At this time, Major General Ellen was still in contact with Manstein, because he knew that Manstein was their last hope and he could not give up.
"Your Majesty Marshal!" Major General Ellen briefly reported the battle situation, and then said: "If we can persist until the end, I mean... the enemy will eventually repair the reservoir and let the water level drop. If we can persist until then,
At that time, I hope you can organize reinforcements for Surovino!"
Of course the water level will drop, because the enemy will pass through Surovino.
"Of course, General!" Manstein replied without thinking: "If you can hold on until that moment, of course we will reinforce Sulovkino, because we can cooperate internally and externally to recapture Sulovkino! But except for
Besides... I hope you understand, General! We are all professional soldiers, and we all know that reinforcements to Surovino can't be done in this situation!"
"Thank you, Marshal!"
"Thank me for what? I didn't do anything!"
"No, Marshal!" Major General Ellen replied: "You tell me the truth, that's enough! Yes, I know you can't reinforce us in this situation!"
Manstein on the other end of the phone was silent for a while, and then continued: "Originally, I hoped to get more air forces for you! You know, Sulovkino is very important to us, and its loss will
Putting us in a comprehensive passive position. So we should at least provide you with air assistance. But..."
Major General Ellen's heart sank as soon as he heard this "but".
Sure enough, Manstein continued: "The head of state did not agree with this suggestion. To be precise... the commander-in-chief of the Air Force did not agree!"
"Goering?"
"Yes!" Manstein replied helplessly: "You know, the plan to use air transportation to supply the 6th Army was proposed by Goering. He would not give up his reinforcements just because he wanted to reinforce Sulovkino.
plan!"
At this time, Major General Ellen's heart was filled with ten thousand horses galloping past, all rushing towards the commander-in-chief of the Air Force who should be said to have lost his former prestige.
Manstein did not lie, he did hope to at least provide the 9th Panzergrenadier Division with air reinforcements.
"We can't reinforce Sulovkino from the ground!" Manstein said to Hitler: "But at least we can gain superiority in the air, which is also good for us. On the one hand, it can rescue the 9th Panzer Grenadier Division, and on the other hand, it can rescue the 9th Panzer Grenadier Division.
On the one hand, it can also buy us time to prepare. Our reinforcements need time to arrive at Surovino and build a defense line, otherwise everything will be over! My troops and I will also be surrounded by the enemy!"
Hitler also saw this crisis. When he was hesitating, Goering interjected from the side and said: "The problem is that the 9th Panzergrenadier Division is finished! Even if we provide them with air reinforcements, they will not be able to withstand how long... The entire
Surovino is flooded. How long can they hold on? But the 6th Army in Stalingrad is in danger. Do you know what it means to transfer the main force of the air force to the direction of Surovino? It means that we are in Stalin
The transport aircraft in the direction of Grad will lose air cover! Our transport aircraft will be attacked by the Russian Air Force and suffer heavy losses, which will even cause the 6th Army's supply to be interrupted! I don't know how long the 6th Army can persist in this situation!"
War always has two sides, and what Goering said is correct... The 6th Army is equally important, and the air superiority over Stalingrad is of course also important.
If there was anything wrong, it was Göring's original air transport plan.
This plan seemed to be vast and ambitious, and it also made full use of the German air superiority to turn the tide when the 6th Army was defeated.
However, it used almost all the Luftwaffe in the direction of Stalingrad, and even the bombers were used as transport aircraft to participate in transportation... These bombers could have bombed anywhere they wanted to bomb under the cover of German fighters.
, but now he works as a porter between Stalingrad and Kharkov.
The war is about this kind of "ebb and flow". The lack of bombing of important targets of the Soviet army is a loss to the German army. Therefore, the Soviet army's logistics supplies have been strengthened, such as the supply transportation of Sulovkino.
Don't be too happy with the train after train... This is what you can imagine when German bombers completely blocked the railway line.
What's more serious is that Goering's plan resulted in a serious shortage of air power for the Luftwaffe in other directions.
The German Air Force was originally trying to win more with less. If it could have the upper hand before by "defeating more with less" because of the quality of its pilots and the performance of its fighter planes, now it cannot take other directions into account in order to gain air supremacy over Stalingrad.
For example, in the direction of Sulovkino, although the German Air Force was still tactically victorious, it often defeated the Soviet Air Force with a battle loss ratio of one to three points.
But this tactical victory can be said to be meaningless, because the air supremacy of Surovino was actually in the hands of the Soviet army. The German Air Force had to work hard to detect the situation of Surovino and then lost several fighters.
and broke in at the cost of a reconnaissance plane.
Of course, it was too late to talk about Goering's strategic error at this time, not to mention that Hitler had not yet realized that the German army would be in such a dilemma because of this strategic error... Therefore, any tactical error
No victory can make up for strategic mistakes.
Therefore, Hitler believed that what Goering said was reasonable, and immediately replied to Manstein: "We have no more aircraft to reinforce Sulovkino, but I believe that the 9th Panzergrenadier Division can get you the necessary supplies."
Time, they are the best troops in the empire! They are one of the first troops to receive the designation of 'Grenadiers', they will not let you down!"
So the current situation emerged. Manstein could only watch Sulovkino being besieged by the enemy in front of him. Although he knew that this place was very important, he also tried every means to recruit reinforcements... but there were no conditions.
"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Manstein asked, apologetically.
"What you have done is enough, Your Excellency Marshal!" Major General Ellen replied: "Please rest assured, Your Excellency Marshal! We will not be defeated by the enemy so easily! In fact, we will persist until the end and persist until the water level drops.
!I’m waiting for your reinforcements!”
"Very good!" Manstein replied: "I have confidence in you!"
Major General Ellen finally found a glimmer of hope at this time.
However, as soon as he put down the phone, the adjutant ran down from upstairs and reported: "Planes, a large number of enemy planes! They are coming to bomb us!" (To be continued)