Chapter 655 Kotluban

The soldiers of the 21st Armored Division thus got two hours of precious rest time. Under the cover of the 297th Infantry Division that followed behind, all the members of the division found a place such as a half-destroyed building, a house abandoned by Soviet civilians, and some even fell asleep in the tank.

This was after a day and night of continuous advancement and intense fighting, and the nerves were almost numb.

So this "blitzkrieg" is sometimes not as cool as it seems on the surface. In order to rush to their defense line before the enemy is ready, the soldiers are more often in tension and fatigue.

But every soldier knows in his heart that tension and fatigue are much better than facing the enemy's complete fortifications.

The 21st Armored Division is somewhat accustomed to this, because they often do this when they were in the African Corps.

Two hours passed almost in the blink of an eye. Qin Chuan felt that he had just fallen asleep in the corner with his clothes on, and a sharp whistle sounded.

"Go to the logistics officer to get ammunition in company units!" The messenger shouted, "Depart in 20 minutes!"

If you think there is still 20 minutes of rest time, you are wrong. This time is just enough to get the ammunition from the quartermaster and distribute it. If you are slow, then sorry, you may have to go to the battlefield with an almost empty magazine... No one wants this, because it basically means that a soldier cannot guarantee his life.

The ammunition supply of the First Infantry Regiment is more complicated... because the First Infantry Regiment uses MP43.

Other troops that do not use MP43 have only two types of ammunition, one is rifle bullets used by rifles and machine guns, and the other is pistol bullets used by submachine guns and pistols.

The First Infantry Regiment has three types of ammunition: rifle bullets, intermediate power bullets, and pistol bullets.

This caused the First Infantry Regiment to exceed the time limit of two minutes in the process of receiving ammunition, but it did not cause any impact, because the First Infantry Regiment itself had to walk behind the First Tank Regiment.

Starting from Verdach, the German army's marching route was no longer north, but east.

As mentioned before, the Don River has a large bay near Verdach, and Verdach is the turning point, so the distance between the Don River and the Volga River is the shortest at this location, only 55 kilometers.

The German strategic plan is to cross from the Don River to the Volga River, so that they can build a defense line north of Stalingrad with the Don and Volga Rivers as protection, just like the Soviet army.

This defense line will divide Stalingrad and the Stalingrad Front to its north into two to complete the three-sided encirclement of Stalingrad.

At first, Qin Chuan thought it would be difficult to advance along this line, because the Soviet army would not sit back and watch itself being divided into two and surrounded.

But when he set foot on this road, he found that this was not the case. The German army did not encounter the Soviet defense along the way. Only occasionally a few stragglers saw the German army coming up from a distance and fired a few shots randomly and retreated.

The reason, Qin Chuan believes, is related to the fact that the Soviet army did not understand the strategic direction of the German army... The Soviet army thought that the German army would attack all the way north and would continue to move north after reaching Verdach, but they did not expect that the German army would suddenly turn around.

On the other hand, the Soviet army's rear force was seriously insufficient.

The main forces of the two Soviet fronts were deployed along the Volga River, the Don River and the passage between the two rivers (the main forces of the Stalingrad Front were deployed along the upper reaches of the Don River, and the Southeast Front was deployed along the Volga River and the passage between the two rivers, that is, Stalingrad).

If it was a normal battle method, the German army would advance layer by layer and the Soviet army would retreat layer by layer, then the Soviet army's rear defense line would not be unguarded, but the German army did not take the usual route. It seized an opportunity to break into the rear of the Soviet defense line and attack the camp at a very fast speed. At this time, there was no doubt that it broke into its rear, which was the north of Stalingrad, where the Soviet army originally judged that it would basically not be attacked by the enemy.

This idea was originally correct, because according to common sense, if the German army could reach the north of Stalingrad, then the entire Stalingrad should fall into the hands of the German army.

So, the German army arrived at Kotluban very smoothly, where they only encountered a battalion of Soviet troops and some temporary formations that integrated police, workers and some unknown civilians.

Such troops were of course unable to resist the German attack. They occupied Kotluban in just half an hour... It took almost the same time to drive the tanks from the west of Kotluban to the east.

Kotluban is the middle support point of this line of defense. It is 26 kilometers west of the Don River and 29 kilometers east of the Volga River. It is very important to the German defense line, so the German 297th Infantry Division left a regiment here to wait for the 6th Army to come to reinforce... The 6th Army's troops will move slower because they need to cross the Don River.

The 21st Armored Division continued to march eastward, and the scene in this section was a little different, but this did not refer to the Soviet resistance... There were indeed some Soviet troops in this section, but these Soviet troops were almost insignificant under the dual attack of German tanks and aircraft.

Along the way, the Germans saw more people building defense lines in trenches, including old people, women and children, wearing various clothes, covered in mud. Not far away, there were tents for them to live and rest at night, as well as a pot supported by several iron rods.

When the German army appeared in front of them, the shock on their faces showed that they were completely unprepared for what was happening. Several Soviet soldiers who might be supervisors were lying on the ground and had been controlled by the German army.

This made the German soldiers somewhat unimaginable. The German army had already arrived in front of them, but these civilians were still building trenches that seemed to be against them.

But this was actually very normal. The Soviets were in a mess even in the command of the army. Coupled with the backward communication equipment, it was not a big deal to fail to notify or miss notifying the civilians who were building fortifications on the front line to retreat in time.

"What should I do with these civilians?" Werner asked.

"It's very simple!" Eberhard replied: "Let them continue to work, but the direction should be slightly changed. Instead of facing the west, they should face the north. Do you understand?"

Of course, there is nothing to be confused about. The owners of these trenches have changed. They were originally used to defend against the German army, but now they are used to defend against the Soviet army that may come from the north.

But these were not what the 21st Armored Division was going to do. They handed over the prisoners to the 297th Infantry Division that arrived later, and then continued to advance eastward.

As stated in the plan before: "Until we see the Volga River!"