USSR 1941

  Chapter 817 Surveillance

   Almost no one can describe the power of the cannon shells.

  The reason is that after the large-scale bombing, there is smoke everywhere and the visibility is poor. The smoke that can be seen from the cannon is relatively close, and almost everyone is shocked to death at a close distance.

If you want to describe it, it is that the soldiers who added it later found a huge earth pit, and then expanded outwards with the earth pit as the center of a circle. A distance of tens of meters was filled with corpses that were so shocked that their seven orifices bleed to death, and after that, they were killed. Shocked, deafened.

   Of course, not many people paid attention to these at the time.

  Because the German tanks and troops immediately found this gap and focused their assault on this gap.

  At this time, Manstein was observing the battlefield with a telescope in a high trench, and then he found that the breakthrough effect was not satisfactory.

  Tanks and infantry cover each other and move forward. There are almost no enemies who can resist them but the progress is slow.

   "What's going on?" Manstein asked anxiously, "Order them to speed up!"

   "Yes, Marshal!" The adjutant immediately dialed the front line.

   But after a while the adjutant reported: "Marshal, they can't speed up, because there are barbed wire everywhere, and the sappers are clearing it!"

  Manstein unconsciously put down the binoculars when he heard the words.

  He had thought that the German offensive would be in trouble, but he didn't expect to be in trouble as soon as the offensive started.

   Barbed wire…

   Then Manstein understood that this may be the reason for his premature disclosure of the existence of the cannon. The thing the Russians used to deal with the cannon was barbed wire.

   Barbed wire and cannon seem to have nothing to do with each other on the surface, but they are not.

  Cannons can't blow up the barbed wire, to be precise, they can't blow up the barbed wire laid in a large area, but these dense barbed wire can prevent the tank from advancing, unless the German tanks risk being caught by the barbed wire into the track.

   Needless to say what the enemy will do next...their infantry will quickly fill the gap, and then the road ahead of the tank is full of anti-tank guns or bazookas.

  Manstein turned his gaze to the map. After looking at it for a while, he pointed to a point and ordered: "Order the heavy artillery brigade, and move the next attack point five kilometers north!"

"yes!"

  Manstein hopes to use his usual tactics: pincer attack.

   If the frontal enemy is difficult to break through, then surround the enemy from the weak wings... This seems to be common sense.

  The problem is that the Soviet defense line seems to be weak points everywhere but quagmire everywhere.

The deployment of Shulka's troops seems to be aimed at the German artillery assault tactics. There are not many troops on the defense line, but there are layers of trenches, barbed wire and anti-tank trenches, making it difficult for German tanks to move. The basis of the Blitzkrieg.

   But even so, Paulus breathed a sigh of relief after hearing that the Don Army had launched an attack.

  He immediately addressed the army on the radio:

"All the officers and soldiers of the 6th Army, you may have heard that Marshal Manstein is leading the Don Army to attack the enemy's defense line. Or you may also feel it, because the number of transport planes transporting supplies to us has been reduced, because They are assisting Army Don. So the Russian lie has been shattered, Army Don is not encircled and certainly not retreating! On the contrary, they are advancing, and it is going very well..."

  In fact, the Soviet army did not say that the Don Army was surrounded or retreated. These were all imagined by the German soldiers themselves.

  But in order to stabilize the morale of the army, Paulus is of course willing to put this hat on the head of the Soviet army and use it to prove that other things the Soviet army said are lies.

"So!" Paulus continued: "In the next few days, who you choose to believe will be the key! Believe in the enemy, or in ourselves? Our motherland?! I would like to believe in myself, in the motherland. At least, fate is In our own hands and not at the mercy of others, and the so-called amnesty, do you think the Russians will keep their word? No, never! All we need is to wait and then Karachi will be ours A bridge to return home and reunite with family…”

  Paulus's speech was very contagious, and it was also true that the German army was attacking Karachi, so the German army was pulled back to the line of resolute resistance, or "temporarily" pulled back.

  However, Paulus who said these words did not believe his own words.

  Because of this day, although the air force's transportation to the 6th Army was reduced, a colonel was still airborne.

   This colonel was named Koauser, and he was apparently given the rank of Marshal Paulus, but Paulus knew that Colonel Koauser was a Gestapo and a confidant of Hitler.

   Paulus had every reason to believe that Colonel Koauser had contacted Major General Hartman of the Special Operations Team before he landed.

  In addition, Paulus found that there were suddenly a few strange faces among the guards.

  Paulus is not a fool, he knows that he has actually been monitored, and his personal freedom has been restricted to some extent, and the person responsible for monitoring him is this Colonel Koauser who came to award the title and then never returned.

   Needless to say what the purpose of this is, it is to worry about surrendering with the troops.

   Paulus felt insulted.

  This seems to be justifiable, because Paulus did have the idea of ​​surrender in his heart and even said it in the telegram to Hitler.

   But as a soldier, Paulus was still reluctant to be treated like this.

More importantly, although Paulus won the argument between Manstein, he has been thinking about Manstein's words... "If we attack now, we may lose the rescue 6th Army forever Opportunity!"

  If what Manstein said is true, that is to say, the Don Army cannot rescue itself, what will happen?

  Paulus didn't know the result, and he was hesitating at this moment whether he should choose to surrender or continue to persevere.

   But after some consideration, Paulus finally chose the former.

Because Paulus thought of one thing: At this time, the transport plane of the Luftwaffe can still land in Stalingrad without any obstacles. In other words, as long as Hitler is willing, he can use the transport plane to transport the main officers of the 6th Army, including Paulus Sri Lanka withdrew.

  But Hitler did not do this. Instead, he gave Paulus the rank of Field Marshal and sent someone to monitor him.

  So, Hitler's intentions are obvious. He hopes that Paulus will live and die with the 6th Army, and even chooses to commit suicide at the last moment to kill himself.

   "No!" Paulus said to himself in his heart: "I will not die for that Austrian corporal!"

  (end of this chapter)