PS: Modified.

"First of all, we must attach importance to this letter, in terms of hierarchy and channels, it is inappropriate for Comrade Volsky to write to me directly, because his direct leader is the commander of the 51st Army, Trufanov, and the campaign leader is Comrade Yeremenko, and he bypasses them and directly reports problems to me, which shows that some of our comrades have a rude and impatient attitude towards the opinions of their subordinates; Secondly, we should not attach too much importance to this matter, after all, this is only a letter from a army commander, and there are 5 commanders of the front armies, more than 20 commanders of the group armies, and as many as 60 commanders at the army level who participated in this campaign, which is a minority in terms of the number of people -- it is completely normal for there to be different voices, and there are still differences of opinion between me and Comrades Konstantin and Vasilevsky......

Zhukov could only smile bitterly at this: Stalin said that he should not attach too much importance to this matter, because it was only the opinion of one-sixtieth of the army commanders, and on the other hand, he said that it was normal for Volysky to reflect the problem, and he also said that he should not "have a rough and impatient attitude" towards his subordinates, which was clearly a beating on Yeremenko, but in fact he accused himself and Vasilevsky of "jumping at the touch of a button", and Comrade Stalin also frankly admitted that there were "different opinions" between himself and his two main subordinates -- this is all true. But the question is, when there are different opinions, it is your opinions that are implemented in the end, okay?

Vasilevsky was also very frustrated -- after a year and a half of the war, he thought that his nerves were tenacious enough, but he did not expect that the top level would still be so lifeless, and everyone was vying for credit and gesture when they won the battle, and when they lost the war, they did everything possible to shirk their responsibilities and clear themselves. When encountering major difficulties and uncertain prospects, we either tried to figure out Comrade Stalin's opinions, or we tried our best to evade the questions and give ambiguous answers. If this continues, when will the situation be truly reversed?

Stalin didn't seem to notice the strange expressions of his two men, and still said to himself: "...... I will personally exchange views with Comrade Volysky in this letter. It is hoped that the comrades in charge of the command of the campaign will not be affected by this; At the same time, I agree with Comrade Timoshenko's opinion and ask Comrade Zhukov and the General Staff to consider revising the 'Uranus' battle plan -- our goal is still Rostov-on-Don, but our tactics and guidelines should be significantly adjusted. ”

Having said that, Zhukov and Vasilevsky could only promise at the same time.

While the Reds were licking their wounds and discussing their next steps, Manstein was also actively adjusting his thinking for the next battle, and Heinrich finally had the time and energy to revise Manstein's slightly crude defense plan. Using the way he most wanted to build the position and lay out the defensive line, Manstein was happy and relaxed, and as soon as he was happy, he became the shopkeeper. However, he did not forget to report the situation to Berlin as soon as possible, and Hoffmann spoke highly of this high-rate battle report, and not only commended and commended the personnel of Army Group South for their meritorious service in this operation at Manstein's request. It also promised to increase its support.

November 25th. The General Staff sent a long-awaited replenishment to Army Group South, which arrived at the front line by sea, land and air, including a total of 26,000 reinforcements (including more than 300 reserve tank groups), 193 Type 4G tanks, and an armored battalion fully equipped with Tiger tanks - the 503rd Wehrmacht Heavy Armored Battalion, which has 54 Tiger tanks, and the 501st and 502nd Heavy Armored Battalions that preceded the battalion are now serving under Guderian.

In addition to the replenishment of equipment and personnel, the General Staff also made adjustments to the operational command structure in terms of actual troop deployment and Manstein's request, and Senior General Hoult's command of the multinational force became an instant hit, and everyone jokingly called him "Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations-Army". Now he had Italians, Romanians, Croats, Slovaks, and more Ukrainians at his command - an additional 1st Ukrainian Division as reinforcements. His appointment was also adjusted, and he was officially appointed commander of Army Group South's northern flank (referred to as the Holt group), and General Reinhardt took over as commander of the Fourth Army; General Kleist took over as commander of the Southern Flank Group (Kleist Cluster for short), and General Eberhard von Mackensen took over as commander of the First Panzer Army. Manstein remained the supreme commander of Army Group South.

Manstein lamented that the Führer's style had really changed, and if it had been before, these 26,000 additional troops would definitely have been organized into two new infantry divisions, making the front-line deployment look a little more "strong", but in fact, except for the increase in numbers and psychological comfort, the strength of the troops would not change, and it might even be weakened -- the strength of the two new divisions formed entirely by new recruits would not have played a greater role in terms of strength than being incorporated into the existing divisions.

In addition to tanks, the first batch of Stalker destroyers off the assembly line also sent more than 40 to Army Group South, and now he finally no longer has to compete with Heinrich for equipment, but he found that the advantages of transferring No. 3 assault guns to join the Panzer Division are many, and the reason why the 16th Panzer Division and the Guard Flag Panzer Division can fight so well and sharply in this battle is entirely because of the additional No. 3 Assault Gun Corps. In addition, Lieutenant General Hube was very enthusiastic about the Himmler organ of the Guard Flag Division, and this time it was going to be a company, and Father Hube couldn't wait to be incorporated into his own armored division.

While paying attention to heavy equipment, Army Group South also elaborated on the feedback on light equipment and logistics in the report, Heinrich believes that STG43 and G43 rifles are good weapons, but there are still some places and details that need to be modified, in terms of specific equipment, he does not recommend that all infantry squads use STG43, so the pressure on logistics supply is too great, he believes that the firepower of equipped with 2 STG43 rifles and G43 rifles is enough, given that the production of new weapons is not high, He wanted to prioritize the most advanced and elite Panzergrenadiers in each unit so that they could maximize their firepower.

Due to the good performance in this operation, especially the outstanding performance of the Romanians and Italians who had been reorganized in the attack of the hard-capped Bryansk Front, and the Romanian river fleet that persisted in the operation at the meanders and gave a lot of fire support to the German army, Hoffmann was determined to further arm them with surplus supplies, and in addition to the old French ships promised to the Romanians, he also instructed Manstein to give all the Romanians a total of 46 No. 3 tanks that had been replaced by the tanks of the 16th Panzer Division and the Guard Flag Division. In addition, Quartermaster Schmund also gave more than 50 37mm anti-tank guns to the Romanians and Italians, and together with the anti-tank guns captured in the assault on the Watutin rearguard troops, the anti-tank strength of the two armies increased by leaps and bounds. Now everyone believes that these readjusted and enriched Allied troops are no longer a burden, and although they have not caught up with the German army in many aspects, their combat effectiveness and mental outlook have been qualitatively improved.

The equipment level of the entire Southern Army Group has improved rapidly, and the existing German units have been replaced with the new model of the No. 4G type, except for a little No. 3 tank under Kleist, and they have also taken the lead in having the earliest heavy armored battalion on the Eastern Front, which makes the northern and central army groups very envious, and Speer once again reiterated that they will complete all the No. 3 tank refitting by the end of the year, so these commanders did not continue to entangle and make trouble.

After the war, the balance of forces underwent profound changes, and the total strength ratio between the German army and the Red Army changed from 1.6 million: 2.5 million to 1.6 million: 2.3 million -- although Stalin tried his best to collect from many aspects, the overall number of the Red Army could not be restored to the pre-war level, and at the same time, the number of tanks on both sides also changed from 1,800:2,500 to 1,900:200.

The supreme commanders of the three clusters have different views on the next course of action. Manstein was determined to carry out the offensive defense to the end, Kleist believed that the local advantage of the Black Sea sea supremacy could be used to carry out landing operations in the Transcaucasus, and Hort believed that the last time of favorable weather (the lower reaches of the Don River had not yet frozen) should be seized for armored assault warfare, and the priority target was the Southwestern Front.

However, there are also many unfavorable factors, the Red Army's three armies are combined, and the total strength is as high as 900,000, which is impossible to gnaw at in the short term, especially after intelligence shows that the Red Army has prepared 300,000 reserves drawn from the Siberian direction on the other side of the Don River, and it has become impossible to repeat the delicate scalpel-like battle of the Don River.

After arguing for a long time, Manstein finally made a decision and obtained the consent of Hoffmann and Zeitzler, or insisted on the strategy of solid defense and then counterattack, and the priority target of the Hult cluster could be temporarily moved from the three heavy groups to deal with the Bryansk Front. However, the commander of the Fourth Panzer Army, General Reinhardt, had a strong sense of crisis, and he believed that the spearhead of the Red Army's operations in the next stage might be directed first at the group, and in particular, Vatutin, which had suffered losses, and the Southwestern Front would never make similar mistakes again.

The Wehrmacht base camp attached great importance to this possibility, but Hoffmann still said that there were no reinforcements except for replenishment, and hoped that the troops would be able to tide over the difficulties on their own. Thus, the greatest test of Army Group South is coming......

After this volume, please pay attention to the next volume, "Roaring: The Tiger Exodus" (to be continued. )