USSR 1941

It was three o'clock in the afternoon, eight hours before the German counteroffensive began.

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. Fuel was delivered to Stalingrad and then 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 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... The 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 called to Trufanov: "We have 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 force would have been able to wipe out any enemy that stood in its way on the battlefield.

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, commander of the Guards Rifle Division, had been surrounded by the enemy for several hours.

"We have no more 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 the 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.

This is sometimes the case on the battlefield, where one wrong step leads to a wrong step, and then the army is defeated like a mountain.

"Comrade Trufanov!" At this moment a staff officer asked: "Should we ask Comrade Shulka's 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 it because it would embarrass Trufanov.

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

Shulka was also helpless.

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

If there is anything that can thwart the 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 achieve. Although the German army has only two divisions, the Luftwaffe frantically provided cover for them. 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.

There are many supplies in Prodovitoje, 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 first delivered here 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 Soviets receive supplies.

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

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

Moreover, the morale of the Luo and Italian troops had been boosted knowing that the Soviet army was in trouble, so it was not so easy to deal with at this time.

Just thinking about it, Andrianka sent a telegram to Shulka.

"Information from Comrade Commissar, the Germans have sent reinforcements to Plodotoviye!"

Shulka said "hmm".

This is not surprising, of course the Germans will send more reinforcements to Plodotoviye.

But two minutes later, Shulka seemed to think 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 we 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 Shulka's tone, she knew that Shulka 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 enemy reinforcements to stop their advance!"

This made Andrianka a little surprised that there was no need to send a telegram to Khrushchev at all. 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!