Because Vatutin was very confident in the 5th Guards Tank Army, and the Soviet Army was also confident in the 5th Guards Tank Army, there were basically no defensive preparations in the direction of the Butovo road...... To be precise, defensive preparation is done very early, and what is lacking is defensive psychology.

On the other hand, it was the emergence of this new equipment of the German army that made the Soviet army panic...... Even the commander of the tank brigade, Egovich, thought it was magic, and word of mouth among the soldiers was even more confusing, and they quickly associated it with bullets and shells.

This association is indeed quite reasonable.

If rockets can adjust their trajectory to hit the target, why can't shells and bullets?!

Then the more terrifying question comes, if the Germans' shells and bullets can adjust their trajectory and hit the target accurately, then is there still a need to fight this battle?

As a result, a wider panic quickly spread among the Soviet troops, which made the Soviet soldiers simply not have the courage to resist the Germans.

On the other hand, in fact, there are also difficulties in decision-making of the Soviet army.

After hearing about the report, Vatutin was not convinced at first...... Shells capable of automatically tracking targets, which is simply incredible.

Vatutin took it for granted that this was an excuse for the officers on the battlefield for their own failures, or that the soldiers were frightened.

So Vatutin's first order was: "Control all these people!" ”

"Yes, Comrade Vatutin!" Lieutenant General Kazakov understood what this order meant, that is, "rumors" should not be allowed to continue to spread and affect the morale and morale of the troops.

The second thing Vatutin did was to interrogate the soldiers and officers who were under control separately...... He hopes to find something different in this to break this "rumor".

But he was disappointed by the fact that the confessions and reports of the soldiers and officers were seamless, and the situation they described was not flawed or made up.

At this time, Vatutin was somewhat convinced.

Then, similar rumors came from the front...... Enemies have bombs that can turn and hit tanks with precision.

It was then that Vatutin realized that the Germans might really have some kind of new equipment.

This idea was soon confirmed, because a Soviet reconnaissance plane recorded the entire process of adjusting the trajectory of the new German equipment in the form of a quick photograph...... The army does not have such equipment, and at the same time it is difficult to have the opportunity to take such photos in a life-and-death situation.

The chief of staff, Lieutenant General Kazakov, sent a stack of photographs to Vatutin, and after observing the photos continuously, it can be clearly seen that the rocket launched is not moving towards its proper trajectory, but is constantly fine-tuning itself, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right, and then accurately hits the target.

Lieutenant General Kazakov even asked his assistant to draw its trajectory based on the photographs, and even calculated its distance from the speed of the camera's exposure.

"The target distance is about 830 meters!" Lieutenant General Kazakov said: "The speed is about 66 meters per second, and after 12 seconds it hits the target, during which about 8 trajectory adjustments are made!" ”

Vatutin stared at the photographs and the trajectory chart for a long time, and then said to Lieutenant General Kazakov: "Give these to Comrade Stalin!" ”

"Yes, Comrade Vatutin!"

After the departure of Lieutenant General Kazakov, Vatutin fell into deep thought.

While sending photographs and documents to Stalin would have been a good explanation for the Soviet army's defeat, war was brutal and it did not escape responsibility by finding a good cause.

Therefore, Vatutin needs to find a solution to the current crisis......

But what can be done now?

Vatutin was faced with an extremely awkward choice:

Send tank units up, and you will face the fate of being destroyed by the enemy's new weapons.

But if you don't send tanks...... The front-line troops would be slaughtered by enemy tanks.

The army is like a complete system, the air force, army, tanks, etc. are combined to form a whole, and if one of the links is completely suppressed by the enemy, it may lead to the collapse of the entire system.

The previous Soviet army was because it lost air supremacy, and the current Soviet army ...... It is because the tank will be suppressed by the enemy.

"Comrade Vatutin!" At this time, Lieutenant General Kazakov replied with a report: "The information has already been sent to Comrade Stalin!" ”

Vatutin let out an "um" and didn't ask anything more.

He knew that Stalin's side would also need time to digest it, or that Stalin would have thought of what he had done at the beginning, not believing it to be true, thinking that some generals at the front were frightened by the Germans and looking for some excuse for defeat.

Vatutin guessed correctly, Stalin really thought so when he received the telegram.

Because Stalin took into account one point, if the Germans had this new weapon in the Butovo direction, why not in the Tomarovka direction?

But on second thought, there are invincible "Elephant" tanks of the Germans in the Tomarovka direction, but not in the Butovo direction.

So, the Germans used a new type of equipment on each of the two routes?

Thinking of this, Stalin asked the intelligence services to get in touch with the British intelligence service with the mentality of giving it a try.

When they got in touch, they got the result but Stalin was taken aback.

Because the British, or arguably American, also suspected that the Germans had some kind of weapon for self-tracking targets...... The reason for this was that several American B17 bombers in Africa were destroyed by strangely shaped "planes", and the reason why they did not ventilate with the USSR was that they were not sure whether these "planes" were manned or unmanned.

Looking at this telegram, Stalin looked at the map and smoked his pipe.

The worries about the battle that had been in place from the beginning came back to my mind...... If this campaign is lost, then the Soviet Union is afraid that it will no longer have the ability to counterattack.

However, Stalin also knew that there seemed to be no turning back from the war, and he seemed to have to carry out Zhukov's offensive plan to the end.

After a moment of silence, Stalin ordered: "Order Comrade Vatutin, the Voronezh Front to hold the third line of defense at all costs, and under no circumstances allow the two Panzer Corps of the Germans to meet on the Yakovlevo road!" ”

"Yes, Comrade Stalin!" The staff officer turned around and passed on the order.

Stalin was correct in this judgment, if the two German Panzer Corps were to meet on the Yakovlevo Road, it would mean that at least one Soviet army would be surrounded by the Germans.

In addition, the Germans will successfully lay a wedge in the rear of the Kursk salient, which will not only make it possible to cut off the rear of the central front of the Kursk salient, but will also pose a threat to the rear of the two fronts attacking Orel.