Bombers that bombed the frontier of the German 113th Infantry Division, the 16th Air Force Army from the Don Front. They bombed the enemy's positions under the order of Rokosovsky.
While the bombing was underway, in the Front Command more than 100 kilometers away, Chief of Staff Malining learned that the bomber group had begun to bomb the frontier of the German army, and asked Rokosovsky: "Comrade Commander, according to the Air Force's report, the enemy's frontier positions have become a sea of ​​fire, and there is no sign of a counterattack on the ground."
Rokosovsky nodded and asked back, "Where is General Kazakov?"
"He is in the artillery command at this moment," replied Malining, "waiting for your bombardment order!"
"In another ten minutes," Rokosovsky raised his hand and looked at his watch, and ordered Malining to say, "Just order the artillery to fire at the forefront of the 60th German Motorcycle Division, and the shelling time will be no less than half an hour."
"I understand." Malining agreed, picked up the phone on the table, and called the artillery command: "General Kazakov, the commander ordered that the artillery fire at the forefront of the enemy's 60th Motorized Division in ten minutes, and the artillery time will be no less than half an hour."
After giving the order, Malinin looked at Rokosovsky and asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, after the artillery and bombing are over, will he still order General Galanin's 24th Army to launch an attack on the enemy's defense line?"
"Yes, if we bomb and shell the enemy's frontier and delay the ground attack, we will definitely find that we are attacking feints." Rokosovsky replied with a smile: "We have invested such a large amount of capital, so we have to ask the Germans for some interest."
"If it weren't for the gathering of friendly troops and technical equipment, we could have launched a full-scale attack on the German army in two days." Malining said with regret: "It's a pity that in order to ensure that the general attack in more than ten days is not affected, this time we can only use the 24th Army, which has severely reduced troops, to launch a feint attack on the enemy."
"Chief of Staff, you are right." Rokosovsky nodded in agreement with Malining's statement: "The divisions of the 24th Army were severely reduced after a long and arduous battle. However, despite the exhaustion of the troops and the casualties, the commanders and fighters were full of fighting spirit. They clearly realized that their pulling operations today will directly support friendly forces fighting in Stalingrad, so that they have more confidence to defend the city."
As one of the few insiders, Malinin, after Rokosovsky finished speaking, he smiled bitterly: "Comrade Commander, I really didn't expect that any action we took before was the guerrillas behind the enemy to cooperate with us in the battle. But today we made such a big noise to cooperate with the guerrillas to launch an attack on the enemy's station."
"The two stations that the guerrillas are important material transfer stations for the Germans. Once occupied, it means that the German supply line has been cut off." Rokosovsky looked down at the map on the table and said thoughtfully: "The Germans may not have the intention to attack the city again, but instead draw enough troops to ensure the safety of their supply line."
After saying that, he picked up the teacup and took a sip of water, saying with some amusement: "Chief of Staff, although his superiors said that the offensive plan behind enemy lines was formulated by a captain of the 41st Guards Division, in my opinion, this matter is inseparable from Misha. I really didn't expect that although this kid was still a colonel, he indirectly commanded dozens of generals to let everyone mobilize the Germans according to his intentions to ensure that his subordinates can complete the offensive behind enemy lines."
Rokosovsky did not expect that Sokov was not aware of the operation plan before it was reported. It was a temporary operation plan that Guchakov had made to revenge the German bombing of Mamayevgang in order to give Sokov a breath. But what everyone could not imagine was that it was originally just a single operation plan that the guerrillas had done. After reporting to the Supreme Command, the Don Front received an order to cooperate in combat.
When the artillery of the Don Front launched artillery on the frontier of the German 60th Motorized Division, Paulus and Schmid began to study the intentions of the Soviet army. Schmid said: "Commander, we originally thought that the Russians were ready to break through the direction of the 113th Infantry Division, but judging from their actions, it seemed that they planned to carry out two simultaneous assaults from the direction of the 113th Infantry Division and the 60th Motorized Division at the same time."
"How is our army's defense in this area?" The military situation was urgent, and Paulus had no choice but to eat his second breakfast. Now he only cares about whether the existing defensive positions could block the Soviet attack: "Can they block the Russian attack?"
"Hisser Commander," Schmid, as the chief of staff of Paulus, was very competent. When he heard Paulus's question, he immediately replied without hesitation: "The defensive positions occupied by these two divisions were built by the Russians before. Not only was the terrain favorable, but it was also very strong. There should be no problem to block the Russians' attack in a short period of time."
After Schmid finished speaking, Paulus slapped the map with his hand and said, "Chief of Staff, call two division commanders and order them to speed up the movement of the troops. According to my estimate, after the bombing and shelling are over, the Russians will launch a large-scale attack, so as not to have no defensive troops on the position at that time."
"Don't worry, Commander." Schmidt replied respectfully: "I have explained the seriousness of the loss of composure to the two division commanders. They said they would use all transportation forces to transfer the troops to the forefront. However..."
"But what?" Seeing that the Chief of Staff was halfway through his speech, a embarrassed expression suddenly appeared on his face, Paulus urged impatiently: "Why don't you continue talking?"
"The two division commanders were worried that the troops would be bombed by Russian aircraft during the movement." Schmid reminded Paulus: "From the bombing of the front positions of the 113th Division, the Russians have the ability to dispatch two or three aviation divisions at the same time."
"Then call the commander of the Fourth Air Force." Paulus waved his hand at Schmid and said, "Let him dispatch fighter formations to cruise over the combat area to ensure that the air superiority on the battlefield is in our hands."
After Schmid and Paulus finished speaking, he asked tentatively: "Commander, do you need to report to Berlin immediately for the Russians to launch a counterattack?"
"Don't worry." Paulus shook his head and said, "We don't know how big the Russian counterattack is. If we report it rashly, we will not be able to explain it clearly. It is better to understand the direction of the Russian counterattack and the troops and technical equipment they used, and then report to Berlin."
The Soviet army bombed the frontier positions of the 113th Infantry Division for nearly half an hour. After all the bombers cast all the bombs, they turned around and flew back to the airport. After a long time after they left, the German fighter formation arrived late.
As a reconnaissance aircraft operating together in the fighter formation, when lowering the altitude and taking photos, he was surprised to find that the frontier position where a battalion was originally stationed had been bombed beyond recognition, with burning flames everywhere, and dark bullet craters that had been covered for several kilometers, and no living creatures could be seen at all.
Shortly after receiving the telegram from the frontier, the commander of the 113th German Army completely lost contact with the frontier. Not only did the phone not get through, but the other party did not respond to the radio call. After the chief of staff of the division reported the situation to the commander, he sighed and said in annoyance: "Grand Commander, I think the battalion that is standing on the frontier position should be destroyed."
"What, the entire army was destroyed?" The division commander immediately jumped out of his seat when he heard the Chief of Staff say this: "This is impossible. How come the number of people in seven or eight hundred will be gone?"
"But we only received a telegram from the front, and then we completely lost contact with them." The Chief of Staff saw that the division commander was angry, and he said carefully: "The best situation is that the communication room was hit by a bomb, and the command system and troops were still preserved."
"Chief of Staff," in order to figure out what was going on, the division commander ordered his chief of staff: "Immediately call the troops on the second line of defense and ask them to send people to the front line to see what was going on."
"Sir, I think you need to be mentally prepared." The Chief of Staff of the Division shivered when he thought of the fate of the frontier troops and said cautiously: "If this battalion had been stationed in fortifications established by the Russians, their losses would be much smaller in the just-concluded air strike. After all, there were air defense facilities in the fortifications of the Russians. But a few days ago, the battalion commander of this battalion felt that the Russians on the opposite side seemed to be insufficient, so he made a decision without authorization, and the original defense line advanced 600 meters."
"What, the battalion commander pushed the defense line forward six hundred meters?" Hearing the division chief said this, the division commander widened his eyes in surprise: "Why no one reported this to me?"
After hearing the division commander's words, the Chief of Staff was really amused and crying. He thought to himself, if it weren't for the Russians' sudden attack today, you might have hoped that all the troops would push their defense forward and further compress the Russians' activity space. But he could only think about these words in his heart, and he did not dare to say them casually in front of the division commander. He paused for a long time before he said vaguely: "Maybe this battalion commander is eager to make contributions and plans to move the defense forward to facilitate the possible attacks that may be launched next."
The division commander looked down at the map in front of him and asked his chief of staff: "If this battalion commander moved the defense line forward without authorization, the distance between them and the second line would be as high as 1,200 meters, which turned into 1,800 meters. No wonder the second line of defense could not see clearly what happened there."
He raised his head and ordered the Chief of Staff again: "Immediately call the commander of the second line of defense and ask him to send scouts immediately and take a motorcycle to the front line to figure out what was going on there."
"Sir, where is that battalion commander?" When the Chief of Staff picked up the microphone again, he asked specifically: "What are you going to deal with him?"
Hearing this question from the Chief of Staff, the division commander gritted his teeth and said, "When we repel the Russian attack, we will send the battalion commander to the military court. If everyone is like him, how can we command the troops?"
…………
After the bombing and artillery bombardment, the Soviet army used two infantry divisions to launch an attack on the defense areas of the 113th Infantry Division and the 60th Motorized Division under the cover of tanks and artillery fire.
This behavior of the Soviet army made Paulus and Schmid think that the Russians planned to launch an attack in this area to save Stalingrad's fate of falling. Therefore, Paulus issued combat orders to the two divisions attacked by the Soviet army, and at the same time ordered several divisions in the factory area north of Stalingrad to suspend the attack and build defense on the spot. He also transferred the 289th Strike and the 295th Infantry Division to a location attacked by the Soviet army.
After adjusting and deploying, Paulus breathed a sigh of relief and said to Schmid: "The Chief of Staff, the two divisions attacked by the Russians, can withstand a whole morning, then the two divisions drawn from the factory can launch an attack from the Russian flank under the cover of the aircraft and cut off their offensive forces in half."
Schmid, as if he saw the dawn of victory in Paulus's words, said excitedly: "You are right, Commander. As long as the 289th and 295th Infantry Divisions move quickly, they can attack the flanks of the Russian attacking troops before noon. When the Russians attacked, they did not pay attention to protecting their flanks. Our troops could easily cut them off and encircle them.
As long as we severely attack the Russian counterattack forces, we will no longer have to worry about threats from the flanks in the battle to attack Stalingrad."
"Yes, you're right." Paulus stared at the location of the Soviet troops marked on the map, pointed out with his fingers at the location of the Don River Front, and said with disgust: "Every time we launch a final attack on the city, the Russians in the north will suddenly launch an attack to disrupt our offensive steps. I hope that this time, our attack from the flanks will greatly damage the Russians' vitality and prevent our north from being threatened in a short period of time."
Schmid was a relatively cautious officer. After Paulus finished speaking, he carefully expressed his concerns: "Commander, Rokosovsky is the most capable Russian generals. I am worried that he might have some backup plan to deal with the attack we launched from the flanks."
"Chief of Staff," Paulus sneered: "For the Russians, Rokosovsky is an amazing general. But for us, it is just the Russians who pick tall from the shorts. Don't forget that his opponent is our Sixth Army, and it is a fantasy to defeat us. Maybe wait a few more days and you will meet this famous Russian general in our captive camp."
Chapter completed!