At the confluence of the Vilnya and Neris rivers, in a two-story house on the southern outskirts of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, Lieutenant General Funk of the 7th Panzer Division, and Colonel Rosenberg, commander of the 25th Panzer Regiment, sat side by side at a coffee table.

Contrary to their expectations, the battle for the assault on Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, went very smoothly after breaking through the Neman line in the area of the city of Alytus.

From the city of Alitus to Vilnius, the march and fighting time combined, in less than two days, the 7th Panzer Division successfully arrived in Vilnius, and after less than two hours of street fighting, the city was captured.

The process went so smoothly that Lieutenant General Funk and his superior, General Schmidt, almost thought they were caught up in some sort of Soviet conspiracy, until aerial reconnaissance discovered that there were no Soviet troops lurking nearby.

After confirming that there was no danger in the vicinity of the theater of operations, Admiral Schmidt immediately gave the order to march to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, the ultimate target, according to the original plan.

As a veteran force among the 24 armored divisions of the German Army, the 39th Panzer Army was entrusted with the task of pioneering the 7th Panzer Division, and as the combat core of the 7th Panzer Division, the 25th Panzer Regiment was entrusted by Funk to serve as the sharp knife unit.

"Our task is very simple, to reach Minsk in the shortest possible time, and to get in touch with the Second Panzer Army, to work together to cut off the retreat of the Western Front in the encirclement, and to send all the Russians in the encirclement to prisoner of war camps."

Colonel Rosenberg, baring his trademark front teeth, smiled confidently like an ogre.

"The shortest straight line between two points. Since I will hit Minsk in the shortest possible time, I will march along the road from Vilnius to Molodizno, and then pounce on Minsk. ”

The command style of the German Army is mission-oriented, and the superiors only need to give the task to the subordinates, and do not interfere too much with how the subordinates complete the task. Lieutenant General Funk said with satisfaction: "I just want you to get to Minsk as quickly as possible, I don't care how to do it, but you have to be careful, Minsk is the capital of Belarus and the transportation hub of the Western Front to the interior of the Soviet Union, where the Russians must be heavily armed." You have to be prepared for a tough battle. The 20th Armored Division and the 20th Motorized Rifle Division will operate alongside us, and if there is any difficulty, contact them for support as soon as possible. ”

"For three days at most, we will meet with the teacher outside Minsk." Colonel Rosenberg said.

After having dinner with Lieutenant General Funk, at dawn the next day, Colonel Rosenberg's 25th Panzer Regiment turned around and headed south for Minsk.

As in the previous two days of fighting, the march was smooth.

In addition to encountering a small group of Soviet routs, several skirmishes broke out. The march of the 25th Panzer Regiment was basically smooth, and their worst enemy was still its rotten "Russian bad road".

Half of his body was exposed outside the turret turret, Colonel Rosenberg looked at the tank column in front of him staggering and crawling on the dirt road, and helplessly said to the microphone in his throat: "Mr. Major, can your troops advance a little faster, at this speed, we estimate that we will only be able to reach Minsk next year." ”

Soon the voice of the commander of the first battalion, Major Schultz, was heard in the headphones.

"Dear Mr. Colonel, another tank No. 4 has been defeated in the hands of the Russians on the road. It takes up half the width of the road, and we have to go around it to run wild. ”

Rosenberg let out a wail in his heart. As the regiment commander, he remembered all the family background of the 25th Panzer Regiment clearly, which was already the 62nd No. 4 tank lost by the 25th Panzer Regiment since the beginning of the war.

Although he knew that most of the sixty-two tanks lost could be repaired, Colonel Rosenberg was still distressed that most of these tanks had been defeated in the hands of bad roads, and only a small part had been lost in battle. Not even twenty.

According to the experience accumulated since the beginning of the war, on the 250-kilometer road from Vilnius to Minsk, at least 20 or more No. 4 tanks will "run out of belly" and fall behind because of the lack of adaptation to the water and soil.

After ten minutes of queuing, Colonel Rosenberg saw a tank No. 4 parked on the left side of the road. Other tanks on the march could only pass through the gap to the right of the No. 4 tank, which was visually only a little over two meters wide, and the part between the road and the field was a drainage ditch.

For the four-meter-wide tank, which was almost three meters wide, it was a big test for the driver to bypass the broken down tank four-way without turning into the gutter.

Rosenberg and the rest of the crew inside the tank jumped out of the tank, leaving only the driver to maneuver the tank.

Cautiously, as calm and slow as a snail, the Command Tank No. 4 slowly drove into the gap.

Colonel Rosenberg walked up to the No. 4 tank, saw that the number on the car was 421, and knew that it was the No. 1 tank of the second platoon of the fourth company.

"Where did your tank malfunction? Why park? ”

The commander of tank No. 421, a sergeant, said: "Colonel, I confirm that the engine has burst. We couldn't fire until we got a new engine. ”

"Well, hopefully the lads from the maintenance department can help you, good luck." Rosenberg said.

The sergeant first glanced in the direction of Vilnius, and then said: "I seem to have seen the trailer of the maintenance department." ”

Because of this broken down trailer, the troops of the 25th Panzer Regiment were hindered in their march, and that night Colonel Rosenberg was unable to complete his planned arrival at Molodizno that day.

Seeing that night was gradually falling, Rosenberg recalled the map recorded in his mind, and then said into the throat microphone: "Everyone listen to my orders, the regimental headquarters is stationed in the village of Smolgon in front, and after entering the village, remember to set up the hedgehog position." ”

After more than an hour, Rosenberg walked around the village of Smolgon, and saw eight tanks from the regimental headquarters and seventeen tanks from four companies of the first battalion surrounding the village.

Under the watchful eye of these troops, the village of Smolgun resembled a hedgehog curled up, and the muzzles of the machine guns of Tank No. 4 and the regimental guard units were like spikes on the body of a hedgehog, and any enemy who tried to approach would be pierced and bruised.

Colonel Rosenberg had to take such a cautious circular defensive position, because the flanks of the 7th Panzer Division were full of small groups of routed Soviet troops, and he did not want to be killed by some daring Soviet troops who had penetrated into the village and died in vain.

Had a very unrefined dinner. After hastily fetching two buckets of cool well water to wash away the sweat and fatigue of the march, Colonel Rosenberg wrapped himself in a blanket and closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Less than two hours later, Colonel Rosenberg jerked his eyes open and jumped out of bed.

He hurried out of the bedroom while putting on his coat and happened to bump into the adjutant.

"What's going on? How many people are attacking us? Colonel Rosenberg said.

"It's not clear. However, in terms of the density of gunfire, the number of enemies will not be very large. ”

Rosenberg listened attentively to the sound of gunfire outside the village, and quickly concluded from his rich combat experience that the number of enemies outside the village would not exceed one company.

Rosenberg's spirit was tense, although the enemy's strength was small, and it seemed that there were only light weapons such as rifles, submachine guns and machine guns, but the number of German troops in the village was not large, only the motorized communication platoon at the regimental headquarters, the regimental light tank platoon, and the tanks of the first battalion and four companies, and the infantry strength was lacking.

If the Soviet infantry stormed the village. Taking advantage of the disadvantage of tanks that are not conducive to night combat and tank close combat is really tricky to deal with.

Precious tankmen must not be allowed to lose in the hands of the Soviet router, Rosenberg made up his mind.

One after another, the flares flew into the sky, like a miniature sun, and the fields south of the village were full of vague figures of Soviet soldiers.

The vehicle-mounted machine guns on Tank No. 4 were firing non-stop, and the five Bobcat tanks of the light tank platoon also roamed north of the village, and the 20-millimeter machine guns on the turret fired wildly. Sweep to the Soviet infantry.

Under the dense and ferocious fire, the corpses of the Soviet infantry were strewn all over the ground. Everywhere there were corpses riddled with bullet holes, or severed limbs and severed arms that had been shattered by 20-millimeter shelling.

Sensing the unusually strong firepower of the German troops in the village, the Soviet troops outside the village fled and took advantage of the cover of crops and night to break away from the battlefield.

After driving away the Soviet troops outside the village, Colonel Rosenberg's nerves in the village still did not relax.

Over the village of Smolgon, flares flew all night. The communications platoon, which acted as a guard, also stood all night until the eastern sky turned white.

After dawn, the village of Smolgun was covered with the roar of engines.

The light tank platoon and the fourth tank of the fourth company set off again, and left the village in a long line of steel, twenty minutes later. In the northwest of Smolgun village, a motorized unit drove into the village, and they were a company of the 7th Motorized Infantry Battalion directly under the division headquarters, which was recruited by Colonel Rosenberg overnight to make up for the lack of infantry strength at the regimental headquarters.

Escorted by motorized infantry, the troops of the 25th Panzer Regiment set out again and made a direct attack on the city of Molodizno, thirty kilometers away.

Northwest of the city of Molodizino, Colonel Luxembourg found Major Schulz and his battalion, which had come to a standstill.

"What's going on? Why not go on the offensive? Colonel Rosenberg asked.

"The city is already occupied by the Soviets, we lack enough infantry, and, if my judgment is not erroneous, the enemy will soon come out of the city to trouble us. The reconnaissance platoon has already set out, and they will soon bring back the real situation in the city. ”

Colonel Rosenberg let his No. 4 command tank stop on the side of the road, climbed to the turret himself, stepped on the turret, and looked at the city of Molodizino in the distance with a telescope, and sure enough, he saw Soviet figures running everywhere outside the city.

Some of the Soviets were digging trenches, some were pushing anti-tank guns on the run, and some tanks were coming out of the city and stopping at positions being built on the outskirts of the city.

Colonel Rosenberg waved his hand to the adjutant, dictated an order, and the adjutant turned and left.

About fifteen minutes later, Colonel Rosenberg heard a faint rumble from behind him, and the whooshing sound of shells flying across the sky.

Looking at the Soviet positions outside Molodizino, they were already covered with German steel and flames.

Countless shells exploded on the unbuilt positions of the Soviet infantry, on the houses on the outskirts of the city and among the bushes, and everywhere there was gray-white gunpowder smoke and fountain of dirt.

The Soviet infantry, who had been working hard to dig foxholes, scattered and jumped into the unfinished foxholes to avoid the shelling, and four or five KV-1 tanks also turned their turrets and hurriedly reversed into the city, apparently they were also blinded by the sudden shelling.

"Shall we take advantage of the opportunity to attack?" Major Schultz asked.

"Wait a minute, this shelling is just to buy time for us to set up defensive positions, there are a large number of enemies advancing here, let's fight a defensive battle first."

Not only was the artillery bombardment invited by Colonel Rosenberg, but in the sky, four ME-110 fighters and four Stuka dive bombers also flew into the battlefield, hovering southeast of the city of Molodizno, dive, pull up from time to time, dive, dive and pull up, apparently attacking the Soviet troops on the ground march.

Five or six minutes later, Colonel Rosenberg received a telegram from the division headquarters that a large number of Soviet troops were marching along the road from Minsk to Molodizno, and that the fighters of the air force and army group were harassing the enemy's march and asking Colonel Rosenberg to prepare for battle.

Thanks to the harassment of air force fighters, the Soviet attack was belated, and it was not until about three hours later that Rosenberg saw Soviet tanks and infantry rushing out of the city of Molodizno and rushing towards his own troops all over the mountains.

Before the Soviet offensive was launched, a small reconnaissance force went out of the city to reconnoitre, but was quickly defeated by the German ambush.

Confirming that the Germans were already outside the city, the Soviets used two separate armored regiments as the vanguard at one time, guiding a large number of infantry to march along the meadows and fields on both sides of the road.

Under the command of Colonel Rosenberg, the 25th Panzer Regiment had already formed a battle formation outside the city, and the 7th Motorized Battalion and the 1st Battalion of the 7th Motorized Regiment also joined the battle.

In the thrilling whistling, countless 105-mm and 150-mm howitzer shells fell into the Soviet infantry cluster, and the infantrymen in the charge were instantly blown to pieces, and the corpses of Soviet soldiers were lying around each crater, and several T-26 tanks were also damaged by the shells and broke down.

Despite the blows of German artillery fire, the Soviet infantry tank cluster was like a stubborn old scalper, still rushing to the German position.

Facing the T-26 tank cluster at the front, the No. 4 tank of the 25th Panzer Regiment opened fire one after another, and although they did not understand why the Russians would use the weak T-26 tanks to attack, they did not hesitate to laugh at the results sent to the door.

Faced with the impregnable German positions, the T-26 tanks were destroyed one by one in the charging road, and the battlefield was littered with burning tank wreckage.

Under the strafing of tank-mounted machine guns and hundreds of machine guns on the infantry positions, the Soviet infantry was even more unbearable, and the offensive formation was shattered, and it took less than 30 minutes from the launch of the attack to the disintegration.

Leaving behind the wreckage of more than forty tanks and countless corpses of infantry, the Soviet troops retreated like a tidal wave.

Rosenberg decisively ordered the pursuit, and the tanks of the 25th Panzer Regiment rushed to the front and rushed towards Molodizno.

As the No. 4 tank cluster approached the outskirts of the city, Colonel Rosenberg suddenly exclaimed.

"What's that? What do the Russians want to do? (To be continued......)