The vanguard of the Guards Banner Corps led by Second Lieutenant Ribbentrop marched all the way, successfully broke through the posts of the Red Army Yeroshenko and Joseph, and then advanced, and with the support of a company of Panzergrenadiers, the tank platoon skillfully penetrated the junction of the two Red Army battalions and routed the Red Army that tried to resist, opening the way for the 1st Panzer Battalion to advance.

The eldest son of the German foreign minister did not hide comfortably in Berlin to enjoy his happiness, nor did he try to find a more leisurely position to protect himself or gild (although the high-level people welcomed this handsome man as his aide-de-camp), but like the children of many high-ranking generals, he directly threw himself into the front-line fighting, regardless of his age, he was already a veteran who had been wounded and made meritorious service several times, and he also had full and complete prestige in the platoon, and this prestige was not established by family background and status but by command ability and desperate spirit, many times everyone will ignore the prominent family name and treat it as a caring and trustworthy big brother. Although the number of jokes about Minister Ribbentrop in the army usually ranks second after Goering, and Rudolf Ribbentrop himself has some complaints about his father's practices, the Flag Guard, especially his battalion, is not much of a joke about the Foreign Minister out of respect, unlike other units.

By the time the first news of the engagement with the Germans reached the ears of Chistyakov, commander of the 21st Army, 15 minutes had passed for the German armored vanguard, which was a relatively quick report, and the other reports were even more sluggish. In the early hours of the morning, Chistyakov received a large amount of information that had been sent by various units in a panic, and it was not only full of errors and omissions, but also contradictory to each other. A careful study of this information will reveal that none of this information can withstand scrutiny, and it is obviously nonsense and aimless ignorance under the control of Emperor Zhang, and the staff officers in the command headquarters are deeply troubled by this. In the end, he could only look at his commander, hoping that he would be able to accurately judge the situation. Chistyakov wanted to call these division commanders one by one to wake them up, but after all, he was a human being, not a god, and he really couldn't find out the situation in the dark light, and now the unit commanders who could contact him at the first time and give a normal reply were already considered to be the best, and many people did not react until 2 hours after the German offensive was launched.

In desperation, the order was brought forward to 5 o'clock after the scheduled time of the attack. At about 3 a.m., Chistyakov issued a second order to the entire army: all divisions were required to guard their camps, quickly ascertain the situation and losses against the enemy, and deal with them in a unified manner after dawn......

Of course, the board cannot be completely hit on the divisional officer. Because they also completely relied on the reports of the officers at the grassroots level, judging from the actual battle situation, the news sent from all sides could not be miscalculated -- after the two armored spearheads took the lead in breaking through the gap, the gap was not widened as in previous operations. Instead, it goes straight to the depth. Therefore, for the Red Army units blocking the German offensive route, as long as they get out of the way and flee to both sides, the German armored forces will no longer entangle and pursue them, but if they flee in depth, they will feel that they are being chased and killed all the way. This different direction of escape and the results of the response will cause obvious mental pressure and misunderstandings for the parties: the troops hiding on both sides think that the attack on them is only a small German force, and the number of troops is not large; The troops fleeing into depth believed that the enemy was not only numerous but also fierce, and could not stop and breathe. That is why the report sent to Chistyakov is so full of contradictions and contradictions. But only one result was the same, once they tried to recapture their original positions. The German armor that followed would continue to tear open the gaps.

Due to the short window of time for the elimination of the 21st Army, Manstein's offensive strategy developed by his troops was not a complete and classic encirclement tactic. Not only would that take too long, but it would also be too risky -- as long as the Red Army in the encirclement was huddled together, it would not be able to gnaw down in a short time, and as long as they held out for the first few days, the subsequent Red Army reinforcements would continue to advance over the frozen Don River, and then they would be able to counter-encircle the German army. Therefore, the prescription he prescribed to the troops was to penetrate in depth and on a large scale, and the whole process of tactical execution was as if it had drawn deep knife marks on a piece of bread, and when these traces were still retained on it, the cake still looked like a whole, but as long as the edges were pulled in all directions, the whole cake would soon shatter into pieces -- as long as the troops were deployed in place and spread out to the surroundings together, the lines hidden in the gaps between the troops would quickly turn into deadly thin nets.

Time passed in confusion minute by minute, and it is strange that because they did not receive any warning or notice, the troops of the 24th Army on the pontoon bridge of the Don River were still crossing the river in a steady stream, while the three divisions of the 21st Army left behind in the rear were still advancing according to the original plan, not that Chistyakov was indifferent to this, but that he believed that if these troops in the rear were attacked, they would inevitably report to the command of the 24th Army, and the way to deal with it was either to speed up the advance or suspend the advance, and in short, there would be a correct response, anyway, he has handed over control of the pontoon bridge, and of course the 24th Army, which continues to advance, should worry about whether the follow-up roads are smooth or not.

From 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock, more and more troops reported that there were German troops attacking them, not only German tanks, but also a large number of German infantry, but there was still a big joke in reporting the number of enemy troops, and the staff officers counted the number and number of the troops reported and found that there were more than 100 divisions attacking the 21st Army. If Manstein had attacked him with 100 divisions, it would have been as dense as Moscow's Red Square - is this possible?

Chistyakov felt that it was becoming more and more difficult for him to control his troops, and he walked around the headquarters uneasily, like an angry lion, with the guns and artillery of the divisions and regiments in the distance, obviously in a dense exchange of fire, and the situation on the battlefield was chaotic, but no one could fully and comprehensively tell him the actual situation.

"Comrade Karpov sent a telegram asking for instructions on whether the offensive should still be launched according to the plan?"

Chistyakov hesitated for a few minutes, but finally said firmly: "The front-line troops will attack at 5 o'clock as originally planned. ”

Buchin advised him: "Don't you reconsider the postponement?" Now that the situation is so chaotic, a forced offensive could exacerbate the chaos. ”

"I want to do that too, but it's a pity that the enemy won't give us time to calmly respond and adjust." Chistyakov sighed and explained his reasons for insisting on the offensive, "If only small German forces have penetrated in, then it will be harmless for our army to launch an attack, because it will be easy to annihilate these forces if the enemy situation is ascertained after daybreak; If the enemy is attacking in large forces, then the number and defense of the enemy in front of us will be greatly weakened, and even if we cannot break through the enemy's defense system, it can disrupt his normal deployment, which will buy us time for subsequent adjustments. ”

Buchin thought about it for a moment, and decided that what he said was also reasonable, so he stopped persuading. Until now, the two did not realize that Manstein's goal was the entire 21st Army, let alone that they had fallen into the encirclement of the German army, and they only regarded the night attack as a harassment and attack by the Germans - they did not even prepare artillery fire, what kind of large-scale attack?

Manstein's trick is actually very risky, because although he dispatched 160,000 troops, the 21st Army plus the subsequent 24th Army also had close to 140,000 troops, and the German army did not have much advantage in terms of strength, and because the German army took the initiative to intersperse at night, the troops in turn were actually surrounded by the Red Army. Even just concentrating forces to encircle and intercept the two steel spearheads at all costs was enough to give Manstein a headache, so everyone from Heinrich and Weller to the end of the sweat was sweaty about it.

Manstein smiled and comforted everyone: "You have to think of more unique ways to fight the Russians, as far as my perception of the Russians is concerned, their command system is rigid and mechanical, there is no clear order from above, and the junior officers do not know what to do, and I witnessed too many such stories in the Kiev encirclement last year." No matter how many troops are defeated, as long as the command system still exists, any Red Army unit can continue to resist stubbornly, but as long as the command structure is defeated, the entire unit will not know what to do as if it has lost its soul, and in particular, the command centers at the army and division levels are of extraordinary significance to the Red Army, and without them, the troops under them would not have fought at all. ”

The crowd agreed with Manstein's view that there were more than 600,000 troops in the entire Kiev encirclement, and the quality and full strength of the soldiers were even higher than those of the current Red Army units, but because the senior officers either did not understand the general situation and commanded indiscriminately, or because they were pessimistic and disappointed about the future, more than 600,000 people were taken prisoner in a daze, and the price paid by the Germans was almost insignificant in comparison - so Stalin's purge policy was still very effective.

Although Manstein looked confident, it was not until the troops sent over the exact position and engagement that the tension in the command was eased, and from the report, the divisions were advancing well, and the 16th Panzer Division and the Guard Flag Division, which were at the head of the assault, even ran faster than scheduled.

"You see, I'm not wrong." Manstein laughed, "Don't think of the Russians as strong, in night battles, melees, and close combat, Ivan's advantages may not be brought into play." (To be continued.) )