But in fact, even the mission to the Volga is not completed.

At nine o'clock that night, the 21st Panzer Division advanced to Akatovka on the Volga.

The Luftwaffe had apparently bombed it first, because on the other side of the Volga, several of the bombed-out oil tanks were smoky and black, and the burning oil flowed around the river, forming a long blanket of fire that flowed with the river.

In the light of the fire, the loud shouts of the Soviet soldiers and civilians on the opposite side while fighting the fire were faintly heard, the steamers moored in the harbor were burned, and in the raging fire, several explosions and screams were heard from time to time.

"Oh!" The baker looked at this situation and said: "The Air Force should have told us about this in advance, this must be a good opportunity to cross the Volga!" ”

The surrounding German soldiers couldn't help but burst into laughter.

They knew that the baker was joking, on the other side of the Volga River was the main force of the Soviet Southeastern Front, and if the 21st Panzer Division really hit it, they were afraid that it would be drowned by Soviet soldiers in a few hours.

Soon Colonel Slain shouted again after receiving the order: "Keep going!" ”

"But the Colonel!" Bazel asked, "Where are you going?" Jumping into the river? ”

The officers and soldiers burst into laughter again.

Qin Chuan actually understood the mentality of the German officers and soldiers at this time, the jokes they told were not funny, but these jokes were not just jokes, including what the baker said just now, they were expressing their contempt for the Soviet army and their pride in reaching the end of the Volga River.

"Stalingrad!" Colonel Slain shouted: "We are advancing in the direction of Stalingrad!"

"Boom!" The German officers and men cheered in unison, as if Stalingrad was about to moan at their feet

But in fact, the march of the 21st Panzer Division was not as the soldiers imagined.

Colonel Slane explained to Qin Chuan: "We don't have defensive depth, understand? While compressing the living space of the Soviets, create another line of defense for yourself! ”

Colonel Slein's words were concise and easy to understand.

From Kort Luban onwards, the German invasion had actually encircled itself...... In doing so, the 21st Panzer Division cut off the connection between Stalingrad and the Stalingrad Front, but it was also in the awkward position of being attacked on two sides: the enemy's Stalingrad Front to the north and the Stalingrad garrison to the south.

It is conceivable that the German troops that broke through into the Kotlu section would be attacked by the Soviets on both sides at any time.

Therefore, in order to avoid being attacked on the back of the enemy, the Germans had to dig a little space in this section to build two "back-to-back" lines.

What the 21st Panzer Division has to do now is to open up this space first.

It's not that hard...... It was to drive the tank a few kilometers south and test the firepower, and when it reached the defensive circle of Stalingrad or encountered stubborn resistance from the Soviet army, it could stop.

However, this move frightened Stalin very much, because at this time only the remnants of the Soviet 62nd Army and the 64th Army were stationed in Stalingrad...... Most of their forces were annihilated by the Germans on the outer defensive lines, and although there were two armies, the total strength was only 90,000.

Stalin immediately sent a telegram to Deputy Supreme Commander Zhukov: "The situation in Stalingrad has deteriorated sharply, the enemy has successfully completed the encirclement of Stalingrad on three sides, and the advance is only 3 versts (1 verst equals 1.06 km) from Stalingrad. If Army Group North does not immediately launch an offensive against the enemy, then there is a high probability that Stalingrad will be captured today or tomorrow. Therefore, the commanders of the units located north and northwest of Stalingrad were called upon to immediately surprise the enemy and aid the military and civilians of Stalingrad without any delay. Delay is now tantamount to crime! ”

But Zhukov saw a different view, mainly because the Stalingrad Front in the north was under-armed and unprepared......

This also began with the attack of Army Group South towards Stalingrad.

The Germans were three army groups, namely Army Group North, Army Group Center and Army Group South, arranged from north to south to form a roughly flat line of defense to confront the Soviet army.

In this way, if you stay put, it will be fine, each holding its own line of defense and covering each other's flanks.

Or, if the Germans had enough supplies and troops to attack at the same time, there would be no problem, and the three armies would cover each other in unison.

The problem was that the Germans could not gather so many supplies and forces for the simultaneous attack of three army groups in a short period of time after the defeat at the Battle of Moss.

In fact, the Germans were only enough for Army Group South to attack.

This raises the question: Army Group South naturally forms a salient when it strikes forward, and as Army Group South wins more and more victories on the front line and its troops penetrate deeper and deeper into the enemy's hinterland, the flanks will become longer and longer, and they will be very vulnerable to enemy encirclement.

This is obviously extremely dangerous, as it will not only threaten the logistical supply lines of Army Group South, but also cut off Army Group South from Army Group Center and Army Group North.

But this problem was solved by the Germans very creatively.

The way to do this is to attack along the Don River...... The Don River flows southeast from Kharkov to Stalingrad.

This can be said to be a coincidence, that is, the German army happened to plan an attack from Kharkiv, and the Soviet Union launched a counteroffensive from Kharkov first.

After the Germans defeated the Soviet counteroffensive, they launched a long-planned offensive...... While attacking, they stationed along the Don River, and even put on a posture to cross the Don River.

This was actually a strategy for the Germans to disperse the Soviet forces, because it was well known that it was very difficult to cross the river in this era, especially since the Soviets still had gunboats and other equipment on the river, and the Germans were extremely short of means to cross the river.

Therefore, the Germans actually did not think of crossing the river from the beginning, and they placed them along the Don River to cover the flanks of the Romanian army, Italian troops, etc., which had very low combat effectiveness, and the main 6th Army went straight to Stalingrad in the front.

This is also one of the reasons for the defeat of the German army in the Battle of Stalingrad, and it is still feasible to let the servant national army with low combat effectiveness cover the flanks in the spring, summer and autumn, because it was very difficult to cross the river for amphibious operations in this era, and the combat effectiveness of the Soviet army was also not good, and they did not dare to rashly cross the river to attack these troops.

But as soon as the Don River froze in winter, the armies of these client states could no longer hold such a long defensive line, so the weak flanks of Army Group South were completely exposed to the Soviets.