Chapter 483 Battle of Kharkov
But the battle situation is actually a bit beyond the control of the German army.
This is mainly due to the serious lack of preparation of the German army... The attack that the German army is preparing is to assemble the 6th Army, the 17th Army and the 1st Panzer Army.
But of the three armies, only the 6th Army is stationed in Kharkov, and the other two armies are in intense assembly and preparation.
The Soviet army launched a full-scale attack with two front armies and the Kyiv defenders, which made the German army respond a little hastily.
The result of the first battle gave Paulus a headache.
"General!" The adjutant reported: "The enemy's left flank has advanced 30 kilometers, and the right flank has advanced 50 kilometers. On the other hand, the Kyiv defenders are also attacking our army's right flank with all their strength, and have already advanced 30 kilometers!"
Paulus frowned.
Obviously, the Kyiv defenders hope to join forces with the right wing of the Soviet army and cut off the connection between the 6th Army and Manstein's 11th Army.
The two armies attack one behind the other, one army advances 50 kilometers a day and the other 30 kilometers a day, and the distance from Kyiv to Kharkov is only 520 kilometers. According to this speed, it only takes six or seven days. .
At that time, the 6th Army can only escape the encirclement by retreating north...and this will make Manstein's 11th Army become a lone army and be surrounded by several sides.
As a result, the German army's achievements in the south will collapse in an all-round way.
"General!" The adjutant reported with a telegram: "The 1st Panzer Army needs at least a week to assemble!"
"A week?" said Paulus, "It seems we can't count on them!"
The First Armored Army participated in the Battle of Moscow, and its strength was greatly reduced. Not to mention that it is still resting in Bryansk, 600 kilometers away from Kharkov. At this time, it is not easy to transport them up urgently by train.
After a pause, Paulus asked, "How is the situation of the enemy?"
"We have very little information!" The adjutant replied: "According to preliminary estimates from the results of air force reconnaissance, their infantry is three times more than ours, artillery is twice as many, and tanks are 5.5 times more than ours, and a considerable part of them is T34!"
Paulus couldn't help but raised his head in surprise: "There are 5.5 times more tanks than us?"
"Yes, General!" replied the adjutant.
Paulus said nothing, and immediately ordered: "Send a telegram to the head of state, we need the support of the air force!"
"yes!"
So, the 10th Air Force, which originally provided air cover for Manstein, immediately invested in the Battle of Kharkov.
But it's not enough.
The reason is that the Soviet Union has short days and long nights in winter, so the aircraft can’t function for a long time. When it gets dark, Soviet tanks and infantry will launch a crazy attack on the German army.
Objectively speaking, if the fight continues like this, the Soviet army may indeed succeed.
But Paulus still has the upper hand after all.
After he was silent for a while, he pointed to the map and ordered: "Here, Zmiyov, assemble an armored army!"
"But the general!" the adjutant replied: "We don't have a panzer corps!"
"You're right, Colonel Fischer!" said Paulus, "but the Russians don't know this!"
As a result, Zmiyov added an armored army. From time to time, a group of German tanks drove out and turned around, and then there were "tanks" camouflaged with white canvas. They seemed to be waiting for the Soviet army to continue. Go forward and give the enemy a hard blow from its flank.
The commander of the Soviet army, Marshal Timoshenko, was fooled. He ordered the Soviet army to fight steadily, not to require speed but to gather sufficient strength.
This is obviously based on the decision made by the German army to assemble an armored army on the flank, because it has enough strength so that it will not be easily repulsed by the German counterattack, which makes the Soviet attack twice as slow.
So, the German army took advantage of the time gained to gather its troops.
Only five days... The German 1st Panzer Army suddenly launched a counterattack under the cover of the Air Force before it was fully prepared.
The 1st Armored Army did not stand in front of the Soviet Army, nor did it attack the Soviet Army's flanks, but attacked the Soviet Army's hinterland. It advanced 80 kilometers in one day and cut off the Soviet Army's logistics supply line.
In an instant, the situation on the entire battlefield turned 180 degrees. The Soviet army that tore through the German defense line was in danger of being surrounded in an instant.
Shuerka on the other side is leading troops to build an underground warehouse.
To be precise, it is not "construction", but perfect.
Because these underground warehouses originally existed, and some were even spacious basement workshops.
The problem is that there are too many sundries and machines in these warehouses and factories, and at the same time, there are too few and too small imports and exports, which is very inconvenient for storing materials.
Shuerka's method is to dig a **** outside these underground warehouses, and then build a tunnel several meters wide and high to lead directly to the underground warehouse.
In this way, the car can directly drive into the warehouse to transport piles of scrap iron, sundries, and waste machines, and then transport piles of supplies into it.
Some basement floors are not high enough, that is, cars cannot enter... This problem is easy to solve, as long as a road is dug one meter down in the warehouse, cars can easily enter and exit the warehouse along this road.
This method is obviously more efficient, otherwise, if it is only transported by manpower, it will not be possible to store much material in a short period of time, so Shulka's foresight will lose its value.
"Shulka, Shulka..." While Shulka and the soldiers were busy, Kalashnikov ran over and said out of breath: "The Germans counterattacked, they surrounded our force!"
"How many troops are surrounded?" Shulka asked.
"All of the 6th Army, the 57th Army, and part of the 9th and 38th Army!" Kalashnikov replied.
A group army of the Soviet Army usually has three armies, some even more, so there are hundreds of thousands of troops surrounded.
This sudden change also shook Moscow, especially Stalin.
Because this attack was launched by Stalin in spite of the opposition of others, even not long ago, Stalin was complacently demonstrating to those generals who opposed the attack at the meeting.
"You think we shouldn't have launched this attack!" Stalin said, "Thought that the German army has the strength to stop our attack, but the victory at the front proves that this is not the case. Kharkov is already surrounded by us, and the Germans seem to have no choice but to surrender. This choice!"
However, he is only three seconds handsome.
Stalin’s words were still in his ears, but the front line suddenly heard that a large number of German armored troops had penetrated deep into the hinterland and encircled the Soviet army.
(end of this chapter)
