It should be said that Hitler was quite right on this point, one of the purposes of the Soviet army in the reserves, that is, the 5th Guards Tank Army, was to relieve the Soviet army besieged in the middle ground, which was an elite Guards army plus a tank brigade.

But this is not the most important thing, more importantly, the Soviet army does not want the German 48th Panzer Army to rampage in the rear of Kursk and disrupt the entire counteroffensive plan of the Soviet army.

General Hoult was well aware of this, and even more aware that the truth was not what Hitler had claimed...... The Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army was advancing towards Prokhorovka not slowly, but at a very fast pace.

General Hote knew what it would mean if the battle was commanded by Hitler's orders: the troops rushing to Prokhorovka would soon be overwhelmed by Soviet troops...... The disparity between the forces of the enemy and the enemy was too great, even if the Germans had the ME63.

Then, the 48th Panzer Corps was indeed able to join up with the 2nd SS Panzer Army, but because of the collapse of the main force of the 48th Panzer, they were actually a lone army, and there would be no encirclement at that time, and the Germans would be trapped in the enemy's encirclement.

Therefore, Hoult did not hesitate, and decided to disobey Hitler's order as soon as he received it.

General Holt even whined to the staff officer: "Yes, because it was the Führer's SS who was entangled, and if it was the 48th Panzer Corps that was entangled...... I wonder if the Führer would have given such an order in desperation! ”

General Hote saw a little selfishness on Hitler's part in this: the Führer did not want the SS to be compared to the Wehrmacht on the battlefield, and even though both were armies under his command, there was a difference between the former being loyal to Hitler and the latter being loyal to Germany.

The staff officer did not object to anything, he simply said to General Hoth: "Well, then, we need a reason!" ”

Reason means excuse.

General Hodt and his staff could not find a good excuse, and finally could only send a telegram to Hitler: "Dear Führer, I have given an order to the 48th Panzer Army, the 48th Panzer Army is very fast, they will reach Prokhorovka in half an hour, and it seems inappropriate to send one of the Panzer Divisions back to help at this time!" ”

At this point, General Hote did not lie, the 48th Panzer Army had already reached the vicinity of Prokhorovka. Even the 3rd Panzer Division, which was ahead of the curve, was already engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy...... The 3rd Panzer Division and the 21st Panzer Division took turns to take the lead, and now it was time for the 3rd Panzer Division to open the way.

The battle was to cross the Pshore River, where the Soviets blew up several bridges over the Pshore River and then relied on the banks of the river to set up defenses on the opposite side.

Such a defense was troublesome, because the tanks could not drive through the river to cover the attack.

Colonel Slein couldn't help but say, "I miss the amphibious tank a little!" ”

The attack did not take into account too many crossings, so there were no tents needed to carry amphibious tanks.

However, this seems to be unnecessary, on the one hand, because the amphibious tanks are too fragile and will sink in the water if they are hit by bullets and shells, and on the other hand, the Soviet troops stationed on the other side of the river are obviously only some logistics units with weak combat effectiveness.

Qin Chuan didn't guess wrong...... The Soviets deployed their main forces on the periphery of the defensive line, and the troops stationed inside were sappers who repaired the roads and troops who supported transportation.

The Soviets on the other side of the Pshore were no exception, a mixed force of the 691st Engineer and 28th Transport Corps, which were also improvised with auto and militia.

The number of troops is quite large, more than 3,000 people...... The Soviets were always able to amass a considerable number of troops in a short period of time, and they even organized civilians to build an anti-tank trench on the opposite bank.

But these obviously could not stop the onslaught of the German regular army, especially the battle-experienced regular army.

The 3rd Panzer Division lined up the tanks on the shore and fired mortar and tank guns at the opposite side, and then the infantry attacked in rubber boats...... It is somewhat inconceivable to force a crossing in a rubber boat, because it has no protective effect on the soldier, and even a few bullets can cause it to leak air and sink into the water, and it is undoubtedly very dangerous to force it to cross.

So the soldiers of the 3rd Panzer Division suffered certain casualties, more than two dozen soldiers were killed and more than fifty wounded.

Eventually, however, they crossed the Pshore River and opened a bridgehead on the opposite side, and then the engineer regiments rushed up and erected pontoon bridges over the river, and the tanks "rumbled" across the pontoon bridges to cover the infantry to continue their gains...... At this point, the outcome is decided.

When Qin Chuan and the others passed over the pontoon bridge, they saw the soldiers of the 3rd Armored Division salvaging the dead bodies in the river...... They would scoop up the bodies and bury them on the spot, and then nail a wooden cross in front of the grave, and that's all they could do.

Werner couldn't help but say: "If we were to attack, I don't think there would be such a big casualty!" ”

"Oh, really?" Dominic asked rhetorically, "What are you going to do?" ”

"I will choose to swim in arms!" Werner replied.

Werner was right, the casualties of armed swimming would be much smaller than those of rubber boats, partly because the target was smaller, and partly because the water had a strong deterrent effect on bullets...... The bullet spins at high speed, and the water will cause its rotation and penetration to decrease in progression.

"However, not every army will swim across the river in arms!" The baker said.

"But we will!" Werner replied.

"We can't handle all the fights, Werner!" Qin Chuan replied: "So don't feel guilty about this, this is war!" ”

Alfredo, who was walking in front, glanced back at Werner, smiled and shook his head, as if he could not imagine that there would be such a naïve person in the war.

But Qin Chuan knew that not only Werner, but also many Germans would have such a mentality, and their attitude towards the enemy was completely different from that towards their own people, which may be the reason why they were more united.

After following the tank for more than ten minutes, I saw an anti-tank trench.

It's just that the anti-tank trench was used as a temporary prisoner camp, and a group of Soviet soldiers with raised hands squatted inside, looking in horror at the German soldiers passing by them, and several guards next to them were guarding with guns, and there were several corpses shot in the back not far away, and it was not difficult to guess that they were prisoners who wanted to escape by taking advantage of the chaos.

German tanks and soldiers continued up a sapper-paved slope and climbed up a slightly higher jungle to the north.

Then the order came down: "Prepare for battle, the enemy is five miles ahead!" ”()

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is:. Mobile version reading URL: