An 88mm anti-aircraft gun covered with camouflage was placed in a bush, the clutter of branches made him look like he was in harmony with his surroundings, the artillerymen struggled to shake the high and low machines, the experienced sergeant major lay in the snowdrift, observed the approximate distance of the Russian tank on the opposite side with binoculars, and when the other side drove near a destroyed Opel truck, he suddenly ordered: "Ruler 1250 meters, tungsten core armor-piercing shell!" ”

The wreck of this truck had been abandoned in the distance a few days earlier, and the sergeant major had deliberately measured the distance as a reference for quickly calibrating the distance in battle, but he did not expect it to come in handy so quickly. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

With a "clang", a shell was quickly pushed into the chamber and then fired.

The artillerymen did not look to see if they had hit, and again stuffed an armor-piercing shell, and the second order followed: "4 meters to the left!" ”

With a "clang", another shell was fired, "1 meter to the right!" The sergeant shouted for them to fire the third shell quickly, because he noticed that the other party had noticed his presence, and the 85mm tank gun was already spinning, and it was possible to fire the next second.

With a "boom", the third shell hit the hull accurately, destroying the IS-1 tank, and the Red Army infantry following the tank caused a commotion, and just as the gunners were celebrating their success, the sergeant major, whose face had changed drastically, suddenly shouted the command to "lie down" and was the first to lie down on his head in the whole snowdrift, and everyone lay down nearby, whether it was a snowdrift or a mud pile or something else - even a soak of horse manure had to lie down.

With a "boom", a grenade exploded behind them, and the scattered shrapnel hit the 88mm anti-aircraft gun, but there was no problem with the personnel, and everyone smiled gratefully at the sergeant major, only to find that he had already rushed to another preset position more than 200 meters away - there was also an 88mm anti-aircraft gun! Everyone immediately followed.

Yesterday evening they had a total of 2 artillery crews, each responsible for 2 anti-aircraft guns, after destroying more than 10 tanks and self-propelled guns, under the enemy's retaliation, there was a reduction in personnel, and finally the two artillery guns were combined into one to form a mixed artillery group, but still continued to be responsible for two artillery guns. Relying on such a tenacious way of fighting, they continued to hold the gate of the forward position.

This was only a simple microcosm of the fierce fighting on the Central Asian front, and from the beginning of December, the entire Red Army Front, with nearly 500,000 troops, began to pour in the direction of Central Asia, and General Schellner built a fortress tactic rooted in the Central Asian oasis based on a predetermined strategy.

In the cold winter of 1941, the German army, which had failed to attack Moscow, was attacked by a massive Soviet counteroffensive in the midst of heavy snowfall, and the Soviet tank and cavalry units relied on their own mobility to repeatedly advance westward and detour back to the retreating German flanks to form an encirclement. In order to prevent the collapse of the whole line and a repetition of Napoleon's defeat and retreat, Hitler had no choice but to order the soldiers not to take half a step back, but to turn to resistance on the spot, and to deploy troops around some strategic points and towns to form hedgehog-like "fortresses".

The most well-known successful use of fortress tactics was the two encirclements of Demiyansk and Holm. The former lasted for more than 4 months, and the latter lasted for more than 3 months, and finally supported until reinforcements from their own side came to relieve the siege. Of course, there were also failures, and the 300,000 men and horses of the Sixth Army in the Stalingrad encirclement failed to hold on to the end and finally ended completely, and finally the Third Reich was completely finished.

Fortress tactics, like Hitler's "no retreat" strategy, have been controversial in history, but in Hoffman's eyes, it would be biased to simply affirm or deny them. The troops who carry out this tactic will definitely be surrounded, but because of the internal battle, they can often contain the Soviet troops who are several times larger than their own, which is much better than letting the troops sink and retreat under the pursuit of the bitter cold and superior enemy forces, and it can also cover the rest of the own troops who have retreated to the rear, so that they can make a comeback. According to Hoffman, whether this tactic is good or bad depends on one point -- whether the encirclement can be held and how much damage it can inflict on the Red Army.

As early as November, senior commanders, including Rommel, warned the troops of the risk of encirclement, and the General Staff proposed several solutions -- a transfer plan, a troop increase plan, a retreat plan, and so on, but Hoffman finally chose to hold on to the position. Not only that, but he also hooked Rommel under the guise of "Project SEAL" and replaced the commander of Army Group Center with Schellner.

What made everyone even more disappointing, in addition to replenishing some of the personnel of the Central Asian Group Army, the Führer did not agree to other reinforcements to join, but only emphasized the need to hoard supplies and build a defensive line, as if he believed that the 100,000 men and horses of the Central Asian Group Army would definitely be able to win. Everyone sweated at this decision, and even turned around to persuade Schellner to find more reinforcements, and even more amazing things happened, Schellner used the returning transport plane to transfer one division and one brigade of paratroopers (unarmed) out of the encirclement and deploy them in the relatively safer area on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. The total strength of the 100,000 troops in the core belt of the Central Asian oasis has been reduced to just over 85,000.

Then, under Hoffman's orders, all transport planes were running at full capacity to deliver supplies and provisions, stockpiling enough supplies for four months according to the standard of 100,000 people. Fearing that this would not be enough, Schellner bought a large amount of livestock and agricultural products from the Central Asian independence forces, and urgently recruited Central Asian people to help the troops build a defensive line.

Is Schellner really going to stay in the Central Asian encirclement for 4 months? Everyone has a lot of question marks about this, but now that the Führer's prestige is in full swing and the front-line commanders are the same, everyone can only hope that the strategy will be effective. In desperation, Zeitzler went to the commander of the Eastern Front, Manstein, to communicate, hoping that the latter would persuade the Führer to change this risky strategy, but the other party actually suggested: "I don't think it is necessary for the time being, but I propose to mobilize 2 panzer divisions, 1 panzergrenadier division and enough ships on the west coast of the Caspian Sea......

"You're going to have them form an emergency battle group to reinforce them in a critical moment?"

"No, I want these forces to be a deterrent, and I think the Russians are not just targeting 8 or 90,000 people in the encirclement."

"Well, I hope you're right."

Hoffmann, of course, was not self-willed, not only did he delve into the successes and failures of the battles of the Demiyansk and Kholm encirclements - now that he was in power, he had access to all official sources, which was more reliable than he would have relied on archives and the memories of the people in later generations, but he also had his own unique views on the eventual destruction of the Sixth Army under Stalingrad.

He believed that the Sixth Army would not have been destroyed so quickly had it not been for the command of the troops by General Paulus and the one-sided execution of Hitler's orders; And if the encircled German army had not been 300,000 - assuming 100,000 were surrounded and 200,000 had escaped from the encirclement, Germany would still have had a chance to regain in 1943. The success of the previous encirclement battles gave Hitler blind confidence, coupled with Goering's boasting of the air force's ability on the sidelines, which made him think that Paulus could hold on, but in fact the German airlift force was limited, and the supply of about 100,000 troops was already the limit -- after 300,000 troops were surrounded, they could only get 100,000 supplies. The whole battle was bad because of the weak logistical capabilities and blind self-confidence of the German army.

Schellner was surprised at first when he heard Hoffmann's lofty argument - Hoffmann could not use the Battle of Stalingrad as an example, but he could learn from the experience of the Demiyansk encirclement, and when he thought about it carefully, he felt that it made perfect sense: if one person's supplies were divided between two people, none of them would survive, and the overall combat effectiveness would not be as good as one person; The supply of three people was handed over to two people, and with Germany's tactical literacy, it was completely able to support the Red Army to the point of bleeding dry. Moreover, the German army is now in an advantageous situation, and the reason why it does not send troops to Central Asia is not because there are no troops to send, but because the terrain and climate are not suitable for sending large troops, and you must know that the most capable SS Panzer Army is still resting in the rear - there are 5 Type 1943 Panzer Divisions and 2 Panzergrenadier Divisions.

"The reason why I want to fight such an arduous defensive battle in Central Asia is that the root cause is the exchange of tactics, and now the Soviet army has given up its attempt to engage in a large-scale field battle with our army in the vast wilderness, and it is impossible to find the enemy's heavy army group in the middle of the advance, and it is impossible for our army to really rush forward desperately, and the disjointed taste of front and rear is very uncomfortable. Moreover, the faster the advance, the sparser the density of forces in the area, and the easier it was for the Soviets to counterattack, so the advance in the center could only be carried out in a steady manner......

Forcibly attacking large cities with strong fortresses and fighting street battles by the Soviet army is also an unbearable high price, neither Moscow nor Stalingrad can be attacked for the time being, and at most they can find a way to solve the small and medium-sized cities of the central battlefield. After considering the pros and cons, I have chosen you to command such a defensive battle, hoping to use this magnet to attract the Red Army to their deaths, exhaust their last mobile forces, and at the same time create conditions for an offensive on all fronts in the spring. ”

"As you wish, Führer, I will hold out until the last shot." Schellner saluted respectfully, "Let them come." ”

"I will provide you with adequate air support." Hoffman paused, "You are free to choose the defensive front and the way you maneuver as you see fit, I will not interfere with your specific tactical command, and there is nothing that must be entrenched." ”

"Understood."