Manstein was right. Although the Soviet army used human sea tactics against infantry, navy and even tank troops, hundreds of thousands of them rushed to the battlefield and were destroyed in groups without a frown. Only against the air force.
But he cherishes his life like gold.
In fact, it cannot be said to be "valuing lives like gold", because the Supreme Command has the same attitude towards pilots, for example, sending them to the battlefield after just a few months of training.
However, in the early days of the war, a large number of air force losses to German fighter planes seemed to have made the supreme commander realize a reality: the air force is different from other services. If the quality of the pilots and the performance of the fighter aircraft do not keep up, then blindly requiring pilot courage or
The human wave tactic will have no effect.
This is actually common sense, especially when the air combat theory of World War II was quite mature.
In addition, the Soviet Air Force suffered heavy losses and due to the slow pace of industrial relocation and production, the Soviet Air Force often kept a low profile, except in unavoidable circumstances such as the Moscow Red Square military parade, when it would seriously take risks with the Germans.
A head-on fight for air supremacy.
Of course, the Soviet army would also do this if it was an important battle, but rarely.
At this time, the Russian army was competing with the German army for air supremacy over Sulovkino...
"How is the air combat going?" Manstein asked.
"Our army shot down twenty-three enemy fighter planes!" the adjutant replied: "Five of them were attack aircraft! Our army lost seven!"
"Does the enemy show any signs of retreat?" Manstein asked again.
"No, no!"
Then Manstein fell silent.
This is contrary to common sense. If the Soviet army was just trying to "scare" the Germans, there was absolutely no need for them to not retreat even though they had suffered such heavy losses and could foresee that they would continue to suffer heavy losses in the future... Their air force could just show off.
about there.
Therefore, there is only one explanation for this, and that is that this attack is real, and the Russian army has a high hope of breaking through the 9th Panzer Grenadier's defense line, otherwise the Soviet army would never do it.
"You haven't contacted them yet?" Manstein asked.
"No, no!" the adjutant shook his head.
"Send a reconnaissance plane immediately to investigate the situation in Surovino!" Manstein ordered.
"Yes, Your Excellency Marshal!"
So the reconnaissance plane quickly flew to Suverokino under the cover of fighter jets.
Prior to this, air battles had taken place in the airspace some distance from Surovkino... The Soviet Air Force deliberately prevented the Germans from discovering Surovkino, so it distributed dozens of fighter planes and ambush around Surovkino.
, as soon as the German fighter planes approached, they immediately broke into a melee.
The German pilots didn't think much and immediately started fighting with the enemy planes.
The result of this kind of dogfight is usually that the German fighter planes run out of fuel or run out of ammunition and have to retreat...Soviet fighter planes come in waves of reinforcements, but the main battlefields of the German Air Force are Karachi and Stalingrad. Among them
Especially in Stalingrad, they had to protect the security of that airspace to ensure that transport planes could continuously deliver supplies to the German 6th Army.
This put the German Air Force at an absolute numerical disadvantage in the Sulovkino airspace.
Therefore, although the German Air Force achieved very good results: 7 to 7, with an average of more than three enemy aircraft being replaced by one, this was achieved despite a numerical disadvantage.
However, the German Air Force failed strategically. They did not discover the situation in Surovino until two hours after dawn, and of course they were unable to respond.
Until Manstein ordered a reconnaissance...
The mission is different when conducting reconnaissance. The purpose is to fly near Surovino and take pictures.
In fact, the reconnaissance plane had to fly over Surovino and take pictures at low altitude to find the problem... It was raining lightly in the sky and the visibility was already low. Surovino carried out an hour-long artillery preparation, so the smoke, water vapor, etc.
A thick fog hangs over Surovino, preventing the outside world from peeking into its secrets.
The German Air Force lived up to Manstein's expectations. They forcibly created a channel from the Soviet Air Force's ambush and interceptions to cover the reconnaissance aircraft's entry into the target area.
However, the German Air Force also paid a heavy price... It lost five fighter jets and two reconnaissance aircraft in this mission alone. In the end, a reconnaissance aircraft desperately lowered its altitude to conduct low-altitude observation when it was injured.
The pilot was almost stunned by what he saw.
The captain named Bol was stunned for a while before he remembered that the most important thing was to send back the reconnaissance results, so he quickly grabbed the phone and reported: "It's unbelievable, Colonel! Sulovkino disappeared... I mean, they
Flooded! Only high-rise buildings are left! There are corpses everywhere, although I can't see clearly, but I think they are our people. I also saw a small boat, I think it belongs to the enemy! Surovino is finished...
…”
Before Captain Boer finished speaking, a Soviet fighter plane swooped down from the clouds. Then with the sound of machine gunfire, the reconnaissance plane emitted black smoke and plunged to the ground... because it was close to the ground and
The reconnaissance plane was very fast, and it even hit a few water floats on the water before turning into a ball of fire and disintegrating into several pieces.
"Flooded?" Manstein couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this information.
After hesitating for a moment, Manstein searched upstream along the Don River on the map. After finding the reservoir, he nodded clearly and said, "Good idea! In this way, all the barbed wire fences, mines, and anti-tank guns will be eliminated."
It’s all turned into scrap metal!”
"What should we do now, Marshal?" The adjutant was frightened: "We are about to be surrounded!"
"Reinforce Surovino immediately!" Manstein ordered: "The 119th Infantry Division!"
The 119th Infantry Division is the reserve unit of the Don Army Group's frontal defense line... It is very dangerous to transfer the reserve unit to reinforce other units, because if something happens in Karachi, the Don Army Group will have no choice but to sit back and wait for death.
But Manstein no longer cared about this.
After anxiously walking back and forth in front of his desk twice, Manstein ordered again: "Report the situation to the head of state immediately and request reinforcements!"
"Yes, Marshal!"
At this time, Major General Ellen's telegram was sent to Manstein's headquarters.
Major General Ellen was very smart. Although the 9th Panzer Grenadier was affiliated with Paulus' 6th Army, he knew that the only one who could save him at this time was Manstein, and it had to be Manstein, so he contacted him first
It's the Don River Army.
Manstein took the telegram and sighed, and then said to the signal soldiers: "Call back and let them stick to it until the last moment!"
The reason why Manstein sighed was because he knew that the 9th Panzergrenadier Division was hopeless. Even if the 119th Infantry Division rushed to reinforce them, they would only fill the gap in the second line and could not enter the Heze District to rescue them. (