USSR 1941

  Chapter 698 Reinforcements

  It was three o'clock in the afternoon, eight hours before the German army launched a counterattack.

Since the German army attacked along the roads and railways from south to north... Most of the roads and railways west of the Don River are north-south. This is because this area is located between Stalingrad and the Caucasus. The fuel goes to Stalingrad and then shipped elsewhere.

   Therefore, the German army advanced very fast, advancing more than 50 kilometers in 8 hours and cutting off the supply lines of several divisions on the left wing of the Soviet army.

   To be precise, it cannot be said to be cut off, because the encirclement has not been completely closed, but the supply needs to go around to reach the left wing troops.

   What's more dangerous is that if the German army changes the direction of attack and attacks in the direction of Prodovitoye at this time, it will surround several divisions on the left.

   But of course, the Germans certainly would not do this. They continued to attack north, and at the same time divided their forces to occupy the Don River defense line east.

   Occupying the Don River defense line was actually encircling and annihilating the Soviet army, because the Soviet army was behind the Don River and had no way to retreat, so it was quickly cut into several pieces.

  At five o'clock in the afternoon, another bad news came... Intelligence learned that another support army was sent from the direction of Stalingrad, and they took a long way to reinforce Prodotoviye.

  If this army is allowed to arrive again, then a group of the Soviet Army will be torn apart, and there will be no possibility except to retreat or be encircled and wiped out.

   "General!" The staff officer shouted to Trufanov: "We lost contact with the 254th Tank Brigade!"

   "Keep calling!"

  The 254th Tank Brigade has more than 200 tanks, and in order to undertake interspersed tasks, most of them are T34 tanks driven by experienced tank soldiers.

   This unit could have been used on the battlefield to destroy any enemy that stood in its way.

  The problem is that they rushed to the battle... When they received the defense order, half of the troops had not had time to cross the river on the east bank of the Don River, and the other half rushed to the defense line, and then were dispersed to various positions on the front line.

   Soon, because the defense line was breached, the 254th Brigade was surrounded by German troops from all directions and fell into trouble. The brigade commander may have died in the line of duty.

   "Comrade Shumilov requests reinforcements!"

   Shumilov is the commander of the Guards Infantry Division and has been surrounded by the enemy for several hours.

   "We have no extra troops!" Trufanov replied: "Tell him to hold on until the last moment!"

  …

  On the other hand, the situation of the Air Force is not optimistic.

  Although the air force has been reformed and still has a numerical advantage, the original plan was to coordinate air and ground to lure the enemy into the ambush circle to fight.

But now it is completely reversed. The Soviet Air Force had to bomb the German troops in order to slow down their advance speed, so their whereabouts were completely controlled by the German army. The German Air Force set up ambush circles on its route waiting for the Soviet army to go Drill in.

  The battlefield is sometimes like this, one wrong step will result in a wrong step, and then the army will be defeated like a mountain.

   "Comrade Trufanov!" At this moment, a staff officer asked: "Should we ask Comrade Shulka for his opinion?!"

   "You idiot!" Trufanov replied without thinking: "What's the use of asking him? Do you hope he can take us out of the encirclement in this situation? Then you should go to him now!"

  The staff officer was too scared to say a word by Trufanov.

   In fact, he knew the consequences of saying this, because it would embarrass Trufanov.

   But he finally worked up the courage to ask, because he thought...if anyone else could solve this situation now, it would be "Breakout Hero".

   Shulka is also helpless.

  Because it was obvious that the Germans sensed that the Soviets were in a full counteroffensive.

  If there is anything that can frustrate this Soviet counterattack, it is to seize this opportunity to completely defeat the Soviet 51st Army.

Therefore, almost all the air power of the German army was concentrated over Prodovitoye, and the fighter planes in the direction of Stalingrad and the Caucasus were all transferred over. Bombers, fighter jets, and transport planes were everywhere in the sky. Howling sound, even if the weather at this time is actually not suitable for aircraft operations.

  If there is anything else that can turn defeat into victory, Shulka believes that there are only two possibilities:

  One is to block the attack of the two German divisions.

   But this is obviously difficult to do. Although the German army has only two divisions, the Luftwaffe frantically provided cover for it. Soviet tanks and troops were defeated one after another under the coordinated attack of the air and ground.

  The other is to quickly take Prodovitoye.

  Prodovitoje has many supplies, including ammunition, fuel and equipment, because it is an important supply station for the Romanian Army's Don River defense line. Almost the entire Don River defense line's supplies are delivered here first and then dispersed to the front line.

  Once the city is occupied, the supplies of the two German divisions will be cut off while the Soviet army is getting supplies.

   This is more realistic, after all, it is the Romanian and Italian troops stationed in this city.

  The problem is...the two German divisions are attacking so fast that it is almost impossible to take Plodovitoje before them.

   Moreover, the morale of the Romanian and Italian armies has been greatly boosted knowing that the Soviet army is in trouble. At this time, it is not so easy to deal with.

   Just thinking about it, Andrianka sent Shulka a telegram.

   "Information from Comrade Political Commissar, the Germans sent reinforcements to Prodotoviye!"

   Shulka let out a "hmm".

   This is nothing surprising, of course the Germans will send additional reinforcements to Prodotoviye.

   But two minutes later, Shulka seemed to have thought of something, looked at the paper and pen on the map, and then asked Andrianka: "Do you know the marching route of this support army?"

   "Yes!" Andrianka replied: "They set out from Stalingrad and detoured in the direction of Rakotino..."

  Andrianka picked up a few points on the map while holding the telegram, and said: "It is estimated that I will make a detour to avoid the train station occupied by our army, and then enter Prodovitoye!"

   Shulka thought for a while, and then ordered: "Contact Comrade Khrushchev immediately, telegram!"

   "Yes!" As soon as Andrianka heard Shurka's tone, she knew that Shurka must have a solution, so she didn't dare to neglect, and immediately asked the radio station to get ready.

   Shulka didn't dare to say anything more, because he was worried that he would be monitored by the German army.

  So a message was sent: "Bomb the enemy's reinforcements to prevent their advance!"

   This made Andrianka a little surprised that there was no need to send a telegram to Khrushchev at all, and in fact the Soviet Air Force was already doing this.

  Khrushchev thought the same way when he received the telegram, but soon he discovered the problem: it was from Shulka!

  (end of this chapter)