Hitler was never a leader who listened to the opinions of his subordinates, and he was more authoritarian, such as the very powerful gun on the King Tiger, and the more exaggerated 128mm tank gun later.

All in all, Hitler trusted his own judgment more than he listened to the opinions of others. This is undoubtedly quite tangled for his subordinates, how to make this too conceited and self-contained head of state "obedient"?

Even Speer, Hitler's confidant, did not have a very good solution to this problem, and he tried his best to make a statement to the mustache, starting from scientific data and analyzing in simple terms why tigers could not be mass-produced, which is called a reasonable and well-founded argument.

But in the end, Hitler sent him away with only one sentence: "By the end of this year, strive to produce 500 Tiger tanks, and if you can produce 1,000 you will be better!" ”

In the face of such a führer, Speer has no other way but to escape, or is there another one, to find Guderian? As staunch opponents of heavy tanks, Speer and Guderian had a lot in common. For example, in the opposition to tigers and leopards, they are completely unanimous.

After receiving the bad news from Speer about the expansion of tiger production, Guderian immediately could not sit still, and he immediately rushed to the wolf's den to meet Hitler, who, like Speer, had prepared a large amount of theoretical data and was ready to persuade the Führer in a reasonable and measured manner.

It's just that what Guderian didn't expect was that he was blocked from Hitler's office, and the Führer refused to meet him. This made Guderian undoubtedly quite aggrieved, and he didn't understand why at all!

Halder looked at Guderian's indignant departing figure. sighed inwardly. He knew very well that the last person Hitler wanted to see at this moment was Guderian. Why? The reason is simple. The situation in Kursk was said by Guderian, and the situation of the battle was exactly the same as he expected. This made the Führer, who had always regarded himself as a civilian military strategist, feel ruthless and faceless. He could meet anyone at this time, but he wouldn't meet Guderian, who made him lose face.

Of course, Hitler's failure to see Guderian was not only due to the loss of his self-esteem, but more importantly, he believed that Guderian had come to see him for the Kursk war and to make suggestions. Hitler's pride did not allow him to accept Guderian's advice. The Führer believed that he was capable enough to save Paulus's troops.

Therefore, Hitler simply turned Guderian away, out of sight and out of mind. It's just that he didn't expect that Guderian didn't come for the Kursk problem at all, in fact, Guderian thought that even if he went to command the battle of Kursk, it would be difficult to save the situation, so naturally he would not have any suggestions.

Hitler stared wolf-like eyes at the map on the table, on which Konotop was drawn with a large red cross and three circles on Krollevet. It is conceivable that even Hitler was satisfied with the breakthrough through the diversion of Krolevets. He thinks Paulus is still a little clever.

"Telegraph Paulus, tell him to speed up and join Manstein as soon as possible! Then we will rest in Chernihiv and replace it with more Panthers and Tiger tanks, and we will regain the initiative on the battlefield in one fell swoop and conquer Kyiv in one fell swoop! ”

Hitler slammed the table so hard that the cup on the table snapped and shattered, but the Führer didn't care, his wolf-like eyes staring at the map with a cold light......

However, compared with the Führer's confidence, the German soldiers did not have such a high fighting spirit. Feng. "I can't understand the Russians at all, sometimes they scatter like headless flies, but more often they resist without humanity, the Russians completely ignore the corpses of their compatriots piled aside, and still shoot at us with weapons in cold blood, shoot, shoot!" From the 15th, we made a surprise attack along the road towards Krollevets, and the continuous offensive lasted for five days, and the resistance of the Russians did not weaken in the slightest, I do not understand what was supporting them? Fear of death? Hatred for us? Bloodthirsty instincts? Or are they simply inhuman animals? ”

The German 11th Army could not advance an inch after reaching the outskirts of Krollevets, and there is no doubt that the Germans were at the end of their power. And soon, the "fatal wounds" of the German army's logistical supply will be exposed. Both Manstein's 11th Army outside the encirclement and Paulus Cluster in the encirclement will face shortages of fuel, ammunition, and food supplies.

From April 1942, under the orders of Arxness, the Red Army's long-range aviation intensified the bombing of German railway junctions and material transfer warehouses, and thousands of Tu-3 and Pe-8 constantly visited the main cities of East Poland, dropping tens of thousands of tons of bombs, almost blowing up the rear of the German army.

30% of the gasoline, ammunition, food, and medicine urgently needed by the German front-line troops were wiped out in the bombing, and the remaining 70% could not be sent to the troops, because the Red Army partisans and underground resistance groups active in eastern Poland were also constantly attacking German logistics convoys at any cost. In the end, the Germans were basically only 50% left with supplies that could be transported to the front.

For an army of millions, half of the supply means that something is going to be a big problem, and a considerable part of the cars and tanks have become mere decorations, which do not play any role at all. In this extremely difficult situation, Hitler even ordered the ministries to "effectively collect the remaining fuel from the destroyed vehicles of both the enemy and the enemy."

However, for the sophisticated German manufacturing, the inferior gasoline used by the Red Army was really not useful, causing various problems in the engines of a considerable number of German cars and tanks. So much so that the Germans had to use a strainer to filter the collected Russian gasoline before using it.

Even if the front-line troops tried everything to get gasoline, it was still a drop in the bucket, especially since the Red Army soldiers, after discovering the German attempt, did not forget to stuff a grenade into the tank when fleeing from the destroyed cars and tanks. There was no gasoline left for the Germans. This created a nest of German armored forces.

For example, the 47th and 48th Mechanized Corps, which pursued Paulus, were found more than once. A considerable number of German tanks were abandoned without gasoline as soon as they were fired. Long queues of tanks and cars abandoned by the Germans can be seen on the road.

Let's put it this way, by the time Paulus's armored cluster arrived near Krollevets, it was already a third of its pre-war strength. The sinister situation became clearer, and even Paulus himself had to admit: "Our army suffered huge losses after turning to Krollevets, and a large number of tanks and armored vehicles were lost due to non-battle damage, which made it very difficult for our troops to break through the Russian resistance in Krollevets......"

On the other hand, the 47th and 48th Mechanized Corps were tightly bitten in the back of Paulus, and they could burst it at any time, and the great danger caused sharp contradictions to erupt within the German army. There was a choking fire between the Wehrmacht and the SS!

According to the recollection of the commander of a battalion of the 46th German 10th Division of the Panzer Army: "According to the requirements of our superiors, we were ordered to carry out the rearguard mission, which was actually the rear of the palace. To be honest we don't like such tasks, everyone knows that there are about a thousand tanks behind us that are chasing us, and most of them are advanced T-34s and T-35s, and what do we have in our hands? What will the old tank III and the 37mm anti-tank gun do? ”

"What is particularly unacceptable to us is, why should we be allowed to take over the SS? The SS Second Reich Division was more neat in personnel and equipment than ours, and such a difficult task should be entrusted to them? Could it be that the SS was nobler than the Wehrmacht? Are our We-Wehrmacht cannon fodder? ”

An important reason for the dissatisfaction of the Wehrmacht was that the Wehrmacht had been responsible for the previous blockades at the rear of the palace, and the SS 2nd Panzer Division had been retreating with full mention. Now it's their turn to stop the third mission, right?

The problem is, Paulus doesn't see it that way. He believes that the strength of the SS Second Armored Division is the most well preserved, and the natural combat effectiveness is the highest, so wouldn't it be better to use the strongest combat power on the blade and let the SS Second Armored Division break through and open up the escape route as soon as possible?

This seems to make sense, but under the circumstances, not everyone accepted this more rational approach. In extreme cases, people can go crazy, and the slightest bit of unsatisfactory will cause them to explode. And apparently, the Germans had reached their limit and were only a thin line away from an outbreak.

The bad situation was not only within the encirclement, but outside the encirclement, Manstein's troops also encountered internal contradictions. The composition of his army group was complex, with Romanian cavalry and a small amount of Czechoslovak and Hungarian cannon fodder in addition to the Wehrmacht. The latter two originally had a stomach for war, and they could still endure it when they fought a good fight, but once they entered adversity, contradictions would erupt.

For example, the Hungarian officer, Major Versiterben, recalled: "The morale of the troops was very low, and we were exhausted by the continuous fighting, and some of us even dropped our weapons and fled to the Russians. The Germans were very angry at this, and in order to ensure that such a humiliating thing did not happen, they sent us an SS second lieutenant and thirty other Nazis as reinforcements, of course, this was only in name, in fact these Nazis came to supervise us. These Nazis were stationed behind our lines, presumably to prevent us from retreating on the spot and deliberately blocking the back road! ”

"These Nazis are arrogant and self-conscious, and they refuse to accept any advice or advice from us, fearing that we will be slaves to be driven by them. But what amused me was that it wasn't long before the proud fellows shed their fancy coats and walked away. Cause? The reason is very simple: when the Paulus group in the encirclement was destroyed, the Russians on our side began to rush to launch a new offensive, and I told the SS captain: 'We have hardly any heavy weapons on our line, can you take over part of the line or give us some heavy weapons?' ’。 After hearing this, the Nazis disappeared that night, and these guys ran faster than rabbits! ”

Just as Paulus was preparing to break through, the 47th and 48th Mechanized Corps of the Red Army finally caught up and immediately launched a fierce attack on the German 10th Panzer Division behind the palace. As mentioned earlier, this 10th Panzer Division suffered relatively large losses and was disgruntled, so it appeared vulnerable in the face of the attack of the 58th Tank Division of the Red Army. At one point, he was beaten and lost his armor.

Paulus was taken aback. The 18th Panzer Division was quickly transferred from offensive operations to reinforce the 10th Panzer Division. This order should be said to be relatively timely. However, just as the 18th Panzer Division was coming back to help, the Führer, who was far away in the wolf's den, suddenly issued an inexplicable order, he asked the 18th Panzer Division and the SS 2nd Panzer Division to cooperate with Manstein's new round of siege relief operations, and asked these two Panzer Divisions to put enough pressure on the 6th Army of the Red Army.

Obviously, Hitler was completely out of touch with the situation on the battlefield, and he did not take the 58th Tank Division of the Red Army seriously, believing that the German 10th Panzer Division was enough to stop the other side. At this time, the Führer was thinking more about breaking through.

And this order soon surprised Paulus! The calls for help from the 10th Panzer Division are one after another, and how can you ignore them, Führer? So he hurriedly sent a telegram to the wolf's den. Ask the Führer to retract that somewhat vexatious order.

However, Hitler still did not think that he was making trouble, and he pinched his fingers in the wolf's den thousands of miles away, believing that the 10th Panzer Division was not a problem at all to block the 58th Tank Division of the Red Army. Even at one point, he had the intention of ordering the 10th Panzer Division to counterattack, which shows how seriously the Führer was out of touch with the actual battlefield.

So when Hitler received Paulus's telegram, he didn't believe it at all, isn't it a joke when the elite German panzer division couldn't beat a crappy tank division of the Russian army! The Führer believed that someone was deliberately lying.

"Call Paulus back immediately, and ask Paulus to immediately submit a detailed 'telex battle report' from the battalion-level troops!"

The so-called detailed telex war report was actually Hitler's desire to see the real situation at the level of Paulus's cluster battalion and to see if someone was cheating. Please note. Look at the statistical report at this time, and it's the statistical report of the entire Paulus cluster. It takes a lot of time. By the time Hitler looked at the statistical reports sent by the battalions of the Paulus cluster, the German 10th Panzer Division's defensive line had collapsed.

Paulus recalled: "While the Führer was busy making statistical reports, the Russians launched round after round of furious attacks, and finally broke the 10th Panzer Division and broke into our army. Aerial reconnaissance reports that the Russians followed up to 3,000 tanks and armored vehicles. Once these tanks continue to penetrate, it will be easy to divide and surround my troops. I can only beg the Führer once again to let the 18th Panzer Division come back to help, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable! But the Führer still insisted on finishing the statistical ......"

Five hours later, the results came out, Paulus did not lie, the 10th Panzer Division did not lie, and the wise Führer immediately waved his hand very "generously": "The 18th Panzer Division can act according to Paulus's orders, but it must be repulsed as soon as possible by the Russian 58th Tank Division, so that it can be re-engaged in the attack on the Russian 6th Army!" ”

I have to say that at this time Hitler was still whimsical, he thought that as long as the 58th Tank Division was repulsed, then everything would be fine, thinking that the initiative on the battlefield was still in his hands. Actually? In fact, the remnants of the 18th Panzer Division and the 10th Panzer Division together will withstand the 58th Tank Division, and as for repelling the opposing side, it is simply a pipe dream!

Not long after the arrival of the 58th Tank Division of the Red Army, the 60th and 62nd Tank Divisions of the 48th Mechanized Corps of the Red Army and the 59th Tank Division of the 47th Mechanized Corps also arrived on the battlefield.

In other words, Hitler's attempt to crush the 6th Army by Paulus and Manstein was dashed from the outset. Paulus clustered not to mention breaking through with Manstein, and even the defense seemed to be extremely difficult.

Paulus recalled: "In the early morning of 22 July, I received reports that the enemy had infiltrated many parts of our army in the darkness of the night, and then the enemy launched a new wave of heavy attacks. The defense line of the 298th Infantry Division collapsed directly, and the division could only be forced to retreat, and the Russian tanks approached in a big way. In addition, the flank of the 1st Cavalry Division was pierced, and they pleaded for an immediate retreat, otherwise they would be divided and surrounded...... The only good news came from the 18th and 10th Panzer Divisions, which finally stood their ground......"

In fact, the situation of the 10th and 18th Panzer Divisions was not as good as they reported to Paulus, according to the recollections of the officers and men of the 10th Motorized Infantry Division of the two divisions of friendly friends: "The 18th Panzer Division claimed that they had repelled the Russians, but our regimental commander judged that there was no such thing at all, because the sound of gunfire had extended to the west and northwest of our regiment, which indicated that the Russians had wedged into the defense line of the 18th Panzer Division." In the afternoon of the same day, the regimental commander's judgment was confirmed, a large hole had been cut in the defense line of the 18th Panzer Division, and the Russians were trying to separate the 18th Panzer Division from the rest of our army, they wanted to fight a war of annihilation! In the evening, the situation became more and more tense, and our regiment was also attacked by the Russian army...... Reserves were asked everywhere, but according to the regiment commander, there were no reserves left, and the only reserve SS 2nd Panzer Division was still attacking the Russian 6th Army in vain, and according to the Führer's order, this division would be directly under his command, and without his order, no one was allowed to change the tasks of the SS 2nd Panzer Division without authorization...... "(To be continued. )

PS: Bow and thank Xingmu Shi, Waste Man S, Drink a Thousand Cups of People Not Drunk, hzwangdd and Comrade Juventus!