After a moment of silence, Shulka asked: "I want to know the situation in Karachi!"
"The Germans are still attacking Karachi!" Zolotarev replied: "The 57th Army is engaged in street fighting with the enemy in Karachi. Due to insufficient supplies, the 57th Army cannot help us!"
Zolotarev misunderstood what Shulka meant. Of course Shulka would not place hope on the 57th Army's counterattack... They had already had their supply lines cut off by the Germans, and all supplies were secretly transported by "underwater transportation lines."
Although this transportation line has not been discovered by the enemy, the transportation volume is not large after all, so it can only meet the requirements of the 57th Group Army to defend the city. Forget about counterattack... It is foreseeable that the amount of ammunition for counterattack is much more than that for defense.
For example, artillery preparation, fire cover or fuel. At the same time, if there is no ammunition during the attack, the blow will be fatal, so there must be a certain amount of ammunition reserve.
So of course, that's not what Shulka asked.
"What I want to know is the enemy's situation!" Shulka said: "The German Don River Army is said to not have many troops!"
"Yes!" Zolotarev nodded: "We initially estimate that the enemy in Karachi only has 7 divisions."
This estimate is generally accurate. The total strength of the Don Army Group is eight divisions, two of which are Romanian divisions.
"Two of them are armored divisions!" Zolotarev pointed to the map and said: "These two armored divisions used their powerful combat effectiveness to cut off Karachi's connection with the flanking forces on the left and right and attack Karachi from the flanks.
There are two infantry divisions building a flank defense line! Two infantry divisions in the front and one infantry division are on their way to reinforce or flank our army, but they were blocked by our air force's bombing and have already suffered casualties!"
"Only one infantry division?" Shulka said.
"Is there something wrong?" Zolotarev asked.
"There is only one infantry division to flank us?" Shulka said: "Isn't this force too small? Moreover, the anti-tank capability and combat effectiveness of the infantry division are not strong. If it is used to build a defense line to fill the gap, it may be okay.
Come to flank our 51st Army?"
Trufanov also nodded, and then said: "So their focus should come from reinforcements from Kharkov!"
"Not necessarily!" Shulka said: "I'm afraid the railway lines and roads in the direction of Kharkov are not smooth either!"
"Yes!" Trufanov replied: "The Southwestern Front is blocking its supply lines!"
This was Shulka's strategy from the beginning.
Because of its position behind the German army, the Southwest Front assigned many reformed aviation units. While the Southwest Front crossed southward, these aviation units bombed the supply lines behind the German army indiscriminately, especially when the German army carried out air transportation to Stalingrad.
period.
In fact, for a period of time, the German army actually gave up railway transportation on the front line. The reason was that the German 6th Army had been surrounded and supplies could not be transported to the 6th Army by rail.
Therefore, the Soviet army bombed them whenever they wanted, but the German Air Force ignored them.
It was not until Manstein's Don Army came up that they hurriedly began to build roads and resume transportation. However, at this time, the railways and roads were already riddled with holes and the transportation capacity was greatly reduced. This was also due to the lack of troops of Manstein's Don Army.
One of the reasons.
Therefore, it was difficult for German reinforcements from the direction of Kharkov to arrive in time.
"If the Germans want to stop us!" Shulka said: "Or if they want to delay us, in addition to the air force, they must be troops from Karachi!"
"You mean..."
"The enemy's reinforcements in the direction of Karachi are by no means just an infantry division!" Shulka said: "One infantry division cannot stop our offensive at all. The 51st Group Army can still advance with the enemy's bombing, and then seek to join forces with the Southwest Front.
"
Upon hearing this, Trufanov nodded in agreement and said: "If the Germans want to hold us back, they must be armored divisions!"
"Yes!" Shulka said: "Only the armored division can block the momentum of our attack and even cut off the 51st Group Army!"
No one dares to underestimate the combat effectiveness of the German armored divisions, especially when the Germans have air superiority.
Because then, it is not a matter of tank competition between the two sides.
If it were just a competition between tanks, the Soviet T4 tanks would not be worse than the German "Pz3" and "Pz4" tanks at all. It could even be said to be better than the German tanks in terms of firepower, defense, etc.
The problem is that the Germans focus on coordination, so this kind of head-on battle between tanks usually does not happen. They will use fighters to control the air, and then use bombers and attack aircraft to destroy Soviet tanks one by one, or in a tank battle between the two sides.
The Air Force serves as reconnaissance and segmentation aircraft.
Therefore, even if the Soviet tanks had better performance, they would eventually be defeated, which would then turn into a massacre of Soviet infantry by German tanks.
Simply put, because the German army has air superiority, the German armored divisions almost never fail to occupy or penetrate somewhere, especially in the wild.
Therefore, it is difficult to imagine that the German army would send only one infantry division to prevent the 51st Army from advancing. The Soviet army only needed to divide its forces to deal with it.
"So, the Germans will divide an armored division to deal with us?" Zolotarev said: "Then, the troops they are attacking Karachi are..."
"I don't know what it is!" Shulka said: "But I think the Germans must have an armored division on the way, and they will try hard to hide their whereabouts!"
"Why hide?" Zolotarev asked: "For the suddenness of the battle?"
"Not entirely!" Shulka replied: "They are worried about our army's counterattack in the direction of Karachi... If they transfer an armored division from Karachi, then there will be loopholes in their defense in Karachi!"
Trufanov understood immediately after hearing this.
"We should contact Comrade Rokossovsky immediately!" Trufanov said: "The Don Front should launch a counterattack against the enemy!"
"No!" Shulka stopped: "I guess the Germans will retain the armored division north of Karachi, because the main force of the Don Front is in the north, so the counterattack of the Don Front will not make a big difference! And I
The army's strength south of Karachi is relatively weak!"
"So what do we do?"
Shulka straightened up and said: "I think we will do whatever we originally did, and everything will go according to the original plan!"
"According to the original plan?" Trufanov and Zolotarev cast doubtful glances at Shulka. (To be continued)