Steel Soviet Union

The relatively peaceful second half of the day finally passed by without incident.

The Red Army soldiers, who had been guarding the position for a whole afternoon and did not dare to let down their vigilance at all, did not see the expected scene of the Germans dispatching a large army to fight again.

Were the Germans really defeated or completely disabled, with no remaining combat power?

The soldiers were discussing such a topic. They didn't know what was going on with the Germans on the opposite side, but no matter what, no one dared to relax their vigilance. The Germans' desperate and brutal attack this morning left a lasting impression on everyone. Very impressed.

He raised his hand and rolled up his sleeves and glanced at the time on his watch. After confirming the direction of the hour hand, he turned his head and glanced back at the horizon in the distance. The scene of the setting sun sinking above the horizon had already been seen. It is the last time of day when there is sunshine.

"It's unbelievable, Malashenko! For a whole afternoon, those Germans didn't come back. Are they planning to give up?"

Did the Germans really give up?

Lavrinenko may think so, but Malashenko does not.

To be precise, Malashenko, who was thinking about the problem as a brigade commander, knew very clearly that whether his troops and the group of SS fanatics in front of him would die on the Kursk battlefield, he or I would not survive. Done.

It might be a serious injury, but the damage would not be so great that this group of SS fanatics would be forced to give up the next phase of their operation.

In other words, up to this point in the battle, Malashenko can only be counted as one point at best, with zero points behind him for the time being, and this is only the preliminaries, or at most the semi-finals.

The real decisive moment is still quite early at the moment. The battle will continue and usher in the climax moment that is not far away.

"Those Germans are just licking their wounds for the time being. They know very well that their enemy has not been defeated yet. We also know that those SS fanatics still have some strength left. This loss is a loss for those gangs who are so well equipped that even the Wehrmacht is envious of them. It’s nothing to a fanatic.”

Lavrinenko felt that he had killed so many Germans in the past two days that he himself felt that he had killed too many, but now Malashenko said that the SS still had some remaining strength.

Is this believable? Lavrinenko couldn't make up his mind for a while and could only look at Malashenko twice more, but he couldn't find anything that could cause doubt in the eyes of his old classmate, and in the end he had to choose to unconditionally believe in Malashenko again. After all, Shenke's judgment is always right.

"Okay, I agree with you. So when do you think the decisive battle between us and these Germans will be? Tomorrow? The day after tomorrow? Or will it take longer?"

Malashenko, who was standing in the lookout of the forward observation post, held up a telescope and looked around and around. After nearly ten seconds, he was about to turn around, put down the telescope, and give Lavrinenko a reply.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, the communications staff officer holding the telegraph newspaper suddenly stood up quickly and trotted over.

"Comrade Brigade Commander, there is an urgent message from the Front Army Headquarters. You need to see it in person."

Upon hearing this, Malashenko immediately looked at Lavrinenko beside him, and the two brothers read what they wanted to express to each other from the eyes of each other.

"When exactly that is, I guess we can tell by looking at the telegram."

"Then hurry up, I can't wait!"

I said, you sang in harmony and reached out to take the telegram. Malashenko, who was used to Commissar Petrov and his son coming to deliver telegrams to him every time, took a special look at the young communications staff officer in front of him. , on the contrary, it made the other party a little confused.

"Don't worry, it's just a little habit of mine and has nothing to do with you."

Randomly throwing out a sentence to appease the obviously uneasy young communications staff officer in front of him, Malashenko, who had already spread out the telegraph newspaper, immediately started reading with Lavrinenko beside him at the speed of one glance and ten lines.

"Switching defenses tonight? Isn't it too sudden? There are at least two German division-level armored units in front of us, or those crazy SS men! If we withdraw like this, can the newly replaced units be able to hold on? ?”

Lavrinenko's worry was not unreasonable, but Malashenko, who had also read the telegraph newspaper, did not focus on the issue of defense changes. Instead, he focused all his attention on the seemingly ordinary person. Oddly enough, the name of the target place actually makes people take a breath of cold air: Prokhorovka.

"Damn it, no matter how hard you calculate, you still can't escape this steel cemetery! I already guessed that something like this would happen when Vatugin's men were brought in. Damn it, it's so damn realistic!"

If the Battle of Kursk is the largest and most brutal ground armored group battle in the history of human warfare, then the battle that broke out in Prokhorovka is enough to be called "the pinnacle of epic tank battles" Tank battle”.

In the existing historical timeline, the large-scale armored battle that broke out in Prokhorovka brought together the most elite armored units from both the Soviet and German armies, and they came out in full force to fight a complete tank-on-tank battle. A head-to-head armored battle.

In this battle, the three most elite first-level units of the Waffen-SS Ace Division of the German Army on the Eastern Front: the Totenkopf, the Standard Guard, and the Reich were mobilized. The spearhead of the Second SS Panzer Corps, which formed a terrifying offensive energy, was pointed directly at the key node on the right wing of the Kursk southern front battlefield: Prokhorovka.

The experienced Holt tried to find another way through roundabout attacks when the frontal offensive was ineffective. He knocked out Prokhorovka and exposed the entire right wing of the Soviet battle group on the southern front, forcing the Soviet battle group to either attack on a large scale. To retreat, or to wait for the tragic fate of being surrounded, divided and surrounded by the German army.

In other words, eliminating the key node of Prokhorovka is a bit similar to the fig leaf-like "transfer" in the Japanese.

It's just that the Japanese, who were allies of each other, said "turn in", which was to find a fig leaf for their retreat and whitewash their appearance. However, when they were defeated, they still had to pretend to be cool and look decent.

But this move by Holt is a true and complete "transfer" in the literal sense, without any whitewashing or false excuses.

The practical significance of knocking out Prokhorovka was no less than a breakthrough on the frontal battlefield. Hott predicted that as long as the Russians were not fools and had no brains, they would immediately step up their retreat after Prokhorovka was captured to avoid being further surrounded.

At that time, the German armored forces only need to step on the accelerator and charge forward. As long as the Russians' retreat is not stopped, the land taken over by the Russians can be regarded as actual results.

At the same time, the activity space of the Soviet battle cluster on the southern front will be further compressed, and the depth of strategic defense will be greatly reduced. This is precisely the key point that the Russians are most proud of and is also the most troublesome key point for the German army.

As long as the Russians do not have the depth of defense that can be deployed in steps, it is only a matter of time before the German cavalry pierces through the Soviet battle cluster north of Kursk.

At the last moment of the battle, there was another simultaneous attack from the German battle groups on the north and south fronts. What reason did the Russians, who were attacked from both sides, not to raise their hands and line up to enter the prisoner of war camp? This kind of planning and strategic deployment is simply perfect!