Manstein did not appreciate the Führer's fort tactics at all, and what had happened in Gomel had clearly shown that the fortress was unreliable, and that once surrounded by the superior Red Army, there was probably only a dead end.

Of course, the most crucial reason for Manstein's fierce opposition to the Führer's fortress tactics was that his cluster was now stationed in Kyiv, the largest fortress in Ukraine that the Führer had circled. According to Hitler, it was absolutely impossible to abandon Kiev, and Manstein's troops would hold this fortress firmly, holding the Red Army behind Kiev and buying time for Army Group South to regroup.

It's just that Manstein himself is very pessimistic about this, the disparity between the enemy and our forces is too great, even if his troops can contain the seven or eight armies of the Red Army in Kiev, but the huge reserve forces of the Red Army can still advance in the direction of Poland and Romania recklessly, which is of great significance for changing the situation of the war?

In Manstein's view, the only role of holding on to Kyiv is to throw the precious hundreds of thousands of living forces of Army Group South into the fire pit, you must know that these people are veterans and veterans who have been in battle for a long time, and once they are lost, they are by no means comparable to the new recruits who have been reorganized in the rear.

According to Manstein's idea, the ghost place of Kyiv is not worth holding on to at all, and the sooner you leave, the better, and it is better to shrink sharply, and the most important thing is to bring the precious living force out of the fire pit.

If Manstein's words could count, at this time his cluster would probably have immediately abandoned Kyiv and turned around and retreated, but what made Manstein depressed was that he couldn't count when he spoke, and the head of the house was fascinated by Kyiv. The stubborn want to carry out fortress tactics. This made Manstein jump to his feet in a hurry.

"We must not stay in Kyiv. Not to mention holding the city! Manstein chattered to Rundstead: "This damn city is surrounded by Russian troops. Preliminary reconnaissance revealed that there were at least five army groups, and the number of enemies continued to grow, and it was clear that the Russians were ready to eat us in one bite! ”

"I know, I know!" Rundstead was also irritable, and he said in a mocking and sarcastic tone: "But the Bohemian corporal disagreed, he considered himself a military strategist, and took all our advice and warnings on deaf ears...... Now no one can change the mind of that Bohemian corporal. No! So, we can only obey! ”

Manstein roared angrily: "Then we are all finished!" When our living forces are annihilated, the southern front will collapse and we will lose the war. You have to think of a way to get the Führer to change this wrong decision! ”

Rundstead sneered: "What do you want me to do, go and kiss that Bohemian corporal by the thigh and kiss his shoes?" No! It's impossible! ”

I have to admit that a group of German generals headed by Rundstead looked down on Hitler very much, for example, Rundstead gave the Führer the nickname of Bohemian Corporal, and his contempt and belittlement could not be more obvious.

This contempt was largely so contemptuous that generals such as Rundstead refused to communicate directly with the Führer, and always carried out Hitler's whimsical battle plans with a kind of contempt for jokes. It is naturally difficult for the monarch and the minister to humiliate each other.

Like at this time. Rundstead refused to do Hitler's work, and instead carried out his orders with a broken mentality. This made Manstein distressed as well.

Since Rundstead does not cooperate. Manstein had no other direct avenue for upward reflection, and seemed to have no choice but to carry out Hitler's orders. But Manstein was reluctant to do so, because it was really a dead end, and he didn't want to be a prisoner of the Russians like Paulus, so he began to think of ways to save himself.

In fact, there are not many ways that Manstein can come up with, it is definitely not possible to hold on, and Hitler will not allow him to evacuate Kyiv with his troops, so it is almost impossible to get out of the mess of Kyiv.

But Manstein actually came up with a way to fool, what way? Since you can't defend it, let's just attack!

There may be comrades who say that Manstein is crazy, that his head is burned, that at this time the strength of the four armies of the First Ukrainian Front is by no means under Manstein, and that as the Second Ukrainian Front returns from Belarus to the Kiev region, the strength of the Red Army will only grow stronger. With Manstein's pitiful troops, even the First Ukrainian Front could not be defeated, let alone the Second Ukrainian Front, which came to strengthen one after another.

From a military point of view, launching an attack at this time is simply equivalent to a meat bun beating a dog, and it is definitely a deal with no return. It stands to reason that Manstein's military literacy would not be able to play such a bad game. So why is that?

In fact, Manstein knows very well that it is absolutely impossible for him to defeat the First Front of Ukraine, he has never had this idea, and the reason why he proposed the strategy of the offensive is that to put it bluntly, he has only one purpose - that is, to get rid of the burden of Kyiv!

Manstein's idea was simple: as long as Kyiv remained in the hands of the Germans, then his troops would be firmly nailed to Kyiv, that is, a dead end. The only way is to get rid of the burden of Kyiv as soon as possible, if Kyiv is recaptured by the Russians, this burden does not exist, then what Kyiv is still holding onto?

So what Manstein meant was to transfer his main forces away from Kyiv through a so-called offensive operation, leaving Kyiv, which was empty of troops, to the Russians, and once the Russians recaptured Kyiv, he could retreat and leave with the boat.

I have to say that Manstein is really a bit ghostly smart, and this is the only way he can come up with to get rid of Kyiv at this stage. However, it is not so simple to achieve, because Hitler is not two hundred and five, and it is not so easy to fool.

In order to get Hitler to take the bait, Manstein had to come up with a sufficient amount of bait, and he had to tickle the Führer's itch in order for the Führer to agree. So what kind of bait did Manstein come up with?

Manstein painted a big pie: he believed that a lightning raid on the 1st Ukrainian Front would concentrate two or three armies, and although it might not be able to defeat it completely, it would inflict a heavy defeat on the opponent. Disrupting the opponent's offensive preparation is entirely achievable. This disrupted the deployment of the Russian offensive against Kyiv. Forcing the Russians to spend more time preparing. This will buy Kyiv more time.

Even Manstein deliberately made a very optimistic prediction, believing that if this raid was powerful enough, it would be possible to defeat the First Ukrainian Front from the front, and after defeating the Front, the tension in Kiev would be greatly eased, which would help ensure the control of Ukraine by the Third Reich. It cannot be ruled out that there is also one of the most optimistic possibilities, that is, after defeating the First Ukrainian Front, taking advantage of the victory to pursue and defeat the unstable Ukrainian Second Front again. If it can be successful. Ukraine will be safe and secure for the next half year!

So how did Hitler react when he saw Manstein's plan? Or did he take the bait? Let's put it this way, the Führer was obsessed with the offensive, and he liked that his generals were constantly attacking and offensive. And in recent times, it is undoubtedly difficult for him to hear the sound of the attack, but there are constantly high-ranking officers clamoring for a retreat, or a big retreat, you can imagine what he will be like when he sees Manstein's offensive plan.

Keitel later recalled: "The Führer was very pleased with Manstein's plan, even though we, the staff officers, kept reminding him that it was almost theoretically possible, but it was useless. The Führer can't wait for the thought of stabilizing the war in Ukraine......"

Halder also recalled: "When I saw Manstein's plan, my first reaction was that Manstein had finally been driven mad by the Führer. What kind of madness can make him say such crazy things? Take two armies to defeat four or even seven armies. Isn't this a convulsion? ”

Halder and Jodel were the first to remind Hitler: "We consider that Manstein's plan is facing a serious shortage of troops, and that the two armies do not seem to be sufficient for this very difficult task." ”

In fact, there is nothing to seem, but it will definitely not be completed, and the reason why Manstein only proposed to use the strength of two army groups to attack, instead of using all three army groups, is only one real reason: at this time there are only three army groups around Kyiv, if all of them are used for the offensive, then who will defend Kyiv? He was very worried that if he proposed such a plan, the Führer would directly see the real intentions, so he played a sideshow.

Hitler, however, always rewarded generals who were in line with his wishes, and soon the Führer generously instructed: "Try to give the Manstein cluster another army group to be used for the offensive." Even in private, he said to Eva: "If it weren't for the fact that I had decided not to confer the rank of field marshal after Paulus, this time I would definitely have to promote Manstein, and in this difficult time, the empire needs talented officers who are truly serving......"

It can be seen that Hitler had great hopes for Manstein, but the Führer could never have imagined what kind of small calculation Manstein was playing. Of course, Manstein also felt a lot of pressure when he learned of the Führer's kindness, and he knew very well that the higher the Führer's expectations, the more intense the anger that would follow. And his actions were probably intended to anger the Führer, anyway, before he came up with this set of tricks, Manstein was ready to be removed from office by Hitler afterwards.

And now, Manstein feels that what awaits him in the future may not only be removed from his post and investigated, but also imprisoned. For a moment, Manstein wanted to abandon this strategy, but apparently the Führer did not give him a chance to repent, and ordered him to come up with a complete plan at once.

At this time, Manstein was "forced to Liangshan", and he could only bite the bullet to improve the so-called battle plan. He came up with a total of three plans, one of which was to go out of Kiev from the direction of Korostian to the upper reaches of the Kiev reservoir, and launch a surprise attack on Chernihiv from the section of the later famous Chernobyl, and capture the city in one fell swoop.

Manstein claimed that this plan would require fewer troops and would allow it to penetrate into the combined part of the Ukrainian First and Second Fronts in one fell swoop, turning the rear of the Red Army upside down. This is also Manstein's favorite solution.

Option 2 is a reproduction of Option 1, but the spearhead of the attack is shifted from the north of Kyiv to the south of Kyiv, and it is ready to mobilize two or three army groups to attack the lowlands on the east bank of the Dnieper River from the direction of Cherkasy, and rush in the direction of Poltava and Kharkov, where the Red Army is weak, forcing the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts to move to Kharkiv, and then wait for the rest to deal with the enemy.

As for the third option, this one would concentrate three army groups on the storming of Brovare, east of Kiev. Break through the line of defense of the 1st Ukrainian Front from the front. Then it will develop in a northwesterly direction to meet the Ukrainian Second Front, which is arriving one after another.

Let's put it this way. Of the three, Manstein preferred options 1 and 2 because they were his escape plan to sell dog meat on the head of a sheep. Looking at these two options, whether to the north or south, the main German forces gathered in Kyiv must first withdraw from Kyiv, which is equivalent to leaving the fire pit. Manstein believed that as soon as his main forces left Kyiv on the front foot, the Red Army would regain Kyiv on the back foot. At that time, everything was not a problem.

As for the third plan, in fact, in Manstein's view, it is impossible to achieve it at all, and this plan was actually deliberately put forward in order to hide people's eyes, this is to prevent the Führer from seeing that he deliberately wants to abandon Kiev to come up with such an indiscriminate plan, Manstein believes that with the shrewdness of Jodel and others, he will definitely reject this impossible frontal assault plan.

And once this plan that required the largest number of troops was rejected, then Manstein would be able to persuade the Führer to agree to his two surprise attack plans that required relatively few troops, thus avoiding the need to draw another army group from other directions to strengthen it, and naturally avoid joint and several liability.

It has to be said that Manstein took great pains. So which option did Hitler like in the end? After listening to the advice of Jodel and others, Hitler finally settled on the first option. That is, a surprise attack on Chernihiv from the direction of Chernobyl. Although industrial bases such as Kharkov were attractive to the Führer, the name Poltava made him frown.

Yes, the superstitious Führer did not like to confront the Bolsheviks at all in Poltava, the land of Tsarist Russia, and he thought that this location would be more advantageous to the Russians, and in order to prevent undesirable factors from outside the battlefield from ruining Manstein's plans, the Führer felt that it would be more reliable to surprise Chernihiv in the north.

When the message from the wolf's den was placed on Manstein's desk, the army general finally breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that he could finally get out of the fire pit of Kyiv. The next thing he needs to do is decide which troops to take. Yes, it was impossible for Manstein to take all his troops away, and Kiev, according to the Führer's instructions, was a fortress and a fortress, a city that had to be fortified. Manstein could only take away his best and most elite troops.

This work made Manstein very difficult, the palms and backs of his hands were full of meat, and it was a problem to take who to take or not to take. Especially noticing what happened to Gomel before, even if it was a desperate situation, Hitler did not allow the defenders to break through, and it is conceivable that the troops defending Kiev will definitely not be able to retreat or break through, so it can be said that what remains is to wait for death.

And just when Manstein was actively preparing for the "offensive", in Odessa in the south, the momentum of the offensive and defensive sides had completely reversed, although the Red Army was still in a defensive posture, but as more and more Romanian troops were withdrawn, the local defenders had realized that the time for a counteroffensive was gradually ripe!

At the same time that Manstein began the "offensive transfer", the defenders of Odessa also began a counteroffensive almost at the same time, the scale of the counteroffensive was not large at first, and the counterattack of the Red Army was more of a temptation. But what the Red Banner Independent Primorsky Army did not expect was that this trial achieved unexpected results, the Romanians on the opposite side were almost immediately defeated, and the Red Banner Primorsky Army was able to restore the defense area to the level before October 1941 without much effort. Had it not been for the ill-prepared army group, this small counterattack would have been enough to crush the Romanians.

Of course, this unexpected joy made the Red Banner Independent Primorsky Army overjoyed, and for the first time after being besieged, they saw the hope of relieving the siege! It was not only the Red Banner Independence Primorsky Army that made progress, but also in Nikolaev on the other side, the Ukrainian Third Front, which had been on the defensive, also turned to the offensive, and after spending a lot of effort to defeat the Germans who were stubbornly resisting, they drove the Romanians all the way like ducks, advancing the front to the north and west for almost 80 kilometers in just one week, so to speak, having touched the periphery of Odessa.

This significant progress also allowed the military. Venezuela sees a possibility, it seems that with the strength of the Ukrainian Third Front, it can regain the lost ground in great strides? Do you want to relieve Odessa at this time?

There's not much to argue about, Army. The committee decided to test it again, anyway, the battle on the Kiev side is still in the preparatory stage, and the Ukrainian Third Front and the Voronezh Front can completely move their hands and feet on the southern front, and it is naturally best if they can recover Odessa, and if they can't, they can also quickly go north to attack the southern front of the German army after the battle of Kiev begins.

So soon, the Ukrainian Third Front and the Voronezh Front launched a series of offensive operations, and the troops were directed at Odessa, and after about ten days of fierce fighting, after paying a very slight price, Odessa announced the liberation of the siege.

And the relief of Odessa is tantamount to a disaster for Germany, because Odessa is too close to Romania, and the relief of Odessa means that the Ukrainian Third Front and the Voronezh Front can advance to Bessarabia and Romania in great strides...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to frankregill, the horseman, the old schoolboy, the drunken no maple, the glorious charter and Comrade Juventus!