Chapter 672: Head

Chapter 672 Leader

The matter of mobilizing troops and condemning generals was naturally carried out by Zhukov.

The commander of the Southwest Front is Lieutenant General Vatutin, who was temporarily transferred from the Voronezh Front.

The Stalingrad Front was commanded by Yelimenko, and the Don Front Army was brought in by Admiral Rokossovsky...

These transfers were all carried out in secret, and only a few people in the headquarters knew that the orders were issued in the name of the original commander.

The reason for doing this is because they are worried about what the Germans will notice when the commander is transferred: Rokossovsky, Vatutin, Yelimenko, these are experienced generals who grew up in the war, and then Plus Zhukov... If the Germans know that these people are all concentrated in the Stalingrad area, then don't think about it, these Russians must have some big moves in the direction of Stalingrad.

In addition to this is the mobilization of troops.

The troops and equipment of the Don River Front Army were transferred to the Southwest Front Army. In the end, the Southwest Front Army had five armies, including two infantry infantry armies, a tank army army, and two air force armies, while the Don River Front Army had only four miscellaneous armies that were seriously lacking. .

Giving this force to Rokossovsky is not to look down on him, on the contrary Zhukov trusts Rokossovsky.

Because as Shulka said, although the Don River Front Army is the weakest of the three armies, and its tasks are also secondary, it only seems to be secondary, and each of them is very important. For example, to cover the flank of the Southwest Front Army, or to delay the German Sixth Army...

You must know that the German Sixth Army is completely a German army, and the Soviet army always has a sense of fear and greater psychological pressure when facing the German army.

This is actually a bit like Tian Ji’s horse racing, that is, using a bad horse against a good horse, so the probability of winning is even greater.

The problem is that the "bad horse" of the Don River Front Army can't get rid of it yet, so it needs an excellent commander.

There is no need for Shulka to worry about these. He originally wanted to meet Rokossovsky, his old superior, but soon he knew that he and the 82nd Infantry Regiment would be transferred to the Stalingrad Front Army.

"You are already the commander of the 82nd Infantry Regiment!" Zhukov said.

"What?"

"Major Mikhailvich is injured!" Zhukov explained: "Although his life is not in danger, he has not enough energy to command the battle. I think you are fully capable of commanding a regiment! In addition, the 82nd Infantry Regiment includes several The cadet company will be incorporated into the main attack force, you have no objection!"

"Yes, Comrade Zhukov!" Shulka replied: "I have no objection!"

This is actually what it should be. Although Stalingrad also needs elites at this time, interspersed troops need elites even more, especially elites like the 82nd Infantry Regiment who have grown up on the battlefield and can deal with various difficulties (Note: Step 82 There is even a naval infantry battalion in the corps, and it has relevant experience in using amphibious landing craft to cross the river before, which is very important for crossing the river with troops interspersed).

Two days later, the early stage battle started.

The so-called early battle refers to what Shulka called "feint attack".

In fact, the battle between the enemy and us on the Soviet-German contact line has never stopped, but before that, the scale was relatively small and most of the Soviet troops were on the defensive.

Now, in order to consume the German troops and attract reinforcements, the Soviet army is launching a medium-scale counterattack almost across the board.

At the same time, the Soviet troops on Mamayev Gang withdrew from the theater pretending to be invincible.

In fact, this is not even a "pretend", because Khrushchev really sacrificed the strength of two battalions in order to pretend to be more like... Khrushchev ordered to reduce the supply of troops stationed at Mamayev Post, and another The side also strictly ordered him to stick to Mamayev Post and not to take a step back.

This is why I don’t need to say more. If you just order a retreat, you will give up a strategic location to the German army for no reason. It is difficult for the German army to doubt it.

However, if it was shot down abruptly by the German army, and it took considerable casualties before it was shot down, it would undoubtedly enhance its credibility.

It's just pity for the two battalions stationed on Mamayev Hill... If you stick to it, you are doomed to collapse, because the supplies are seriously insufficient. The superiors told them that the communication line on the east bank was completely blocked by the enemy and an ammunition depot was blown up by the enemy. , So the ammunition is in a hurry.

In fact, the bombing of the ammunition depot by the German army is also a part of acting. It is too easy to do this. It is too easy to pile up gasoline and explosives at a railway station. With a bang, a fiery mushroom cloud rose from the train station.

Even the German pilots were startled by this scene, and then they shouted excitedly: "We blew up the enemy's ammunition depot! Repeat, we blew up the enemy's ammunition depot!"

"How do you know this?" asked the superior.

"The flames from the explosion of the ammunition depot can be seen from more than ten kilometers away!" The pilot replied: "I'm pretty sure that the ammunition depot was destroyed!"

Although these pilots didn't even know which lucky guy dropped the bomb and hit the ammunition depot, the good news was verified by the reconnaissance plane and passed on step by step.

So, this perfectly echoed the dilemma of insufficient supplies at Mamayev Post. Even if the Soviet army was captured and interrogated by the German army, the German army still got the news.

However, under such circumstances, it is almost impossible for Mamayev Gang to win the battle, and at the same time they cannot retreat, because the command issued the death order one after another:

"We must persevere and fight to the last man. As you know, Mamayev Post is very important to us!"

"People are in the position, don't take a step back! We will send you supplies immediately!"

…

This was strongly opposed even by Golikov.

"We can't do this!" Golikov called Khrushchev: "First of all, Mamayev Gang is very important to Stalingrad, which will cause panic in Stalingrad. Secondly, Stalingrad has insufficient troops, Especially the lack of experienced veterans, and these two battalions are combat-experienced troops! We can't just leave them on the ground and sacrifice them!"

"We have to do this, Comrade Golikov!" Khrushchev replied without hesitation: "You have to know, this is for the sake of the overall situation! If you can't do it, then I will give the order to someone else !"

So Golikov didn't dare to say anything more, he knew what Khrushchev meant by "change another person to give the order".

(end of this chapter)