The town of Shcherbsiki is located about 25 km northwest of Voroshilovgrad, bordering the Donets River to the east and north.

Before dark, the battle group consisting of a reconnaissance company under the heavy armored brigade of the 104th "Polish Governor's Guard" of the SS, the fourth company of the heavy armored battalion and the first company of the panzergrenadier battalion, as well as a platoon of four "Dongfeng" self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, together with the reconnaissance battalion of the 2nd Infantry Division under Vlasov's 1st Army, took the town of Shcherbsiki in a successful surprise attack and successfully captured a bridge over the Donets River on the north side of the town.

The reconnaissance battalion of the 2nd Infantry Division formed a defensive line in the woods on the north side of the bridge, preparing for a major advance on the north bank of the Donets River.

The battle group of the 104th SS Heavy Armoured Brigade, under the command of the commander of the battle group and the commander of the 4th Company of the Heavy Armoured Battalion, Captain Michel Wittman, spent the night in the town of Shebshiki.

The bridge had a limited load capacity, allowing only infantry and light vehicles to pass through, and could not withstand such a large thing as the E-50 Tiger tank, and the final target of the SS 104th "Polish Doge's Guard" heavy armored brigade was not here.

After nightfall, Captain Wittmann arranged a guard post and stayed in the town government office building on the north side of the town.

However, in times of war, schedules are not as regular as in peacetime, and Captain Wittmann is soon recalled from his sleep by his subordinates.

Captain Wittman's wary gaze stared at the messenger who woke him up and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

"A telegram from the brigade headquarters that the medium tank battalion, the artillery battalion and some antiaircraft artillery units will come to meet us overnight, and the brigade headquarters wants us to pay attention not to misunderstand with the troops who came to join us."

Captain Weitmann nodded silently, grabbed the black Panzer Model 1943 soft hat and buckled it to his head, walked out of the room, and contacted the vigilant troops by radio.

Less than an hour later, a faint light flashed on a dirt road northwest outside the town, behind which a long motorcade could be seen heading towards the town of Serbshiki.

The dirt road was from the village of Smilje on the northern side of the road to the city of Voroshilovgrad, and it was from this road that Captain Wittmann and his comrades rushed to and captured the town of Sherbusiki at daybreak.

The first troops to arrive were a company of H-4 tanks and a company of Scorpio self-propelled cannons, and in the darkness, each No. 4H tank flashed fang-like silhouettes, which looked particularly hideous from a distance.

It was only when the convoy approached that the sentries could see that each No. 4 H tank was full of infantry.

After a brief pause at the northwestern entrance to the town, the No. 4H tank company turned around and headed north, transporting the infantry from Vlasov's 2nd Infantry Division to the bridge over the Donets River on the north side of the town.

New troops arrived in batches, and Captain Wittman couldn't sleep.

With the arrival of the battalion headquarters of the fourth H tank battalion, the supreme command of the German forces in the town was naturally transferred to the battalion headquarters.

Soon, Captain Wittmann received a new order from the headquarters of the heavily armored battalion, and the battle group he led would continue to set out early tomorrow morning, and part ways with the medium tank battalion and continue to march in the direction of Voroshilovgrad, and his troops did not need to receive orders from the medium tank battalion.

After receiving the order, Captain Weitmann greeted the battalion headquarters of the medium tank battalion in a friendly manner, and led his men to drive the tanks parked in the north of the town to the south of the town, ready to set off at dawn and continue the march to Voroshilovgrad.

Under the order of Captain Weitman, the remaining 10 tanks of the fourth company were scattered and parked in the middle of the houses on the west side of the Zhennan Highway, and after parking the tanks, Captain Weitmann told the crew members to rest, and he walked to the side of the Zhennan Highway and found a "Big Lynx" light tank numbered 101 on the east side of the road.

This tank was the car of the commander of the reconnaissance company directly under the brigade headquarters, and after receiving the alert mission, the company commander Captain Lange and the crew members were responsible for the second half of the night shift.

When Captain Weitmann found Captain Lange, Captain Lange was hiding in the turret and was smoking.

After a day's march and battle, the spirit was highly stressful, and after less than four hours of sleep at night to get up to carry out the guard duty, Captain Lange and the crew could only rely on smoking to refresh themselves.

Seeing Captain Wittmann arrive, Captain Lange enthusiastically took out a cigarette case from his chest pocket and handed it to him.

Captain Weitmann rejected Captain Lange's offer and lay down on the turret to discuss tomorrow's battle itinerary with Captain Lange.

"At half-past two, my men will take your place, and you should hurry up and rest. The troops leave at four o'clock, and at half-past three, I'll have someone bring you some hot coffee. ”

Captain Lange extinguished the cigarette butt and threw it out of the tank with his hand raised.

"Okay, you also hurry up and rest, tomorrow's battle may be even more than today, oh no, it's not tomorrow, it's that the intensity of the battle after dawn today may be even greater than yesterday."

Captain Wittmann jumped out of his tank and crossed the road, ready to return to his tank.

He had just walked into the middle of the highway when a strange noise caught his attention.

Turning his head along the road towards the town's entrance, he stood beside an Panzergrenadier standing guard, Captain Wittmann squinting to the south.

In the darkness of the far side of the road, a series of faint lights flashed, and Captain Weitmann could only see the faint outline of the vehicle when he picked up the binoculars and looked into the distance.

Soon, the convoy turned a corner and drove into the woods on the south side of the road, and the woods on both sides of the road obscured the lights of the convoy.

Turning the corner, the convoy's lights reappeared, heading straight for the town.

Captain Wittmann had been notified that troops were coming to meet at the town of Shelbsiki, and that the sentinels standing guard had been informed, and the presence of the convoy did not make them particularly nervous.

However, as the convoy approached, Captain Wittmann keenly sensed that something seemed to be wrong.

Which troop is this? How do you get from the south?

The sentry also seemed to sense that something was wrong, and had already taken off the STG 42 assault rifle he was carrying, looked at the convoy in the distance, and turned to look at Captain Weitman.

To fire or not to fire, what if it is your own people?

After a day of fighting, there was no rest, and it was the second half of the night when I was sleepy, which made the captain's head a little dizzy.

In his hesitation, the captain suddenly remembered a sentence he had heard when he met with the commander of the medium tank battalion earlier.

"We've all arrived, so we're sorry to disturb your rest."

At this time, the convoy was already approaching the entrance of the town, and the outline of the vehicles in the convoy in the distance could be seen with the naked eye.

At the front of the convoy appeared to be two armored vehicles, resembling the SD KFZ 221 armored reconnaissance vehicles equipped by the Germans, but Captain Wittmann clearly remembered that the units of the SS 104th "Polish Governor's Guard" heavy armored brigade were not equipped with such light vehicles.

"Shoot, shoot······ Stop them. Captain Weitmann shouted to the sentry, then turned and ran towards the house behind him.

The sentry was stunned for a moment at the shout, then raised his hand to pull the trigger on the nearest vehicle in the distance.

The muzzle of the gun burst into flames in the darkness, and the sound of gunfire completely broke the silence of the town.

The sentry fired two bursts of fire and hid behind the wall of a house on the side of the road.

"Sneering ·····" When the MG42 light machine gun fired, the characteristic tearing oilcloth-like gunfire rang out, and the body of the armored vehicle at the front clanged and burst into flames.

The driver of the armored car, who was driving at the front, seemed to be frightened, and the armored car made an emergency left turn, rushed out of the road, and plunged headlong into the drainage ditch on the left side of the road.

The second armored car drove forward for a while before it reacted, and after knowing that it had been ambushed, it braked suddenly, but it had already driven to a distance of less than two hundred meters from the entrance of the town.

While reversing, the machine-gun tower on the roof of the armored car turned left and right to shoot at the Germans in the town.

The emergency braking of the armored vehicles caused great confusion to the vehicles behind them, and countless vehicles made emergency stops, and several tanks in front drove diagonally to the sides of the road, turned their turrets and opened fire into the town.

However, one of them was one flare that swayed diagonally into the night sky, followed by two more.

Three flares illuminated the south of the town as if it were daylight, revealing the BA series armored vehicles and BT-7 fast tanks in the light.

A series of tracer shells flew out, and the 20-mm high-level dual-purpose artillery shells on the "Wolf" infantry fighting vehicle dragged the trail and whipped onto the BA series armored vehicles at the front.

The 50-mm L60 tank gun on the "Great Lynx" light tank followed suit, and two BT-7 fast tanks were hit in an instant.

After a moment's hesitation, more and more alert troops were alarmed, and tanks and armored vehicles from residential areas on both sides of the road mercilessly hunted the enemy on the road with crossfire.

The vehicles behind the Soviet convoy seemed to have received an order, or they may have been stunned by the sudden fire, and they reversed and retreated.

Four more flares flew into the sky, and more than a dozen German armored vehicles rushed out on both sides of the road, chasing the enemy in the direction of his flight, until the enemy escaped from the range illuminated by the flares and burrowed into the darkness.

The short battle lasted less than twenty minutes, leaving the wreckage of an armored vehicle and six tanks strewn across the road at the entrance of the town, and the wreckage of three BT-7 tanks further afield, which had been destroyed in the process of escaping.

Two wrecked tanks set on fire, and the flames tore through the night.

Soon, a column of five prisoners was brought to Captain Wittmann by the Panzergrenadiers.

Captain Weitmann glanced at the five frustrated captives in frustration, and by the time he ran back to the tank and asked his men to start the tank's engine, the battle was nearing its end.

After repelling a wave of advancing enemies, but not reaping a single result, the captain's mood was naturally not very good.

The five captives were taken to different rooms by the scouts for interrogation, and the results of the interrogation were quickly sent to Captain Wittmann.

"They were the reconnaissance unit of the 23rd Tank Army, and there was actually a tank corps in front of us. What a surprise that the Russians turned out to be hiding a tank corps in front. ”

After nearly a year of war, Captain Weitmann already knew that the enemy's army-level armored unit was a super monster with three tank divisions and about 1,000 tanks of various types, and although his heavy armored brigade was equipped with E-50 "Tiger" tanks, it could not make up for this absolute gap in numbers.

Captain Wittmann did not dare to be careless, and immediately sent this valuable information to his superiors.

The information provided by Captain Weitmann was taken seriously by the headquarters of the 104th Heavy Armored Brigade of the SS, and the information was immediately sent directly to Chen Dao.

After receiving the information, Chen Dao and General Kleist breathed a sigh of relief.

Chen Dao rubbed his head and said: "Fortunately, we sent the Great German Panzergrenadier Division overnight, otherwise in the face of the sudden appearance of the 23rd Panzer Army, our heavy armored brigade may suffer a big loss, and after dawn, the enemy will definitely launch a counterattack." ”

General Kleist agreed: "In this way, according to the original plan, we will take the road to Voroshilovgrad as the boundary, and the heavy armored brigade will meet on the north side of the road, and the Großdeutsche Division will meet on the south side of the road, and fight a defensive counterattack, and then take advantage of the victory to pursue." ”

Chen Dao said: "I will immediately contact the Tactical Aviation Regiment, as well as the Sixth Air Force, tomorrow's battle, we need the full support of the Air Force." ”

"Also, someone must go to the front line and coordinate the command of these two forces." General Kleist said.

"General Mandolfil has already set off, and he will coordinate the operation between these two forces." Chen Dao said.

When Chen Dao and Senior General Kleist urgently dispatched troops, on the outskirts of Voroshilovgrad, at the headquarters of the 12th Army, Major General Gretchko was brainstorming with two newly arrived subordinates.

These two subordinates were Major General Grigory Kuzmin, commander of the 21st Tank Army, and Major General Yefim Pushkin, commander of the 23rd Tank Army, who had recently been transferred to his command.

Major General Gretchko pointed to the map and said: "At present, the positions of the 4th Infantry Division on the northern flank of our defensive line, and the 176th Infantry Division in the rear, have been completely broken through by the enemy, and according to the information provided by the 23rd Tank Army, the enemy's outpost has advanced to the town of Serbshiki, the line of the village of Smirley. Their Hungarian forces to the south were advancing relatively slowly, that is, this unit of the enemy to the north was a bulging force.

Tonight, the 23rd Tank Corps is in the north, facing the enemy's incoming and outgoing troops, and it is necessary to hold them down and not let them escape.

The 21st Tank Corps attacked from the south, bypassing the village of Smilje diagonally into the rear of this force, cutting off their retreat, and then the two tank armies moved together to squeeze them in the direction of the Donets River and drive them into the river.

I have contacted the 37th Army, and they will send some of their forces to attack from the north to plan our attack. ”

After a pause, Major General Grechko said: "According to the information fed back from the front, the enemy used the tank whose name we don't know and has a very sci-fi appearance, you must be careful when fighting." ”

Major General Pushkin said with a straight face: "The task of frontal and these tanks is entrusted to me, it's just that how many soldiers' lives we will sacrifice under this tank depends on the speed of the 21st Tank Army's roundabout outflanking, the faster you outflank, the smaller our losses." ”

Major General Kuzmin said: "I can't guarantee time, I can only say as soon as possible, you must hold on until we succeed in a roundabout." ”