"Why is it always me?" In the face of the surging German offensive frenzy, Rokossovsky, the commander of the Don Front, felt so aggrieved that he wanted to cry. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Four months earlier, in November, Manstein had launched the "Great River Meander" offensive, which had exhausted the Red Army with its delicate and flexible anatomical tactics, and the Don Front had been able to mount a one-and-a-half-army group in just a few days. Four months later, Army Group South again chose the defense zone where the Don Front was located in the direction of the main attack. Rokossovsky, who had learned the lesson last time, learned to be obedient this time, and the German army pressed all its main forces as soon as it began to attack in a big way, and also let the troops line up in a relatively compact defensive line, so that the enemy did not have the opportunity to intersperse at will, and in order to curb the German army's armored superiority, he even used the 4th Tank Army, which he had been pinching in the palm of his hand and was extremely precious.

But this time, the style of the Germans changed suddenly, not the dexterous attack of the last time, which was interspersed left and right, and roamed wantonly, but directly took out more than 1,000 tanks and 300,000 troops to carry out a frontal attack, and crushed them mercilessly with a steam roller-like posture. This time, Manstein did not bother to intersperse at all, but let the two armored divisions of Hube and Dietrich divide their troops to attack on the left and the right, and led the troops to circle in a large circle and then encircled the main force of the Don Front, while Rokossovsky's policies of "pressing the main force" and "holding heavy troops" just achieved the encirclement of the German army. If last time the Germans were nimble and light waltzes, this time it's a rampage of rugby.

To tell the truth, this offensive routine is much simpler than during the Battle of Dahequbu, as long as you have taken two days of staff classes and learned a little tactics, you can understand it, and it is not complicated at all. Rokossovsky was knocked unconscious on the first day by Manstein's surprise attack at noon, and by the next morning he understood, but the question was that it was one thing to judge correctly, and it was another to be able to block it. He knew where the Germans were going to fight, and he had sent troops to defend them, but he could only watch the enemy flex his might in front of him, and there was nothing he could do - because the difference in the quality of the troops was too great.

The Don Front had the 1st Guards Army, the 21st, 24th, 63rd, and 66th armies and the 4th Tank Army before the Battle of the Great River Curve, with a total strength of about 350,000 (dissatisfied), after the Battle of the Great River Curve, the 21st Army was heavily damaged and almost the entire army was annihilated, the 24th Army was hit by a medium wound, losing half of its troops, and the total strength of the All Front Army dropped to more than 250,000, which was the weakest of the three front armies (Southwest, Don, Stalingrad) on the Central Route.

In order to strengthen the strength of the Don Front, the base camp has done everything possible to replenish its strength in the past four months: the number of the 21st Army has been withdrawn, and the remaining forces plus newly recruited recruits have been enriched to the 24th Army. Zhukov and Vasilevsky formed the new 69th Army with forces drawn from the Steppe Military District, Central Asia, the Far East, and other directions, and joined the Don Front, while also supplementing the 1st Guards Army, the 63rd and 66th Armies, and the 4th Tank Army. By the time the "Spring Awakening" campaign was launched, the strength of the Don Front had once again recovered to the size of about 400,000 troops in five infantry armies and one tank army.

Although the number of troops was higher than four months ago, Rokossovsky knew what the new recruits were, and there were middle-aged uncles in their 40s or even approaching 50s, or children in their early 17s, with yellow muscles and skinny faces, who looked even less tall than the Mosin-Nagant rifle (1.67 meters with bayonet length), and there were very few young men in their 20s and in the prime of life. He complained to the base camp, but was told that it was okay, at least the men who came, and there were some troops in the rear that even female soldiers were recruiting. In order to strengthen his own strength, he transferred some veterans and officers from the 63rd and 66th group armies, which were relatively well, to supplement the two new group armies, the 24th and 69th armies, and worked hard to improve their training level and combat quality.

With the arrival of the cold winter, the climate became unsuitable for fighting, and the contact between the Soviet and German armies decreased day by day, Rokossovsky was simply overjoyed, and seized this precious time to carry out military training, hoping that the time for another exchange of fire would be as late as possible. Although the base camp repeatedly warned him that the Germans were likely to attack in the near future, he still had illusions that he could resist the first wave of the German attack by the main force - not to repel and defeat the Germans, but to beg the Germans to think that the Don Front was "not enough oil and water" and "too hard to bone" and to shift the direction of the main attack elsewhere.

But he didn't expect Manstein to launch a full-front attack at noon, nor did he expect the Germans to take out 1,000 tanks and 300,000 troops to attack at once, and he never expected that the Germans would make up their minds to swallow him in one gulp, and they used the simplest pincer offensive to surround the troops he had finally recovered.

Zhukov, who rushed to the front line and sat in Stalingrad to coordinate the war between all parties, frowned and listened to Rokossovsky's cry, and asked worriedly: "You said that the Germans surrounded the Don Front?" ”

"Not yet, but it's very dangerous, the front army has a total of 5 infantry armies and 1 tank army, and now the 4th tank army has been disabled, and there are a total of 24, 63, and 69 armies trapped in it." Rokossovsky cried with a sad face, "The Germans put all their strength on our front, and yesterday the tank army encountered 3 Tiger heavy armored battalions and 700 No. 4 tanks, and it was not able to defeat ...... at all"

"How much did we lose?"

"About 400-500 tanks."

"The result?"

“2…… More than 200 of them. ”

"So many?" Zhukov asked suspiciously, "How many Tiger Styles are there?" ”

"More than 40 cars." This time Rokossovsky did not hesitate and answered directly.

In fact, Rokossovsky's report on the situation was not accurate, and after a day of fierce fighting yesterday, the 4th Tank Army lost 567 tanks (destroyers), while the Germans lost only 139 tanks (assault guns), of which less than 30 were Tigers. The statistics in Manstein's hands were definitely more accurate than Rokossovsky's, because all the wreckage on the battlefield was waiting for the Germans, and they could be completely grasped as soon as they were counted. After rough statistics, the field repair team believes that at least 50% of German tanks and 60% of T-34s can be reused, and as for those Russian light tanks, they don't bother to repair them and only recycle them.

The reason why the T-34 has a higher recovery rate than the German tank is that the thinking of the Ministry of Armaments has changed, and the newly recovered T-34 has been transferred to the production of Raider destroyers - that is, only a complete chassis is needed. Of course, the large losses of the Red Army's tanks were not entirely due to the German armored forces, but also the Luftwaffe's ground attack aircraft units, which alone killed 6 tanks and 4 anti-tank guns.

"The combat effectiveness of the tank troops is still not good." Zhukov sighed, "I brought 100 new T-43 tanks with me this time, so let's replenish them all to you first." ”

“t-43？ New tanks? Rokossovsky was overjoyed and asked, "Can you deal with the Tiger?" ”

"Can't! They are just an upgrade of the T-34, with thickened frontal armor to 75mm/55 degrees, a frontal turret of 90mm, and the gun remains the same. Zhukov thought for a moment and came to a conclusion, "It's not good to deal with the Tiger style, but it can overwhelm No. 4H." ”

"What's the use of that?" Rokossovsky spread his hands and said dissatisfiedly, "I can deal with No. 4 with enough T-34, and now the key problem is the Tiger, this thing is too difficult to deal with." In addition, half of the tanks lost this time were light tanks, and they were very ineffective. ”

"The rear light tanks have all been discontinued, and the future will be T-34 or T-43, as for the tank that can deal with the Tiger I also want to, but unfortunately there is no now, not only we don't, but the United Kingdom and the United States also don't, they are still very distressed." Zhukov said helplessly, "I drew the 11th Guards Heavy Tank Brigade from the base camp reserve to Comrade Tyulenev, equipping it with a full 60 brand-new KV-3 tanks, and as a result, all of them were reimbursed in Transcaucasia." ”

"It's not going to go on like this! The Germans have more and more tanks, and their performance is not bad, and after taking the Middle East, there is no shortage of fuel now. Rokossovsky sighed helplessly and asked in a low voice, "Baku lost Comrade Stalin and didn't get angry?" I look at Comrade Tyulenev......"

Zhukov's eyes narrowed: "How is this possible?" But what's the use of firing tops? The battle has to go on. Besides, is the loss of Transcaucasia the responsibility of Comrade Tyulenev alone? ”

"This ...... You see...... I think...... Isn't it ......" Rokossovsky opened his mouth in a hurry, but he didn't get to the point for a long time.

"Let's get straight to the point." Zhukov sighed, "What is there between you and me that we can't communicate honestly?" The difficult tasks I gave you at the beginning have been completed, and I am sure that you will not be so difficult if it is not a particularly big problem. ”

During the defense of Moscow, Rokossovsky led the 16th Army on Zhukov's orders to desperately defend the area around Volokrams. Now that Zhukov is rehashing the old words, it is clear that it will not be difficult for Rokossovsky. The latter glanced at Zhukov gratefully, the anxious heart finally calmed down a little, he was now afraid that the other party would come up and find trouble for himself, with this sentence as the foundation, the rest of the words will be easy to say.

"Before the German encirclement is formed, can I lead my troops to retreat first?" Rokossovsky was silent for a long time, and finally made up his mind and squeezed out this sentence. (To be continued.) )