The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 1337: Chapter 967: Counterattack! Chapter 1337: Chapter 967: Counterattack! Regardless of whether Manstein and the German High Command were willing to believe it, the cruel reality was now laid out before everyone’s eyes.

The failure of Manstein’s Second Panzer Army caused the total collapse of the Army Group in the southern part of Germany.

There was no helping it, after all, this armored group was originally transferred from the main battlefront, and the loss of firepower at the front was bound to be exploited by the Russians.

Furthermore, the retreat route of the Second Panzer Army coincided highly with the rear of the German forces at the front. If the German forces at the front remained at the Stalingrad battlefield, then it was very likely that their rear would be cut off, followed by a Russian encirclement from behind.

You see, we’re talking about the safety of more than 3 million German soldiers. Upon learning of Manstein’s armored group’s failed attack and subsequent retreat, the Commander-in-Chief of the German Army Group South did not hesitate to issue the orders for retreat.

But the German retreat was anything but glorious, especially since the Russian army was in hot pursuit, relentlessly hounding them.

The retreat was just a nicer sounding term; the reality on the battlefield was one of continuous collapse for the German forces, whose soldiers were faced with a complete reversal of the situation before they could even react.

Just the day before, the German Army had been fiercely attacking, capturing house after house in Stalingrad. The next day, they were hurriedly fleeing, and their comrades-in-arms were steadily eliminated by the Russian army.

For the German soldiers, the experience was truly awful.

The sudden reversal of the situation dealt a dual blow to both the physical and psychological well-being of the German soldiers, hastening the end of the Battle of Stalingrad.

Russia paid a price of over 4 million soldiers dead and wounded and tens of thousands of civilian casualties, but successfully defended this city of great symbolic importance.

The casualties of the German Army were originally not high, but after this collapse, they too exceeded two million, and the number was still rising.

This war also met Arthur’s expectations.

Although it seemed that Russia’s casualties were only over 5 million, with the number of deaths being only about half of that figure.

But it must be considered that the current Russia had large areas of land occupied, lands that were also inhabited by tens of millions of Russians.

The German government’s policies towards these Russians in the occupied territories were far from favorable, to say the least; they were downright indifferent.

Massive amounts of grain from the occupied territories, including Ukraine, were transported to the front lines and Germany Mainland, leaving the Russian people in these territories facing a severe famine crisis.

Even if there were grain available, the prices were exorbitant, far beyond what the Russians in the occupied areas could afford.

Although the Battle of Stalingrad cost Russia more than 5 million casualties in just one year, the civilian casualties in the occupied territories were also substantial, maintaining a level not much different from that of war casualties.

This meant that just for the year 1938 alone, Russia’s total casualties had already exceeded 10 million, with the number of deaths also as high as about 4 to 5 million.

Such a level of casualties far exceeded that of other countries, which was one reason why Arthur was quite satisfied with the final outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad.

This battle had no winners for either side. The Germans did not fulfill their strategic plan, and it was certain that they could not defeat Russia in a short amount of time.

While Russia had held Stalingrad, they too had suffered enormous losses. Even with a population of over a hundred million, facing such significant casualties required a long period of recuperation.

However, for the Russian Government at that time, the most important thing was to seize the momentum to drive the Germans out of the Russian heartland.

Even more so, if possible, to take advantage of the German Army’s collapse to recapture important areas such as Ukraine was the next plan of the Russian Government.

In February 1939, a large number of Russian soldiers emerged from their defensive positions to pursue the defeated German Army.

This pursuit spanned hundreds of kilometers, with the Russian army chasing from Stalingrad all the way to Kharkov before they stopped.

Along the way, the German Army lost helmets and abandoned armor, not to mention a large number of casualties, weaponry, and equipment, including tanks and airplanes.

The Germans had hundreds of airplanes stationed at Mikhailovka and Milerovo, most of which remained on the airfields, captured by the Russian soldiers before they even had a chance to take off.

More importantly, this failure put the German Army in quite a severe crisis on the Eastern European Battlefield.

Fueled by momentum, the Russian army had completely reversed the situation on the entire battlefield. The German Army could only rely on hastily established defensive lines to temporarily hold off the Russians, but it was only temporary.

If there was no support from the German side, depending solely on the current number of troops to defend against the Russian advance would be very difficult.

Was there any support from the German side?

In fact, there was.

But considering the current state of Germany, how much manpower and weaponry could they afford to send to support the Eastern European Battlefield?

The latest mobilization policies issued by the German government indeed armed more troops, with the total number of German forces now approaching nearly 9 million.

You must understand, this was a staggering size for the army to maintain, especially after having already suffered millions of casualties.

In other words, Germany’s total mobilization of soldiers in this war had already exceeded 10 million, making it the country with the second highest number of soldiers mobilized, surpassed only by Russia.