The German command system failed, and the troops below could not contact the group army and the army-level command units, and they were immediately at a loss. Not to mention ordinary soldiers, even the division commanders did not know whether their troops should continue to attack the Soviet army, or would quickly withdraw from the city and move towards the Don River.
The commander of the 24th Armored Division, Lensky, is a typical example. He first received an order to withdraw the troops from the silicate factory, and then received an order to attack the workers' new village. Who knew that before the attack began, he wanted to confirm the offensive order, but he could not contact the Group Army Commander. Even General Schlemmer, the commander of the 14th Armored Army, was lost. In this case, Lensky didn't know what to do? Should he continue to attack according to the original order, or like other troops, withdraw from the existing area and rush to the Don River as soon as possible.
Just when the German army was indecisive and didn't know what to do, Belkin's shrinking regiment had quietly withdrawn from the barricade factory and in the shortest time, they entered a defensive position northwest of the Workers' New Village, ready to stop the attack of the German 24th Armored Division there.
When Belkin came to his regiment command post, the communication line had already been put into use. He immediately asked the communications troops to connect to the division headquarters and spoke to Sokov in person: "Misha, my troops have all entered a new defensive position and are seizing the time to build solid fortifications."
"That's great, this is really great." Sokov suddenly felt confident when he learned that Belkin's troops had entered the position. Although the reduction regiment had fewer troops than the other three regiments, when it comes to combat effectiveness, his own direct troops were the strongest. With their protection of the right wing of the main force of the division, the possibility of being cut off by the German army in half was infinitely zero. "With your regiment guarding our flank, I can rest assured."
"Misha," Belkin and Sokov finished speaking, and said with some embarrassment: "In the battle to defend the barricade factory, we sacrificed a lot of commanders and fighters, but the more serious losses were the bazooka. So far, there were only two. I think there were only two bazooka. If you want to block the German armored division, you can only let the soldiers carry cluster grenades to blow up the enemy's tanks and fill them with their lives."
"My political commissar, if there is no need, don't let the soldiers hold cluster grenades to blow up the enemy's tanks. The casualties will be too great." Sokov knew that using this tactic to deal with the enemy's tanks, his own troops exchange ratio might be three to one or four to one, and the casualties of other friendly troops were at least ten times that of his own. After Belkin and his friends entered their current positions, they might have to hold there for two or three months. If they fight all the troops too early, how can they fight the remaining battles?
It is precisely for this reason that Sokov said to Belkin: "My political commissar, my political commissar has recently transported new bazooka and supporting ammunition on the other side. I will send someone to you later to send you twenty bazooka and supporting ammunition."
Belkin was not a selfish person. After hearing Sokov's promise, he did not immediately be happy, but asked cautiously: "Will sending twenty rocket launchers to my regiment make the anti-tank power of other regiments weak?"
"My political commissar, don't worry about other defense zones." Sokov explained to Belkin: "The three regiments deployed on the front of Mamayev's hill have solid fortifications, and even in the face of the crazy attack of the German army, they are fully capable of defending them."
"Can you really hold it?" Belkin questioned Sokov's statement.
"There should be no problem," Sokov explained to him in order to strengthen Belkin's information: "The 71st German Division, which was defeated by us, was killed by our Air Force, and the division commander Roskei was seriously injured. The division's division has no ability to counterattack for the time being. I think in this case, there should be no problem for the three guard regiments to defend their existing positions."
"My political commissar," Sokov figured out something during this period. The movies about Stalingrad that I saw before were all artistically processed. At the beginning of the counterattack, the German army was beaten by the Soviet army without any power to fight back. They were all artistically processed. To eliminate these hundreds of thousands of enemies, even if a million troops took action at the same time, it would not be possible in just a few months. Therefore, what he can do now is to rely on the existing defensive positions and consume as much of the German army's vitality as possible. "The task I give your regiment is very simple, it is to try all means to defend the existing defensive positions. How about it, are you confident?"
"Misha, don't worry." Belkin replied confidently about the question raised by Sokov: "As long as we have enough anti-tank weapons, there is no big problem in defending the position."
"Comrade Political Commissar, I want to remind you one thing." Seeing that the other party answered carelessly, Sokov was afraid that he would underestimate the enemy, he quickly reminded him: "Our army will not be able to destroy Paulus's troops overnight. You must be prepared for several months. Also, I guess during this period, the superiors may not add any troops to us, so in the battle, you have to find a way to reduce the casualties of the troops. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Belkin heard Sokov say this to himself in such a solemn tone, and immediately realized that he was too optimistic about the situation. He sat at Sokov's former partner and believed in Sokov's judgment. Since the other party said that the battle would last for several months, it would definitely take several more months. If he really exhausted all his troops, then when the final counterattack began, he could only be for the bystanders: "I will use the troops in my hands reasonably and firmly block the enemy's attack."
As soon as Sokov put down the phone, a communications officer hurried over and said to Cydolin: "Report to Comrade Chief of Staff, I just received a telegram from the Front Command."
"Take it and see it." Cidolin couldn't help but feel shocked when he learned that it was a telegram from the front army. He quickly stretched out his hand to ask for the telegram he had just received.
"Comrade Commander, good news!" Sidolin had just looked at a few lines and showed an ecstasy expression on his face: "The Front Command announced that the 36th Mechanized Brigade of General Wolsky's Mechanized 4th Army belonging to General Wolsky's Mechanized 4th Army, and the 45th Brigade of the 4th Tank Army of the Southwest Front, have successfully met at the Soviet farm in the Don River Basin!"
As soon as Cidolin finished speaking, the people in the command immediately cheered in unison. Everyone knew in their hearts that as the two fronts met on the Soviet farm, the German retreat was completely cut off, and Paulus's Sixth Army and Hort's Fourth Armored Army were both surrounded by the Soviet army.
"Comrade Commander," Ivanov and other command centers cheered less, and asked Sokov tentatively: "How many enemies do you think we can destroy in the encirclement?"
"Comrade Deputy Commander," Sokov did not answer the question immediately, but asked Ivanov: "How much do you think we can eliminate?"
"I guess there will be at least 100,000 German troops surrounded by our army this time." Ivanov heard Sokov's problem and pinched his chin with his hands and said thoughtfully: "I guess I can destroy at least 50,000 or 60,000 of them."
Sokov did not comment on Ivanov's speculation. He knew very well that after Paulus and Hot's troops were surrounded, even the Soviet command had not yet figured out how many enemies there were in the encirclement. They always believed that there were only more than 100,000 enemies at best, so when formulating the encirclement plan, they came according to the standard of annihilation of 100,000 people. So some troops suffered unnecessary losses when attacking because they miscalculated the enemy's strength.
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov thought that the staff officer just said to Cydolin that the telegram was an order from the front, and that it must not only convey the news of the meeting, but also had more important content later. He looked at several telegrams in Cydolin's hand and asked, "What else was said in the telegram?"
"Comrade Commander, the order is very long, I will read it to you slowly." After Cydollin finished speaking, he picked up the telegram and read it: "Red Army soldiers, commanders and political workers!
The moment for the harsh, but righteous punishment of the mean enemy—the German Jesses occupier.
The German robbers betrayed our peaceful home, destroy it and humiliate our great people.
Just recently, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the great October Revolution. The October Socialist Revolution transferred the regime from landlords, capitalists to workers and peasants, and it brought equality and freedom to the oppressed people of Russia and carried out unprecedented transformation of our country.
We live in a peaceful environment, and we use our tenacious labor to build factories, collective farms and state-owned farms, and build schools and universities.
All of us have received the fruits of our great labor. The enemy has destroyed our peaceful labor life. They want to conquer our country and turn our people into slaves to the German nobles and landlords.
Hitler and his party members deceived the German people, frantically plundered the property of the people of European countries, and launched an attack on our country. The enemy was able to advance to the city of Stalingrad. Under the city of this strong castle beside the Volga River, we stopped the enemy. Because of our heroic battle, the enemy suffered great losses in the battle under the city of Stalingrad.
The officers and soldiers of the Stalingrad Front became role models for brave, tenacious and selfless combat. Now the glorious mission of launching a powerful attack on the enemy has fallen on our shoulders.
In order to repay the blood debt from the thugs who killed our wife and children, and to repay the blood debt for the officers and soldiers who died in blood, we should ruthlessly destroy the enemy.
Comrades, attack bravely!
Every one of us who goes to fight knows that we must liberate our sacred territory, cities, towns and people from the German villains who invade our country and oppress the freedom-loving Soviet people.
...
How excited is our people whenever we hear that we are starting to attack, and we are moving forward, and we are liberating our land.
We will surely defend the Volga Fortress, Stalingrad, and we will surely destroy the enemy and drive countless enemy troops to places far away from the Volga River.
I order: The Stalingrad Front will carry out a resolute attack on the mortal enemy, the German invaders, to destroy them, and to complete the tasks assigned by the motherland with gloriousness.
Comrades! Move towards victory! Eliminate the German invaders!
Signature: Front Commander Yelemenko, Front Military Commissioner Khrushchev."
After Sokov finished reading this thousand-word order, he quickly browsed it and handed the telegram to Anisimov: "Comrade Political Commissar, please tell every commander and fighter of the front command through the broadcast."
"What should I do with the Belkin regiment?" Anisimov received the telegram and reminded Sokov: "They have just entered a new defensive position and the broadcast has not been installed yet."
"This is easy to deal with." Sokov said without hesitation: "You can find someone to copy a copy after the broadcast and send someone to Captain Berkin."
"I understand, I'll do this right away." Anisimov nodded, got up and walked out of the command center.
…………
Early the next morning, Lensky gathered twenty tanks, one infantry battalion, and one company of infantry soldiers, and launched an attack on the Belkin regiment. Lensky thought that the militia troops were responsible for the defense of this area, so he did not make any artillery preparations, so he launched a swaggering rushing in.
The offensive troops began to progress very smoothly, and the Soviet army's positions were quiet, not to mention gunfire, even the figures could not be understood. The Chief of Staff of the Division said to Lensky with great pride: "Grand Commander, maybe the militia who were standing on the positions would have been frightened to escape when they saw our tanks passing by. According to my estimate, our troops might be able to easily break through the Russian defense."
Lensky, holding a telescope, saw that there was no movement on the Soviet position in the distance, and agreed with his chief of staff's judgment: "Chief of Staff, you are right. Seeing so many of our tanks and infantry rushing up, those militias who stood firm in their positions might have escaped without a trace..."
As soon as he finished speaking, several objects with long white smoke belts flew out from the crater and flew straight towards the tank that was moving forward. Those who hit the tank directly immediately raised a ball of fire, and then the raging fire and smoke wrapped the tank. Even if the target was not hit, the object would explode when it landed on the ground, and columns with black soil and white snow powder were raised.
Chapter completed!