Chapter 121: Disappointing
The dark green DC-3 passenger plane broke through the mist and the thick smoke that covered the entire sky and flew towards the southern bank of the winding Volga River.
This passenger plane was imported from the United States in 1936. It is now seriously aged. Sitting in the cabin, it feels very bumpy. From time to time, you can hear the terrifying sound of dragging steel plates.
Through the dusty oval window, Yuri overlooked the scene below the plane. Unfortunately, the smoke and fog below the plane were too heavy and he could not see through it at all.
On the flank of the DC-3, a Soviet fighter formation was performing an escort mission. They belonged to Air Force Unit 1, and their main responsibility was to escort Yuri's special plane to the Soviet rear airport on the south bank of the Volga River.
Perhaps it was the blessing of the god of luck that the plane did not encounter any German fighter planes along the way and was basically safe and sound. At this moment, the plane was about to land in ten minutes, and Yuri's heart, which had been hanging in the air all the way, finally sank.
Taking his eyes away from the window, Yuri looked back at the document spread on his knees. This was a report on the current situation of the 62nd Army.
As an army group, the 62nd Army was officially established less than a month ago. Before July 10, this army group was named the 9th Reserve Army, which was composed of the 33rd Guards Infantry Division, the 147th, 181st, 184th, 192nd and 196th Infantry Divisions, the 121st Tank Brigade and some independent tank and artillery units. Its organization was basically complete.
However, after being incorporated into the Stalingrad Front, the army group fought successively at the Chir River, Kletskaya, Surovtino, and the outer defense line of Stalingrad, directly resisting the German Ninth Army, and suffered heavy casualties. By now, the various units of the entire army group had been basically crippled, so that Lieutenant General Lopatin, who originally commanded the unit, said that he could not rely on this unit to complete the task when he received the order to continue defending the inner defense line of Stalingrad.
Lopatin's frankness angered Comrade Stalin, so he was replaced. Khrushchev, as the military commissar of the front, originally wanted to recommend Yuri directly, but because his injuries had not healed, he had to recommend Comrade Chuikov, who had performed well before.
But what was unexpected was that when Chuikov was summoned to Moscow for talks, one of the requests he made was that he hoped to send Yuri to be his deputy. The reason was that the tactics Yuri used when commanding the Battle of Berezna were very suitable for defending Stalingrad, and he had rich experience in this area.
After going around in circles, Yuri finally arrived at the 62nd Army, but missed the position of commander.
Before leaving Moscow, Yuri was summoned to the Kremlin, where Comrade Stalin and Comrade Zhukov met with him and asked him two same questions: The first question was whether Stalingrad could be defended, and the second question was what other requirements he had.
There is obviously no need to hesitate about the first question. Not to mention that Yuri still has confidence, even if he has no confidence, he cannot say that he cannot hold on. Otherwise, he, the hero, will turn into a bear in the blink of an eye. The unfortunate Comrade Lopatin is a lesson for him.
As for the requirements, Yuri mentioned two: First, he needed an endless supply of reserve troops. After all, this was a war of attrition, and the goal was to drag the German Ninth Army to death in Stalingrad. Therefore, casualties of the troops were inevitable. In order to have sufficient troops to maintain the battle, he needed troops, a steady supply of troops.
Zhukov said nothing about this request, but Comrade Stalin agreed to it readily.
As for the second point, Yuri's request was that by the end of the war, he hoped to get the cane of Paulus, commander of the German Ninth Army - Paulus was not yet a German field marshal at the time, and his cane was a silver cane privately ordered from the Godet Brothers Company. It was exquisitely crafted and expensive, and it would definitely make one look very classy when he held it in his hand.
Facing Yuri's request, Zhukov was helpless and speechless, but Stalin laughed and agreed to his slightly excessive request without hesitation. In Zhukov's view, Yuri's request seemed a bit arrogant, but in Stalin's view, it was a manifestation of confidence. The reason why the two had different views was that they had different positions and different starting points for considering the problem.
Zhukov considered the issue purely from a military perspective, while Stalin considered the political issue more. Judging from the current situation in Stalingrad, the Soviet army was in a very passive situation. As far as the battle was going on, the Soviet army was still on the passive defense, and there was no hope of a counterattack in the short term. At this time, Yuri proposed to take the cane of Paulus, the commander of the German Ninth Army, as a reward, which was equivalent to showing that he was full of confidence in this battle, and even believed that the Soviet army had the possibility of completely annihilating the German Ninth Army - if he did not completely annihilate the German Ninth Army, how could he get Paulus's cane?
Whether he was arrogant or confident, Yuri had made his attitude clear, and the Supreme Command and the General Staff were very satisfied with his attitude.
The DC-3 aircraft landed at the airport of the 16th Air Force Group, and the military jeep arranged by the Stalingrad Front Command for Yuri had already been waiting there. In addition to the driver, the person responsible for picking him up was a staff officer of the 62nd Army named Stelak, a Kazakh.
"Comrade Major, where is the army headquarters located now?" After getting off the plane and having a brief conversation with Stelak, Yuri went straight to the point and asked.
"In Yelzhovka, Comrade General," Sterak behaved very carefully in front of Yuri. It was probably the first time he met such a young major general, and he was unsure of the other's temper, so he behaved so cautiously.
There is no way. Most of the commanders in the army have bad tempers, and the younger they are, the more so.
Yuri didn't react at first when he heard the other party addressing him as "Comrade General". He needed some time to adjust psychologically from being promoted from the rank of colonel to that of general. Mainly, it was such an important promotion, but Moscow didn't even arrange a promotion ceremony for him. It was really fucked up.
"Yerzovka?" The approximate location of this place quickly emerged in Yuri's mind.
During this period, he put a lot of effort into the battle zone map of Stalingrad, and he memorized the locations of some important node defense zones.
Yelzhovka is a small town located in the northern suburbs of Stalingrad, less than 15 kilometers away from the city. Since the 62nd Army set up its headquarters in this place, it means that the Soviet army has already prepared to retreat to the city and fight street fighting with the German army.
"Have the specific losses of the troops been counted?" Yuri continued to ask.
The situation of the 62nd Army in his hands was not particularly detailed. At least, the casualties in the previous stage had not been reported. So far, Yuri only knew that the troops had lost two divisions in the defensive battle at the bend of the Don River, and he knew nothing about other specific situations.
"The statistics are out, and the situation is not very good," Stelak said with some trepidation. "Comrade Commander made a statistical analysis of the troops' losses as soon as he took office. According to the current data, after the previous phase of fighting, the troops' losses have reached nearly 75%. Now the troops that can be mobilized by each unit are around 10,000."
Nearly four-fifths of the troops were lost? Upon hearing this, Yuri almost spat out a mouthful of blood. This was such a bummer. Before, he thought he finally had the chance to command a large army, but after all the twists and turns, he was actually commanding a division... and a division with scattered troops.
Stelak had no idea of Yuri's thoughts, and he continued to explain the situation of the troops competently. As he said, the 62nd Army suffered quite shocking losses in the early battles. Take the 121st Tank Brigade for example. So far, the brigade has only 4 tanks and 56 people including the brigade headquarters. Fundamentally speaking, this brigade has actually been destroyed, and there is no need to even retain its organization.
According to normal war thinking, the entire 62nd Army should withdraw from the battle and be reorganized in the rear. It is questionable whether its organization needs to be retained. But now the Supreme Command not only did not do so, but continued to order the 62nd Army to hold Stalingrad, and still take on the main task of defense. What does this mean? There is no doubt that this means that the Supreme Command no longer has a complete reserve force to replace it, at least there is no reorganized army unit that can be deployed to this area. The purpose of ordering the 62nd Army to hold Stalingrad and retaining the crippled organization is to continuously assign new recruits directly to these troops, so as to barely support this line of defense.
Yuri felt that he was really about to become the second Lukin. From the outbreak of the war to now, he seemed to have never commanded a proper troop. The reason why the Supreme Command couldn't wait to transfer him to the 62nd Army this time and the reason why Chuikov directly named him was probably because they took a fancy to his resume.
Well, since he was destined to command such an army of defeated soldiers again, Yuri felt that he should make some careful plans.
It is obviously unrealistic to rely on such a force to keep the German army out of Stalingrad. Therefore, there is no need to continue defending Yelzhovka, which will only further deplete the already limited strength of the 62nd Army.
The first decision Yuri made was to abandon the defense of the Yezhovka area, withdraw the troops to the city of Stalingrad, and engage in street fighting and attrition warfare with the German attack.
