On the other side, in the direction of Prodovittoje, the commander of the German reinforcements, Major General Wolf, met with the commander of the Romanian 4th Army Dumilescu.
"Where are your troops, General?" Dumilerescu asked angrily: "The enemy has launched a full-scale attack on us, not only Prodovitoye, but also Stalingrad, Chibenko, and Kosovo. Sary, this is a full-scale attack, do you understand? Our left-wing army was also attacked. The Romanian army was fighting bloody battles on the front line. Your army has been here for five hours, and I don’t even know where you are!"
Major General Wolf listened silently to Dumilescu's complaints, then pointed to a location on the map and replied: "We are here in Vojanaya!"
"Vojanaya?" Dumilescu looked at Wolfe in confusion: "What are you doing there?"
Vojanaya is just a small town south of Prodovitoje. There is about a company of Romanian troops stationed there. There has been no news of being attacked so far.
"We have only two divisions, General!" Wolfe replied: "While I could throw them into the defense of Prodovitoje, I don't think it would have much effect, since Prodovitoje is only that big. , but the enemies will keep coming, and then surround us from the left and right!"
"you mean……"
"Obviously, General!" Wolfe then replied: "If we want to thwart the enemy's offensive, we can't just take a defensive position, but should counterattack. At the same time, the counterattack cannot be from the front, because it will only make the battle anxious, and then It means a large number of casualties and consumption of supplies. In these aspects, we are obviously not as good as the well-prepared enemy. So..."
Wolf pointed his finger at Vojanaya, and then drew an arc from the flank toward Prodovitoye.
Then Dumilescu understood that the German major general in front of him wanted to attack the Russians' flank and cut off their supply lines.
"It is not easy to do this!" Dumilescu said: "The enemy has much more troops than we do, and there is probably an army group in front of us!"
Although the Romanian army also has a group army, this group army is scattered across dozens of kilometers of defense lines and faces the attacks of two Russian army groups at the same time. In the direction of Prodovitoje, the Romanian army only has one Romanian 6th Army, plus an Italian one. division and the two divisions reinforced by Germany, the total strength is only 6 divisions.
The Soviet 51st Army had 4 Guards infantry divisions, 4 mechanized divisions, 1 cavalry division, an independent motorized infantry brigade and two tank brigades.
The strength of the troops was almost twice that of the Romanian and German coalition forces.
In this case, the Soviet army could randomly draw a few units from the offensive troops to surround the German commandos.
"You are right!" Major General Wolfe replied politely: "That's why we have to wait!"
"Wait? Wait for what?"
"Wait until they concentrate their main force around Prodovitoje!" Major General Wolfe replied: "If my guess is correct, they will divide the army into three units, attack from the front, and outflank the left and right wings. In this way If you come to Prodovitoje, you will be surrounded by them! That’s when we attack!”
Dumilescu looked at the map in silence for a while, then nodded in agreement.
This plan is indeed feasible.
First of all, due to the rainy weather, the two German divisions could hide near Vojanaya without being discovered by the enemy, which created conditions for the German counterattack and penetration.
Secondly, the Russian army concentrated its main force near Prodovitoje. When the German army suddenly attacked from the flank, it was too late to come back for reinforcements, especially in this muddy environment.
Therefore, the German army is very likely to tear apart the Russian rear defense line with overwhelming force, and may even reoccupy the Don River defense line before the main Russian army returns to support... Once the German army captures the Don River defense line, the Russian army will have a big problem: crossing
The Russian army on the Don River was unable to obtain supplies and its combat effectiveness was sharply reduced, while the Russian army that had not crossed the Don River was unable to attack because it had no troops.
At that time, it will not be a problem of the Romanian army being surrounded, but a problem of the Russian army being trapped on the west bank of the Don River and being surrounded and annihilated.
Thinking of this, Dumilescu no longer hesitated.
"That's it!" Dumilescu said: "Then, when will you launch the attack?"
"Two to three days is best!" Major General Wolfe replied: "You know, this way the enemy will concentrate more troops near Prodovitoje, and at the same time we will be ready in two or three days.
More fully, the weather will improve and we will be able to get more air support!"
"No problem!" Dumilerescu agreed.
The reason why Dumilescu answered like this was that he believed that the Romanian 6th Army and the Italian Division's troops could wait to deal with the Russian army, not to say they could win the battle, but they could defend the two Prodovittoye areas with complete fortifications and sufficient supplies.
, three days is no big deal.
But Dumilescu soon discovered that was not the case.
First of all, except for the new recruits, most of the troops of the 51st Group Army are elite troops. Their combat quality and equipment are not comparable to the Romanian army. Especially at this time, the Soviet army is also equipped with a large number of rocket launchers suitable for positional warfare and street fighting.
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Secondly, the Soviet army had sufficient troops. They attacked almost continuously day and night, so one day could actually be used as two days.
The first to arrive at Prodovitoje was the 61st Cavalry Division. The cavalry commander, Lieutenant General Shapkin, was trying to take credit, or it could be said to be a silent protest to Army Group Commander Trufanov...
…The strategic decision was not to choose cavalry as the main offensive force.
If we analyze it more deeply, Lieutenant General Shapkin is unwilling to admit that the cavalry will withdraw from the war stage.
This is a very complicated psychology. They have been riding horses all their lives, practicing on horseback how to kill the enemy and in what formation to charge. They have unlimited glory and are well-deserved "advanced" arms.
Suddenly one day, everyone cast suspicious eyes on them and told them: "Cavalry is outdated, get off your horses!"
Shapkin would never admit this. He believed that cavalry must have a reason for its existence. If infantry can play a role on the battlefield, there is no reason for cavalry to withdraw from the war.
Perhaps to prove this point, Shapkin did not follow Trufanov's order to assist and cover the advance of the mechanized troops, but indulged and even hinted his subordinates to speed up and go straight to Prodovitoye.
During this period, the cavalry even won several battles. They rushed into the Romanian army camp before the enemy could react and killed them. (To be continued)