"Admiral Manstein, our troops have eaten 2 Soviet troops today, at least 4,000 people!" In front of Manstein, a chief of staff of the Romanian Army Group was proudly asking for credit.

This kind of thing is not very common.

You must know that a few days ago, the Soviet commander gave Manstein the feeling that he had suddenly changed to a very powerful general in command, and the code was not leaky, and the retreat was clean. Several rearguard units, which were also well-coordinated and very skillfully resisted, caused a lot of trouble to his 11th Army.

Manstein's 11th Army was a twin army group consisting of a German army and a Romanian army. It also gave him the opportunity to command larger units and show his military talents.

A few days ago, Manstein, who had always been smooth sailing and had never felt pressure strategically, felt for the first time that he had met an opponent!

When the coordinator came to report that the Romanian division, which had been sent out by Manstein as a "mine detection team", had not encountered Soviet troops in several locations near the Ukrainian border, Manstein knew that he had met an opponent worthy of his full effort.

In the eyes of the average general, including most Romanian generals, it was inconceivable that the Soviets would abandon the defense of the perimeter of the border. Although fighting around the vast borders, the Soviet Southwestern Front was easily dragged into a decisive battle with the main forces of the German Southern Bloc group. However, near the border of Ukraine, the Soviet army at least occupies the geographical advantage of building a defensive line in advance!

In general, since the gap in equipment and the quality of soldiers cannot be made up for in a short period of time, the Soviet army should make good use of its geographical advantages to fortify. However, the new commander of the Soviet Union chose to retreat.

He did not covet the petty profits of fortifications, deployed troops along long borders that were easily broken up, and even abandoned large cities like Chernivtsi.

It seems that the other side has chosen another means of defense, which is also Manstein's favorite mode of defense in history, first disengaging from contact with the enemy, withdrawing the living forces, and then shortening the defensive line and using more effective natural hazards such as rivers.

If Manstein was not mistaken, the Soviet commander should have fortified the Dniester between Lviv and Ossad, shortening the line while taking advantage of the dangers of the Dniester River, which was no less dangerous than the fortifications on the border.

Have a hand!

If there is a place where Manstein has been fighting with the Soviet commander these days, it should be that Manstein commanded the dispatch of Romanian troops to spy on and intercept the Soviet rearguard.

Manstein was reluctant to risk going deeper with elite German units, and the Soviet commanders had no intention of eating the provocative Romanian troops. As a result, around the distance before the Dniester River, the two sides deployed troops and engaged in dozens of skirmishes back and forth.

These petty battles, in Manstein's eyes, are the appetizers for the next Ukrainian siege war.

According to his estimates and deductions, although Army Group South is now very strong, it contains a large number of infantry, including Greece, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia, and the strength provided is basically infantry divisions. And Romania, which gritted its teeth and took out nearly 800,000 troops in one go, only provided an armored division, and there were also 3 Romanian cavalry divisions equipped with motorized units.

Such mobile forces are obviously not enough, plus the mobile forces of Army Group South are also insufficient. However, it's not much worse. As long as Bock's Army Group Center was willing to temporarily transfer their Spanish and Italian mobile forces to Army Group South and advance south, they would join up with the attacking forces of Army Group South east of Kiev.

According to Manstein's previous large number of military flag exercises, the Ukrainian encirclement battle should basically be successful.

He had previously advised Rundstead in his capacity as chief of staff in the Polish campaign to be an extremely successful siege and annihilation. This time, however, Manstein, as commander of one of the largest armies in Germany, proposed to Rundstead the idea of a coalition battle with a greater appetite.

If nothing else, the Ukrainian encirclement battle should be the largest encirclement and annihilation battle in history. Manstein is confident in this.

However, the new commander of the Soviet Southwestern Front made Manstein feel a little pressure.

Perhaps, that commander will be a big obstacle to this battle in Ukraine, Manstein is a little worried.

However, this worry is now gone.

I don't know what the reason, but Manstein is sure that the commander of the Southwestern Front of the USSR has changed again!

The other party's command is no longer as airtight as before.

Since yesterday, it has been obvious that the mutual coordination of the Soviet rearguard units has begun to decline seriously.

If yesterday the Romanian army ate about one and a half thousand Soviet troops. Today, the Romanian army, which has a weak level of coordination and weak tactical execution, has taken nearly 4,000 Soviet troops in two times, which is not a coincidence.

With a total of 5,500 Soviet troops annihilated and captured, the Romanian army was able to achieve such a record in two days, and it has to be said that the command of the Soviet army has seriously declined.

In the whole of Ukraine, the Allied forces faced a large Southwestern Front with 4 armies under its jurisdiction and the Soviet Southern Army with 2 armies under its command.

In other words, the strength of the Soviet army deployed here is only 6 army groups.

According to the judgment of Field Marshal Rundstead of the German Army Group South, once the encirclement proposed by Manstein was completed, at least the vast majority of the forces of the Soviet Southwestern Front would be accounted for. And the two armies of the Soviet Army South will also have some troops that will not escape the encirclement.

All that remains is part of the forces of the Soviet Army Group South, which broke through the encirclement, and may flee south into the Crimean Peninsula. But that's okay, it's just an escape from one pocket to another.

Originally, Zhukov's arrival at the Southwestern Front put pressure on Manstein, who had put forward the idea of a coalition battle. But with Zhukov's conviction and transfer, with Manstein's sense of smell on the battlefield, he clearly felt the departure of Zhukov, a famous general.

Before the newly appointed Timoshenko grasped the specific situation of the Southwestern Front and adapted to command this force, Manstein was able to mobilize Romania, which was not so elite, to sweep away a large number of Soviet troops, and further lay the foundation for the next encirclement battle with the German army as the main force, and weaken the strength of the defending Soviet army.