In an extremely tense atmosphere, The commander of the Stalingrad Front, General Yelyomenko, demanded that the commander of the 51st Army, Major General Trukhanov, stop the German advance at all costs, and at the same time transferred the 235th Spitfire Tank Brigade and the 87th Infantry Division from the Front Reserve to Trukhanov. At the same time, the 5th Assault Army, formed by Lieutenant General Popov, deputy commander of the Front, was ordered to launch a diversionary attack to the north. Vasilevsky also took Khrushchev to the front to check on the situation.
Of course, Yeliamenko did not forget to ask Stalin for reinforcements. But it was a troubling matter: Yeliamenko wanted reinforcements from the newly formed 2nd Guards Army (commander Lieutenant General Malinovsky). The initial units of the army group (the 1st and 13th Guards Infantry Corps, the 2nd Guards Mechanized Army) all had the title of Guards Army, so the Army Group itself also received the Title of Guards.
However, the Guards 2nd Army came under the jurisdiction of Rokossovsky's Don Front. Rokossovsky showed no concern for Yelyommenko, who had suffered from a large number of tanks, and boasted that he did not have to fear Manstein's attack, and that as long as he left the 2nd Guards Army to rokossovsky, he would soon be able to eliminate Paulus.
This is clearly not possible. Stalin hesitated. However, Vasilevsky saw the deadly threat posed by Manstein's rescue operation and firmly supported Yelyommenko.