Section 20 Manstein invites the Führer

  In the afternoon, a stout figure squeezed into the second row of seats, and Bao Man arrived.

  Li Dexing enthusiastically told him about the battle situation in the morning, but Bao Man cried with a sad face: "This morning, comrades severely criticized me, and they have never been so severe in the past year."

  Li De's smile on his face slowly disappeared, and he understood: in order to have a moment of pleasure, putting himself in the most dangerous position was an unprecedented adventure, no wonder his comrades were anxious.

  Harold listened to the phone with a hum, put down the receiver, and said to him with a disappointed face: "Uncle Adolf, Father scolded me, saying that I implicated the Führer. Uncle, you'd better leave here before the Russians attack."

  Li De smiled wryly and said to Bao Man: "It seems we really should go back to Berlin."

  As soon as this was said, Bao Man immediately smiled with joy, and the deputy officers also let out a sigh of relief. After all, everyone had been worried about their responsibilities.

  The phone rang again, and General Halder of the Army High Command was looking for the Fuehrer in a great hurry, after much trouble, he finally got through to here.

  "Could it be that they also advised me to go back?" Li De muttered to himself as he took the phone, and the other party said: "My leader, Marshal Manstein has been looking for you for two days now.

  。”

  Li De's heart was delighted: "Do you know what's going on?"

  Harold was a bit embarrassed: "He insisted on you going over there for an inspection."

  "Too good!" Li De slapped his thigh and burst out laughing loudly into the phone.

  Halder thought the Fuehrer had not understood and explained: "I told Brauchitsch that the Fuehrer was too busy, but he said that if the Fuehrer could go to the northern front and central front three or five times, why couldn't he come to the southern front?"

  "Never mind, I'm going now. Besides, I've already commanded the repulsion of the enemy's first attack, the Russian offensive is very fierce. I told the Chief of Staff that you and the Commander-in-Chief should also come down sometimes, don't always stay in the office, only by going deep into the grassroots can we find problems and solve... what? You're already at the Central Group Army Command in Smolensk? Alright then, nothing to worry about."

  "Take care of yourself." The voice on the other end of the phone was Hald's, and it really moved Li De for a while.

  Putting down the phone, Li De found Bao Man squinting his eyes and said with a teasing tone: "Manstein invited us to eat caviar by the Black Sea." After finishing speaking, he turned around and walked towards the tunnel.

  Bormann said to Hitler's back: "My Fuehrer, just don't shoot like you did today with a machine gun."

  Li De suddenly turned around, narrowing his eyes and replied: "You mean to have me stay in the rear all day, warming the stove? And not be with my soldiers?"

  "Think what you like." Bowman said fearlessly.

  Lee Te and "his" soldiers bid farewell, boarded the Bren carrier and left the second company's position. The Oka River and Uba River were getting farther and farther away, suddenly artillery fire filled the sky, and that place was shrouded in thick smoke.

  At the headquarters of the 45th Division of the German army, Li De met with Karl Mek and three girls. Aidelaid was learning to shoot from Baida, who was clumsy and awkward. When he heard that they were going south, he handed the gun to Baida and patted her on the back: "Great, let's eat caviar."

  The Kalmyk shock troops completed their clearing mission and were about to return to the 4th Tank Army of Heppner. Liddell pretended to ask Renya's opinion: "Are you going to follow me south or go back to work in Berlin?"

  Rania tilted her head: "I want to follow the assault team to the north."

  Li De said: "Say goodbye to your comrades, then come with me to the south." He walked a few steps forward, turned back and pointed at the sulky Lida: "Bring her along."

  "Obey orders." Renia slyly winked at him.

  ……

  The plane flew straight south, heading for the Crimean Peninsula. From Kaluga, Oryol, Kursk, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk to Simferopol. And this route was basically the German army's winter defense line.

  Simferopol is a city in southern Ukraine, located on the northwestern slope of the Crimean Mountains, on the Salgir River. It produces famous wines and has a mild climate and beautiful scenery. The population is 260,000. It is a hub for rail, road and air transportation and is the capital of Crimea Oblast. Currently it is also the headquarters of the German 11th Army.

  On September 26, 1941, with the cooperation of Guderian's 2nd Tank Group, the Southern Army Group achieved "the greatest battle in world history" (Hitler) - the victory of the Battle of Kiev, 660,000 Soviet troops and 880 tanks were captured by the German army, The Soviet Southwestern Front was annihilated, Commander-in-Chief Kirponos was killed by random gunfire, and Commissar Khrushchev escaped by plane at the last minute.

  。

  Thereafter, the German troops on the southern front pursued their victory to the east, occupying cities such as Kursk and Kharkov, entering the Donbass coalfield region, and storming into the seaside resort city of Mariupol in Taganrog Bay. At the same time, the 11th German Army entered Crimea.

  The Crimean Peninsula, also known as Crimea, is located in southern Ukraine. It borders the Black Sea to the west and south, the Sea of Azov to the northeast, and is connected to the Ukrainian mainland by the Perekop Isthmus to the north. The landscape here is beautiful and picturesque, with a warm and humid climate, making it a famous tourist resort in the Soviet Union. Under the shade of orchards, vineyards, and trees, there are many villages, mosques, monasteries, Russian royal palaces, as well as ancient Greek and medieval castles.

  As early as the end of October, after Ukraine and Russia became a scorched earth, Field Marshal Rundstedt, commander of the Southern Army Group, advocated for switching to defense, and he had an argument with Field Marshal Bock, commander of the Central Army Group, at the meeting. Under the insistence of the Führer, in early November, the German army on the Eastern Front urgently built a "winter wall" and switched to defense along the entire front line. However, due to the special location of the Crimean Peninsula, it was decided to continue taking the offensive.

  The Crimean Peninsula was to Germany what the red cloth is to a Spanish bullfighter, Hitler called it the aircraft carrier from which the Soviets bombed Romania's Ploie?ti oil fields, several times he woke up from nightmares in which the oil fields became a sea of fire. To have fewer bad dreams, he brought General Manstein from the north and had him command the 11th Army to attack this land-based aircraft carrier.

  Manstein led the 11th Army south into the Crimean Peninsula. As elsewhere, the mud caused by continuous autumn rains swallowed up troops and equipment, and the army requisitioned large numbers of peasants' carts; the Quartermaster General of the German Army said with a straight face that the armored divisions had become "farmer's divisions". By the end of November, the troops overcame the mud and autumn rain, occupying all areas except for the Sevastopol fortress in the south and the Kerch Peninsula in the east.

  ……

  The plane slowly landed at Simferopol Airport, with distant cannon fire rumbling and the air mixed with the salty taste of seawater and gunpowder. Due to secrecy, no notification was sent to the army group to send a car for pickup, so Belov used his identity as an Air Force deputy officer to borrow a minibus from the airport and arrived at the original Soviet sugar factory, now the headquarters of the 11th German Army.

  A three-story building stood among the battered factory buildings, a swastika flag fluttering in the cold wind. On the broken walls were written Lenin's classic quotes: "Better fewer, but better..." The rest of the words had been destroyed by cannon fire. The sentry at the gate was so startled when he saw the leader that he stood frozen at his post, still not having recovered even after the leader and his entourage entered the command center - as stiff as a wooden chicken.

  There were over a dozen people in the room, with phones ringing constantly and teleprinters clacking away. A staff officer stood on top of a bench that was placed on a chair which was on the table, sticking little flags into a large map on the wall. Several generals were gathered around a sandtable, pointing and gesturing, while next to them was a suite of rooms from which frantic shouting could be heard.

  Manstein was sitting on a chair with his back to the visitor, wearing a large coat with wool inside and holding a cup of hot water in his hands. He was troubled by a cold. When he saw that the visitor was the Führer, the cup fell from his hand and spilled hot water all over his feet. The strategist who conquered France did not even frown.

  A burst of applause in the room, everyone stood up to pay their respects, and then each went about their own business. The wall consultant who performed aerial stunts held a small flag in his hand to pay his respects, and then drew his hands in the air to prevent himself from falling down.

  Li De stretched out his arms to Manstein: "You won't have called me all the way here just to eat caviar, will you?"

  "Let you drink wine." Manshtein smiled, and Lide heard that his smile always had a sharp acid: "The two heads of the Army General Staff said that the Führer was missing, but it's okay, let me find him."

  Haha——"

  Look at the female guests around the leader, pointing to them and drawing a circle, including Bowman and three deputy officers: "There are so many female staff members around the leader, who is this special plane stewardess, how did she parachute into my command center?"

  Miss Aitkenhead stretched out her hand sulkily, but the General turned to Rennya: "I heard that a Baltic beauty was transferred from the Eastern Foreign Legion, is it her? Hmm, not bad, very seductive."

  Rania was about to speak when Bowman sneered: "It seems that every move of the leader is under your control."

  Manstein pretended not to hear and pointed at Lida who was lowering her head in silence, saying: "Who is she? Can't be the Führer's personal pilot, can it?"

  "No one answered, so Rania explained: 'She is my maid.'"

  The general was astonished: "I, a two-star general, don't even have a servant, and an ensign already has one." Manstein asked Lyda in surprise: "Tell me, girl, what kind of service do you provide her?"

  Lida looked embarrassed, and the service she provided to Rania was known only to the two of them and God, not even the president knew.

  Li De hastily mediated: "Women are not inferior to men, they are female special agents."

  Manstein wanted to say something else, but Liddell switched the topic to military affairs.

  In terms of using female soldiers, the German army was more conservative than any European country, not to mention the Soviet Union. Britain had 500,000 women serving in the military, and the radar reading room with beautiful girls holding long poles operating the antenna became a beautiful scenery of the Royal Air Force. At the same time, there were only 100,000 female soldiers in the Nazi army, half of whom were still in the SS. As for Manstein's eccentricity, Liddell Hart just thought it was nonsense. He expected Rommel to show off his skills and let these stubborn warlords see what they could do.

  A shell exploded outside, the staff officer who had been pinning flags on the map fell from the air with a clang, and Hitler's portrait fell off the wall revealing Stalin's portrait embedded in the wall beneath it. Rennia noticed that Manstein was stealing glances at her, possibly to see if her legs were trembling or her body shaking.

  A soldier looked at the commander in a panic, picked up the small mustache from the ground and rehung it on the big mustache.

  Rania decided to show off a bit, her eyelids slightly closed and her red lips slightly opened: "The artillery reserve team of the Supreme Command of the Su Army has arrived."

  "Huh?" Manstein looked at her alertly, stared at her for a moment, and then shouted into the house, "Colonel Wehler, come out here."

  His chief of staff, Wehler, came out from inside, holding something like a picture album and flipping through it. He looked up to see the Führer, and the album fell to the ground.

  Schmundt's deputy, an old acquaintance of his, punched him in the arm: "Still fishing lately? Generalleutnant Scherff sends you his regards."

  "What's good about it? He has become a general, while I am still a colonel..." He couldn't go on, as Manstein was coughing and humming.

  Another shell exploded, and Weller was awakened by the blast. He signaled to his guests to wait a moment, then picked up the book from the ground - "A Pictorial Guide to Soviet Artillery 1931-1940" compiled by the Eastern Foreign Affairs Office.