Chapter 754 Hope
At this time, Major General Ellen was still in contact with Manstein, because he knew that Manstein was their last hope and he could not give up.
"Your Excellency, Marshal!" Major General Ellen briefly reported the situation of the battle, and then said, "If we can persist until the end, I mean... the enemy will always repair the reservoir in the end to lower the water level. If we can persist until then , I hope you can organize reinforcements for Surovikino!"
The water level will of course drop, because the enemy will pass through Surovikino.
"Of course, General!" Manstein replied without thinking: "If you can persist until that moment, of course we will reinforce Surovikino, because we can cooperate internally and externally to regain Surovikino! But except Besides... I hope you understand, General! We are all professional soldiers, and we all know that Surovikino cannot be reinforced in this situation!"
"Thank you, Marshal!"
"Thank me for what? I didn't do anything!"
"No, Your Excellency Marshal!" Major General Ellen replied: "You tell me the truth, that's enough! Yes, I know you can't reinforce us in such a situation!"
Manstein on the other end of the phone was silent for a while, and then continued: "Originally, I hoped to win more air forces for you! You know, Surovikino is very important to us, and its loss will lead to more air forces. Puts us on the defensive. So you should at least be provided with air assistance. But..."
As soon as Major General Ellen heard this "but", his heart sank.
Sure enough, I heard Manstein go on to say: "The head of state did not agree to this proposal. To be precise...it is the Air Force Commander-in-Chief who disagrees!"
"Goering?"
"Yes!" Manstein replied helplessly: "You know, the plan to use air transport to meet the supply of the Sixth Army was proposed by Goering. He will not give up his reinforcements just because he wants to reinforce Surovikino. plan!"
At this time, Major General Ellen's mind was galloping with 10,000 grass-and-mud horses, all rushing towards the Air Force Commander-in-Chief who should be said to have lost his prestige in the past.
Manstein did not lie, he did hope to at least give reinforcements to the 29th Panzergrenadier Division in the air.
"We can't reinforce Surovikino from the ground!" Manstein said to Hitler: "But at least we can gain an advantage in the air, which is also good for us. On the one hand, it is to rescue the 29th Panzergrenadier Division. On the one hand, it can also buy us time to prepare, our reinforcements need time to rush to Surovikino and build a defense line, otherwise everything will be over! My troops and I will also be surrounded by the enemy!"
Hitler also saw this crisis. When he was hesitating, Goering interjected and said: "The problem is that the 29th Panzergrenadier Division is finished! Even if we provide them with air reinforcements, they will not be able to withstand much time... the entire Soviet Union Lovikino is flooded, how long can they hold on? And the 6th Army in Stalingrad is in danger. Do you know what it means to transfer the main force of the air force to the direction of Surovikino? It means that we are in Stalingrad The transport planes in the direction of Le will lose their air cover! Our transport planes will be attacked by the Russian Air Force and suffer heavy losses, which will even cause the supply interruption of the 6th Army! I don't know how long the 6th Army can hold out in this situation!"
Wars always have two sides, and Goering is right. 6th Army is equally important, and of course air supremacy over Stalingrad is also important.
If there is anything wrong, it is Goering's original air transportation plan.
This plan seems to be mighty and mighty, and it also made full use of the German air superiority to turn the tide when the 6th Army was defeated.
However, it used almost all of the German air force in the direction of Stalingrad, and even the bombers were used as transport aircraft to participate in the transportation... These bombers could have bombed wherever they wanted under the cover of German fighter planes, But now he works as a porter between Stalingrad and Kharkov.
The war is about this kind of "ebb and flow". Less bombing of important targets of the Soviet army is a loss to the German army, so the logistics supply of the Soviet army has been strengthened, such as Surovikino's supply transportation, The transportation of one train by one train should not be too cool... This can be imagined when the German bombers completely blocked the railway line.
What's more serious is that Goering's plan led to a serious shortage of air power in other directions for the Luftwaffe.
The German Air Force was originally trying to win more with less. If it was said that "win more with less" because of the quality of the pilots and the performance of the fighters before it could still gain the upper hand, now it can't take other directions into account in order to gain air supremacy over Stalingrad.
For example, in the direction of Surovikino, although the German Air Force is still tactically victorious, it always beats the Soviet Air Force with a battle loss rate of one to three points.
But this tactical victory can be said to be meaningless, because Surovikino's air supremacy is actually in the hands of the Soviet army, and the German Air Force even has to work hard to detect Surovikino's situation and lose a few fighters. And the price of the reconnaissance plane broke in.
Of course, it's too late to talk about Goering's strategic mistake at this time, not to mention that Hitler didn't realize that the German army would be in such a predicament because of this strategic mistake... So, any tactical victory Neither can make up for strategic mistakes.
Therefore, Hitler thought that what Goering said was reasonable, and immediately replied to Manstein: "We have no more planes to reinforce Surovikino, but I believe that the 29th Panzergrenadier Division can get what you need." Time, they are the best troops in the Empire! One of the first troops to receive the designation 'Grenadiers', they will not let you down!"
So the current situation came into being. Manstein could only watch Surovikino being besieged by the enemy in front of him. Although he knew that this place was very important, he wanted reinforcements in every possible way... but there were no conditions.
"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Manstein asked, apologetically.
"What you have done is enough, Your Excellency!" Major General Ellen replied: "Please rest assured, Your Excellency! We will not be defeated so easily by the enemy! In fact, we will persist until the end, until the water level drops ! I am waiting for your reinforcements!"
"Very good!" Manstein replied: "I have confidence in you!"
Major General Ellen finally found a glimmer of hope at this time.
However, just as he put down the phone, the adjutant ran down from upstairs and reported: "Aircraft, a large number of enemy aircraft! They are here to bomb us!"
(end of this chapter)
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