But in fact, even if you arrive at the Volga River, the mission is not completed.

At nine o'clock that night, the 21st Armored Division advanced to Akatovka on the banks of the Volga River.

The Luftwaffe had obviously bombed it first because on the other side of the Volga River, several blown-up oil storage pools were smoky and black, and the burning oil flowed around the river, laying a long fire blanket with the river.

In the fire, the loud shouts of the Soviet military and civilians on the opposite side were vaguely heard. The ships anchored at the port were burned down. In the blazing fire, several explosions and screams came from time to time.

"Oh!" the baker looked at the situation and said, "The Air Force should tell us these situations in advance. This must be a good opportunity to cross the Volga River!"

A burst of laughter came from the German soldiers around him.

They knew that the baker was joking. On the other side of the Volga River was the main force of the Soviet Southeast Front Army. If the 21st Armored Division really attacked, they would be drowned in the sea of ​​people within a few hours.

Soon, Colonel Slain shouted loudly after receiving the order: "Keep going!"

"But Colonel!" Bazel asked, "Where to go? Jump into the river?"

The officers and soldiers laughed again.

Qin Chuan actually understood the mentality of the German officers and soldiers at this time. The jokes they told were not funny, but these jokes were not just jokes, including what the baker said just now. They were expressing their contempt for the Soviet army and their pride in reaching the end of the Volga River.

"Stalingrad!" Colonel Slain shouted: "We are heading towards Stalingrad!"

"Hao!" The German officers and soldiers cheered at the same time, as if Stalingrad was about to groan under their feet.

But in fact, the marching of the 21st Armored Division was not as the soldiers imagined.

Colonel Slein explained to Qin Chuan: "We don't have a defensive depth, do you understand? While compressing the living space of the Soviets, we build another line of defense for ourselves!"

Colonel Slain's words are concise and easy to understand.

Since Kotluban, the German interlude has actually caused him to fall into a siege... Although the 21st Armored Division has cut off the connection between Stalingrad and the Stalingrad Front, it is also in an embarrassing situation of being attacked on both sides: the enemy Stalingrad Front is to the north, and the Stalingrad garrison is to the south.

It can be imagined that the German army that broke into the Kotluban section would be attacked by the Soviet army at any time.

Therefore, in order to avoid being attacked from both sides, the German army must dig out some space in this section to build two "back-to-back" defense lines.

What the 21st Armored Division has to do now is to open this space first.

This is not a difficult thing... It is to drive the tanks several kilometers south and conduct firepower testing. You can stop when you reach the defense circle of Stalingrad or encounter the Soviet army's tenacious resistance.

However, this action scared Stalin very much, because at this time, only the remaining troops of the Sudi 62nd Army and the 64th Army were stationed in Stalingrad... Most of their troops were annihilated by the Germans on the periphery line. Although there were two armies at this time, the total strength was only 90,000.

So Stalin immediately sent a telegram to Deputy Supreme Commander Zhukov: "The situation in Stalingrad deteriorated sharply, and the enemy has successfully completed the three sides of the siege of Stalingrad. The vanguard is only 3 miles away from Stalingrad (1 mile equals 1.06 kilometers). If the northern army does not attack the enemy immediately, then Stalingrad is likely to be captured today or tomorrow. Therefore, the commanders of the troops located north and northwest of Stalingrad should be required to immediately attack the enemy and assist the military and civilians of Stalingrad. There must be no delay. Now delay is equivalent to a crime!"

But Zhukov's view is different, the main reason is that the Stalingrad army in the north is insufficient in strength and preparation...

This starts with the Southern Army Group launching an attack on Stalingrad.

The German army was composed of three armies, namely the Northern Army Group. The Central Army Group and the Southern Army Group arranged from north to south to form a roughly flat line of defense to confront the Soviet army.

If you stay still, there is no problem. You will be on your own, and you will protect your own lines of defense and cover the flanks of your friendly forces.

Or, if the German army's materials and forces were enough, there would be no problem if the three armies launched an attack at the same time, the three armies went hand in hand to cover each other.

The problem is that after the failure of the Battle of Moss, the German army could not gather so much material and troops for the three armies to attack at the same time in a short period of time.

In fact, the German army was only enough to let the Southern Army group launch an attack.

This will lead to a problem: when the Southern Army attacks forward, a protrusion will naturally form, and as the Southern Army wins on the front line, more and more troops will penetrate deeper into the enemy's hinterland, the flanks will become longer and more likely to be surrounded by the enemy.

This is obviously extremely dangerous, because it will not only threaten the logistics supply line of the Southern Army Group, but also cut off the connection between the Southern Army Group and the Central Army Group and the Northern Army Group.

But this problem was solved very creatively by the German army.

The method is to attack along the Don River... The Don River flows southeast from Kharkov to Stalingrad.

This can be said to be a coincidence, that is, the German army planned to launch an attack from Kharkov, and the Soviet Union took the lead in launching a counterattack from Kharkov.

After defeating the Soviet counterattack, the German army took advantage of the situation and launched an attack that had been planned long ago... While attacking, they were stationed along the Don River and even posed as if they wanted to cross the Don River.

This was actually a strategy for the German army to disperse the Soviet army's forces, because it is well known that it was very difficult to cross the river in this era, especially the Soviets also had gunboats and other equipment on the river, while the German army lacked the tools to cross the river.

Therefore, the German army actually never thought about crossing the river from the beginning. The flanks they placed along the Don River were Romanian troops, Italian troops, etc., and the main 6th Army headed straight for Stalingrad at the forefront.

This is also one of the reasons for the failure of the German army in the Battle of Stalingrad. The low-combat servants of the National Army covered the flanks. It still works in spring, summer and autumn, because amphibious operations across rivers were very difficult in this era, and the Soviet army's combat effectiveness was also not good, so they did not dare to cross the river rashly to launch an attack on these troops.
Chapter completed!