Steel Soviet Union

At this moment, Paulus had enough reasons to be proud and complacent. The Sixth Army, known as the most elite field group of the National Defense Forces, was indeed very powerful.

At present, the Sixth Army's offensive is progressing smoothly step by step, and it has also defeated the Soviet counterattack that was stubbornly resisting and trying to make a death struggle. Such dazzling results made Paulus very proud of himself.

Paulus, who was pacing back and forth in his office with his hands behind his back, had an extremely excited and mysterious smile on his face. Chief of Staff Major General Schmidt, who was somewhat confused about what his commander was thinking, couldn't make up his mind for a while. When he was hesitating to say something, Paulus, who seemed to be suddenly shocked by electricity, suddenly turned around and stretched out his arms with his eyes wide open.

"Immediately notify the commanders of all units to come to the headquarters for a meeting! I have a hunch, Schmidt, a very strong hunch! Stalingrad will be ours soon, and now we have to prepare for the final decision! Right now ,immediately!"

Paulus happily convened an emergency combat meeting with the commanders of his main forces and began to study a new round of combat plans in an attempt to capture Stalingrad in one fell swoop.

For the German army, September 5 ushered in the sunset with final victory.

After mobilizing reinforcements from various main forces to block the Soviet army and partially drive it back, the powerful Sixth Army did not pursue the victory but further maintained the status quo, firmly holding on to what was captured by the Soviet army this morning and taken back in the afternoon. Lost and regained the position and stood ready.

Under the same sunset scenery, the interior of the Stalingrad Front Army Headquarters has a different scenery.

The serious obstruction of the counterattack and even the loss of the front line have made the overall atmosphere in the entire front army headquarters gloomy. General Yeremenko, who serves as the commander of the front army, is presiding over today's post-war summary meeting to listen to the report.

Zhukov, who was also in the front army headquarters, had more important things to do: report the war situation to his loving father Comrade Stalin who called from Moscow.

"How is it going?"

Comrade Stalin, the loving father on the other end of the phone, got straight to the point. Zhukov, who was feeling a little depressed, answered after a little time to sort out his emotions and thoughts.

"The situation is not very good, Comrade Stalin. The actual difficulties encountered are greater than what we planned and considered at our pre-war meeting."

Stalin on the other end of the phone was silent. He knew that Zhukov must have something to say later.

"I put the last tank reserve directly under the front army headquarters into this counterattack, hoping to strengthen the offensive energy. But it backfired. We made a lot of efforts and sacrifices but only advanced two to four kilometers overall. "

"The 24th Army, which had strengthened the last tank reserve of the Front Command, was in the worst situation. They could barely advance half a step. The Germans transferred the main armored forces to attack with the 24th Army. A large-scale tank encounter broke out."

"The Germans invested at least thousands of combat aircraft today. All our fighter aviation units took off and tried their best to intercept, but the effect was very limited. Today we lost a total of 62 fighter aircraft and the troop casualties were heavy, but the Germans We were also forced to dispatch more main forces from the Gumlak area to support the battlefield. "

"In general, Comrade Stalin, today we have delayed the enemy's plan to launch an offensive into the main city."

Stalin did not pay attention to the magnitude of the losses mentioned by Zhukov and the heavy casualties of the troops. In the eyes of Comrade Steel's loving father, this was just adding a few more numbers to the list of losses. It had no bearing on the overall situation and strategy. It’s enough to hang your teeth.

What Stalin really cared about was the last sentence in Zhukov's battle report, which was "Today we delayed the enemy's plan to launch an offensive in the main city." In Stalin's view, this was the most important thing that beat thousands of troops. Great news.

"Well done, Zhukov! This is the purpose and expected plan of our counterattack, to divert the enemy from the main attack direction of Stalingrad! Tell me about the current specific strategic situation. The troops that have made the most progress are currently counterattacking Where are you?"

Stalin on the other end of the phone obviously did not fully understand the meaning of Zhukov's previous words. He mistakenly believed that although the Red Army's counterattack encountered stubborn resistance from the German army and suffered heavy casualties, it was still advancing steadily on the whole. Under such circumstances, Stalin It was necessary for Zhukov to carefully explain the facts of the situation.

After sorting out his thoughts and taking a breath, Zhukov had already figured out how to explain to Stalin when he spoke again.

"I need to emphasize to you, Comrade Stalin. Although our army's current situation has made some progress and made some small breakthroughs, most of the troops are still staying almost where they were when the counterattack was launched this morning. This is currently The most realistic overall situation.”

Comrade Stalin, the loving father who had just held the tea cup on the other end of the phone and was about to take a sip to soothe his throat, was obviously taken aback. The tea in the cup was almost half-empty and he did not spill it on the spot.

"What's going on? Zhukov, why are our troops standing still?"

In response to Stalin's question on the other end of the phone, Zhukov, who had already thought about his answer, replied directly without thinking.

"It's very simple, Comrade Stalin. We didn't have enough preparation time before the attack started this morning. Many troops only received just over half of the ammunition base, which was barely enough for the minimum needs of today's battle."

"In addition, due to the hasty preparation of the combat plan, our preparations for advance reconnaissance and detection of the enemy's situation and deployment were also insufficient. We did not know what the German army's troop assembly points and firepower arrangements were, and the artillery's artillery fire preparations and suppression effects were quite limited."

"What we faced head-on was the enemy's main offensive group. After the counterattack was launched, the Germans immediately responded with attack as we imagined. They never thought about and did not bother to adopt passive defense tactics against us, whether in terms of troop strength or In terms of technology and equipment, the enemy has the advantage.”

"The most important thing is that the air supremacy in the theater has always been in the hands of the Germans. As long as our counterattack forces gather and start moving, the German bombs will be accurately dropped on our heads. The fighter aviation unit paid a heavy price, but still did not achieve a decisive victory. Victory can only barely maintain the situation so that the German bombers will not be too rampant. "

Zhukov reported in detail all the difficult problems encountered today. Comrade Stalin, a kind father who had not been on the front line to see the sight of German fighter planes blocking the sky, frowned.

After a moment of hesitation, Zuihong put aside the idea of ​​"looking for excuses to justify failure" and chose to believe everything Zhukov told him again.