What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
During the Second World War, there were many famous generals, and in the most brutal and fierce Soviet-German battlefield of the war, the Soviet army and the German army have emerged many generals with outstanding achievements.
In the soviet-German war, German Field Marshal von Manstein was undoubtedly the brightest star.
After the Battle of Stalingrad, manstein was defeated by the German army, and when the Soviet army attacked fiercely, he commanded a classic counterattack, which not only blocked the flood of Soviet attacks, but also had the opportunity to completely reverse the situation of the Soviet-German war.
However, Hitler halted this strategic plan after the initial victory at Manstein.
So what campaign did Marshal Manstein command? What was his plan? What would be the result if this plan were implemented?
von @ Marshal Manstein
At the beginning of 1943, the Battle of Stalingrad ended, and the 300,000 elite troops of the German Sixth Army were completely destroyed, and the entire southern front of the German army was full of holes.
The mighty Red Army surged into the German lines like a red tide, and the Soviet army pulled out of Stalingrad had three fronts! Tens of thousands of tanks and armored vehicles, hundreds of thousands of artillery of various types, countless fighters and bombers, converged into a torrent of steel to annihilate the invading German army.
At this point, in the face of the mighty Soviet army, the German army used for defense looked a little pitiful.
Manstein's Army Group South, after the "Winter Storm" rescue operation in Stalingrad and a series of battles, had been severely wounded, with less than 80,000 troops left, and the technical and heavy weapons had been exhausted.
The menacing Soviet army on the opposite side was more than 300,000 Soviet Red Army.
Faced with a huge disparity in strength, Marshal Manstein judged the situation and adopted a brilliant tactic to crush the pursuing Soviet army in one fell swoop.
This is the famous "backhand strike" tactic, and this battle is the famous "Kharkov counterattack." ”
As a classic battle in World War II, the Kharkov Counterattack is still a tactical compulsory course in many military academies in the world.
So how exactly was the Kharkov counterattack fought?
It turned out that Manstein, because he was blocking the unstoppable attack of the Soviets, he avoided the Soviet front, took the initiative to retreat to Kharkov, and quietly arranged the elite armored troops on the flank of the Soviet army (it has to be said that Manstein had the strength to carry out counterattacks and hitler's credit, Hitler transferred the elite SS armored units to Manstein at the beginning of the campaign, making the counterattack possible).
When the Soviets invaded the city of Kharkov, the German armored forces violently attacked the Soviet flank, destroying the Soviet flank defenses, and then quickly penetrating behind the Soviets, cutting off the Soviet supply lines and attacking the Soviets.
This tactic, which resembles the "back gun", is known as the "backhand one-shot" tactic!
Manstein's "backhand one-shot" tactic at Kharkiv was a resounding victory, crushing a rapid Soviet swarm of 300,000 men with less than 100,000 troops, inflicting 90,000 casualties on the Soviets at the cost of more than 10,000 casualties, and capturing more than 12,000 Soviet troops.
The Battle of Kharkov not only defeated the heavily pursuing Soviet army, but also stabilized the southern front, with manstein's forces in his hands, which had to be said to be a miracle of war. (According to Manstein's memoirs, he judged that the number of Soviet troops of the same level opposite was more than eight times that of his own troops, and the strength of the troops was at least five times or so.)
Not only that, but the battle also provided Manstein with an opportunity to turn the tide of the Soviet-German war.
The situation on the southern front after the Battle of Stalingrad
After the Battle of Kharkov, Manstein summed up his experience and then presented Hitler with a bold plan for a comprehensive strategic counteroffensive: a roundabout war of annihilation along the sea coast of Azov!
Manstein suggested to Hitler: According to the war situation, it is impossible to block the Soviet Red Army with a static defensive front, and the only way for the German army to reverse the war situation is to give full play to its own well-equipped and high-quality characteristics of the army, adopt mobile and flexible operations, seek opportunities to annihilate the Soviet heavy army group, and reverse the Soviet-German war in one fell swoop!
Manstein's specific plan was to first pretend to retreat, lure the enemy deeper, and then use elite armored troops to raid along the coast of the Sea of Azov to Rostov behind the Soviet side, cut off the Soviet rear road, and then attack back and forth to annihilate the Soviet army.
Manstein's plan was actually a copy of the Kharkov counterattack, but this time he was not going to carry out a counterattack of hundreds of thousands of people, but a large roundabout tactic of millions of people!
If Manstein's tactics succeeded, then according to his prediction, it would not only be the annihilation of a hundred thousand enemy troops, but the entire front of the Soviet army!
Captured Soviet Red Army
However, Manstein's bold plan was stopped by Hitler, and for some reason, the original crazy Hitler was surprisingly "calm" at this time, known for his adventure, he was unwilling to take any more risks, and Hitler finally decided to take a static defense and fight against the Soviet army.
Thus, it led to a magnificent battle in human history, the Battle of Kursk. However, because the Soviet Union's strength and equipment far exceeded that of Germany, the Germans did not take advantage of the Battle of Kursk after all, and after this battle, the badly damaged German army completely lost the initiative in the Soviet-German war.
Two years later, Nazi Germany, exhausted in its confrontation with the Soviets, was finally destroyed.
Hitler's suicide corpse