Chapter 1236 Manstein's thoughts

   Colonel Burke and his men left the exchange place with Hornerdorf's body. Unexpectedly, after walking only 500 meters, the screaming sound of shells piercing the air suddenly came from the air, which scared Burke out of his wits. He thought it was Sokov who ordered the artillery to fire at them.

  But the shell flew over their heads and landed directly on the exchange place not long ago, directly blowing it into a sea of ​​flames. Burke looked in that direction, and couldn't help being startled into a cold sweat. He thought to himself: If he hadn't left there at this moment, he must have been blown to pieces by the shell.

Returning to Knobelsdorf's command cabin, Burke asked sharply, "General Knobelsdorf, why did you shoot? Don't you know where we are fighting with Russia?" Are you going to blow us to pieces along with the Russians?"

   "Colonel Burke, don't worry." Unexpectedly, General Knobelsdorf said with a normal expression: "I ordered the artillery to fire after I knew you had left the exchange point."

   "Why?" Burke asked angrily, "Why did you shoot?"

"I was also ordered." If it was an ordinary colonel who dared to ask such a question, he would have been kicked out by the order of General Knobelsdorf, but now the person who asked this question was Manstein's adjutant, Knobelsdorf. Bersdorf had to patiently explain: "On the orders of Marshal Manstein."

   "On the order of the Marshal?" Burke said in a daze, "But when the Marshal gave me this task, he didn't say that the Russian positions would be shelled?"

"That was a temporary decision made by the Marshal." Knobelsdorf explained to Burke: "He can't tolerate the Russians using General Hornerdorf's body to blackmail us. So in exchange After the dead body, there will be crazy revenge on the Russians."

   "If you really want to retaliate against the Russians, Your Excellency the Marshal should have told me about it in advance." Burke said displeasedly: "This will also give me a bottom line."

"I think your Excellency the Marshal didn't tell you this is completely correct." Knobelsdorf said with a straight face: "If you knew the plan of your Excellency the Marshal in advance, you will inevitably show flaws when performing the exchange mission. If the Russians find out, then our revenge plan will fail."

"General Knobelsdorf, I think the Marshal's plan may fail." Burke thought of Sokov who was sitting and drinking with him, and immediately realized that the other party might be aware of Marshal Manstein's plan, otherwise how could he? Inexplicably invite yourself to drink? He said he wanted to know more about Marshal Manstein's deeds, but when he was sitting and chatting, he was almost always talking about it, and he didn't even seem to have much chance to speak. He smiled wryly and said, "I think General Sokov has seen through the Marshal's strategy."

   "What, you said Sokov saw through the Marshal's scheme?" Knobelsdorf said in an unbelievable tone when he heard this: "He is not a god, how could he guess the Marshal's scheme?"

"General Knobelsdorf, I think our biggest mistake is that we shouldn't exchange so many wounded for General Hornerdorf's body." Burke said: "According to my estimation, General Sokov may be When I saw that the prisoners we were going to hand over to them were all wounded, I realized that something was wrong, so I adjusted the tactics in time. He personally came out to hold me back so that the wounded and sick could get more Transfer time."

"Colonel Burke, if things are really as you said, this General Sokov is too scary." Knobelsdorf said dumbfounded: "He can see through your Excellency the Marshal's tricks, and in the shortest time The most appropriate countermeasures were taken within a short period of time.”

"General Knobelsdorf, if you believe me, please listen to me, and immediately order the artillery to stop shelling the Russian positions." Burke reminded Knobelsdorf: "The area our artillery is now shelling , there are not many Russians at all, they should all be moved to a safe place."

"Is this really the case?" Knobelsdorf said hesitantly: "If it is true as you said, there are no Russians in the shelled area, and the shelling stops, the Marshal may not blame me. But once the situation On the contrary, the cessation of our shelling will give the Russians a chance to breathe, and when the Marshal finds out, who should bear the responsibility?"

"General Knobelsdorf, I will return to the Marshal's headquarters immediately." Seeing that Knobelsdorf had no intention of ordering the artillery to stop the artillery, Burke got up and said to him, "I believe you will receive the command soon." Order to cease shelling."

  Burke returned to Manstein's command cabin, and Manstein couldn't wait to ask: "Has General Hornerdorf's body been brought back smoothly?"

"Yes, Your Excellency Marshal, I fulfilled my mission and brought back the body of General Hornerdorf." After reporting on his mission, Burke raised his own question: "But Your Excellency Marshal, we On the way back, I suddenly saw the artillery under the command of General Knobelsdorf, carrying out heavy shelling at the place where we exchanged."

"This is my order." Manstein thought that Burke didn't understand the reason for the sudden shelling, and explained to him patiently: "I can't tolerate the Russians using the dead body of General Hornerdorf to attack the Russians." I continue to blackmail. Therefore I must take retaliation. In order to ensure your safety, I ordered General Knobelsdorf to bombard the Russian positions after you have reached the safe area. I think that at this moment the Russian positions should change. It became a sea of ​​fire."

"Your Excellency Marshal, the Russian position has indeed turned into a sea of ​​flames under the shelling of our army." Burke continued after organizing the vocabulary in his mind: "But when it comes to how much damage it can cause to the Russians, I'm of the opposite opinion."

"Why do you say that?"

   "Your Excellency Marshal, you don't know something. Sokov probably should have seen through your plan, and he took correct countermeasures because of it."

   "What's going on here?" Hearing what Burke said, Manstein realized that there might be something wrong in some aspects, and quickly asked: "How could Sokov see through my plan?"

   "The reason is very simple. The prisoners we exchanged with them were all wounded. Sokov may have seen this situation, so he ran out to host the exchange ceremony."

   "What, is the exchange ceremony presided over by Sokov himself?" Manstein asked in surprise: "The second lieutenant, didn't you mean the Russian commander who presided over the exchange ceremony, but the head of the 564 regiment?"

"That's the problem," Burke explained to Manstein. "General Sokov probably saw that the prisoners who were going to be exchanged were all slow-moving wounded, so he realized that something was wrong, so he ordered They figured out a way to hold me in position so that General Knobelsdorf's artillery wouldn't dare to open fire."

   "Tell me, what method did he use to hold you back for such a long time?"

"Drink, he invited me to drink." Burke said here, seeing Manstein's expression is not happy, he quickly added: "I had already rejected his offer, but he said he admired you and wanted to know more about you from me." Something about you. Without thinking about it for a moment, I agreed to sit down and drink and talk to him about you."

   "About me?" Manstein asked curiously, "What did he say?"

"He said," Burke has realized at this moment that he has fallen into Sokov's trap. If he does not sit there drinking for a long time, but immediately takes people back after completing the exchange, maybe Knobelsdorf's artillery A round of heavy bombardment might kill Sokov and most of the wounded. In order to make up for his fault, he had to take the initiative to change the topic to the dialogue between himself and Sokov: "He said, if you block the commander who directed the Sixth Army to attack Stalingrad, it is not Paulus but you." If so, maybe the city would have fallen into our hands long ago..." He repeated what Sokov said to Manstein like a parrot.

  Manstein did not expect an enemy commander to respect him so much. It would be fine if it was an ordinary Russian commander, but the key point was that this person was an opponent who caused headaches for all ranks of his own officers, and his praise for himself was much more valuable.

  Thinking of this, Manstein, who has always liked a straight face, showed a faint smile on his face. He ignored Burke's responsibility, but continued to ask, "What else did he say?"

"After Paulus's Sixth Army was wiped out, the Russians used two or three front armies to launch a counterattack against our army at the same time." Burke carefully observed Manstein's expression and felt that he was very nervous at the moment. Well, I couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and continued: "General Sokov said that our army was at an absolute disadvantage in terms of strength and equipment at that time. If a different commander commanded the battle, our troops would definitely be defeated." Rush to the right bank of the Dnieper River and face off with the Russians across the river. It is precisely because you are in command of the troops that you can reverse the disadvantages on the battlefield and finally win this battle."

Hearing that all Burke said were words of praise for himself, Manstein couldn't help but feel a little flustered. He waited for Burke to stop, and then continued to ask: "Then did he say that the Battle of Kursk What is the final outcome like?"

   However, Burke has yet to answer Manstein's question. Seeing that his adjutant didn't speak, Manstein couldn't help being a little angry: "Colonel, why didn't you continue talking? Could it be that he couldn't foresee who the final winner of this battle would be?"

"said."

"who is it?"

  Burke replied with some hesitation: "General Sokov said two possibilities."

   "Which two possibilities?"

"One is that our army will continue to attack according to the pre-established goals and routes with the existing forces, then the final victory must belong to us." Burke said slowly: "Another possibility is that the head of state won the battle." Dementia, at the most critical moment of the battle, transfer the elite troops away from your hands. This will cause the balance of victory to tilt towards the Russians."

"Nonsense, it's just nonsense." Manstein couldn't help but explode when he heard this: "Operation Fortress was formulated by the head of state himself. Many troops have been invested in this area, how could it be possible to draw troops from us?"

   Originally, Manstein wanted to hear what Sokov had to say, but at this moment he suddenly lost interest. He waved his hand to indicate that Burke could leave, and he didn't want to listen to him anymore. Burke understood what Manstein was thinking, raised his hand to salute him, then turned and left the command cabin.

  After Burke left, Manstein thought over what he said carefully, and felt that there was still some truth in it. According to the news I just received, Britain and the United States landed in Sicily, Italy on July 9, in an attempt to occupy the whole of Italy. Regardless of the large number of troops in Italy, it is simply a fantasy to expect them to block the offensive of the Allied forces. Although Germany also has a lot of garrisons in Italy, most of them are second-rate garrison troops. It is basically impossible to repel the Allied attack. In this way, it is really possible that what Sokov said, the headquarters of Berlin will draw troops from itself.

  Manstein thought to himself: If this really happened, should he obey the order and hand over the troops; or should he disobey and continue to use these troops to fight fiercely with the Russians entrenched in Kursk?

  After repeated deliberation, Manstein finally figured out a truth. If the base camp does not want to draw troops from himself, the best way is to keep the troops in a state of fierce fighting. The base camp saw that their troops were all in a fighting state, and they were embarrassed to draw troops from themselves.

  After wanting to understand this truth, Manstein asked the communications soldier to connect to Hausser's command post. Soon, Hausser's voice came from the earphones: "Your Excellency, Marshal, I am Hausser, what instructions do you have?"

   "Hausser, I order your 2nd SS Panzer Corps to attack the frontal Russian positions immediately. Be sure to break through their defenses and reach the Puschol River in the shortest possible time."

"Your Excellency, Field Marshal," Hausser said with some embarrassment when he heard Manstein's order, "my armored army now only has the Skeleton Division on the offensive position, and its strength is too weak. It is difficult to achieve the ideal results. It is better to wait for two more days, and it will not be too late to launch an attack after the Banner Guard Division also enters the attack position."

  (end of this chapter)