Hitler wanted to send Army Group South to participate in the Battle of Typhoon, but would Stalin give Hitler such a chance? Of course it couldn't be, because Stalin, who had basically stabilized the situation because of the bitter cold, began to let Timoshenko, who was nested in Stalingrad, carry out the "Battle of Kharkov." ”

In the Soviet-German War, the Soviet Red Army carried out an offensive and defensive campaign to crush the German Army Group South, and the Soviet Red Army participated in this campaign, with the commander of the Southwestern Front, concurrently served by Marshal of the Soviet Union, Commander-in-Chief of the Southwestern Direction, Sk. Timoshenko, and the commander of the Southern Front, Lieutenant General R.Y. Malinovsky

The plan provided for the Southwestern Front to carry out a centripetal assault on Kharkov from the Barvenkovo Salient and the Volchansk area from the north and south, smashing the German Kharkov group, liberating Kharkov, creating conditions for the development of an offensive towards Dnepropetrovsk, and the Southern Front held the southern front of the Barvenkovo salient in order to protect the flank of the main assault group of the Southwestern Front, and the German Kharkiv group was Army Group South, and the commander of the 6th Army was General F. Paulus

At that time, the Army, the 17th Army and the 1st Panzer Army under the Kleist Cluster were preparing an offensive campaign codenamed Frederick I in an attempt to capture the area west of the Severodonets River and southeast of Kharkov

And Li Mo's main forces are still in the Baku area, and there is no time to move to the Stalingrad line, Li Mo put the Sixth Army in Kharkov is to block and alert, so that the Soviet army can not sneak attack the back of Army Group South, if Stalin had given such an order. It will indeed cause countless troubles to Li Mo, and it is already too late, and at the same time, it will also give Li Mo an excuse not to allow Moscow to move, and it is impossible for Hitler to send Li Mo to support the "Typhoon Campaign" when Army Group South is facing an attack by the Soviet army!

Limer immediately asked Bock to prepare to move his troops to the outskirts of Stalingrad to participate in the battle, and he himself immediately rushed to Zaporozhye, an important town located on the bend of the Dnieper River, to command the upcoming big battle, while the Soviet army was already rushing towards Kharkov.

The purpose of the Soviet campaign was to smash the basic forces of the German Army Group B in the Kharkiv direction and liberate the Kharkiv industrial zone, and the campaign was codenamed Star

Before the start of the campaign, the Soviet troops had been on the offensive for nearly two and a half months, there was a serious shortage of combatants and military-technical equipment, all personnel were exhausted, and the muddy season had come, and according to the campaign attempt, the 40th commander was Lieutenant General Moskalenko, the commander of the 69th Army was Lieutenant General Kazakov, and the commander of the 3rd Tank Army was Lieutenant General Rybalko, and the main assault was carried out from the area of Novoskorvaluyi to Kharkov, and the commander of the 60th Army in the city was Lieutenant General Chernyakhovsky, and an auxiliary assault was carried out from the area west of Kastornoye to Kursk

The commander of the 38th Army is Lieutenant General Chibisov, who is to develop an offensive against Oboyan, and the commander of the Southwestern Front, which is conducting the Donbass campaign, is General Vatutin, and the commander of the 6th Army is Lieutenant General Kharytonov, and the assault on Balakreya Krasnograd is to ensure the implementation of the campaign from the south

process

In July 1941, the Southwestern Front of the Red Army launched an offensive against the German-occupied Kharkov, only to run into the powerful German armored group, and the Red Army suffered heavy losses, and the Kharkov offensive campaign of the Soviet Red Army, which had been pinned on great hopes, became the prelude to the German offensive campaign at the end of 1941

But, as was the case at the beginning of 1941, the strength of the Red Army was still far from being strong enough to completely defeat the German army, and soon the Germans would prove to the Soviet Red Army again in Kharkov that they were still strong enough to show the strength and tenacity of the Germanic armed forces, in which Marshal Limmer would play a leading role

For Li Mo, who fought on the Soviet-German battlefield for two years and went from soldier to field marshal, it was not an insurmountable hurdle: at the same time that the Red Army's Voronezh Front occupied Kharkov, the Red Army's Southwestern Front had approached Zaporozhye, the seat of Limer's headquarters, located at the bend of the Dnieper River

But just when the city was about to be lost, Nazi Germany's Führer Hitler came here in an FW-200 large four-engine plane to inspect the Führer's arrival, so that Li Mo, who was about to roll up from here and leave, was in a hurry, because at that time, the Soviet tank group was very close to this dangerous city, and the Red Army could break into the city at any time, in order to ensure Hitler's safety, Li Mo transferred more than 200 anti-aircraft guns, and the order issued to them was to block the Soviet tanks to the last shell and the last man

While the German gunners were desperately fighting the Soviet tanks outside the city, Hitler in the city was furious with Limer for the loss of Kharkov, and he ordered the marshal to immediately retake Kharkov

"There can be no retreat, Kharkov must be held immediately, as long as whoever dares to retreat. I immediately sent him to the execution ground. ”

However, Limer had the audacity to reject Hitler's plan and instead proposed another, more daring plan

"Ignore the Voronezh Front of the Soviet Red Army that occupied Kharkov for the time being, let's fight and retreat in the city of Kharkov. As long as the Soviet troops here are delayed, it is enough to concentrate their forces to eat the advancing Soviet Red Army's Southwestern Front, that is, the approaching Red Army units outside the city, and then turn around and crush the Red Army in the Kharkov direction and recapture the city"

This bold plan was indeed a bit sudden for Hitler, but he finally approved of Limer's plan, Hitler announced the decision to counterattack to the troops of Army Group South, and declared that this place more than 1,000 kilometers from the border of the German Reich would determine the present and future fate of Germany, so Hitler asked his men to be brave and calm in the counteroffensive battle, loyal to their duties, and when Hitler's plane left Zaporozhye, he himself could already hear the rumbling of the Red Army tanks and German anti-aircraft guns fighting

If the place was lost, the entire eastern front of the German army would be in danger of being severed, but Limer was already in the chest, and his counterattack had already begun, and the Soviet Red Army, which had occupied his headquarters, had fallen into his trap

On the southern flank was the German 14th Panzer Army, and on the northern flank was the Kempf Battle Cluster, and in the hands of these three German heavy armies, Li Mo's confidence in his counterattack operation certainly did not come out of thin air, and there were three favorable factors that contributed to his plan

First of all, judging from the battlefield situation, at this time, the Voronezh Front of the Red Army, which occupied Kharkov and Kursk, was pressing Li Mo's Army Group South from the front, while the Red Army's Southwestern Front was outflanking Army Group South from the flank of Army Group South, and at this time it had reached the door of the lair of Li Mo's headquarters

But as the Red Army assault group penetrated deep into enemy depth, its own flanks were exposed to two powerful German armies, with the most elite German armoured units, including the SS Panzer Corps.

…… (To be continued.) If you like this work. You are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation and monthly pass. Your support. That's what motivates me the most......)