In fact, with the complete completion of the land encirclement of Stalingrad, the Germans, who knew that this city named after the Bolshevik leader was definitely not easy to attack, also transferred two other people from the north who almost killed Malashenko.
Breaking up Leningrad's "old friends": two 283mm K5 train guns.
Leningrad is still willing to die rather than surrender. The situation of fighting to the death rather than surrender has made the German army who intend to besiege this holy city understand one thing. The strategy of encircling without attacking and trying to make the opponent collapse on its own does not work at all on Russian soil.
At least it didn't work for this group of Bolsheviks who were incredibly steadfast in their beliefs.
Since it cannot be obtained, destroy it completely.
Following this eternal and supreme truth, the German army repeated its old tricks after completely destroying Sevastopol, trying to make the same scene happen to Stalingrad. The 800 has been proven to be unparalleled in actual combat.
mm giant cannon and two 283mm K5 train guns, which are powerful anti-city weapons specially used by the German army to achieve this goal.
While the German troops in the west of the city were busy serving Miss Dora for more than a week, Malashenko, who continued to retreat and rest in accordance with the orders of the front army headquarters, received a lot of supplementary blood one after another.
These reinforcements were cobbled together for Malashenko in various forms.
Some are the remaining tank units that were disabled by the German army and were ordered by the front army headquarters to report here to Malashenko. Others are "zombie tanks" that were renovated and sent for the second time after being destroyed on the battlefield. Even the infantry units were sent here.
The few German tanks captured during counter-offensive and defensive operations were also packed and sent over.
It is not an easy task to gather such a bunch of rags and rags together, not to mention that the First Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment led by Malashenko is still an elite force, and it is necessary to use these "rotten fish and dead shrimps" to make up the numbers.
The embarrassing situation even caused Malashenko to feel a little confused when faced with this situation.
"How can we unite such a group of rags and rags? Lavery, I never thought that our army would become like this one day."
Compared with Malashenko's gloomy look, Lavrinenko's face was not much better either.
"But we always have to rely on these to defeat those Germans, right? No matter what, this is something that cannot be changed."
In desperation, Malashenko had no choice but to catch the duck and force himself on the shelf. Then, with the joint assistance of Lavrinenko and Commissar Petrov, he began to try to reunite this stragglers into a whole.
However, in the absence of space for training activities, all courses and tactical arrangements can only be conducted on the blackboard and on paper. Malashenko doubts very much how much the actual effect of this will be compromised.
Malashenko is busy training this group of stragglers. Zhukov, who has officially taken over the overall command of Stalingrad, is also having a hard time. Comrade Stalin, his loving father far away in Moscow, sends telegrams almost every few hours.
Or call to inquire about the progress of the counterattack plan.
"The time has been delayed to the beginning of September, Zhukov, the situation is deteriorating rapidly! The enemy is only 3 kilometers away from the main city of Stalingrad. If you don't order something to be done, Stalingrad may be captured today or tomorrow.
!”
Stalin on the other end of the phone got angry and hinted to Zhukov to seize the time and start a counterattack immediately. However, Zhukov, who also had hard-to-recite scriptures, did not hesitate to reveal the truth and directly rejected Stalin's hints on the phone.
"The three armies in my hand now lack enough counterattack ammunition and supplies! The German air force keeps bombing, and our aviation force cannot even maintain air superiority over the city!"
"Two days, I only need two days to complete the counterattack preparations! The original plan was to start the counterattack on September 5. It is impossible to launch the offensive two days in advance as you said! The fastest is to
Only at dusk tomorrow night will sufficient supplies arrive and be distributed to the counterattack forces. Before then, throwing the troops into battle will only cause unnecessary losses."
It has long been commonplace for Zhukov to bully Stalin. If anyone else had done this, Stalin would have become furious on the spot and even ordered him to be dragged out and executed. However, Stalin, who was accustomed to Zhukov's bullish temper, was cold on the other end of the phone.
replied.
"Do you think the enemy will wait for you to slowly prepare everything before launching an attack? The Germans are good at quick raids, but now you are responding slowly and passively! Yereomenko has told me the situation. If we continue
If we continue to do nothing in the northern suburbs of Stalingrad, the enemy will only need one fierce attack to completely capture Stalingrad!"
Comrade Stalin, his loving father who was far away in Moscow, had no clear idea of the specific battle situation on the front line.
Zhukov, who was already ready to fight the Germans in the city to the death, did not agree with counterattack now, because it would waste the already valuable defensive forces in front of the German offensive.
But after being jerked off by his loving father Comrade Stalin several times in a row, Zhukov would no longer make the same mistake again. The cold tone on the other end of the phone gradually solidified into an unquestionable one. Zhukov knew clearly that if he continued to push the bull in this situation, he would not make the same mistake again.
Doing so may cause unpredictable results.
After organizing the words in his mind for a while, Zhukov, who had already decided to make some concessions to Stalin, finally calmly held the microphone in his hand and replied.
"My experience and the current situation tell me that it is absolutely impossible for the Germans to decisively capture Stalingrad within a day or two. I firmly believe that my prediction will not be wrong, Comrade Stalin!"
"In the past week, I have met with many front-line commanders and comrades. They generally said that the morale of the troops is high and they are ready for a decisive battle with the Germans. Moreover, we have continuous supplies backed by the Volga River.
!This is completely different from the situation in Kiev back then, but it is somewhat similar to the situation in Leningrad."
"Please allow me to launch a counterattack on September 5 as originally planned, and give me two more days! I will make every effort to achieve the strategic goal!"
Stalin, who fell silent on the other end of the phone, was also considering the situation in detail.
He clearly knew that it was not easy for Zhukov to launch a counterattack in accordance with his orders at this time based on Zhukov's bullish temper. Stalin still insisted on his opinion even though he knew that Zhukov was unwilling to launch a counterattack and it was contrary to his own opinions.
Now that Zhukov had taken the lead in making concessions, after weighing the pros and cons for a while, Stalin finally made the same move after careful consideration.
"Okay, Zhukov, I will launch a counterattack as you said and according to the original plan. But remember one thing, although the counterattack is locally limited, it must be concentrated enough to be fierce. The first goal is to crush the enemy's offensive edge!"