In the telescope, one by one the shells fell on the high ground in the distance, kicking up patches of black dirt, the German army put a lot of artillery on the Crimean Peninsula, and the caliber is very strange, there are large caliber artillery of the Belgian army, there are also war monster railway cannons transported by France, these cannons blow up one huge crater after another in the land of Crimea, with a rumbling loud noise to destroy the Soviet defenders here.

In fact, the Soviet Red Army in Crimea was not only tested by the incessant German artillery fire, but also by the cold. Although the temperature here is still warmer than in northern Ukraine, it is New Year's Day after all, and it is still cold and windy.

And because Khrushchev and Voroshilov were self-respecting in the Crimean region, Stalin in Moscow did not provide the Soviet Red Army under their command with cotton clothes for the winter, so these Soviet Red Army troops had to find their own way to cope with the cold winter - most of these Soviet Red Army troops were cowered inside the fortress, wearing thin clothes and listening to the rumbling of artillery overhead.

"General, why is the Yuan in such a hurry to attack this broken place of Crimea, just for the sake of those few Soviet wrecked ships that can't go to sea?" a colonel stood behind Manstein, frowned, and asked, "You know, if we appear behind Admiral Liszt, it will be more beneficial to the tide of battle." ”

Manstein, hearing the complaints of the man behind him, straightened up from behind the gunner's mirror, turned his head, smiled and patted the man on the shoulder, and said: "You are the son of Marshal Brauchitsch, and he sent you to me, so that I can teach you well what I know." I heard that you graduated from the Imperial Military Academy, and you were a proud protégé of those old diehards. ”

As he spoke, he walked back to the table set up in the trench, which was different from the other generals' operational headquarters, this table was not covered with a messy battle map, but a clean lunch tablecloth. The blue plaid tablecloth makes this semi-submersible front-line command feel very emotional, and the whole room is clean enough to make it feel like a holiday cabin in the forest.

Unlike other generals, Manstein had his own unique command habits, he liked to prepare as detailed a plan as possible before the battle began, drawing up the order and direction of the attack, and then after the battle began, he did not care much about how his men carried out the plans he had drawn up - those plans were so natural to him that he did not need to supervise them personally.

He was dressed in a decent general's uniform, spotless, and even the leather boots under his feet were clean, compared with the sloppy Rommel and Guderian, who had been on the front line of the army for many years, Manstein looked like a suave aristocratic gentleman.

With the rumbling of shells exploding, he walked over to the table and sat down in the chair that looked quite comfortable. Because of the explosion of large-caliber shells in the distance, the table trembled slightly, making the porcelain cups on it make a slight collision sound, which was very nice.

Brauchitsch's son stood behind Manstein, his eyes still staring at the shells that had blossomed not far away, and he thought in his heart that if these shells could support Admiral Liszt's Army Group E, then there would not have been such heavy losses on the northern front. However, as a traditional Junker aristocrat, he still did not interrupt Manstein's words, and quietly waited for the commander of Army Group M with his hands behind his back to say what he thought.

"The battle plan for the entire Eastern Front, from the offensive more than half a year ago to the current appearance, is a battle plan drawn up by me and your father, as well as the great Führer and countless staff members of the Supreme Command and the generals of the General Staff. Manstein picked up a cup of coffee on the table, stirred it lightly with the spoon twice, then blew and continued, "You don't think it's an idiot plan made by a bunch of idiots getting together, do you?"

He looked at Brauchitsch's son, his eyes were full of ridicule, and without waiting for the other to speak, he continued: "In March and April, we could have continued to attack - even if we did not attack, then it would have been easy to take Minsk in the hands of Timoshenko, and you didn't think about why we made a prominent wedge in the south, but let the Soviet marquis on the northern front continue to control the rich Belarusian region?"

......Brauchitsch's son was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly realized that he was only worried about the current situation of the war, but he forgot to analyze the root cause of the situation - why in April the Germans could continue to attack the Belarusian region, but left this land to the fragile Soviet Red Army at that time.

Seeing that the chief's son seemed to have realized something, Manstein laughed, took a sip of his coffee, nodded and continued: "We have laid a huge trap in Belarus waiting for the Soviets to get in, so I just need to concentrate on taking the Crimea now, right?"

Russia is a vast country, and if you don't know the vastness of the land, you'll be overwhelmed by the terrible feeling when you first come here. How vast is this territory? When the Ukrainian plain is covered with dark clouds and snowflakes, the sky over the Crimean Peninsula is extremely clear, and there are not even a few clouds.

So Liszt's long-awaited but unable to dispatch air support was a different story over the Crimean Peninsula, when dozens of Stuka bombers swooped down on a fortified ground battery and dropped large bombs with a whistling sound, turning the target area into ruins.

At the same time, in his wolf's den, Accardo met with Field Marshal Brauchitsch, who had hurried to report on the situation on the Eastern Front, and he listened carefully to the results of the battles at the front and reconfirmed the current position of the various army groups.

He looked at the map, reflexively looked at Marshal Brauchitsch, and said slowly: "Our preparations on the Eastern Front can be said to be very comprehensive, and the entire battle plan is also perfect, in fact, Guderian's current offensive direction is also part of our plan, and when we use our real killing moves, maybe our enemies will be taken aback." ”

Brauchitsch nodded, shook his head again, and said with some reluctance: "They will indeed be taken aback by our attack, but in order to prepare for this attack, we will pay a very heavy price - it can be said that it is not an exaggeration to call it the worst ever." ”

"My marshal! Efforts will always pay off, won't they? At least we can make the war on the Eastern Front go in a direction that we can control, and it will be worth the risk and the sacrifice we will put in to complete this plan!" Accardo said firmly to Brauchitsch: "For the future of all the German people! We will not allow defeat!

"Yes, my Führer!" replied Marshal Brauchitsch with a loud salute.

......

In an office of the command headquarters of the Soviet Red Army in Minsk, there was a hearty laughter, and Zhukov and a group of his staff talked and laughed, and from time to time this laughter was still emitted by the commander after the start of such a large-scale battle, which was definitely a reassuring thing for his subordinates.

"Congratulations to the general, you have been telegraphed and commended by Comrade Stalin!" said a staff officer of the Soviet Red Army, who was very happy that Zhukov had received Stalin's commendation.

"Guderian wanted to attack my flank in a roundabout way, thinking that going north to Kharkov would force me to return to the rescue, but he miscalculated! Or rather, all the German generals miscalculated! I had no intention of rescuing Kharkov at all, or there was no need for rescue there!" Zhukov said proudly, pointing to the map.

Another Soviet general nodded and said: "That's right, in order to stabilize the rear, we strengthened the fortifications near Kharkov three months ago, and no matter how powerful Guderian's armored troops are, there will be no good way to get caught up in urban warfare." We have 300,000 defenders in Kharkov and are waiting for the Germans to crash headlong into it!"

Zhukov looked at a huge map hanging on the wall, which marked the entire city of Kharkov, densely fortified with fortifications, as well as minefields and underground passages, nodded and said: "Kharkov is a huge trap, just like the trap that the Germans have prepared for us in Kyiv! I have enough soldiers to dare to attack this trap in Kyiv, and if Guderian's armored troops dare to crash into Kharkov, I guarantee that the Germans will lose their elite tank troops." At that time, we won!"

While Zhukov was looking forward to Guderian's attack on Kharkiv, on the edge of a collapsed house in Lozovaya, a small town on the eastern front, listening to an armored command vehicle, Guderian and his assistants were working together to unfold a combat map, he looked at the markings on it, and then looked at the tank units that were rumbling forward from the road in front of him, and let out a confident smile.

He closed the map in his hand, then handed it to his assistant, and then ordered Flick, the commander of the 3rd SS Panzer Division beside him: "General Frick, I order you to continue the attack to the north! Follow the road to the north! Hit me as far as you can! I want you to capture Sheberingka, an important town south of Kharkov, as soon as possible." Can you guarantee it?"

"Your Excellency, General!" Frick saluted, "The SS will do everything in their power to capture Shebelinka!"