Marcus. Klingberg was a Jew, and he was born only the year the war ended, and he had no impression of the war. After the war, his family fled Warsaw and settled in Poznań at the age of two, fearing communist East Poland.

Marcus as a teenager. Klingberg lived a carefree life, went to school with other Polish children, grew up together, and without the Second World War, Klingberg's life would have been completely different. In 1939, Germany suddenly attacked West Poland, and World War II broke out, and soon Klingberg's homeland was destroyed, and his family, the Jews most hated by the Nazis, were all thrown into concentration camps.

Klingberg was clever enough to escape West Poland before being captured by the Nazis, and like so many Jews at the time, he went only to East Prussia, the last homeland and last line of defense for Jews in the world.

Upon his arrival in East Prussia, Klingberg tried to get in touch with his family, but all the letters that were sent out were lost, and he could only secretly pray to God that his family would survive the difficult time.

At that time, Klingberg did not think that his family would die in a Nazi concentration camp, and he could not imagine how evil and dehumanizing the Nazis would be. He thought that the war would end soon, that the Anglo-French forces would once again defeat the evil German devil as they had done in World War I. I thought I could go home and reunite with my family.

But what happened next left him dumbfounded, in 1940, France was finished, the British were driven back to the island by the Nazis, and the demons of all Europe jumped out together, and the sky was covered by thick dark clouds, and there was no light at all.

In this year, Klingberg met fellow Jews who had fled from Auschwitz. He was shocked by the horrific crimes committed in the concentration camps, and he was deeply worried about his family. For the first time, he had the idea that he had to find a way to stop the Nazis from wreaking havoc, and that he had to rescue his family and compatriots in the Nazi concentration camps!

Klingberg began to travel around East Prussia in the hope that the Jewish government of East Prussia would come up with the courage to rescue his countrymen. But soon he was disappointed that the East Prussian government did not even have the ability to fire its mouth about the crimes of the Nazis. Officials and politicians up and down had only one thought, that is, the Nazis could not be offended at this time, otherwise East Prussia would become the second in Western Poland.

This act of pretending to be a grandson infuriated Klingberg, who felt that East Prussia was not the homeland of the Jews at all, otherwise, how could any parent watch their family being bullied and turn a blind eye and pretend that nothing had happened?

Even if some officials repeatedly explained to Klingberg: "It's not that we don't want to rescue our compatriots who are suffering, it's that East Prussia is not ready, and East Prussia alone is not enough to defeat the Nazis." The only thing that can be done now is to endure! ”

Klingberg could not bear it, and refused to bear it, and in a fit of rage, he left East Prussia and went to England, where he prepared to fight with the British. However, he did not find any hope of revenge in England, and the British were trapped on the island without any way to fight back, and this kind of life was not what he wanted.

Just as Klingberg was preparing to leave England for the United States. Barbarossa shocked the world when East Poland, East Prussia was invaded by the Nazis. The fact that the Soviet Union declared war on the Nazis at the first time and immediately went all out to reinforce East Poland and East Prussia made Klingberg's eyes shine.

He immediately abandoned his plans to go to the United States, immediately returned to East Prussia and strongly requested to join the army. Soon he became an honorable military doctor with a medical degree, and although he did not enter the front line, he was deeply shocked by the courage and will of the Red Army to fight against the Nazis.

"The Germans are powerful. I admit it, if they were not powerful, they would not have been able to conquer most of Europe and disgrace France and England. But I also know that if I want revenge, I want my compatriots and my descendants to live like people. Instead of being slaughtered by the Nazis like livestock, then you must fight them to the end! ”

"In England, I listened to Winston Churchill's speech, and it was undeniably touching, but the British did not show me the blood and indomitable strength that was far from what I wanted. But in East Prussia, I found the most exuberant fighting spirit in a group of Russians, who were formerly called European barbarians, who were not afraid of death, who were full of optimism, and who told me again and again even in the most difficult months of 1941: 'Comrade Marcus, this difficulty is nothing, we are not afraid of difficulties, we will definitely defeat the German devils, we will definitely avenge the dead relatives and comrades-in-arms!' ’”

"At first, I don't know what gave the Russians such a belief, because in that dark hour I was not very optimistic about the prospects of war. It wasn't until I learned about Marxism-Leninism, the source of the Russians' faith. When I really studied this science deeply, my attitude changed. I firmly believe that there is justice in this world! ”

Klingberg began his service as a medic in the East Prussian army, and during the battle, his front-line operating rooms were filled with wounded soldiers, both Jews and Slavs, where no one cared about ethnic or religious issues, and everyone was truly the same.

That genuine equality was always memorable for Klingberg, who later recalled: "It was unthinkable for hundreds of years that people of different races and creeds could live together in such harmony, even though many of them did not understand the language, and they exchanged words and words while gesturing in a very harmonious atmosphere."

On the East Prussian front, Klingberg saw the Red Army and the East Prussian Wehrmacht squatting in the same trench to fight the enemy, and the two sides supported each other like brothers, which gave him an urge to understand the Soviet Union more closely.

Klingberg recalled: "I borrowed a lot of Marxist-Leninist readings from the commissars of the Red Army, knowing that these 'evil' teachings of 'atheism' had been banned in my family before. In fact, in West Poland these books were strictly forbidden, and I had never understood what Marxism-Leninism was saying before, but it was said to be evil. But when I really understood the science, I found that those attacks and slanders were vicious attacks, and that was not justified. ”

Beginning in 1941, Klingberg began to gain an in-depth understanding of Marxism-Leninism. Begin to understand the USSR, as well as the Red Army. Although he also acknowledged that the Soviet Union and the Red Army still had many problems, he did not consider them evil.

"After the Battle of Kursk," Klinginberg recalled, "because the Red Army lacked enough doctors, it had to ask the government of East Prussia for assistance, compared to the Soviet Union." The doctors on our side were better educated and trained, and the Red Army soldiers welcomed us and called us angels in white. ”

"I was the first to sign up and soon took the train to Kursk in June. There, hundreds of thousands of German troops were surrounded, and the fighting was fiercer than Verdun and the Somme in World War I. ”

"On June 30, I arrived in Schustka to serve in the 6th Army of the Red Army. At first, the battle was not fierce, the main direction of attack of the German devils was not here, and Konotop, which was defended by the 5th Army in the south, was the main battlefield. However, the situation soon changed, and the Paulus group tried to break through from Krolevets, and Manstein's 11th Army also cooperated with them. Then we soon moved south with the main forces of the 6th Army. ”

"My first impression of Krollevets was the smell, and as soon as I got off the train, I was greeted by a pungent smell of gunsmoke, and the rumbling of artillery did not stop for a moment. The sky was shrouded in gunsmoke. ”

"We didn't even have time to get off the train to get to work, and we temporarily cleared two cars to serve as operating rooms. The wounded were constantly being carried up on the platform. I worked twenty-two hours that day until I fainted at the operating table. ”

Years later, when Klingberg was asked about his impressions of the Battle of Kursk, he spat out one word without hesitation: "Tired!" ”

"During those ten days, I had an average of more than a dozen surgeries a day, almost standing in front of the operating table and working non-stop, with a maximum of five hours of rest per day. In addition to eating, sleeping, and going to the toilet, we are working. ”

"There were too many wounded, the Germans were constantly attacking from both sides, and the Sixth Army had to grit its teeth to hold on, and at one time the commander of the group army, Lieutenant General Lukin, was on the front line. I also took shrapnel for him......"

In Klingberg's recollections, the last moments of the Battle of Kursk were filled with bloody tragedy: "After the victory of the battle, I went to the front line to look at it, and I wanted to know how the Red Army held its position with such heavy casualties. Speaking of this, Klingberg took a deep breath: "It's so shocking, I didn't see any position, what imprinted into my eyes was a piece of scorched earth, I couldn't see a single intact tree at all, a large number of trees were uprooted or burned to char by the shelling, the ground was a layer of floating soil, the fierce shelling and air raids loosened this piece of land, and you can sink into your neck when you step on it." The smell of gunpowder was unusually pungent, and I wondered if there would be any plants living in this land in the future...... I couldn't see many corpses, but I could faintly smell the smell of corpses, and one Red Army soldier told me that most of the corpses were blown apart by heavy shelling, and then the tank tracks were pressed twice, so naturally I didn't want to find anything. ”

"Specifically, there were corpses everywhere in this area, and if you lifted the floating earth, every inch below was blood-red. In this tragic battle, the 6th Army, which had about 70,000 men in two infantry armies, paid the price of 22,000 killed and 34,000 wounded, and the entire group army was barely 20,000 men after the battle. ”

At this, Klingberg's tone was low, and he closed his eyes as if praying for his fallen comrades, or recalling Krolevets' last moments.

At one point, Paulus's armored forces had almost penetrated Lukin's lines, and the closest distance they had to be to Manstein, who was on their way to reinforcements, was only two kilometers, and even the Germans on both sides could already see each other through telescopes, but they just couldn't cross the two-kilometer gap.

In order to rescue the precious armored forces from the trap of Kursk, Hitler once again "went crazy", and he ordered the urgent delivery of a new batch of Panthers and Tiger tanks that had just come off the production line to the front to assist Manstein in opening a breakthrough.

On July 15, all the important generals who were about to take part in the rescue of Paulus gathered at the headquarters of the 11th Army in Manstein, and after three hours of heated discussions, the result was finally reached, and the breakthrough task was handed over to the Freb battle group, which had just arrived on the battlefield. In addition, the 30th Army was to concentrate all its heavy artillery to provide artillery support for the Frebe battle group.

In the early morning of the 16th, the Freb battle group, which had just arrived on the battlefield, fired the first shot of this rescue operation. At that time, Lieutenant Colonel Freb had 24 Panthers and 9 Tiger tanks (from the 507th Heavy Armored Battalion) and an entire Panzergrenadier Regiment (with about 101 armored vehicles).

In Lieutenant Colonel Freyber's opinion, he was in front of him was the Longtan Tiger's Den, and even with the most advanced black panther and tiger, he did not think that he would be able to succeed. However, when the rescue operation began, Freb was surprised because his troops did not meet with too much fierce resistance. I walked comfortably for about five kilometers.

After that, of course, things did not go so smoothly, and the Red Army, having reacted, immediately strengthened its defenses in this direction. Then Freb found himself on a path full of minefields and anti-tank guns that had just been laid out.

After reconnaissance, it was found that "the Russians have urgently constructed three diagonal trenches on the small hilly area ahead, and have received cover from no less than ten anti-tank guns!" ”

When the scout said this, a loud bang followed, and the panther at the front of the queue was surrounded by raging flames.

"What's going on?" Freb asked angrily.

"No...... I don't know. ”

Freb raised his eyebrows and ordered: "Let the grenadiers cover on both flanks and advance on foot!" ”

Years of combat experience tell Freb - damn the Ivan must be nearby! In fact, in front of Freb were 1290 anti-tank guns of the 25th 76.2 artillery regiment of the Red Army. However, this formation was only a small scene for Freiber, and he resolutely ordered the Tiger tank to open the way and continue to advance slowly. The thick front armor was used against the anti-tank guns of the Red Army, while the grenadiers who followed quickly spread out from both flanks in order to take advantage of the enemy's attention to be attracted by the tanks to outflank the back of the hill and take the opponent by surprise.

To be honest, this set of tactics was really nothing new, but to the great dismay of the Red Army commanders, the Germans were able to succeed. The reason was not only the lack of combat experience of the Red Army's anti-tank gunners and officers, but more importantly, the great threat posed by the more advanced Tiger tanks of the German army.

Let's put it this way. The ZIS-3 tank gun could not penetrate the frontal armor of the Tiger tank at any distance, and it had to penetrate the side of the Tiger at a distance of about 500 meters. So the gunners of the Red Army were quickly dumbfounded. As they fired desperately at the tigers, most of the shells either bounced off or smashed directly into the enemy's armor. From a distance of 1000 meters, the ZIS-3 fired constantly, but even when it got close to 500 meters, it still failed to destroy even a single Tiger.

On the contrary, the slaughter of the Tiger against the anti-tank guns was one-sided, if it were not for Freiber's demand that the Tiger tanks keep approaching. The Tiger can hide at a distance of a thousand meters and easily blow up the ZIS-3 one by one.

In fact, the ZIS-3 had already been blown up, and in just twenty minutes, the 1290th Artillery Regiment paid the price of ten ZIS-3s being destroyed, and before the German panzergrenadiers were outflanked in place, the regiment commander decisively ordered an immediate retreat.

In fact, the order was given a little late. When Freb realized that the Tiger was extraordinarily powerful, he immediately revised his previous plan and ordered the grenadiers to immediately follow the Tiger and level the Red Army's anti-tank gun positions directly from the front.

After a not very fierce battle, the 1290 artillery regiment was almost completely wiped out, all the anti-tank guns were destroyed, and not even a few people escaped. Buoyed by the great power of the Tiger tank, Freb finally gained confidence in the operation, and on the one hand, he praised the Tiger tank to his superiors, and on the other hand, he ordered his troops to speed up the march and try to join the Paulus group as soon as possible.

Putting aside the battle on Freiber's side for the time being, let's talk about his report first, for his report, Hitler, Halder, and Keitel were naturally very happy, especially the Führer, who was very satisfied with finally obtaining a tank that could beat Russia and regain the tank performance crown, and without waiting for Guderian to agree, he ordered Speer to produce more tigers.

As the steward of Germany's wartime industry, he knew that both tigers and leopards were bottomless pits, and if the limited resources allocated to the Panzers were tilted towards the tigers and leopards, the German Panzers would have fewer and fewer tanks.

It's no joke at all, when Germany is mentioned in later generations, it always feels that tanks in World War II are very good and belong to the group of explosives. Actually, no! German tank production has never been given too much priority, and the number of tanks produced will never meet the needs of the troops. Compared with the Soviet Union and the U.S. imperialism, which were really riotous, the little tanks produced by Germany were not even a fraction of them.

Especially after Germany produces more and more bulky tanks, such as the Tiger and the Tiger King, the number of German armored tanks is becoming more and more tense.

So in the face of the Führer's request, Speer was not an ordinary dilemma...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to gundam0080, hzwangdd, the glorious charter and Comrade Juventus!