"Sue me, how did the Russians bypass our lines!"

Rundstead glared angrily at his men, hoping that the Prussian elite would give a plausible explanation for why the Russians had quietly bypassed his line and destroyed his most important offensive weapon.

But no one can give a reasonable explanation, yes, only a reasonable and not a true explanation. The Germans, who were very serious and sophisticated, could not figure out what had gone wrong.

Rundstead wrote in his diary entry that day: "No one knows where the Russians came from, some say they are Russian partisans, but I do not believe that the partisans can find the positions of the K5 so accurately? Can you work with the Air Force to destroy these cannons? Can it disappear completely after success? The same conditions could not be achieved by the best German soldiers, so why could a mere partisan force do it? ”

Rundstead did not believe that his artillery had been destroyed by the guerrillas, but he nevertheless ordered a mobile unit to sweep the surrounding Ukrainian villages to see if he could find any clues.

As a result, the guerrillas and stragglers caught a lot, but there is no doubt that these people are not behind the destruction of K5, and in desperation, Rundstead can only order the troops to strengthen the guard, especially at night to expand the patrol range, and go to double posts!

But these are of little significance, K5 has already been destroyed, so what's the use of making amends? Rundstead was faced with a difficult dilemma, what did he do to destroy the Red Army's defenses?

It's not impossible to get on tanks and grenadiers to gnaw at the fortifications of Kyiv. But the efficiency is low, and the casualties will be large. The fortifications of Kiev are a little scum, though. But it's not made of tofu. on the Air Force. It is also unrealistic to let Stuka carry out targeted killings, because the Red Army's air force is very active and powerful, basically controlling the air supremacy in the area around Kiev, and in some key areas, the Red Army has deployed a large number of anti-aircraft guns, and the air force has hit several sorties in a row. In desperation, Rundstead went to K5. Now that the K5 has been destroyed, it makes Army Group South, which was already the weakest of the three major army groups, seem helpless.

"Apply for another batch of heavy artillery, without which it is impossible for us to destroy the enemy's fortifications!"

As a last resort, Rundstead could only order to suspend the siege and instead order a part of the troops to continue to develop northward, presumably in his opinion, now that Kiev was surrounded by regiments and was a dead land, even if he did not attack the city. The Russians can't run away either. And he felt that starving the Russians was not a bad thing, and that hunger was the most devastating thing. Maybe after a period of siege, the Russians will obediently surrender.

It can only be said that Rundstead thinks about the problem too simply, first of all, as I said before, Kyiv's material reserves are relatively rich and can support it for a long time, and there are a large number of helicopters to airlift supplies from the periphery to Kyiv, and it is too difficult to trap Kyiv.

What's more, Shaposhnikov contained a large number of German troops in Kiev, which made the Military Commission see a possibility that it was completely possible to use Kiev to contain the living forces of the German army, and then concentrate a part of the reinforcements to stabilize half of Ukraine, and when the Belarusian front was re-stabilized, it seemed that it could also take a knife from the enemies of Ukraine.

Moreover, although Rundstead fought a good battle and broke into the hinterland of Ukraine in one fell swoop, he also faced quite a few problems. The first point is the supply problem, because the air supremacy in most parts of Ukraine is still in the hands of the Red Army, which leads to the fact that the supply routes of the German army have always been unstable, and the Il-2 and Su-1/2 are constantly attacking and attacking the German trains and cars, and the supply of Army Group South is always intermittent. Not only did the air force cause problems for the Germans, but a considerable part of the Red Army stragglers who had been routed and scattered in Ukraine also began to regain their organization after the main German army moved north, and they began to take up arms to attack the rear of the German army, which ignited a fire in the hinterland of the Germans.

The largest and best organized part of the stragglers was Rokossovsky's 9th Mechanized Corps, which, after being defeated by Guderian's 2nd Tank Group, quickly retreated and gained a foothold in the Kamen-Kasilsky area of northern Ukraine, near Brest.

On the one hand, Rokossovsky actively reorganized his troops, and contained a large number of the former Ukrainian Front troops that had broken out from the direction of Lublin, and after the reorganization and reorganization, the Ninth Mechanized Army gradually recovered, although tanks and artillery were relatively lacking, but the personnel were quite redundant.

On the other hand, after the initial reorganization of the troops, Rokossovsky did not choose to sit back and wait, while building a defensive line to protect the southern front of the Brest Fortress, and on the other hand, he merged the remaining armored units of the original Eighth and Ninth Mechanized Corps into an armored group. Frequent sorties and attacks on the communication line from Volyn to Kiev made it impossible for the Germans to use this line to supply Army Group South.

By September 5, Rokossovsky had even recaptured most of the cities in Volyn Continent, with the exception of the capital Lodemir, and with reinforcements from Minsk and Bryansk, he had firmly held the northern part of the border between Ukraine and Belarus.

At this time, the situation in Ukraine was roughly like this: the Axis forces, with the German Army Group South and the Romanian army as the main body, occupied most of the land south of the Dnieper and occupied the Cherkasy-Kirovograd-Nikolaev line south of Kiev. In addition, under the strict defense of the Red Navy and the Red Banner Ice Sea Army, the Germans failed to capture Odessa, and the arduous siege battle was still ongoing. To the east of Kiev, the two sides faced off north and south along the Lodmir-Kiev railway line, but in this section, because the German army was relatively weak, the Red Army units could not only hold the defensive line, but even counterattack.

A group of generals, including Rokossovsky, frequently launched attacks to the south, forcing the troops of Army Group Center into Ukraine unable to give too much support to Army Group South, and strongly supported the battle to defend Kiev.

In this case, Germany has two options in front of it, one is to suspend the offensive against Kyiv. Let Army Group South turn around and assist Army Group Center in clearing the northern regions of Ukraine. It is better to be able to cut Belarus from the southern line along the lì. Another flank encirclement, another big battle of annihilation in the area east of Minsk.

The second option is for Army Group Center to intensify its offensive and break through to Brest as soon as possible, as long as Brest falls, Rokossovsky and his party operating in northern Ukraine will probably have to be forced to retreat (unless they really want to fight guerrillas behind enemy lines).

At that time, there was no consensus within the German army on these two plans, and the group of officers headed by the German General Staff felt that the first option was better. First of all, Army Group South is indeed lacking in stamina, and instead of besieging Kyiv with nothing to do, it is better to turn around and clear the communication lines in the rear and lay a good foundation for the next stage of the offensive.

However, Hitler did not like this plan, and in the eyes of the mustache, it was indeed safe for Army Group South to turn around and clear the communication lines, and if it was only to occupy Ukraine, there was no problem in doing so.

"Our goal is by no means just Ukraine, nor just Belarus, East Prussia and the Baltic states. Our sacred mission is to completely exterminate the Bolsheviks, forever. Eliminate the Empire's threat in the East once and for all! Therefore, we must not turn around. You can only attack forward without hesitation, keep moving forward, occupy Moscow, occupy Leningrad, and exile the Slavic pigs to Siberia! ”

In his opinion: "As soon as Army Group South turns around and goes to clear some inconsequential Slavic partisans, using this time, the Bolsheviks will mobilize more troops from other directions to Ukraine and Belarus." When the time comes, even if we eliminate the guerrillas, what's the point of opening up the lines of communication? At that time, the war will return to the state of 1918, and it will be fought over and over again around trenches until the last drop of blood is shed in Germany! ”

Objectively speaking, Hitler's analysis room is justified in that although they have achieved certain victories in the previous battles, they have not completely eliminated the living forces of the Red Army, and the results achieved are far inferior to those of the historical Barbarossa operation.

At most, the Red Army was beaten by fat, but it was all skin wounds, and there were no injuries at all. For the Red Army, the only thing needed now is time, as long as they are given enough time, after the troops in the Central Asian and Caucasus directions are dropped back, it will not be a problem at all to close the holes in Ukraine and Belarus. At that time, the German army's blitzkrieg was tantamount to exhausting its strength in advance, and it could only accompany the Red Army to slowly play and consume.

Hitler knew very well that this kind of war of attrition was not good at the German army, and Germany did not have so many war resources to consume, once it could not eliminate the Bolsheviks, the British in the west would never give up, and the Americans on the other side of the ocean were also quite restless after entering 1941, constantly transfusing blood to Britain, so that the plan to trap Britain could not succeed.

Once that time comes, Germany will inevitably fall into a two-front war, and even thanks to the pig teammate Italy, North Africa is also in a state of stalemate, which involves a considerable part of Germany's attention, in case there is a mistake, it will not be a two-line but a three-line battle.

Therefore, Hitler categorically could not allow or accept the plan of turning Army Group South around, and in his opinion, time was in his favor for the time being, and he had already put the noose around Ivan's neck, and now all he needed to do was pull hard. As long as the offensive can be maintained constantly, the Soviet Union will soon collapse, as it did in Poland and France before it.

After some quarrels, the Führer used his authority to tame the generals who looked down on him, and not only Army Group South was to continue the offensive, but also Army Group Center and Army Group North, which had been greatly weakened, to engulf Russia with a wave of offensive!

On 7 September, Rundstead ordered his armored forces to split into two routes, one to Kharkov, under the cover of the Romanian army, to destroy this important military-industrial base in one fell swoop, while the other to march directly north towards Moscow.

The group that attacked Moscow consisted of about three corps and about ten divisions, and the group that attacked Kharkov consisted of about two corps and about six divisions. In this way, the pressure on Shaposhnikov is much less, and although there are still about 40 divisions that surround Kyiv, there are far fewer enemies than before.

Not only was the pressure lightened in the Kiev direction, but in Nikolaev, the offensive of the German and Romanian troops was repulsed, and the Axis troops in Kirovograd simply went on the defensive. In a sense. The Red Army's previously crumbling defensive line in southern Ukraine turned out to be consolidated with the help of the Germans. This is probably something that Hitler did not expect.

Of course. There was a lot more that the Führer had not expected, he had always thought that the Soviet Union was at the end of its rope, and that as long as the offensive continued, as long as it was strengthened, the stupid camel would soon be crushed. But he did not expect that the resilience of the Red Army was much stronger than he had imagined.

As soon as the troops heading north to attack Moscow arrived in Klotop, they were met head-on by the mechanized 30th Army, the 50th Infantry Army, and the 62nd Army of the Red Army's Central Front, and these seven divisions not only held back the Germans. And in the ensuing engagement, the Germans easily repulsed, forcing the Germans to retreat.

Why is this happening? It was clear that the Germans still had an advantage in strength. Let's put it this way, the superiority of the German army is only on paper, and it seems that the German army has concentrated ten divisions, which is probably the strength of an army group, which is very good and powerful. But it must also be noted that after more than two months of fighting, it was not only the Red Army that was greatly consumed, but also the German army paid a huge price.

Take Army Group South as an example, and fight continuously with high intensity. What an average quarter of the attrition of combat units looks like, especially armored units. Under the blows of the Red Army, the losses of the armored forces of Army Group South, which was not already very strong, were quite large, almost half of the equipment was lost.

And look at the mechanized 30th Army of the Red Army, this army belongs to the Central Front and belongs to the reserves, although the equipment is a little worse (most of the tanks are BT series, and even a considerable part of the T-26 makes up the number), but it can't withstand the full staff. And a fully manned mechanized corps of the Red Army was very powerful, with more than a thousand tanks, and it was located north of Kiev, and the Luftwaffe could only stare dryly, and the result was naturally one-sided.

The rout of the Germans came faster than expected, and in just one week, from September 6 to September 13, the cluster of Army Group South's attack on Moscow was driven back to Nosovka step by step, and if it were not for the fact that the Red Army was tired from this section of the battle, it would have been possible to drive the Germans back to Kiev.

On the other side, the German army that went to attack Kharkov was even worse, only about three divisions of this group were the Wehrmacht, and the other three divisions were provided by Romanian and Hungarian servants. When passing through Kharkov, about a regiment of T-34s was temporarily reequipped, and the result of the head-on collision was that the Germans were blown up, and as for the Romanian and Hungarian friendly forces, they had long since run away. The group was quickly driven back to Berezin, and it could only hold on, not to mention the appearance of the wolf.

The new offensive of Army Group South did not go well, and the same Army Group North was bogged down in the mud, and in East Prussia the group was in great trouble, struggling in the face of the Jewish pillbox tactics, and soon after turning to the offensive, it had to stop and re-defend. That is, the Jewish army lacked armor and could not carry out a breakthrough counterattack, otherwise, Army Group North would also have to kneel.

It must be mentioned here that the Jews did have a problem with the use of tanks, and they used them more as mobile fire points, evenly dispersed among the infantry units as fire support. The armored forces are most powerful only when they hit together to form a spearhead, which is tantamount to self-defeating martial arts. This is also an important reason why Army Group North can stand on its feet even if it is badly transferred.

As for Army Group Center, one fist was trapped in Verkhniy Maukinia, and the other was blocked in Brest. Two powerful tank clusters, even with their strength, could not penetrate the Red Army's defenses. Especially in Upper Maukinia, the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, even if it was consumed to only one regiment, was still able to hold its position, relying on the city to greatly kill and wound the German grenadiers, especially the German fragile tanks, which were almost equivalent to tin cans in street battles.

Of course, the price paid by the First Guards Mechanized Army was also very heavy, when the whole army was fully organized of nearly 4,000 people, only more than 4,000 remained, and less than 100 of the more than 1,000 tanks could be driven in the end.

The brutal defensive battle continued until September 14, and in the afternoon of that day, Petrovsky finally received an order from the Military Commission: "Your unit has successfully completed the task of blocking the attack, you can break through the siege, and the party and the country will always remember your sacrifices and great contributions to the Great Patriotic War!" ”

After receiving this order, Petrovsky did not breathe a sigh of relief, to be honest, it was not easy to break through at this time, it seemed that the best option was to surrender? However, he did not choose to surrender, the battle came to this point, if they surrendered, how could they be worthy of the comrades who died before?

In the evening of the same day, Petrovsky gathered the remaining officers and announced that they would immediately break out, and in just two hours, the remaining fighters of the army were concentrated, and a total of about 3,000 people participated in the subsequent breakout operation, except for those who were seriously wounded and could not be evacuated, and this breakthrough was also regarded as a rare miracle in World War II...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to Schistosoma parasite, xuyiqing1985, Admiral Hood, Pig Chic 2, Armored Train and Comrade Juventus!