When night fell, Shulka, Trufanov and others made a series of preparations.
For example, secretly moving supplies and troops to high ground and high-terrain locations, such as reorganizing the amphibious landing force... The numbers of the amphibious landing force have always been there, but they were considered useless or useless after crossing the Don River.
It had little effect, so it was used as an ordinary infantryman.
From this aspect, the naval infantry is really miserable. During the river crossing battle, they were at the forefront, and during the land battle, they became the infantry charging into the battle. There was no time to rest.
However, the soldiers wearing sea soul shirts seem to have long been accustomed to this and have no complaints about it. (Note: The sea soul shirt is a unique blue striped military uniform of the Soviet Navy because the Soviet Navy performed well during World War II.
, so the sea soul shirt was deeply loved by Soviet soldiers and was often used by infantrymen after the war)
The problem is that the naval infantry suffered casualties in previous battles, and some units lost entire platoons to only a few people, which forced Shulka to reorganize it.
This is very important.
Because only naval infantry can operate amphibious landing craft and are familiar with water properties, what is needed after the flooding of Surovino is soldiers with these specialties to drive the amphibious landing craft and lead the troops towards the enemy.
However, reorganization is not difficult. It only needs to transfer a few teams from the infantry division to supplement the naval infantry battalion.
However, at this time, the unique style of Soviet combat will appear: naval infantry wearing different military uniforms and ordinary infantry fighting together.
Trufanov was responsible for the mobilization of reinforcements.
In fact, Shulka was originally supposed to be in charge of mobilizing reinforcements, while Trufanov was in charge of deploying frontline troops.
After all, Trufanov is the commander of the 51st Army, and he is more familiar with the deployment of the entire army. Shulka has a close relationship with Rokossovsky, so it is easier to mobilize troops from the Don Front.
But Zolotarev objected to this.
"Front-line combat is more important!" Zolotarev said: "And this is a battle that the Supreme Command is extremely concerned about. We cannot make any mistakes! So I suggest that Comrade Shulka be responsible for the deployment of front-line troops!"
This is not a "suggestion", it is clearly an order.
Moreover, Zolotarev clearly did not believe in Trufanov's ability.
This made Trufanov a little embarrassed, but he agreed without saying anything... Of course he didn't dare to say anything at this time, not to mention that he didn't feel unjust in losing to Shulka.
The advantage of having the plan fully supported by the Supreme Command was that the mobilization of reinforcements was very smooth. That night, two aviation divisions, a fighter aviation division, and an assault aviation division were transferred to the second-line airport to stand by.
If you implement interleaving, you will need more fighters and attack aircraft. The reason is as mentioned before. Fighters are used for air combat to gain air supremacy, and attack aircraft are used for ground combat. If necessary, they can also barely engage in air combat with enemy fighters... This is very important to the Soviet army.
Because the Soviet army was not strong in fighter aircraft, it meant that it was unable to fully control the air, even when fighter aircraft were dispatched.
Therefore, the Soviet Air Force will most likely have to fight enemy fighters during ground operations.
If bombers are dispatched, their ground attack capability will not be much better than that of attack aircraft. Facing enemy fighters, they will have to wait for death. Therefore, they are not practical and popular on the battlefield, unless large-scale bombing of certain areas is required.
Targets that cannot be destroyed by attack aircraft, such as permanent fortifications.
Then the Supreme Command also transferred two tank divisions from the Don Front Army... These two tank divisions are the reserves of the Don Front Army. They were originally used to reinforce Karachi or retake Karachi, but now it seems that they have been completely
This is no longer necessary.
However, Shulka felt that it was no longer necessary to reinforce the tank division at this time.
The reason is that once the war begins, the 51st Group Army should complete the insertion and join forces with the Southwest Front in about two days, otherwise the war situation may develop in another direction.
It is basically impossible for the two reinforced tank divisions to follow the pace of the 51st Group Army and enter the battle within two days. In other words, distant water cannot neutralize close fire, even if the Supreme Command uses the fastest reinforcements.
in this way.
At this time, it would be more realistic for several mechanized divisions to quickly arrive at Surovino to stabilize this point and prepare to respond to the 51st Army.
However, Shulka did not seem to need to worry about this, because Zolotarev later told Shulka that this was only the first batch of reinforcements, and there would be several more support troops coming to reinforce the 51st Group Army.
In fact, all this is just a mess by the Supreme Command. Originally, the right wing of the 51st Army was the 57th Army, and the 57th Army could well cover the flanks of the 51st Army and implement reinforcements.
Who knew that in their eagerness to capture Stalingrad, they would change the offensive direction of the 57th Army and direct its troops towards Karachi.
As a result, the 51st Army was too thin and unable to cope with Manstein's return attack.
During this period, the Soviet army was actually making a series of meaningless troop transfers: first it transferred troops from the 51st Group Army to the 57th Group Army. The 57th Group Army was surrounded, and now it transferred reserve troops from the further second line to the 57th Group Army.
51st Army Group.
But it makes no sense to say this now.
"It's time for us to retreat too!" Trufanov said.
The army headquarters is in the basement. The basement will definitely not be able to escape being flooded, so they cannot stay where they are.
Zolotarev nodded, so Trufanov gave an order and everyone started to move, quickly sorting out the information.
On the other side of the night, Major General Ellen, commander of the German 9th Panzergrenadier Division, was looking at the map.
Major General Ellen always feels that there seems to be some kind of crisis in front of him, but he doesn't know what the crisis is... Usually people who stay on the battlefield for a long time will have a more sensitive sixth sense, and Major General Ellen is one of them.
And Major General Ellen also believed in his sixth sense, because similar things had happened several times before, and Major General Ellen followed his sixth sense and successfully avoided the enemy's ambush.
This time, this feeling rose again in Major General Ellen's heart.
But Major General Ellen hesitated.
Or it can't be said to be hesitant, because Major General Ellen didn't know what danger was coming, so he didn't know how to avoid it.
Evacuate Surovino?
This is a very important stronghold, and the double anti-tank trenches and the anti-aircraft guns in the permanent fortifications can very well block the enemy's attack. There is really no reason to retreat.
Enemy attack?
Their attacks will still be repulsed as before!
So what exactly is it?
After thinking about it, Major General Ellen said to the adjutant: "Order the engineers to build a line of defense ten kilometers back!" (To be continued)