Chapter 850: Difficulty

Now that the general plan of attack had been decided, the rest was up to the Army General Staff and the various army groups. Akado wanted to understand the specific details of the attack on Stalingrad. After all, this was the foundation for the subsequent Battle of Kursk and the Battle of Baku.

“Our army has already crossed the Kalitva River on the main front. Because the bridge was still in relatively good condition, our river crossing was not slow,” Guderian reported to Akado on the position of his Army Group G’s offensive. “Although the Soviet defenders were heavily fortified, our army still quickly captured the Chir River and occupied a large area of the northern Rostov Oblast.”

He pointed to a vast area on the map, then glanced at Brauchitsch and the other generals and said, “The important towns on the Chir River, Bokovskaya and Sovetskaya, have already been taken by our army. Our vanguard has already approached Surovikino. Although the Soviet army is resisting step by step, they have not committed any decent forces.”

The main force of the German Army Group G was advancing towards the Don River, and it was a devastating advance. The carefully arranged defensive positions of the Soviet army had been easily bypassed by the German special forces and paratroopers. This had instantly caught the Soviet commanders and troops off guard. They had no way to stop the collapse of the front line, nor could they organize an effective counter-attack while the German army was advancing rapidly.

Rokossovsky was indeed a famous and fierce general of the Soviet army. He ordered his two armored divisions to retreat and defend Kalach, while at the same time increasing his forces along the Don River, in the hope of using the wider river to defend against the German attack. Surovikino was already within the area he had abandoned and was cleanly given up.

Although the supply conditions for the German army in the south were slightly better than those of the Central Group, it was only slightly better. In fact, Guderian only had one main transport line, connecting Donetsk to Surovikino in one go. Because the German army had ensured that this transport line was open during the offensive, they were still able to guarantee the supply of materials to the frontline troops by rail when the mud came.

Guderian pointed to this important and fragile transport line with his finger and said to Akado, “My Führer, at present, there are no problems with transportation. Within three days, our army will, under the cover of the air force, launch a surprise attack on Kalach and break through the Soviet defenders’ Don River defense line.”

In fact, due to careful preparation, and because Manstein’s troops were better at siege warfare in conditions of dense water networks, Manstein’s forces had already captured the various important strongpoints along the Don River. He had first led his army to capture Bataysk, delivering a heavy blow to the Soviet forces defending the Caucasus. Then, instead of rushing south, he had gone all the way east, gobbling up a number of areas where the Soviet defenders were severely lacking.

First, he had set out from Aksay and had captured the important Don River cities of Bagayevskaya, Semikarakorsk, Konstantinovsky, and Ust-Donetsky. The main force under Manstein’s command, the 13th Panzer Corps, was already threatening Volgodonsk and Tsimlyansk.

The southward-advancing Manstein’s army group was like a hot knife through butter. It had successively captured the important port of Azov near the Sea of Azov, and then had also captured another port, Yeysk, taking control of the entire Yeia River basin. The southernmost unit had already reached Salsk, completely disrupting the Soviet army’s strategic deployment near the Caucasus.

Just before this meeting had even begun, the unstopping M Army Group had launched an attack on Voskhod and had captured it after a fierce battle of over an hour. The Soviet army had been routed south to Yuzhny, but the German grenadiers had followed close behind. At this very moment, the German army had already occupied Yuzhny and had also taken Bolshaya Orlovka and Bolshaya Martynovka without firing a single shot.

The Soviet Red Banner Black Sea Fleet had almost nowhere left to go. If the German army’s southward advance could not be stopped, then these Soviet combat ships deployed in the Black Sea would be “wrapped in a dumpling” by the German army on land, with no escape from their final doom.

After Guderian had finished explaining the offensive plan of G Army Group and had sat back down in his chair, Manstein stood up and briefly explained the offensive plan for his own troops. He walked to the front of the map and, pointing to the Kerch Strait, said, “My Führer, the next step of M Army Group’s offensive plan will be to open up the Kerch Strait, to shorten our army’s supply lines. Once the rapid sea route of the Kerch Strait is opened, my army group will shorten its supply lines by several hundred kilometers, which will make the next phase of the operational plan easier to launch.”

His hand then moved east along the Kerch Strait, and he continued, “Our army will completely occupy the Krasnodar Krai, and then sweep through the entire Caucasus along the central part of Georgia. Finally, we will begin the attack on Baku and complete the entire Caucasus campaign.”

The railway line into the Caucasus ran through the central part of Georgia and was an important supply line that crossed the entire region. Manstein had already studied countless ways to capture Baku, and in the end, a rapid offensive along the railway line had become his first choice.

There were two routes: one was to go along the north through Grozny and then south; the other was to enter Georgia, cross the entire region, and then strike directly at Baku. Because Manstein had sufficient forces, he had adopted a two-pronged offensive, advancing on both fronts to open up the situation.

Such an arrangement was based on the fact that the German army’s forces were strong and their combat quality was significantly higher than that of the Soviet army. Manstein’s M Army Group had a strength of over 400,000 men, and seventy percent of them were veterans who had fought in the Battle of the Crimean Peninsula. He believed that these troops could defeat a Soviet army that outnumbered them, and the intelligence department also supported his view.

The Soviet army had a total of 330,000 troops in the southern Caucasus region, less than the forces under Manstein’s command. Most of these troops were new recruits, and more than half of them had never even fired a gun. What was even more despairing was that nearly 100,000 of these troops were deployed along the Kerch Strait to prevent a German landing from Kerch.

So, the Soviet forces standing in Manstein’s way numbered no more than 250,000. It could be said that they were no match at all for the German M Army Group. No matter which route the Soviet army took, to try and stop an attack by nearly 200,000 German troops would be a fantasy. Of course, in fact, the Soviet army still had an elite reinforcement unit, which the German army did not yet know about at this time.

“Although our army’s speed of attack is very fast, the Caucasus region is simply too large. What I’m worried about is that even if the Soviet army cannot hold the Caucasus, they will still have ample time to destroy the oil depots and ruin the oil production equipment,” Manstein said, pointing to the distant Baku. “I think if we want to supplement our domestic crude oil consumption, we need to start preparing the repair personnel and equipment now.”

“The personnel and equipment have been in preparation for several months already. In fact, at that time, you were still in Crimea, and Guderian was still in Ukraine,” Akado said, looking at Manstein in a calm tone. “This repair team can be deployed at any time. It has over 3,000 men and a lot of large-scale equipment. If the railway line is not a problem, and the damage to the Baku oil fields is not too thorough, then we are confident we can repair it in six months to a year.”

“My Führer, with such a long distance, I really cannot guarantee anything. I can only say that if I were Rokossovsky, then as soon as one of my vanguards had crossed the Yevlakh, I would have ordered the destruction of the Baku oil fields,” Manstein said helplessly, telling the truth. “With just some shells and explosives, I could destroy the entire Baku in a few days. And at that time, my troops, at their fastest, could only have advanced to the Ujar region.”

“I don’t know how the actual situation will change. I just want to ask, if, I say if, when your troops have advanced to Yevlakh, I were to airdrop paratroopers near Baku and capture it, would that better change the battle situation and reduce the losses to the oil fields?” Akado asked, looking at the map. He then crossed his arms over his chest, as if considering some problem.

“With all due respect, to rely solely on paratroopers, even with the addition of special forces and helicopters, to launch a surprise attack on Baku is an impossible mission. If it is a surprise attack and destruction, then the air force can do it. But to capture and protect, that is not the paratroopers’ strong suit,” Air Force General Kesselring said, sitting to one side. “General Student’s troops will be completely wiped out, and the Baku oil fields will be turned into a pile of rubble by the flames of war. These are not the outcomes we want to see.”

“Even if the paratroopers were to successfully airdrop, I would not have the forces to launch a continuous assault and to advance the infantry to Baku in two days. To have the paratroopers hold out alone behind enemy lines for a week… I think you know what that means, Führer,” Manstein also said, trying to persuade him.

Akado nodded. He had indeed developed a large number of ultra-modern military branches for the German army and had also developed and enlightened many new operational concepts. But he could not change the limitations that the technology of this era imposed on warfare, nor could he force a certain branch of the military to do something it was not good at.

If the paratroopers were to be dropped in a certain area and were to simply defend for a few days or even a dozen, then Student, regardless of losses, might be able to do it. But even if he could, in the process of his paratroopers fighting the enemy, that area would also be turned into a pile of rubble. This was the inevitable result of paratroopers defending a position. They would turn a city into ruins and then not yield an inch in those ruins.

But that was Baku, the oil-producing region that the Germans wanted to seize. After it was turned into a pile of rubble, how could production be restored? Even if it were to be destroyed by demolition, the German army did not want the entire Baku to be completely turned into ruins like Smolensk.

Advance chapters at Nightjar Reads · nightjarreads.com