From April 16 to 20, in the Kalinin region, fighting between the two sides was still raging. Pen ~ fun ~ www.biquge.info on the battlefield in the eastern part of the region, in the area of Verkhniy Volochok-Udomlya, heavy armored units and mechanized infantry and motorized infantry on both sides fought fiercely on the muddy land covered with lakes and swamps.

The European coalition side was on the defensive in this area, relying on the fortifications built last autumn and winter, investing a large number of mechanized infantry (panzergrenadiers) and motorized infantry, supported by Fw-190 fighters and Hs-129 attack aircraft, to carry out resolute defensive operations, resist the increasingly fierce attacks of the Soviet army, and made a posture of attacking the Soviet troops in the area of Wuyi Town-Vadère.

The Soviets, on the other hand, put on a desperate posture for a decisive battle, committing four Guards Tank Armies (1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th) and a large number of infantry on a frontal battlefield of less than 80 kilometers, and launched a series of strong attacks on the nights of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th. Trying to rely on the opportunity that German planes were difficult to make at night, they used the powerful JS-2 tanks and T-34/85 tanks as sharp knives to pierce the Allied defenses and completely smash or expel the Allied Paulus cluster.

However, after accumulating thousands of JS-2 tanks, T-34/85 tanks and more than 150,000 infantry to attack in turns, the Soviet army's attack on Verkhniy Volochok and Udomlia still suffered a thwart, not only failed to break through the coalition defenses, but also paid a heavy price of more than 500 tanks destroyed (of which more than 200 were completely destroyed) and more than 30,000 casualties and missing.

By daylight on 20 April, the front lines of Verkhniy Volochok and Udomlia had hardly changed from those of the 16th.

The heaviest fighting between the two sides took place in the western part of Kalinin Oblast (west of the Red October railway line) in a densely forested and swampy area.

At the same time that the Soviet heavy forces were blocked by Verkhniy Volochok and Udomlya, the roundabout clusters under the command of General Chuikov were once again strengthened. At the same time that Chuikov could organize a large army to besiege Andreapol, he also sent an assault group with the 18th Army of the Red Army as the main force to attack from Kuvshinovo and attack along the line of Firovo-Ozelki-Vadair. Firovo and Ozerki were both towns west of the Red October Railway, and if the Red 18th Army could occupy them, it would be able to open up communication with the 7th Guards Tank Army besieging Valdeir, so that Andreypol's gains and losses would not matter.

From the 17th, the 18th Army of the Red Army began to frantically attack and advance northward. Hopefully, before the road dries out, the two points of Firovo and Ozerki will be taken. The Soviet offensive was relatively smooth at first, and the 16th Mechanized Corps, the main force of the 18th Army, repelled a Polish infantry brigade defending Firovo on the night of the 18th and recaptured the city.

However, on the night of the second day, the 16th Mechanized Corps, which continued to advance, encountered the vicinity of the Germans near Ozerki, near Bologoye, and the Soviet convoy that had discharged a twenty or thirty-kilometer-long snake formation on the **** road was illuminated by a sudden flare, and then it was attacked by the No. 4 H tank and the "Olga Hammer" ambushed in the nearby woods. In just a few dozen minutes, two or three hundred vehicles of various kinds were beaten into a burning fire.

A fierce scuffle ensued between the two sides along the muddy road. Both sides fired at each other with hundreds of self-propelled guns and many more rapidly deployable light guns (including mortars, infantry guns, mountain artillery, and the ZIS-3 cannons of the Soviet Army's rotten streets). The infantry on both sides also charged and countercharged each other along the road. On the fringes of forests and highways, every inch of land becomes a "point", often with hundreds or thousands of shells falling from both sides. The two sides can only decide to belong after changing hands several times!

Because it was a hand-to-hand battle at night, the casualties were very heavy from the beginning. The Germans were clearly fighting the idea of annihilating the Soviet 16th Mechanized Army, while the Soviets played with the tenacity and ferocity of the GCIST fighters. They fought back immediately after a surprise attack, and they also engaged in their best melee and night battles - the Soviets had relied on night battles for the past two years, especially in 1943, when the Germans had the majority of air superiority. Close combat has always been the specialty of the Russians, even the infantry of Tsarist Russia is famous in Europe for its bayonet melee combat.

Therefore, although the Germans succeeded in the ambush on the night of the 19th, they obviously underestimated the determination of the Soviet army and the ability to fight at night and in close combat. After a hard battle, the Soviet 16th Mechanized Army was unable to be defeated, and finally had to retreat around 2 a.m. the next day, leaving behind corpses and damaged equipment, and the victory was given to the Soviet army.

However, the victorious Red Army suffered even more heavy losses, with more than half of the 16th Mechanized Corps suffering casualties, and on and on both sides of the 30-kilometer road, there were destroyed Soviet vehicles and dense corpses.

The entire 16th Mechanized Corps was almost completely disabled, and the attack on Ozerki had to be postponed because of this.

At the same time, the scramble for Andrea Poel is raging. Because from the 12th, weather conditions allowed German aircraft to take off to support the operation. Therefore, the Soviets' battle for Andreapor could only be carried out at night, and the night was conducive to the German paratroopers to exert their anti-tank fire and individual firepower - the German paratroopers were not only equipped with many "Doll" rocket launchers with a range of up to 300 meters, but also the FG42 paratrooper rifle was standard. Therefore, the individual firepower and individual anti-tank firepower far exceeded that of the Soviet infantry.

Moreover, paratroopers have always been the elite branch of the German army, and they are not at all comparable to the ordinary infantry of the Soviet army. So Andrea Poll fought until April 20, still firmly in the hands of the 2nd German paratrooper division.

……

"How? A little Andrea Pol can't beat it up to now! What did the 8th Guards Tank Army do for food? A tank army can't take 10,000 German paratroopers! ”

During the day of the 20th, Marshal Zhukov, who was sitting in the underground command center of the General Staff, suddenly felt a little irritable and lost his temper at Pepekov, who reported to him about the situation in Andrey Pol.

"Comrade Chief of the General Staff," Pepekov looked at his immediate superior, a little strangely, "and now the counterattack on the Northern Front is going well, although Andrea Poll can't take it." However, we fought relatively smoothly on the Fivolo-Ozerki front, and it is expected that Ozerki will be captured in a few days, so that the troops around the town of Vadair-Wuyi will receive sufficient support, and victory is still expected. ”

Pepekov's "promising victory" certainly did not mean the annihilation of the Paulus cluster, and now is not the historical period of the Battle of Stalingrad, and it is completely impossible for the Soviet army to destroy the Paulus cluster, which numbered as many as five or six hundred thousand and had several thousand tanks/assault guns -- although Stalin had illusions about this, Pepekov, a chief of staff that Zhukov relied on, would not be so stupid.

Pepekov considered the victory to be a force to break through to the north by the Paulus cluster. As long as the Paulus cluster retreats to Okulovka, north of the town of May Day, then the cluster is 380 kilometers away from Moscow and poses little threat.

"But what about the Western Front?" Zhukov looked back at Pepekov, "Where do you think the Panzer Divisions drawn by the Germans from the Northern Front went?" ”

"It's the middle lane," Pepekov replied, "that is, the Western Front." ”

There is no doubt about this, because since the beginning of the Soviet-German war, the German army has always followed the principle of "concentrating superior forces". Their superior forces will always be gathered on one battlefield.

Now the battlefield where the German army concentrates superior forces is undoubtedly Moscow!

So the General Staff of the Soviet Army, with its eyes closed, could guess the outline of the battle plan in the drawer of Hersmann's desk - first to encircle Moscow, and then to the Volga-Urals or the Caucasus.

Now Moscow is not yet surrounded, so the elite armored clusters of the German army are not going to leave. The reason why they were transferred from the northern front must have been that it was more advantageous to fight from west to east - it was true that the terrain north of Moscow was less favorable than that of the west and south of Moscow for the offensive of mechanized troops, as anyone with military knowledge would know.

"There are no major problems on the Western Front," Pepekov said, "Marshal Konev's reserve front has taken over the positions, and he has resorted to the tactics of a defense in large depth, which can ensure that the Germans will not be able to form a breakthrough in the short term." If the Germans were to make a detour to the south, we would have enough troops to intercept it. And it's still muddy season, the roads are not in favor of the Germans, their offensive will most likely start in May, and we still have time. ”

Since they guessed the possible deployment of the German army (in fact, there are only a few moves to come and go), the Soviet army naturally made targeted arrangements.

"So victory on the northern front is still expected," Pepekov said, "and what we should do now is to throw in more troops and storm Upper Volochok, Udomlia and ...... Report! ”

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by a report, and a staff officer hurried to Pepekov and Zhukov like a gust of wind.

"The report of the command of the Reserve Front that the Rzhev-Séchokav-Vyazma front, where the 1st Guards Army is stationed, is under heavy shelling and bombardment by the Germans!" Marshal Konev believed that the German offensive on the above-mentioned areas had already begun, and he proposed to end the counterattack on the Northern Front and defend Moscow with all its might. ”