The sudden Soviet invasion of Germany on all fronts made the German army, even if prepared, stagger.

On the three-stage front of the Soviet army's key offensive, the southern front, where the Soviet army's armored forces and air forces were most concentrated, was also the most exciting.

Due to the rapidly changing situation on the battlefield, at this time, the intelligence services of both the Soviet and German sides were a little unable to keep up, and the generals on both sides were staring at the map and making decisions quickly.

Moder, who commanded the SS defense on the German Southern Front, and Zhukov, the commander of the Soviet Southern Front, were both eyeing the same place on the map at the same time: the city of Salok!

It is a small, ordinary city, located in the northern part of an important pass in the Corpathian Mountains. As a result of the previous emergency move of the SS, a vacuum inevitably arose on their northern flank.

The only thing that the Germans could use to control this vacuum was the strategic key point where the 26th SS Mechanized Infantry Division was stationed, the city of Salok.

Due to the fact that Moder had previously reinstated the defense line of Sarok, Zhukov's forward troops quickly and easily occupied the outskirts of Sarok.

In the headquarters of the Southern Front of the Soviet Army, Zhukov was arranging the battle plan with a serious expression.

The battle plan, called "Mars", embodied Zhukov's typical style. With the strength of the entire Front's 3 armies and 4 separate armored brigades, he launched a centripetal attack on Moder's SS in three directions with the overwhelming momentum of Mount Tai.

Among them, the most important offensive was the central attack launched by the Soviet 20th Army and two armored brigades.

The goal, straight to the city of Salock!

By opening up the Sallock, it will be possible to pierce the junction between the German SS and the Wehrmacht, and then encircle and suppress the German SS, and at the same time annihilate the living forces of the German army, and at the same time destroy the important German SS troops to destroy the German morale.

"Report to the commander, on the outskirts of Sarlock City, no German garrisons have been found!" The voice of the Soviet staff officer was somewhat puzzled. He didn't understand why the Germans would give up the defense of the periphery, although the reduction of troops could increase the strength of their defensive line, but with the combat quality of the German army, in the confrontation of the periphery offensive and defensive warfare, it must be the Soviet army that suffers!

Zhukov smiled. He knew that what he had met was an opponent who was different from the Japanese army at Nomenkan, and it was worth his all-out effort.

"Order the 6th Panzer Brigade to turn immediately and within 4 hours, to rush me to Salok. It seems that our opponent this time will have to concentrate further to deal with it. ”

Subsequently, the tank units of the Soviet and German armies arrived one after another, followed by various howitzers, self-propelled guns and other heavy weapons, and the Soviet T26 tanks lined up one after another, under the cover of the Soviet infantry, took turns to attack the German defensive forces.

The Germans also did not show weakness, while defending, they sent No. 3 assault guns to meet the pursuers, and the tanks on both sides crossed and fell into the battle, the sound of various tanks colliding, the explosion of artillery, and the clatter of submachine guns were intertwined, and both sides suffered heavy casualties.

At dawn, a German reconnaissance plane flew in, and the startled pilots found that the two armies on the ground, centered on Sallock, had twisted into a huge vortex that was nearly 10 kilometers long.

On the whole, the Soviets had formed a semi-encirclement of the 26th SS Mechanized Infantry Division in Salock!

Although the strength of the 26th Mechanized Infantry Division, which had contracted the defensive line, was able to withstand the attack of the Soviet army, the casualties on both the offensive and defensive sides were very large.

This is nothing for the Soviet army. But for the outnumbered 26th Division, it was a mortal threat. It can be said that Zhukov used completely standard crowd tactics.

This famous Soviet general, who won the Battle of Nomenkan, wanted to crush the SS army of Sarlock with his strength and use his absolute superiority in troops.

"The Soviet army wants to fight with us in this posture!" On the German defensive position, Major General Klaus, commander of the 26th SS Mechanized Infantry Division, said anxiously to himself.

"Yes, Commander. We contracted the defensive line for less than five hours, and the attacking Soviet troops launched five or six group charges against us like crazy, although each charge was resisted by us, but it was not a way to go on all the time, the casualties of our troops were very large, the 1st regiment had already suffered more than half of the casualties, all the cadres above the battalion level were sacrificed, and now a company commander is acting as the regiment commander. And the casualties of the 2nd and 3rd regiments were not much better, and all of them were reduced by more than a third. The chief of staff of the division said to Klaus sadly: "There are no reinforcements around, we will definitely not be able to withstand it like this!" ”

"What? You say that more than half of the casualties have been lost in the first regiment? Klaus asked in surprise.

"Yes, the first regiment is at the forefront of the defensive position, and it has suffered from the indiscriminate bombardment of most of the tanks, artillery and aircraft, and the positions of the first regiment have been lost and recaptured, captured and lost, and it has been repeated five times." The chief of staff explained in a whisper, but it was obviously a little lacking in confidence.

At this time, the chief of staff understood why Moder wanted them to shrink the defensive line before. According to the Soviet army's crazy crowd tactics that did not care about casualties, even if they wanted to hold the outer positions, it was completely futile.

Prior to this, the chief of staff had complained about the new Commander Moder, questioning whether he understood tactics at all.

Klaus thought for a while, nodded, and then said: "What you said is right, even if we have contracted the defense line once and strengthened the defensive strength, we still can't fight the Soviets to the death." Once our troops continue to lose, this line of defense will also be in danger of being broken through due to the lack of troops in one place. ”

Once it is breached, it is basically a foregone conclusion!

"Pass my order, the soldiers on the first regiment of defensive positions will retreat to the second line of defensive positions on all fronts!" Klaus thought about it for a while, and finally made the decision to continue to shrink the line.

And this decision was made by Moder once before the war.

"Yes! Teachers! I'll do it right away! The chief of staff took the order without hesitation this time.

At the same time, on the Soviet position, the Soviet commissars were doing cannon fodder to the instigated charge, making the usual pre-war mobilization speeches and war-overseeing threats before the charge......

"You are all warriors of the great proletariat! You pinned the hopes of General Secretary Stalin! You must not retreat! Be sure to keep charging! Otherwise, the motherland will judge you for treason! ”

The SS soldiers on the opposite position, after hearing the words of the Soviet commissar in the loudspeaker, stared at the position one by one, of course they did not understand what these Soviet soldiers meant, and some optimistic SS boys even jokingly said to their comrades, "The Soviets are chanting the scriptures and asking God for protection, right?" ”

But then, they understood the meaning of what the Soviets said from each other's actions. Because the Soviets immediately launched a group charge at them again and again, as if they were desperate.

"My God! The servicemen of the USSR were simply insane! An SS soldier looked at the crazy Soviet soldiers in amazement, a little unbelieving what his eyes were seeing.

Until then, the SS boys had always regarded death as their patent. But today, they have discovered that they may not be the only ones who die in the war.

Whether forced or voluntarily, Soviet soldiers seemed to have common characteristics with the SS.