The Rise of the Third Reich

In the early morning of April 8, 1944, the third day of the "Red Guard" operation began. The communist fighters lurking in Andreapol, the "critical point" of the Red Army's great roundabout operation, discovered that reactionary troops were constantly arriving. What's even more disturbing is that these new troops are not the White Army, which looks a little decadent and loose, and has low morale, nor are they the Polish army with very bad discipline that makes the Russians hate it. They are all high-spirited German troops. Although they are lightly armed troops, it can be seen from their coal bucket-shaped steel helmets wrapped with camouflage nets, very rare camouflage uniforms and low-cut combat boots that they are elite German paratroopers. !

Andreapol is a small town hidden in forests and swamps. The northwest side of the town is surrounded by endless forests, the south is a large swamp, and the east is a collective farm. Several key highways pass through here, connecting Veliky Novgorod to the north, Toropets to the west, Sidver to the southwest, and Nelidovo to the southeast. For the Red Army in the plan, the road from Andreapol to the northeast through the Ostashkov area, which is densely populated with lakes and swamps, to Upper Volochok and Bologoye is the most critical.

As long as the Red Army controls Andreapol and the roads leading to Upper Volochok and Bologoye, they can quickly insert their huge light armored forces into the rear of the German (allied forces) and threaten the Kalinin front line. The main logistics line of the German Army (allied forces) was the Moscow-Petrograd Railway (called the Red October Railway in the Soviet Union). Even if Verkhny Volochok and Bologoye were not captured (the Red October Railway passed through these two cities), it would still seriously threaten the German army's rear, thus forcing them to shrink or even completely withdraw from the Kalinin Oblast.

At noon on April 7, troops of the Soviet 7th Guards Tank Army captured Nelidovo, where only one White Army infantry division was stationed. ), the originally inconspicuous Andrea Bol came into Model’s sight.

However, he did not send a strong armored force to Andreapol because the terrain near Andreapol was not conducive to the deployment and operation of armored forces. Moreover, there have always been Red Army guerrillas near the road from the Red October railway line (in order to save fuel, the armored units of the Northern Army were transported through this railway) to Andreapol (a dirt road by German standards) Moving, armored units are easily ambushed.

So Model sent the 2nd Paratrooper Division, which was directly affiliated with Army Group North, to deploy defenses in Andreapol. What arrived on April 8 was the 2nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 2nd Parachute Anti-Tank Battalion, 2nd Parachute Mortar Battalion and 2nd Parachute Engineer Battalion of the 2nd Parachute Division. Commanding this vanguard was Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzeny, the legendary hero of the German paratroopers, who is now the commander of the 2nd Parachute Regiment.

At the same time that Lieutenant Colonel Skorzeny led his troops to arrive in Andreapol, the leading troops of the 7th Guards Tank Army of the Soviet Red Army also arrived in a small town about 9 kilometers south of Andreapol. Kozlovo.

The leader of the 7th Guards Tank Army is a cluster composed of one unit each of the 8th Guards Rifle Division and the 18th Guards Tank Brigade. Major General Panfilov, commander of the 8th Guards Rifle Division, serves as the overall commander of the cluster.

The first batch of troops to enter Kozlovo was a battalion-level battle group commanded by Captain Klochkov Tiev, political deputy commander of the 1st Battalion of the 1075th Regiment under the 8th Guards Rifle Division. In addition to the two companies of the 1st Battalion of the 1075th Regiment, they also include the 4th Anti-Tank Company of the 1075th Regiment and the 3rd Tank Company of the 18th Guards Tank Brigade (the tank companies where Captain Shura and Captain Varennikov belong) ), with a total of more than 500 people, 12 operational BT-7 tanks, and 6 57mm caliber ZIS-2 anti-tank guns (1943 model) pulled by horses.

Before they arrived in Kozlovo, the red flag embroidered with sickle and hammer had replaced the tricolor flag of the Russian Empire and was flying over the town. The guerrillas near the town took advantage of the white army in the town to attack Andre. Lieapole's retreat gave him the opportunity to recapture the town.

So the troops led by Major Tiev captured the town without firing a single shot, but they also got bad news at the same time.

The commander-in-chief of the Andreapol local guerrillas and the original Secretary W of Andreapol County told Major Tiev: "At least 3,000 German infantrymen came to Andreapol, and they looked very elite. Probably their paratroopers."

Among today's German light infantry, paratroopers are definitely elite units. Not only have they received rigorous training, but they have also participated in many fierce battles. Although their weapons and equipment are lightweight, they are all carefully designed and manufactured.

"Are there any tanks?" Major Diev asked.

Germany's airborne forces still have parachute armored battalions, each battalion is equipped with 45 "Leopard" reconnaissance tanks.

“Nothing has been found,” the guerrilla commander reported. “At least no reports have been received in this regard so far.”

…

"Has the 7th Guards Tank Army arrived at Kozlovo?" Zhukov was quite satisfied with the progress of the "Red Guards" operation on the afternoon of April 7. After learning that Kozlovo was captured by the Red Army After the news of the recapture, he said to his deputy Rokossovsky: "In less than three days, the 7th Guards Army has advanced more than 120 kilometers. The progress is smoother than imagined!"

The Soviet "Red Guards" offensive has been launched so far. If you look at the map, it has been clearly divided into two big arrows. One is the "circuit cluster" with the 7th and 8th Guards Tank Armies as the blade. Along the way, in addition to In addition to the two Guards Tank Armies, there are three combined armies including the 16th, 18th and 56th Armies (the tank brigades and tank destroyer brigades belonging to these three armies are also equipped with BT-7 and SU-57). There are as many as 600,000 troops!

The other big arrow is the "frontal cluster" composed of the 1st Guards Tank Army, the 2nd Guards Tank Army, the 1st Assault Army, and the 2nd Assault Army. Although the total strength is only 400,000, because it has a large number of heavy tanks, its attack power is more powerful than the "circuit cluster".

Although there was an accident with the "Oliga" tank destroyer, which overturned many "Stalin" tanks, the Soviet army's "frontal cluster" operation was considered smooth.

On April 5th, the junction of the two German army groups (in the Rzhev area) was torn open, covering the smooth penetration of the roundabout group. Then the front group turned to the task of feinting to attract the attention of the German army, and began to advance towards Kuvshinov and Torzhok just north of Rzhev (Torzhok is also along the Red October Railway).

As of noon on April 7, the 1st Guards Armored Group, the Soviet frontal group, had already assaulted the small town of Barno, less than 50 kilometers away from Kuvshinov and Torzhok.

It can be said that the counterattack operations in the past two and a half days went smoothly beyond Zhukov's expectations.

However, the counterattack was too smooth and there was a downside, that is, the whereabouts of the powerful German armored cluster was unknown. It was precisely because the German armored cluster had not shown up in the past two and a half days that the Soviet operation went so smoothly.

But these German armored units that did not show up will definitely not disappear out of thin air. They must be waiting for the order to counterattack somewhere!

Zhukov put his hands on the edge of the map table, stared at it for a moment, and asked Rokossovsky: "Have the troops penetrating behind enemy lines ever encountered German armored forces?"

"No," Rokossovsky shook his head, "They have only encountered French mechanized cavalry (actually mechanized infantry) and German armored grenadiers."

Nowadays, the German Panzergrenadiers and Panzers are easy to distinguish. The former does not have Tiger tanks and E-50 tanks, while the latter has a large number of Tigers and E-50s.

The German Red Brigade commandos and the Polish People's Army commandos, which are causing trouble behind the German (allied forces), have not seen Tigers and E-50s until now.

This only shows that the German armored forces are not on the front line, so where are they? When will they strike back?

Zhukov's worries are not unreasonable, because the "Red Guardian" operation he commanded is actually teetering on the edge of disastrous defeat. Model's previous action of shrinking the front-line armored forces was not actually an attempt to launch a deep defensive counterattack. He was just worried about unnecessary losses of expensive heavy equipment during the mobilization during the mud season.

Therefore, he pulled all the 10 German armored divisions that were originally dispersed and deployed behind the front-line troops to the "Red October Railway", which happened to be on the line of Upper Vorochok-Bologoye-Okulovka. , 10 armored divisions pulled out a 150-kilometer long snake formation (actually very densely arranged), exactly where the Soviet 7th Guards Tank Army was preparing to outflank.

In other words, Model and Paulus don't have to do anything now. They can just sleep with their heads covered. Their 10 armored divisions can also drive away a Soviet Guards Tank Army!

After all, the strength gap between the two sides is too great. Now a German armored division has Tiger H tanks, No. 4 H tanks, E-50A tanks, Rhino tank destroyers, and Stalker tank destroyers (armored throwers attached to the armored division). Bomb Corps) has more than 470 units (full strength). There are more than 4,700 main tanks and tank destroyers in 10 armored divisions that can fight a decisive battle. Even if the Soviets' 8 Guards Tank Army came up together, they would still be defeated.

But as Comrade Lenin taught: the enemy will not sleep!

Therefore, Model and Paulus, the two enemies of the Soviet Union, certainly cannot do anything and go to sleep now.