Chapter 457: award

Chapter 457 Commendation

Manstein led the German army to successfully escape from the Crimea, because he grasped the timing just right, and did not start to cross the bay with fishing boats on a large scale until dawn, which made the Soviet army unable to hunt down.

But Manstein was not feeling well.

Manstein returned to Yamyansk by plane.

The current situation is that the Soviet army occupies Zhankoy at the southern end of the Perekop Isthmus, and the German army occupies Yamiansk at the northern end. There is an isthmus only 8 kilometers wide between them, and no one can do anything about it.

Hitler did not have any tone of blaming Manstein.

On the contrary, Hitler also praised Manstein in the telegram.

"Well done, my general!" Hitler said, "When everyone thought we were unable to stop the enemy's attack and demanded to retreat, you stood up and let the enemy, especially those cowards who demanded retreat , Let them see a real imperial army, a real imperial general!"

Hitler's praise for Manstein is not too much, because he can indeed turn the tide when the German army was on the verge of collapse.

Although it cannot be said that he rescued the Central Army, at least the attack of the 11th Army threatened the southern flank of the Russian Army, and at the same time transferred a large number of Russian troops to the south to give the Central Army a breathing time.

But Manstein was not excited about it at all. He looked at the Crimean Peninsula from the window on the plane. The white snow field was full of tanks, cars and artillery that the German army could not take away and exploded on their own. The smoke filled the coast, as if trying to cover up the groups of German soldiers who were panicking over the fishing boats.

"It's a shame!" Manstein said to himself.

If Manstein had never been defeated on the battlefield before this, then this battle was a solid and undisputed defeat, especially what Manstein could not accept was that, as a nobleman, he It was defeated by a captain.

After thinking about it, Manstein said to the staff: "Major Fein, you are responsible for investigating the captain. I need to know everything about him. The more detailed the better!"

"Yes, General!" The staff officer replied, hesitating for a while before asking: "Which captain, General?"

Manstein looked at the staff officer with incredible eyes, stared at him for a while, and then said: "'Breakthrough hero', otherwise, which captain do you think?"

"Yes, General!" The staff officer nodded with relief.

Looking at the back of the staff officer leaving, Manstein shook his head and said to the adjutant: "We failed. The sad thing is that they still don't know whose hands they lost?"

"It's not just us who don't know!" The adjutant handed a newspaper to Manstein and said, "Stalin may not know either!"

Manstein spread out the newspaper and saw that there was a German note on it, which was a good news about the successful occupation of Feodosia by the Russian army. (Note: The Russian army occupied Feodosia a few days ago. Because of the lag of the newspaper, it did not flow to the German army until this time)

"Look at this!" The adjutant pointed to one place and said, "They say it was Mehlis, that idiot who beat us!"

"The 'King of Small Reports'?" Manstein asked.

The nickname of Mechelis, the "King of Small Reports", can be said to be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, even the German army knows it.

"Yes!" The adjutant replied: "I think it should be the 'King of Small Reports' who stole the captain's credit. What do you think, General?"

Manstein thought for a while, then nodded and said: "You are right, Detrich, if this is the case...why don't we cause some trouble between them?"

"Trouble? I don't understand you, General!"

Manstein didn't speak, but just raised the newspaper in his hand.

Of course Shulka didn't know this. At this time, he had returned to Anapa safely with the "Tiger", taking his troops and an entire engineer battalion.

All armed and loaded... They had orders from Moscow that anyone approaching without consent should be considered a spy and killed.

Then, the wreckage of the "Tiger" was sent to an underground warehouse.

This underground warehouse has been emptied before this, in order to fear that the ammunition explosion will destroy the "Tiger".

So there is only one "Tiger" in a huge warehouse, which looks empty and desolate.

Sisoy, Kalashnikov and other scientists have been waiting here for a long time. When they saw Shulka and others coming in, they hurriedly greeted them, while looking at the "Tiger" covered by canvas. While asking: "Is that it?"

"Yes!" Shulka replied: "If they have a few more tanks like this, I'm afraid we won't be able to come back!"

"Good job, Shulka!" Sisoi said.

Kalashnikov nodded to Shulka, and impatiently untied the rope and opened the canvas.

The searchlights were turned on one by one, and then the majestic "Tiger Style" appeared in front of them.

The scientists were stunned for a moment, and then burst into surprise.

Before this, they thought that the Soviet army was completely crushing the German army at least in terms of tanks, protection, firepower, and mobility.

If it weren't for the lack of communication equipment and inappropriate tactics, the Soviet T34 would undoubtedly be able to beat the German army to the ground.

In other words, at least in terms of tank development, it is not the fault of scientists.

But now when the "Tiger" appeared in front of them, they knew that this was going to be overturned again... T34 is like a toy in front of this thing.

Then, dozens of scientists swarmed up, some drilled into the tank, and some measured the artillery and armor. Of course, Kalanikov, who was a tank soldier, was among them.

"What a big guy!" Hisoy said to Shulka: "We were very lucky to capture one. Otherwise, we would have to fight with countless tanks and soldiers for a long time to come." The price is 'trying' to find its weaknesses!"

"It doesn't seem to make much difference now!" Shulka said. "Do we have something to deal with it?"

Hisoi was speechless.

This is just like the "T34" crisis for the German army before, and the "Tiger" crisis for the Soviet army.

"Front armor 102MM!"

"Gun shield 135MM!"

"The caliber of the artillery is 88MM!"

…

"How did they animate this thing?!"

102MM, which just exceeds the armor-piercing capability of the bazooka, that is to say, even if the bazooka shooter can approach and hit it, it may not be able to do anything to it.

"You're right!" Hisoi shook his head and said to Shulka: "We seem to be in trouble, big trouble!"

(end of this chapter)