Seven Hundred and Seventeen Need to Rest

On the morning of January 3, the German army stood firm on the main line of defense. Among the ruins of Ovruch, the grenadiers frantically fired at the charging Soviet soldiers. Every inch of land seems to be filled with the lives of countless soldiers on both sides.

The attack of the Soviet Red Army seemed to have become less sharp, because they ran into German soldiers who were determined to hold their positions. Rokossovsky finally knew how tough the German soldiers in front of him were, and he also knew what terrible opponents his predecessors faced.

"Comrade General! Let me charge again! This time I guarantee that I will be able to take down the opposite high ground!" The bearded division commander of the 2nd Guards Front Army, who is also the most tough general under Rokossovsky, At this moment, a bandage was wrapped around his head, and fresh blood could still be seen oozing from it. He was blown away by shrapnel in his helmet during the charge just now, and left a deep wound on his head.

However, he simply bandaged it, and asked to return to the front line and continue to lead his troops to attack. Unfortunately, after hearing his request, Rokossovsky waved his hand helplessly and rejected his suggestion: " I have already changed an offensive force, and 100 brand new kv-1 tanks have also been pushed up, I do not believe that their defense line is made of iron, and such a strong force cannot be taken down!"

When he said this, his voice was a little embarrassing. Because of the failure of the continuous attack, one can imagine how he is feeling now. Now that he has made contact with the opponent's commander, he will use the cleanest Way to attack the high ground in front of him, and then go to the back of the high ground, which has been turned into ruins by artillery fire.

"Stand at attention!" A political and industrial officer stood in front of the lined up Soviet soldiers and raised his arm holding the pistol high: "Comrades! We must not disappoint Comrade Stalin's trust in us! We will fight for the future of the motherland to the last moment ! The great motherland is with us! The great leader, Comrade Stalin, is with us!"

"For the motherland!" Everyone clenched their rifles and replied loudly.

"Attack! Let the damned Germans see how powerful our Soviets are!" The regiment commander gave the order to attack, and he took the lead in the direction of dense gunfire. Behind him, a full 1,000 soldiers held their weapons and stepped forward. He opened his pace and launched a new round of attack in the deep snow.

Every time they attacked a German position, the Soviets filled the gap with a whole regiment of soldiers. 1,000 soldiers would go up and start attacking. There might not even be 200 left when they came down, but the new 1,000 soldiers would be pushed onto the battlefield again. It seems that this battle will never end.

The Germans were not passively beaten this time either. More than 20 Leopard tanks rushed out of the hidden bunkers. These tanks caused a lot of trouble to the attacking Soviet Red Army. At least a large number of KV-1 tanks participating in the attack became The wreckage was burned on the battlefield where tracer bombs were constantly flying.

In front of the position is a minefield of the German army. The German soldiers took the time to plant a total of 20,000 mines last night. Now there are not many mines left in this minefield. The Soviet Red Army has carried out rough demining work with cannons. , and then rely on soldiers to step on the rest bit by bit with their feet, turning a minefield into a clean passable area.

There is no white snow in this area anymore, and the ground is either cold and solidified blood, or black muddy land that has been trampled countless times. In the rest of the place, there are corpses that can't be seen at a glance, German corpses, and Soviet corpses.

The mortars of the German army have become the most reliable offensive weapons that infantry can rely on. At least after the heavy artillery firepower of the Soviet Red Army is covered, these small mobile firepower can provide fire support and cause very considerable casualties to the opponent. Coupled with the elusive light machine guns of the German grenadiers, the Soviets paid a heavy price in front of the German positions.

Amidst Rokossovsky's roar, Soviet soldiers finally attacked the main German outer defensive position at around 4 pm that day. Although they did not find the German frontline commander, they found a side that was burned. Half of the regiment's flag, and one of the division's flags burned two-thirds. This marked the second formed division of the German army to be annihilated by the Soviet Union. At the same time, all obstacles to the German army on the outskirts of Avruch were pulled out by the Soviets.

The Soviets started to attack the urban area overnight, but found that it was a murder paradise carefully constructed by the Germans. The ruined streets and buildings became an excellent place for the Germans to hide, and the bullets shot from all directions were ruthless. the lives of Soviet soldiers.

The two sides fought from 8 o'clock in the evening until the early morning of the next day. The German army still controlled more than half of the blocks, and the Soviets had no way to break through the ruins. The German army has already killed a full 20,000 people here, and the price paid by the Soviet Red Army can be imagined. The two infantry armies responsible for the general offensive were basically wiped out, and Rokossovsky still failed to capture the city called Ofrucci on time.

In stark contrast to the northern attack of the Soviet Red Army, the German army was responsible for the main offensive of the G Group Army. Guderian's troops also arrived at the designated position on January 3. Compared with Rokossovsky's difficulties, his troops Although the loss was not small, it was not that huge. Moreover, the G Group Army also captured a full 150,000 Soviet soldiers, and cleaned up the periphery of Shebelinka in front of them.

Under Guderian's order, the German army also kicked off the prelude to the city's fortified battle that day, but the Soviet Red Army guards near Shebelinka obviously did not have the combat capability of the German Army Group E. Although they also carried out tenacious resistance, and The fight was very heroic, but in the end that afternoon, they were driven out of Shebelinka and lost the southern gate of Kharkov.

As for how tenacious this army fought, Guderian praised this Soviet army in a personal letter to Brauchitsch. There was a division of the Soviet Red Army guarding the center of Shebelinka. They fought until they ran out of ammunition and never surrendered. In the end, they set fire to the buildings in the city center and died heroically with their weapons.

The other unit resisted equally tenaciously until the afternoon of the same day. This unit held its position until the last moment without anti-tank weapons. This Soviet infantry regiment fought until the last moment when the regiment leader was killed. soldiers, still refusing to surrender. Compared with those colleagues who were defeated and captured in the city, they can be said to be the concentrated expression of the heroic combat of the Soviet Red Army.

Guderian finally stood at the door of Kharkov's house, and also stood on the edge of the trap Zhukov dug for him. At this time, he was in the newly occupied city of Shebelinka, in a house occupied and cleaned by the National Defense Forces, and spread out the combat map in his hand.

He looked at Kharkov, who was just on the lips, and then looked up at his chief of staff, as well as the division commander of the 1st Armored Division who came to the army headquarters, and the division commander of the SS 3rd Armored Division, Frick. Waiting for someone, he opened his mouth and laughed. He pressed his hand on the map, above the city of Kharkov, and looked at his subordinates.

"General Guderian, my division needs to rest. After all, the continuous battle has made them exhausted." Frick was the first to complain. It is true that his armored division took the lead all the way, but if he needs to rest, he is really lying with his eyes open. He followed Guderian all the way to the north and south. At least when he was fighting against France, he needed to rest more than now. At that time he But there was no such request for rest.

On the other side, the commander of the 1st Armored Division also poured dirty water on himself: "My troops have lost a lot, and the ammunition consumption is also very large, and...they also lack rest and cannot attack immediately."

Since Guderian was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the G Group Army, the commander of the 1st Armored Army has become Hulk, the first general to follow Akado. He became the commander of the most elite armored force in the empire. He watched the two armored division commanders under his command and complained, but did not speak. As a typical Prussian soldier, he only obeys orders but doesn't like to talk—even if the order is wrong.

In fact, the commanders of the armored forces were so evasive, mainly because they were worried that their troops would suffer heavy losses in street battles, so they made various excuses. It's not that they need to rest, but they don't want to enter the evil city of Kharkov. Many grassroots commanders could see that the city was full of dangers, so they would rather complain and behave than be the first to be sent to attack.

Guderian once said such a sentence, that is, "Don't believe your soldiers tell you that there is no fuel, because once they need to rest, they will have no fuel!" Now he naturally knows what his men are talking about What, so he laughed.

"Hahaha!" After laughing a few times, he looked at his subordinates again. Then he opened his mouth slowly, as if doing it on purpose, and said with a bit of teasing: "So many troops need to rest, but I still have a lot of combat missions to arrange, and there must be troops to start the mission of continuing to attack first, isn't it? Is it?"

His words made everyone fall into deep fear. It seems that Kharkov, a city full of nails, will not be able to enter the g group army this time. Just when everyone was in a dilemma, I heard Guderian continue to say: "I thought that the new attack would make everyone rush to complete it. It seems that everyone really needs to rest."