Chapter 820 Mission

The assignment of tasks was as follows:

The 48th Panzer Corps was responsible for the attack on the highway from Butovo to Cherkaskoye.

The 2nd SS Panzer Corps attacked from another highway, from Tomarovka to Bykovka.

The attack was not to let the troops rush directly onto the highway, which would be meaningless.

The most important thing in a real battle was not the highway but the commanding heights on both sides of the highway. As long as these heights were occupied, it could almost be said that the highway was controlled.

Of course, these heights were in the hands of the Soviet army, and they also built quite solid field fortifications waiting for the German army.

The attack started at three o'clock in the morning of the next day.

To be precise, this was only the early stage of the attack...The first to be sent out were the reconnaissance troops, the engineering troops and the commandos.

The reconnaissance troops went forward in the dark to find out the situation and design several feasible attack routes. Then the engineering troops would start to clear mines according to the attack routes designed by the scouts. The commandos carried double grenades and assault rifles, submachine guns and pistols and advanced along the roads opened by the engineers.

All of this was done in the dark, even without the enemy noticing. That is to say, before the battle officially started, the commandos had already lurked in front of the enemy's position and waited for the moment to start.

At 5:15 in the morning, a few red flares had just risen into the air, and the whistling of artillery shells from the German direction was immediately heard, and then one shell after another exploded on the 223.6 high ground where the Soviet army was stationed.

This could easily lead people to misunderstand that a large-scale artillery operation was about to begin.

But in fact, this was a scam. While the Soviet army hid in the fortifications to avoid the artillery, the German commandos lurking in front of the position took this time to rush up.

Then the artillery sound suddenly stopped, except for the Soviet artillery suppression against the German artillery... These artillery fires actually did not play much of a role, especially they could not rescue the Soviet troops in the front trenches.

With an order, the German commandos launched an attack on the trenches.

They threw rows of grenades into the Soviet trenches, and after the grenades exploded, they rushed into the trenches with assault rifles and submachine guns to engage in close combat with the Soviets.

If the Soviet soldiers resisted stubbornly, a German combat engineer carrying a fuel bottle would suddenly emerge from the trenches. He would raise his jet gun and pull the trigger, and then a ball of flame would spray out and burn all the Soviets into a ball of flame.

This was a common attack method used by the German army. The 48th Armored Corps took the 223.6 highland with this method. The key point was the close cooperation between scouts, engineers, commandos and artillery. In addition, all the commandos carried weapons and equipment suitable for close combat, so they beat the Soviets and made them flee in a panic.

The 2nd SS Panzer Corps did not use this method.

They delayed the attack for some time... In fact, they waited until 6 o'clock, when it was bright, before attacking. After a round of fierce artillery bombardment, the minesweeper tanks opened the way on the road, followed by five "Tiger" tanks, and the "Stuka" bombers swooped down from the sky to blow up every dangerous point reported by the air scouts, and then the infantry launched the attack under the cover of the "Tiger" tanks and bombers.

The SS's attack was simple and rough, relying on a large number of modern equipment, especially the "Tiger" tank. It was the first time that the Soviet army saw this tank. Various anti-tank shells hit it but made a dent, while the anti-tank guns exposed the target because of firing. The "Tiger" adjusted the angle, and then blasted them into the sky with a shot.

So, the SS quickly broke through the first line of defense.

Qin Chuan didn't need to worry about all this. What Qin Chuan needed to worry about was when the armored army would encounter the main force of Soviet tanks and be blocked.

At Hoth's army headquarters, the staff kept reporting the progress of the battle, and then marked the positions of each unit on the sand table based on these developments.

"The Tiger tanks are advancing unstoppably!" Hoth looked at the telegram, and then said to Qin Chuan: "But since the start of the war, five Tiger tanks have broken down. They were not destroyed by the enemy, but by themselves!"

"We will fix them, General!" The speaker was Lieutenant General Walter, commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps: "They will start again to catch up with the troops in front, and then crush all the enemies in front under the tracks!"

"Don't be so confident, Lieutenant General!" Hoth replied: "Because we have intelligence that the Soviets have 1,700 tanks in this direction, and we haven't encountered them yet!"

The intelligence was just interrogated from the prisoners of war, but the numbers given by several prisoners of war were different. Hoth believed the number of 1,700.

Because he thought... if the Soviets had more than 4,000 tanks, then they could probably deploy more than 2,000 to attack Orel, and a small part in the salient.

What Hoth didn't know was that the total number of Soviet tanks was actually more than 5,000. However, the number of 1,700 in the direction of Belgorod was still accurate.

This number was nearly twice the total number of German tanks.

"General!" Walter smiled disdainfully: "In front of the Tiger, all the Soviet tanks are just numbers, meaningless numbers, and they will soon be wiped out in front of us. The 48th Armored Corps or the 'Legendary Sergeant' should be the ones to consider whether this number is a threat."

As he said that, Walter turned around and asked Qin Chuan: "Am I right, Lieutenant Colonel?"

Lieutenant General Kirchner, commander of the 48th Armored Corps, asked with anger in his eyes: "Please make your meaning clear, General Walter, are you disdainful of the combat effectiveness of the 48th Armored Corps?"

"I didn't say that, General Kirchner!" Walter replied: "Sorry, if I offend you in any way, I didn't mean it!"

Although he said that, Walter still had that mocking and playful smile on his face.

This made Lieutenant General Kirchner angry, so he could only grit his teeth and bear it.

The SS Lieutenant General was someone that even General Hoth didn't dare to offend easily, let alone Lieutenant General Kirchner.

But Qin Chuan didn't care about that. He replied, "General Walter, do you mean... that only the 2nd SS Panzer Corps is needed for this battle?"

General Hoth also wanted to suppress Walter's arrogance. He said, "General Walter, if you really think so, I am willing to change the plan, or let the 2nd SS Panzer Corps go further ahead instead of the two armies moving forward side by side!"

"No, General!" Lieutenant General Walter had to lower his posture after hearing this: "I think the original plan is good, I obey your command!"

He glanced at Qin Chuan and Lieutenant General Kirchner, implying that he was just obeying General Hoth's command.