In the early morning of April 8, 1944, the third day of the "Red Guards" operation. The www.biquge.info GC fighters of Andrea Pol, lurking at the "key point" of the Red Army's great detour, were constantly arriving at reactionary troops. Even more disturbing was the fact that these new arrivals were not the white bandits, who looked somewhat decadent and loose, and whose morale was not very high, nor was it the Polish army, which was so badly disciplined that the Russians hated. They were all energetic Germans, and although they were lightly armed, they were elite German paratroopers with their coal hopper-shaped steel helmets wrapped in camouflage nets, very rare camouflage uniforms, and low-top combat boots!

Andreapor is a small town hidden in forests and swamps, with an endless forest sea on both sides to the northwest, a large marshland to the south, and a collective farm to the east. Several key highways passed through here, connecting Veliky Novgorod to the north, Toropets to the west, West Dver to the southwest, and Nelidovo to the southeast, and for the Red Army, which carried out the "Red Guard" plan, the road from Andreyapol to the northeast through the large lake-swamped Ostashkov region was the most critical.

As long as the Red Army took control of Andreapor and the roads leading to Verkhniy Volochok and Bologoye, they would be able to quickly insert their large lightly armored forces behind the German (Allied) flanks and threaten the main logistical line of the German (Allied forces) on the Kalinin Front: the Moscow-Petrograd Railway (called the Red October Railway on the Soviet side). Even if they did not succeed in capturing Verkhniy Volochok and Bologoye (through which the Red October Railway passed), they could seriously threaten the flanks of the German army, forcing them to shrink or even withdraw from Kalinin altogether.

At noon on April 7, after the troops of the Soviet 7th Guards Tank Army captured Nelidovo, which was garrisoned by only one White infantry division (Nelidovo was located in the forested western part of Kalinin and was not the focus of the defense), the originally inconspicuous Andrea Poll came into Moder's sight.

However, he did not send a strong armored force to Andreapol, because the terrain near Andrea Poel was not conducive to the deployment and operation of armored forces. Moreover, there was constant partisan activity of the Red Army in the vicinity of the road leading from the Red October railway line (through which the armored units of Army Group North were transported in order to save fuel) to Andreapor (a dirt road by German standards), and the armored units were vulnerable to ambushes.

So Moder sent the 2nd Parachute Division, which was directly subordinate to Army Group North, to Andrea Pol to defend it. On April 8, the 2nd Parachute Regiment, the 2nd Parachute Anti-Tank Battalion, the 2nd Parachute Mortar Battalion, and the 2nd Parachute Engineer Battalion of the 2nd Parachute Division arrived. At the helm of this vanguard was the legendary hero of the German paratroopers, Otto. Lieutenant Colonel Skorzny, who is now the commander of the 2nd paratrooper regiment.

At the same time that Lieutenant Colonel Skorzny led his troops to Andreapol, the vanguard of the 7th Guards Tank Army of the Soviet Red Army also arrived in Kozlovo, a small town about 9 kilometers south of Andreapol.

The vanguard of the 7th Guards Tank Army was a cluster consisting of the 8th Guards Infantry Division and the 18th Guards Tank Brigade, with Major General Panfilov, commander of the 8th Guards Infantry Division, as the commander-in-chief of the cluster.

The first unit to march into Kozlovo was the deputy political commander of the 1st battalion of the 1075th regiment under the 8th Guards Infantry Division. A battalion-sized battle group commanded by Captain Tiev, which included the 2 companies of the 1st Battalion of the 1075th Regiment, the 4th Anti-Tank Company of the 1075th Regiment and the 3rd Tank Company of the 18th Guards Tank Brigade (the same tank company of Captains Shura and Valennikov), totaled more than 500 men and 12 mobile BT-7 tanks, as well as 6 horse-drawn 57mm ZIS-2 anti-tank guns (1943 model).

By the time they reached Kozlovo, red flags embroidered with sickles and hammers had replaced the tricolor of the Russian Empire and were flying over the town - the partisans near the town took advantage of the retreat of the White Army in the town towards Andreapol.

So the troops led by Major Tiyev took the town without firing a single shot, but they also got bad news.

The commander-in-chief of the Andreapor local partisans, the original secretary of the Andreapor county W, told Major Tiev: "At least 3,000 German infantrymen came from Andreapol, who looked very elite and were probably their paratroopers. ”

In today's German light infantry, the paratroopers are definitely an elite unit, not only have received rigorous training, but also participated in many fierce battles, although the weapons and equipment are light, but they are all well-designed and manufactured products.

"Are there tanks?" Major Tiyev asked.

Now the German Airborne Forces still have the strength of parachute armored battalions, each of which is armed with 45 "Panther" reconnaissance tanks.

"No findings," the commander-in-chief of the partisans reported, "at least for the time being, no reports have been received in this regard." ”

……

"Has the 7th Guards Tank Army already reached Kozlovo?" On the afternoon of April 7, Zhukov was quite satisfied with the progress of the "Red Guards" operation, and after learning the news that Kozlovo had been recaptured by the Red Army, he said to his deputy Rokossovsky: "In less than three days, the 7th Guards Army has advanced more than 120 kilometers, and the progress is even smoother than imagined!" ”

The Soviet army's "Red Guards" offensive has been fought so far, if you look at the map, it has been clearly divided into 2 big arrows, one is a "roundabout cluster" with the 7th and 8th Guards Tank Army as the blade, and this road in addition to the 2 Guards Tank Army, there are also 3 composite armies such as the 16th, 18th and 56th armies (the tank brigade and tank destroyer brigade belonging to these 3 armies are also equipped with BT-7 and SU-57), with a total strength of up to 600,000!

The other big arrow is the "frontal cluster" consisting of the 1st Guards and 2nd Guards Tank Armies, the 1st Assault and 2nd Assault Armies. Although the total number of troops is only 400,000, it has a large number of heavy tanks, so its attack power is more powerful than that of the "roundabout group".

Although there was an accident of the "Olga" tank destroyer and overturned many "Stalin" tanks, the operation of the "frontal cluster" of the Soviet army was also smooth.

On April 5, the junction of the two German army groups (in the area of Rzhev) was torn apart, covering the roundabout group and successfully breaking through. Then the frontal cluster turned to the task of grabbing the attention of the Germans with a feint and began to advance towards Kuvshinov and Torzhok (also along the Red October Railway) directly north of Rzhev.

By noon on April 7, the 1st Guards Panzer Army, a frontal cluster of Soviet troops, had assaulted the small city of Barno, less than 50 kilometers from Kuvshinov and Torzhok.

It can be said that the counterattack in the past two and a half days has been smooth and somewhat unexpected for Zhukov.

However, the counterattack was too smooth and there was a downside, that is, the whereabouts of the powerful German armored cluster were unknown - it was precisely because the German armored cluster had not shown up for the past two and a half days that the Soviet army's actions went smoothly and abnormally.

But these German armored units that did not show up will definitely not disappear out of thin air, they must be somewhere waiting for the order to counterattack!

Zhukov pressed his hands on the edge of the map table, stared for a moment, and asked Rokossovsky: "Did the troops infiltrating behind enemy lines meet the armored units of the Germans?" ”

"No," Rokossovsky shook his head, "they've only encountered the French mechanized cavalry (actually mechanized infantry) and the German panzergrenadiers. ”

Now the German Panzergrenadiers and Panzer Corps are well distinguished, the former does not have Tiger tanks and E-50 tanks, the latter has a large number of Tiger and E-50.

And the commandos of the German Red Brigade and the Polish People's Army, which were making trouble in the rear of the German (Allied forces), have not seen the Tiger and the E-50 until now.

This only shows that the armored forces of the Germans were not on the front line, so where were they? When will they strike back?

Zhukov's fears were not unfounded, since the operation "Red Guard", which he commanded, was actually teetering on the brink of a fiasco. Moder's previous action of shrinking the armored forces on the front line was not actually intended to fight a defensive counterattack with a large depth arrangement, he was just worried about unnecessary losses in the transfer of those expensive heavy equipment during the muddy season.

Therefore, he pulled the 10 German armored divisions that were originally scattered behind the front-line troops to the "Red October Railway Line", which happened to be placed on the line of Verkhniy Volochok-Bologoye-Okulovka, and the 10 armored divisions pulled out a 150-kilometer long snake formation (in fact, it was very densely placed), which happened to be in the position where the Soviet 7th Guards Tank Army was preparing to outflank.

In other words, Moder and Paulus don't have to do anything now, just cover their heads and sleep, and their 10 armored divisions can also knock away one of the Soviets' Guards Tank Army!

After all, the difference in strength between the two sides is too great, and now there are more than 470 German armored divisions (full number) of Tiger H tanks, No. 4 H tanks, E-50A tanks, Rhino tank destroyers, and Stalker tank destroyers (attached to the Panzergrenadier Regiment under the Panzer Division). There are more than 4,700 main tanks and tank destroyers in 10 armored divisions that can fight a frontal decisive battle, and even if the Soviets' 8 Guards Tank Army come up together, they will also be defeated.

But as Comrade Lenin taught: the enemy does not sleep!

Therefore, the two enemies of the Soviets, Moder and Paulus, of course, could not sleep without doing anything now.