Chapter 1268 Ask for help

  The German 48th Panzer Corps continued to launch attacks in the Oboyan area, trying to break through the Soviet defenses here so that they could quickly advance along the road to Kursk. However, the commanders and fighters of the 1st Tank Army, under the command of General Katukov, stubbornly blocked the German attack, making them stagnant in front of Oboyan's defensive position and unable to make any breakthrough.

   Fierce battles are raging in the direction of Oboyan, and the battle outside Prokhorovka has also reached a fever pitch. General Bakharov's 18th Tank Corps, after recovering the October Farm north of Hill 252.2, established a new defense there to prevent the Germans from taking it again.

Manstein, who had lost his reserve team, had no choice but to order Hausser's SS Panzer Army and the Kenf Combat Group to intensify their attacks on the Soviet army in order to annihilate one of them first in order to capture the city of Prokhorovka. Ministry, and take the city again.

  Hausser, who received the order, decided to take the recapture of October Farm as a breakthrough, and then detoured to the rear of the Soviet army. According to his experience on the Soviet-German battlefield, once the Soviet army fell into a siege, many troops would fall into chaos. As long as one of them was wiped out, the rest would be nothing to worry about.

  In order to achieve this operational goal, Simon went to the front in person and commanded his troops to attack October Farm. He stayed in an observation post with his chief of staff and saw with his own eyes a battalion of infantry, following more than 20 tanks, attacking the Soviet position in the distance.

  The Soviet positions were just temporarily dug trenches. There were neither minefields nor barbed wire fences ahead. The German infantry could easily rush to the trenches under the cover of tanks. Seeing his officers and soldiers rushing up, Simon began to consider in his mind, once he seized the October Farm, which troops he should leave for defense, and which troops should be used to detour to the rear of the Russians, Encircle them.

  However, what happened next shocked Simon. He saw that the Russians standing on the ground did not have many anti-tank guns, but relied more on anti-tank rifles to snipe their own tanks from a long distance. However, since the tanks leading the infantry to charge were all Panther tanks, the anti-tank rifles on the ground could not penetrate the frontal armor of the tanks at all. The few anti-tank guns with a limited number were locked on the target by the moving tank after two shots and were quickly destroyed by artillery fire.

Unexpectedly, when the tank was approaching the trench, countless figures leaped from the bomb crater next to the tank. Some of them threw anti-tank grenades at the tank, some threw Molotov cocktails, and some even rushed to fight with cluster grenades strapped to their bodies. Those Leopard tanks that even anti-tank rifles can't destroy will be destroyed.

   Seeing clusters of dazzling flames and puffs of black gunpowder smoke rising in the distance, Simon's heart was bleeding. He realized that his tank was being continuously destroyed by the **** Russians. I thought that the infantry following the tanks could wipe out the Russian anti-tank fighters, but I didn't expect the opponents to fight very bravely. Unexpectedly, someone held a smoking grenade and rushed directly into the German infantry formation. Even a dozen soldiers died together.

  Although the Skeleton Division is an elite division of the German army, they still feel terrified when they encounter such a desperate style of play like the commanders and fighters of the 18th Tank Army. At this time, seeing that the infantry brigade successfully blocked the German attack, Baharov decisively ordered the 170th tank brigade to counterattack the German army.

  The German officers and soldiers who had already started to retreat, saw the Soviet tanks rushing up, and suddenly became a mess. Immediately, some officers and soldiers retreated like a tide, while the remaining officers and soldiers hid behind the destroyed tanks or in the bomb craters, shooting at the rushing Soviet tanks.

  While the 18th Tank Army was stubbornly blocking the Skeleton Division at October Farm, the 29th Tank Army was also fighting fiercely with the Banner Guard Division near the 252.2 Heights. On the south side of the city of Prokhorovka, there are several infantry divisions of the 69th Army, and the Kenff combat group is fighting for every inch of land.

Rotmistrov, who set up his headquarters in the city of Prokhorovka, carefully studied the situation outside the city, called Vatutin and said to him: "Comrade General, the Germans Our strength is more tenacious than we imagined, if we launch a comprehensive counter-offensive at this time, I am afraid it will be difficult to achieve any results, and it will easily exhaust our effective strength."

   You know, Vatutin has always advocated offense. Not long after the Battle of Kursk began, he put all the reserves in his hand into the counterattack regardless of the situation on the battlefield. As a result, not only did it fail to crush the German offensive on the southern front, but it also exhausted all the vitality that I had accumulated with great difficulty, and finally had to ask for help from the base camp with the cheek.

   If he heard what Rotmistrov said a few days ago, he would definitely get angry at the other party. But after learning the lessons from the previous few days, he could only suppress the anger in his heart and asked, "General Rotmistrov, what do you think about it?"

"Comrade General, this is how I think about it." Rotmistrov stared at the map in front of him, and replied, "Let the troops of the 18th and 29th Tank Armies stick to the October Farm and 252.2 Highland in the west of the city, and block the The attack of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps. In addition, I intend to divide the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps into two parts, one part is deployed behind the two tank corps, and the other part is deployed behind the 69th Army to stop Kenf The advance of the regiment."

  After listening to Rotmistrov's idea, Vatutin did not speak immediately, but glanced at Zhukov who was standing beside him, asking for his opinion with his eyes. Zhukov heard the conversation between Vatutin and Rotmistrov clearly, looked down at the map, and felt that such a deployment was very safe, so he nodded slightly, expressing his approval of Rotmistrov's plan .

   "Okay, General Rotmistrov." With Zhukov's approval, Vatutin immediately said into the microphone: "Let's arrange the defense according to your plan."

"Although the Germans have transferred their reserve team, the situation is still not good for us." Vasilevsky took advantage of Vatutin's phone call and said to Zhukov: "What should we do?" Measures to resolve the immediate crisis?"

   "Do we have any troops to mobilize?" Zhukov asked without raising his head, looking at the map.

"We have deployed all available troops in the Oboyan and Prokhorovka areas." Vatutin, who had just put down the phone, replied with shame on his face when he heard Zhukov's question: "If the base camp doesn't give us If reinforcements are sent in, I don't think we have any troops left to go into battle."

"Comrade Vatutin, you are wrong, we still have troops to mobilize." Zhukov raised his head, looked at the embarrassed Vatutin in front of him, and said expressionlessly: "Once this army is put into the battlefield, we can Deal a heavy blow to the German army."

"Is there such a unit?" Vatutin just said this, and immediately realized which unit Zhukov was talking about, and said quickly: "Comrade Marshal, are you talking about Major General Sokov's 27th Army?" Group army?"

"That's right, it's Misha's troops." Zhukov nodded his head and replied affirmatively: "He told me on the phone yesterday that the reserve team in Manstein's hands could not be put into battle and would be transferred away. Criticized him. I didn’t expect his analysis to be completely correct.”

Hearing that Zhukov mentioned the 27th Army, Vasilevsky also quickly echoed: "For the Germans, the 27th Army is their nightmare. They not only wiped out the imperial division that broke through the Oboyan line of defense a few days ago , and even killed the commander of the German 6th Armored Division. If this unit is put into battle, we will be able to reverse the situation on the Kursk southern front in the shortest possible time.”

  At the current stage of the battle, it would be a good thing if one could have a new force to fight. But Vatutin thought that although this army was stationed in the Prokhorovka area, it was not under his own jurisdiction, and he had no right to directly issue orders to the opponent, so he said to Zhukov with some embarrassment: "Comrade Marshal, although the 27th Army It’s not far from us, but it’s under the control of the Steppe Front Army, and I can’t mobilize this army until I get the authorization of General Konev.”

   "Leave this matter to me." Vasilevsky said proactively: "I am the representative of the base camp. I will come forward to talk to General Konev. Presumably he will not have any opinions."

Seeing that Vasilevsky took the initiative to take on this offending person, Zhukov didn't say anything, just nodded, and then said to Vatutin: "Comrade Vatutin, judging from today's battle, the situation of the 69th Army They are very dangerous, and they may be cut off and surrounded by the Germans at any time, should you arrange to evacuate them to a safe area?"

Vatutin pointed to the map and said to Zhukov: "In order to avoid the danger of them being encircled, I can withdraw them to the next line of defense. But the problem now is that the troops of the army are not only too scattered, but all the troops We are all fighting the enemy. Once we retreat, the enemy will take the opportunity to occupy the area we gave up, and the situation in the Prokhorovka area will become even more unfavorable to our army."

"Comrade Vatutin, I think Misha has a few good words." Seeing Vatutin's surprised expression, Zhukov went on to say, "As long as the enemy's vital forces can be wiped out, sometimes you don't have to worry about a city." The gains and losses of a place. As long as we can preserve our vitality, even if we temporarily give up some places, when the time is right, we can take these places back from the enemy's hands.

   On the contrary, if we keep fighting the enemy for consumption, in the end, the position may be lost and the troops may be wiped out. It will take a long time to regain these positions again. "

Vasilevsky, who called Konev, thought that the other party would readily agree to his request, but after he finished speaking, Konev said slowly: "Marshal Vasilevsky, The 5th Guards Army, the 5th Guards Tank Army, which originally belonged to our front army, has been assigned to the command of the Voronezh Front Army. Now you want to assign my 27th Army to the command of General Vatutin again. In this way , half of the vital strength of our front army is gone, how will we fight the next battle?"

  Vasilevsky didn't expect that Konev would object to assigning Sokov's troops to Vatutin's Voronezh Front Army, and he didn't know how to answer for a while. Even thinking about it in another way, he felt aggrieved for Konev. He only had seven armies in his hands. Originally, two full armies were assigned to the Voronezh Front Army. He was at a disadvantage. Now it is necessary to put Sokov's 27th Army under the command of Vatutin. The front army with only half of its strength will definitely be affected.

Seeing Vasilevsky's embarrassed look, Zhukov walked over to take the microphone in his hand, and said, "Let me talk to General Konev." Zhukov put the headset close to his ear, and said in a friendly voice. Said in a tone, "Is it Comrade Konev? I am Zhukov!"

  Konev served as the commander of the Western Front during the Battle of Moscow. Because the troops were defeated, he was dismissed by the base camp. If Zhukov, who took over as commander, hadn't said good things about him and recommended him to serve as the commander of the Kalinin Front Army, maybe he would end up with General Pavlov. For Zhukov's kindness, he always kept it in his heart. Hearing Zhukov's voice at this moment, he quickly and politely replied: "Hello, Comrade Marshal."

"Comrade Konev," Zhukov organized the vocabulary in his mind, and then said into the microphone: "I know that the headquarters has drawn two armies from your front army, which has greatly weakened your strength. Now there are still In your establishment, removing Sokov's 27th Army will further weaken your strength.

  However, there is no way to do this. The situation outside Prokhorovka is extremely critical now. Vatutin has already used all his available strength, but he still cannot crush the German attack on the city. And Sokov's 27th Army is stationed not far from the battle area. If his troops can be put into battle, we can completely reverse the unfavorable situation of our army in the Prokhorovka area..."

   "Okay, Comrade Marshal." Konev patiently listened to Zhukov's words, and realized that Sokov's troops were the key to reversing the occupation. Even if he insisted on his principles, he firmly disagreed with placing them under the command of the Voronezh Front Army. But if this matter gets to the top, and a paper order is issued, he still cannot retain this army. Instead of being stubborn and offending others, it is better to be a good friend. After understanding this truth, Konev said: "Then follow what you said, temporarily assign Sokov's 27th Army to the command of the Voronezh Front Army."

  But Konev was more thoughtful, thinking that Zhukov would come forward to talk to him about the 27th Army, using a negotiating tone, but through the order issued by the base camp, proving that this unit can continue to be under his own command. Then he said tactfully: "Comrade Marshal, I want to make a statement in advance that Sokov's troops are only on loan to you. You can return them to me after the Battle of Kursk is over."

Now that Konev agreed to let Vatutin command the 27th Army, Zhukov would naturally not refuse his offer: "Don't worry, General Konev. I will personally ask about this matter as soon as the Battle of Kursk is over. , Let the troops of the 27th Army return to the construction."

  (end of this chapter)