The decisive battle against the Third Reich

"How can we do it?" General Hott said: "You must know that Kursk has assembled several Soviet fronts. Doing so will undoubtedly plunge into their encirclement!"

"Didn't we plan like this before?" Qin Chuan replied.

"But in the plan, we only need to attack the next half of the distance!" Manstein replied: "But now we only have one unit, which means that we have to attack this one hundred kilometer long depth alone!"

"Is there any difference?" Qin Chuan asked: "If we can advance to half the distance, it means that the back of the other half of the Soviet defense line is right in front of us, and there will be no difficulty for us! "

Qin Chuan's words made Manstein and Holt stunned.

This is also true. The Soviet defenses were laid out one by one in the shape of the Kursk salient. A total of three lines of defense were laid out.

If the German army breaks through the triple defense line in the south, it means that the triple defense line in the north faces the German 4th Armored Army with its weak back. Then the German 4th Armored Army can break through layer by layer with lightning speed until it reaches Oryo. you.

After thinking about it, Manstein said: "There are some differences. For example, our supply line is too long, and it goes deep into the enemy's hinterland. The supply line can easily be cut off by the enemy!"

"We can implement airdrops!" Qinchuan said: "In addition, we also have helicopters, which will bring whatever we need to our troops. The premise is that we need air superiority, or... at least we need to be completely safe when using helicopters. If it doesn’t work, we can use helicopters to transport them at night!”

Manstein nodded and said: "This may indeed be a solution!"

"But Marshal!" General Hott said worriedly: "The Soviets' military strength is several times or even ten times that of ours..."

"This is not a question of troop strength, General!" Manstein interrupted Holt: "It is a question of whether we can succeed. If we can break in quickly, then the logistics supplies of the Soviet Kursk salient will be lost to us. Cut off, without fuel and ammunition, even more troops will be useless, because they can only use bayonets to face the tracks of our tanks! "

After a pause, Manstein looked at the map and said: "So, what we have to do is to quickly break through the Soviet defenses and go deep into the hinterland to cause them trouble before they can react and prepare!"

After looking at the map and thinking for a while, Manstein pointed at the map and said: "So, I plan to let the 2nd SS Panzer Army carry out the first batch of attacks!"

The offensive plan of the 4th Armored Army was originally the same as that of the 2nd Armored Army, which was to attack with the armored corps with weaker combat effectiveness, and then follow up with the armored corps with stronger combat effectiveness to win in a single battle.

However, because it was necessary to quickly break through the Soviet defense line, Manstein planned to make the highly combat-effective 2nd SS Panzer Corps the first batch of offensive troops.

This does make sense, because the 2nd SS Panzer Corps is much more powerful than the 48th Armored Corps where Qinchuan is located... The 2nd SS Panzer Corps has three powerful SS armored divisions: "Guard Flag" "Team" division, "Dasreich" division and "Totankopf" division, each division is equipped with more than 100 tanks plus 11 "Tiger" tanks.

The 48th Armored Corps has only two armored divisions and one infantry division, with only more than 200 tanks, and a considerable number of them are light tanks.

There is also a 52nd Infantry Corps with more than a hundred tanks, more of which are light tanks.

This brings the total to 951 tanks

There is no doubt that the 2nd SS Panzer Corps is the main force of the 4th Armored Group. If you want to attack quickly, of course you must invest in the first batch.

But Qin Chuan didn't speak.

Seeing this, Manstein asked: "Lieutenant Colonel, are you worried that the Tiger tank will not be able to take on this important task?"

"This is indeed one of the situations I'm worried about, Marshal!" Qin Chuan replied: "Because we all know what the maneuverability of the 'Tiger' is like!"

"I will ask them to invest as little Tiger style as possible in the early stage!" Manstein said: "What do you mean by 'one'? Do you have other worries?"

"Yes, Marshal!" Qinchuan pointed at the map and said: "If we attack according to the original plan, our troops will inevitably be attacked from three directions by the Soviet army. At the same time, we still have to open up the geographical pass. The problem of the inability of small airborne troops and helicopters to reinforce!”

Although Qin Chuan did not go into details, the officers present understood it.

Open a gap in the Soviet defense line, and then advance along the highway in this gap. The advance route is a long and narrow road or railway, and the controllable width is only a few kilometers at most.

As a result, the Soviet anti-aircraft firepower can control the German airspace from the outside. Not only will this make it difficult to airdrop supplies, but helicopters will also be restricted from entering, and they will be shot down by surrounding enemies if they are not careful.

"But this is inevitable, isn't it?" Manstein said: "Of course you have to bear such risks when fighting deep behind enemy lines!"

"Maybe we can reduce this risk!" Qin Chuan said.

"What do you mean?" Manstein asked in confusion.

Qinchuan pointed to the map and said: "There are two roads in front of us, one from Butovo to Cherkaskoye, the other from Tomarovka to Bekovka, and then both can be entered. Yakovlevo Highway... We chose Tomarovka as our starting point!”

"You mean we should choose Butovo as the starting point?" Manstein said, "But that doesn't change anything, does it?"

"No, Your Majesty Marshal!" Qin Chuan said, "What I'm saying is that we should attack both roads together!"

"Attack both highways together?!" Manstein and General Holt couldn't help but exclaimed.

General Holt immediately objected: "No, Lieutenant Colonel! This will consume too much of our offensive energy!"

"We can replenish these offensive energy later!" Qin Chuan pointed to the map and said: "Because, if we break through the two highways and launch an attack together, the Soviet troops in the fifteen-kilometer wide area between the highways will be destroyed by us in an instant. The army is cut off and surrounded by our army. If we advance to the Yakovlev road to meet up, we will also complete the encirclement of the enemy! "

After a pause, Qin Chuan continued: "What's more important is... when needed, we can easily annihilate the Soviet troops in the fifteen kilometers in the middle. They don't even need us to attack because they are worried about being surrounded by us. , they will take the initiative to abandon their positions, so we can implement airdrops or even use helicopters in the middle zone!”