forces at the second-line assembly point will also begin to move towards the front line. At the same time, some things such as minesweeping, bridge building, air force control of battlefield air supremacy, and even bombing enemy airports and battlefield blocking will also start in these few hours! If the time is coordinated in place, the time when the battlefield preparations are ready is the time when the armored forces' tracks crush the French bandits!

On the 700-kilometer front of the Saransk Front's 670,000 troops, the French 16th Army under Bushi's command only had more than 70,000 troops. Even if they had built a second-line position behind the defense line, and added the engineering divisions and "security forces" and even the logistics soldiers who were given a gun each, the total number would never exceed 150,000!

On the other side, the 650,000 troops of the Volga Front faced Paulus's Sixth Army across the 600-kilometer-wide river. Although they still had 130,000 troops and seemed to have the Volga River to rely on, the most critical cities - Stalingrad, Kamishin and Saratov - were all still under the control of the Soviet army! With these cities as bridgeheads, as long as the engineering troops built the pontoon bridges that had been prepared long ago, the French and Soviets would have no chance of stopping the Red Army from crossing the Volga River!

Even if the Saransk Front still needs to withdraw at least 200,000 troops to pin down the main force of Kleist's First Panzer Army on the flank, the 1.1 million troops of the two major fronts of the Southwestern Theater will be divided into five routes. The main force will attack from both wings from five directions, including the Tambov front, Penza, Saratov, Kamisin, and Stalingrad, assisted by other feint attack forces and diversionary forces. It is entirely possible to break through the German defense line in one fell swoop, severely damage or even annihilate List's Army Group!

Under heavy pressure, even if the German army ordered the troops to abandon their positions and retreat to the second line, what would happen? That would only make it easier for the Soviet Union, which had an absolute advantage in military strength, to deploy troops and communicate with each other! After all, if the Soviet Red Army could not stop the attack of the two wings even with the preset first-line positions and the natural barrier of the Volga River, it would be even more unbearable to retreat to the second-line positions and let the two wings of the Red Army join forces!

Even if according to intelligence, Lister's Army Group had already concentrated 100,000 troops of Dietrich's SS First Panzer Army near Borisoglebsk, a transportation hub in the rear, and also assembled all 500 tanks in Lister's hands as a mobile reserve. At least on paper, it seemed like a foolproof layout.

but……

The total number of tanks of the Saransk Front and the Volga Front in the Southwestern Theater is a total of 2,700!

But... whether it is List, Halder and Wolfenstein, or even Hitler himself, what can they do?

Whether it was the Saransk Front in the north relying on the Zuna River to advance to Tambov and cut off the connection between List's C Army Group and Rundstedt's Central Army Group, or the Volga Front in the south towards Stalingrad advancing westward to the bend of the Don River and then directly threatening the North Caucasus theater and the retreat of the Franco-Slovak Southern Army Group, which occupied the Maikop oil fields and provided fuel to the German invaders throughout the Great Patriotic War, the consequences were not something Germany could afford!

Not to mention, it is entirely possible for both consequences to occur at the same time!

An armored army of 2700 men and tanks had to deal with the pincer attack from the north and south of the Red Army with tanks and a million men! How to break this situation? Urgent, waiting online...

As for splitting up the troops and intercepting them separately...

In this situation where there are men on both sides and two men on both sides, and if you are not careful, you will be in trouble. Who would dare to split up the troops? !

I'm afraid you don't think your death is fast enough and want to die more quickly?

Moreover, the Southwestern Front's million-strong army was only the first step in the entire Soviet counterattack!

List's Army Group C was in trouble, and it was possible that it would be completely divided and surrounded. In addition, the explosion of the Southern Group and the Maikop Oil Field would have serious consequences. No matter what Hitler and the officers thought and what they had in mind, they had to first find a way to deal with the consequences of List's Army Group's collapse. The problem was that the Third Reich had fought for a full six months on the 2,000-kilometer front from Kalinin to Stalingrad. The divisions were old and the soldiers were tired. How could they get the strength to deal with a counterattack of this scale? !

If something goes wrong on the southern front, the entire battlefield will be thrown into chaos! At that time, if a counterattack is launched from Moscow, Hitler will be shown what it means to take care of your head but not your butt!

Now, please welcome Mr. Hitler, the head of the Greater German Reich, to begin your performance - no matter how you want to perform it!

Thinking of this, Marshal Timoshenko, the representative of the headquarters who was in full command of the Southwest Theater, touched his bald head, and a smile appeared on his serious face. But at this moment, the chief of staff came over, saluted and reported:

"Comrade, the representative of the theater headquarters, has just confirmed that all troops are ready!"

"Well then - according to the planned battle plan, the counterattack will begin at 12 o'clock sharp!"

Marshal Timoshenko chuckled and nodded, then gave the order to start the battle, which seemed to have wiped out the enemy in the midst of laughter and conversation.

Just as Timoshenko gave an order, as the clock passed midnight, the winter night that was originally so quiet and deep that it was completely silent and even a little depressing, suddenly, thousands of cannons were fired!

The flames of artillery fire cut through the night sky! The explosions of revenge were like thunder of heavenly punishment! The German positions were caught off guard and a sea of ​​fire engulfed the destroyed and bunkered French invaders in a mess! Under the cover of the rumbling of artillery fire, the bridge engineers wearing rubber water jackets pushed the thin drifting ice on the river surface to pull the pontoon bridge out of the river from the shelter on the river bank. Under the towing of the tractor, they occupied the air cover position of the departure troops in accordance with the regulations. The minesweeping team and the demolition team wearing the steel breastplate of the combat engineers began to clear the minefields and obstacles of all sizes in front of the enemy positions under the cover of machine guns and mortars and the hasty counterattack fire of the German devils... reaching out from under the camouflage net with snow to lift the cover Groups of attacking Soviet infantry and mechanized tank riders rushed out, ignoring the cold snow and jumping directly onto the engine covers of the tanks with submachine guns slung over their shoulders. The roaring armored behemoths raised their gun barrels high and carried the infantry on board, leaving their concealed strongholds and driving along the long-determined roads toward the breakthrough points planned for their own attack on the front line. And at the forefront of the steel torrent was the red flag hoisted high, accompanied by the roar of "Ura" like a tsunami!

The prelude to the Soviet Red Army's counterattack has sounded!

Chapter 824: Stand Firm

The earth-shattering bombardment broke through the low snow clouds in the night sky, and the artillery tracks were like the wrath of the goddess of vengeance. Then, the exploding fireballs roared and covered the trembling German field positions.

Although they had expected it in their hearts, when the revengeful artillery fire from the opposite side came with its unique explosive style to announce that retribution had finally arrived, everyone, from the ordinary soldiers to the generals, legion commanders and Marshal Lister, looked on in confusion as the battlefield suddenly became chaotic.

"What's going on (boom)?!"

"Bombardment (boom), bombardment! It's the Russians' bombardment! Get into the bunkers (boom), hurry up!!"

"God bless...Mom, I don't want to die... (boom)"

"Report to the battalion commander, we can't contact the company..."

"What are you still standing there for? Report to the regiment commander immediately and ask for urgent tactical guidance!"

"Hello? Hello? Second Battalion? I'm from the regiment headquarters. Can you hold on? Can you hold on? Answer me! Answer me!"

"No... No! The Russian artillery fire is too fierce. My two Italian guns have been suppressed. The Russians also have new tanks that cannot be penetrated... The brothers have suffered heavy casualties, heavy casualties!"

"Commander, Commander! It's bad! The Russians are attacking on all fronts!"

"Nonsense! Any fool would know about such a big commotion... Now I just want to know where their main attack point is. Have you found out?... What? The Russians are attacking on all fronts and many troops can't be contacted, so you haven't found out yet? Idiot! If you haven't found out yet, what are you still doing? Hurry up and find out clearly - (after turning back and forth twice) Someone else, come! Communications squad, get Marshal Lister, now!"

"Hello? Hello? General Staff? This is List, I'm looking for the (new) Chief of the General Staff, General Zeitzler!... Something is wrong here, the Russians are attacking on all fronts, Busch told me that the enemy's attack is too fierce and he can't withstand it, so he applied to move to the second line of defense... What? Not allowed?! Who said that?... The Führer said that?! That brain-dead corporal, fuck him @*%@%￥%..."

"…Führer, List has an urgent report. Busch of the 16th Army said the Russians are attacking too hard. He demands a retreat…"

"Retreat? Are you kidding me? It's only 9:30 in the morning! It's been less than an hour and he's already shouting that he can't hold on? He has an army of 150,000 people. Don't tell me that he can't hold on for a whole morning! Go! Tell Lister that I will find a way to gather reinforcements for him, but he must hold on to the death! No retreat - even if you really want to retreat, you have to get my approval!"

"But Führer, isn't it a bit too much to say that about the commander on the front line...?" (The voice gets smaller and smaller)

"Too much? He can't hold out even with the positions, so without the protection of the positions, isn't it a dead end? Do you understand what it means to be defeated like a mountain? Don't tell me that he can outrun the Russians with his two legs! The defense line has been built for half a month, and there are forests and rivers to rely on. Who would believe that 150,000 people can't hold out for a whole morning? Besides, even if we have to retreat, at least rely on the defense line to cut off a layer of skin from the Russians before retreating, otherwise the defense line was built in vain? - What are you still standing here for? Isn't what I said clear? Go and give me the order!"

"What? Still holding on to the death?! Hitler, you bastard, you're comfortable in your old lair, but do you know how difficult it is here? There are 150,000 people on a 700-kilometer position, and there are only two companies left per kilometer. There are hundreds of thousands of Russians on the opposite side, and they have new tanks. I'm going to defend you XXX! Signalman, answer the phone for me, connect directly to the base camp, I want to talk directly to that stupid mustache guy!"

"Lister, I don't have time to talk nonsense with you here! Instead of shouting retreat here, you might as well think of a way to hold the position! I will find a way to reinforce you, but you have to hold on for the last five minutes! Obey orders! (Click) Kleist's First Panzer Army in the Central Army Group is also in danger and cannot flank the Saransk Front. There are also signs of counterattacks from Moscow... Where can I get reinforcements? It's really hell..."

"What? Hitler is still telling Busch to hold on? Is he crazy? ... Busch is a very resolute person. If he says he can't hold on, then he definitely can't hold on. Why doesn't he let people retreat? Did he come to power by talking nonsense? Can a corporal like him fight, or can we, the elites of the General Staff, fight?"

"That guy is really crazy now, fooling public opinion and grandstanding. We have been 'peaceful' for more than ten years, but as soon as he came to power, he shouted to recover lost territory, which shocked friendly countries. Then he wanted to crack down on finance and nationalize the central bank, which was obviously destroying the (unwritten) rules of society; then he dared to challenge the League of Nations order and merge Austria and Czechoslovakia; the League of Nations had opinions about him, but he actually dared to challenge the free world... Now he is still trying to integrate the economy and suppress social elites everywhere... He really doesn't regard us Junkers as human beings! To be honest, if we didn't expect him to deal with us..., we should have killed him long ago!"

"So, Germany can only rise through international cooperation, not relying on the Junker Party. It still has a future if it is controlled by professional Junker elites like us... But it's also good this way. We will continue to connect with more 'comrades', and when they can't make it, we will negotiate with Britain and the United States, and then together we will crush the Red Russia and safeguard Europe's 'freedom and peace'..."

Behind the stressful battlefield situation, there are invisible undercurrents surging deep within Germany.

........................

The counterattack of a million-strong army was of no small magnitude. In just forty-eight hours, Army Group C had been beaten to a pulp.

Although Hitler ordered a desperate defense and even wanted to rely on the front-line positions to "weaken" the Soviet army's strength, Army Group C, whose number of troops after replenishment did not reach 400,000, was ultimately unable to withstand the Soviet army's million-strong force. The front-line positions between Penza and the Volga River were abandoned one after another and were forced to retreat to the second line of defense fifty or sixty kilometers behind.

But...how easy is it to retreat before a battle?

With heavy troops behind them and tanks surrounding them on both wings, the German troops retreating from the front-line positions soon found themselves in a very stressful situation. Moreover, under such a situation, the communication between the various troops and the communication between the lower-level troops and the higher-level headquarters had become a mess. Even though a plan for retreat had been drawn up long ago, it was impossible to implement it under the psychological pressure of the absolute superiority of troops, the fierce and fierce penetration, and the parallel pursuit. Moreover, the communication with superiors and friendly troops around them had also fallen into a state of chaos. Even when many German troops were halfway through their retreat, they desperately discovered that they had been surrounded without knowing when!

Until this time, these troops, who had left the protection of their positions and fortresses and were exposed in the snowy wilderness, began to regret why they had abandoned their strong positions and the food, ammunition and supplies stored on them… Even with those things, they could only hold out for a while at most, and could not save their lives. But… even if it could only last for two or three days, it was at least better than being exposed to the ice and snow, starving and freezing, and being surrounded by Russian tanks.

Faced with a powerful enemy, they had no choice but to "transfer" the headquarters to Bushi in Tambov. Looking at the basically chaotic battle situation before them, they had no choice but to send out the gendarmerie to gather up the stragglers, and at the same time they hurriedly redeployed those troops that had managed to retreat to the second-line positions, while reporting to Marshal List with a bitter face.

"…Five or six divisions cannot be contacted? The average full-strength rate of the troops that have been withdrawn is less than 13000%? The engineers and logistics troops have all filled the second-line positions, but the manpower is still stretched?…The Saransk Front on the opposite side has deployed at least five tank armies (division-level organization, full strength of about 180 people, 200- tanks) in front of you, and started attacking from the front of Penza and Tambov. In addition, Kleist's Army Group on the left wing west of the Zuna River has also been attacked. So your judgment is that the Russians intend to cut off your connection with Kleist and Dietrich, and there are still large sections of the road on both sides of the defense line from Tambov to Borisoglebsk (where Dietrich's Panzer Army is stationed) that have not been repaired in time...Okay, I understand. You hold on first, and I will ask Dietrich to send troops to support you later... (click) What the hell, it's less than hours, and you have to use the general reserve...Besides, Paulus's Sixth Army over there is also a mess...Ah..."

After hanging up the phone and looking at the map again, Marshal Lister said that he was in so much pain that he felt like he was going to explode.

After all, it was not just Bushi who was shattered. On the other hand, the Sixth Army, which had originally been stationed on the banks of the Volga River, was surrounded by the 600,000-strong Volga Front that suddenly broke out from the three bridgeheads of Saratov, Kamishin, and Stalingrad, and had to retreat in the direction of the second-line positions. Although Paulus executed the order very well and left the rear guard to be more thorough, the result was that at least four divisions of the rear guard were being surrounded.