"Max, I think you are scared out of your wits by the Russians." Seeing that his troops were advancing so smoothly, Dietrich said disapprovingly: "I have carefully observed those Russians hiding in simple fortifications. After being hit by the powerful artillery fire of our army, there are probably not many left alive. Moreover, our tank assault was so fast. Even if there are still a few Russians who have not been killed, they may not have fully woken up at this time. It is perfectly normal to be unable to organize a decent resistance.”
The tanks of the armored regiment rumbled past the Soviet position without encountering any resistance; the armored vehicles that followed also rushed in, but still found no resistance from the Soviet army. When the infantry was almost approaching the Soviet position, there was still silence. Dietrich, who was originally arrogant, realized that there was a problem.
"What the hell is going on?" Dietrich muttered. "Why don't the Russians fight back?"
"General Dietrich," Simon finally came to a conclusion that he couldn't believe after some careful observation: "The reason why your troops were not resisted is that maybe the Russians have given up. A position.”
"Impossible, this is absolutely impossible." After hearing what Simon said, Dietrich immediately retorted loudly: "This is not the first day that you and I have dealt with the Russians. Facing the powerful offensive of our army, their The commander will only issue an order not to retreat even a step. If any commander dares to order the troops to abandon their positions, his fate awaits and he will be sent to a military court."
Regarding Dietrich's statement, Simon shrugged his shoulders and said with a wry smile: "General Dietrich, don't forget, our opponent in front is General Sokov. He is different from other Russian commanders. I don’t think there’s anything he wouldn’t dare to do.”
"Here comes someone!" Dietrich turned his head and shouted behind him, and soon his adjutant came to him. Dietrich ordered the other party: "Immediately get in touch with the troops in front and let them figure out the Russian position and see if there are no defenders inside."
Before the adjutant could figure out the situation at the front, Hausser called Simon: "Hey, General Simon, General Dietrich's Flag Guard Division has successfully torn apart the Russian defense line. Please send your troops immediately." The troops are thrown into battle, and the Russians must not be given any breathing space, and they must be completely defeated."
Simon originally wanted to tell Hausser that the Soviet army might have abandoned their position, but he opened his mouth and swallowed what he was about to say again. Dietrich's investigation had not yet concluded. If he was in a hurry to This incident told Hausser that not only would he not believe such unscrupulous things, he would even feel that he was cowardly. Therefore, he could only bite the bullet and reply: "Understood, Your Excellency, Army Commander, I will immediately put the troops into attack."
The troops had already been assembled, and following Simon's order, they rushed forward along the road opened by the Flag Guard Division. Looking at the attacking troops, Simon thought to himself: Since Sokov's troops have given up frontal defense, it only takes a few hours for his Skeleton Division and Flag Guard Division to reach the outside of Prokhorovka.
Shortly after the Skeleton Division was dispatched, Dietrich received a report from his subordinates: Except for a few long-dead corpses, no living person was found in the occupied Russian positions. In other words, the Russians had long given up on this area. position.
After listening to his subordinate's report, Dietrich put down the phone and said to Simon: "General Simon, you are right. The Russians did abandon this position. What we occupied was only an empty position."
"But I don't understand." Dietrich said with a frown: "The Russians gave up the position in front of us, which is tantamount to giving way to the city of Prokhorovka. What are their intentions in doing this?" ?”
Simon naturally had his own thoughts about what was happening in front of him, "I felt that after yesterday's fierce battle, Sokov no longer had any extra troops to defend this area that was vulnerable to attack, so he sent all his troops The troops are concentrated on the main positions for defense. Even if we bypass their defense zone, the troops staying behind us will always pose a threat to us, preventing us from concentrating all our strength on Proho. Attack on Lovka City."
"General Simon, you are worrying too much." After hearing what Simon said, Dietrich said disapprovingly: "As long as we leave a force to monitor them, they will not dare to act rashly. When we capture Proholo After entering Fuka City, just turn around and come back to eliminate them."
Dietrich's words sounded somewhat reasonable, but Simon always had an ominous premonition in his heart. He felt that Sokov might have some unknown conspiracy behind his initiative to abandon some defensive positions. He cautiously reminded the other party: "General Dietrich, Sokov is not a simple Russian commander. When fighting with his troops, you must maintain a high degree of vigilance, otherwise unexpected things will happen if you are not careful." matter."
Seeing that Simon was so afraid of Sokov, Dietrich disapproved in his heart. He remembered that a few months ago, Simon, who was still a colonel at the time, had been captured by the troops commanded by Sokov. If he had not been escorting to Moscow, On the way, they happened to encounter a broken-up team attacking the convoy. They were probably planting potatoes in a prisoner-of-war camp in Siberia at the moment.
"General Simon, don't think too much. Sokov doesn't have many available troops now, and he doesn't pose any threat to us at all." Dietrich comforted the other party and said: "As long as we advance to Proholo quickly, Under the city of Fuka, I will assist the friendly forces to capture the city. Then I will turn around and attack Sokov's troops, and they will be completely destroyed. Don't worry, I will definitely give you the honor of personally capturing Sokov and let you do it. Avenging shame."
Being captured by Sokov's troops has always been a worry in Simon's mind. If Manstein and Hausser hadn't protected him, let alone continue to serve as the commander of the Skeleton Division, I'm afraid he would have been transferred back to the rear to let himself Went to take care of the concentration camp. At this moment, hearing Dietrich say that the honor of capturing Sokov could be given to him, he suddenly felt a rush of blood boiling in his heart.
Manstein was still very happy when he learned that the troops of the Flag Guard Division and the Skeleton Division had successfully broken through the defense line of Sokov's troops and were advancing eastward towards the city of Prokhorovka. In order to destroy the defense line of the 2nd Soviet Tank Corps in front as quickly as possible, he immediately ordered the bomber formation to take off and carried out an unprecedentedly violent bombing of the Soviet defensive positions.
The troops of the Soviet 2nd Tank Corps, which had no decent fortifications to begin with, fell into chaos when they were attacked by enemy planes. After finally waiting for the enemy plane to fly away, when the commander was ordering his men to count casualties, he found that the German tank troops appeared in front of him and could only order those tanks that survived the bombing to counterattack the German army.
The small number of Soviet tanks, without organization, hastily launched an attack on the tank group of the Flag Guard Division. As a result, in less than a quarter of an hour, more than 20 tanks participating in the attack were all destroyed by the Germans, while the Flag Guard Division only lost three old Panzer IV tanks.
After destroying the resistance of the 2nd Tank Corps, the Panzer Regiment of the Flag Guard Division continued to advance. After more than three hours of trouble, they finally arrived at the outskirts of Prokhorovka at ten o'clock in the morning.
The commanding height 252.2 outside the city is defended by the 2nd Battalion of the 26th Guards Paratroopers Regiment. Facing the influx of enemies, the paratroopers put up tenacious resistance and repelled eleven German attacks. The front of the position was filled with burning tanks and armored vehicles, as well as corpses scattered everywhere.
Although the paratroopers' tenacious resistance caused huge casualties to the German army, their own casualties were also not small. After several hours of fierce fighting, there were only more than 20 people left in the paratrooper battalion of 450 people, including five wounded. The battalion commander, Major Upiz, shouted to the regiment headquarters over the phone over and over again: "Comrade commander, I am Major Upiz. Now there are less than thirty people left in our battalion and there is not much ammunition left. Please Support, please support."
"Comrade Major," the commander of the paratrooper regiment also knew what the consequences would be if Highland 252.2 was lost. But now he was powerless. Since the enemy blocked the road from the regiment headquarters to the high ground with artillery fire, he sent two companies of reinforcements in succession. Before they could reach the high ground, they were all killed or injured by the German artillery fire. "The enemy's artillery fire is too fierce, and the reinforcements I sent cannot pass through the artillery blockade. You must find a way to hold on to your position, and you must not take a step back..."
Before the leader could say anything, the phone line was cut by artillery fire. Unknowingly, Major Uppiz shouted into the silent microphone: "Hey, comrade commander! Hello, hello, hey, comrade commander, can you hear me?..."
"Comrade Battalion Commander, Comrade Battalion Commander." A soldier with a bandage on his head and a rifle rushed in and shouted to Uppiz: "The enemy, the enemy is coming!"
Knowing that the enemy was coming again, Uppiz threw away the microphone, grabbed the submachine gun on the table, shouted: "Follow me!" and took the lead in rushing out.
After Upiz rushed into the trench, he was very pleased with what he saw. Although there were hundreds of German infantrymen rushing into the trench, the commanders and soldiers who were at a numerical disadvantage did not rush around in panic. , but bravely started a hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. Even the injured who could not move sat on the spot, raised their weapons, and shot at the enemies within sight.
Upiz picked up his submachine gun and shot at the German soldiers who appeared around him, knocking them down one by one. When the bullets ran out, he did not change the magazine, but threw the gun away, bent down to pick up the submachine gun next to the German corpse, and continued to shoot at the enemy. Two bullets hit his abdomen, and he threw away the weapon in his hand, covered his abdomen with both hands, staggered forward for two steps, and then fell softly to the ground.
But Upiz did not die immediately, he was just seriously injured. A wounded man struggled to crawl to his side, approached him and shouted loudly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, there are too many enemies, we can't stop them at all..."
Uppiz recognized the warrior who spoke as one of his engineers, so he tried his best to put a smile on his face and asked, "Are you all ready?"
The soldiers understood Uppitz's intention. A few hours ago, in order to prevent the Germans from occupying the high ground, Uppitz ordered the engineer platoons to lay explosives in many places in the trenches. Once the position could not be defended, they would fight with the enemy. Let's die together. The soldier nodded vigorously and said firmly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, as long as you give the order, I will detonate it immediately."
Uppitz turned to look to the side and saw more and more German officers and soldiers jumping into the trenches, but there were not many commanders and fighters on his side still fighting. He nodded to the soldier, indicating that he could detonate the explosives buried in the trench.
As the order was given, the injured engineer suddenly pressed the detonator, and an explosion without warning exploded from the feet of the officers and soldiers of both sides who were still fighting in the melee. Countless explosive points suddenly exploded, and the explosives splashed by the violent explosion Shrapnel and flying rubble intertwined with each other, like a sweeping storm, tearing the officers and soldiers in the trenches into pieces. The rising black smoke and flashing firelight enveloped the entire mountaintop position.
The commander of the paratroopers at the foot of the mountain couldn't help but burst into tears when he saw the mountain being blown into a sea of flames. He pounded the wooden wall with his fists, feeling extremely annoyed that he could not help his men.
On the other side, Dietrich, who was riding a tank to watch the battle nearby, couldn't help but be stunned when he saw his troops rushing to the high ground being engulfed in smoke and fire. After a long time, he murmured: "Crazy, crazy, these Russians are simply crazy. Seeing that the position cannot be held, they actually died together with our soldiers."
After a brief sigh of relief, Dietrich immediately issued a new order regardless of the muffled thunder rolling on the top of the mountain and the smoke that had not dissipated: "Send new troops immediately to occupy the 252.2 heights and seize the time to repair the fortifications." , to prevent a possible Russian attack."
Dietrich's analysis is correct. Highland 252.2 is crucial to the Soviet army. After the commander of the 33rd Guards Infantry Corps learned that the high ground had been lost, he immediately called the commander of the 26th Regiment and asked in a stern tone: "Comrade commander, why did you lose the 252.2 high ground? Don't you know that once the enemy takes over? Can we set up an artillery position on this commanding height outside the city and bombard our defensive positions in the city from above?"
"Comrade Commander," the regiment leader replied in a panic: "The enemy blocked our road to the highlands with artillery fire. I sent two companies to reinforce, but they were all killed or injured by the enemy's artillery fire. I can only do that. I watched helplessly as the Second Battalion standing on the high ground was completely wiped out by the enemy."
"Comrade Commander, I don't want to hear any reasons." The commander raised his hand and looked at his watch, and then said: "It is now 13:40 on the 11th, and I hope to hear the news that you have retaken the high ground before 15:00. "
For the regiment commander, this order from the military commander was simply an impossible task. Apart from anything else, if the enemy's artillery fire is not suppressed, no matter how many troops you send to counterattack on the high ground, they will be completely wiped out by the enemy's artillery fire. But he hesitated for a moment and decided to obey the order: "I understand, Comrade Commander, I will organize a counterattack as soon as possible."
Set a small goal first, such as remembering in 1 second: Shukeju
