"I knew it!" Marshal Kruger said with some schadenfreude when he learned that the Soviets were attacking Orel: "We should not believe that Manstein still has that 'legendary sergeant', the Soviets attacked before us, and even worse is that Orel is not very prepared for defense!" ”

After thinking about it, Marshal Kruger called Hitler.

"Your Excellency!" Field Marshal Kruger reported on the phone: "Orel is under attack by the enemy, and it is conservatively estimated that the enemy has two fronts ......"

"I know this, Marshal Kruger!" Hitler interrupted Marshal Kruger.

Hitler was in the "werewolf", and every move on the Eastern Front would reach Hitter's ears at the first time, and these did not need to be reported by Marshal Kruger.

But in fact, Hitler did not know Kruger, and Kruger only used the report to "remind" Hitler that he should not follow Manstein's advice.

"I ask your permission to withdraw us from Orel, Your Excellency!" Marshal Kruger said: "Because in Manstein's plan they only made preparations for the offensive and not much for defense!" ”

"No, I won't allow you to do that!" Hitler replied: "You should hold Orel, understand?" ”

"Yes, Your Excellency!" Kruger hung up without saying anything more.

Hitler felt a little strange when he hung up the phone, but after thinking about it, he quickly understood, especially since Kruger had just mentioned "Manstein's plan".

In other words, Kruger didn't actually intend to retreat from the beginning, he was just using it to show that Manstein was responsible for the current situation.

Thinking of this, Hitler couldn't help frowning, the commanders of Army Group Center and Army Group South were at odds, which was not a good thing for this campaign.

On the other hand, Manstein was also in distress.

"The Soviets broke our defenses!" Manstein frowned during the meeting and said: "Obviously we misjudged the direction of their main attack...... They threw the main force in Orel! ”

Then Manstein pointed to the map and said: "To the north is the Western Front of the Soviet Union, the Bryansk Front in the salient, and even the Central Front in the salient may be their reserves......"

As soon as you look at this, everyone understands.

Although the two positions of Orel and Belgodro are the choke points of the Kursk salient and can cut off the connection between Kursk and its rear, they are also within the angle of the Soviet defensive line, and once the left or right flank defense is broken through by the Soviet army, there will be a danger of being surrounded.

"How's it going?" General Hult asked.

Hult was the commander of the 4th Panzer Army, and of course he was indispensable for such an important meeting.

"It's much more serious than we thought!" Manstein said: "Our preliminary estimate is that the Soviets have launched an attack with two armies and an air force in the first batch, with at least a thousand tanks and aircraft, and artillery that cannot be counted, and they seem to have quite detailed information, and the first round of shelling caused quite heavy losses to the radar and artillery positions of the Orel defenders!" ”

After a pause, Manstein added: "But they still held off the Soviets, but you know...... Once the defense line is breached, they are in danger of being surrounded at any time! ”

"We should provide them with reinforcements!" "I mean," said Holt, "let Army Group Center send reinforcements to them!" ”

Manstein shook his head and replied: "Marshal Kruger refuses to do this, because he thinks that if other troops are sent to reinforce Orel, the frontal defense line of Kursk will be too weak, and this will also be attacked by the Soviets!" ”

In a way, Marshal Kruger is right.

This is the problem that cannot be avoided by the lack of troops and the fact that it is also on the defensive...... If you want to hold a certain defensive line, you must divide the forces evenly, because you don't know at which point the enemy will attack, and you can't just move troops to "tear down the east wall and make up the west wall", because the Soviet army, which has more troops, can attack the east wall when the German army "demolishes the east wall".

This is one of the reasons why Marshal Kruger insisted on attacking before the Soviets attacked.

"So!" General Holt glanced at Colonel Slain and said, "We may be able to use the 1st Infantry Regiment to reinforce Orel!" ”

Manstein nodded and asked Slane and Qin Chuan, "What do you think, Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel?" ”

Qin Chuan understood what Manstein and General Hoult meant.

The 1st Infantry Regiment had helicopters that could quickly reinforce and Orel in this bad weather, poor traffic, and Orel.

More importantly, the 1st Infantry Regiment had ME63s, and there are still more than 5,000 of them, which could obviously inflict a fatal blow on Soviet tanks on the battlefield, so that the threat of Orel was solved.

But Qin Chuan didn't think this was the best time.

"Marshal, General!" Qin Chuan said: "There are more than 5,000 ME63s, even if we hit them with a five-to-one hit rate, we can only destroy 1,000 tanks, and the enemy's tanks will be much more than ours, and then we will have no ME63s to use." What's more serious is ...... The armored units stationed in Orel have not coordinated with ME63, they do not know how to fight with us! ”

The latter is the key, the importance of coordination is obvious, if they can cooperate with each other on the battlefield, one plus one is greater than two, otherwise it is just the opposite.

"I know this, Lieutenant Colonel!" Manstein replied: "But now we have no other choice, the Soviets have deceived us, which makes it impossible for us to carry out our original offensive plan, and at the same time we must not abandon Orel, otherwise there will be a gap in our defensive line, and the Soviet troops that are ready to attack will pour into our line like a tidal wave to threaten the rear of our army!" ”

Qin Chuan understood what Manstein meant.

The original offensive plan was for Orel's 2nd Panzer Army to fight south and the 4th Panzer Army in Belgorod to the north, so that the Soviet forces in the Kursk salient could be surrounded by only half of each.

Thus, the 2nd Panzer Army and the 4th Panzer Army were each equipped with a battalion of "Tiger" tanks (thirty "Tiger" tanks) for forced advance.

But now, the Soviets were attacking Orel, and Manstein's plan collapsed in an instant.

After thinking about it, Qin Chuan said, "Why don't we continue to attack as originally planned?" Even without the cooperation of the 2nd Panzer Army? ”

Manstein and Hort couldn't help but look at each other.