On September 25, when the first light of the day had not yet appeared on the horizon, the Battle of Dawn, which had been planned and prepared for months and had been postponed, finally began, and the largest offensive since the Battle of the Fort began. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoThe central battlefield is full of artillery roaring, chariots are clearing, and warplanes are overwhelming.

On the first day of the battle, the Germans broke through the Soviet defense line on all fronts and advanced wildly on the main direction of attack - a nearly 400-kilometer front from Saransk in the north to Kalininsk in the south.

On the evening of September 26, the second day of the battle, the South Road German army advanced to Saratov on the left bank of the Volga; The next afternoon, on the third day of the battle, the Nordic German army arrived on the outskirts of Ulyanovsk. In the area between the two, the advance of the armored forces is also extremely smooth. The Red Army units in front of them seemed to have little combat effectiveness, and they were basically at the level of collapse at the touch of a button. At first, the commanders of the various units were very happy, and they vigorously reported to the command headquarters how fast their headquarters were advancing and what the results were, but they soon discovered the problem.

After the Soviet troops broke up from the front-line positions, they did not choose to go to the second-line and third-line positions to hold on, but scattered their feet and retreated, and the Soviet troops on the second- and third-line positions were even faster than the first-line retreat. This situation made the German army extremely excited, believing that this time it was indeed as the Führer said, that the solution of the Eastern Front problem had shown the light -- looking at the Red Army's current posture of being vulnerable and retreating like an avalanche, how could there be a little tenacious style? It is a world of difference from the fighting spirit shown during the Battle of Moscow.

However, contrary to the excitement of the front-line commanders, the atmosphere in the command headquarters was quite strange, and in the face of the information gathered from various fronts, it did not take much effort to draw a conclusion - weird! This strangeness soon attracted the attention of Zeitzler, Chief of the General Staff, Moddell, Commander of Army Group Center, and Commander Weix, Commander of Army Group East: The speed of advance reported by the various departments was brilliant, and the general front was advanced by 150-200 kilometers in three days and two nights, but if the battle reports of the various departments were carefully analyzed and studied, the results were lackluster, except for the fact that the area controlled by the map became more attractive.

Most of the battle reports from various departments were: Our troops attacked bravely, destroyed and captured a number of enemy troops, routed the enemy's troops, and moved forward on the overall front...... The losses were minimal, and the operational requirements were completed faster than expected.

Every battle report was very good, but the staff officers in the headquarters were stunned to find that the campaign of dispatching 600,000 troops to attack had only wiped out less than 70,000 Soviet troops under such "brilliant" results, and most of them were pure new infantry units, and not a single Guards number or tank unit had been found. Even more worrisome was the fact that the local population had also been reduced by half, and the Russian Liberation Army, which had joined the German offensive, quickly reported what they had learned: most of them had withdrawn a few days earlier, and the retreating Red Army units had crossed the Volga without stopping at all.

"How is it possible to retreat so quickly?"

"Because there is almost no heavy equipment, the biggest trophy so far is a batch of 152mm howitzers, but it seems that there are not many shells......"

On September 28, the north and south launched an attack on the two important towns of Saratov and Ulyanovsk at the same time, as a result, the Soviet resistance was completely weak, and it only took one day and one night to give up, and what surprised the German army even more was that the production and living facilities in these two important medium-sized cities were completely destroyed, all the materials that could be taken away were taken away, and the main force of the defending troops also fled after setting fire to the city, and there was hardly anyone else in the city except for people who were sick, physically disabled, or over 70 years old. According to those who remained, the Soviets had been arranging the evacuation and transfer of personnel for several months.

What worries the German top brass even more is that by the night of the same day, continuous explosions sounded on the Volga River, and the Red Army was actively blowing up all kinds of large bridges, and at this time the closest German troops were even more than 10 kilometers away.

According to the current progress, the 15-day combat mission scheduled in the pre-war plan was completed in less than 5 days, which was originally a very gratifying thing, but now that this situation has appeared, even the most sluggish people have reacted, and the ministers looked at each other, not knowing how to deal with it, whether to wait in place or continue to advance as planned?

"The enemy is digging a pit waiting for us to jump? Want to use the same means against Napoleon as you did against us? "Moder had experienced the initial assault of the Barbarossa Plan, when it was a little slower than it is now, but it was steady, at least fighting the enemy every moment, and then marching with victory, like now, like a heavy punch on cotton, soft and unsteady.

"How many battles?" Zeitzler asked, frowning.

"About 9,500 people (including the wounded) were captured and more than 6,000 killed on the northern route...... There are about 10,000 to 20,000 civilians. ”

Marshal Hoth, who had just returned from his inspection in Saratov, also said: "The situation on the southern road is basically similar to this, what a hell......"

With such a large war posture, 600,000 people advanced more than 200 kilometers in one breath and took the left bank of the Volga River.

"First report the situation to the Führer, we will change the order and progress of the operation, and the left flank will divide into 1 army group to fight Kazan."

"Do you want to divide the troops?" Marshal Weix was taken aback, "I thought you would speed up, Kazan is the target of the second phase of the operation." ”

"I can't move forward." Zeitzler shook his head, "The large bridges on the Volga River were all blown up by the Russians, and if you want to go over, you must erect pontoon bridges, and they must be large pontoon facilities, but this is still in the hands of the second-line transportation echelon, and it will take at least 5 days to be transported here and erected again, and I can't afford to wait for this time." ”

Moder looked at the map, and after a long time, he muttered: "Let's divide the troops on the southern road too." ”

"To fight Stalingrad?" Huo Ting nodded, "I think we can try it." ”

Zeitzler shook his head like a rattle: "Saratov is further south of Stalingrad, the Führer has repeatedly opposed us to attack the hard bones, the southern route troops can be divided into 4-5 divisions to lean against Sezran in the middle, strengthen the connection between the troops, in case the Russians come over, there is also a mutual response." ”

The others looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

However, Zeitzler's anticipation of the Russian counterattack obviously did not appear, and by October 3, the Germans had successfully captured Kazan, but the results were the same as in previous days, and the cumulative number of enemy troops eliminated was just over 10,000. Up to now, the Battle of Dawn has been fought for less than 10 days, and it has taken control of the left bank of the Volga River, which stretches from Kazan in the north to Saratov in the south, with an overall width of more than 800 kilometers, and has created a huge salient in the central region.

The results of the battle looked "brilliant", but everyone had an indescribable feeling - the Red Army not only withdrew most of its troops, but also carried out a clean and thorough work of clearing the walls, but fortunately the Volga River had a large flow and a wide river, otherwise the Germans would have had difficulty even finding clean drinking water. In addition, the Red Army also left behind a large number of guerrillas, and the transport convoys and trains were damaged by people at two ends in three days, and the damaged materials were insignificant, but the frequent cutting off of roads greatly extended the transportation time. Even the trains, which were the most important for Zeitzler, were forced to delay their arrival for a day and a night.

Lieutenant General Schmunt, the quartermaster general of the Eastern Front, who was in charge of material support, was forced to ask Field Marshal Weix to allocate troops to clear out the guerrillas, but the heavily equipped German divisions and regimental units were like anti-aircraft guns fighting mosquitoes, and the effect of the cleanup was not ideal, so in the end this job was assigned to the Russian People's Liberation Army.

Strictly speaking, the battles on the left bank of the Volga have been fought so far, and the operational objectives of the first stage of the Dawn Campaign have been successfully accomplished -- except for the number of enemies destroyed, everyone in the headquarters did not have the slightest joy, and all of them were sad, as if they had lost the battle and the situation was critical.

"Do you want to tease the Red Army in Stalingrad and let them rush out?" "Now that the course of the war has advanced to the point of rapid advance, we should simply withdraw some of Saratov's forces or let other forces move forward, and attract the Russians to attack our flank, so that we can find out the enemy's real and real motives." ”

"What if the enemy doesn't come?"

"Then just move on." Marshal Hote said, "I don't believe that the Red Army can retreat all the way to the Ural Mountains, no matter whether there is an ambush circle or an encirclement in front of me, I am willing to break through first." ”

Zeitzler shook his head: "If you want to attack, you can't weaken the strength of the north and south flanks, it's better to assault in the middle." ”

He quickly circled a target on the map: "Order the entire 4th Army to cross the river and quickly advance towards Kuibyshev, and in 3 days I will see the flag of our army flying there!" Even if there's an encirclement there, let me crash into it first! The rest of the troops are ready to meet the 4th Army at any time......"

Kuibyshev was the first location for the relocation of the capital determined by the Soviet authorities after the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, and a large number of central offices and foreign offices in the Soviet Union that had nothing to do with the military moved to this city, so it was very important. Zeitzler was ready to use this offensive to test the Red Army's bottom line and policy.

Three hours later, a telegram from the Supreme High Command arrived: "The Führer instructs to agree to your bold temptation, if the Red Army intends to abandon the front, our army may no longer be bound by the campaign phase and the requirements of the schedule, and strive to take the right bank of the Volga before the autumn road turning period." ”

On 6 October, the Germans began to cross the river to attack...... (To be continued.) )