"Boom" a cannon sound, a 105mm howitzer shell exploded in the crowd, it sounded very powerful, and the range of shrapnel flying horizontally was not small, but it had little effect in the sparse flow of attackers, only knocked down two people, from the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness ratio, this shell was completely suspected of being wasted, but in terms of momentum, it perfectly achieved its goal. This section was the defensive position of the 57th Infantry Division of the German 6th Army, and the Red Army's triumphant advance for several days finally came to an end, just as wave after wave always had to hit the breakwater in the end, the 27th Army's half-hearted attack finally encountered an insurmountable trench, and the defensive position of the 57th Infantry Division became an obstacle that they could not overcome in any case.

Karpov also tried to charge with the 10th Tank Brigade, but the scattered and dense firepower made these tanks suffer completely, and in less than half an hour, 17 were destroyed by anti-tank fire, and the entire 10th Tank Brigade had only 41 tanks in total. The battlefield was littered with the wreckage of Red Army tanks, including T-26, KV-1, and of course T-34, many of which were simply destroyed by 76.2mm Russian-made anti-tank guns captured by the Germans.

He was anticipating that he would not be able to take the German position, and did not use all his strength in the first few rounds of the attack. The attacking team did not resort to the Red Army's most famous "crowd offensive", but rather a tentative move, if not for the overestimation of their own strength by the commander of the tank brigade. This time the losses of the tentative attack will be smaller.

"I can't move...... he gasped, telling his old partner Masnov, "there are strong fortifications on the ground, ample anti-tank fire in the bunkers, and a considerable number of enemy aircraft in the sky, and we can't attack anymore......"

"It's strange why doesn't the enemy fight back?"

"Fight back? Why fight back? Karpov asked curiously. We did not attack again, and all the positions of the enemy were in our hands, in such a cold climate. There are warm and comfortable trenches, and they have to jump out of the defense system and fight us outside, and only the brains who have bad brains choose to do so. It doesn't do them any good. ”

"What now?"

"What else can I do? Withdraw! I hope some idiot will come after us without knowing whether he is alive or dead. Karpov said word for word, "Report to the commander that our troops have encountered enemy defenses with well-fortified and dense fire support. The troops attacked 5 times and failed. Now it is retreating 5 kilometers for rectification, and the main force of the group army is requested to provide support. ”

"The 27th Army's offensive was undoubtedly a failure, but on the other hand it was also a success, at least they found out the enemy's reality and understood the enemy's bottom line - they are now unwilling to continue to retreat unprincipledly." The commander of the 21st Army, Chistyakov, had been paying attention to the offensive of the 27th Army, and he had long ordered the rest of the troops to be ready, and as soon as the offensive of the 27th Army was unfavorable and there was a risk of being counter-surrounded by the enemy, the main forces of the group army would jump out to respond. At the same time, it took a hard bite on the German divisions that were desperate to pursue, but now the Germans reacted a little strangely - resolutely defended but did not counterattack. This made his carefully prepared back move come to naught. It feels like an angler preparing a bait, but the fish doesn't bother at the bait, which makes the angler a little breathless.

"I think the enemy's frontal defense may not be enough." Chistyakov said his judgment to Buchin, "I understand the character of Comrade Karpov, he certainly did not use all his strength, but even then the Germans were able to swallow their anger, this is by no means their style, there is only one reasonable explanation - their defense is not very sufficient. ”

"It's strange, the 6th Group Army is supposed to be a large group army with more than 300,000 troops, so there will not be a shortage of troops." Buchin picked up the enemy briefing, "Judging from the radio signals we have intercepted, there are at least 17 division-level call signals, how can there be a shortage of troops?" ”

"It's quite possible." Chistyakov glanced at the map, "In the lower reaches of the Don River, the 62nd and 57th armies have discovered the numbers of 7 German divisions, and there are already 2 divisions in the battle with the 27th Army......

While he was talking, Buchin received the latest telegram: "News from the Southwestern Front, Commander Vatutin, ordered the vanguard of the 46th Army to cross the river from the upper reaches today, and they have not only succeeded in erecting pontoon bridges, but also repelled the defensive forces of at least four German divisions. ”

"They've encountered enemy resistance?"

"Yes, but the resistance doesn't seem to be particularly fierce, otherwise it would not have been possible to achieve such a quick result......"

"4 ......divisions," Chistyakov pondered for a moment, "then there are 13 divisions, and there are still 4 left." ”

"Commander Vatutin intends to cross the river first with the 46th Army within 2 days, and then let the 12th, 6th, and 5th Tank Armies cross the river in turn."

Chistyakov was shocked: "He doesn't care about the Hoth cluster?" ”

"This is what the General Staff meant, and the Hort cluster was handed over to the Bryansk Front - not to defeat the enemy, but to drag them not to reinforce Manstein."

"The 46th, 12th, 6th, and 5th tank ......" Chistyakov muttered in a low voice while scanning the deployment of the Southwestern Front on the map, "Comrade Vatutin is still that vigorous and resolute character, and the speed is not slow, but unfortunately our commander Comrade Rokossovsky does not seem to be so bold, I asked him to throw the 24th Army across the river, and it has been 2 days since the telegram was sent, and let me ...... carefully."

"The commander may have his own considerations...... Buchin did not want to comment on the rights and wrongs of the commander of the front army behind his back, and changed the topic and asked, "How to deal with Comrade Karpov's request for reinforcements?" ”

"Please be careful!" As soon as the words came out, Chistyakov himself couldn't help laughing - just now, he was talking about his superior, Rokossovsky, "not bold enough", and in the blink of an eye, he also used "prudence" to his subordinates, people......

He joked to himself: "I guess in Karpov's mind, I also belong to the commander who is not bold enough. ”

While Chistyakov and Buchin were discussing how to reply to Karpov, the commander of the Don Front, Lieutenant General Rokossovsky, was also in the command headquarters and had a lively discussion with a group of operational staff officers about the next move, and he asked with a frown: "Judging by the information that has been obtained, the Germans are ready to build a semicircular defense system with Rostov as the center?" ”

"I'm afraid so." Major General Malinin, Chief of Staff of the Front, replied, "Judging from the strange situation in which the enemy has been retreating without a fight in the early stage, it seems that they have consciously retreated, and this is an act of preparing to narrow the defensive surface and increase the density of the defense." ”

"The enemy is underarmed?"

"It's hard to answer, and I don't think we can jump to conclusions until there is more intelligence to back it up, and let's leave this question to Moscow and the General Staff first."

Rokossovsky nodded: "Moscow has come again to ask about the dynamics of the 24th Army, you go and make proper arrangements, you must set off to cross the river tonight, lest our front army cross the river at the earliest, but it will fall behind when it enters Rostov-on-Don, and all the sacrifices and persistence will be cheaper in the end." ”

"Comrade Vatutin's smooth crossing of the river, Comrade Chistyakov's vanguard ran into the enemy's strong defensive line, which at the moment was insufficient and did not have the ability to break through, and the two armies of Comrade Chuikov and Comrade Tolbukhin continued their fierce offensive, but with poor results, and the only good news was that at least 7 German divisions were attracted." Zhukov was reporting to Stalin, "Comrade Yeremenko, commander of the Stalingrad Front, suggested that more army groups be launched to attack further downstream, and he did not believe that the Germans would be able to deploy defenses along the entire Don River......"

"He should have thought of that a long time ago." Stalin said dissatisfiedly, "Why did you not make this proposal until today?" ”

"He has been asking for support from the Air Force, there are not enough planes, and he thinks it will be difficult to build a bridge over the Don." "But he was asking too much, he was asking for 16 hours a day of uninterrupted air protection, and preferably a large bomber group to carry out targeted bombing of enemy airfields or defensive forces -- which we could not do, because we did not have so many planes and could not commit so many troops in one direction." It takes hours and countless materials to build a bridge, but it only takes half a minute and a bomb to destroy it. ”

"Your handling opinion is correct, Comrade Yeremenko has always liked to carry out this kind of coercion with a lion's mouth." Stalin said hatefully, "With so many technical forces, I would have pulled them out to deal with the Germans in the Black Sea a long time ago, how could I still be here to worry about my nerves." ”

Of course, Yeremenko was not a fuel-efficient lamp, and he tried to prevaricate and cover up his progress by mentioning some conditions that the General Staff could not meet, but Zhukov and Vasilevsky were not easy to mess with, not only quickly exposed his true colors, but also made him make a big appearance in front of Stalin for a while.

"How many troops does Manstein have?"

"25-30 divisions, at least 3 armored divisions."

"Half of the troops that have been exposed are now, and what about the remaining half?" Stalin asked, puzzled, "Assuming that he did not draw mobile forces for the landing, there would have been at least 10 divisions available for mobile operations." (To be continued.) )