What Major Gavrilov didn't know was that although Shulka had never fought such guerrilla warfare, he did have relevant experience, and it could even be said to be very rich.
Soon, an army was formed.
For reasons of secrecy, it remained unknown for quite some time.
But dramatic scenes often occur on the railway:
"What a coincidence? To rob a train?"
"Yeah, you rob a train too? Let's do it together!"
"Where are the other comrades?"
…
As a result, the train was not robbed, but the train robbers were tied up one by one and loaded into the train.
This information was quickly passed to the headquarters of Army Group South.
Now it can be said that Manstein is also the chief of staff... In fact, this position should be more of a full-time job for Manstein, because before he became the commander of the 56th Armored Corps, he successively served as Army Group South and A
Chief of Staff of Army Group.
"Interesting!" Manstein said while holding the telegram: "I believe he can find a way to deal with it, but I didn't expect his reaction to be so quick!"
"They are very effective!" Reichenau said: "Wartime martial law shortens the time for guerrillas to make sneak attacks. They can even deduce which villages and towns have problems from the location of the damaged railways and then focus on investigation!"
This is easy to understand.
If the guerrillas sneak out to perform their tasks at night, they must be back before dawn the next day... Every morning at seven o'clock when martial law is lifted, the team will be responsible for the roll call.
If you are absent, you need to give a reasonable reason.
This first puts villages and towns far away from the railway tracks unable to return in time unless they are not worried about being exposed.
Secondly, once the railway is attacked by surprise, you only need to draw a circle with the attack point as the center and a radius of more than ten kilometers. The villages and towns within the circle will be the focus of investigation.
"What's even more hateful are those disguised guerrillas!" Reichenau angrily threw the document in his hand on the table: "We couldn't tell the truth from the false, so we even conveyed the target of the sneak attack to them!"
"Why don't we let each of them take responsibility for their own position?" Manstein said: "Then we can know which ones are true and which ones are false!"
"It won't work!" Reichenau replied: "Because the Russians will cooperate with those fake guerrillas, and they can always complete their mission... At least that's the news they spread!"
To be honest, this matter also gave Manstein a headache, because he came out of a regular military school, studied traditional combat, and fought traditional warfare. Guerrilla warfare like this, which seems unclear and intangible and is fragmented, is not
It's not what he's good at, nor are other German officers.
If there is any solution, it is to use the Italian Expeditionary Force to attack the Soviet supply lines.
After all, the Italian Expeditionary Force is a mechanized force. According to the "offensive advantage theory" mentioned before, it is very advantageous to use mechanized forces to attack the enemy's long defense line, because they can appear here and there from time to time, carefully looking for flaws in the enemy's defense line.
.
The problem is... they are Italian troops, not German troops.
And the risk of doing so is too high, because the Italian Expeditionary Force can be said to be the only combat unit of Army Group South to protect the rear. If they are defeated again, the Soviet army may counterattack to the old border and cut off Romania from the Soviet Union.
supply lines, which the Germans would never allow, because the railways there transport ammunition, gasoline and other necessities to the front line all the time.
Manstein thought for a while and said: "Even so, their supplies are still not enough to launch an attack in a short time!"
"Yes!" Reichenau agreed.
He learned from intelligence that the Russian Southwest Front had consumed a large amount of supplies in previous battles, and it was even worse as the east bank of the Dnieper River was occupied by the Germans. The supplies from Odessa only maintained his million
The army can only maintain the existing defense line.
"So we don't need to worry too much about the problems here!" Manstein turned his attention to Moscow and said, "The focus has always been Moscow!"
But Manstein, who always focused on formal combat, obviously underestimated the impact of this kind of guerrilla warfare, or the role that the "escape hero" could play.
But Manstein was right, because the Soviet Union was also worried about Moscow's defense and did not pay attention to guerrilla warfare.
Because at this time Hitler had focused all his attention on Moscow, not only from Army Group South, but also from Army Group North... According to statistics, Army Group Center has assembled 74 troops so far.
The division has more than 1.8 million people, including 14 armored divisions, 8 motorized divisions, 1,700 tanks, more than 14,000 artillery pieces, mortars and 1,390 aircraft.
Hitler triumphantly said to his staff: "Now, Russia's only hope is Britain. Unless Britain attacks us now, it will force us to withdraw our tanks and aircraft from the Eastern Front. But Churchill has rejected Stalin's request. So.
, Moscow’s fate is sealed!”
The atmosphere in Odessa also became tense.
First, the equipment and supplies shipped from Crimea are decreasing because they have to prioritize reinforcements to Moscow.
It is said that even Leningrad, which was attacked by the German Army Group North, was ordered to send reinforcements to Moscow despite insufficient manpower.
Next, the Southwest Front Army was ordered to immediately attack the enemy.
This may be correct from a strategic point of view. Kiev is blocked to the south of Moscow and cannot reinforce Moscow. In other words, to reinforce Moscow, a considerable price must be paid...from Kiev to Odessa, and then from Odessa
Go to Crimea and then on to Moscow.
This is obviously unrealistic because it is a waste of resources that are urgently needed during the war.
Therefore, simply let them launch an attack on the spot. Although Moscow does not hope that the Southwest Front Army can break through the German defense line and threaten the German supply line, it can at least play a diversionary role.
The problem is that Kiev's supplies have just begun to improve, and they don't even have tanks for attack... Most of the tanks that can be used are incorporated into the 9th Mechanized Army for the attack on Odessa, and only a few are left in Kiev.
Heavy tanks captured from the German army or that broke down after not being able to drive very far.
What's worse is that the German army is defending on the east bank of the Dnieper River. There are even bunkers, artillery and ammunition left for the Germans when the Southern Front was defeated.
If infantry is used to launch a strong attack on such a line of defense, the results can be imagined.