At 3 p.m. on May 25, the SS Skeleton Panzer Division, the main offensive force on the southern flank and the spearhead of the 4th Panzer Army's attack, approached the Eltilly line and officially launched a roundabout encirclement of Tambov. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In the early hours of fierce fighting, they and other three armored divisions broke through the blockade of the 3rd Army of the Red Army in front of them, and successfully tore the army group apart, in just over five hours, this group army with more than 80,000 troops and nearly 70 tanks was divided and surrounded by the Germans, and the commander of the group army, Batov, completely lost contact with his armies and divisions, and only the tank brigade sent a desperate telegram before.

"Comrade commander, there are too many enemy tanks, all of them are Tiger! We can't resist and ask for reinforcements! ”

Unbeknownst to him, the tank brigade was in a completely one-sided battle with the armored units of the Skeleton Division, with the Red Army having more than 70 shoddy T-34s and the Germans more than 200 Type 4H and 50 Tigers, and in less than 20 minutes, the tank brigade had been wiped out, and only 2 tanks had escaped, and the Germans had spared them out of their eagerness to get to Ertilly.

By the time the 3rd Army finally confirmed that it was divided and surrounded, the tank units of the Panzer Division of the 4th Army had actually mostly crossed them, and they were replaced by the advancing infantry and Panzergrenadier divisions. After repeated dispersals, these tens of thousands of people were completely unable to be gathered.

The 3rd Army of the Red Army, now divided and encircled, was divided into dozens of large and small pieces, with several thousand men at large and a few hundred, and the German infiltration offensive was like sucking ink, and soon the entire blank sheet of paper turned black. Faced with the reality of being besieged, the Red Army soldiers of all armies and divisions instinctively tried to retreat, hoping to break out of the encirclement while the German encirclement was not yet tight, and thousands of Red Army soldiers filled the meadows, slopes and depressions of the endless steppe, and many German soldiers were at first stunned to see such a large and disorderly force with no offensive formation rushing towards them, but the officers with rich experience immediately gave the order - they had seen too much of this kind of crowd offensive in the past two years.

The leading team was first thrown into the sky by high-explosive shells from cricket 150mm self-propelled guns, but more and more waves of attack followed, and then the MG42 machine gun began to fire fiercely, the sound like tearing cloth sounded numb, and groups of Red Army troops fell in a pool of blood in an instant, but there was still a steady stream of people rushing up to die.

Every attempt by the Russian cluster to attack the closed front was thwarted by machine-gun, artillery and heavy weaponry - and occasionally bursts of flames erupted in the crowd, a rudimentary Molotov-cocktail, which was unfortunately destroyed far from the throwing distance. Half an hour later, the Red Army, which had gathered more of them, poured in from the east like a lava storm and attacked a battalion flanked by the German 4th Panzergrenadier Division (part of the 4th Panzer Army).

Just when the pressure was increasing and the encirclement line was about to be unable to hold on, the German rocket artillery company that rushed to reinforce finally arrived. The Himmler organ burst into a breathtaking roar for a short time, and hundreds of rockets burst through the crowd with a sound that even the toughest of Bolsheviks could not withstand the eruption of fire and steel, and the Red Army soldiers threw down their weapons, stumbled away from hellish crossfire and deadly armor, and surrendered.

This scene is almost a microcosm of the Red Army's 3rd and 50th armies fighting on the first day of the Battle of Citadel, their technical weapons and heavy equipment were first destroyed by deadly air raids and large-scale artillery bombardment, then shocked and divided by German armored units, and finally surrounded and suppressed by German infantry units that followed one after another. In just one day, the two armies, with a total of 170,000 horses, lost their combat effectiveness and could not even organize a decent resistance.

Ertilly, where the Skeleton Division attacked, was almost a relay point between Voronezh and Tambov, from where it advanced 100 kilometers northeast to the city of Tambov, and if it advanced 60 kilometers due east, it would basically cut off the railway line between Tambov and Borisogrebsk - this was equivalent to severing the close connection between the enemy Bryansk Front and the Central Front, and even if the Soviet army could make a detour by other roads, the convenience and mobility would be greatly reduced.

This is the most important part of the planned plan for the Battle of the Castle, to cut off the connection between the two before the enemy reacts, so that the Central Front will not dare to react to the German encirclement and annihilation of the Tambov Soviet Army, and after Tambov is completely encircled, if the Central Front is willing to rush over again, then the German army will not mind coming to the encirclement point to send reinforcements.

At 3:15 p.m., the Soviet troops in the direction of Ertilli were still desperately advancing and preparing to reinforce the friendly forces on the front line, but they never expected that the Germans had already killed them, and the Red Army soldiers who were advancing in a neat column were horrified to see more than 200 tanks and armored vehicles rushing down from the hills to raid their marching columns, more than 200 artillery pieces and machine guns on armored vehicles were spitting flames at close range, the few tanks in the team were quickly destroyed, and black plumes of smoke emerged from the wreckage of the destroyed tanks and rose into the sky, The trucks that were shot fell on their sides and began to burn, many soldiers were killed by shells on the car, more people jumped off the trucks, and they were scrambling to find the nearest hiding place to fight back, and some even fought back desperately under the mobilization of the political commissar, but how could the poor and weak withstand the torrent of armor?

The ferocious German fire caused terrible casualties, and the surviving Soviet soldiers scrambled to flee, but they encountered a raging stream, and the water level rose after the rainy season, and finally the desperate more than 2,000 people had to raise their hands and surrender.

At 16:30 in the afternoon, Zhukov arrived at the military airfield in the rear of Tambov under the escort of two aviation fighter divisions, originally he wanted to land in Tambov nearby, but he did not expect to report from the front that the German fighters had completely controlled the entire sky, and none of the airports near Tambov were intact, for the sake of safety, his plane could only land in the rear, and then he rushed to the front headquarters in the city of Tambov in a hurry, and when he arrived at the headquarters, it was already more than 8 o'clock in the evening.

To his great surprise, there was a panic in the command headquarters, all that greeted him was the scene of impending catastrophe, the staff officers were coming in and out with their faces full of frustration, and the orderly soldiers had even begun to burn important documents and telegrams. The atmosphere at the scene was so panicked that no one thought to greet Zhukov when he saw him come in, and he rushed directly into the command headquarters.

"Hold on, hold on to ...... for me," as he entered the door, he heard Lejter's voice shouting hoarsely into the microphone, "I've sent the 1st Guards Tank Army to reinforce you!" ”

"What the hell is going on?"

As soon as Leytel saw Zhukov, he almost cried, he took two steps forward and hurriedly saluted, and then anxiously asked: "Comrade Zhukov, reinforcements...... Are reinforcements coming? ”

"The two destroyer divisions have arrived, and they can be put into battle tomorrow."

"Hey, what are they for!" Who knew that Leitel was not happy at all, but stomped his foot hatefully, "At least 1,000 planes and 1,000 tanks are needed to save the situation......"

"What the hell is going on at the front?" Zhukov was also stunned, "Didn't you say before I set off that the enemy was still attacking the first line of defense, and we were resisting bravely?" Although the losses are a little bigger. ”

"That was true then, but now it's a completely different story." Leityr pulled Zhukov to the map, "A few hours ago, the enemy army in the south occupied Ertil and was trying to cut off the line of communication between Tambov and Borisogrebsk, the enemy army in the north occupied Lipetsk, and just got the news that they are attacking Michulinsk, if they succeed, not only will the second line of defense completely collapse, but the line of communication between Tambov and Moscow will also be cut off, so I sent a Guards Tank Army up." ”

"So fast?" Zhukov was also surprised when he looked at the map: Michurinsk was less than 70 kilometers from Tambov, and Ertilly was only about 100 kilometers from Tambov, and at this rate, Tambov would be surrounded by German troops the next morning.

"Why are the troops fighting so badly?" His face turned pale, "I remember that you deployed the 3rd and 50th armies on the front line!" They also received a supplement not long ago, and their combat effectiveness is not bad! ”

"It was so deployed, but in the afternoon the two armies could not be contacted, and judging by the fact that the German armored units had appeared behind them, their lines were completely penetrated." Leitel complained to Zhukov, "We are only two infantry armies, but the enemy has dispatched two armored armies, not part of the troops, but all the main forces!" I've heard the names of 7-8 Panzer Divisions or Panzergrenadier Divisions, and an endless supply of infantry, and the enemy has much more troops, tanks, and planes than we do! ”

As he spoke, another wave of German planes came to bomb him, and Zhukov could hear it clearly, not a deafening explosion, but a muffled sound, and then flames rose everywhere - it was a large number of incendiary bombs. One of them exploded near the headquarters, and the wave of heat was so clear even from a distance of more than 60 meters that a team of guards swooped down and extinguished them with gravel and rubble. (To be continued.) )