As soon as Model received the order, he immediately took a barrel truck and rushed to the headquarters of the 9th Army.
He felt very heavy along the way.
No one will regard the promotion order at this time as a good thing, because at this time everyone can see that the German army has failed, and the most likely result of being promoted to commander is to be helplessly responsible for disappointment.
But that's not what Model had in mind.
This is also where Model is different from others...Others usually first think of their own misfortunes and find ways to avoid them.
But as a professional soldier, Model was thinking about how to make the defeat of this doomed war less ugly.
This is very difficult, even more difficult than attacking Moscow.
But Model had no choice, otherwise the imperial army would suffer an unprecedented blow, and would even be unable to recover from then on.
Model looked at the map in the rickety car and frowned.
The Fourth Tank Army collapsed, the Fourth Army retreated, and the left wing of the Ninth Army was exposed to the Russian front. As long as the Russians opened a gap, they would immediately outflank the 9th Army's rear and cut off the 9th Army's transportation.
Lines surround it.
In fact, the Russians did exactly this. If the 23rd Army hadn't held on to block the flanks at Solomino, the Russians would have surrounded the 9th Army long ago.
But what can we do now?
It seems that the only way to retreat in this situation is to retreat, but it is obvious that the head of state will not agree to retreat, even at this time.
With a "hiss" sound, the barrel truck stopped in front of a simple wooden house.
Model couldn't help but look at the driver in confusion and asked: "Is this the headquarters of the 9th Army?"
"Yes, General!" the driver replied: "Russian planes bombed our original headquarters this morning, and we had to temporarily move the headquarters here!"
Model didn't say anything. He never thought that the German army would be so embarrassed.
After opening the car door and getting out of the car, several officers soon came to greet him. One of them had a bandage on his hand and blood on his face.
"Your Excellency General!" the officer said anxiously: "There is a new situation that requires you to make a decision immediately!"
Without saying a word, Model quickly walked towards the cabin with the officers.
Several officers inside were waiting in front of the map, and one of them was Model's old subordinate, the chief of staff, Colonel Hans Krebs.
"General!" Colonel Krebs saluted Model, and then immediately pointed to the map and said: "Here, west of Rzhev, the Russians are on our defense line, which is the junction of the 23rd Army and the 6th Army.
A 9-mile-wide gap was created!"
Model couldn't help but gasped. The worst thing happened to him just after he took office... The Russian army rushed in from the exposed left wing and circled to the rear of the 9th Army.
"The Russians have two armies!" Colonel Krebs continued: "They are the 29th and 39th armies. In the past two days, they have quickly passed through this gap with tanks, infantry and sled troops and penetrated southward.
"About 9 divisions have passed through, and our connection with the 23rd Army has been cut off. The 23rd Army is surrounded and can only provide supplies through air drops."
"Where is the 6th Army?" Model asked.
"The 6th Army successfully built a new line of defense in Rzhev to block the Russians!"
Model couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief. If the 6th Army was also surrounded or defeated, then the 9th Army would be completely finished.
However, this does not seem to make much difference. As long as the two Russian armies penetrate through the gap to the west of the 9th Army, the 9th Army will have only two choices: either surrender, or destroy these two armies and return.
The latter is almost impossible.
"We should retreat, General!" Colonel Krebs said: "The best way is to retreat before the enemy completely surrounds us, and try our best to get in touch with the 23rd Army!"
Model looked at the map and was silent for a long time, then shook his head and said: "We can't retreat, Krebs. First of all, the head of state will not agree to our doing this, and secondly..."
As he spoke, Model pointed to the map and said: "Look, the Russian 22nd Army has arrived at Lake Volgo and begun to penetrate southward. In other words, even if we retreat now and escape their 29th and 39th
The group army's encirclement will eventually be surrounded by their 22nd Army!"
This is Zhukov's strategy.
He set up the encirclement into a series of loops.
As long as the German army is entangled in one of the encirclement circles, the consequences will be disastrous, because other troops will soon rush to the front and expand the encirclement circle.
The reason why the Soviet army was able to do this was that, on the one hand, the Soviet army had more troops... The Soviet army originally had more rear forces than the German army, and with the reinforcements from Siberia, of course, it had more troops to carry out the siege.
On the other hand, the Soviet army marched faster than the German army in the snow.
Of course, this is due to many aspects. For example, Soviet tanks and cars can better adapt to extremely cold climates. Soldiers also have experience in marching in extremely cold temperatures. In addition, the Soviet army has an advantage in the air at this time, so it
There are conditions for implementing such a large-depth encirclement.
"So... what should we do?" Colonel Krebs had a horrified look in his eyes.
They may have just taken over the command of the 9th Army and were surrounded by the enemy.
Model held his chin, thought for a while and replied: "If we can't retreat and sticking here is a dead end, then what other options do we have?"
"Attack?" Colonel Krebs couldn't help but widen his eyes when he heard this.
"Yes, attack!" Model replied.
"But where are we going to attack from?" Colonel Krebs asked.
Model did not answer, but pointed to the gap opened by the Russian army on the left flank of the 9th Army.
"But there are two Russian armies there!"
"Do we have any other options?" Model asked rhetorically.
After a pause, Model continued: "Only by closing this gap can we encircle the nine enemy divisions that broke into the defense line. At the same time, if we continue to attack north, we will threaten all Russian supply lines.
Does this mean anything?"
Colonel Krebs nodded: "I think you are right, General! This will make the enemy unable to pursue our army with confidence, because their fragile supply lines in the rear will be exposed to our front!"
"Yes!" Model replied: "This is not just the survival of the 9th Army, Krebs! This is the survival of our entire army, because only in this way, the Fourth Army, the Fourth Tank Army... they have