"Comrade General Secretary, I would like to report to you the great news that thanks to the joint efforts of the Kalinin Front and the Leningrad Front, the Leningrad encirclement has been successfully broken! Now the troops of the two fronts have achieved a victorious meeting in the city of Kirovsk on the Neva River! ”

"What?" When Stalin heard Pavlov's jubilant report, he was slightly stunned, "Is it Kirovsk?" Isn't it Tosno or Copino? ”

Tosno and Kopino were along the Red October Railway from Moscow to Leningrad and were also the main direction of attack of the left flank cluster of the Kalinin Front. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info Kirovsk is near Lake Ladoga and is not in the direction of the main offensive of the Kalinin Front.

Pavlov and Shaposhnikov glanced at each other, and Shaposhnikov said: "Fierce battles along the Red October Railway continue...... The resistance of the Germans was very stubborn, they had a number of high-powered anti-tank guns, some of which were self-propelled and armored. So the 4 assault armies of the Kalinin Front suffered considerable losses and had to make a detour to attack the flanks of the German troops. ”

Stalin nodded, without delving into it, "It's good to be able to break through, the Kalinin Front should be commended, and Comrade Vlasov and Comrade Fedyuninsky should be promoted or honored as Hero of the Soviet Union." ”

He paused, furrowed his eyebrows, and asked, "What about the battle of the Junction?" How's the fight going? ”

"Comrade General Secretary, the battle of the joint department is not going very well." Marshal Pavlov shook his head, "The 5th Tank Army was besieged for several days with heavy losses. The 1st and 2nd tank armies were again blocked on the line of the Gomel-Sozh River. In addition, the rear of the Bryansk Front was not very stable, and 2 German armored groups were outflanking the city of Bryansk. We should probably ......"

Pavlov was tempted to suggest abandoning the Battle of the Junction, but before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Stalin without hesitation.

"You can't think about giving up the battle!" Stalin snapped, "Because now is the most critical moment, and Comrade Molotov will soon go to Switzerland." At this time, we must not back down on the battlefield, otherwise the conditions of peace will be too much for us to bear! ”

……

"Tiger Tank!"

Admiral Lukin, who was patrolling the outskirts of PF No. 13, suddenly heard a shout in his ear, followed by the roar of motors from far and near.

Another German offensive began - from the evening of May 9, Lukin found himself on the verge of being overwhelmed by the German "sea of tigers".

The "Tiger Tank", which was very rare in the 1942 war, now seems to have become a bad street. Every attack launched by the Germans was led by the Tiger and another big guy about 4 assault gun (Grizzly Bear), followed by a group of No. 4 responsible for covering, and a little further away there was a Rhino tank destroyer specializing in black artillery - this tank destroyer was even more hateful than the Tiger, and the T-34 tank at a distance of 2000 or even 2500 meters away, this guy could actually do it with one shot!

This power is simply madness! And the Soviets' own 85mm guns are really a piece of garbage compared to the 88mm guns of the Rhino tank destroyers!

Of course, relying on Collective Farm No. 13 and the 1 June Forest, the 5th Tank Army under Lukin's command was still able to withstand the siege of at least 2 Panzer armies (in fact, 3 Panzer Corps) of the German army. However, it was unrealistic for the 5th Tank Army to stand out and fight, and under the threat of Tiger tanks and Rhino tank destroyers, Lukin's T-34/57, Su-85 and Su-122 could only shrink behind the fortifications and resist, and did not dare to rise at all.

However, what Admiral Lukin is really worried about now is not his own tank 5th Army, which has clearly shown that it wants to dedicate itself to the cause of GCISM, which is nothing more than to delay the annihilation of the whole army, just like those Ukrainian traitors who stuck to the building of the farm headquarters of Collective Farm No. 13, fighting to the last man.

The battle in the building of the collective farm farm No. 13 is not over yet! Even if the Red Army buried the bottom of the building with "tank bulldozers" and fired at close range with S-122 assault guns, almost half of the houses collapsed, the reactionaries inside were still resisting...... These people, although reactionary, are an example for the 5th Tank Army to follow!

And what worries Admiral Lukin is actually the 1st Tank Army and the 2nd Tank Army on the Gomel battlefield.

How did Admiral Lukin not know the strength of the German armored forces until now? Both the Tiger and Rhino tank destroyers are so sharp in attack that they are only more powerful when used on defense.

Moreover, the siege of PF No. 13 had been going on for almost four days since May 9 (it was the early morning of May 14), and the Germans were still attacking wildly, and had no intention of sending troops south to rescue Gomel.

This illustrates...... Their defense in Gomel is solid and reliable!

As he walked towards his former enemy headquarters bunker, Admiral Lukin pondered the prospect of the Battle of the Junction, and the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became.

When he returned to the command, the chief of staff of the army group, Major General Dubkov, told him that the commandos of the 110th motorized rifle brigade of the Red Army had once again stormed the building of the headquarters of the collective farm No. 13.

"Good!" Admiral Lukin nodded, "This time I must find out all the Ukrainian traitors inside, I really want to see what kind of people they are?" ”

……

The commander of the Bryansk Front of the Red Army, Golikov, and the political commissar Mekhlis, had already gone to the Gomel front to supervise the battle. Both of them are now looking extremely embarrassed, because their two tank armies have repeatedly attacked the German troops on the Gomel-Sozh River line since May 10, but they have never been able to achieve a breakthrough!

2 tank armies, more than 1,500 tanks/assault guns and hundreds of thousands of heroic Red officers and soldiers were firmly blocked by the Germans in the city of Gomel and east of the Sozh River (a tributary of the Dnieper), unable to break the city at all, and suffered heavy losses. In less than 5 days of firefighting, the 1st and 2nd Tank Armies lost more than 500 tanks and assault artillery. Most of them were destroyed by various anti-tank guns and tank/tank destroyers of the Germans, and a small part were destroyed by air strikes.

By the night of May 13, Stalin's patience had finally run out - Molotov had already made a detour to Switzerland on an Air Rome (Italy) plane. Peace negotiations with the highest levels of Germany were about to begin soon, and at this time, Stalin was anxious to give his troops some leverage.

If the Bryansk Front is able to advance the front to the banks of the Dnieper, or even cross the Dnieper...... Then a very decent peace for Stalin, perhaps, will come soon.

So late at night on the 13th, Stalin, in the name of the Supreme High Command, gave an order to the command of the Bryansk Front, asking them to advance the front to the Dnieper as soon as possible, at any cost!

After receiving the order, Golikov and Mekhlis immediately adjusted their deployment, abandoning the intention of breaking through the German defense line on the Gomel-Sozh River from the front, and instead took a detour from the south, bypassing the Sozh River and crossing the Dnieper River directly from Loyev, where it joins the Dnieper.

Loyev was downstream of Lechtsa, and according to reconnaissance, there was no heavy German defense, so it should not be difficult to break through. And as soon as the Soviet tank units crossed the Dnieper at Loyev, then the logistics line of the armored cluster of the German army on the southern route, with Lechtsa as the logistics hub, would be threatened. Although not to fall into encirclement, a retreat from east of the Dnieper should be quite possible.

In order to achieve this goal, Golikov sent troops overnight, gathered the elite soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Tank Armies, and cobbled together a set of 500 tanks/assault guns and gave it to the commander of the 1st Tank Army, General Vatutin, who commanded him to make a detour to attack Loyev.

On the evening of May 14, Golikov and Mekhlis watched the Vatutin cluster leave the Dobrus Forest and rush towards Loyev, more than 60 kilometers away.

However, the two could not have imagined at this time that the 1st and 2nd Panzer Divisions belonging to the 3rd Panzer Corps of the German Army, as well as some of the troops of the 6th and 10th Panzer Divisions transferred back from the battlefield of Collective Farm No. 13, were already assembled on the plain east of the Sozh River and were about to launch a large-scale counterattack - according to General Mackensen's original plan, these Panzer Divisions were ready to enter a decisive battle after the Soviets broke through the Gomel-Sozh River defense line.

However, they did not expect that the Soviets could not break through the defense line composed of three divisions, including the 1st Panzergrenadier Division of the Wehrmacht (reinforced by the 1st Tan Battalion), the 5th SS "Viking" Division (reinforced by the 2nd Tan Battalion) and the 128th Infantry Division (belonging to the 52nd Motorized Rifle Corps). Instead, it was defeated by 4 Tan Annihilation Battalions (more than 150 Rhinos) and 4 heavy anti-tank gun battalions (72 PAK43 88mm anti-tank guns).

So General Mackensen simply decided to launch a big counterattack in the early morning of May 15 and hit the Sozh River.

At the same time, an even greater catastrophe for the Soviet Union occurred in the junction of the Smolensk, Kaluga and Bryansk regions. The Heinrich cluster of the German army (consisting of the 2nd Panzer Army and the 60th Panzer Army) had just gotten rid of the entanglement of a Soviet army-level group (sent by the Central Front) and was now pounced overnight on the city of Bryansk, which was defended by only one army group!

The German 14th Panzer Army, which had moved north from Gorniv in the south, also engaged in fierce battles near Trubchevsk with the Soviet 38th Army and the 40th Army (these two armies were attracted by the 14th Panzer Army, and the defenses near the city of Bryansk were also empty). (To be continued.) )