It was three o'clock in the afternoon, eight hours before the Germans launched their counterattack.
Since the German army attacked along the roads and railways from south to north...most of the roads and railways west of the Don River ran north-south. This was because this area was located between Stalingrad and the Caucasus, and the Soviet Union needed a steady stream of supplies from the Caucasus.
Transport fuel to Stalingrad and then elsewhere.
Therefore, the German army advanced very quickly, advancing more than 50 kilometers in 8 hours and cutting off the supply lines of several divisions on the Soviet left wing.
To be precise, we can't say it was cut off, because the encirclement has not been completely closed, but the supplies need to go around in a circle to reach the left wing troops.
What is even more dangerous is that if the German army changes the direction of attack at this time and attacks in the direction of Prodovitoje, it will surround several divisions on the left wing.
But of course, the German army would not do this. They continued to attack north, and at the same time divided their forces to the east to occupy the Don River defense line.
Occupying the Don River defense line was actually an attempt to encircle and annihilate the Soviet army, because the Soviet army had the Don River behind them with no way to retreat, so it was quickly cut into several pieces.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, another bad news came... Intelligence learned that another reinforcement force was sent from the direction of Stalingrad and took a long way to reinforce Prodotovie.
If this army is allowed to arrive again, the Soviet army group will be in pieces, and there will be no possibility other than retreating or being surrounded and annihilated.
"General!" the staff officer shouted to Trufanov: "We have lost contact with the 54th Tank Brigade!"
"Keep calling!"
The 54th Tank Brigade has more than two hundred tanks, and in order to be able to undertake interleaved missions, most of them are T4 tanks driven by experienced tank crews.
This force could have destroyed any enemy standing in its way on the battlefield.
The problem is that they rushed to the battle... When they received the defense order, half of their troops were on the east bank of the Don River and had not had time to cross the river. The other half rushed to the defense line and were then dispersed to various positions on the front line.
Soon, because the defense line was breached, the 54th Brigade was surrounded by German troops from all directions and was in trouble. Its brigade commander may have died in the line of duty.
"Comrade Shumilov requests reinforcements!"
Shumilov is the commander of the Guards Rifle Division and has been surrounded by the enemy for several hours.
"We have no extra troops!" Trufanov replied: "Tell him to hold on until the last moment!"
…
On the other hand, the situation of the Air Force is not optimistic either.
Although the air force has been reformed and still has a numerical advantage, the original plan was to coordinate air-ground coordination to lure the enemy into an ambush circle for combat.
But now it's completely the other way around. The Soviet Air Force had to bomb the German troops in the hope of slowing down their advance. As a result, their whereabouts were completely controlled by the Germans. The German Air Force set up ambush circles along their routes to wait for the Soviet troops to move towards them.
Drill inside.
The battlefield is sometimes like this, one wrong step leads to another wrong step, and then there is a situation of overwhelming defeat.
"Comrade Trufanov!" A staff officer asked at this time: "Should we ask Comrade Shulka for his opinion?!"
"You idiot!" Trufanov replied without thinking: "What's the use of asking him? Do you hope he can take us out of the encirclement in this situation? Then you should go find him now!"
The staff officer was so reprimanded by Trufanov that he did not dare to say a word.
In fact, he knew that saying this would have such consequences, because it would embarrass Trufanov.
But he finally plucked up the courage to ask, because he thought...if anyone can solve this situation now, it is the "breakout hero".
Shulka was also helpless.
Because it was obvious that the German army was aware that the Soviet army was launching a full-scale counterattack.
If there is anything that can thwart this Soviet counterattack, it is to seize this opportunity and completely defeat the Soviet 51st Army.
Therefore, almost all the German air power was concentrated in the sky above Prodovitoye. Fighters in the direction of Stalingrad and the Caucasus were all transferred over. Bombers, fighter jets, transport planes, and for a time the sky was full of aircraft.
Howling, even though the weather at this time is actually not suitable for aircraft operations.
If there is anything that can turn defeat into victory, Shulka believes there are only two possibilities:
The first is to block the attack of two German divisions.
But this was obviously difficult to do. Although the German army only had two divisions, the Luftwaffe was frantically providing cover for it. Soviet tanks and troops were defeated one after another under the coordinated air-ground attack.
The other is to quickly capture Prodovitoje.
There are many supplies in Prodovitoje, including ammunition, fuel and equipment, because it is an important supply station for the Romanian Army's Don River defense line. Almost the entire Don River defense line's supplies are transported here first and then dispersed to the front line.
Once the city is captured, while the Soviet army receives supplies, the supplies of the two German divisions will also be cut off.
This is more realistic, after all, it is Luo and Italian troops stationed in this city.
The problem is...the attack speed of the two German divisions is so fast that it is almost impossible to capture Prodovitoje before them.
Moreover, the morale of the Italian army was greatly boosted when they knew that the Soviet army was in trouble, so it was not so easy to deal with them at this time.
Just as he was thinking about it, Andrianka handed Shulka a telegram.
"Information from Comrade Political Commissar, the Germans are sending reinforcements to Prodotovie!"
Shulka said "hmm".
This is not surprising, of course the Germans will send additional reinforcements to Prodotovie.
But after two minutes, Shulka seemed to have thought of something, put aside the paper and pen on the map, looked at it, and then asked Andrianka: "Do you know the marching route of this support army?"
"Yes!" Andrianka replied: "They started from Stalingrad and took a detour in the direction of Rakodino..."
While holding the telegram, Andrianka found a few points on the map and said: "I guess we need to go around in a circle to avoid the train station occupied by our army, and then enter Prodovittoye!"
Shulka thought for a moment and then ordered: "Contact Comrade Khrushchev immediately and send a telegram!"
"Yes!" As soon as Andrianka heard Shulka's tone, she knew that Shulka must have a solution, so she didn't dare to neglect and immediately asked the radio station to prepare.
Shulka did not dare to say anything because he was worried that he would be monitored by the Germans.
So a message was sent: "Bomb the enemy's reinforcements to stop their advance!"
This made Andrianka a little strange. There was no need to send a telegram to Khrushchev at all. In fact, the Soviet Air Force was already doing this.
Khrushchev thought the same when he received the telegram, but he soon discovered the problem: it was from Shulka! (To be continued)