Although there was a less optimistic estimate of the situation, the actual situation reported by the armies and divisions of the 21st Army was even worse than Chistyakov had imagined, and by 10 o'clock in the morning, two sharp armored spearheads had easily pierced the ribs of the army, and several unreachable divisions had actually been routed by the Germans, and his stupid order to hold on to the spot was even worse when his stupid order to hold on to the spot was given: holding on meant that the divisions that had been attacked by the Germans were facing a surprise attack by superior forces. However, the troops that were not affected by the shock could not leave the existing defensive area to help assist the resistance, and because they could not accurately determine the direction of the German attack, even if the friendly troops had spare strength, they did not dare to act without authorization, because no one knew whether they would become the next target of the assault after leaving the position, and the consequences would be even more serious if the unauthorized action caused a total collapse. All command movements relied entirely on the command of the army group headquarters, but the headquarters did not know the operational objectives of the German army, and the orders issued could only be blinded.

After losing a unified and effective overall command, the combat effectiveness of the troops depended on the ability of individual units, and now it was no longer an attack by a group army against a group army, or even an attack from division to division, but an attack from battalion to battalion and company to company, and the German army was also faced with the problem of a scattered command system after a scattered assault, but their excellent tactical level brought into play the efficiency -- this was also the most fundamental starting point for Manstein when drawing up his plan, and it was also his greatest confidence in daring to use 160,000 men to besiege 140,000.

The rigid Red Army command system and inexperienced recruits were often bombarded by surprise, even if they had some veterans as their core. However, the weak and unprofessional officer corps was still unable to control the troops, and in this respect the German officers were formally trained and tested. There is a high proportion of veterans in the troops, and the sudden start and fight is often instinctive rather than completely dependent on unity of command. If it was a regular positional battle, even if the 160,000 German troops had some superiority in strength, they would not be able to quickly wipe out the Red Army in front of them, but when the 160,000 German troops and the 140,000 Red Army were fully mixed together to fight a mixed battle, the tactical level was high and the result of the battle was clearly known.

Take, for example, the 44th Infantry Division of the second wave of assault forces of the German army. The two companies dispersed and annihilated a Red Army battalion through clever flank coordination, and then converged into a battle group and cooperated with the other battalions to gnaw at another Red Army battalion, and the local advantage snowballed. And the holes in the defense line of the 21 Army are also growing. If one looks down at the battlefield from the air at this moment, the German attack is as easy as ink penetrating white paper, at first in dots of black, then penetrating and eating away at white, albeit unevenly. There are deep and shallow. There are still faint white spots in the middle, and the final goal is to dye the entire white paper black.

After the pontoon bridge was destroyed, the German troops in front and the Don River around the bend constituted a natural encirclement of the Red Army, which is why Manstein did not try to deploy troops to build an encirclement along the river, as long as the control of the waters of the Don River was in his own hands, the Don River was like a natural chain to trap the enemy, especially the bend, which was small in area and flat terrain. There was almost no danger to defend, and the Red Army, facing the German armored assault, was either driven down the river. Either they will be eliminated quickly, and there is no need to outflank them at all. More crucially, during the offensive against Stalingrad in July and August, the bend of the Don had allowed the Germans to encircle 12 divisions of the Red Army, and all the generals were familiar with the geography of the area.

Zhukov's mind was much clearer than Chistyakov's, and after knowing that the German ships had destroyed the pontoon bridge and controlled the key waters of the Don River, he immediately judged that the overall goal of the German army at that stage must be to destroy the entire 21st Army, although no one has yet reported that the army group is surrounded, but looking at the natural encirclement of the Don River 400 meters wide on the map, he always has a bad premonition, and his brows are furrowed.

After careful consideration, in addition to strictly ordering the air force to destroy the relevant ships on the river, in accordance with Stalin's request, he immediately issued three orders in the name of the General Staff:

First, the 21st Army was required to immediately stop the offensive, shrink its defense, and squeeze out the German troops that had infiltrated the group army as soon as possible;

Second, it is clear that the relevant units of the 24th Army, which has successfully crossed the river, will be transferred from the command of Kalanin and transferred to the command of the 21st Chistyakov Army, so as to maximize the strength of the group army in the meanders of the Don River and achieve unified dispatch;

Third, the Southwestern Front in the upper reaches of the Don and the Stalingrad Front in the lower reaches of the Don were strictly ordered to intensify their offensive and cross the river at all costs. In his opinion, when the main German forces were attracted to the meander, the rest of the troops advanced in depth as a good opportunity -- either to force the Germans to come back to reinforcements, or to break through the German flank defenses and attack Rostov-on-Don, and if Rostov could be captured as soon as possible and the rest of Army Group South entrenched there, Comrade Stalin probably would not mind losing a 21st Army - that would be a worthwhile sacrifice.

While Zhukov was in charge of the General Staff, Vasilevsky flew to the 8th Army of the Air Force to arrange the deployment and destruction of German warships on the Don River and arrange air cover, and now these destroyers and shallow gunboats have become the greatest threat to the restoration of contact between the 21st Army and the 24th Army, and several attempts to erect pontoon bridges have failed, and a large number of infantry and artillery have fallen on both sides of the river.

Not long after he walked to the headquarters, he heard a loud voice inside him losing his temper: "Major Vasily Zhugashvili, the recent combat situation of the air formation under your command is simply terrible, 24 pilots have not been able to shoot down even a single enemy aircraft, and the face of the entire 8th Air Force has been lost by you!" ”

"What?" Vasilevsky was taken aback, the name Vasily Dzhugashvili was most familiar to him - it was the son of Comrade Stalin. There was still a figure in the Eighth Army who dared to reprimand Stalin's son to his face? When did an Air Force general become so capable? He took a closer look and found that it was actually General Novikov in charge of the Air Force, and when he thought of the temper of the other party's gun, he was immediately relieved, thinking: This is probably the only senior general who dares to speak up, right?

The commander of the 8th Air Force Army, Sokolov, stood awkwardly to the side, he didn't notice Vasilevsky's arrival, his attention was all on the reprimand just now, but now he could neither defend Vasily nor prevent his immediate superiors from getting angry, he was really in a dilemma.

Novikov came to the 8th Army for a routine inspection, and as soon as he heard the gossip, he became angry, and although he faced the son of the supreme leader, he still dared to denounce the shortcomings of this playboy.

Major Vasily was also stunned, it was the first time he had encountered a senior officer who dared to speak to him like this, usually those high-ranking major generals and lieutenant generals who did not circle around him like pugs, let alone accuse himself to his face, there was no one who dared to say a word, everyone held him and complimented him, so his anger gathered unconsciously. Of course, he still has a minimum military education, and he also has a sense of honor as a soldier, and he does not dare to be too presumptuous in the face of the commander of the Air Force, but it is not his practice to just stand up and be scolded...... Since the beginning of the year we have lost only 2 comrades, and many other squadrons have been wiped out by the Germans......"

Novikov was so angry that he was almost speechless, for the first time he found himself underestimating the shamelessness of this playboy, why Vasily's formation suffered small losses, because he was always protected and the frequency of sorties was minimal, even when the Red Army aircraft group had air superiority, the main leaders of the aviation division and army group also deliberately asked other units to cover them, let the fighters cover the fighters, this behavior is really thanks to them!

Of course, there were also high-ranking generals who did the same, and stuffed their sons and nephews as pilots into this special contingent, on the one hand, trying to get in touch with Vasililala, and on the other hand, they also took advantage of the special status of this formation, and the risk of following him was the least, and the probability of death was the lowest -- in the Red Army, where the average flight life of pilots was only more than 100 hours, surviving was a victory.

Speaking of which, Vasily is the undisputed boss in the formation, not only because of his special status, but also because he is an old pilot with a relatively outstanding technical level; before the war, he was already a fighter pilot who graduated from a regular air force school, and in the second year of the war, pilots with this kind of qualification are quite rare, and there are probably very few pilots with this kind of qualifications and only two pilots in the whole Red Army.

Seeing that the two were about to quarrel, Vasilevsky hurriedly stepped forward to break the deadlock and tried to accompany him to play a round carefully: "This ...... There are many factors that do not have the ideal results, the relatively strong strength of the Germans, the relative youth of our troops, and the lack of experience are all reasons, and the responsibility for the small results of destroying the enemy does not lie with the commander alone, Comrade Vasily can ensure that the troops will not be lost, and the achievements in ground support and other tasks also show that he is very hard. Of course, as the son of the supreme leader, Major Vasily should do better and achieve greater results, and Comrade Novikov has placed high expectations on you, and these words just now are not so much criticism as his higher spur and requirements for you. ”

As soon as he saw Comrade Vasilevsky personally come out to play a round game, Sokolov's hanging heart finally relaxed, and he secretly gave a thumbs up to Vasilevsky in his heart. (To be continued.) )