Leaving aside the actions of the 38th Army of the Red Army, and continuing to see the end of the German operation Southwind, on March 20, the LSSAH division finally arrived on the outskirts of Arad and began to make contact with the Red Army.

"An enemy plane spat out tongues of fire and rushed down, and after a rain of bullets, the soldiers' heads were completely cut off as if they had been swept by a sickle, while their bodies remained in a shooting posture, and even the machine guns continued to scream for a while. After half a sound, the headless body slowly collapsed in the blood mist, and another armored vehicle not far away was also hit by an aviation rocket, and the members rolled out wrapped in flames, howling and struggling for a while before lying on the ground motionless. It was at this moment that the grenadiers fired the MG-42 machine gun in the armored transport vehicle, and the Black Death was already roaring away! ”

Andreas continued: "Under the enemy's ferocious aerial fire, we were pinned to the south bank of the Muneche River, while the Ivan were stationed on the north bank with heavy machine guns and artillery fire. We suffered heavy casualties and waited until evening to have the opportunity to jump into armored vehicles and get out. After a jolt, we were sent to a small village far from the riverbank for the night, where we bathed, slept and got some hot food...... While we were napping, a shell fell straight down, killing three of our comrades on the spot! ”

In other directions, the Germans suffered much from the LSSAH division, with officers and men held back by the river, helpless in the face of the carefully laid defensive positions of the Red Army. It was not until the next morning, when subsequent reinforcements followed, that the Germans again attempted to force their way across the Muneche River.

The 46th Infantry Division and the LSSAH Division took advantage of the hazy morning darkness to send part of their troops across the river for a time, but as yesterday, after dawn the Red Army shelling and the aerial bombs of the attack aircraft fell on the attackers' heads. Forcing the Germans to go on the defensive again.

Lieutenant Lessel was involved in a close-quarters armored encounter: "Colonel Pelpel decided to launch a night raid, because during the day we were constantly under increasingly ferocious shelling from the north bank of the river. There were five Panthers left in the first company to fight, which made our tank crew very unusual, because Bright's tank had been destroyed, but he wanted to fight alongside us, and none of our lads wanted to quit. So we stuffed six people into our tank (the Panthers were usually five). ”

"Under the cover of the rolling hills, we cautiously made our way to the riverbank, and after a quick passage of the slope, the bank was already in sight. During this time, the enemy artillery only fired a few shots in a messy manner, which gave us a bit of luck and thought that we had avoided Ivan's ears and eyes, but we were a little too happy before we covered the infantry and began to force our crossing. Massive shelling by the Russians began! ”

"A curtain wall of blood and fire fell in front of us in an instant, and through the periscope we could see dazzling fires, accompanied by an explosion, and we were hit! I don't know what weapon I was hit, according to the previous report of the scouts, no large and medium-caliber anti-tank guns of the enemy were found on this section of the riverbank, and they had absolutely no weapons capable of destroying the Panthers...... But the tank soon burst into flames. This saves the commander a lot of effort, as there is no need to give the order to abandon the car at all. I had to turn the turret a little away, though, because the long barrel was blocking the driver's hatch. If I just ran away, the driver Rhodes would have burned alive...... Eventually, Rod and I were the last to jump out of the burning tank, and I noticed that his ass was already burning......"

Probably Lessel would not believe it, because the weapon that destroyed his tank was indeed inconspicuous, even old-fashioned. The armament of the 45-mm tank guns, which had largely withdrawn from the front line in the Red Army, was given to the Romanian Second Front, and the Romanian artillery in a hurry taught the Panthers a lesson with this old-fashioned weapon, which had already been obsolete.

What made the Germans even more disgraced was that the 45mm armor-piercing bullet was not a Panther piercing from the side or tail, but a hole was actually drilled in the Panther turret shield, and then ignited the hydraulic line in the tank.

Why was the Panther shot through the front by an old-fashioned 45-mm armor-piercing projectile? Later studies found out. The Panther's shield armor was full of moisture, almost no molybdenum, and the rush of work greatly reduced the quality of the armor. Of course, this bomb also has an element of luck, and it just hit the worst piece of the shield armor, and I have to say that Lessel was really unlucky.

However, it was not only Lessel's Panthers that were destroyed that day, but also heavy tanks, including the Tiger and the Tiger King, were repeatedly blown up by the Red Army anti-tank guns on the other side of the river. Compared with the Red Army's better and better armor-piercing shells, Germany's armor is getting worse and worse, which makes it easier for even the D-8 series guns to knock them out, and as for the 122 mm and 100 mm guns, they have set a record for success at ultra-long distances.

For example, the commander of the SU-100, Krevinsky, recalled: "We were ambushed in a forest on the other side of the river, and there was an open field in front of us, and I could clearly see every move of the German devils on the other side of the river. In the wee hours of the morning, as they sneakily began to move in the night, slowly approaching the riverbank, at this time we often fired a few flares from mortars to expose the thieves to sight, and then seized precious time to open fire quickly. The D-10T is a good gun, even with ordinary steel-core armor-piercing shells have a relatively high chance of destroying enemy tanks, if you use better tungsten alloy armor-piercing shells or armor-piercing shells, the chances of success are higher. However, it was a more interesting day, in the previous battle, our car used up most of the armor-piercing shells, and only three tungsten alloy armor-piercing shells were left, but these precious ammunition were for the Tiger and the Tiger King, and could not be wasted on the fragile Tank IV. So after identifying the enemy as tank No. 4 by the night, I could only bombard them with a grenade in frustration! ”

"At that time, the distance was about 2,000 meters, which is quite far at night. I could only see the general idea of the enemy, this No. 4 tank was slowly and leisurely advancing with the cover of the terrain, the enemy commander and driver were very smart, and the exposure time was very small, which caused a big problem for my car to aim. However, I still tried to trap it as much as I could, and when it showed half of its body again, I didn't hesitate to attack! ”

The grenade flew out with a thud. I didn't bother to see if it hit, so I hurriedly ordered the loader to reload again, because the destructive power of the grenade was too small, and a few more rounds had to be delivered. For the next minute or two, I fired five shots in a row until the tank No. 4 could no longer move! ”

Klevinsky did not know that the so-called tank No. 4 he shot was actually a King Tiger. The darkness of the night interfered with his judgment, but he didn't lie about the rest of the story, because he did destroy the Tiger King with a grenade. According to the post-war inventory, the Tiger King was hit with at least three 100-mm grenades, which caused a large area of its hull armor to collapse, the driver was killed, and the remaining occupants had to flee for their lives.

During the night battle, some German tanks and armored vehicles also managed to cross the river and attack the Red Army defenders on the other side of the river, and a soldier of the 9th Company of the 26th Panzergrenadier Regiment recalled: "The village was full of enemy tanks and armored vehicles. Our tanks and armoured vehicles opened fire on the enemy, and tracer bullets flew almost all over the sky, and many vehicles were riddled with bullet holes and burst into flames...... There were so many T-34s that our armored carriers had to look around for cover, and our driver, Gundogan, was desperately reversing to avoid artillery fire until he crashed into a house and then rushed out from the other side of the house. Then, our car butt seemed to hit something. As soon as I looked up from the carriage, a cold sweat came down. The rear of our car was crashing into a T-34, and its turret was turning with a real click, and soon the muzzle of the black hole was aimed at us...... The brothers in the car immediately screamed: 'Run! As soon as the words fell, the fire flashed, and a scorching and rapid air rushed through the carriage, and I was blown straight away. But there were no injuries, but everyone else was dead......"

Fierce battles ensued around the village that night, and German shelling nearly razed the village to the ground, leaving most of the houses gone, leaving only a few broken bricks and tiles. SS soldiers with MP-40 submachine guns trotted through piles of rubble. From time to time, he raised his head to shoot at the assault riflemen of the Red Army. The two armies fought fiercely until late at night, and finally the Germans had to retreat in despair under the threat of tank and artillery fire from the Red Army.

At the end of the night's fighting, Dietrich realized that the problem was serious, and that if he could not cross the Munesh River and capture Arad, the rest of the battle plan would not be realized. So he immediately stopped the small forced crossing of the divisions, which were fighting separately, and instead gathered strength to cross the Munesh River in one go.

After two days of preparation, the Germans attacked again on Dietrich's orders. The Germans hit the strong forces of two armored divisions and three infantry divisions, launching a fierce attack under overwhelming artillery fire.

But to Dietrich's surprise, on this day the Red Army also launched an attack, the LSSAH division was attacked by the frontal Red Army, with the support of heavy artillery, the two sides collided near the river bank, and even engaged in a brutal and bloody white-knives battle. Eventually, however, the Germans were better prepared, and they pushed back the Red Army that was charging head-on and built a strong bridgehead.

Later generations of war historians were baffled by this battle, because the very day before, the Romanian Second Front had received a notice from the Military Commissariat asking them to shrink appropriately to let the Germans cross the river. According to Konev's vision, it would be easier to trap the Germans by letting them go across the river, so that when Vasilevsky appeared behind them, it would be difficult for the Germans to escape.

According to this concept, in the face of the forced crossing of the German army, the Red Army in most sections of the Red Army contracted its position in a timely manner, and only the LSSAH division was responsible for this section of the problem, and the Red Army and the Romanian army stationed there inexplicably carried out a decisive counter-charge, which was simply disobedience, okay?

Later, after investigation, it was found that the regiment stationed in this section did not receive orders from their superiors, they thought that they had to hold their positions, and in the face of the German attack, the only way the regiment could think of was to fight for every inch of land, which caused a misunderstanding.

Ginter, a German soldier who lived through the battle, recalled: "We were on a muddy path with uneven ground and snow mixed with water, and we cursed the mud and staggered through exhaustion and gloom, and the people in front of the group sometimes disappeared in the darkness. I don't know how long it took, but finally the order to stop the advance came. I immediately collapsed weakly on the embankment, and my eyes rested for a moment. After more than ten minutes, I was kicked awake by the company commander, and my comrades-in-arms were already making final preparations for battle. Soon the order came down, and the StG-44 assault rifle group rushed to the river embankment first. We are not far behind. ”

"In front of us was a vast meadow, with farmhouses in the village on the other side of the river, where the Ivan were stationed. Just as we were preparing our assault boats and rubber boats to start crossing the river, suddenly there was a burst of gunfire, and the enemy's fire was very fierce, and several tongues of fire swept over the people who had already sat on the boat...... Mortar shells also fell. Blowing up chunks of dirt into the air, we knew that time was pressing, so we hurriedly picked up the oars and rowed as hard as we could, and the shells almost blew off after our assault boats, and in less than a minute, we were all ...... in the soup."

"As we got closer and closer to the riverbank, just when we thought we were going to be safe, a shell exploded in the stern of the boat, and I only felt a wave of air mixed with the cold water knock me over from behind. I almost fell headlong into the bottom of the river. After two struggles to regain consciousness, and then climbed up the river bank with my hands and feet, and when I looked back at the river bank with my back, not only did I gasp, but our assault boat had been completely blown apart, and only a few pieces of wood were left floating on the water, and all around the wood chips were blood-red, and I later learned that the people in the same boat were dead. ”

"I'm soaking wet. When the cold wind blows, I shiver involuntarily. At this time, I really want to find a sheltered place to light a campfire to warm up. Or even a change of dry clothes! Just as I was thinking about what to do next, a head appeared on the water, and the company commander wiped his face and climbed up the riverbank, he looked at me and asked aloud, 'Hank, where's your rifle?' That's when I realized that the rifle was gone. Maybe he fell into the river when he fell into the water, and the company commander was very dissatisfied with my explanation: 'Hank, what's the matter with a soldier without a gun?' I order you to get a gun at once, and the battle is about to begin! ’”

"Naturally, I was dumbfounded. With the way I shiver now, can I still fight? If I don't wait for Ivan to call, I will freeze to death. But the company commander didn't care about that, he ordered me to get a weapon. In desperation, I had no choice but to crawl back into the river and touch the missing damn gun in the mud. The river was cold, or rather getting colder, and I thought about giving up, but the company commander kept ordering me to keep looking for guns, and I had to carry out orders like a real German soldier. I don't know how long I searched, but I just felt frozen all over my body, and finally I found the deadly 98K rifle in the midst of a cloud of water and grass. At that time, my only thought was that I would finally be able to go ashore and not have to suffer from the cold. ”

"With my rifle in my hand, I trembled and climbed ashore again, but the company commander and the other brothers in the company were no longer on the shore, and from the other side of the embankment came a fierce shout, some German and some Russian, and when I climbed the embankment, a tragic scene hit my eye!"

"The company commander was dead, he had his stomach dissected by an Ivan, his internal organs were running all over the ground, and he was steaming, and next to him an Ivan had his head cut off by a sapper shovel. Not far away, a few comrades were fighting with Ivan, and the ground was full of corpses and blood everywhere. Regardless of the fact that I was about to freeze, I hurriedly inserted my bayonet and joined the battle group...... Soon the Ivan retreated, and only twenty of us, including me, who barely caught up with the battle, survived. ”

"Most of my comrades-in-arms were killed in hand-to-hand combat after crossing the river, and if I hadn't carried out the company commander's order to find the gun, I am afraid that I would have almost frozen, and I would have been dissected and died on the spot like the company commander. Thank you to the company commander, and thank you to the 98K, it was you who let me get through this battle. The Russian prisoner of war camps were bad, but they were better than losing their lives. ”

Dietrich breathed a sigh of relief at the successful crossing of the river, and he immediately ordered the sappers to build pontoon bridges and send the armored troops across the river as soon as possible, and then, according to Hitler's plan, the armored troops continued to penetrate and penetrate until the Romanian First Front was divided and surrounded.

However, Dietrich did not know that even if his armored troops successfully crossed the river, it did not mean that Arad could be easily taken. During his time in Romania, the Romanian Second Front had been consolidating this position. Around Arad, the Romanian Second Front, having built strong fortifications and stockpiled strong defensive forces, was waiting for him to rush up and run into a wall.

On the other side, Vasilevsky's 38th Army was also progressing quite smoothly, taking advantage of the fact that the Germans were busy attracting the attention of Konev's troops, he quickly rushed forward, almost all the way to the preset battlefield, and his actions did not attract the attention of the Germans at all...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to SC-VX, Admiral Hood, Shining Charter, Swordman King and Comrade Juventus!