Once again, Yelena received gifts from the United States, not only all kinds of food, clothing, daily necessities and various medicines, but also some photos of some children, Wanatina and Yelena reported on the study of Andrei and Victor, as well as the living conditions of the third Georgi and Konstantin. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info Yelena thinks it's a complaint, how naughty the two little ones are, how cunning the two big ones are, but Yelena thinks that as long as the children are healthy, it's fine. He showed the children's photos and letters to Volkov, the husband and wife talked and laughed, chatted for a long time, this is the only topic that the two of them will be so keen on, although they both said that their children are the best, but, Yelena absolutely, her children are indeed smart and cute, but a little ashamed of the two little ones, they are still so young, they are about to leave their mother, their milk was robbed by their father, when Yelena said that the child is too small, really pitiful, Volkov said very shamelessly,

"Okay, dear, the children will leave you one day, you have to get used to it."

At this time, Volkov was drinking the coffee that Yelena got from the space, eating the snacks made by Yelena herself, and asked Yelena to help him pinch his feet. There are constantly burned tank soldiers being transported back from the front, and Yelena is the best at treating burns, so he didn't follow, this guy worked out for four days without sleep, which made Yelena very distressed, but he still can't rest now, which is why Yelena let him drink coffee.

It didn't take long for there to be more people in the conference room, and Volkov finally put on a serious posture, Yelena also packed up her things and put on Volkov's new boots, which were specially made by Yelena, the boots were very light, soft and shiny, and they were particularly comfortable to wear, and they were specially made according to Volkov's feet. Volkov was comfortable in his clothes, but he didn't know the doorway.

When Luo Shuai, Shirov and several other senior generals came in, what they saw was Volkov's neat and tidy appearance. After more than two hours, Yelena brought in a tray of coffee, and two small plates, one was a small cake made of soft milk and honey, and there were many fruit pieces in it. The other plate was Yelena's beef in sauce, cut into pieces and stuck with small toothpicks. When stewing beef, a lot of medicinal herbs are put in, and the medicinal spring water is used, which tastes particularly good. And it's a very hungry thing.

A few people, Luo Shuai used to be Yelena's patient, and he didn't feel anything in the past, but the medicine given by Yelena greatly relieved his pain, and he also understood how much favor Yelena gave him. And Shilov is not to mention, Yelena is his beloved, the woman he has never asked for in his life, and he is his savior, and other people, or his wife has an excellent relationship with Yelena, or Yelena has talked to them, eaten Yelena's things, drank Yelena's coffee, and is even more famous and popular in Volkov, who will not give Yelena face? Although at this time they were already arguing. But Yelena's appearance brought everything to an end.

One of the wives, General Guan Yan, said to Yelena, "Yelena, do you still have some snacks?" And this beef, it's delicious, we haven't eaten yet! ”

The other people looked at him and were surprised, but they didn't debunk it after all, the meal they ate together didn't count? But they also felt good and hungry. Shilov said, "It's so rare to get a taste of Yelena's craftsmanship. Only when the marshal came, did he have such treatment. ”

Volkov's face was a little better, but he was also very proud, and he was quite proud, this was all what he had eaten, hehe......

During the implementation of defensive preparations, the Central Front and the Voronezh Front received more than nine thousand artillery pieces and mortars. A total of ninety-two artillery regiments were allocated from the reserves of the Supreme Command to strengthen the two fronts. More than 1,000 anti-tank guns were deployed, and about 400,000 mines and explosives were laid in relatively important directions.

Stalin ordered Volkov to remain in Kursk and was responsible for coordinating the actions of the Central, Bryansk and Western armies, while Vasilevsky was responsible for directing the Voronezh Front.

At 3 p.m. on July 4, after a short period of artillery fire and aerial bombardment, the Battle of Kursk broke out. According to General von Melentin, in the evening of the same day, German grenadiers and infantry, supported by assault artillery and engineers, broke through to the front of the Red String defenses.

On the second day of the offensive, the Germans suffered their first setback, and despite all their efforts, the troops were unable to break through the Soviet lines. The "Greater Germany" division was a very strong division, with about 180 tanks, formed in a dense formation to attack, and in front of it was a swamp, so it was heavily bombarded by Russian artillery, and the sappers were not ready for a proper crossing, and many of the tanks fell victim to the Red Army aviation - in battle, despite the superiority of the Luftwaffe. But the Russian planes fought bravely and tenaciously. Even in the territory occupied by the Germans on the first day, the Russians suddenly fainted out of nowhere, so the reconnaissance units of the "Großdeutschland" division had to deal with them. Streams and swamps could not be crossed from the night of 5 July to the end of 6 July.

On the left flank, the offensive of the 3rd Tank Division on Savidovka, like the offensive of the "Großdeutsch" Division against Alekseevka and Lucianino, was unsuccessful. The entire area was riddled with mines, and the defense of the entire defensive line was supported by tanks placed in a condescending vantage point.

The fighting throughout the Kursk region was fought hard and without interruption. After a week of fierce fighting, the Germans came to a conclusion. The reserves of the Russian army are inexhaustible. By 14 July, the more astute German leaders, including Mellentin, had recognized that "the timetable for the German offensive had been completely disrupted." So there are many reasons why this happens.

During an unusually fierce battle around Prokhorovka, the German army suffered extremely heavy losses in armored vehicles and personnel. According to Soviet records, in just one day of fighting, the Germans lost three hundred and fifty tanks and 10,000 officers and men.

The fighting on the southern side of the salient was also fierce, as evidenced by the severity of the losses. For example, the 19th Tank Regiment of the 73rd Tank Division, by the fifth day of the offensive there were only two companies left. The 332nd Infantry Division lost 3,700 men, while the 6th Tank Division also suffered heavy casualties, leaving only forty-seven tanks.

It was at this time that Volkov and Vasilev, in their capacity as representatives of the Supreme High Command on the ground, ordered the Western Front and the Bryansk Front to launch an offensive. Three days later, on July 15, the Central Front launched an offensive in the direction of Orel.

The German High Command was faced with an urgent decision on whether to withdraw the troops that were attacking in the direction of Belgorod-Kursk to their original positions. If the original positions were consolidated, the Germans could count on the use of a unit of troops fighting at the Orel bridgehead. Thus, on July 16, the German 4th Tank Army and Task Force "Combat", under the cover of strong rearguard units, began to retreat.

In accordance with the spirit of the Casablanca Conference of January 1943, the Anglo-American forces were to be commanded by General Harold Alexander in the summer of 1943 to carry out the Sicily landing, codenamed "Eskimos". On July 10, 1943, Bernard Law Montgomery commanded the British 8th Army and Patton commanded the U.S. 7th Army to carry out landing operations in the east and west of Sicily at the same time. Forced Mussolini to step down on July 25. Due to the change in the situation in Italy, German forces in the area could not resist the attack of the Western Allies, and at the same time, the Battle of Kursk not only saw no hope of victory, but the German 9th Army in the Orel salient was cut off from the rear and was in danger of repeating the destruction of the German army at Stalingrad. Hitler was determined to terminate the "fortress" plan and transfer troops from the Eastern Front to Italy. On July 13, he summoned Kruger, Manstein and others to his "Wolf's Lair" headquarters for a meeting to announce this decision, because of the current dire situation of Army Group Center, Kruger agreed with Hitler's decision, but Manstein strongly disagreed, believing that the Soviet army was at the end of its power, and that the German army could achieve victory if it held out a little longer. Based on his trust in Manstein, Hitler agreed to Manstein's continued offensive on the Southern Front, although he terminated the "Bastion" plan.

However, Manstein's misjudgment of the strength of the Soviet army failed to achieve its goal in many attacks, and the situation in northern Kursk and Italy was deteriorating, which prompted Hitler to finally cancel the offensive, and the Germans began to retreat on July 17, and by the 23rd, the two sides had basically returned to their pre-engagement posture.

The Soviet Air Force also had full control of air supremacy, and the French "Normandy" air brigade also fought alongside the Soviet Air Force in the skies over Kursk. Unable to stop the attack of the Soviets, who were superior in tanks and men, Moder realized that it was only a matter of time before he lost Orel. On 16 July, Moder asked Hitler to abandon Orel and withdraw the Germans to the "Hagen" line, but Hitler vetoed it. By 25 July, Mussolini had stepped down, and the signs of Italy's withdrawal from the war were clear, Hitler needed to draw troops from the Eastern Front to Italy, and the German forces in the Orel salient were in danger of being encircled by the Soviets. After another request by Moder and Kruger to retreat, Hitler finally agreed to abandon Orel and transfer the 2nd SS Panzer Corps to stabilize the situation in Italy.

On July 31, the Germans retreated to the "Hagen" line in the direction of Bryansk, and on the way to retreat, the Germans pursued a brutal scorched earth policy. On August 5, the Soviet army conquered Orel and continued to pursue the retreating German army, liberated Khotnets on the 10th, entered Karachev on the 15th, and by the 16th the Soviet offensive was basically over, and the front gradually stabilized.

On the southern front, when the German army disengaged with the Soviet army on July 23, Stalin demanded that the Soviet army immediately launch a counteroffensive, but Zhukov believed that after continuous hard fighting, before launching the offensive, the Soviet army should make the necessary replenishment and repair, so that the Soviet army finally set the date of the offensive on August 3, and the operation was codenamed after the famous Russian general "Rumyantsev" in the Seven Years' War. The offensive was tasked with the Voronezh Front and the Steppe Front, with a total strength of 900,000 men and more than 2,800 tanks and self-propelled guns. At this time, Manstein also believed that the Soviet army was on the verge of collapse and that canceling the "fortress" operation was a wrong decision. This made the German offensive against the Soviets completely unprepared.

At 5 a.m. on August 3, nearly 10,000 Soviet artillery pieces fired in unison, and a large number of shells were dumped on the German positions, and the shelling lasted for more than two hours, and finally ended with a salvo of Katyusha rocket artillery, and then tanks and infantry began to attack. The German soldiers who survived the shelling were unable to stop the advance of the Soviet army, and the Soviet army soon broke through the first line of defense of the German army, and after a day of fighting, the Soviet assault groups advanced an average of 10~15 kilometers to the depth of the German army. In the following days of fighting, the German defense was unusually stubborn, and although the Soviet tanks continued to break through, the infantry was entangled by the Germans and made slow progress. By 5 August, the Soviet 1st Tank Army captured Borisovka, cutting off the retreat of Tomarovkad's 255th, 332nd Infantry and 19th Panzer Divisions, whose fate awaited them would be annihilation. But the besieged Germans still put up desperate resistance, and it was their stubborn resistance that bought Manstein time to withdraw the main German forces from Belgorod to Kharkov. On the 5th, the Soviet army recaptured Belgorod, and on the 7th, occupied Bogodukhov, a logistics supply base in the rear of the German army, and captured a large amount of German supplies and fuel.

On the 6th and 7th, as the Soviet tank corps advanced quickly, the infantry was busy clearing the packs

Battle of Kursk

Battle of Kursk

The encircled German army, the Soviet tank units and infantry have begun to disconnect. Manstein wanted to take advantage of this weakness of the Soviet army, and he began a planned retreat to buy time to gather his forces and counterattack when the Soviet offensive energy gradually ran out. At this time, Vatutin was very optimistic about the situation, believing that the German army was on the verge of collapse, and he ordered the front-line tank units to continue the offensive, cutting the railway line from Kharkov to Poltava and preventing the Germans from escaping. On August 11, the German army had been assembled and replenished with sufficient ammunition and fuel, and Manstein began a counteroffensive, while the Soviet tank units were still in a state of pursuit, and the various units were widely dispersed, while the infantry and artillery were still in the rear, and after many days of fierce fighting, ammunition and fuel were seriously insufficient, and more importantly, the Soviet army was unaware of the German attack. The Soviets are repeating the mistakes of the battle in Kharkov 5 months ago. On the night of the 11th, the 49th Tank Brigade and the 17th Tank Regiment of the Soviet 1st Tank Regiment were surrounded and annihilated by the Germans, and due to the timely arrival of the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Corps, the total annihilation of the 1st Tank Corps was avoided. On the 12th, under the attack of the German army, the Soviet army was forced to retreat, and then the 6th Tank Army of the 6th Guards Army of the Soviet Union was surrounded by the Germans on the 14th and suffered a crushing defeat.