In the first stage of the outbreak of the Battle of Kursk, this battlefield belonged to the stage of two people, that is, Guderian and Konev, of which Guderian once again showed his tank monster armor art, and Konev played an excellent defensive foundation, and the two sides were you come and go, and the fight is lively!

The first to attack the Red Army was the 46th Panzer Army, and the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division "Reich" played the front and stormed the line of the 167th Red Army Infantry Division. At first, the Germans were progressing fairly well, advancing five kilometers in a few hours, occupying two fairly strong "bridgeheads" and preparing for a deeper assault after the Greater German Panzer Infantry Regiment caught up.

At 2:30 p.m., according to the original battle plan, the German field artillery began to bombard the positions of the 167th Division of the Red Army. At the same time, the fighters of the 4th Air Force of the Luftwaffe also roared over the heads of the Red Army, opening the way from Stuka, and in an instant, the violent roar drowned out all sounds, and the defensive section of the 167th Division seemed to build a curtain wall of smoke and flames.

After thirty minutes of artillery fire and air raid preparations, the Germans poured out of their nests and began the first large-scale offensive in the Battle of Kursk. Green flares rose in the sky, and the commander's command was heard in the headphones of the armored corps: "PanzerinReihemarsch!" Los! Los!” Translated, it translates to "Tanks march in battle!" Let's go! ”

And this situation immediately attracted the attention of the Red Army, according to the report of the front observation post of the 167th Division: "The density of tanks and self-propelled guns per kilometer of frontal front in the direction of the main attack was 26, and in the secondary direction it was as high as 16!" ”

Dieter of the Panzergrenadier Regiment of the Imperial Division. Kuhlman later recalled: "After lunch. After an hour's rest. The attack began. After a short period of shelling and aerial bombardment. Our panzergrenadiers leaped to their feet and advanced in the face of heavy machine-gun and submachine gun fire from the positions of the Red Army. At this time, we did not have any cover from artillery and air force. The only thing that can give us a little comfort is the rumbling tanks No. 3 and No. 4, which follow us closely in order to eliminate the Russian fortifications and fire points at the first ......"

"After struggling in the mud for several hours, when it was completely dark, we finally stormed the positions of the Russian troops. After some examination, my head was covered in cold sweat. Because the Russian army has placed flamethrowers in the fortifications that can be fired with electricity! Even one day later, these flamethrowers will be ready to work, and we will be burned to ashes in the charge! ”

The German offensive was indeed "coincidental", at this time the defense line of the 167th Division was not completed, a considerable part of the fortifications were in the final stage of construction, and many weapons and equipment were not in place, which gave the Germans a lot of advantages.

Of course, the Germans have to thank Guderian, and if it weren't for his emphasis on speed, I'm afraid the result would have been completely different. Because even the positions of the Red Army were not completely built. It also inflicted considerable casualties on the Germans, and did not allow the Germans to make much progress.

The same. The Germans also had bad luck, as the limited capacity of the front-line airfields of the Fourth Air Force and the relatively bad weather made it difficult for the Luftwaffe to provide particularly effective air support. According to the Air Force report that day, visibility was so low that some Stuka pilots had to risk diving to a height of 500 meters before dropping bombs.

Because of the weakness of support, the German assault was sharply reduced after the initial three-plank axe, and the deeper they went into the Red Army's defensive line, the fiercer the resistance became. After the Imperial Division began to achieve certain results, it fell into a quagmire for the next two days.

In order to intensify the breakthrough, Guderian threw five artillery regiments into the battlefield on the third day, and the Reich Division, with the support of the Greater German Panzer Infantry Regiment, after several rounds of fierce attacks, finally succeeded in opening a hole in the defense line of the 167th Infantry Division of the Red Army, and the German infantry, with the support of tanks, began to break through to the depth of the 78th Infantry Corps.

However, the Reich Division and the Greater German Panzer Division were not the best performing German units of the day, and the highlight of the day was the 10th Panzer Division, which made significant progress in an area on the south bank of the Sem River that had been unfavorable due to excessive silt. The division miraculously captured Kurchatov.

The matter is that the 78th Infantry Corps originally judged that the vicinity of Kurchatov was not suitable for the operation of armored forces because of the rivers and wetlands, so it did not think that the Germans would break through from this area, so the defense was relatively lax.

However, the German 10th Panzer Division did not think so. Under the leadership of Lieutenant General Schar, the division found some Russian traitors as guides, quickly found out the route suitable for tank operations near the river beach, and quickly launched an attack on the Red Army positions in several directions.

The Red Army was caught off guard by the sudden 10th Panzer Division, and many Red Army soldiers on the positions had to face the German tanks before they could react, so they naturally had no way to parry. Fortunately, the commander of the Red Army reacted quickly and immediately sent reinforcements to block the attack, and in the villages outside Kurchatov, fierce battles broke out.

It is important to mention here that the anti-tank gunners of the Red Army, the 1966th Anti-Tank Battalion, which had just arrived at the outskirts of Kurchatov for reinforcements, responded calmly, reloading their 76-mm ZIS3 guns with grenades under the cover of their own infantry, firing at the German grenadiers at a very close distance, repelling several rounds of German charges.

In desperation, the Germans could only send tanks forward to open the way, but the 1966th Battalion was confident, and in the face of the German tanks that were rumbling over, they still did not hurry to aim and fire, and destroyed the German No. 4 tank with accurate firepower.

Suddenly the Germans were frightened, and the remaining tanks immediately began to reverse or turn in a panic, and then tragically fell into a soft river beach or field. Next, for the 1966th battalion, it was naturally even less difficult, destroying 6 German tanks in one go.

The 1966th battalion thwarted the Germans and continued to advance. But the Germans couldn't give up. In the middle of the night. About two companies of Germans tried to sneak into the positions of the Red Army again for a sneak attack. This time, the infantry responsible for defending the 1966th Battalion suffered a big loss because of lax defense, and was stunned by the German devils who pounced on them, and even abandoned the artillery comrades behind them, threw down their weapons and fled for their lives.

However, the 1966th Battalion did not flee with it, and the heroic artillerymen continued to fight. Sticking to their gun positions, leaning on ammunition boxes or hiding behind artillery shields, they fired fiercely at the onslaught with every weapon they could find. After an hour of fierce fighting. After paying the price of 18 soldiers and the destruction of a ZIS3, the Germans miraculously repulsed. In the early morning of the next day, the Red Army gunners, who were cleaning the battlefield, unexpectedly found more than 100 German corpses around the position.

Dieter. Kuhlman also wrote in his memoirs: "In the evening of the same day, the fighters of our company stormed in front of a small village behind Kurchatov. My squad was ordered to infiltrate the village and raid at night...... At midnight we set out, and there was a small church in the middle of the village road, and just as we were trying to sneak around it along the base of the wall, we suddenly heard some clicking sound from the other side of the base of the wall. In astonishment, we stopped, it was a Russian patrol! We immediately ducked into the shade of a house and shot indiscriminately in the darkness. Flashes of light whistled over our heads, and the popping sound of bullets as they entered the earthen wall could be heard from time to time. After a burst of fire. The Russian patrol was driven away, and we found seven or eight bodies. The next thing the company commander realized was that our actions had been exposed. Ordered us to change the surprise attack to a strong attack, and we chased after the Russian patrol in the direction where it fled! ”

"But what we didn't expect was that the attack we thought was not happening, and the Russians collapsed like dominoes, screaming and screaming and dropping their weapons and fleeing for their lives, like a bunch of stupid rabbits who are panicking!"

"The company commander is happy, and I am happy, if only all the Russians were like this, then we could end the war in the spring, as the superiors said. It's just that this dream quickly bursts like a soap bubble. The Russian artillery was like a mountain in front of us, and although they were also unprepared and did not have much training in positional warfare, they did not run away like the stupid rabbit in front. They calmly stayed in their positions and fought us with submachine guns, grenades or bayonets! ”

"It was a terrible and unbearable encounter, and it was unacceptable to us elite grenadiers that we were defeated by a group of artillerymen in long riding boots! These guys are the most terrible artillery I've ever seen, and they actually fight bayonets with cannons! After barely destroying two, uh, or three of the enemy's guns, the company commander was forced to order us to retreat at once, because a third of the company's brothers had been killed! ”

The fighting on the outskirts of Kurchatov had already foreshadowed that the Red Army of 1942 was very different from that of 1941, although their performance was still imperfect, they still made low-level mistakes at times, and even the combat effectiveness of some units was very poor. But these imperfect, low-level mistakes do not have a ripple effect as they did in 1941. Because there will always be a part of the stronger and better Russian heroes who will plug these loopholes, and as the war progresses, there will be more and more such heroic troops, and they will become stronger and stronger, and the pressure on the German army will naturally increase.

At the same time as the main SS forces launched an offensive, in the south of Kurchatov, the commander of the Großdeutsche Panzer Infantry Regiment von Murphy. Colonel Strawic, the famous tank count, also ordered the troops to go on the offensive on a frontal front about 3 kilometers wide. Despite the fact that the 199th Infantry Division of the Red Army was equipped with far fewer heavy anti-tank weapons than the Germans, the density of Red Army artillery in this area was still 10 to 12 guns per kilometer of frontage.

Moreover, before the attack of the Greater German Panzer Infantry Regiment, the scouts and operational staff officers of the 199th Infantry Division had already carried out careful reconnaissance and research in the vicinity of the defensive area, planned a variety of defensive plans, and collected a lot of information about the German army.

On this basis, they not only correctly calculated the German offensive route, but also accurately estimated the number of troops that the Germans might put into the offensive and the number of reserves they could put into the attack. The 199th Infantry Division's carefully calculated and well-prepared "Storm" concentrated fire suppression plan achieved great results. The offensive of the Greater German Panzer Infantry Regiment was met with stubborn resistance from the Red Army from the very beginning.

When the vanguard of the Greater German Panzer Infantry Regiment, supported by fire, attacked the positions of the 199th Infantry Division of the Red Army, they did not even get close to the main defensive positions of the Red Army, and before that. They were subjected to intensive fire from 76 to 122 mm howitzers and mortars of various calibers, which had been test-fired at artillery targets. Lethality of a large number of German soldiers.

As the fog slowly rose at that time. Visibility on the positions dropped to within 150 to 200 meters, and the sudden appearance of German assault forces posed a serious threat to the defensive positions, no doubt thanks to this well-prepared "storm" fire strike, which severely weakened the German offensive and reduced the pressure on the infantry and anti-tank artillery on the main line.

In addition to this, the climate interfered with the German offensive. Snow suddenly began to fall that night, and the howling cold wind and snowflakes instantly blew away the enthusiasm of the German army. Opposite. The 167th Infantry Division and the 199th Infantry Division skillfully took advantage of the favorable opportunity, skillfully seized the terrain and other factors unfavorable to the German army to carry out a wave of counterattacks, and miraculously recaptured Kurchatov!

It was not until the afternoon of the next day, when the 255th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht arrived on the battlefield, that the momentum of the Red Army's counterattack was thwarted and the existing front was stabilized.

In the first round of the confrontation, the Germans took advantage of the first, but in the end, due to various unfavorable factors, they spit out the fat in their mouths again. For this result, Guderian was not satisfied. His request to the 46th Panzer Army was that it must cut through the outlying positions of the Red Army in one fell swoop. Assault under Kursk as soon as possible, without giving the Red Army much chance to build positions. So wait for the main force of the assault group to arrive on the battlefield. You can run over the Kursk in one go.

However, the 46th Infantry Corps failed to do this, and faced the 78th Infantry Corps of the Red Army, which was not very elite, and fought quite hard. In his report to the General Staff, Guderian wrote: "The front-line assault forces did not achieve their goals at all, and the muddy road conditions combined with snowfall, as well as the heavy mines and anti-tank artillery positions of the Red Army hindered the mobility and combat effectiveness of the armored forces, so that not many tanks could really participate in the battle that day." According to the report of the commander of the 46th Panzer Army, Colonel-General Heinrich Gottfried von Fittinghoff-Schell, most of those engaged in the fierce battle were grenadiers, but apparently the infantry division alone could not tear through the lines of the Red Army! ”

The implication of Guderian's words was obvious, he still wanted to persuade the General Staff to abandon the operation. It's just that the latter can't listen to the tank monsters, but instead forces Guderian to continue to strengthen the offensive and break through Kursk as soon as possible.

Guderian was naturally disappointed, but he could only carry out the order. The next day, the Germans continued to attack, but it was a difficult time, because the snow came and went so quickly during the night, and the next morning, when a red sun came into the sky, the German commander knew that today's attack was going to be bad.

Yes, the temperature quickly rose from minus ten degrees to minus two or three degrees, and the land that had not been frozen became softer and softer, which also led to further deterioration of the condition of the roads.

On this day, the Großdeutsche Panzer Infantry Regiment attacked first, and the grenadiers, without artillery cover, stormed an open field, and although it was almost impossible to get tank support, after a hard battle, the Germans again captured Kurchatov. Immediately after that, the Reich SS divisions kept up with all their might and broke through deep into the Red Army positions.

It was a truly vicious battle, with Red Army soldiers using every weapon they could find to resist the German tanks, and many foxholes were leveled by tanks. The valiant Red Army soldiers often threw the last Molotov cocktail at the enemy's tanks before they were crushed, and finally the Red Army even pulled the divisional anti-aircraft artillery company to the front line to intercept the German tanks pouring into the defensive line. The sound of all kinds of guns and the cries of the soldiers mixed on the battlefield, and both sides of the bloody battle suffered heavy casualties!

Overall, however, the Germans still had the upper hand, and with superior forces and weapons, they achieved a breakthrough in some areas. Seeing that the defense line of the 169th Division was about to collapse, at an urgent moment, the 48th Mechanized Corps on the second line of defense of the Red Army sent the 60th Tank Division to reinforce it. The division commander, Rebalko, used a deft ambush tactic and, after intensive artillery bombardment, constantly used the terrain to change firing positions to weaken the assault force of the German offensive spearhead. First withstood the onslaught of the Imperial Division's tanks, and then decisively took a coordinated offensive and began a series of counter-charges.

Under the powerful blows of the 60th Tank Division, the German offensive was blocked, and in some sections the Germans were even forced to retreat. In desperation, they realized that the resistance of the Red Army seemed insurmountable, let alone continue the offensive, and even the defensive line that had been cut into looked shaky.

It was not only the Reich divisions that were blocked, but also the Wehrmacht's 10th Panzer Division, which was caught up in a hand-to-hand encounter with the Red Army from the very beginning, according to the recollections of the soldiers of the 1965th Artillery Company of the 6th Artillery Regiment of the Red Army (armed with 57-mm ZIS-2 anti-tank guns) who participated in the battle: "The German tanks, under the cover of incessant fire from several howitzers, opened fire and machine-gun fire at our positions. They are traveling fast and should exceed 30 km / h. The boys withstood the artillery fire and put the German tanks into a limit distance of about 200 meters before firing! "In this bayonet battle with the tanks, the 6th Company destroyed 7 German tanks in one fell swoop and drove the enemy 10th Panzer Division head-on...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow to the thanks of Admiral Hood, lazy readers, glorious charters, hzwangdd and Comrade Juventus!