Chapter 833 Prokhorovka

Happy Children's Day, brothers. Don't forget to vote for this book during the holiday! One monthly ticket and one red flower...

Walter certainly did not accept Kirchner's "help".

From this point of view, Lieutenant General Walter was still a little immature on the battlefield...A mature general should put his personal feelings aside and make the most favorable judgment and choice for the entire army from the perspective of the entire battle situation.

Walter did not do so. His answer was: "No, General! There is still time. We will break through the enemy's defense line and rush to the Yakovlev Highway as planned!"

But having said that, Walter did not have a good method. He just urged the 2nd SS Panzer Corps to attack desperately...Plane, artillery, constantly bombarded the Soviet positions, and then the "Tiger" tank led other tanks to charge the Soviet positions again and again.

The SS was Hitler's private guard. At the beginning of its establishment, it was responsible for ceremonial and security work. In other words, it was a guard and could only be regarded as a paramilitary force. Therefore, most people thought that the SS was a "vase" at the beginning.

However, after sending the SS to the battlefield, it was found that it dared to fight and charge, and fought very bravely. In addition, Hitler trusted and was more keen to distribute sophisticated equipment to his "private guard", so the SS gradually became large-scale and militarized, becoming a presence that could compete with the German Wehrmacht on the battlefield.

It should be said that the existence of this force further consolidated Hitler's power.

Because a considerable number of people in the rebel organization were afraid of the SS, or worried that the Wehrmacht and the SS would start a civil war, they delayed the plan to assassinate Hitler again and again.

Otherwise, it would not be difficult for the Wehrmacht generals who held military power to overthrow Hitler's regime.

However, the SS's bravery in combat is one thing, and the private guard and the short combat history determine that this force is not as complete and systematic as the Wehrmacht in terms of strategy and tactics... The SS is more of a force organized with a spirit and loyalty to the head of state as the core.

This was reflected when the 2nd SS Panzer Corps attacked the third line of defense. They preferred to pile up artillery shells, planes and tanks instead of changing tactics.

But the Soviet army was also a force that piled up numbers, and the Soviet army even learned some tactics based on the piled-up numbers, such as "firepower pockets" and "refueling tactics"... In the direction of Bekovka, the German army always attacked in waves and obviously hit the Soviet defense line to collapse, but as soon as they paused, the Soviet army immediately reinforced a group of fresh troops and even launched a counterattack.

So the two sides went back and forth, fighting desperately near the defense line, and there was a thick layer of corpses lying on the position, but the 2nd SS Panzer Corps still couldn't break through... In fact, the 2nd SS Panzer Corps had already broken through the original third line of defense, but the Soviet army kept building a line of defense after another line of defense, and then another line of defense, resulting in a bad battle where every step forward was the enemy's defense line.

The reason why the 48th Armored Corps did not encounter this situation was because they were fast... They defeated the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Corps in a short period of time, quickly rushed to the third line of defense and immediately launched an attack, and then broke through the third line of defense in just one night.

Such a speed made it impossible for the Soviet army to organize a new defense, a bit like a "blitzkrieg".

On the other hand, Vatutin realized the danger.

If the war continued to develop like this, an elite force and 300 tanks (later reinforced by a tank brigade) located between the two roads would be surrounded by the German army.

So Vatutin immediately issued three orders:

First: Do everything possible to prevent the German 2nd SS Panzer Corps from breaking through in the direction of Bykovka.

Second: Stop the German 48th Panzer Corps from advancing further in the direction of Yakovlev.

Third: Immediately withdraw all troops in the middle zone.

Vatutin hoped to buy time for withdrawing the troops in the middle. He had no hope of counter-encircling the German army and just wanted to minimize losses.

The most troublesome one was the second order.

Because the first order had been fulfilled, the Soviet army successfully blocked the offensive momentum of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps, although it lost a lot of troops.

The second order was to block the German 48th Panzer Corps... The problem was that the German 48th Panzer Corps defeated the 5th Guards Tank Corps within a few hours and quickly advanced, which created a vacuum of Soviet troops in the direction of the Yakovlev Highway. Vatutin no longer had any troops that could effectively block the German 48th Panzer Corps.

Vatutin was even worried that the German 48th Panzer Corps would split into two groups, one group would continue to advance toward the Yakovlev Highway to threaten the rear of Kursk, and the other group would return to support the 2nd SS Panzer Corps to complete the encirclement of the middle zone.

This would undoubtedly deal a double blow to the Soviet army.

In fact, General Hoth planned to do just that.

Although General Walter repeatedly emphasized that the 2nd SS Panzer Corps could advance to the Yakovlev Highway within the scheduled time, it was almost impossible from the current situation.

As the commander of the 4th Panzer Army, General Hoth certainly would not be like Walter who had no overall view, so he ordered the 48th Panzer Corps to immediately attack in the opposite direction towards Bykovka after entering the Yakovlev Highway. On the one hand, this was to "help" the entangled 2nd SS Panzer Corps to escape, and on the other hand, it was to complete the siege of the middle area.

However, this order was not implemented.

The reason was that Hoth received a telegram.

"General!" The staff hurriedly reported to General Holt with a telegram: "The air reconnaissance force reported that a large number of Soviet troops and tanks were found in the northeast heading towards Yakovlevo. There are at least 700 tanks. It is expected that in the afternoon Arrive in Yakovlevo around three o'clock..."

Huo Te couldn't help but raised his head in shock when he heard this.

He originally thought that the Soviet tanks had been almost exhausted by now... The main force of the Soviet army was attacking Orel, and there were only more than a thousand tanks in the south. Some of these tanks were scattered along the defense line, while others were occupied by the German two sides. The armored corps was wiped out, and nothing could stop the German army from advancing.

But unexpectedly, another army with 700 tanks suddenly appeared.

It seems that the Soviet army's reserves are much larger than imagined.

Holt's guess was correct. In order to ensure the victory of this battle, Stalin left an entire front army, the Prairie Front Army, as a reserve force.

Therefore, the Soviet army only had a tank group reinforcement at this critical moment.

The designation of this tank group was the 5th Guards Tank Army. The army commander, General Rotmistrov, led this unit to march 100 kilometers to the Yakovlevo Highway in 24 hours.

Then General Hott's eyes were fixed on the midpoint between the enemy and ourselves: Prokhorovka!