Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 199 The Iron Gate Falls, Encirclement of Kiev Begins

"Commander! We can't keep dragging this out with the enemy! We should completely abandon the areas around Krivorog and Sofievka in the south, and withdraw all our forces to concentrate on the northern front to completely block the Demanians' advance from the east and west!"

Otherwise, in just a few days, they will have closed the encirclement around Kiev behind us! At that point, the 4th and 7th Armies should not be present in the south!

On the night of December 5th, three days after Lelouch and von Bock entered from Poltava and Chernigov respectively.

A heated argument broke out at the headquarters of the Southwestern Front Army in Kiev.

The newly appointed Lieutenant General Joseph Misoiro, commander of the 6th Army of the Russian Army, issued the most severe admonition to his superior, Pavel Plevey, commander of the Southwestern Front, disregarding the hierarchical relationship between superiors and subordinates.

In normal times, in the Lusha army where rank could be a powerful factor, how could a lieutenant general army group commander dare to speak to a general field army commander like that?

Moreover, Joseph Misoiro was a low-ranking army commander.

Generally, the commanders of Lusa's army groups must hold the rank of general. However, they often appoint generals who have not been promoted recently and have less seniority and merit.

The commander of a field army is also a general, but he often needs to be relatively senior and have made outstanding contributions.

Joseph Misoiro was just a corps commander a few months ago. He was promoted to the rank of corps commander because General Alexei Evert, the former commander of the 6th Army of Russia, was executed for desertion. The vacancy was temporarily left unfilled.

Furthermore, the 6th Army Group had been decimated, effectively amounting to only one corps, so his command capabilities posed little obstacle. The subsequent replenishment of the 6th Army Group with a large number of new recruits, restoring it to its original size, is another story.

In the past day or two, as the enemy on the northern front resumed its rapid offensive, Joseph Misoiro finally realized that something was wrong and that his side was at risk of being completely encircled.

Just two days ago, before von Bock changed his tactics, Joseph Misoilo still thought he had a sliver of hope of holding on.

At that time, von Bock was still trying to narrow the encirclement and make it as close to Kiev as possible.

This gave Lieutenant General Joseph Misoiro an opportunity to frantically dig trenches to strengthen defenses and expand fortified areas.

His greenhorn recruits were completely incapable of field and mobile warfare; they simply lacked the skills and morale. However, they were barely able to handle on-site defense and filling in trenches.

Unfortunately, von Bock's trial and error only lasted a day and a half. After von Bock learned to correct his mistakes on the spot, Joseph Misoylo could no longer see even the slightest hope.

His men were repeatedly slaughtered, and he could only watch helplessly as von Bock stormed into Priluki. If nothing unexpected happened, his next step would be to march on Priti and completely cut off the east-west railway between Kyiv and Poltava.

Joseph Misoiro was then forced to bite the bullet and strongly urge Pavel Plevey, commander of the Southwestern Front, to recognize the situation, completely abandon the southern front, and fully withdraw his troops.

However, as the army commander, Pavel Plevey had many more things to consider.

"Although the city of Krivorog and the mines have been lost, they are still within the range of our long-range artillery. As long as our troops do not retreat, the enemy will not be able to rebuild and resume production at the mines. In our battle reports to His Majesty, we still write that 'the situation around the Krivorog mining area is under control.'"

The Austrian army's fighting capacity was indeed far inferior to that of the German army. They lacked the ability to continue their offensive. Twenty days into the battle, apart from initially advancing 20-30 kilometers across the entire front, they had essentially been locked in a stalemate with our army...

"If we retreat suddenly now, it could very well lead to a complete collapse, and if investigated later, it would be considered a decision-making error—abandoning a strategic location. His Majesty will not let us off the hook!"

After finishing several bottles of Frank's imported cigarettes, General Pleve said this with a sense of helplessness and pain.

The aftereffects of the Tsar's execution of General Evert on the front lines two weeks before the outbreak of this battle are still unfolding and expanding.

It's like a virus with an incubation period. You don't feel anything when you first get infected, but when your physical condition deteriorates, all the previously latent problems are exposed.

The Demacians' strategy was insidious; they took advantage of the fact that Lusa's army was exhausted from its central breakthrough, and then suddenly launched a flanking maneuver from both flanks for a deep breakthrough.

Moreover, the Demacians placed the weakest Austrian 3rd Army in the center line, letting them fight against Lusa's main force of the 4th and 7th Army, who were essentially weaklings.

After Lelouch launched his breakthrough against Kharkov, for two whole weeks, episodes 4 and 7 only diverted some troops to extend to the flanks and support friendly forces, but the core forces of these two army groups never dared to leave the vast area around Krivorrog too much.

The other three army groups defending the flanks and rear of the Lusa forces were even weaker than those in episodes 4 and 7. The 6th and 9th armies, in particular, were almost completely wiped out and rebuilt. With such low morale, it's no wonder they easily collapsed when tanks and armored vehicles charged and broke through their front.

However, General Pleve was hesitant to completely withdraw from the front line without a reason, and his actions were slow. This hesitation only exacerbated the deterioration of the situation.

At that very moment, when Lieutenant General Misoil urged General Preve to abandon his reluctance and withdraw the entire army, completely abandoning the southern defenses, his tone and the situation were striking.

It's exactly the same as when Manstein, who was in Rostov in 1942 in the Earth dimension, advised Paulus, who was in Stalingrad, to leave quickly.

But Paulus feared military law, and so did Prevey.

His fear had already been sown when Lelouch plotted to trick the Tsar into executing Everett.

He deserved his bad luck to run into such a cunning opponent.

General Pleve ultimately hesitated. His actions were slow. When he transferred all the main forces of the 4th and 7th armies in the south to retreat and reinforce the north, he ultimately left two corps in each army group to hold the front line.

The troops that were recalled totaled about five armies, which caused huge transportation chaos and led to further morale decline and panic throughout the transfer process.

These mistakes ultimately led to everything being too late.

Lelouch, von Burke, and Rommel did not give them a chance.

They finally mustered their strength and launched a fierce attack on each other for two more days. Lelouch advanced 80 kilometers and von Bock advanced 40 kilometers. As expected, they met victoriously in Prytti, a small town on the Kiev-Poltava railway line.

Along the way, two divisions of the Lusa 6th Army and three divisions of the 7th Army were defeated by the Demanian assault.

Some of the soldiers from these five fleeing divisions were dispersing northwards along the front line, which can be considered a blessing in disguise as they escaped the encirclement.

But other units were not so lucky.

Ultimately, apart from the few divisions in the northern defense zone of the 13th episode that were initially defeated by von Bock's "Das Reich" division and Field Marshal Leopold's 10th Army;

And during these days, Lelouch and von Burke routed the deserters in the army who were fleeing north;

In addition, there were several remnants of the Luftwaffe division and Cossack cavalry division that escaped from the "triangular encirclement" of Kharkiv-Dnipro-Donbas before it was closed.

The remaining main force of the Southwestern Front was completely surrounded in a huge encirclement south of the Kiev-Poltava line.

The pocket has been closed, and the iron gate has been closed.

The Southwestern Front consisted of five army groups.

The 4th Army was completely surrounded, and not a single person escaped.

The 7th and 6th Armies escaped a little, but neither was more than the size of a full-fledged army.

In episodes 9 and 13, more people escaped, exceeding one army, along with the Cossacks.

But all things considered, it's certain that four out of five army groups were wiped out.

This is already the largest encirclement in human military history.

After all, until the encirclement was completed, the widest part from east to west was still more than 200 kilometers, and the north-south depth was more than 150 kilometers.

The total area of ​​the encirclement is approximately 3 square kilometers, which would exceed the entire land area of ​​Belgium in Western Europe, and is located between Belgium and the Netherlands.

Therefore, theoretically, if General Pleve wanted to continue resisting, he could have fought for a long time.

Anyway, there are plenty of supplies in the encirclement of Kyiv. Kyiv is a huge logistics base with a lot of ammunition reserves and no shortage of military rations.

It's like if a small Western European country were surrounded before the war even started, would they just give up?

In the Earth dimension, Paulus fought for 50 days after being besieged and surrendering. Moreover, these 50 days were spent in fierce fighting against a high-intensity enemy attack, not just besieging without attacking.

However, General Pleve is clearly not even as good as Paulus, and it's not appropriate for outsiders to predict exactly what he can do; we can only wait and see.

……

"Federer! You really lived up to expectations! When the Marshal entrusted you with leading the 2nd Armored Division, you certainly brought honor to the Marshal."

At the same moment, in a church in the small town of Pritti, Lelouch, who had arrived earlier and had just set up his armored division headquarters, finally met Brigadier General Federer von Bock himself.

The two men immediately put their hands on each other's shoulders, embraced, and celebrated their victory. Lelouch, being quite considerate, didn't mention that he had recommended Bock for the position of commander of the 2nd Armored Division, but instead attributed it to his superiors, saying that Bock had brought honor to the Marshal.

von Burke was well aware of this, and his gratitude and admiration for Lelouch deepened even further.

He simply gripped Lelouch's arm tightly, shook it violently a few times, and said nothing. Finally, he abruptly pulled over a bottle of champagne, shook it a few times, popped the cork, and then handed another bottle to Lelouch.
The two men clinked their bottles together, and von Bock started by downing his drink in one gulp as a sign of respect.

"With you here, the Empire will surely prevail! From now on, I'll believe whatever you say!"

(End of this chapter)