"Why?" Lieutenant General Goldov asked.

It is no wonder that Lieutenant General Goldov was so surprised, because Shulka could see at a glance that the Soviet defense was focused on the north of Stalingrad rather than the south.

It is not difficult to guess that the Soviets placed a 4th Tank Army on the Stalingrad Front in the north, while the Southeastern Front in the south had only a few tank divisions.

It was also clear to the north that the newly formed Stalingrad Front was formed.

The so-called "Stalingrad Front" is the front that defends Stalingrad, so of course it is the focus of defense.

It also shows how big the nerves of the Soviets were, and the Germans only needed to look at the names of their armies to see where their main forces and the main defensive directions were.

"It can't be!" Major General Filippovich said: "The terrain to the south is complex and there are many rivers, which is not conducive to the attack of the German mechanized troops!" And the north side is flat! ”

"The Germans also know this, Major General Filippovich!" Shulka said: "That's why they're attacking from the fragile south!" ”

The officers couldn't help but look at each other.

In fact, it is not difficult to guess that it is basically impossible to attack from the Don River in the front, as mentioned before, the ice and snow have melted at this time, especially the attack on the river surface where the ice and snow are melting, because no one knows when the ice on the river will crack, even if people step on it, plus there are bullets and shells from the enemy...... Risking a river crossing is almost a death sentence.

On the other hand, because the ice has not yet completely melted, it is not feasible to cross the river by rubber boats and assault boats.

To the north was the stronger Stalingrad Front, and the Germans would not be stupid enough to go head-to-head.

As a result, only the weaker Southeastern Front Army was left in the south.

This was also true, because after two months of fighting, the Stalingrad Front in the north of the Soviet army did not play a role in defending Stalingrad at all, because it was blocked by the Germans using the passage of the Don and Volga rivers and could not attack at all.

On the contrary, the weaker South-Eastern Front has been taking on the main defensive tasks.

Then, unsurprisingly, the Stalingrad Front was renamed the Don Front, since its main task was to defend the Don front.

The South-Eastern Front was renamed the Stalingrad Front.

Of course, these are all later words, and the defense of the Soviet army in the direction of Stalingrad at this time made this mistake, and did not hide its strength at all before the German offensive, taking it for granted that the terrain in the south was not suitable for the Germans to attack.

"That is, we should move the main forces to the south?" Lieutenant General Gordorf said.

"I'm afraid it's too late to transfer!" Major General Filippovich replied with a pale face: "The Germans have been bombing our railway lines all this time, especially in the area around Stalingrad...... If we were to move our forces from the north to the south, we would probably have to bypass Stalingrad from the rear! ”

Major General Filippovich is telling the truth.

Although Stalingrad was stuck in a narrow choke point between the Don and Volga rivers, because it was only 100 kilometers wide, several railway lines and bridges passing through it could easily become targets and destroyed by the German army, and it was not difficult for the German air force to block the traffic of this choke point.

As a result, the Stalingrad Front in the north wanted to reinforce the Southeastern Front, and had to make a big circle from the rear.

And the Germans were clearly not going to give the Soviets such a long time to prepare.

"Order them to get ready now!" Lieutenant General Gordorf ordered.

But this command doesn't really do much...... Because the Southeastern Front has been preparing all the time, it doesn't make much difference whether there is such an order or not.

After a pause, Shulka continued: "I think that the German army will continue to blockade Stalingrad with air power, which will cause panic in Stalingrad on the one hand and make it difficult to get reinforcements, and on the other hand, it can also initially cut off the connection between the two fronts in the north and south." So we seem to have two fronts, but in fact there is only one front facing the German attack! ”

It turns out that in the current era of having an air force, the dangerous place that cannot be opened by a single man will also be exploited by the enemy.

"Is there a solution?" Major General Filippovich looked up and asked.

"I don't think the Southeastern Front will be able to hold back the enemy's attack!" With that, Shulka turned his gaze to Major General Filippovic.

Major General Filippovich nodded in agreement.

The South-Eastern Front was the main force attacking Kharkov, and the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of people who were surrounded and annihilated were the elite of the South-Eastern Front, which at this time were second-line troops with poor combat effectiveness and miscellaneous units that had been temporarily formed and transferred, and some were even militias drawn from Stalingrad...... The mobilization capacity of the Soviet army was very strong, mainly because the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union carried out the necessary military training in their spare time, and if necessary, they were issued a rifle and could become soldiers and go to the battlefield.

But such a force would obviously not be an opponent of the German army under the air, infantry, and tank cooperative combat system.

"So!" "If anything, I think we should have a planned gradual retreat......

"Retreat?" Lieutenant General Gordorf interrupted Shulka: "What does it mean to retreat? ”

"Comrade General!" Shulka replied: "It is difficult for the South-Eastern Front to withstand the enemy's attack in the field, and the result of this is to send batches of equipment, ammunition and soldiers to the front to hand over to the enemy!" ”

This is one of the reasons why there will be a shortage of equipment in the defense of Stalingrad.

On the one hand, Stalingrad was almost surrounded by German troops and lost contact with the outside world.

The word "almost" is used here because Stalingrad is backed by the Volga River, so it cannot be completely cut off from the outside world for a while.

However, the Germans could use their air forces to blockade ports and rivers, so they had limited equipment to transport to Stalingrad via the Volga.

This resulted in a situation in which two people even used one rifle in the later stages of the Battle of Stalingrad.

On the other hand, the Soviets sent Stalingrad's valuable material resources to the motley army on the field front...... As the motley army was routed, the supplies were almost just changed hands and given to the enemy.

"Why don't we have a planned retreat?" Shulka: "So that we can reduce the number of casualties and materiel as much as possible, and then use Stalingrad to stop the enemy!" ”

"No, Comrade Shulka!" Lieutenant General Gordorff refused without thinking about it: "That's Stalingrad, we should defend it like Moscow, any retreat in the direction of Stalingrad will increase the danger to Stalingrad!" ”