Tomorrow is 515, the anniversary of the starting point, and the day with the most benefits. In addition to the gift bag and school bag, this time's "515 Red Envelope Flip" must be seen, how can there be a reason not to grab the red envelope, set the alarm clock high~

This time, the Red Army learned its lesson, and did not carry out a single cavalry advance or divide the troops to attack together, but honestly rolled forward in a group, gnawing at the German defense line inch by inch, and Manstein no longer engaged in scalpel tactics, and gave the overall defensive battle to the command of Gotthard Heinrich.

In more than half a month of fighting, the Red Army only pushed the entire defensive line forward by 30 to 50 kilometers, but the losses were astonishingly large -- the Southwestern, Don, and Stalingrad armies lost more than 100,000 troops and nearly 300 tanks, while Army Group South lost less than 20,000 and less than 100 tanks. Based on this loss, the three Red Army Fronts had to shed blood when they reached Rostov-on-Don, so the direction of the Red Army's internal operations changed, and Vasilevsky again made a proposal on behalf of the General Staff: first separate the Hult cluster from the Manstein cluster, and then destroy the Hôte cluster with the Southwestern Front and the Bryansk Front.

This proposal was strongly supported not only by Zhukov, but also by the commanders of the South-Western Front and the Bryansk Front. In particular, the commander of the Southwestern Front, Vatutin, was angry about the last time the rear guard was besieged and he was almost taken prisoner, and he has been thinking about revenge. The intelligence services also figured out that the Hult cluster was not a purely German force - it contained a large number of Italians and Romanians, and all saw it as a good opportunity to exploit. Faced with the situation that all sides agreed on and at the same time could not fight in a positional battle, Stalin was also thinking about a different offensive approach.

I fully communicate with each other. Molotov suddenly came in with strange information: "Comrade Stalin, just now the British ambassador called me, hoping that we would launch a large-scale diversionary offensive campaign as soon as possible, and said that he wanted to meet you tomorrow morning. ”

"What's wrong? Montgomery was beaten up by Guderian again? ”

"No, it's worse than that! This morning. The Germans landed behind Montgomery, that is, in Port Matroux and El Alamein, and the main force of the landing was the Greater German Division. It was the German fleet, which was active in the Black Sea some time ago, that supported and supported the landing of German troops. ”

"Great German Division......" Stalin smiled slightly, he knew the name of the division, the first German division, he said disapprovingly. No wonder this division could not be found on the Eastern Front for a long time. I see, Montgomery is uncomfortable now. ”

After hearing the news, Zhukov and Vasilevsky's faces instantly turned pale, and Stalin keenly read more from their uneasy eyes -- although these two excellent commanders only fought on the Eastern Front, this did not mean that they were ignorant of the situation in North Africa; on the contrary, the General Staff of the Red Army also held a special discussion meeting on the development of the North African campaign and its related effects, and the initial conclusion was that the Germans would not be able to move the British even if they replaced Guderian, and they did not expect the situation to deteriorate all of a sudden.

After listening to the explanations of the two. Only then did Stalin understand that the Eighth Army was not only surrounded by the front and rear, but also cut off the supply lines. Zhukov considered the wording: "The situation is even more serious than we think, if the Germans are determined and fast enough, they can keep taking Egypt, seizing the Suez Canal, and then threatening the whole of the Middle East - our access to supplies through the Iranian direction will be directly destroyed." ”

"Is there such a thing? Isn't it just a division...... "Stalin was suspicious, and the British could not fight him, but he believed that the British navy and air force had the advantage in the North African theater, and the number of land forces was several times that of the Germans, so there should be no problem in maintaining the war situation.

"There may be more than one Greater German division in the landing force, because I think the Viking division is gone," Vasilevsky added...... "Although this division may not necessarily go to Egypt, it may also return to China to recuperate, but the division has been missing for three months, and theoretically it should be replenished and regained its offensive capability." ”

"Didn't you say Montgomery had 300,000 troops? It was also said that more than 100,000 troops of Operation Torch were also going to Egypt to land. Stalin asked, "Egypt can't be lost, right?" ”

"The Eighth Army still has more than 200,000 men, but he has Guderian staring at him, and it is very difficult to get out. The key is that the British army standing in front of the Great German Division is only 50,000 people, or the 50,000 people who are not strong in combat and have a weakened will to fight. Molotov was not optimistic about this, "If the Germans go up another 1-2 divisions, the British will not be able to withstand it, and the Germans are likely to seize Cairo and Alexandria before the Anglo-American support forces." ”

This time it was Stalin's turn to sit still, and he did not care whether the British in North Africa were alive or dead, but once Iran, the Lend-Lease material delivery channel, was threatened, it was painful for the Red Army -- Britain and the United States said that aid was already on the coast of Africa.

"This request can be agreed, but the aid that Britain and the United States have promised us, especially the tanks, must be accelerated." Stalin turned to Vasilevsky and said, "I have taken your suggestion to give priority to the attack on the Hort cluster, and I ask the General Staff to immediately work out a plan for the offensive, and the sooner it can be launched, the better." ”

Molotov knew that Stalin had a different consideration: because the lower reaches of the Don River would freeze in another 10 days, he had intended to wait for that time to come before launching a siege against the Manstein cluster, but now based on the coordinated position of the allies and in order to protect Iran as a supply channel, he had to make up his mind to change course.

Zhukov and Vasilevsky glanced at each other, nodded in agreement, and the plan to encircle and annihilate the Khort cluster was adopted by such a coincidence.

At 3 a.m. Colombo time on December 11, the main force of the huge Japanese Combined Fleet, led by the flagship "Musashi", completed the operation of the second supply point - about 1,200 nautical miles south of Colombo. Seven days ago, according to the overall plan of the Indian Ocean Raiders, the main forces of the Combined Fleet departed from Singapore, passed through the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java in the middle of the night and secretly dived into the Indian Ocean.

At the first replenishment point, some of the tankers accompanying the fleet's operations have already replenished the tankers for each warship once, and at the second replenishment point, the remaining tankers have to replenish all the heavy fuel oil to the combined fleet and return to Singapore, and the rest of the Indian Ocean combat itinerary can only be counted on by the warships themselves.

In the evening of the day before yesterday, the Combined Fleet, which had maintained radio silence, received news that the main force of the US Pacific Fleet had reappeared in the waters near Kuah Island, and the intelligence showed that there were at least 10 battleships, 5 aircraft carriers, dozens of light and heavy cruisers, and a large number of destroyers, a total of 2 fleets, and what was surprising was that traces of the British fleet were also discovered, including George V-class battleships and Tejour-class aircraft carriers.

In order to vent their anger and in retaliation for the combined fleet's last shelling of the defenders of Kuah Island, the British and American fleets also carried out a fierce bombardment of Munda Island, and also ostentatiously chose the daytime artillery bombardment; in addition to the direct bombardment of medium and large-caliber naval guns, the aircraft carriers and the Kuah Island airfield also took off nearly 300 planes to bomb the whole island indiscriminately, and the shelling and bombardment lasted for four hours, and by the evening, Munda Island was captured, and more than 1,000 Japanese defenders were completely annihilated.

This was the result of Horikichi and others' insistence on retreating from the islands, and if 5-6,000 people had been put in as originally planned, the result would not have changed.

Yesterday at noon, the Combined Fleet received a telegram again that the British and American fleets, which were still unsatisfied, launched an all-out attack on Bougainville Island north of Munda Island, which was also a routine of shelling and bombing, and that Bougainville's defense system was more complete than that of Munda Island, and the defensive forces were also thicker, and the air forces of Rabaul and Bougainville were trying their best to resist, and the battle on the island was still ongoing, but the battle situation was still not optimistic, and the Japanese army was at a disadvantage in terms of aircraft performance and quantity. The planes that went to attack the fleet were forcefully intercepted by the American F4F carrier-based fighters, and suffered great losses but had little effect, only the armored aircraft carrier Brilliant was damaged, and even its take-off and landing capabilities were not destroyed.

In the afternoon, the defenders of Bougainville, whose overall defensive situation was in a critical state, used secret weapons to release more than 20 Sakura man-controlled missiles and swooped down on the US warships in the form of sea-skimming flights, and the British and American artillery fleets that were caught off guard did not expect the Japanese suicide attack, and the battleships Colorola, the USS Maryland (all repair ships after the attack on Pearl Harbor), and the heavy cruiser Indianapolis were continuously hit at the waterline and sunk; in addition to these three capital ships, two transport ships and three landing craft were sunk. Unclear about the number and effectiveness of the weapon, the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Halsey, ordered a temporary retreat.

After reading the battle report, the top brass of the Combined Fleet was in a very heavy mood, the US military was coming with great momentum, the intensity of the offensive, and the fierceness of the battle situation far exceeded imagination, and some people proposed to abandon the Indian Ocean raid strategy and return to the rescue, but Hori Yoshiyoshi did not hesitate to veto, Rao is Sakura missile temporarily stopped the US offensive, and the situation is still not optimistic -- this time it has achieved results by relying on a surprise attack, and the next time it may not be so lucky, and relying on a suicide attack to save the situation is a very painful choice for the naval elite.

When the last refueling ship left, the entire Musashi command tower fell silent, and everyone was thinking about what to do in the future, when suddenly, a combat staff officer pointed outside and shouted: "Sir, look, the other side is sending us a signal......

Cao Lu Yi could see it very clearly, the lights on the refueling ship were on and off, and the light signal was transmitting the message, and he read it out one by one: "United-United-Ship-Team-Military-Transport-Long-Long!" ”

"Give them a signal back with a light."

"Back to what?"

Horiyoshi said lightly: "Pray for death in battle!" ”

PS.5.15 "Starting Point" is raining red envelopes! Starting at 12 noon, grab a round every hour, and a large wave of 515 red envelopes depends on luck. You all go and grab it, and the starting coins you grabbed continue to subscribe to my chapters! (To be continued.) )