"No, no..." Trufanov then overturned his thoughts: "They will not allow us to slow down!"
The "they" Trufanov refers to is the Supreme Command.
Of course, the Supreme Command would not allow the 51st Army to slow down. They would speed up in order to allow the 51st Army to delay Manstein, and would even send people to monitor the 51st Army.
"Of course not!" Shulka said: "But...will Paulus let us move forward? I mean, the German Sixth Army, which is besieged in Stalingrad, will they let the war situation develop like this?
?”
After hesitating for a moment, Trufanov, who was still as wilted as a cabbage, sat up as if he thought of something.
"You mean..." Trufanov said while looking at the map: "Paulus will send troops to prevent us from closing the encirclement? Just like he sent two divisions to reinforce the Romanian army before?"
"Why not?" Shulka replied: "Paulus certainly hopes that our encirclement will be closed as late as possible. This will allow them to obtain as much supplies as possible, and it is best to be able to hold on until reinforcements arrive... By then
I’m afraid our encirclement won’t be able to be closed!”
After a pause, Shulka corrected: "To be precise, the outer encirclement cannot be closed. By then, the inner encirclement will probably have been closed and a fierce encirclement and annihilation battle will begin!"
"That's right!" Trufanov understood what Shulka meant: "In other words, it's not that we don't want to close the encirclement, but that there are enemies standing in front of us!"
Shulka nodded and added: "And they are Germans with strong combat capabilities!"
"Yes, the Germans are powerful in combat!" Trufanov's frown slowly relaxed: "At the same time, they also have a large number of Romanian troops cooperating, and their strength and equipment cannot be underestimated!"
"They organized an orderly defense with the German army as the center and command!" Shulka said: "And we, because of our weak air power..."
Trufanov couldn't help laughing.
"I have never wanted to meet an enemy so much!" Trufanov said: "I have a request, Comrade Shulka!"
"any request?"
"When the time comes...you must not make any suggestions so that we can break through the enemy's line of defense!"
"Of course!" Shulka replied, and then looked at each other and smiled at Trufanov.
In fact, this is the saying: "There are policies above and countermeasures below."
Stalin had his policies, and Shulka would have his countermeasures.
This was a normal thing for Shulka, but a nervous Soviet like Trufanov couldn't think of going that far.
So soon, Trufanov responded positively to his superiors.
Trufanov even confidently swore to his superiors: "Guaranteed to complete the mission! Quickly penetrate deep into the enemy and do everything possible to join forces with the Southwest Front!"
In fact, Trufanov was not as confident as he appeared when he said these words.
Because the telegram had just been sent, Trufanov lowered his voice and asked Shulka: "What if the Germans did not set up a defensive line in front of us? Do we have to pretend to be stopped by the Romanians?"
Being stopped by the Germans was excusable, but being stopped by the Romanians was a bit too much.
"Don't worry, Comrade Trufanov!" Shulka replied: "The Germans are not fools, they will do this."
In fact, Shulka himself was not sure... Although he knew the general direction of the battle, he was not able to go into detail enough to know whether there would be a German army standing in the way.
It's just that at this time there is no other way but to take it one step at a time.
The 51st Army continued to advance westward as Stalin wished, although the speed was not fast due to problems with roads and air superiority.
On the other side, in the direction of Stalingrad, the Don Front has greatly increased its strength due to the integration of the three armies split from Stalingrad as well as tanks and aircraft. The front has a total of 1,000 people and about 6,900 artillery and mortar weapons.
artillery, more than 50 tanks and nearly 500 combat aircraft.
Stalin and the Front Military Commission jointly proposed a plan to eliminate the besieged German army group, called the "Ring" plan.
This also shows how seriously Stalin attached importance to this plan. Before this, Stalin had basically not interfered with the specific command, let alone naming the code name of the plan.
Rokossovsky was ordered to draft the plan immediately and submit it to the High Command.
To be honest, this caught Rokossovsky off guard. The Don River Front, which was originally ignored and mainly used to contain the Germans, overnight became the most powerful front army responsible for annihilating and liberating Stalingrad.
heavy responsibility.
Although even Rokossovsky felt that this was a bit too hasty, he still had to draft the plan as ordered.
That night, Vasilevsky flew to the headquarters of the Don Front.
"The Supreme Command believes..." Vasilevsky pointed to the map and said: "In the first stage of the campaign, your main tasks should be in Kravtsov, Babulkin, Marinovka, and Karpovka.
Geographically cut off and annihilate the western group of besieged enemy forces, so that our main assault launched from Dmitrievka, 1st State Farm, Baburkindi City could be turned south towards Karpovskaya Station, 1st State Farm
The 57th Army should carry out auxiliary assaults opposite the main assault in the Kravtsov and Sklyarov areas and meet with the main assault in the Karpovskaya station area."
"But Comrade Vasilevsky!" Rokossovsky couldn't help but gasped as he looked at the offensive lines on the map: "The muddy roads make marching inconvenient. Such a fast attack will inevitably destroy our army's heavy equipment and
Logistics cannot keep up..."
"The enemy will be more difficult than us!" Vasilevsky replied: "Because in this way, we can cut off the enemy's communication and supplies with the outside world in the shortest possible time!"
Rokossovsky couldn't argue with this, because it was indeed the case, but some things were based on guesswork and luck.
"In addition!" Then Vasilevsky said: "You should organize the 66th Army to launch an assault in the direction of the village of 'Red October' via Orlovka, and the 6th Army to launch an assault in the opposite direction, so that
The two assaults could merge and cut off the enemy in the factory area from the main enemy group..."
"This... is very difficult!" Rokossovsky said: "The Germans' defense is very tight, which will cause us to suffer a lot of casualties!"
Vasilevsky did not speak, so Rokossovsky understood...at all costs and casualties. (To be continued)