To a certain extent, the strategic purpose of this battle initiated by Hitler with the Southern Army as the main force has been achieved.

As mentioned earlier, if one of the Caucasus and Stalingrad can be used to block the Soviet energy.

Now the Caucasus region is in the hands of the German army, so the Soviet Union's energy supply from Baku was completely cut off. You should know that it is energy that accounts for 71.5% of the total, and the Soviet Union suffered heavy losses.

At this time, the German army should have been slowing down.

The reason is simple. Seizing Baku means that the Soviet Union's industrial capacity will decline. After Germany restores the Transcaucasus oil refineries and arsenals, Germany's transportation pressure on the Eastern Front will decrease in stages... As one rises and another falls, the gap between the Soviet Union and Germany will grow wider and wider.

But Qin Chuan knew that this was almost impossible.

Because the Germans would not stop moving forward in the face of such a huge victory, nor would Hitler, especially when they still have offensive energy... Stopping the attack means missing the opportunity to give the enemy a chance to breathe.

This is human nature.

So Qin Chuan appeared only thirty kilometers away from Stalingrad... The 21st Armored Division had already arrived here, and the First Infantry Regiment followed up under Rommel's order.

When the commander of the 21st Armored Division, Major General Strek, saw Colonel Slain and Qin Chuan report to him, he looked up and said, "I finally waited for you. I have had enough of those Romanians!"

Later, Qin Chuan learned that because the First Infantry Regiment was transferred to the Caucasus region to fight, the 21st Armored Division lacked infantry to provide cover for tanks. General Streck had always wanted to transfer a German soldier from other troops to make up for this vacancy, but the helpless thing was that the German troops had their own system and their own tasks, and no general was willing to make their troops less.

In desperation, the 21st Armored Division could only temporarily recruit the 20th Romanian Infantry Division to serve this task... The Fourth Armored Army was equipped with a large number of Romanian soldiers. In total, one of the three armies and the other was Romanian. They mainly served as logistics supplies and other work such as clearing obstacles and road construction.

The result of implementing intra-tank coordination with such an army is conceivable, in Streck's words: "We are more worried about our own people than our enemies on the battlefield, because they always stand in front of the tank's tracks when we are about to move forward. On the contrary, when they are needed to move forward, they find that they are all hiding behind the tank!"

After complaining, he enthusiastically shook hands with Colonel Slein and Qin Chuan and said, "Welcome to you back, this is the best news I have heard recently!"

"Please, General!" said Colonel Slein: "We are only 30 kilometers away from Stalingrad. Isn't this good news?"

"Do you think this is good news?" said General Strek. "Col. If you think the enemy will let us drive into Stalingrad so easily, you are wrong!"

General Strek was right. As the Germans advanced step by step, the Soviet defense became increasingly tighter.

Of course, part of this is why Stalin personally went to Stalingrad to organize work and form the Stalingrad Front Army and the Southeast Front Army, and established a "punishment battalion" and a "blocking team".

"Look at this!" General Strek made a little bit of a position so that the two of them could see the map in front of him better: "The Don River on the left and the Volga River on the right. They formed a passage in front of us, with a cross-section of only more than a hundred kilometers. The Soviets laid two armies on the way we were advancing. But this is nothing. The problem is that we can only advance along the highway and the railway... The Soviets are already waiting for us in front, do you understand?"

Qin Chuan understood what Strek said, which is actually the weakness of the armored forces, and they rely heavily on traffic.

If it is in the area south of Stalingrad, there are large plains and grasslands. Such terrain is obviously more suitable for the German mechanized troops to fight, but the closer to Stalingrad, the more you get to Stalingrad, the mountains, lakes and rivers are intertwined, which is simply a nightmare for the Armored Army.

This is true. When the Fourth Army advances here, it can only take a defensive move and stalemate with the Soviet army on the opposite side.

"The left wing is our infantry, and the right wing is our armored troops!" General Strek said: "The 64th Soviet Army is standing in front of us. They have a total of 150,000 divisions, including a tank army!"

"How many tanks do they have?" Colonel Slain asked.

"The specific number is not clear!" General Strek replied: "But this is not a big problem. We have air supremacy. After we discover their tanks, we can destroy them with fighter jets first. The problem is that the Soviets have one narrow level after another. They aimed the cannons at the tanks' must-pass way. As long as one tank is destroyed, we may block our way forward!"

Tanks will encounter such problems when fighting in areas with complex terrain.

"Now, we can only place our hopes on the 6th Army!" General Strek pointed to a point on the map and said, "Karachi, General Paulus intends to launch a raid from here..."

"Then you have to cross the Don River!" Colonel Slain was a little surprised.

"Yes!" General Strek nodded: "Our offense attracted the strength and attention of the Soviets. Once successful, it would collapse the Soviets' defense line, although it was dangerous to do so!"

General Strek was right, because the battle in history was indeed the victory of the German army... Paulus led the Sixth Army to successfully cross the Don River and led Karachi, but this was completed with huge casualties and a large amount of supplies, so that the Sixth Group was unable to launch an attack on Stalingrad for a long time.

"Why don't we change the attack positions of infantry and armored troops?" Qin Chuan asked, looking at the map.

"What does it mean?" General Streck asked.

"I mean..." Qin Chuan pointed to the map and said: "The Soviets thought our tanks would only advance along railways and highways. So, they would put a large number of armored troops and anti-tank troops on the right wing, while the left wing only deployed light infantry, if we attacked their left wing with armored troops..."

"But, how do we attack?" General Streck said: "There are muddy roads everywhere, and tanks cannot pass!"
Chapter completed!