Happy Children's Day, brothers, don't forget to vote for this book after the holiday! A monthly pass, a small red flower......

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Walter, of course, did not accept Kirchner's "help".

From this point of view, Lieutenant General Walter was still a little tender on the battlefield...... A mature general should put his personal feelings aside and make judgments and choices that are most beneficial to the whole army from the consideration of the entire battle situation.

Walter did not do this, and his reply was: "No, General! Now there is still time, we will break through the enemy's line of defense and rush to the Yakovlevo road as planned! ”

But having said that, Walter did not have a good method, he just urged the 2nd SS Panzer Army to attack desperately...... Airplanes and artillery continued to bomb Soviet positions, and then the "Tiger" tanks and other tanks charged at Soviet positions again and again.

The SS was Hitler's personal guard, and at the beginning of its creation, it was responsible for honor guards and guards, in other words, guards, and could only be regarded as a paramilitary force, so at first most people thought that the SS was a "vase" existence.

However, when the SS was sent into battle, it was found that it was brave and courageous, and Hitler trusted and was more keen to allocate sophisticated equipment to his "personal guards", so the SS gradually grew in size and militarized to a presence comparable to the Wehrmacht on the battlefield.

It should be said that the presence of this force further consolidated Hitler's power.

Because a considerable part of the rebel groups were afraid of the SS or feared a civil war between the Wehrmacht and the SS, the assassination of Hitler was postponed.

Otherwise, it would not have been difficult for the Wehrmacht generals who wielded military power to overthrow Hitler's regime.

However, it is one thing for the SS to fight bravely, and the short history of the private guard and its combat history means that this unit is not as complete and systematic as the Wehrmacht in terms of strategy and tactics...... The SS was more of a unit organized with a spirit and loyalty to the Führer as a core.

This was evident in the 2nd SS Panzer Army's attack on the third line of defense, preferring to pile up shells, planes and tanks rather than choose to change tactics.

But the Soviet army is also a heap of troops, and the Soviets have even learned some tactics on the basis of heaps, such as "fire pockets", and "refueling tactics...... In the direction of Bykovka, the Germans always attacked in waves, obviously hitting the Soviet defense line to collapse, but as soon as it stopped, the Soviet army immediately reinforced a new force and even launched a counteroffensive.

So the two sides went back and forth, desperately fighting near the defensive line, and a thick layer of corpses lay on the position, but the 2nd SS Panzer Army could not break through...... In fact, the 2nd SS Panzer Army had already broken through the original third line of defense, but the Soviets built another line of defense after the continuous defense line, and then another line of defense, and the result was a rotten battle in which every step forward was the enemy's line.

The reason why the 48th Panzer Army did not encounter this situation was because they were ...... quickly Defeated the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army in a short time, quickly rushed to the third line of defense and immediately launched an attack, and then broke through the third line of defense in only one night.

Such a speed made it impossible for the Soviet troops to organize a new defense at all, a bit like a "blitzkrieg".

On the other hand, it was Vatutin who was aware of the danger.

If the tide of battle continued like this, an elite force and 300 tanks (and later a tank brigade) between the two roads would be surrounded by the Germans.

So Vatutin immediately issued three orders:

One: in the direction of Bykovka, all efforts were made to prevent the breakthrough of the 2nd SS Panzer Army.

Two: to stop the continuation of the German 48th Panzer Army in the direction of Yakovlevo.

Three: Immediately withdraw all troops from the Middle Belt.

Vatutin, hoping to buy time for the withdrawal of the intermediate troops, had lost hope in the counter-encirclement of the Germans and only wanted to minimize losses.

The most troublesome of them is the second command.

Because the first order had already been carried out, the Soviets succeeded in holding back the offensive of the 2nd SS Panzer Army, albeit with many losses.

The second order was to block the German 48th Panzer Army...... The problem was that the German 48th Panzer Corps had routed the 5th Guards Tank Army in a few hours and quickly advanced it, which created a vacuum of Soviet forces in the direction of the Yakovlevo road, and Vatutin no longer had any troops that could effectively block the German 48th Panzer Army.

Even Vatutin was worried: the German 48th Panzer Corps would divide into two routes, one continuing to advance towards the Yakovlevo road to threaten the Kursk rear, and the other would return to the 2nd SS Panzer Army to complete the encirclement of the middle ground.

This will undoubtedly deal a double blow to the Soviet army.

In fact, that's exactly what General Holt intended.

Although General Walter repeatedly stressed that the 2nd SS Panzer Army would be able to break through to the Yakovlevo road at the scheduled time, this was almost impossible in the light of the situation.

As commander of the 4th Panzer Army, General Hoth, of course, did not have the same overall vision as Walter, so he ordered the 48th Panzer Corps to attack Bykovka in the opposite direction as soon as it entered the Yakovlevo road, on the one hand, to "help" the entangled SS 2nd Panzer Army to get out, and on the other hand, to complete the encirclement of the middle ground.

But this order has not been implemented.

The reason was that Hort received a telegram.

"General!" The staff officer hurriedly reported to General Hote with a telegram: "The aerial reconnaissance unit reports that a large number of Soviet troops and tanks have been spotted in the northeast in the direction of Yakovlevo, at least seven hundred tanks, which are expected to arrive in Yakovlevo at about three o'clock in the afternoon......"

Hort couldn't help but look up in shock.

He originally thought that by the time the war was fought, the Soviets had almost exhausted their tanks...... The main force of the Soviet army was attacking Orel, and there were only more than 1,000 tanks in the south, which were scattered in part of the defense line and destroyed by the two German Panzer Corps, and there was nothing to stop the German advance.

But unexpectedly, a force with 700 tanks suddenly appeared.

It seems that the Soviet army has much more reserves than expected.

Hort guessed correctly, in order to ensure the victory of this battle, Stalin left a whole front, that is, the steppe front, as a reserve.

Therefore, the Soviet army was reinforced by a tank army group at this critical moment.

The commander of this tank army, the 5th Guards Tank Army, Colonel-General Rotmistrov, led the force to march 100 kilometers to the Yakovlevo road in 24 hours.

Then General Hoth's gaze was fixed on the midpoint between friend and foe: Prokhorovka!