Chapter 504 Armored Division Northward

  The German army's attack on the factory area, although aggressive, was actually thunderous and rainy. They fought for several hours, but did not achieve any results. Finally, a unit rushed into the Red October Tractor Factory, but failed to gain a foothold and was driven out by the Soviet Army.

  After dark, the German offensive stopped, and the progress of each division's battle was sent to the Army Group Command as soon as possible. After Schmid compiled all the reports, he walked into Paulus' office with the folder under his arm.

After Schmid waited for Paulus to read the report, he said cautiously: "Your Excellency, judging from the situation of today's offensive, the strength of the Russians has tended to be exhausted. Can't stop."

  After listening to Schmid's words, Paulus did not express his opinion immediately, but walked to the wall, looked up at the map hanging on the wall and began to think. After a long time, he turned around, looked at Schmid and said, "Chief of Staff, if you have any ideas, you can tell them."

"Your Excellency, Commander," Schmid replied respectfully: "Most of the southern city of Stalingrad has been occupied by our army. Due to the criss-crossing fronts of both sides, our tanks and artillery have become useless. In the factory area to the north, the terrain here is very favorable for us to use armored forces on a large scale, but so far, our army has only one 16th Armored Division deployed in this area. Their main task is to prevent the The Russians went south to join forces with the defenders in the city, so they could not concentrate all their forces on the Russian troops in the factory area."

Having said that, Schmid walked up to Paulus, pointed to the map and continued: "I suggest assigning General Lensky's 24th Armored Division to the command of the 51st Army so that they can also participate in the attack on the factory area." attack."

Regarding Schmid's proposal, Paulus pondered for a moment, then nodded and said: "Okay, Chief of Staff, you immediately call General Seydlitz, the commander of the 51st Army, and ask him to come to the headquarters immediately. Come." Just as Schmid turned to leave, he added later, "Call General Lensky over."

Although the troops of the German army are distributed on the front of dozens of kilometers, their divisional and military headquarters are near the headquarters of the group army. Therefore, after receiving the call from Schmid, Seydlitz and Lensky, It took less than five minutes to arrive at Paulus' headquarters.

Seeing the two men coming so quickly, Paulus couldn't help sneering, and said: "I heard that the divisional headquarters of the Russians are usually about 300 meters away from the front, while our divisional headquarters is about 300 meters away from the front. The nearest frontier is 30 kilometers away. I want to ask you, if you are so far away from the frontier, can you keep abreast of the specific situation of the troops?"

  Paulus' words made both Seydlitz and Lensky blush, because their command headquarters was 50 kilometers away from the forward troops. After a long time, Seydlitz bit the bullet and asked, "Your Excellency, I wonder if you asked us to come here. What's the matter?"

The reason why Seydlitz asked this was because he knew in his heart that Paulus asked Chief of Staff Schmid to call him to come over, absolutely not to say a few cynical words. You can talk directly on the phone, why call yourself to the headquarters?

"I read today's battle report," Paulus said with a straight face: "General Seydlitz, your 51st Army is responsible for attacking the north of the city, but judging from today's battle situation, your performance is very bad. "

"Your Excellency, Commander," Seydlitz wiped his forehead with his hand, and then said, "Facing our offensive, the Russians fought very tenaciously, and we lack sufficient technical equipment, so in today's In the battle, there were no decent results."

"Is it only today that there are no results?" Paulus said with a sneer: "Think about how long you have been attacking the factory area, and why there is no progress at all. Don't say that you didn't take down the Russians. The vital factories, even the residential areas outside the factories, were not taken down."

Lensky was listening to the conversation between Paulus and Seydlitz, and thought in a daze: "My division is in charge of the urban area in the south of the city, and it is not under the jurisdiction of the 51st Army. Called here, what is the matter?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Paulus saw Lensky's absent-minded look, turned to him and said, "And you, General Lensky, the 24th Armored Division's attack on the Central Station was very disappointing. Yes. You even lost a colonel and a major for the capture of the Russian railway station..."

   "Your Excellency, Commander," Lensky replied with a sad face, "The loss of the two officers has nothing to do with me. I was not yet the commander of the 24th Armored Division."

   After Lensky reminded him, Paulus immediately remembered: the division commander of the 24th Armored Division was Schild at that time, and Lensky took over the post of division commander only after Schild was dismissed. And shortly after taking office, Lensky organized troops to occupy the Central Railway Station and severely damaged the Russian army in that area.

  Paulus went back to his desk and sat down, pouted at Schmid who was standing aside, and said, "Chief of Staff, assign tasks to General Seydlitz and General Lensky."

Schmid nodded, walked to the map, pointed at it with a commentary stick and said, "General Seydlitz, the mission of your 51st Army tomorrow is to concentrate superior forces to attack the Red October Tractor Factory, even if you can't take all of them , and at least occupy most of the area. As long as you can gain a firm foothold here, you will cut off the connection between the factory area and the outside world. As long as the Russians who stick to this area lose their supplies, they will support us when facing our attack. It won't be long."

   "Your Excellency, Chief of Staff," General Seydlitz said in embarrassment, "Our army has a limited number of tanks, and it may be difficult to complete this task by simply relying on infantry to attack."

"Don't worry, Mr. General." Schmid turned his head and glanced at Lensky, and then said: "After my discussion with the Commander, I decided to transfer the 24th Armored Division to the north to cooperate with you in the Red October Tractor Factory. Go on the offensive."

Lenski knew the reason why he was called here today after hearing what Schmid said. He quickly stood up and said to Schmid: "Your Excellency Chief of Staff, if I want to transfer my troops to the north tomorrow, I'm afraid It's too late. I need at least a day to get the troops together."

   Schmid heard Lenski say this, did not express an opinion, but turned his attention to Paulus, waiting for him to make a decision. Paulus stood up, walked to the wall, looked up at the map for a while, and said: "General Lensky, every minute on the battlefield is precious, if I give you a day to prepare, then It means that the Russians will have one more day to prepare, and when you launch an attack, you will suffer even greater losses. Therefore, you must march towards the factory area in the north at ten o'clock tomorrow morning to assist the troops of the 51st Army Capture the Red October Tractor Factory."

Seeing that Paulus gave himself an order in such a stern tone, Lensky could not refute it, so he could only bite the bullet and reply: "Well, Your Excellency Commander, since you issued such an order, I can only carry it out unconditionally. I want to return to the army now and get the regiments together as quickly as possible."

   After Lensky left, Paulus said to General Seydlitz: "Mr. General, I have already given you the armored division you need. I hope you will not disappoint me in the next battle."

Hearing what Paulus said, Seydlitz quickly straightened his body and replied: "Don't worry, Commander, with the assistance of the 24th Armored Division, we will be able to take down the Red October Tractor Factory in the shortest possible time." .”

  (end of this chapter)