Chapter 639 Final preparations

In fact, with the complete completion of the land encirclement of Stalingrad, the Germans, who knew that this city named after the Bolshevik leader was definitely not easy to attack, also transferred two other people from the north who almost killed Malashenko. Breaking up Leningrad's "old friends": two 283mm K5 train guns.

The situation in Leningrad that they would rather die than surrender and fight to the death has made the German army who intend to encircle this holy city understand one thing. The strategy of encircling but not attacking and trying to make the opponent collapse on its own will not work at all on Russian soil. At least it didn't work for this group of Bolsheviks who were incredibly steadfast in their beliefs.

Since it cannot be obtained, destroy it completely.

Following this eternal and supreme truth, the German army repeated its old tricks after completely destroying Sevastopol, trying to make the same scene happen to Stalingrad. The 800mm cannon and two 283mm K5 train guns, which have been proven to be unparalleled in actual combat, are powerful anti-city weapons specially used by the German army to achieve this goal.

While the German troops in the west of the city were busy serving Miss Dora for more than a week, Malashenko, who continued to retreat and rest in accordance with the orders of the front army headquarters, received a lot of supplementary blood one after another.

These reinforcements were cobbled together for Malashenko in various forms.

Some are the remaining tank units that were disabled by the German army and were ordered by the front army headquarters to report here to Malashenko. Others are "zombie tanks" that were renovated and sent for the second time after being destroyed on the battlefield. Even the infantry units were sent here. The few German tanks captured during counter-offensive and defensive operations were also packed and sent over.

It is not an easy task to gather such a bunch of miscellaneous brands and rags together, not to mention that the First Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment led by Malashenko is still an elite force. Use these "rotten fish and dead shrimps" to make up the numbers. The embarrassing situation even caused Malashenko to feel a little confused when faced with this situation.

"How can we unite such a motley crew of rags and rags? Lavery, I never thought our army would become like this one day."

Compared with Malashenko's gloomy look, Lavrinenko's face was not much better either.

"But we always have to rely on these to defeat those Germans, right? No matter what, this is something that cannot be changed."

Malashenko, who had no choice but to catch up with the duck, then began to try to reunite this stragglers into a whole with the joint assistance of Lavrinenko and Petrov's political commissar.

However, in the absence of space for training activities, all courses and tactical arrangements can only be carried out on the blackboard and paper. Malashenko doubts how much the actual effect of this will be compromised.

Malashenko is busy training this group of stragglers. Zhukov, who has officially taken over the overall command of Stalingrad, is also having a hard time. Comrade Stalin, his loving father far away in Moscow, sends telegrams almost every few hours. Or call to inquire about the progress of the counterattack plan.

"The time has been delayed to the beginning of September, Zhukov, the situation is deteriorating rapidly! The enemy is only 3 kilometers away from the main city of Stalingrad. If you don't order something to be done, Stalingrad may be captured today or tomorrow. !”

Stalin on the other end of the phone got angry and hinted to Zhukov to seize the time and start a counterattack immediately. However, Zhukov, who also had hard-to-recite scriptures, revealed the truth without hesitation and directly rejected Stalin's hint on the phone.

"The three armies in my hand now lack enough counterattack ammunition and supplies! The German air force keeps bombing, and our aviation force cannot even maintain air superiority over the city!"

"Two days, I only need two days to complete the counterattack preparations! The original plan was to start the counterattack on September 5th. Launching the offensive two days in advance like you said will not work anyway! It will be at the earliest Sufficient supplies will be delivered and distributed to the counterattack forces at dusk tomorrow night. Putting the troops into battle before then will only cause unnecessary losses. "

It has become commonplace for Zhukov to bully Stalin. If anyone else had done this, Stalin would have become furious on the spot and even ordered him to be dragged out and executed. However, Stalin, who was accustomed to Zhukov's bullish temper, was cold on the other end of the phone. replied.

"Do you think the enemy will wait for you to take your time and prepare everything before launching an attack? The Germans are good at quick raids, but you are now responding slowly and passively! Yereomenko has told me the situation. If we continue If we continue to do nothing in the northern suburbs of Stalingrad, the enemy will only need one fierce attack to completely capture Stalingrad!"

Comrade Stalin, his loving father who was far away in Moscow, had no clear idea of ​​the specific battle situation on the front line.

Zhukov, who was already ready to fight the Germans in the city to the death, was not in favor of counterattacking now, because it would waste the already valuable defensive forces in front of the German offensive.

But after being jerked off by his loving father Comrade Stalin several times in a row, Zhukov would no longer make the same mistake again. The cold tone on the other end of the phone had gradually solidified into an unquestionable one. Zhukov knew clearly that if he continued to push the bull in this situation, he would not make the same mistake again. Doing so may cause unpredictable results.

After organizing the words in his mind for a while, Zhukov, who had already decided to make some concessions to Stalin, finally calmly held the microphone in his hand and replied.

"My experience and the current situation tell me that it is absolutely impossible for the Germans to capture Stalingrad within a day or two. I firmly believe that my prediction is not wrong, Comrade Stalin!"

"In the past week, I have met with many front-line commanders and comrades. They generally said that the morale of the troops is high and they are ready for a decisive battle with the Germans. Moreover, we have continuous supplies backed by the Volga River. ! This is completely different from the situation in Kiev, but it is somewhat similar to the situation in Leningrad.”

"Please allow me to launch a counterattack on September 5 as originally planned, and give me two more days! I will make every effort to achieve the strategic goal!"

Stalin, who fell silent on the other end of the phone, was also considering the situation in detail.

He clearly knew that it was not easy for Zhukov to launch a counterattack in accordance with his orders at this time based on Zhukov's bullish temper. Stalin persisted in his opinion even though he knew that Zhukov was unwilling to launch a counterattack and was in conflict with his opinion.

Now that Zhukov had taken the lead in making concessions, Stalin, after weighing the pros and cons and thinking carefully, finally made the same move.

"Okay, Zhukov, I will launch a counterattack as you said and according to the original plan. But remember one thing, although the counterattack is locally limited, it must be concentrated enough to be fierce. The first goal is to crush the enemy's offensive edge!"