The next afternoon, in Rostov's command, Manstein and Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Weiler (also his partner in the Battle of Krim) were looking at the photos of the reconnaissance plane returning. The pontoon bridges where the Soviet army crossed the river became five roads. After nearly 24 hours of intensity a day and a night, the entire 27th Army crossed the Great River Quarter of the Don River.`

"Sir, are you just watching the Russians cross the river? I thought you would block them by the river..."

"Block?" Manstein shook his head, "It is easy to knock down through the Don River, but how can we destroy the enemy?"

"Only by stopping them can we better eliminate them," said Weiler. "After all, the first task assigned by Yuan is to defend the existing line of defense."

"I can't stop it. The local guide told me that starting from mid-November, there will be a 140-day ice age in the upper reaches of the Don River. By mid-December, the lower reaches will also begin to be frozen, and then there will be a 90-day ice age. At that time, they can come from anywhere. Our military situation and disadvantages are now. I can't do the overall defense while also being able to control the troops along the river, and it is even more impossible to keep an eye on here all the time, so that our defense line will be too shallow. We have to have a flood discharge outlet - at least let them find a place to cross the river. If they are forced to cross the river, how can I block it?"

"So you chose this?"

"It was not what I chose, it was the Russians themselves." Manstein said with a smile, "because they thought this was the easiest place to cross the river: from the perspective of hydrological conditions, due to the existence of a large bend, the water flow slowed down here, and it was relatively easy to build a floating bridge; from the perspective of strategic situation and military distribution, the bend was closest to Stalingrad, and the crossing troops could be well covered, and it was easy to spread quickly once the crossing of the river was successful. Of course, there was no place where the Russians crossed the river. They would definitely choose a place downstream."

There are not no bridges on the Don River, on the contrary, there are more than one place. When the Red Army retreated, there was no time to blow up these bridges. Similarly, the German army did not choose to blow up the bridges after retreating across the river. However, anyone with a brain knew that bridges were unreliable and destined to be the focus of the enemy's defense. So the Red Army wisely did not choose bridges, but avoided them far away. When he heard Manstein's explanation, Weiler laughed. He changed his mind and said another thing: "The people below were complaining. You took away all the No. 3 assault guns, what should you do when facing the Russian tanks during defensive operations?"

"Didn't you give them 57mm, Russian-made 762mm anti-tank guns and our own 88 guns?"

"But these things can only be used to set up ambush at fixed positions and cannot be maneuvered."

"What do they want to do with maneuver? Someone has done the maneuvering work. Lieutenant General Hubei's 16th Armored Division is used to do this." Manstein waved his hand, "Let him not think about it. I have already arranged it. I have been the commander of the group army."

Weller laughed.

Just as Manstein and Weller were discussing the battle situation, the Supreme Deputy Commander of the Soviet Union was also explaining the situation:

"From the situation we have investigated and combined with the intelligence analysis from various channels, the commander of the German Southern Army Group was Marshal Manstein. He had about 85 divisions under his command, with a total force of 150,000 to 170,000. `It was strange from September to January this year. The Germans unexpectedly disbanded the military-level organization. On the one hand, they strengthened the division's strength, and on the other hand, they tried to weaken the military-level organization. However, so far, this work has obviously not been completed. The Germans only dismantled the army. The so-called weakening of the military-level organization has not been done yet. For example, the 6th Army, where Manstein himself served as the commander, is said to have more than 30,000 troops..."

The Soviet and German armies had completely different organizational settings in the Eastern Front Battle. In terms of infantry, the Soviet Union adopted a small division system, with a full force of about 105oo. Unfortunately, most of the time, it was impossible to fully entrust. The basic number was between 4ooo-7oo, while the German infantry division had a full unit of about 150,000-160,000, and the actual number was around 120,000-140,000. If it was less than 10,000 (unless surrounded), it was generally required to go back and rest and supplement. After Hoffman's "demolition of troops and replenish divisions", the German infantry division had a full unit of about 170,000, while the actual number was around 130,000-150,000. Considering the firepower equipment of the German army, it was almost equivalent to one German division equaling three Red Army divisions.

In terms of armored forces, the Red Army adopted the organization of tank army-brigade-battalions. A tank army usually has three brigades and some infantry units, with a total number of only 10,000 people, and the number of tanks is about 17o. The German army adopts the organization of armored division-rule-battalions. An armored division has an armored regiment with three armored battalions, with about 16o tanks, with a total number of about 120,000 to 140,000. After strengthening in the summer of 1942, it increased to about 17o tanks and about 130,000-150,000. Therefore, even if a Red Army tank army is equal to a German armored division tank (not considering the difference in equipment quality), its combat capability is weaker than that of the German armored division due to the differences in infantry units.

"The enemy army was divided into three interconnected and separated heavy army groups." Zhukov pointed at the 24-kilometer front with his teaching stick. "The enemy's left wing is the Hot Group, the Manstein Group in the middle wing, and the Kleist Group on the right wing - the group is the so-called Group A Army Group. At the end of August, the army group with Group B was reorganized into the Southern Army Group. When Hitler carried out a large-scale military purge in September, the former commander of the group, Marshal Liszt, was with him.

After a conflict, he left (this is why Manstein didn't react when Zeitzler joked that he was the most capable marshal in the south wing.), the forces of the three groups of enemy troops were roughly distributed evenly. According to incomplete statistics, the enemy troops on the left wing were about 450,000-50,000, the middle wing was 50-60, and the right wing was 50-60,000. The enemy's armor was also divided into three strands, the left wing was the strongest, the right wing was second, and the middle was the weakest..."

Others from the Supreme Command discussed: "Menstein's deployment is very strange. Isn't this clear that we can divide and surround us?"

"I don't understand the deployment of the German army, but equal distribution of troops is obviously not the way a commander should do. It seems to be comprehensive, but in fact it will only make the troops lose sight of each other." The veteran Red Army Marshal Voroshilov said sarcastically, "This marshal is probably still immersed in the victory of the Krim Peninsula..."

"Maybe he felt that the troops were too strong and he had to be divided to facilitate command. After all, he had not been the commander of the group army for a long time." Temuxin said with a smile, "Otherwise, why did he still serve as the commander of the 6th Army? This is really a strange person."

"If we consider that he was still regressing when he occupied a good situation in September, this arrangement is not surprising." Molotov added, "I don't understand how Hitler could have such a man become a marshal and command the Southern Army Group. Maybe he is very obedient - those who are disobedient have been killed or cleaned up by Yuan."

Zhukov seemed not to hear these comments, but continued to introduce: "We have also made adjustments to the deployment of the enemy. For the middle Manstein Group, we plan to concentrate more than half of the troops and technical weapons on the southern wing of the front line, and strive to form a 2- to 3-fold advantage over the enemy's forces. On the left and right wings, we use three fronts to conduct restraining operations, with a slightly larger number of people than the enemy, but a slightly lower technical weapons than the enemy. Our combat expectation is: to create opportunities for our middle group to encircle and annihilate the Manstein Group by pulling the left and right wings. In the overall battle plan, the middle is the direction of our main attack, and we will divide it into two north and south routes for pincer attacks."

Looking at the attack arrows drawn by Zhukov, everyone basically nodded in agreement. After all, more than 10,000 troops could not accumulate in one direction, so they could not be able to unfold or use their military strength advantages.

"Of course... the General Staff also had different opinions. Comrade Huasilevsky hoped to encircle and annihilate the enemy's left-wing group first." Zhukov made a turning point. While using red and blue pencils on the map, he outlined an arrow turning right for the attack spearhead on the north side of the middle road, he said, "He thought it would be possible to quickly cut off the connection between the enemy's left-wing and the middle road, and use the main forces of the three fronts of Bryansk, Voronezh and Don to encircle and annihilate the Hot cluster, and then turn to Rostov."

Stalin lowered his cigarette butt and asked in a deep voice: "What about your view on this view?"

"I don't recommend this." Zhukov's answer was straightforward, "The left wing of the enemy Hot Group is the enemy Central Army Group, and the right wing is the Manstein Group. If we attack in this direction and route, it does not mean that we can surround the Hot Group - as long as he leans into the middle, he will contact the Central Army Group again. On the contrary, we will stay away from the flank of the Manstein Group, so that the pressure on the enemy in front of us will be weakened. I still insist on my proposition - we should strengthen the strength of the middle road at all costs! Of course, the middle road is still facing many difficulties. Although the attack has been launched, the comrades generally respond that there is a lack of ammunition and supplies, and it is difficult to maintain high-intensity combat. Most of the newly added infantry in the summer have not received training, and now they cannot even go in the queue...",

"This is not possible..." Stalin interrupted Zhukov's complaint unhappily, "Let Comrade Vasilevsky tell you the specific reason."

...
Chapter completed!