Night, May 11, 1943. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

On the front of the Soviet-German battlefield, on a 1,600-kilometer front stretching from Leningrad in the north to the lower reaches of the Dnieper River in the south, fierce battles broke out everywhere on this night. Around Leningrad, although Field Marshal Quchel, commander of the German Army Group North, had received an order on the morning of the 10th to "allow the encirclement to be abandoned," until the night of the 11th, Marshal Quchel, who was bent on capturing Leningrad to make his name in history, still did not give up the encirclement. And the German army under his command also firmly blocked the relief force of the Soviet Kalinin Front in the Lyuban area southeast of Leningrad.

In Smolensk, 560 kilometers south of Leningrad, the battle was also at its climax. Although the 3rd Army of the Red Army was defeated in the Battle of Katyn Forest and Smolensk was surrounded on three sides, the Central Front of the Red Army was still determined to defend Smolensk.

On the night of the 9th and 10th, the Central Front sent a large number of reinforcements to Smolensk (from Moscow) and set up a posture for a bloody battle with the Germans in Smolensk.

Further south on the southern front, at the junction of the Smolensk, Bryansk, Mogilev and Gomel oblasts, a larger-scale Armageddon for armored and tank army groups was in full swing.

Judging from the map of the battlefield situation of the Soviet High Command, the battle that broke out at the junction of the four oblasts was roughly divided into two decisive battlefields, the north and the south, with Klimovich (on the territory of the Mogilev region) and collective farm No. 13 as the core. The Red Army's 5th Tank Army fought a decisive battle with a German armoured group north from Lechtsa and the Red Army's 5th Army was on the defensive.

During the day on the 11th, reconnaissance planes of the Red Air Force discovered two huge armored clusters heading south in Smolensk, north of Klimovich, at least at the army level. Their target, apparently, was the back of the 5th Tank Army!

About 150 kilometers south of the Klimovich battlefield is the southern battlefield of the Battle of Gomel. Unlike in the northern theater, where the Red Army was on the defensive, in this area the advantage seemed to be on the side of the Red Army, and the 1st and 2nd tank armies launched a pincer assault on Gomel, the capital of the Gomel region, by two routes, through the Dobrush Forest and the city of Weteka. Successive breakthroughs were made on the night of May 9 and May 10, and the attack has now reached the vicinity of the city of Gomel, and there are only more than 30 kilometers left on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River to achieve the initial goal of success.

Victory seems to be at hand!

And the fighting on the battlefield in Ukraine also started on May 10. The Germans carried out forced crossing operations in many places along the Dnieper, and by the evening of May 11, they had made breakthroughs in Kiev, Kanivo, Dnepro Dzerzhinsk and Zaporozhye, opening landing sites and bridgeheads.

The battlefield in Ukraine seems to have entered a full climax overnight!

Stalin, the father leader of the Soviet Union, withdrew his gaze from the huge military map, looked at Marshal Pavlov and Marshal Shaposhnikov, who were standing beside him, and asked: "What is the state of German defense in Velikiye Luki?" Will it be able to withstand the assault of the 3rd Tank Army? ”

Tonight, the left flank group of the Kalinin side (including the 3rd Tank Army, the 2nd Shock Army and the 20th Army) will launch the Battle of Velikiye Luki. Hundreds of tanks/artillery pieces will suddenly appear north of the city of Velikiye Luki through several "forest roads" that have been secretly cut down, cutting the railway south from Pskov first. Then go straight to the city of Velikiki, which was the center of German supplies and fuel storage (most of the fuel there has now been allocated to a few Panzer Corps, but there are still many other supplies and ammunition), and capture or surround it!

If this raid is successful, not only will the German troops on the Smolensk battlefield lose a lot of supplies and ammunition, but the main logistics line will also be interrupted (since the German 4th Panzer Army and the 3rd Panzer Army have already been united, they will not be completely cut off from logistics), and it is likely that there will be difficulties in supply!

In this way, not only the siege of Leningrad may be broken, but even the battle of Smolensk may also take a big turn for the better.

"Comrade General Secretary, according to repeated reconnaissance, the German forces in the Velikiye Luki area are relatively empty, with only infantry, cavalry and a small number of mechanized units, and no armored clusters. So it is impossible to withstand the ......assault of the 3rd Tank Army," Shaposhnikov paused and added, "but it is still possible for them to hold the city of Velikiye Luki." Because the Germans operated in the city of Velikiye Luki for a long time, building a large number of fortifications around it.

If the units of the 3rd Tank Army, the 2nd Shock Army and the 20th Army could not capture Velikiye Luki at the first opportunity, it was possible that the German armored forces on the Smolensk front could reinforce Velikiye Luki. ”

Stalin nodded, Shaposhnikov's analysis was still very thorough. It's easy to raid Velikiye Luki, and it's not difficult to cut off the railway line, but it's difficult to capture Velikiye Luki - it's a siege after all! Moreover, in order to pass through the "road in the woods", it was impossible for Fedyeninsky's army to carry many heavy artillery, while the German side carried a large number of heavy artillery in order to attack Smolensk.

……

"Comrades, for the sake of the Soviet Fatherland, rush! Ulla! Ulla! Ula ......"

Lieutenant Pavlov shouted, raised his submachine gun, and ran wildly through a large woods full of towering ancient trees. Behind him and beside him were officers and men of the 13th Guards Infantry Division and the 14th Guards Division, dressed in the same yellow-green uniforms and armed with rifles and submachine guns.

Nearly 18,000 officers and soldiers, without artillery preparation and without the guidance of tanks/assault artillery, took advantage of the night to set off from their hidden positions like a tide and walked through the forest for nearly 5 kilometers, and then the White Russian cavalry troops stationed at the edge of this forest launched a sea of people attack!

"Ulla! Ulla! Ula ......"

Sergei, the commander of the 1st Division of the White Russian Cavalry, who had just undressed and was leaning on the marching bed, was looking at the picture of his wife and children by the dim oil lamp. Colonel Buniachenko, a cry like an angry wave suddenly sounded in his ears.

The former colonel of the Red Army, who had betrayed the cause of human liberation, did not react for a moment, his whole mind was immersed in the longing for his wife and children - he felt that they were suffering, perhaps somewhere in Siberia, perhaps in Kazakhstan. In the dark Gulag labor camps, she was tortured for the faults of her husband and father......

Whenever he thought of this, Colonel Buniachenko always regretted it...... Why not kill yourself?

"Colonel! Oh no! ”

A young traitor suddenly rushed in from outside the tent, and when he saw the colonel leaning on the marching bed, he did not salute, but shouted: "Red Army, Red Army is coming!" ”

Only then did Colonel Buniachenko react that the bursts of shouts of "Ula" in his ears were made by the Red officers and soldiers.

"What's the panic?" Colonel Buniachenko glared at the man, who turned out to be his adjutant, "Pass my order, the whole division is ready for battle!" ”

Before Bunyachenko's words could be finished, the shrill sound of gunfire as if tearing sackcloth came from outside.

This is the sound of MG42 machine gun fire!

Bunyachenko had placed several machine-gun positions near the camp of his troops, and now one or two of them were firing, which means that the Red Army had reached very close to the camp!

"Damn it!" Sensing the gravity of the problem, Buniachenko rushed out of his tent when the gunfire suddenly intensified, crackling like fried beans, and the occasional roar of grenades and mortar shells exploding.

The battle is heating up from the start! The troops around Buniachenko were on high alert and were not under surprise. After shouts and gunshots, the officers and soldiers who were resting also immediately took up arms and threw themselves into battle.

But Buniachenko did not have many troops at his disposal, only one cavalry division, a direct subordinate team and a cavalry regiment, a total of less than 2,000 people. And his opponent Fedyuninsky threw a full 18,000 people at once, and they were all the elite of the Guards Infantry Division, directly drowning the opponent with a sea of people.

The battle between the Red Army and the White Army, which took place on the edge of the Great Forest, 30 kilometers north of the city of Velikiye Luki, was decided in a very short time with almost no suspense. Although the 2,000-strong White Army put up stubborn resistance, it was quickly defeated, most of them became Russian martyrs, a few escaped into the woods, and almost no surrendered......

And Bnyachenko himself fulfilled his oath to Her Majesty the Empress and fought to the death - his body was then recognized by officers of the 13th Guards Infantry Division of the Red Army, which in turn led to the execution of his wife and eldest son (over 16 years old) in a labor camp in Siberia!

Having cleared this outpost in the Great Forest, the 13th and 14th Guards Infantry Divisions of the Red Army, without any delay, immediately rushed to the railway line 20 km away (not in the same direction as Velikiye Luki, which is to the south and the railway line to the west).

At the same time, dozens of T-34 tanks equipped with buckets were transformed into "T-34 Lumberjacks", shoveling down trees along the way to open the way, and in the shortest possible time, they carved out 10 kilometers of roads in a large forest for tank clusters to pass.

In the early morning of May 12, hundreds of tanks and more than 100,000 Red Army soldiers appeared on the railway line between Velikiye Luki and Pskov! (To be continued.) )