Chapter 130

What Major Gavrilov didn't know was that although Shulka had never fought such guerrilla warfare, he did have relevant experience, and it could even be said to be very rich.

Soon, a force was formed.

For reasons of secrecy, it was not known for quite some time.

But there will be dramatic scenes on the railway:

"What a coincidence? Hijacking a train?"

"Yeah, you rob the train too? Let's go together!"

"What about the other comrades?"

...

As a result, the train failed to be robbed, but those who robbed the train were tied up and loaded into the train one by one.

This information was quickly passed to the headquarters of the Southern Army Group.

Now it can be said that Manstein is also the chief of staff... In fact, this position should be a full-time job for Manstein, because before he became the commander of the 56th Armored Army, he successively served as the army group of the South and the A Chief of Staff of the Army Group.

"Interesting!" Manstein said with a telegram: "I believe he can find a way to deal with it, but I didn't expect his reaction to be so fast!"

"They are very effective!" Reichenau said: "Martial law during the war shortened the time for the guerrillas to attack. They can even calculate which villages and towns have problems from the location of the destroyed railway and then focus on investigation!"

This is easy to understand.

If the guerrillas sneak out at night to perform tasks, they must return before dawn the next day... Every morning when the martial law is lifted at 7 o'clock, the team will be responsible for the roll call.

In case of absence, a reasonable reason must be given.

This puts villages and towns too far from the tracks to return in time in the first place, unless they don't worry about exposing themselves.

Secondly, once the railway is attacked, it is only necessary to draw a circle with the point of the attack as the center and a radius of more than ten kilometers, and the villages and towns within the circle are the key targets for investigation.

"What's even more abominable are those disguised guerrillas!" Reichenau angrily threw the documents in his hand on the table: "We can't tell the truth from the fake, so we even communicated the target of the sneak attack to them!"

"Why don't we let them each take charge of their position?" Manstein said. "Then we can know which ones are real and which ones are not!"

"It won't work!" Reichenau replied: "Because the Russians will cooperate with those fake partisans, and they will always get the job done... At least that's what they say!"

To be honest, this matter also caused Manstein a headache, because he came out of a regular military academy, studied traditional warfare, and fought traditional warfare. This kind of guerrilla warfare that seems invisible and fragmented is not what he is good at, and the same is true for other German officers.

If there is any solution, it is to use the Italian expeditionary force to attack the Soviet supply line.

After all, the Italian Expeditionary Force is a mechanized force. According to the "offensive advantage theory" mentioned earlier, it is very advantageous to use mechanized troops to attack the enemy's long defense line, because they can appear here and there from time to time, carefully looking for loopholes in the enemy's defense line .

The problem is...they are the Italian army not the German army.

And it is too risky to do so, because the Italian Expeditionary Force can be said to be the only combat-capable force protecting the rear of the Southern Army. If they are defeated again, the Soviet Army may counterattack to the old border and cut off Romania from the Soviet Union. The supply line of the German army was never allowed, because the railways there transported ammunition, gasoline and other necessities to the front line all the time.

Manstein thought for a while and said, "Even so, their supplies are still not enough to launch an attack in a short time!"

"Yes!" Reichenau agreed.

He learned from intelligence that the Russian Southwest Front had consumed a large amount of supplies in previous battles, and it was even worse as the east bank of the Dnieper River was occupied by the Germans.

The supplies from Odessa just kept his army of one million and maintained the existing line of defense.

"So we don't need to worry too much about the problems here!" Manstein turned his gaze to Moscow and said, "The focus has always been Moscow!"

But Manstein, who has always paid attention to regular combat, obviously underestimated the impact that this kind of guerrilla warfare can cause, or it can be said that the "escape hero" can play a role.

But Manstein was right, because the Soviet Union was also worrying about Moscow's defense and did not take guerrilla warfare seriously.

Because at this time Hitler had already focused all his attention on Moscow, not only from the Southern Army Group, but also from the Northern Army Group. According to statistics, the Central Army Group has assembled 74 troops. The division has more than 1.8 million people, including 14 armored divisions, 8 motorized divisions, 1,700 tanks, more than 14,000 cannons, mortars and 1,390 aircraft.

Hitler triumphantly said to the staff: "Russia's only hope now is Britain. Unless Britain attacks us now, it will force us to withdraw our tanks and planes from the Eastern Front. But Churchill has rejected Stalin's request. So , the fate of Moscow is sealed!"

The atmosphere in Odessa also became tense.

First of all, the equipment and supplies shipped from Crimea are decreasing, because they have to give priority to reinforcements to Moscow.

It is said that even Leningrad, which was attacked by the German Northern Army Group, was ordered to send reinforcements to Moscow when the supply of troops was insufficient.

Secondly, the Southwest Front Army was ordered to attack the enemy immediately.

This may be correct from a strategic point of view. Kyiv is firmly blocked to the south of Moscow and cannot reinforce Moscow. In other words, it will take a considerable price to reinforce Moscow... From Kyiv to Odessa, and then from Odessa To Crimea and then to Moscow.

This is obviously unrealistic, as it is a waste of scarce resources in wartime.

Therefore, let them launch an attack on the spot. Although Moscow does not want the Southwest Front Army to break through the German defense line and threaten the German supply line, at least it can play a containment role.

The problem is that Kyiv's supplies are just starting to improve, they don't even have tanks for the attack... Most of the tanks that can be used are organized into the 9th Mechanized Army to attack Odessa, and the ones left in Kyiv are some Heavy tanks captured from the Germans or malfunctioning after not being driven very far.

To make matters worse, the German army defended on the east bank of the Dnieper River, where there were even bunker fortifications, artillery and ammunition left to the Germans when the Southern Front was defeated.

Using infantry to launch a strong attack on such a line of defense, the result can be imagined.