Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seven Preparations for the Back Road

In another parallel time and space, the German army repeatedly fought for the area around Kerch throughout the Crimean Peninsula campaign. This also caused a large number of casualties to the German army, and it also caused the entire Crimean Peninsula campaign to repeat itself. In the end, when the German army captured the Sevastopol fortress group, the Crimean War, which lasted more than 200 days, finally ended.

Today's German army occupies the right time, place and people, which is much better than the situation that Manstein dealt with alone before. First of all, the German army cut off the support operations of the Soviet Caucasus region to the Crimean Peninsula in advance during the offensive and defensive battle in the Crimea. Although this was caused by Khrushchev himself, it was considered to be the time for the German army to occupy the time.

Then the Soviet Union did not continue to strengthen and renovate the military fortifications on the Crimean Peninsula as it did in history. Most of the Navy's funds were thrown on the huge Soviet-class battleships, so there was no decent investment in the Crimea. In terms of civil engineering on the Limu Peninsula—the area where armored turrets were originally planned to be installed, many of them had only one shell, but no real cannons inside, which gave the German army some advantages.

In the end, the Soviet army had no external reinforcements, and the elite inside had been consumed and destroyed. Although there was no shortage of ammunition, they had no way to effectively counter the German attack because of the lack of soldiers. In the end, the entire Sevastopol fortress group fell, poor Marshal Voroshilov helplessly fell into isolation near Kerch. At this point, the Soviet Union's people and peace were completely lost, and the outcome of the entire Crimean Peninsula campaign was doomed at that time.

Therefore, when Manstein first formulated the offensive plan for the Crimean Peninsula, he decided to attack the Sevastopol fortress group first. After killing this hard bone, he obtained the maritime supply line from Romania to Sevastopol, allowing the The German army on the southern front obtained supplies more conveniently.

"To restore the armored force to its pre-war state as soon as possible, I need sufficient fuel, which will be shipped directly from Romania. The ship problem seems to be no longer a problem. Turkey promised to lend us 40 cargo ships, and Romania also has 90, which is enough for transportation. There are a lot of supplies.” Manstein stood in front of the map, pointed to the area between Romania and Sevastopol, and ordered to his subordinates: “The port of Sevastopol will return to the pre-war level as soon as possible. I'm about to hear that cargo can be loaded and unloaded here normally."

"General, 10,000 supplementary troops have been assembled in Romania, 3,000 local mercenaries, and 7,000 Austrian youth and domestic soldiers." The officer in charge of the replenishment reported: "The train transporting these soldiers threw them away Arrived in Tulcea, Romania, and left."

"The three divisions of the infantry are attacking towards Kerch. The strength of the Soviet defense line is much worse than that of the Sevastopol fortress. Our advance speed is very fast, and we are already close to their core defense circle." The chief of staff used The pointer pointed to the huge map hanging on the wall, and carefully introduced the current battle situation to Manstein: "Our army was counterattacked here and here, but the Soviet army did not seize any positions. When our air force arrived in the early morning, we withdrew."

To know,

Although the junction of the Kerch region and the Crimean Peninsula is also a long and narrow terrain that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but without the support of the entire Caucasus region behind Kerch, the defense line here is actually not as impregnable as it seems. At least now when the Germans are attacking, Voroshilov's troops are routed faster than Khrushchev's at Sevastopol.

"Report!" A German officer walked up to Manstein with a document in his arms, and stood at attention to salute: "Long live the Führer Akado? Rudolf!" A younger version of Marshal Rauchic.

"Long live the Führer!" Manstein returned the salute meticulously, then smiled and asked Brauchitsch's nephew, who had just returned from the front, "Is there anything you want to tell me about coming back from the front in such a hurry?"

"General! The news just came from the front that Khrushchev's body was found. He died on the way to attack, which is in line with his usual style." Brauchitsch's son said solemnly: "His The body has been found, it has been lying there for a day, but because of the weather, it is very well preserved."

"..." Manstein was silent for a while, and then said: "Help him clean up, and then take a special train to the wolf's lair. I heard that this former Soviet Union's number two figure has met our head of state. I don't know if it is Not true. But it is also true that he is dead now, it seems that we have one less opponent."

The officer, who was related to the Field Marshal, nodded immediately: "Okay, General, I'll do it now."

Manstein watched him go out, and went straight to the huge map hanging on the wall, raised his head and carefully looked at the markings on it, finally stretched out his hand and clicked on the map with his finger, said coldly Said: "Since Khrushchev has been kicked out by me, now you... Voroshilov, are you ready for your own funeral?"

...

"Everything is over, comrades." Of course Voroshilov knew how many hands he had. He now has only about 100,000 troops, and it is really difficult to defend Kerch and the surrounding areas. What makes people desperate is that he is in a more difficult situation than Khrushchev. After all, Kerch does not have as many ammunition reserves as Sevastopol.

The Sevastopol fortress group has always been built as the core of the entire Crimea, so most of the ammunition reserves are also placed in this strong fortress. Although Kerch also has some reserves, it is not fortified. There are so many Vastopol fortresses.

For the sake of the war until now, the consumption in the early stage has made the bullets in the hands of the Soviet army a little stretched. Now that the German army has destroyed Sevastopol, they have turned their guns to point at poor Kerch, and let the direction of Kerch The Soviet army on the ground became even more desperate.

Khrushchev was defeated and killed in the Sevastopol fortress, and Voroshilov immediately felt the pressure in front of his defense line doubled. The intensity of the German offensive was many times stronger than when the Sevastopol fortress group was still there. Several positions were captured by the German army in an instant, and his strategic depth was compressed to the point of collapse.

"Damn Manstein! He really killed them all." Voroshilov originally thought that after the offensive and defensive battle of the Sevastopol Fortress, the German army would take a rest before attacking, but he did not expect that the German infantry was almost The push started that day. His army was defeated again and again, and now it was almost lost to the city of Kerch.

Compared with Khrushchev, Voroshilov is a well-known military gentleman. He was one of the early marshals of the Soviet army. contribution. Now that he was in trouble, his immediate reaction was not to fight to the death, but to continue to retreat.

Although Kerch is a dead place on the map, it is almost the same as a desperate situation without the rear. The entire Kerch area is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the German army has captured the only land, so it seems that he is Voroshi. Love is bound to follow in Khrushchev's footsteps.

But only he himself knows, in fact, he still has a way out, not far to the east of Kerch, on the other side of the strait, is the Caucasus region of Forte, the Soviet Union, as long as a boat is prepared, he Voroshilov It is not difficult to escape and ascend to heaven at any time.

These days, apart from dispatching troops to deal with the German attack, he has actually been contacting Moscow, begging his old colleagues to go back to the Soviet Union and continue to command troops in the Caucasus to resist the Germans. invasion.

His running was not ineffective. Many officers felt that the marshal had made contributions to the Soviet army, and there was no need to force him to fight to the death in a place like Kerch. Khrushchev's death gave this incident a new step. Everyone threw the responsibility to the dead and insisted that they were victims of persecution.

Everyone has selfishness, and everyone has their own side that is afraid of death. Once people are given hope, the hope that they can survive, then this person will not do any desperate things. This is the reason why the ancient sieges used three sieges and one missing.

Now that Voroshilov sees that his retreat is being successfully planned little by little, he naturally has no intention of resisting to the death. He shrinks Kerch's defense line little by little, waiting for Moscow, the Soviet Union, to give him some help. When accurate news came, he was about to run away with his tail between his legs.

As for the life and death of the Soviet soldiers under him, he has no good solution. Obviously, the fewer people who know about this kind of thing, the better. Once tens of thousands of people cross the strait and retreat to the Caucasus, the whole thing will be exposed. It will affect the morale of the Soviet army on the front line , It is undoubtedly a huge blow-a group of people who have been classified as traitors have been forgiven, and then surrender or temporary refusal to obey orders will flood.

"Send a reminder and ask Marshal Zhukov if I can move the headquarters to the Caucasus... Forget it, just ask... When can I leave and go to the Caucasus." Voroshilov knew his If you ask Stalin to bargain directly, you will definitely be rejected. So he approached Zhukov, the front-line commander-in-chief who had had a relationship, hoping that he could help him. Zhukov certainly did not disappoint him, and decided to arrange a false identity for him and send him to the Caucasus region to be an idle old man who no longer involved in the military.