The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Monthly ticket, monthly ticket!

While Hoth was worried about the discord between the SS and the Wehrmacht, the Soviets were shocked by the attack launched by the German 4th Panzer Army in the Belgorod direction.

The staff officer hurried into the office of General Vatutin, commander of the Voronezh Front, with a telegram, handed him the telegram and reported: "Comrade Vatutin, both German armored units arrived at the second line of defense before dark!"

Vatutin took the telegram, glanced at it, put it aside, and then looked at the map with a frown.

The chief of staff, Lieutenant General Kazakov, couldn't help but say: "They will definitely take a rest when it gets dark, prepare for the attack at night, and then wait until the early morning to launch another attack!" "I know that, Comrade Kazakov!" Vatutin replied distressedly: "But we don't seem to have anything that can resist their attack now. All our equipment can't penetrate the armor of their tanks! In just one day, we lost more than 200 tanks under the German attack, while their losses were minimal!" Lieutenant General Kazakov couldn't help but pick up one of the telegrams, which said that the Soviet army destroyed 19 German "Elephant" tanks. (Note: The Soviet army did not know the name of the "Tiger" tank at first. Because of its thick skin and huge size, it was called "Elephant")

Vatutin shook his head and said: "Forget it, I just got intelligence that the German armored division has only 11 "Elephants", and the entire army has only about 33. If we really destroyed 19 of them, then we don't have to worry about it at all... Because we can destroy another 14 tomorrow!"

At this time, the Soviet army lied about its military exploits.

On the one hand, the Soviet high-level officials turned a blind eye.

The reason is that the Soviet army needs some "achievements" to boost the morale of the army, and sometimes they will deliberately exaggerate.

On the other hand, the cost of lying about military exploits is very low.

On the battlefield, a few shells hit the target, even if it was not destroyed, but who can deny that you have injured it?

Or simply make up something out of nothing, saying that you blew up a "Tiger" at a certain location, and this location was occupied by the German army, who can verify it?

Even if it is proven that this does not exist, it can be easily bypassed by using the excuse of "I saw it wrong".

As a general, Vatutin certainly knows the reason behind this, so he will not believe these so-called "results".

He said to Kazakov self-deprecatingly: "If we believe these results, then you will have some illusions... The Germans are about to be finished, and we will win in a few days!"

Lieutenant General Kazakov wanted to laugh, but he couldn't laugh.

After a pause, Kazakov said: "Comrade Vatutin, should we withdraw the troops between the two enemy lines?"

General Vatutin remained silent.

Even if Vatutin knew that the Germans would launch a counterattack, and from the Belgorod area, he never thought that the Germans would launch an attack at two points on the defense line at the same time.

In this way, the Soviet army was immediately in a passive state after the first line of defense was broken... The troops 15 kilometers wide between the two roads were in danger of being surrounded at any time.

This can be said to have completely disrupted Vatutin's battle plan... Vatutin's original plan was to let the German army in, and then send troops to encircle and annihilate it from behind.

But now...

The German army's offensive method made it impossible to encircle it, or in other words, before the Soviet army launched a counterattack, the German army would encircle and eat up the Soviet army in the middle zone, so the German army would be connected with its rear.

In order to prevent this situation, the Soviet army had to organize troops in front of the German army to encircle and intercept the German army, so everything was in chaos.

Retreat, or not?

Retreat.

It means giving the German army ideal logistics... A 15-kilometer-wide gap, plus the width of several kilometers opened by the two German armored armies, is more than 20 kilometers wide. The German army can safely and quickly transport supplies in this gap. It will be even more difficult to drive the German army out at that time.

Do not retreat.

There is an elite army in the middle zone, that is the 22nd Guards Infantry Army, and it is also reinforced by the 245th Tank Regiment with 50 tanks.

If they were surrounded, the Soviet army would suffer heavy losses, and a gap would still be formed.

After thinking for a while, Vatutin said: "No, we can't retreat!"

"But, Comrade Vatutin!" Kazakov expressed his concern: "If we don't retreat, we can only block the Germans. But we have tried all kinds of methods..."

"There are still things we haven't tried!" Vatutin interrupted Lieutenant General Kazakov.

Kazakov looked at Vatutin in confusion. He didn't understand what Vatutin said he hadn't tried.

"I believe the German army in the Butovo direction doesn't have the "Elephant" tank!" Vatutin said.

"That's right!" Kazakov replied: "Because the Butovo direction is the German Wehrmacht, and the Tomarovka direction is the German SS. They usually equip the SS with advanced equipment first!"

"Then why don't we take advantage of this?"

"You mean..."

"We can't stop the 'Elephant' tank, so don't stop it!" Vatutin said: "We just need to block it. On the other side, for the Germans who don't have the 'Elephant' tank... we can concentrate our efforts Block it so that the two German forces cannot meet on the Yakovlev road and form an encirclement!”

Kazakov couldn't help but nodded after hearing this, and then said: "That's a way, Comrade Vatutin, so that we can continue to use the 22nd Army to threaten the German rear and separate and surround the two armored units! "

"Yes!" Vatutin said: "So, not only can we not withdraw our troops from the middle zone, we should also strengthen their strength. Only in this way can we not be defeated by the Germans and get in touch with each other!"

"But..." Kazakov continued: "How can we stop the 'Elephant' tank? Our tanks are simply targets in front of it!"

After thinking about it, Vatutin replied: "Hide the tanks, I mean... build fortifications for them, and only expose the turrets. In this way, it will be difficult for enemy tanks to penetrate our tanks from a long distance! At close range, ours Anti-tank guns might work!"

Kazakov immediately understood what Vatutin meant.

However, Kazakov is not sure whether this method can really work on the battlefield.