Therefore, Rommel asked his men to be brave and calm in the counteroffensive battle, and when Rommel's plane left Zaporizhzhia, he himself could already hear the rumbling of Soviet tanks and German anti-aircraft guns

If the ground was lost, the entire eastern front of the German army would be in danger of being cut off, but Guderian was already ready for his counterattack operations, and the Soviet army that occupied his headquarters fell into his trap

On the southern flank was the German 14th Panzer Army, and on the northern flank was the Kempf Battle Cluster, in the hands of these 3 German heavy groups, Guderian's confidence in his counterattack did not come out of nowhere, of course, there were 3 favorable factors that contributed to his plan

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

But while this Soviet assault group penetrated deep into the enemy's depths, its own flanks were exposed to two powerful German armies, with the most elite German armoured units, including the SS Panzer Corps. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

What's worse is that the Soviet army was still unaware of the danger they were in, and the Soviet generals, including the commander of the Southwestern Front, General Vadudin, were unanimously optimistic that the Germans had been defeated after the great counteroffensive, and as long as the Soviet army continued to pursue, they would escape all the way across the Dnieper, and the counter-assault was simply impossible

The Soviet Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Stalin, who was equally optimistic, also approved of Vadutin's idea, and the lower-ranking Soviet officers expressed their optimism in radio calls.

The Germans, on the other hand, recorded these optimisms through radio interception as the basis for Guderian's decision-making, and it should be said that Guderian himself had previously carried out a major retreat of the German army on the southern front in order to lure the Soviets to go deep away from the logistics base

Guderian's battle plan was formed: first, the German 4th Panzer Army would attack the right flank of the Soviet 6th Army from Krasnograd from Krasnograd with the strength of the SS Panzer Corps, and then attack Pavlograd with the second Panzer Army to cut off the Soviet retreat

At the same time, the German 1st Panzer Army attacked the Petrof cluster of the Rapid Corps of the Southwestern Front with the strength of the 40th Panzer Army and the 333rd Infantry Division of the 9th SS Panzer Division

After the attack was successful, the German 4th Panzer Army would turn north, gather heavy forces together with the Kempf Battle Cluster, eat the left flank of the Voronezh Front in the southwest area of Kharkov, and recapture Kharkov

In order to increase the strength, Guderian not only tried to replenish ammunition and supplies, but also transferred 2 infantry divisions from the Western Front as reserves, of which the 167th Division was deployed in Poltava and the 17th Division was deployed in Dnepropetrovsk

The two divisions were ordered to arrive at the designated drop-off point between 20 and 22 February, and as an armored corps of Rommel's three favorite SS divisions, the unit commanded by Hausser was well-equipped and trained, and its composition was mostly stubborn Nazis, and its behavior was known for its fighting bravery and tenacity

The strength of the SS was also relatively full, according to July 1941 statistics, each division had 678 officers, 20,166 soldiers and non-commissioned officers, although the three SS divisions in Guderian's hands were nominally armored infantry divisions, but they were tank regiments like panzer divisions, and they were full-regimental leopard tanks that ordinary armored divisions did not dare to hope for.

When the Leopard tank was in the experimental model, Rommel ordered mass production, even if there were certain defects, it had to be mass-produced, and after all the Leopard tanks were in the evening, they would be driven back to the factory to upgrade.

Himmler, with his incorruptible tongue, begged for a large number of experimental Leopard tanks from Führer Rommel, which led to the fact that most of the SS panzer divisions were equipped with Leopard tanks.

In the Kharkiv counterattack, another unit with a number of Leopard I heavy tanks was the Wehrmacht's Gelmain Motorized Rifle Division, with a total of 97 tanks, and the German Panzer 671117 Division would also invest a considerable number of Tank 4s and a small number of Leopard tanks.

On July 1, 1941, the German Leopard heavy tanks began to turn, their heavy armored turrets, and their fast-moving tracks ran over the vast white snow of the Russian land, deep ruts and fierce battles were about to be fought where the powerful 88mm tank guns were pointed

For the 6th Army of the Soviet Southwestern Front, on this day, the German SS Panzer Corps, the Hohenstaufen Panzer Infantry Division and the Hitler Youth Panzer Infantry Division launched a surprise and fierce blow to the weak flank of the army

The Luftwaffe's 4th Air Force dive bomber group rained bombs on Soviet positions that lacked air cover, while the Germans' armored group, guided by Leopard tanks, launched a ferocious assault

In the tank battles between the two sides, the initial model of the Soviet T-34 tank, which had just appeared on the Soviet-German battlefield, suffered heavy losses

The 76-mm tank guns of the Soviet tank were not only unable to penetrate the 102-mm frontal armor of the Leopard tank, but even the frontal armor of the No. 4 tank, which had enhanced protection against the Germans, was almost helpless at a distance of 600 meters

However, the 70-diameter 75-mm gun of the German Leopard tank and the long-barreled 50-mm gun of the IV tank could easily punch holes in the frontal armor of the T-34 tank at a distance of 1,500 meters and 800 meters, respectively

As for the standard 47mm anti-tank guns of the Soviet army, there was no way to take the German tanks, and with the dull sound of German tank guns, one T-34 tank was destroyed on the battlefield, and some of the turrets were lifted into the sky by the detonated ammunition, and then smashed heavily on the ground.

The T-34 tank did not dominate the battlefield on its own, but suffered a major setback, and it was replaced by the era of the Leopard main battle tank of the Germans

The absolute superiority of the tanks in quality, combined with the right tactics, allowed the German troops to achieve a one-sided victory, and their powerful armored wedges soon opened a large gap of more than 30 kilometers in the positions of the Soviet 6th Army, following this gap.

The German SS Hohenstaufen Division, which had routed the Soviet 4th Guards Army, advanced more than 100 kilometers south at an astonishing high speed, and the German army soon joined up with the SS Panzer Corps in the Pavlograd area and cut off the lines of communication of the Soviet 6th Army

Immediately afterwards, the German 40th Panzer Army, which had 3 armored infantry divisions, delivered a fatal blow to the Soviet Petev cluster, which had run out of fuel

After a fierce battle, the Germans claimed that in the counterattack against the Soviet Southwestern Front, the Germans had routed 8 armies, 10 infantry divisions and 7 special brigades within the 6th Army, 1st Guards Army and Petersf Army of the Front, and it is said that 23,000 Soviet troops were killed

On the other hand, because the attacking Germans did not have an absolute superiority, they were not able to form a tight encirclement, and the weather was freezing cold, and the Germans' movements were mostly limited between villages, so only about 9,000 Soviet troops were captured

After suffering such heavy losses, the Soviet Southwestern Front, under the strong pressure of the German troops coming from three directions, had to quickly retreat back from July 2, but in this way, the Soviet Voronezh Front, which was fighting in the Kharkov area, was under the threat of the flank of the German armored forces

…… (To be continued.) )