The Rise of the Third Reich

"Rhinoceros" turns out to be a "coolie cannon". Whoever owns it is destined to work hard day and night on the battlefield.

This is Major Gustav Schwarzenegger's evaluation of the "Rhinoceros" tank destroyer after the war. In his opinion, the "Rhinoceros" is not a tank destroyer at all, but an all-purpose gun that can fight tanks, infantry, and fortifications. If the 10 mm steel top cover is removed, it may even be able to hit aircraft.

In fact, the 88mm Stuk36L/56 main gun installed on the "Rhinoceros" tank destroyer was improved from an anti-aircraft gun. This cannon is exactly the same as the 88mm KwK36L/56 main gun currently used by the Tiger tank, but it is mounted on a tank destroyer, so it is named Stuk (assault cannon).

In fact, it is to equip the main gun of a Tiger tank with a certain amount of armor and the territory of the No. 4 tank. Now it can go wherever the No. 4 tank can go, and it can probably destroy targets that the No. 4 tank cannot hit. Moreover, when designing the "Rhinoceros", special consideration was given to the parts commonality with the No. 4 tank. Therefore, the tank repair company that can repair the No. 4 tank can also repair the "Rhinoceros" tank destroyer. It is really a cheap and high-quality vehicle. Mechanized weapons.

Therefore, the 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion equipped with "Rhinoceros" tank destroyers was quickly broken into pieces and assigned to various armored battle groups under the 5th SS Armored Division. These battle groups usually consist of a tank company and two armored grenadier companies as the core, then add an armored reconnaissance company, an armored engineer company and some auxiliary units, and finally add a few guns (usually 6-8 guns) "Rhinoceros" coolie cannon.

Therefore, Major Schwarzenegger, the commander of the 5th Tank Destroyer Battalion, had been the battalion commander for more than ten days. When it came time to go to the battlefield, he did not recognize the platoon leaders under him because these platoon leaders were all in various armored battle groups. With.

Major Schwarzenegger himself also received his own "Schwarzenegger Battalion Battle Group" on August 25, that is, yesterday, and today he will command this battle group to fight against the Soviet Red Army. .

Boom boom boom...

The rumbling sound of artillery reached Major Schwarzenegger's ears. It was the artillery group belonging to the 4th Armored Group that was bombarding the target on the Soviet defense line in front of him. When the bombardment ends, Major Schwarzenegger will lead his battle group to attack.

According to the battle plan, the initial stage of the attack should go smoothly. Because the Soviet Red Army adopted a large-depth defense in front of Lithuania, and there were not many front-line troops, it was still easy to break through.

The 5th SS Armored Division has rich combat experience and a large number of grenadiers and auxiliary units. Therefore, General Huth of the 4th Armored Group was assigned the hard job of a pathfinder. He divided six battalion-level battle groups (each with 1,000-1,200 people) to advance towards Minsk, attacking while looking for Soviet troops. of armored clusters. After encountering the Soviet armored group, they prepared to fight hard and waited for the subsequent sea of ​​German tanks to arrive.

Because it had long been discovered that the Soviet troops on the front line were weak, the artillery bombardment did not last long. The bombardment ended abruptly after only 90 minutes.

"Attention, comrades, I am Major Schwarzenegger, giving the order to start the vehicle now. SS soldiers, move forward!"

Major Schwarzenegger marched in a half-track armored command vehicle. After the bombardment stopped, he immediately ordered all the vehicles of the battle group that had already been in battle formation to start. Then he jumped out of the starting position, followed the route opened by the howitzer and rocket launcher, and rumbled towards the Soviet position.

…

"Comrade Commander, the 29th Army reported that the German attack has begun." At the Belarusian Front Army Headquarters in Minsk, Major General Lyapin, Chief of Staff of the Belarusian Front Army of the Red Army, told Commander Vasilevsky in a very calm tone Reported the news just received.

"Okay, it's finally started." Vasilevskiy also seemed unhurried, because this attack had long been expected by the Supreme Command. Otherwise, the Reserve Front Army would not have been transferred to Belarus and given the designation of the Belarusian Front Army.

In order to cope with the upcoming attack by the German army, the strength of the Belarusian Front has been strengthened in the past half month.

In addition to the original 7 armies, including the 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 32nd, 33rd and 1st Assault Army, the 37th Army, 9th Army, and 4th Army were also obtained from the Western Front , 28th Group Army and other 4 group armies, bringing the total strength to 11 group armies.

In addition, the internal affairs forces in Belarus and the Smolensk region also formed 10 internal defense divisions according to Stalin's instructions. Minsk, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel (all belong to East Belarus), Smolensk and other places have also formed 12 militia divisions with military divisions as the backbone.

If you include the artillery, air force, reserve forces and other units directly under the front army headquarters. The total strength of the Belarusian Front now exceeds 1.3 million! In terms of numbers, it is almost the same as the German Army Group Northern that is fighting with it.

Moreover, the Belarusian Front now has a powerful armored strike force. The 37th Group Army, the 9th Group Army, the 4th Group Army and the 28th Group Army. The fourth group army mobilized from the Western Front has a total of 6 tank corps or mechanized corps.

In addition, the Belarusian Front also has the newly formed 1st Shock Army, a rapid group army composed of 2 tank corps and 1 cavalry corps. This army group is equipped with a large number of T-34/57 tanks (each tank regiment has a battalion equipped with T-34/57, and the establishment of KV series tanks has been cancelled), which is the trump card in the hands of the Belarusian Front.

However, the Belarusian Front, which has a strong force, did not put more than one million troops on the front line. Instead, they adopted the tactic of large-depth defense. There were not many troops on the front line. They adopted the tactic of exchanging space for defense and concentrated the mechanized troops in Brest, Minsk and Smolensk. Among them, the 1st Assault Army, the ace unit, is located outside Minsk, because the Soviet Supreme Command estimates that Minsk is the most likely main target of the German Army Group North.

…

Major Schwarzenegger is now on his way to Minsk. The Soviets have made a good judgment. The Germans' main target is the capital of Belarus. It was the closest place along the Warsaw-Moscow railway to Vilnius, the German logistics supply center. It has been an important border defense town of the Soviet Union since the 1920s. If Minsk is not captured or surrounded, Guderian and Manstein will definitely live in fear all day long in the next month or two.

"Let the Rhino Cannon fire! Bomb that village with high-explosive bombs!"

The Schwarzenegger Battle Group encountered Soviet resistance at 8 a.m. on August 26. The location was in Oshmyany, Belarus, about 10 kilometers close to the Libei border (Lithuania and Belarus). A stronghold converted from a collective farm settlement. This place had been hit by heavy shelling an hour ago. There were craters all around, and most of the houses in the residential area seemed to have collapsed.

However, an infantry company of the 254th Division of the Red Army guarding here did not retreat, and even refused an old white man's persuasion to surrender, and shot the poor white-bearded old man in the head with a sniper rifle - in fact, this old white man also Life was miserable, and what he was persuading was a unit composed of internal security personnel from the Moscow region. They were all Cheka fighters with Moscow residence registration and were loyal to the cause of communism!

"Boom boom boom..."

As soon as Major Schwarzenegger gave the order, the six "coolie cannons" immediately started roaring, hitting the 88mm caliber shells very accurately on the Red Army's firepower point outside the settlement. The houses in the collective farms are not as sturdy as the reinforced concrete buildings in big cities. How can they withstand the bombardment of 88mm artillery? It didn't take long for them to be bombarded into ruins, and then the panzer grenadiers charged and turned a hundred or dozens of Cheka soldiers who were stunned by the cannon into revolutionary martyrs or anti-revolutionary elements.

However, Cheka soldiers with Moscow residence registration still have a different consciousness than ordinary Red Army soldiers. Before becoming prisoners, their company commander made an impassioned speech to the battalion headquarters over the phone, claiming that they had been fiercely attacked by a German armored regiment with "heavy tanks." The battle had now reached the last moment, and most of the soldiers had already After a heroic sacrifice, their ammunition was almost exhausted, and the soldiers who were still alive were determined to die together with the German tanks carrying anti-tank grenades!

"Comrade Commander, there are 6 armored regiments, maybe 6 regiment-level armored clusters." Colonel Zalalev, the chief of staff of the 29th Group Army, said to the group army commander Major General Shvetsov after counting the situation reported from the front, "And All have Tiger heavy tanks (due to the Germans' own propaganda, the Soviet Union already knew that the heavy tanks that caused them great suffering on the Warsaw battlefield were named Tiger tanks)... It seems that the 254th Division and the 256th Division are facing The enemy is 2-3 elite German armored divisions."

"Have German armor been found in other directions?" Major General Shvetsov asked.

His 29th Group Army is now playing the role of cannon fodder, and its subordinate 245th, 252nd, 254th, and 256th Divisions have spread out along the Libai border, forming a very weak line of defense. It does not seek to block the enemy's breakthrough, but it seeks to identify the enemy's main attack direction and at the same time delay the German attack.

"A large number of No. 4 tanks and Tiger tanks were not found, only No. 3 assault guns and another light assault gun (Weasel 2)."

Major General Shvetsov nodded and said: "The situation seems to be similar to what was expected. The Germans' main attack direction is indeed Minsk."