Chapter 918: Attack From the Rear

"Where are those damn German armored forces? Is our rear position still safe?" When he heard the news about the German armored forces, Pavlov, the commander-in-chief of the Western Front, stood up quickly and asked with a little nervousness and uneasiness.

Perhaps Guderian could not have imagined that the most worrying thing about this risky plan was not the German command, but their target this time, General Pavlov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Western Front.

"When the garrison troops in Baranovichi were patrolling, they found a large number of armored ruts west of Baranovichi. Judging from these ruts, the German armored forces were very close to Baranovichi, but finally chose to go west along the railway, which is where we are." The messenger reported truthfully.

At first, Pavlov nodded. The German armored forces approached Baranovichi but did not launch an attack, which also confirmed Pavlov's conjecture that the German armored forces did not have the ability to engineer at all, and they were just attracting attention.

But when he heard the messenger say that the armored unit had already moved westward, and the destination was exactly the Western Front's garrison, Pavlov was stunned again.

"Where's the map? Give me that damn map!" Pavlov ordered hurriedly.

Hearing the general's order, his men did not dare to hesitate at all, and quickly brought all the garrison maps and maps of the Polish region.

"West of Baranovichi" Pavlov muttered to himself, but soon panicked. Because he found that although the Bialystok triangle position was very strong when facing the attack of the German army in the west, the rear position of Grodno and Brest was the most vulnerable in the triangle position.

This is actually very normal. The rear is all Russian territory, and Pavlov certainly cannot use most of the troops to defend the rear.

But this did give the Germans a loophole. If the Germans really discovered the gap in the Russian deployment of troops and took the opportunity to do something, then it is conceivable that the troops of the three armies of the Western Front would suffer a great disaster.

"How many planes do we have left?" Pavlov asked immediately.

"The German bombing destroyed most of our planes, and the number of planes that can take off is less than 100 at present." Deputy Commander Borkin replied.

The Western Front has three armies with hundreds of thousands of troops, but in terms of aircraft, it has only more than 300 aircraft, and most of them are located in Bialystok.

Because it is at the forefront of the fight against Germany, many military bases including Bialystok were attacked before the war broke out, the airport was destroyed, and most of the aircraft parked in the warehouse were blown up.

This also made the Western Front, which had a small number of aircraft, even worse. A front that is considered to be a strong military force in the whole of Russia, can even produce less than 100 aircraft, which has proved that the Western Front is backward in armaments.

Of course, such scenes are not only seen in the Western Front. Let alone the performance of the German Army, the Air Force has been in the limelight in the offensive in the past few days.

Although it was somewhat dishonorable to fight without declaration, the sneak attack of the air force did play a crucial role. Compared with other powerful countries, Russia's industry itself is relatively backward.

Of course, the backwardness here refers to the backwardness of advanced industries and many military industries that require technological accumulation.

If it is just a simple basic industrial scale, Russia is actually not bad, at least it has surpassed the island countries and Italy.

Russia deployed nearly 800 aircraft near the entire border, and in just two days, nearly half of them were destroyed.

This also made Germany's worries fall into the air, because the Russian Air Force no longer had the ability to fight back against Germany, and they were simply unable to threaten Germany's territory.

"Order all aircraft to take off immediately and patrol the line from Grodno to Brest 24 hours a day. To Minsk, request Minsk to send troops for support.

I will never allow any tank to break through the line from Grodno to Brest, at least before I receive the order from the Supreme Command." Pavlov did not care whether the Air Force could withstand the pressure of the Germans and issued his own order.

For Pavlov, if the safety of the line from Grodno to Brest cannot be guaranteed, then his Western Front is likely to be under great threat.

But the tricky thing is that because there is no order from the Supreme Command, no one, including Pavlov, dares to order a retreat.

This also makes the situation faced by the Western Front very embarrassing. It is neither right to leave nor not to leave. It can be said that it is neither inside nor outside.

Then on the other side, after a long advance, Guderian finally approached the Bialystok triangle position built by Pavlov.

Looking at the Russian position in the distance, Guderian showed a smile that he had not seen for a long time, and ordered his men: "Rest in place for ten minutes, and the armored group will check the ammunition loading of the tank.

Launch the attack in ten minutes. I hope to quickly cut these Russian positions and quickly threaten Bialystok."

This outflanking was planned in advance with the German army in the front. As long as the armored group led by Guderian launched an attack in the rear, the German army in the front would also launch the last round of frontal attack.

The Russian army, caught in a pincer attack from both sides, will face very severe pressure and also have to resist the bombing from the German Air Force.

Under such circumstances, the Russian army could not resist the attack of the German army. Unless they had more aircraft and tanks, and had no pressure on ammunition logistics.

But it was obvious that even if they were given two more years, the Russian army would not be able to have sufficient ammunition and logistics supplies, let alone the current Russian army.

Ten minutes passed in a flash, and the German armored group had already checked the situation of their respective tanks. After a short rest, they marched towards the distant Russian positions.

As the German army got closer and closer, the Russian army also felt the unusual trembling of the earth and heard the rumbling sound getting closer and closer.

Because this place was still dozens of kilometers away from the Bialystok position on the front line, the sound of artillery fire from the front line was already very weak when it reached here, and it could not cover up the sound of the German armored forces advancing.

But the problem was that even if the whereabouts of the German armored forces were exposed, the current Russian army had no way to deal with this armored group.

If the Western Front still had nearly 300 aircraft, it would not be a problem to deal with these tanks. At least it could threaten these tanks and force them to withdraw.

But now, the entire Western Front has less than 100 aircraft, and most of them are at the military airport in Bialystok.

Although Pavlov has issued an order, it is not easy for these aircraft to rush to the rear in the hail of bullets on the front battlefield.

What's more, the attack of the German armored forces is supported by the German army on the front. A large number of German aircraft have already taken off, and the Germans will not let these aircraft run to the rear to threaten their armored forces.

"Oh my God, it's a German tank!"

A sudden exclamation was very obvious in the Russian position. Many Russian soldiers looked in the direction of the sound. On the horizon not far away, a large number of gray-black German tanks were coming in a mighty manner.

"Enemy attack! Meet the enemy! Prepare anti-tank weapons!"

The commanders of the Russian army also responded quickly, and commanded their soldiers to make various preparations for response.

Obviously, the Russian army also has corresponding anti-tank weapons. The so-called anti-tank weapons are actually artillery that has been modified to a certain extent and is equipped with armor-piercing shells.

But the problem is that the design of Russian anti-tank guns refers to the development of Russian tanks, and it is effective against Russian tanks.

But if the enemy is replaced by the German tanks that are thick-skinned and fast, the effect is not so obvious.

In addition, the German tanks are in a state of surprise attack, because of their high speed, many anti-tank weapons have no time to deploy.

In about a few dozen seconds, the overall outline of the German tanks can be seen. The Germans will not hesitate. After entering the range of fire, a large number of tanks will pour a large number of shells from the main gun without hesitation.

The German heavy and medium tanks are in the forefront, and Russian anti-tank weapons have no good way to deal with these big guys.

It is precisely because of this that in just over ten minutes, the Russian positions have been abandoned, and even the German tanks running in the front have entered the Russian positions.

After entering the position, this surprise attack slowly evolved into a massacre of the Russian army by the German army.

Most of the Russian troops in the rear are infantry, and tanks and artillery have long been transferred to the front line. When these infantrymen face the German iron guys, it is really a kind of despair.

The most advanced Russian positions were quickly occupied by the German army. Guderian left behind a part of the army for follow-up, most of which were light tanks and mechanized troops, and the remaining armored forces continued to advance westward.

The Russian positions encountered along the way were quickly defeated by the German armored forces like the one at the beginning.

This is indeed the suppression of the tank troops on the infantry troops. When there is no assistance from other arms, the infantry has no way to deal with the attack of the tank troops.

No matter how well-equipped they are, they can't break the defense of the German armored forces. After advancing for several kilometers in a row, the number of tanks lost by Germany remained in the single digit, which also proved the exaggerated combat effectiveness of the German armored forces.

When Guderian led the armored cluster with great momentum, Pavlov naturally received reports of attacks in the rear.

Without any hesitation, Guderian ordered all the motorized troops of the third and fourth armies in the rear to go to the place where they were attacked and try to block the attack of the German army.

According to the military organization of the Western Front, each army group has a mechanized army and a cavalry army. Although there is only one tank division in the mechanized army, and the rest are a motorized infantry division and a motorized division, this is almost the most powerful motorized force that Pavlov can bring out in a short period of time.

But the bad news is that these mechanized troops are a certain distance away from the German armored group troops. Even the mechanized troops of the nearest third and fourth armies need at least half an hour to rush to the place where they were attacked.

Half an hour is enough for the German army to advance the front line by several kilometers.

Adopting the strategy of heavy tank breakthrough, medium tank encirclement, and light tank killing, the Russian army was destroyed as easily as cutting melons and vegetables.

It was indeed half an hour later when the Russian armored forces encountered the German armored forces.

The confrontation between the two armored forces lasted less than an hour and ended with the complete defeat of the Russian mechanized forces.

There was no way. Russian tanks had a huge gap with German tanks in terms of both quantity and specific performance.

Because of their late start, Russian tanks are currently almost completely backward. The iron sheet of Russian tanks is relatively thin, the firepower is relatively weak, and the power is not very good.

This resulted in Russian tanks becoming almost live targets on the battlefield when facing German tanks, and being bombed one by one by German tanks.

As for those motorized infantry and motorcyclists, it was even more impossible to stop the advance of the German armored forces.

As a result, although the Russian army encountered the German army, they still could not stop the German army's attack.

The Russian front in the rear was smashed to pieces by this armored cluster, and the remaining infantry could not organize a strong resistance at all.

Although dozens of aircraft of the air force that Pavlov had high hopes for successfully took off, they were soon intercepted by the German Air Force.

In a small-scale air battle, the Russian Air Force was almost wiped out and fell on the way to support the rear.

More than three hours after the attack, the armored group led by Guderian had completely broken through the first line of defense of the Russian army in the rear and went deeper into the defense line.

On the front battlefield, the German army also launched a fierce attack on Bialystok. Even the other two cities of Grodno and Brest that formed the triangle position were attacked and bombed by the German army, which caught the Russian army off guard for a while.

Pavlov wanted the Russian army on the front battlefield to return to the rear, but the German army on the front battlefield successfully delayed the Russian army.

Once Pavlov mobilized the Russian army on the front battlefield, the German army would launch a fierce attack on the vacant gap.

With German planes everywhere in the sky, it was impossible for the Germans to conceal the Russian army's movements, and it was impossible for the Germans to remain indifferent to the flaws exposed by Russia.

I'll take a break today and update once.