At this dawn, when Meretskov was unscrupulously wasting artillery shells, the Germans launched a fierce attack on the Red Army from both the north and south flanks, and after the first supply was embarrassed, the German supply operation began to flow smoothly in the next few days, basically keeping pace with the advance of the troops, and there was no longer a situation where the attacking troops waited. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The assault forces of the two Panzer armies were like two large pincers biting the enemy in front of them, while the follow-up troops continued to press on Tambov, trying to build an encirclement against the city.

Although there was a clear order to retreat, and the execution of the order was also called decisive, but Leitel found that it was not easy to withdraw the troops under German artillery fire, in order to cover the retreat of the main force, one after another Red Army infantry divisions rushed up to block the German armored forces, trying to buy more time for their comrades, but this effort and struggle were doomed to be futile, in the face of the German three-dimensional offensive of open and ground integration, These ordinary infantry divisions, which were not even able to have enough 76.2mm anti-tank guns, melted away like hot soup and snow, and the rate of attrition was basically one division per hour.

What made Leutel even more distressed was that due to the dual advantages of the German tank troops in quantity and quality, the tank corps he sent to reinforce the two armies on the flanks was damaged more than half in just over a day, and by the time the retreat was finally completed late on the night of the 27th, the total number of troops that had retreated into Tambov was less than 110,000, and the 40th Army, which had suffered heavy losses last year, suffered even more heavy losses this time, with only four infantry divisions still maintaining their basic structure (the personnel integrity rate was more than 80%), and the rest of the troops suffered more than half of the casualties.

In the worst division, only one and a half companies escaped, and from the division commander to the battalion commander, all officers with higher rank than the first lieutenant were either killed in battle or captured. The Bryansk Front, which had no choice but to temporarily suspend the number of these divisions that only had their names left, and replenish the retreated personnel to other divisions -- there were more than a dozen of these zombie divisions at once.

At present, together with the organs left behind in the rear and the two armies themselves in Tambov, although there are still four armies (three infantry armies and one tank army) in the overall defensive force, the strength is not more than 300,000 as initially expected, but less than 260,000. Of these 260,000, there were nearly 20,000 lightly wounded, and with the exception of a few high-ranking officers, the seriously wounded were basically left in the German encirclement.

During the four-day battle, the Red Army's Bryansk Front lost a total of more than 280,000 people, and the German army's losses were more than 17,000, of which more than 4,000 were killed in battle, and tanks (destroyers) lost less than 200, but the Red Army destroyed more than 800 armored vehicles of various colors, including tanks.

By the morning of 28 May, Meretskov had finally received definite information that his counter-artillery preparations had been completely lost, and that the expected German Army Group East, instead of launching an offensive, had advanced more than 150 kilometers to the east, preparing to join the Bryansk Front encircling and annihilating Tambov.

"The situation is not good...... "Watching the staff officers mark the latest situation of the enemy and us on the map, Vasilevsky said to Zhukov with a frown, "The Tambov encirclement is forming, and the defensive forces and technical weapons in it are far less than expected; Comrade Meretskov's counter-artillery preparations were again in vain, and now the main forces of the enemy's Army Group Eastern were rushing towards Tambov, and Comrade Leytel sent me three telegrams in the morning asking for reinforcements, and his tone became more and more anxious every time. ”

Zhukov silently watched the situation, and really couldn't think of a good way: if the main force of Army Group Eastern really joined the siege of Tambov, then at least 400,000 troops would be put into the battlefield -- the strength of the Tambov encirclement would increase to 800,000, not to mention that only half of the front army in the small Tambov could defend at present, and even if the entire front army was fully organized, it would not necessarily be the opponent of the German army, and the German army that had now surrounded and was about to encircle Tambov was more than the Kiev encirclement, but the number and quality of the troops inside were not as good as during the Kiev campaign.

But Tambov could not give up at will, once the city was lost, the German army not only directly cut off the line of communication between Moscow and Stalingrad, but also directly faced the steppe military district, he did not think that Konev's recruits could stop the wolf-like German Panzer Army.

"Can Comrade Meretskov attack Orel from the Tula front?" As soon as he said this, he hesitated again - the Germans had at least one Panzer Army that had not moved, and although he did not know its exact location, his intuition told him that this part of the army was deployed near the central battlefield, and that the situation would be even worse if the Western Front attacked and the Germans seized the opportunity to flank.

Vasilevsky shook his head: "You can't do this, there are at least more than 100,000 German troops in the Orel direction, and there is a strong defensive line, and the offensive operation cannot be defeated without 300,000 troops......

"Then reinforcements must be sent to Tambov, the Steppe Military District can't count on it, use the Air Force."

"That's all it can be." Vasilevsky thought for a moment, "Transfer the 17th Army of the Air Force to him from here on the Southwestern Front!" ”

Kuznetsov, who had been listening, was shocked: "Didn't you just say that you would transfer this army group to Comrade Baghramyan?" ”

"This ......" Vasilevsky was in trouble, and in the morning he sighed constantly at the slow pace of the Central Front: after discovering the gathering of the Central Front of the Red Army, the Luftwaffe Fifth Air Force continued to launch air strikes to delay the advance of the Red Army, although the substantial losses caused were not large, but the advance of Baghramyan's assault group was really not fast, and it had been walking for two days, and until now it had not exchanged fire with the Italian troops in the direction of Karachi, in order to change this passive situation, The General Staff has only just decided to redeploy troops from the southern flank to strengthen the air power in the region.

"Nope! The Tambov direction must be given. Zhukov said, "The city must be defended, the air force is an important part of it, if it is lost, the 800,000 German troops will be free, and we cannot afford these troops to join any battlefield!" ”

"Then send them reinforcements...... Kuznetsov said anxiously, "and the planes alone may not be useful." ”

Unexpectedly, the other two shook their heads in unison: "You can't reinforce the ground troops, and as soon as you reinforce them, you will fall into the trap of the Germans - they are waiting for reinforcements from the encirclement point." ”

"Alas!" Kuznetsov had no choice but to go to the confidential staff officer to change the order for the transfer of troops just now.

In the early morning of May 29, after five days of fighting at the castle, the German 2nd and 4th Panzer Armies finally encircled Tambov with a pincer offensive two days ahead of the original plan, but the encirclement was not tightly constructed, and there was still a 30-kilometer-wide opening in the east of the city, tempting the Red Army in the city to retreat.

Lejtier will not really be fooled into retreating from this opening: now the number of trucks and tanks of the front army is insufficient, and the two-legged infantry cannot outrun the German tanks and car wheels at all, not to mention that the air is full of German planes, and if you escape, you will be chased all over the mountains, whether it is infantry or armored troops, in the face of air raids on the Great Plains, it is simply self-defeating, and he sadly glanced at the deployment of troops around him, and found that the rear could not even send a decent response force, and the strength in the hands of the steppe military district was worse than his troops, It is completely impossible to expect them to answer. The only thing he expected was that the Western Front could send reinforcements, but the General Staff refused to say anything, so angry that he scolded in the command all day!

Fortunately, the General Staff did not completely give any reinforcements, and under his great call, he finally gave an air group army -- the 17th Air Force Army, nearly 1,000 planes were transferred from the southern flank overnight to assist in the defense of Tambov.

It's a pity that some of the pretended emotions just now suddenly came to naught after the big battle in the air. In order to compete for regional air supremacy, the Red Army aircraft group in place and the original troops together launched a counterattack against the German army, trying to regain air supremacy, which played into the hands of Alexander Lehr, he dispatched nearly 900 fighters in three fighter wings, and the Red Army mobilized more than 800 fighters in one go, and the two sides fought in the air, and the fierce air battle began early in the morning and lasted until the sun went down.

On the whole, the number of fighters on both sides was close, but the result of the battle was the complete defeat of the Red Army, and those rookie pilots simply gave the German army meritorious service, although the equipment in their hands has basically been replaced by the La-5 and Yak-9, but in the face of the German FW-190 and BF-219 combination of the formation of air combat formations are always constrained.

In terms of grappling ability, the BF-219 is better than the La 5 and Yak 9, and in terms of speed and BZ tactics, the FW-190A is stronger than the Red Army aircraft, and the Red Army pilots often fall into a fatal circle in battle: when they try to use grappling against the FW-190A, the BF-219 will give them a fatal blow; When they attempted to attack the BF-219 with a dive, the FW-190, which descended directly from a high altitude, took on the role of the Yellow Sparrow again. This theoretically feasible strategy can be effective when implemented alone, but it is simply difficult to play in a large formation melee, and on the contrary, it is constantly losing troops.

What's even worse is that the range and air stay time of the BF-219 are much longer than those of the Red Army aircraft, and it is clear that the number of fighters on both sides in battle is generally close, but the number of Russian troops in the air at the same time is far less than that of the opponent due to the problem of air detention and refueling, plus the skill is not as good as others, it seems that it is being beaten by an enemy twice as large as itself.

In the first air battle, the Red Army lost nearly 500 planes, the Germans lost more than 100 planes, and in the second air battle, the Red Army lost more than 300 planes, and the Germans lost more than 40 planes, and by the third day, although the 17th Army of the Red Air Force wanted to continue the battle again, they had less than 50 fighters left. After two days of fighting, the air force group, which had nearly 1,000 aircraft, was completely disabled, and there were less than 30 fighters left to fight (the rest were bombers).

Following the Army Group, the Air Force Group Army also became a two-day battle. (To be continued.) )