The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The distribution of tasks is as follows:

The 48th Panzer Corps was responsible for the road attack from Butovo to Cherkaskoye.

The 2nd SS Panzer Corps attacked from another road, from Tomarovka to Bykovka.

The attack is not to send troops directly onto the road, which makes no sense.

The most important thing in a real battle is not the highway but the commanding heights on both sides of the highway. As long as you occupy these highlands, you can almost control the highway.

Of course, these highlands are in the hands of the Soviet army, and they have also built quite strong field fortifications waiting for the German army.

The attack began at three o'clock the next morning.

To be precise, this can only be regarded as a preliminary attack... The first to be sent out were the reconnaissance troops, engineering troops and commandos.

The reconnaissance troops go out in the dark to detect the situation and design several feasible attack routes. Then the engineering troops will start demining according to the attack routes designed by the scouts. The commandos carry double the grenades and assault rifles, submachine guns and pistols. Follow the path opened by the engineers.

All of this was done in the dark or even without the enemy's awareness. That is to say, before the battle officially started, the commandos had already lurked in front of the enemy's position and were waiting for the moment the battle started.

At 5:15 in the morning, as soon as several red signal flares rose into the air, the whistling sound of artillery shells rang out from the direction of the German army, and then artillery shells exploded on the 223.6 heights where the Soviet troops were stationed.

It is easy to misunderstand that a large-scale bombardment operation is about to begin.

But in fact, this was a scam. While the Soviet troops hid in the fortifications to avoid the artillery fire, the German commandos lurking in front of the position took advantage of this time to rush forward.

Then the sound of artillery suddenly stopped, except for the artillery fire suppressed by the Soviet direction against the German artillery... In fact, these artillery fires did not have much effect at all, especially they could not rescue the Soviet troops in the trenches on the front line.

With an order, the German commandos launched an attack on the trenches.

They threw rows of grenades into the Soviet trenches. After the grenades exploded, they rushed into the trenches with assault rifles and submachine guns and started a close-range battle with the Soviet troops.

If the Soviet soldiers resisted tenaciously, a German combat engineer carrying a fuel bottle would suddenly appear from the trench. He would raise his spray gun and pull the trigger, and then a ball of flame would shoot out and sweep all the Soviet troops away. Burn into a flame.

This is a commonly used attack method by the German army. The 48th Armored Corps used this method to capture Hill 223.6. The focus is on the close cooperation between scouts, engineers, commandos and artillery, plus the fact that all commandos carry They were all weapons and equipment suitable for close combat, so they immediately beat the Soviet troops into panic and fled.

The 2nd SS Panzer Corps did not use this method.

They delayed their attack for some time... In fact, they waited until 6 o'clock, which was dawn, to attack. After a round of heavy artillery bombardment, minesweeper tanks opened their way on the road, followed by five "Tiger" tanks. "Tanks," "Stuka" bombers roared down from the sky to blow up every dangerous point reported by the aerial scouts, and then the infantry launched an attack under the cover of "Tiger" tanks and bombers.

The SS's attack was simple and crude, relying on a large amount of modern equipment, especially the "Tiger" tank. This was the first time the Soviet army saw this tank. All kinds of anti-tank gun shells hit it and it was just a dent. However, the anti-tank gun exposed its target due to the firing. The "Tiger" adjusted its angle, and then blasted them into the sky with one shot.

As a result, the SS quickly broke through the first line of defense.

Qinchuan does not need to care about any of this. What Qinchuan needs to care about is when the armored army will encounter the main force of Soviet tanks and be blocked.

At Huot's army headquarters, the staff constantly reported the progress of the battle, and then marked the positions of each unit on the sand table based on these progress.

"'Tiger' tanks are moving forward inexorably!" Holt read the telegram, and then said to Qinchuan: "But from the beginning of the war to now, five 'Tiger' tanks have malfunctioned. They were not destroyed by the enemy, but He was defeated by himself!”

"We will fix them, General!" The speaker was Lieutenant General Walter, commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps: "They will launch again to keep up with the troops in front, and then roll over all the enemies in front of them on the tracks. Down!"

"Don't be so confident, Lieutenant General!" Hott replied: "Because we have received intelligence that the Soviets have 1,700 tanks in this direction, and we have not encountered them yet!"

The intelligence was just obtained from the interrogation of prisoners of war, but the numbers given by several prisoners of war were different. Holt believed the number 1,700.

Because he believed that... if the Soviet army had more than 4,000 tanks, then the Soviet army might arrange more than 2,000 tanks to attack Orel, and another small part to be arranged in the salient.

What Holt didn't know was that the total number of Soviet tanks was actually more than 5,000. However, the figure of 1,700 vehicles in the direction of Belgorod is still accurate.

This number is nearly twice the total number of German tanks.

"General!" A disdainful smile appeared on Walter's lips: "In front of the 'Tiger', all the tanks of the Soviet Union are just numbers, meaningless numbers, and they will soon be wiped out in front of us. We must. The person who considers whether this number is a threat should be the 48th Armored Corps or the 'Legendary Sergeant'."

With that said, Walter turned around intentionally and asked Qin Chuan: "Am I right, Lieutenant Colonel?"

Lieutenant General Kirchner, commander of the 48th Panzer Corps, asked back with anger in his eyes: "Please make your meaning clear, General Walter, are you disdainful of the combat effectiveness of the 48th Panzer Corps?"

"I didn't say that, General Kirchner!" Walter replied: "Sorry, if I offend you in any way, I didn't mean it!"

Although he said that, Walter still had that mocking and playful smile on his face.

This made Lieutenant General Kirchner angry, so he could only grit his teeth and bear it.

The SS Lieutenant General was someone that even General Hoth didn't dare to offend easily, let alone Lieutenant General Kirchner.

But Qin Chuan didn't care about that. He replied, "General Walter, do you mean... that only the 2nd SS Panzer Corps is needed for this battle?"

General Hoth also wanted to suppress Walter's arrogance. He said, "General Walter, if you really think so, I am willing to change the plan, or let the 2nd SS Panzer Corps go further ahead instead of the two armies moving forward side by side!"

"No, General!" Lieutenant General Walter had to lower his posture after hearing this: "I think the original plan is good, I obey your command!"

He glanced at Qin Chuan and Lieutenant General Kirchner, implying that he was just obeying General Hoth's command.