Eight Hundred and Seventy Second Fight

Akado sat quietly in a chair, listening to Marshal Brauchitsch of the Army General Staff report the number of casualties of the N Army and the replenishment of the frontline troops. (Baidu search website updates the fastest and most stable).: .

The casualties of more than 10,000 soldiers did not allow the troops to advance more than a kilometer. This situation appeared for the first time in front of a German army general. Such a huge loss reminds people of Verdun and the Somme River. The deep trenches and endless barbed wire are like cold iron plates, which make people's memories full of trauma.

"My head of state, we expect to lose more than 200,000 people in Stalingrad, but at present, this number may be far from enough. It is possible that the casualties will exceed 300,000, or even 400,000. This situation is that we do not want to Accepted, would you please consider the alternative plan of the General Staff and order Army Group N to stop attacking?" Brausch closed the document in his hand, and asked Akado, who was listening to him read the document with slightly squinted eyes .

No smart person would let himself trip over the same stone twice, let alone the German Army General Staff, which has always boasted of being extremely smart. They hate the memory of any failure, and they pay 120,000 points of attention to the slightest sign of a problem—these stubborn and rigorous Germans summarize the data, research and deduce repeatedly, for fear that they will appear again Unplanned trouble.

For the German General Staff, there is no doubt that Verdun and the Somme River are two areas with relatively large shadow areas in their hearts. Accompanied by Akado all the way from victory to victory, it finally made them more hypocritical. Now the loss of thousands of German troops is enough to make a fuss, and everyone seems to be more and more unable to bear the pain caused by the loss.

"My marshal! In war, how can anyone not die? This is what you said to me when you persuaded me." Akado opened his squinted eyes, and said to Brauchitsch: "All the way , came to the city of Stalingrad, the loss of 10,000 people made you, the marshal,... afraid?"

Marshal Brauchitsch smiled wryly. As the marshal of the empire, of course he would not lose his composure because of the loss of 10,000 people, but if he thinks about what will happen next, this is the reason why he is so entangled.

So he took a step forward, got closer to Akado, and said, "My head of state, what I'm afraid of is not the loss of 10,000 soldiers, but the continuation of such casualties..."

"You are right, the casualties this time will definitely continue." Akado interrupted him, and then stared at Brauchitsch with a pair of eyes, and he continued when he stared at the other party uncomfortable. : "And this kind of casualties will reach its peak in Stalingrad, one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, it's not the end!"

As he spoke, he stood up and stood in front of Marshal Brauchitsch: "General Küchler sees more clearly than you. You can see his attack plan for yourself! This is the empire's plan." soldier,

This is the general to whom I am worthy to entrust the front line! "

Akado picked up a report on the coffee table and handed the report to Brauchitsch. Brauchitsch took the document and looked at it. It was from the commander of the N Group Army in the southern theater of the Eastern Front. Department, signed by Army Commander Küchler.

What was written in this document made Brauchitsch frown. It actually stated that in the first stage, the casualties of 50,000 soldiers were to be used as the price to clear Stalingrad's outer defensive positions. Seeing this, Brauchitsch couldn't help scolding Küchler. Generally, the German army would use armored troops to clear the edge of the city. In this case, the casualties would be suppressed to a minimum.

But even so, the casualties of the German army in the report are still estimated to reach a terrifying 50,000 people. It is hard to imagine what a heavy price the German army will pay once the real battle for the city begins. Küchler took the document and continued to look down. As expected, Küchler also clearly pointed out the possible loss of troops in the second stage of the offensive plan-a total of 250,000 troops.

No one has ever doubted the difficulty and bloodiness of urban battles, but a commander of an army of hundreds of thousands, vowed to say that attacking a city is not the price for completely occupying the city. This inevitably makes people feel a little too cruel.

"My Führer." After reading the entire report, Brauchitsch felt as if he was struggling in the sea of ​​corpses in Stalingrad. He felt that the blood had soaked through his clothes, making his whole body pale. Sticky and very uncomfortable.

But he still opened his mouth with difficulty and expressed his opinion: "General Küchler's style of play saved a lot of resources, but the sacrificed troops are... a bit too much."

He breathed a sigh of relief, and seemed to feel a little more comfortable in his body, before continuing to say to Akado in front of him: "I know the attack plan is to capture Stalingrad as soon as possible, but this may be a month, or it may be as soon as possible." For two months, is it too impatient to rush to put troops into the city to fight?"

"I think, the importance of Stalingrad, you and I don't need to emphasize anything, right?" Akado asked softly: "So I ordered Küchler to capture this city as soon as possible. Something is wrong. And you know that in the street battles of Stalingrad, our army lost no more than one-seventh. This was planned, and there is nothing worth repeating."

Yes, many of the troops who died in battle were prisoners left by the Soviet purge movement that had only trained for 20 days, and some volunteers from Ukraine. Using these people to fill the pits of Stalingrad is the tacit consensus of the top German army.

After thinking about this, Brauchitsch felt a little better. After all, it was a foreigner who sacrificed, or a group of young German lads. This is actually a fundamental difference for a senior German general. At least in Brauchitsch's view, Germany's troops are elite, and they are resources that cannot be easily squandered.

"However, my head of state." He thought for a while before opening his mouth with a little doubt, his tone was not as strong as before: "Even if it is the strength of our allies, it is not necessary for us to squander it like this..."

"Only by weakening our allies can we maintain our rule." When it comes to this aspect, Akado is much more professional than Brauchitsch. He showed Küchler's report to Brauchitsch, mainly to show the marshal that there was something wrong with the basic tactics, not for any other reason: "We must take Stalingrad as quickly as possible! "

Küchler's tactics consisted of clearing Stalingrad block by block. If you insist on evaluating this tactical arrangement, the only accurate adjective is dull. At the end of the Qing Dynasty in China, there was a founder of the Hunan Army named Zeng Guofan. The basic tactics he formulated against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were to "strengthen the stronghold and fight dull battles." As a result, this strategy was almost completely copied by Kuchler 80 years later. Wrote a report and handed it to Akado.

Küchler divided the entire Stalingrad into countless small blocks, and then each and every small block cleared the competition. Guard the frontline area with heavy troops, and repeatedly compete with the enemy. His plan even accurately calculated the force that would best destroy the opponent after several battles over an area.

He also boldly persuaded Akado to use special forces to carry out repeated cleanups in the small area where the enemy was cleared, so as to prevent the enemy from using sewers and other facilities to infiltrate and destroy. In order to deal with this tactic of the Soviet army, he suggested using a small group of elite troops to hold back the opponent, and then encircle and annihilate them with large troops.

On the other hand, Küchler didn't care about Rokossovsky's counterattack. He even felt that the counterattack would cause greater casualties to the Soviet army, so he boldly speculated that Rokossovsky would give up within a month. Large-scale counterattack this means. The German general believed that the German army would advance steadily and gradually, and then fully occupy Stalingrad, which is the most economical and fastest way of fighting.

He predicted that the Soviet army would desperately defend Stalingrad, and attempted to hold out here for at least half a year. For this reason, the Soviet army invested more than 1 million troops. But when the entire city has been reduced to ruins, the Soviet army's advantage will be completely lost, and it will become a place where the 300,000 elite infantry trained by the German army will gallop.

In his report, in order to temper the 300,000 elite infantry in Stalingrad, even a loss of 300,000 is worth it. At least he feels that it is very worthwhile to fight an elite N army in three months to help the German army stabilize the forefront of the southern theater.

"Complaining about losses is useless." Akado said to Marshal Brauchitsch, who has a high reputation in the army: "You should carefully study General Küchler's front-line combat report. If there is no problem, I will Let him continue the attack according to this plan."

"There is nothing wrong with planning skills. Küchler is the general whom I and many other high-ranking army officers are optimistic about. Therefore, as a front-line commander, there is no doubt that there are no loopholes in the battle plan he drew up." Brauchitsch confidently answered Aka directly. Duo Duo asked: "I'm just worried that the loss will cause the soldiers on the front line to panic and increase the war weariness in the country."

"To end Stalingrad as soon as possible, the long-term pain is worse than the short-term pain." Akado said with a sigh. If he had a choice, he didn't want to attack the most inefficient city battle head-on. But the current situation is that everything is beyond his control.