On the afternoon of 6 November, the vanguard of the German army rushed into Kuibyshev and was greeted only by ruins and scorched earth; The next morning, the second city on the right bank of the Volga, Togliatti, fell into German hands, and it was basically a scorched earth. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

By this time, the temperature had begun to drop, and the German troops who could not find a house had to huddle in field tents.

The atmosphere in the rear headquarters has always been very tense, after the 4th Army rushed over, everyone closely watched the enemy situation in front, and once the report was surrounded, they would quickly launch a rescue, and even the reinforcement batches and action routes were ready, but the battle report sent back was very simple, but the content caused a stunned command center: "Our army has fully occupied the scorched earth of Kuibyshev and Togliatti......"

"The Russians have escalated from the fortified wilderness to the scorched earth resistance?" Zeitzler quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time sarcastically said in a disdainful tone, "There is really a way, it is really good, Stalin should give them a good medal, such as the Kutuzov Medal......"

"Report, the Order of Kutuzov already exists, it is a new medal established by the enemy half a year ago, and according to the regulations, it is mainly awarded to military chiefs and commanders who are good at planning and carrying out the campaigns of the front and group armies or skillfully avoiding the enemy's surprise attack and smoothly carrying out the counter-assault......" A puzzled young staff officer continued.

With a distracted wave of his hand, Weix stopped the somewhat stunned young staff officer from continuing, and asked, "What are you going to do now?" ”

"The central part is in full swing, the 4th Army expands the occupied zone, and the 3rd Army crosses the river from Ulyanovsk to occupy Dimitrovgrad on the right bank; Ask Marshal Hoth's Panzer Army to cross the river to fight Pugachev; The forces of the Kazan and Saratov flanks did not move for the time being. Zeitzler glanced at the map and uttered a series of commands.

"How much distance?"

"The first set is 150-200 kilometers, and the units will launch a reconnaissance offensive with companies and battalions as units, and fight until the autumn slurry turning period, and the main force should not move lightly, and still remain in the right-bank area."

Modell looked at the map thoughtfully, according to Zeitzler's idea, the middle road had to protrude at least another 200 kilometers, and this giant protrusion would become more sharp, elongated, and unsightly. Generally speaking, fronts that don't look good on the map are more likely to be difficult to defend against. But if you don't fight like this, you can't do it, the Red Army is not at war with you at all, they only have one word - flee! Without pushing over, the enemy slipped faster, and finally killed nearly 100,000 Red Army troops on the left bank, and even more desperately on the right bank, and even the ghost shadow could not be seen.

After thinking about it for a while, he gave up on other ideas - now that the movements and tactics of the Red Army could not be thought through, it would be in vain to think more, and the only good news was that the traps and encirclements seemed to be largely gone.

"Report, the Air Force has found traces of the enemy's retreat, which is about 120 kilometers away from our army, do you need to let the troops accelerate the pursuit?"

Zeitzler shook his head, and then looked at the other officers with inquiring eyes, and the others shook their heads in agreement.

"Let the air force delay and disrupt the enemy's retreat as much as possible, and the ground forces will still advance as planned."

Sch Montt, the quartermaster of the Eastern Front, was worried: "This will not work, after occupying the area on the left bank of the Volga, our army's transportation line has been extended by nearly 250 kilometers, and if the enemy army continues to implement the policy of clearing the fields and scorched earth in the right bank area, our army's supply routes will be extended by a total of 400-500 kilometers, and winter is coming soon, I am afraid it will ......."

Although the Germans never expected to be able to capture supplies such as supplies or food from the Soviet army, it would be too fragile to advance 500 kilometers in a short period of time, especially now that there is a Volga River in the middle, connecting both banks by pontoon bridges, and transporting personnel and equipment, as well as a large amount of supplies. At present, the German army is not short of supplies, and there is sufficient oil and grain -- oil production in the Middle East is increasing rapidly, and the autumn harvest in the eastern countries is basically over, and all sides are full of grain. The ammunition was largely unused due to the enemy's rapid retreat and lack of engagement, but once the transport route was cut off, there would be serious problems in the future, and Schmunt's fears were not groundless.

"What about the Volga glaciation?"

Another staff officer quickly reported: "Generally, there will be an ice period from the end of November to the end of March of the following year, but the initial ice layer is relatively thin, and it is not until at least mid-December that the ice can support the movement of personnel and ordinary vehicles. In addition, the Russian authorities have built a large number of reservoirs in various places, and in the past, they would regulate the flow of water through reservoirs to properly buffer the effects of the ice age, so it is difficult to say this year......

Everyone gasped, this is a very dangerous information, assuming that the German army used the ice age to transport supplies and personnel, the Red Army may "replace the army with water" and suddenly release water to cause heavy casualties, the Volga River is so long, it is impossible to control all the reservoirs or tributaries, and it is impossible to search every place closely.

"I made a report to the Führer, reported on the problems we were facing, and put forward the following specific solutions: I hope that the main force of transport planes supporting Marshal Rommel can be transferred back to the central battlefield as an emergency material transportation reserve, but it is not necessarily put into operation now, which is one of them; It is required to urgently allocate a batch of S-boats and landing craft from the country and the south through railway transportation to facilitate the movement of materials on both sides of the strait, and to hold on in case the pontoon bridge is destroyed. The engineering units stepped up the repair of the bridges, especially the railway bridges, which were the top priority. "The situation in the right bank area is unknown, and before the end of the ploughing period, it is planned to deploy no more than 250,000 troops at most, and be ready to deal with all contingencies." ”

"You're worried that the enemy will eat us?" Hult asked curiously.

"No, I'm afraid they won't come." Zeitzler smiled, "If I press 500,000 in one breath, the enemy will definitely not have such a good appetite, but I am afraid that it will shrink faster, but 250,000 is not necessarily, this bright decoy may make the enemy dare to pounce, so that we can fight the enemy in early winter." ”

"What if you don't come?"

"Then delay until the pulp period before acting, as for the rest, only God knows......"

The three commanders, Weix, Modell, and Hort, exchanged views, and held that the method of the chief of the general staff was still positive and prudent, and that it was better to first consider luring the Red Army out to fight a dozen, the south, and south flanks of the north and south, and the right-bank salient in the center, which was better than staring at the present and not finding anyone.

On 8 October, the 2nd Army crossed the river one after another, and by 15 October, when the turning period gradually began, the Germans had passed through the area of three pontoon bridges, with a total of nearly 250,000 men. The command waited with hope for the Red Army to rush forward, but to everyone's great disappointment, reconnaissance showed that the enemy was still retreating rapidly, and had no intention of rushing over to engage in battle. In addition to scorched earth and scorched earth, the banks of the once vibrant Volga River seem to have become a no-man's land overnight.

The Volga River basin was originally a relatively developed industrial area of the Soviet Union, but when the experts examined the industrial wreckage, they found that a lot of industrial equipment had been dismantled in advance, and some of the equipment that could not be dismantled had been set on fire or exploded in an organized and step-by-step manner, and the destruction was quite complete, not like a temporary action. Judging from the traces on the scene, many of the operations were carried out half a month or even a month ago - at that time, even the plan for the Battle of Dawn had not yet been discussed.

"What a terrible opponent, the Emperor Napoleon did not lose unjustly at all, and the Russians have almost infinite depth ......," Weikes lamented on the plane on the battlefield patrol, although the 500-kilometer territory on both sides of the Volga River is a huge piece of land, but on the huge territory of the Soviet Union, it is only a very small one.

The top brass of the Russian Liberation Army cursed the sabotage of the Red Army, believing it to be a loser, but it could only be scolded, and Stalin could not hear it anyway.

"Was it Stalin or the General Staff of the Red Army who was directing the battle?"

"Does it make a difference? Can there still be a purely military line that is not at the mercy of Stalin? ”

"One thing is certain, at least we occupy the vital banks of the Volga, and we can calmly cope with wherever the center of gravity of the front shifts."

"One thing is even more certain, we are in no man's land. At the beginning, the 600,000 army only had to hold the small place of the central front, but now suddenly the Russians have forced you to give you 400,000 square kilometers, which is almost the size of Poland, and the density of troops has suddenly decreased. ”

"Some second-line troops can be appropriately deployed, such as an additional 200,000."

"Of course you can, if you have the means to supply another 200,000 people, otherwise everyone will starve and freeze ......."

At the operational situation analysis meeting at the headquarters, a cadre of staff officers expressed their views and opinions on the next operational strategy. Although the "success" even exceeded the operational objectives of the second phase of the Dawning Campaign, it only referred to the area occupied by the map, and the main forces of the Red Army, which the Germans were bent on catching and killing, disappeared completely, and the number of enemy troops destroyed only increased to less than 120,000, and the number of civilians encountered was less than 300,000.

This figure is lower than the Red Army's own statistics, because in the process of troop transfer and retreat, those demoralized, mainly recruits, often break up or mutiny, and many middle-aged uncles and young soldiers who leave the army immediately take off their uniforms and become civilians in the eyes of the Germans, and then flock to ask for food - they have heard all kinds of rumors that the Germans do not kill civilians at present, and instead of killing them, they are moving to the countries of the East or New Russia to settle down, People with active brains are even thinking about going to St. Petersburg to eat with the troops.

"The Führer's latest order: the army will suspend the offensive during the turning period and make every effort to transport Russian civilians to the rear. Stalin wanted no man's land so much, we will fulfill him, the banks of the Volga will be completely cleaned up, and 500 km of isolation will be brought! (To be continued.) )