The Rise of the Third Reich

In fact, General Model, commander of the German 6th Army, misjudged the intention of the Soviet Northern Group. After experiencing the power of Tiger tanks, Panther tanks and Type 4H tanks in the Battle of Legionovo-Wolomin, how could the Soviet Red Army run into the muzzles of the German heavy tank group like a fool?

Now the Warsaw offensive and defensive battle was so fierce, and no "Tiger" tanks and "Panther" tanks were seen. It is easy to know that these big tanks are now waiting for Soviet tanks and infantry in Legionovo!

Therefore, the imagined attack that is about to happen does not exist. According to the plan of the Soviet Western Front, the Soviet 3rd Army (composed of the 7th Tank Army, the 11th Mechanized Army, and the 18th Infantry Army) will start a large-scale detour operation from 7 o'clock in the evening of July 19, cross the Renav River, and then feint to the side and rear of the German army to attract the German armored group deployed in Legionovo to follow up the decisive battle.

When the decisive battle on the north bank of the Ranav River begins, the other two armies of the northern group of the Soviet Warsaw Battle Group (the 10th Army and the 11th Army) will launch a fierce attack on Legionovo under the unified command of Lieutenant General Kuznetsov, and the main force of the central group will also launch an attack from the south of Legionovo under the command of Chuikov.

In this way, regardless of whether the tank decisive battle on the north bank of the Ranav River is won or lost, Legionovo has a high probability of being occupied by the Soviet army. Even if the German heavy armored group wins on the north bank of the Ranav River, it will have to retreat westward because of the unstable rear road.

In the view of Major General Vasily Stepanovich Popov, commander of the 10th Army of the Soviet Red Army, who was deployed on the Radzimin line facing Legionovo, such a plan is still quite reliable.

The troops of the 3rd Red Army passed through Radzymin between 7pm on July 19 and 3am on July 20. This was a large army of more than 80,000 people, with more than 800 tanks/self-propelled artillery, nearly 1,000 towed artillery, and nearly 2,000 motor vehicles. It was passing through an area close to the front line at night, so any mistakes would be enough.

Therefore, the 10th Army was also very busy, with alerts, air defense, and traffic arrangements. They also had to cooperate with the newly established Radzymin Special Committee of the Polish Bolshevik Party to catch Polish traitors and spies.

As the commander of the army, Major General Popov was busy until 5am on July 20. When it was light, he returned to his headquarters in a church in Radzymin and began to look through the reports submitted by various troops.

Most of these reports were submitted by the 328th and 330th Divisions, which were confronting the German army on the front line. There were also reports from the 57th and 75th Cavalry Divisions, which were active on the north bank of the Renav River.

All the reports were very brief, with only a few words, which were actually just to report that everything was fine - in the past 12 hours, the front line was peaceful and surprisingly quiet. The Germans facing the Soviet army seemed to have fallen asleep, without launching harassing artillery bombardments or conducting fire reconnaissance... This was quite abnormal! This had never happened during the days when the two armies were facing each other!

Major General Popov, who had participated in the First World War, the Soviet-Russian Civil War, the Polish Campaign, and the Soviet-Finnish War, had a wealth of battlefield experience. After quickly reading these reports, he knew that there was not much. Just as he picked up the telephone receiver on his desk and wanted to call the 84th Infantry Army headquarters on the front line to ask them to be alert, he suddenly heard a faint whooshing sound. He suddenly slapped his desk and stood up, startling everyone in the operations room.

"The Nazis are firing rockets! They are going to launch a surprise attack!" Popov yelled.

Just when the 10th Army's Political Commissar Chirkov and Chief of Staff Grechko were both at a loss with their mouths open. Explosions rang out almost simultaneously across the entire front line! Popov did not hear wrongly, the sound just now was indeed 162 rocket launchers from three German smoke launcher regiments firing in unison!

In addition to these 162 rocket launchers, Model also concentrated 13 artillery battalions equipped with 150mm howitzers, and fired at the same time!

The powerful German artillery group repeatedly plowed the defense line that the Soviet 10th Army had worked hard to build, and groups of orange-yellow flames exploded one after another on the positions, blowing up anti-tank traps, barbed wire, minefields, and various anti-tank artillery and heavy machine guns placed on the positions. The 130mm rockets and 150mm high-explosive shells were extremely powerful. Every roar blew a gap in the Soviet front line, throwing out everything within the range of power.

Unlike the usual hit-and-run situation, today's German artillery group repeatedly hit the front line of the Soviet 10th Army, pouring shells and rockets to their heart's content, and seemed to not care about the opponent's artillery counterattack at all.

The various sound detection posts arranged behind the Soviet front-line positions quickly reported the results of the judgment to the 10th Army Artillery Command, and immediately a mathematical expert calculated the approximate position of the German artillery group.

"Commander, the position of the German artillery group has been determined!" The artillery director of the 10th Army reported excitedly.

Now the Soviet aircraft and tanks dare not say that they can suppress the opponent, and even the infantry may not have an advantage when encountering the Nazi infantry, but the Soviet artillery still has an overwhelming advantage!

Whether it is howitzers, cannons or anti-tank guns, they can crush the Germans in terms of quantity!

There are as many as 17 artillery regiments directly under the 10th Army, including 2 infantry corps, 1 tank corps, 1 cavalry corps, and artillery regiments directly under the group army! It has as many as 544 various suppressive artillery pieces... This number does not include brigade-level and regiment-level artillery, various mortars, anti-aircraft guns, and rocket launchers.

"Fire the artillery group!" Popov ordered loudly, "Hit the Nazi artillery group hard and let them know what the anger of the Bolsheviks feels like!"

As soon as Major General Popov gave the order, 17 artillery regiments under the 10th Army immediately began to counterattack. The flashes fired by more than 500 cannons turned the entire sky red. From an altitude of three to four thousand meters, the Luftwaffe bomber pilots could immediately spot the location of the Soviet artillery group that was firing!

It turns out that it was not just the German 6th Army that participated in today's short assault operation. The powerful 6th Air Force of the German Air Force also sent more than 1,000 fighter planes. 3 smoke launcher regiments and 13 artillery units of the 6th Army were already present. The battalion was in the air near the battle area before it opened fire.

Now the artillery group of the Soviet 10th Army opened fire and exposed the target, and immediately suffered the most violent bombing! Although the anti-aircraft guns responsible for protecting the Soviet artillery group all fired desperately into the air, the Yak-1 and Lager-3 that were scrambled into the air were desperate to block the German aircraft group.

But how can the limited number of anti-aircraft guns and fighter jets such as Yak-1 and Lager-3 stop the sudden large-scale dispatch of German aircraft? Thousands of bombs quickly fell on the heads of the Soviet artillery, and the artillery group that had just fired suddenly became mute!

"Okay, the Soviet artillery has been suppressed!"

Major General Hubei, the division commander of the "Hubei Heavy Armored Division" sitting on an armored command vehicle, saw that there were no more orange or dark red lights flying from east to west in the sky, and he knew that the Soviet artillery group had been destroyed. The Luftwaffe suppressed.

"It's our turn now!" Major General Hubei stood up and looked straight ahead, only to see countless armored vehicles arrayed in neat attack formations on a wide and flat plain!

At the front were three heavy armored battalions equipped with Tiger tanks, with 132 Tiger heavy tanks arranged in a wedge-shaped assault formation. Hundreds of various types of wheeled or half-tracked armored personnel carriers, anti-aircraft combat vehicles, tank repair vehicles and Zlini 2 105mm assault guns were also in formation, following behind the Tiger heavy tanks. A mighty division-level armored cluster assault formation was formed!

"Start the vehicle!" Major General Hubei shouted the order.

The staff officer on the side immediately sent his order to every combat vehicle in the front through the on-board radio. In less than 15 minutes, the roar of the motor filled the sky, almost overwhelming the sounds of shelling and bomb explosions.

The sound of the running internal combustion engine soon reached the position of the 328th Infantry Division of the Soviet Red Army, which had just been bombarded by German artillery and rocket launchers.

The Red Army commanders and soldiers guarding there soon knew that something was wrong. How could they not hear the sound of the tank motor? And the movement was so loud, I guess it was not a small group of ten or eight vehicles.

"Comrades! Pick up your weapons and get to the position quickly!"

"Comrades! Fighters of the world revolution, prepare to fight and strike hard at the Nazis!"

"Members of the Bolshevik Party, members of the Youth League, fighters of the world revolution, the moment has come to test us..."

The shouts of commanders and political workers echoed throughout the position, and brigade of Red Army soldiers were quickly organized. Holding rifles, anti-tank grenades and Molotov cocktail bottles, and dragging machine guns, the Red Army soldiers rushed along the winding traffic trenches from their hidden positions to the front line that was bombarded to pieces by German artillery. 1 anti-tank gun and PTRD-41 14.5mm anti-tank gun were then dragged or carried into the shooting position.

The German Empire's counterattack has begun!