However, this strategy was successful at least before the Don River was frozen in winter, because it not only used the Don River to cover the flanks of the Southern Army Group's attack, but also used a large number of vassal troops to disperse the Soviet forces... The Soviet army had always thought that the German army would still be Moscow, so it was judged that the German army would cross the Don River at any time to head north.

The result was that the main force of the Soviet Stalingrad Front was dragged along the upper reaches of the Don River and could not move. So much so that Zhukov had difficulty in gathering an army to rescue Stalingrad...

As soon as Zhukov arrived at the command center of Yelemenko in Ivanovka, he immediately began to form a counterattack. The number of this unit was the 1st Guards Army.

This army did not exist before this. Zhukov was based on the 2nd Army, which was originally a reserve force, and then formed into five guard infantry divisions (37, 38, 39, 40, 41st infantry divisions).

As mentioned before, the Guard Infantry Division was an elite unit in the Soviet army with strong combat effectiveness, good equipment, and even had combat experience. From this, it can be seen that Zhukov's intention in this battle was not just as simple as rescuing Stalingrad.

This is indeed the case.

After discussing with Moskarenko, the commander of the 1st Guards Army, Zhukov set a strategic goal: "If Kotluban conquers this place, he can encircle all the German troops that broke into the east of Kotluban, and he can also contact Staliner!"

But in actual operations, we encountered difficulties... The troops of the 1st Guards Army were scattered all over the place, and they needed time to assemble near the village of Sadeki, 25 kilometers north of Kotluban.

This seems to be an easy task, which is to send all the troops incorporated into the 1st Guard Army to Sadki Village, but in fact there are many problems.

First of all, a considerable number of these divisions incorporated into the 1st Guards Army were distributed on the defense line north of the Don River, so first of all, troops must take over their defense areas, otherwise the banks of the Don River will be exposed to the Germans.

Secondly, some guard infantry divisions are far away from Sadki Village, and it is basically impossible to reach the destination within a few days with equipment, especially tanks that rely heavily on roads.

At the same time, there is no need for this, because this will cause the western tank to be transferred eastward, and the eastern tank to be transferred westward is a waste of fuel and resources.

So Zhukov ordered that only personnel should arrive and take over each other's heavy equipment.

Therefore, the problem of how to exchange equipment will arise. What is more serious is that the army in the direction of Stalingrad cannot provide so many tanks for exchange due to serious tank losses.

The artillery also had similar problems, so that the 39th Guard Infantry Division could receive only 19 artillery and 12 tanks after they arrived in Stalingrad. The situation of other divisions was similar.

In this case, Zhukov was unable to launch an attack, so he could only wait for more equipment and supplies to be transported to the front line.

So Zhukov immediately called Stalin: "Comrade Stalin, the 1st Guards Army is being formed. When the troops are in trouble with supply and equipment, we need at least two days to prepare. The attack is not possible anyway, otherwise the troops will suffer unnecessary losses!"

Zhukov's words were reasonable. Although people were still elite, they had no equipment and no ammunition and just let them charge with a gun. This was actually not much different from the cannon fodder of the "Punishment Battalion".

But Stalin ignored this.

"Comrade Zhukov!" Stalin said sarcastically: "Do you think the enemy will wait for you to prepare slowly before attacking Stalingrad? If you do not attack immediately, the enemy may only need a fierce attack to take Stalingrad!"

"Comrade Stalin!" Zhukov disagreed with this judgment: "Stalingrad is extremely critical, but in one or two days the enemy cannot occupy it. I request permission to attack according to the original date!"

Stalin thought for a while and replied, "Okay, attack according to the original date. At that time, you should drive the Germans south of Stalingrad, which means regaining the port of Karachi to restore the Don's defense line near it!"

Zhukov was stunned when he heard this. Although he did assemble elite troops, he had too high expectations for driving the powerful German army out of the passage and restoring the defense line before restoring it.

From this perspective, Stalin also lacks correct and objective judgments on the battlefield situation.

While Zhukov was preparing in great detail, the 21st Armored Division finally got a rare rest time.

The 21st Armored Division advanced seven kilometers southward towards Stalingrad and encountered a division-level resistance. The 21st Armored Division did not launch a strong attack because their mission had been changed to test the solid defense line outside Stalingrad... The weak defense was pushed out directly with tanks, and the solid defense line was handed over to the infantry division.

Therefore, the 21st Armored Division turned around and headed towards an important node, that is, the central line of defense, Kotluban.

Fortunately, on the way, I passed the state-owned farm in the experimental field outside Stalingrad... The Soviet Union implemented a planned economy at this time, and its characteristic was that it owned such a large area of ​​land and was owned by the state.

When the 21st Armored Division drove here, they saw crops and vegetables that were endless. There were a large number of Soviet soldiers busy harvesting. It was obvious that they were rushing to harvest when they knew the Germans. On the other hand, there seemed to be someone using a tractor to destroy crops that were not too late to harvest so that they would not fall into the hands of the Germans...

Of course, the German soldiers would not let them continue when they saw this scene. The tank gun turned to the tractor at Colonel Slein's order, and then made a slight adjustment and then a "boom" blew a tractor into the sky.

When other people saw this stance, they hurriedly fled from the "scene" in panic, including the tractor driver who left the tractor and fled. Some of the Soviet soldiers raised their guns and fired back at the fire without their own ability, but after a burst of machine guns, they were knocked to the ground in rows.

"God!" Werner jumped out of the car, looked back at Qin Chuan excitedly, shouting: "Major, should we improve our food?"

Qin Chuan was drooling at the crops in front of him and a large green vegetable field... Since he came to this world, he didn't know how long he had a full meal, especially vegetables. The whole piece was either canned bread or roasted potatoes. The vegetable field in front of him seemed to him to discover a treasure mountain.
Chapter completed!