"Hi Hitler!" Lieutenant General Heinrich von Vikinghoff, commander of the German 46th Panzer Corps, gave a standard military salute to Colonel Wilhelm von Sthausen, commander of the "Greater German Division". Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Unlike other armies, the Germans generally saluted first and shouted the slogan "Heilhitler".

Seeing the commander saluting him, Colonel von Stthausen, commander of the Greater German Division, hurriedly said, "Smack!" He saluted his superior, General Vikinghoff, and then reported the situation, "Mr. Vikinghoff, our scouts have spotted the enemy's main force in front.

They had fortifications in front and a lot of troops, and it seemed that the Soviets were prepared for our advance. ”

General Vikinghoff's demeanor was like this, and such a situation was not at all strange to him with rich combat experience, "Mr. Stehausen, don't you know yet?" Soviet planes were constantly monitoring us from the air and also airlit our logistics trucks. ”

"I know all of this, the Soviets did find us, but how could they still organize forces to deal with us? Moreover, they also deployed mines in our path and certainly prepared for our actions, don't you think it's strange? ”

In Stehausen's impression, the Soviet Red Army was a third-rate army with a lack of troops, a chaotic command, a lack of organization, incompetent officers and insufficient logistics, and it had no merit except that the tanks were a little harder and the planes were a little more difficult, at least in the previous few days in the battles with the Western Front, he experienced all this.

How could such an army, which was insufficient, with chaotic command and logistics, and lack of organization, be able to organize its forces, build fortifications, lay out radars, and cope with the assault of the 46th Panzer Corps in such a short time? That's what Stehausen doesn't understand.

General Vikinghof laughed and said, "What's so strange about that? What would you do if you were a Soviet commander and faced a similar situation? ”

Stehausen thought for a moment and said: "Like them, lay mines in the path of our army, slow down our progress, and organize forces to build a defensive line north of Sarne to resist us." ”

"Now, you should understand, right? What's so strange about that? ”

Stehausen nodded, and he finally realized that the Soviet army he was facing was not the vulnerable Western Front that he had encountered before, but the well-equipped, well-armed, well-commanded Southwestern Front. Even so, the young and invincible Stehausen underestimated the strength of the Southwestern Front.

The Greater German Division is the trump card unit of the German Army, known as the "first division in the world", and at the time of the French Campaign, it had already begun to show its edge, invincible, and defeated the British and French forces to the ground. As the commander of this unit, Colonel Stehausen did not have the word "strong enemy" in his dictionary at all, because he had never encountered an enemy stronger than himself.

In front of him were units of the 5th Army of the Southwestern Front, consisting of the 195th Division of the 31st Army and the entire 19th Mechanized Army (including the 40th and 43rd Tank Divisions and the 213th Motorized Rifle Division). In order to increase the chances of victory and prevent the Germans from breaking through the defensive line, Manturov, the military commissar of the Southwestern Front, also transferred the 9th Tank Division of the 43rd Mechanized Corps.

These five divisions were commanded by Major General Mikhail Potapov, commander of the 5th Army, with a total of more than 50,000 men and more than 500 tanks.

It was a quiet night, and in the dense forests of Western Ukraine, you could only hear the "whirring" of the wind, the "chirping" of birds, and the "rustling" of leaves as they collided and rubbed.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! Suddenly, the thunderous sound of artillery covered everything, and the whole forest, the whole field, was illuminated by the bright artillery fire.

The well-trained German artillerymen accurately delivered shells to the positions of the 195th Division of the Soviet Red Army. Suddenly, the Soviet trenches became a human purgatory, and there were corpses that had been blown up beyond recognition, as well as some bits and pieces of cloth.

This shelling not only woke up the Soviet troops on the front line, but also woke up Manturov, who was 200 kilometers away.

"Comrade Military Commissar!" A Red Army soldier broke into Manturov's bedroom and gave a military salute, "The 'Großdeutschland' division of the German 46th Panzer Army has launched an artillery attack on the positions of our 195th division. The fighters on the positions retreated to the second trench in time and did not inflict much casualties.

During this shelling, the comrades at the front had already locked on the exact location of the German artillery positions, and the commander of the 5th Army, General Potapov, requested air support to bomb the German artillery positions. ”

Manturov hurriedly put on his black-rimmed glasses, got out of bed, and then, using his authority, bypassed the commander of the Front, General Kirponos, and gave the order directly: "Order the 19th Bomber Division, the 44th Fighter Division and the 63rd Mixed Aviation Division to be ready for battle and follow the instructions of Comrade Potapov and the 5th Army." ”

"Yes!"

The conversation between the two woke Katia from her sleep. Katya rubbed her eyes, sleepy-eyed, and said to Manturov: "Honey, what happened? ”

Manturov affectionately kissed Katya on the forehead and said, "Nothing. ”

"Where are you going?"

"Now there's a situation, I'm going to go to the headquarters." Manturov briefly, answered his lover's question.

"Wait for me, I'm going too! As deputy director of the Political Department of the Southwestern Front, I also have the responsibility to keep abreast of the development of the war so that I can do a good job of political work in light of the situation on the battlefield. ”

Manturov put on his general's (political commissar of the 2nd Army) uniform, "Honey, it's none of your business, you better hurry up and rest." There's a whole bunch of party affairs waiting for you tomorrow. The situation on the battlefield, by tomorrow morning, you will know. ”

"Alright then, hopefully it's going to be a win."

When we arrived at the headquarters, the chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army, General Georgy Zhukov, was already standing in front of the military map to study the war, and the commander of the front, General Kirponos, the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Pulkaev, and the chief of operations, Baglamyyan, arrived to study the development of the war together.

"Georgi, how is Operation Suvorov going now?" Manturov's focus at the moment was not the line of defense against the "Großdeutsch Division" and the "Imperial Division", but the encirclement southeast of Lutsk and northwest of Dubno.

Just over 30 hours ago, six German divisions and more than 100,000 troops were trapped in that encirclement, and only by eliminating them could the Southwestern Front proceed to its next move.

Zhukov pointed to the map and patiently explained the current situation to his old partner, "Now our encirclement of the two German armored corps has been reduced to 140 square kilometers. The 11th, 13th, 14th, and 16th Panzer Divisions have all been routed by us. They had lost all their tanks, and the rest of the troops were shrinking towards Smodeva and Dolinna.

Not so long ago, the 25th Motorized Rifle Division and the 14th Panzer Division had surrendered to us, the 11th Panzer Division had ceased to resist, and only the 13th, 16th Panzer and 25th Infantry Divisions were left to put up ineffective resistance. ”

"Very well, what are the movements of the German troops west of the encirclement? Did they try to break the siege from the west? Manturov asked. (To be continued.) )