In the end, the Germans did not launch a counteroffensive either, because the air force did not achieve final air supremacy...... At this time, the Luftwaffe was actually divided into two parts, one part to support the 48th Panzer Army in the attack on Prokhorovka, and the other part to support the 2nd SS Panzer Army to break through the Soviet lines.

It should be said that this was deliberately done by the Soviet army, and they took advantage of the numerical superiority of the air force to divide the air combat battlefield into two parts, and the Luftwaffe had to divide its forces to respond.

The reason is simple, if there was no cover from the Air Force in any direction, then the armored forces would have been slaughtered by the Soviet Air Force.

As a result, the Luftwaffe could not gain air supremacy in either direction, and the 48th Panzer Corps could not cross the plains and attack the Soviets on the other side.

On the other hand, the 48th Panzer Army was already somewhat exhausted...... In the end, the result of the statistics was that there were only 85 tanks left in the whole army, that is, the German soldiers were not willing to continue to advance any further, both in terms of equipment and psychology.

After some discussion with Mansch, General Hult decided to settle down and send a force to achieve the original strategic goal...... Outflank the Soviets in the middle and free the 2nd SS Panzer Army.

This decision was correct, and now it was possible to move forward only if the 2nd SS Panzer Army rushed to Prokhorovka to launch an offensive with the 48th Panzer Army on the opposite side.

The only combat-capable unit of the 48th Panzer Army is the 21st Panzer Division...... The 21st Panzer Division, which lost one tank battalion, had 51 tanks left, and the 3rd Panzer Division had only 22 tanks left.

Thus, the 21st Panzer Division embarked on the journey again.

But in this regard, the 21st Panzer Division was somewhat underwhelmed.

The 21st Panzer Division cannot be blamed for this, since they have just defeated the most formidable enemy on the battlefield...... An elite Guards Tank Army.

The task was to surround an fleeing rout that was not an elite army and did not have many tanks...... In total, there were just over 300 tanks in the middle zone, and some of these tanks had already escaped the encirclement during the fierce fighting between the 48th Panzer Corps and the Soviets.

On the other hand, because of the desperate desire to encircle this part of the Soviet army, the 21st Panzer Division moved at full speed along the road in the direction of the 2nd SS Panzer Army.

Qin Chuan led a battalion of troops in a car to follow the 3rd Tank Battalion as the vanguard...... In fact, the 3rd Tank Battalion is already almost a quarter of the strength of the Panzer Division, because it has 13 tanks, of which 8 are "Four", three are "Three", and two are "38T" tanks for reconnaissance.

Two "No. 4" tanks and two "38T" tanks led by Bian Sanlun walked in front of the road.

This is the standard configuration when marching in such a dangerous area as the enemy-controlled area, and the "38T" tank is to some extent used to clear the way for the "No. 4" tank...... Anti-tank mines require a certain amount of weight to detonate them, which is difficult for both tricycles and cars to do.

The "No. 4" tank was designed to deal with the T34 tank that might appear...... and the "No. 3" tank was unable to deal with the T34, and once the vanguard encountered the enemy tank, it would face a situation where the entire team could not deal with the T34 tank.

Therefore, the best configuration is to use the "Four" and "38T" to match.

As the forward troops marched to the village of Marivo, five kilometers north of Bykovka, the forward troops encountered a large number of Soviet infantry fleeing across the village to the northeast.

The striker immediately reported the situation to the commander of the tank battalion, Major Freyr, who ordered without thinking: "Full speed ahead, stop them!" ”

Then a dozen tanks "rumbled" and drove towards the village of Malivo at full speed. Qin Chuan and the other infantry could only follow closely.

This order should be said to be normal, a tank unit ran into a fleeing Soviet rout, that is, of course, rushed to intercept and reap the results...... And it was expected to be an easy and happy process, given that the Soviet infantry lacked powerful anti-tank equipment, and they often had to carry cluster grenades and artillery packs to attack.

For this, there is basically no need to worry about the German soldiers after they are equipped with the STG44, and their firepower can provide good cover for the tank.

Indeed, after a burst of artillery and machine gunfire, the German tanks rushed into the village and began a massacre, and the retreating Soviet soldiers were knocked to the ground in pieces, and the ranks quickly became chaotic and looked for cover.

But the Germans, including Qin Chuan, overlooked one point: it was only five kilometers from the 2nd SS Panzer Division.

The distance of five kilometers does not take half an hour for a tank to walk.

Retreating so close to the front line, the Soviets, of course, would have been prepared or could have covered...... The cover of the Soviets was thirty-five T34 tanks in the open space south of the village.

The tanks, which were originally heading south, in the direction of the 2nd SS Panzer Division, in case they suddenly made a surprise attack, but when they were suddenly reported to have broken into the rear of the enemy tanks, they hurriedly turned around and surrounded the village of Marivo.

The Germans didn't know anything about these maneuvers when the Soviet tanks were doing this, and it wasn't until a 38T tank passed through the village and suddenly saw the rows of T34 tanks outside, that something was wrong, but by then it was too late......

With a "boom", the 38T tank was hit by several shells at the same time at that moment, and a violent explosion occurred in an instant, turning into a pile of flames.

The German tanks hurriedly organized the defense, but the problem was that there were still many Soviet stragglers hiding in the corners inside the village to make some trouble for the Germans from time to time, but the outside was surrounded by several times the number of T34 tanks, and for a time the left and right were very embarrassed.

Then the situation deteriorated further...... Soviet tanks fired at the village, the armor-piercing shells easily pierced the planks and then hit the armor of the German tanks with a terrifying "clang" sound, and the grenades blew the entire wooden layer to pieces, and the Soviet soldiers hiding in the explosion let out a burst of screams and curses.

Qin Chuan was accustomed to this, and if he could inflict a blow on the German army, the Soviet army would not care about this casualty, or it could be said that it was necessary.

On the contrary, the Germans were in a very disadvantageous situation.

Although the German No. 4 tanks had more firepower and more agile command, they were surrounded by houses that not only blocked the view of the tank gunners, but also prevented the tanks from forming battle formations.

If this continues, Qin Chuan and this vanguard force will likely be wiped out in this village.