An entire regiment of German grenadiers lost more than 1,000 in just half an hour, and this drastic loss made the German commanders anxious. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info They simply couldn't get close to the village of Las Waite under the rain of bullets from the Ming army. Naturally, it was impossible to prevent the Ming army from using anti-tank guns to carry out fierce flanking attacks on the German armored forces on the battlefield.

Originally, the use of armored forces to attack such positions was the best option, but the Germans had already put all their armored forces into a fierce battle with the Ming armored forces, and they were no longer able to mobilize armored forces. Infantry on both sides were engaged in fierce fighting around the village of Lathwaite, and both sides were constantly increasing reinforcements, no less tragic than the tank melee outside the village.

It's like two huge herds of bison on the prairie colliding fiercely. As time passed, the armored forces of both sides finally began a melee battle. The armored units fought with bayonets as fiercely as the infantry. The steel behemoths roared and slammed into each other, the deafening roar of engines and the sound of steel clashing reverberated across the battlefield.

In terms of the technology of this era, the crew in the tank basically has no man-machine system. Although the tank has a shock absorption system, the crew does not. When tanks weighing dozens of tons collided with each other, many armored soldiers were injured to varying degrees, and some were even directly knocked to death.

The heavy casualties and losses led to the frenzied operation of various weapons by the agitated officers and men, trying to take out all the enemy troops in sight. Artillery **** with shells, machine guns with ammunition. Even the officers and men who accompanied the battle on both sides rushed to the battlefield without fear of death, climbing onto the enemy's tanks with explosives and anti-tank mines in their arms to destroy. The entire battlefield was littered with burning tanks and the remains of officers and soldiers who had been frozen into icemen by the bitter winter.

It was a tragic day, for both sides. Both sides are strong elite troops, both sides have received orders to repel enemy forces, plus the strength of the two sides is not much different and both are very confident in themselves. This directly led to the extremely brutal conduct of this war. Many troops on both sides were wiped out, which is a very rare thing among other armies.

Thick smoke filled the sky over the battlefield, and even the snowflakes in the sky seemed to be blocked out. The snow field is littered with the wreckage of tanks on both sides, those tanks that have been disemboweled, their turrets blown off, and disassembled into piles of parts show everyone the cruelty of war and the cruelty of human beings to themselves.

The fierce tank battle continued until the sky darkened completely. Troops on both sides, which also suffered heavy losses, had to choose to withdraw from the battlefield after visibility was reduced due to a lack of equipment for night combat. It was only at this time that the officers, who were hot-headed by the fierce fighting during the day, calmed down and summed up the gains and losses of the whole day.

In total, more than 1,600 tanks and self-propelled guns were thrown into the battle during the day's fighting. After withdrawing from the battlefield, the three armored divisions of the Ming army lost more than 550 tanks and self-propelled guns in total. This was the largest loss of the Ming army's armored forces in a single battle since the beginning of the war.

Three armored divisions, or rather, the 12th Panzer Army of the Ming Army, have actually lost their combat effectiveness. The rest of their armored forces are basically self-propelled guns. This armored corps turned into almost an infantry unit.

To make matters worse, the 12th Mechanized Infantry Division, which was part of the 59th Panzer Army, lost its main position before dark under the onslaught of the German-Russian forces. The Allies have entered the city of Novocherkassk.

The 12th Panzer Corps, which was in danger of collapse on all fronts, had to urgently retreat and apply to its superiors for reinforcements. When this news was delivered to Zhang Cheng, Zhang Cheng was also surprised.

Originally, in his mind, he thought that an entire elite armored corps was still in a defensive posture, and there should be no problem against the German offensive. After all, in the past few years, the strength of the Ming army has been deeply rooted in everyone's bones. However, the reality was that the 12th Panzer Army only held out for two days under the heavy attack of the Germans.

Zhang Cheng finally began to take the Germans' combat effectiveness seriously. The battle reports from the front made Zhang Cheng vaguely see the shadow of the powerful army of the Third Reich. Zhang Cheng quickly responded and agreed that the remnants of the 12th Panzer Army would retreat to Rostov-on-Don for rest. This unit, which had suffered heavy losses, was now almost an infantry unit.

Zhang Cheng soon issued a new operational order, mobilizing campaign reserves to resist the offensive of German armored forces near Rostov-on-Don. These battle reserves were originally intended to be used to outflank the retreat of the German liberation corps during the counterattack, so as to eat the German liberation corps as well.

However, the situation on the battlefield was changing, and the strong combat effectiveness of the Germans deeply shocked Zhang Cheng, who had been a little contemptuous of his opponent because of the strength of the Ming army. He didn't want to see the cooked duck grow wings again and fly away from the boiling pot. In that case, it would really be a big joke that will be remembered in the annals of history.

Zhang Cheng, who no longer pursued more successes, decisively mobilized the battle reserves that had been hidden nearby, and the powerful corps of seven armored divisions and three mechanized infantry divisions quickly attacked to block the German advance towards Rostov-on-Don.

After all, the Ming army had to face more than just Manstein's siege relief army. On the south bank of the Don River, an even larger Allied force was coming towards the city. More troops of the Ming army were deployed on various defensive lines.

The Ming side suffered heavy losses, and the troops abandoned their positions and retreated south to the core position. Zhang Cheng even did not hesitate to use the battle reserve to deal with Manstein, which is enough to prove that the Germans performed very well, so good that they forced Zhang Cheng to urgently revise the previous battle plan. But the Germans lost no less than the Ming army in this day's battle.

The Imperial divisions that were the first to enter the battle were almost crippled, and after they withdrew from the battlefield, there were only a dozen or so working tanks left in the division, except for self-propelled guns. In a sense, the armored forces of the Imperial Division can be regarded as completely annihilated.

Moreover, compared to the other participating units, the Imperial Division not only lost almost all of its armored units, but also suffered heavy losses from their divisional grenadier units. In order to occupy the village of Lathwaite and eliminate the great threat of Ming infantry anti-tank artillery fire to the German armored forces on the battlefield, thousands of grenadiers of the German Imperial Division stained the battlefield with blood.

In order to capture the village of Laswaite, the German grenadiers almost shed their own blood. From the entrance to the village of Lathwaite to the starting point of the German army, the remains of German grenadiers were everywhere. The entire elite Imperial Division suffered extremely heavy losses. The bodies of many German soldiers were quickly frozen into ice sculptures in the cold weather.

And most seriously, the commander of the Imperial Division, the commander of the Hausser armored group, Paul . Hauser himself was seriously wounded in the battle. During the afternoon battle, Hausser's car, which had been personally directing operations on the front line, was hit by a shell, and the flying shrapnel caused Hausserl to lose his right eye and half of his jaw.

The Hausser panzer group lost its own commander, which was a great disaster for the Germans, who soon fell into disarray. Fortunately, it was late when Hauser was wounded, the two sides had begun to disengage, and the Ming army did not notice the confusion of the Germans, which gave the Germans a night to readjust.

Upon receiving a telegram that Hausser's wounded man was wounded, Manstein immediately ordered Hausser's deputy, Joseph. General Dietrich took over command of the front.

In addition to the Imperial Division, the Great Germanic Division and the 7th Panzer Division also suffered heavy losses in the fierce battle. After the war, the three German panzer divisions lost more than 600 tanks of various types, and more than 20,000 officers and men suffered casualties. Such a tragic loss led them to finally take the village of Lathwaite, which had become a ruin, but they had lost the spirit and strength to attack.

Under these circumstances, Manstein had to urge the German follow-up troops to speed up their march to Rostov-on-Don. According to the information provided by German intelligence, the Ming army had only this previously defeated armored unit north of Rostov-on-Don. So, despite the high price to pay, Manstein thought he had seen the goddess of victory beckoning to him.

However, in fact, the German intelligence department did not find the Ming army campaign reserve that had been hiding outside the line and keeping the radio silent. The Germans were shocked when this powerful corps, consisting of seven panzer divisions and three mechanized infantry divisions, appeared on a rapid march north of Rostov-on-Don to block the German attack route.

Over the next few days, the Germans mobilized their forces to attack the Ming battle reserves, but each offensive was repulsed. The Germans paid a huge price, but they were never able to get close to Rostov-on-Don. The powerful search force they sent out was able to see even the buildings of the target city, but they were never able to enter the city.

In the midst of brutal battles, Manstein's Salvation Corps suffered heart-wrenching losses every day. It was a real battle damage, the tanks were destroyed, the artillery was blown to scrap metal, and the officers and soldiers fell in pools of blood and became frozen corpses. In a few days of fierce fighting, the Germans lost thousands of tanks and tens of thousands of officers and men. The tragic attrition of these elite German troops made the hearts of the senior German commanders bleed.

Although their heroic battles also brought huge losses to the Ming army, their campaign goals were never achieved. If you can't get in touch with the southern breakout forces, then these attritions and battle losses are meaningless. (To be continued.) )