On the Kursk Plain, the T-34 tanks of the 6th Guards Tank Division of the Soviet Army were desperately firing at the German Leopard tanks that were attacking their defensive positions head-on.

The difference in the performance of the tanks between the two sides is not huge, although the German tanks are superior in all aspects of performance indicators, but the Soviet tanks are fighting defensive battles, so they can make up for the disadvantages to a certain extent.

"Fire!" In the small tank space, the German commander frantically urged his men to destroy the target as soon as possible.

Even the most elite German tank crews can become nervous in this combat environment - this is a tank graveyard, this is a tank hell.

"Boom!" At the same time as the German tanks opened fire, a ball of flame erupted from the muzzle of a Soviet tank in the distance. The shells flew sideways in the open space between the two sides and then hit the armor plates on the tanks of both sides.

Here, the heavy armor of the German tank was finally pierced, and a Leopard tank burned and burst into flames.

On the other side, the Soviet tank was also hit by another Leopard tank, and the turret was blown up to a height of ten meters.

Next to the exploding Soviet tank, it was another German tank that was already burning and on fire, and directly in front of the German tank that was burning and on fire, there were more scrapped Soviet tanks.

Some of the tank wreckage was charred black, the flames had been extinguished, and all that seemed to be a thick coldness remained; Some of the tanks were still burning, and even charred corpses could be seen lying on their stomachs in the hatches.

The Leopard is not so much a copy of the T55 as a weakened version of the Tiger.

In fact, in addition to using inclined armor to strengthen the frontal armor defense, the Leopard tank weakened the armor on its side and behind it very much.

In these areas, the Leopard tank has always relied on reducing the area of the bullet and using glove boxes and accessories to make up for the embarrassment of insufficient defense.

In defensive operations, where the troops spend most of their time facing the enemy with frontal armor, the Leopard tank is actually stronger in defense than the Tiger tank.

But now the Germans are attacking, and the offensive and defensive advantages brought by the 80 mm thick armor on the side of the Tiger tank are not comparable to the fragile armor on the side of the Leopard tank.

After all, the Tiger tank is a kind of "positional breakthrough combat vehicle", a heavy tank as a matter of course! The Leopard tank is only a "main battle tank", a compromise for heavy tanks to compromise on the reliability of mobility.

Therefore, on the battlefield of Kursk, which the Soviet Union had been preparing for 2 months, the attacking German army faced the same situation as in the Battle of Kursk in another time and space:

Their offensive had to face the defensive positions dug by the enemy's infantry, and the enemy's tank counterattack, and losses were inevitable.

This battle can be regarded as the first formal confrontation after the gap between the two sides' weapons and equipment narrowed, and it is also a large-scale collision between the Soviet and German armies when the local battlefield is evenly matched.

The battle became fierce from the start, and the Soviet Air Force dispatched all the fighters it could find to the battle in order to prevent the Luftwaffe from interfering with ground operations.

Originally, most of the Soviet fighters had been destroyed, but this time, the desperate Soviet Air Force collected about 200 fighters of various types, and took off to fight desperately to interfere with the German bomber forces.

This was really a fatal air battle, and the Soviet Union even took off the I-16 fighter jet, which was already extremely backward in performance, which shows the determination of the firm.

Although the slaughter in the sky was one-sided, the Luftwaffe temporarily lost the ability to support the ground. So on the ground, the fierce fighting made Guderian's heart bleed.

The 3rd Regiment of the 1st Panzer Division, which was responsible for the offensive, lost 22 Leopard tanks on the first day of the offensive. The 1st Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the 255th Infantry Division, which covered the attack of this regiment, lost as many as 70 soldiers.

The next day's advance was still full of hardships, the 1st Regiment lost another 19 Leopard tanks in the morning, and the entire 1st Regiment, 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion were incapacitated, and had to hand over the main attack task to the 2nd Regiment.

The largest battle began in the afternoon, when the Germans replaced the 2nd Regiment of the 3rd Panzer Division.

The 2nd Regiment, which had been recuperating all its strength, mobilized 70 tanks to launch a fierce attack, and the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Division, which had been struggling to cope with it, was caught off guard, and the defense line was broken through one hour later.

The entire battlefield was littered with incendiary and exploding tanks, and in just one hour, 100 tanks on both sides were destroyed on the battlefield less than 2 kilometers away.

The 2 regiment was destroyed 30 tanks, and the USSR lost about 70 tanks of various models. The infantry of both armies died on this 2-kilometer position, more than 1500 people!

Before the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Division was routed, at least 500 tanks were thrown into the battle here, and more than 200 tanks were destroyed.

But the position was indeed penetrated by the Germans, so the Soviet line of defense had to move back. The Soviet commander Zhukov, who had already achieved the goal of delaying, could afford to let go, and retreated the defensive line to the vicinity of the regional capital Kursk in one go.

Relying on Kursk, he plans to hold out here until September, which is to ensure that the Soviet army can seize time to scavenge all the grain produced in the huge granary of the Ukrainian plain!

Even with a retreat, Zhukov only intends to abandon an empty Ukraine to the Germans, so that the damned Führer will not get anything.

His plan was very clear: to delay the offensive of the German troops moving south at Kursk, to retreat south after the objectives of the campaign had been achieved, and to extend the German supply lines as much as possible before the onset of winter.

The only thing that put Zhukov under great pressure was his retreat areas, including Odessa, which was now doomed to become a supply node for the Germans.

The Soviets received intelligence from the United States showed that the Germans were capable of quickly repairing the port's ability to talk—the German had the technology to quickly build large port terminals, as well as accurate information from the North African war.

Once Odessa fell, the Germans would soon be able to get supplies from the Mediterranean, so that the actual benefits of extending the German supply lines would be pitiful.

The inability to put pressure on the German logistics meant that it was worth the loss to cede the Ukrainian plains in vain.

"Comrade General!" Just as Zhukov was staring at the map in a daze, an officer walked in, glanced at Vatutin, who was standing aside, and reported regretfully: "I just received the news that Marshal Konev was martyred...... Moscow...... Completely fallen! ”

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Long Ling has already written two chapters today, but he suddenly notified the power outage, and the supplement he was thinking about later, he could only see when the call came. You don't have to wait, just get up tomorrow morning and see if there is an update. As for the arrears, I will definitely make up for it recently, and I will never be in arrears!