"Captain!" Manstein said to Qin Chuan with some dissatisfaction: "I seem to need to remind you that our troops, artillery, tanks, and even airplanes are only half as strong as those of the enemy now!"

"I know, general!" Qin Chuan replied.

Of course, Qin Chuan knew that the only advantage the German army had before this was air power. The 8th Air Force led by General Von Richthofen invested more than 1,000 fighter jets to completely control the air above the Crem Peninsula... This number accounted for two-fifths of the total of all types of fighters in the German army on the Eastern Front.

But now, because of the Soviet attack on Kharkov, Richthofen hastily transferred 800 of them to support Kharkov, leaving only 200 fighter jets on the Krim Peninsula, while the Soviet army has 400 fighter jets on the Kerch Peninsula alone, which has not yet included new fighter jets that may be added.

"You know this?" asked Manstein. "You still stick to your own point of view of attacking rather than defense?"

"Yes, General!"

"Okay!" Manstein spread his hands and said to the map: "I want to know... the enemy is rushing towards us, and there are no other channels on the Kerch Peninsula. How can we attack the enemy? Go around the sea?"

"No, general!" Qin Chuan replied, then pointed to the map and said: "For now, we do not have the opportunity to attack, because the enemy 47th Army and 51st Army are attacking us from left to right, and the 44th Army follows as a reserve team!"

This is also what Manstein said just now... The Kerch Peninsula is only 18 kilometers wide, and the two armies advance together, one left and one right, which will defend the entire defense line without any leakage. The German army will attack from any point, and will collide with the Soviet army head-on and fall into a arduous tug-of-war and attrition war. The war of attrition and tug-of-war are exactly what the Soviet army hopes, because they have more people and more equipment to afford.

It is also for this reason that everyone in the conference room, including Manstein, did not agree to the attack.

Manstein knew that Taichuan had some more details, so he did not interrupt Qin Chuan, but just signaled Qin Chuan "well" to continue.

"So we have to create an opportunity artificially!" Qin Chuan said: "Or it can be said to be a gap!"

As he said that, Qin Chuan pointed to the map and said, "My plan is divided into two stages. The first stage is retreat, to be precise, retreating while defending the dead. In this way, the 47th Army and the 51st Army of the Soviets will no longer advance in unison, and they will stagger apart to form a gap!"

Manstein immediately understood Qin Chuan's words and continued, "Then, we will quickly penetrate this gap and break into the enemy's rear?"

"Yes!" Qin Chuan nodded.

"Captain!" Colonel Adam opposed: "I don't believe that the Soviets would be so careless. They would make up for this gap with the 44th Army that followed!"

It is normal for Colonel Adam to say this, because if it were the Germans, they would not make this mistake.

but……

"They are from the Soviet Union!" Qin Chuan said: "We all know that the Soviet army's communication equipment is backward and poor in coordination. Yes, they may indeed ask the 44th Army to make up for this gap. Not to mention whether they can arrive in time, even if they arrive... it is not difficult for us to concentrate our efforts to break through the defense line of the 44th Army!"

The officers in the conference room nodded in agreement. They had been fighting with the Soviet army for some years and knew that the Soviet army did have these problems.

"I have another problem!" Colonel Adam said again: "We know that the roads on the Krim Peninsula have been muddy due to the melting ice and snow and spring rain. This will make it difficult for mechanized troops to advance quickly. If trapped... our main force will be surrounded in the narrow Kerch Peninsula and cannot escape, which will cause a devastating blow to our army!"

"Colin!" Qin Chuan replied: "This question...the Soviets should have helped us solve it!"

"What does it mean?" Colonel Adam looked at Qin Chuan in confusion.

"I believe that the Soviets' attack was not launched suddenly, but was prepared for a while!"

"Yes, of course!" said Colonel Adam: "Of course they planned it!"

"So..." Qin Chuan said: "What preparation do you think they will do?"

Colonel Adam couldn't help but say "Oh", and then he understood what Qin Chuan said.

"The captain is right!" said Manstein: "In order to allow tanks to be put into the front line and to ensure supply on the front line, they will build roads on the Kerch Peninsula!"

After pausing, Manstein continued: "The Soviets put three armies in front, and there was only one army for dozens of kilometers inside. As long as we were fast enough and had strong attack power enough, we could attack along their supply line to Kerch Port. We might not need supplies, because that was the Soviets' supply line, with endless fuel, ammunition and food along the way!"

The German officers couldn't help but nodded. Of course, they would not refuse this plan. This was the blitzkrieg they had been looking forward to, but they just couldn't find the opportunity to launch the lightning station before.

"Good job, Captain!" Manstein nodded to Qin Chuan: "Good plan! You are right. We only want to block the enemy's attack, but we don't see the opportunity to attack right in front of us. If we can't win this battle, it's the 11th Army and I... that's too incompetent!"

I don’t know who started it, but there was applause in the conference room.

Only Qin Chuan himself knew that this credit could not be considered his... In this battle in history, the Soviet army launched a fierce attack like now, but the German defense line was uneven on the left and right sides. The right wing, that is, the sea-to-south part is the other important port of the Crem Peninsula, Fodocia, so it is garrisoned by the 30th German Army, with strong combat effectiveness. The left wing is garrisoned by the 42nd Army, with poor combat effectiveness (Note: The 42nd German Army is mainly composed of Romanian troops).

Therefore, the battle naturally developed into: the Soviet army was unstoppable on the left wing but was unable to move forward on the right wing. The two wings intertwined quickly formed a fatal gap.

If the Soviet army was commanded by Tolbuxin, this problem might not have occurred, after all, the Soviet army had too many troops to mobilize.
Chapter completed!