The situation in front of Zhukov was very tricky: if Vatutin's main force did not come to the rescue of his rearguard, once the rear road was cut off, the front army would also be in a situation of being surrounded by the front and rear, and if the German troops besieging the meandering troops were freed up, then the front would face pressure from the Germans in the three directions of the right bank, the left bank, and the meander, and the Southwestern Front would not be able to stop it in any way; But if the main forces of the front returned to the division to rescue, not to mention whether they could arrive in time, the plan to besiege the Rostov flank and force the German troops in the meanders would be broken first.

"How so?" He slammed his fist on the table in hatred, and now he was caught in a dilemma.

In a short time, the worse news came, the 27th Army was divided by the Germans, the headquarters of the 21st Army lost contact with the General Staff, and all the divisions and armies of the Hequ Division fell into bitter battles, but the combat effectiveness of the Germans seemed to be endless.

The telephone rang, and the staff officers took it and handed it to Zhukov nervously after only asking a question: "Comrade Stalin personally called......

He took a deep breath, tried to calm his mind, and picked up the microphone.

"Comrade Konstantin, what should be done about the situation at the front now?" Stalin's words were unprecedentedly devoid of reproach and criticism, but rather a little regretful and uneasy, as if he was annoyed that he had not listened to Zhukov and Vasilevsky to eliminate the Hodt cluster in advance.

"The way ...... now," Zhukov did not think about the reason for Stalin's change of mood, he smiled bitterly, "the Southwestern Front immediately stopped the offensive." to rescue the rearguard with the main force, and at the same time order all the units of the 21st and 24th armies of the river meandering division to launch a decisive attack to hold back the German troops in this area, as for the 2nd Guards Army......"

Stalin hurriedly picked up the conversation: "Let them attack Rostov at any cost." Forced Manstein to return to the rescue. ”

"Don't do that!" Zhukov couldn't help but shout in the microphone, "Comrade Vasilevsky told me that after sending out the 57th, 62nd, 64th and Guards armies, there is only one army group left around Yeremenko, and his current situation is too similar to Comrade Vatutin, in case there is an abnormal movement in the Kleist cluster......"

Although he did not directly explain anything, his depiction of the terrible scene made Stalin gasp - the thought that Yeremenko might suffer the same fate as Vatutin. His hand hung limply.

"Okay, so what do you say you should do?"

"Suspend the offensive and hold the command of the Stalingrad Front. Avoid giving the Kleist cluster a chance to take advantage of it. Zhukov explained, "and the order of the Bryansk Front to break through the enemy at all costs ......"

The other end of the microphone was silent for a long time, and finally said: "Let's do it according to your opinion......

Putting down the microphone, Zhukov only felt the cold sweat on his back welling up.

Nov. 14 at 5 a.m. On behalf of the General Staff of the Red Army, Zhukov issued an order: on the one hand, he ordered the southwest to quickly return to the back road. Blocking the German Fourth Panzer Army, on the other hand, instructing the Second Guards Army to quickly retreat and consolidate the existing front, and at the same time requiring the 21st and 24th armies, which were surrounded by the bend of the Don River, to launch a decisive attack and hold back the enemy forces in front of them.

This order completely destroyed the last chance of life for the besieged troops in the meandering part of the river: if they did not attack and stop the German troops, they could still support and retain a little more troops, but after the order to attack to the death was issued, the already scarred troops were completely turned into a swarm of moths fighting fire.

Because of the existence of this command. The Guards Army, which had managed to make a breakthrough at the cost of more than 4,000 men and more than 50 tanks, could only retreat in a huff, and the strength of the 57th, 62nd, and 64th armies began to shrink -- Yeremenko was sincerely frightened when he learned what had happened to Vatutin. His situation was almost exactly the same as that of Vatutin, and at this time he hated Rokossovsky even more, if the other side allocated the 4th Tank Army to him, why would he be so successful.

Vasilevsky, who was in charge of the Stalingrad Front, was speechless, and after reassuring Yeremenko and Khrushchev with kind words, he hurried to the headquarters of the Don Front, hoping to see what Rokossovsky could do to turn the situation around. As a result, the other party spread his hands, saying that he could not do anything about it, and even turned his words to criticize the chaotic command of the General Staff, and he was very emotional:

"Comrade Vasilevsky, it's not that I don't respect your operational deployment and plans, but the strategy you drew up in Moscow against the map is completely out of touch with reality -- it is well known that the Don River will freeze in mid-November, so why can't we wait until it is completely frozen before crossing the river to attack Rostov?" Rokossovsky scolded, "In order to grab a few days, our 21st Army was forced to build a pontoon bridge at the meander, and this alone is not enough, you have repeatedly accused me of being cowardly and conservative, urging me to invest in follow-up forces - well, I have lost half of the 24th Army." ”

Vasilevsky was speechless, could he still tell the other party that both he and Zhukov had requested that the attack would be completely frozen, that Comrade Stalin could not wait.

"And ......," Rokossovsky continued to fire, "even if my 21st and 24th armies were surrounded by the enemy, they would at least hold back more than 10 German divisions, and I still have the 28th Army and the 4th Tank Army to continue the attack, but why did the troops downstream put a few warships in?" We paid a lot of money to deal with them, and some bastards are to blame for this. ”

Of course, the bastard was openly scolding Yeremenko, and the Stalingrad Front had nothing to say to justify this, but Vasilevsky himself and Zhukov did not expect this hand of the Germans.

"In the end, even if we make the first two mistakes, they are still not the deadliest ......" Rokossovsky slapped the map, "why was Vatutin's back road being attacked by the Hort cluster?" How did the Bryansk Front pin down the enemy? Do they still have a sense of the big picture and a sense of responsibility? ”

Vasilevsky subconsciously replied: "Actually, we want to annihilate the Hort cluster first." ”

"Yes, why don't you stick to such a correct proposition? Think about it......" Rokossovsky gave the chief of the General Staff a tactical lesson, "if we take the lead in destroying the Hoth cluster, then the Don River will definitely be frozen in time, and the Southwestern Front, ours, and the Stalingrad Front will attack together from three directions, and it will be completely possible to crush the German troops on the Rostov side - such a good chance of success will be missed by you." ”

Vasilevsky was speechless, could he still tell the other side that these major decisions were made with Stalin's intervention? He could only smile bitterly.

Rokossovsky seemed to see some clues from the bitter smile of the chief of the General Staff, and finally sighed: "Let's suspend the offensive first, we must stabilize the front no matter what, at least our current losses are not particularly large, and we can completely make up for it by drawing up the reserves, and the subsequent actions must really be well planned, otherwise the situation is not optimistic." ”

In the early morning of November 15, one cold wind after another blew, the temperature dropped to minus 13 degrees, the entire Don River not only the upper reaches of the river, the meanders, and even the downstream areas were shrouded in snowflakes, the pressure of the Red Army's frantic attack on Rostov was finally relieved, Colonel Bernard, who had completed the task of fire control in the waters, led the fleet to sail downstream with satisfaction, and in the battles of these days, the Romanian Navy showed its face greatly, and the ammunition overcarried by the entire formation was almost all gone, and many sailors were almost exhausted, He did not know how many Russians he had killed, but conservatively estimated that there were at least 5,000 or more, and he was deeply satisfied with this, feeling that the fighting had never been so full.

Under the cover of snowflakes, the German troops, who had basically achieved the objectives of the campaign, began to withdraw in batches along the road they came, although there were still many Red Army units in the defensive points of the river meander, although many Red Army divisions only left the last shelf, as if they could be completely annihilated with a little more effort, but this was no longer the key task of the German army, and their biggest task was to retreat as soon as possible. Many desperate Red officers and soldiers were shocked to find that the Germans, who had been putting pressure on them from that afternoon, seemed to have evaporated from the world and disappeared without a trace. For the rest of their lives, they gasped for breath and were glad they had been saved.

By 4 p.m. on the 16th, the large-scale battle at the meanders of the Don was almost over, the sound of gunfire gradually calmed down, and poor Chistyakov, while leading the transfer of the army group headquarters, encountered a surprise attack by the Guard Flag Division, and in the overwhelming Himmler organ fire, this famous commander and guard were hit and killed - the Red Army officers and men who cleaned up the battlefield afterwards found their poor commander, and the Germans did not seem to realize what a worthy target they had killed on the battlefield.

Karpov's luck was a little better than Chistyakov, the core of the 27th Army was still retained, but the full strength level was less than 40% of the pre-war level, and the troops assigned to him were almost all wiped out, and at most he controlled 7 divisions in his hands, but after the battle, he could still gather less than 10,000 troops, and could only be formed into 2 divisions.

On November 17th, the battle of the Great River Meander came to an end, after 4 days and 3 nights of fierce fighting, under the strategic command of Manstein and the exquisite cooperation of the Holt group, the German Army Group South achieved a complete victory, most of the 21st and 12th armies of the Red Army were annihilated, the 24th Army was heavily damaged, the 6th, 57th, 62nd, and 64th armies were hit, and the 190,000 Red Army of the Don River meandered was finally left with more than 60,000 people, plus casualties in other directions, the Red Army was killed, wounded, and captured more than 300,000. Tank losses exceeded 500 units; Army Group South lost nearly 50,000 personnel (including more than 30,000 Germans) and 150 tanks (more than 80 Germans).

On November 19, the entire middle and upper reaches of the Don River froze, and the Germans retreated to the first line of defense around Rostov...... (To be continued.) )