October 2, 1942.

After careful reconnaissance preparations, the German 73rd and 298th Infantry Divisions stationed outside Klinzi fired the first shots of another attack. His engineering units began to clear the barbed wire and mines laid by the Red Army in the middle of the night of the 1st, while the main attacking force launched a full-scale attack an hour later along the safe passage opened by the engineers without artillery fire (in order to achieve the suddenness of the battle).

The Second Belorussian Front, because Tukhachevsky had previously transferred a lot of troops, was not particularly well prepared for battle, and even a considerable part of the fortifications were not completed. So in the eyes of the German attacking forces, the defense of the Red Army was just that. Soon after the battle broke out, the German 73rd Infantry Division tore a hole in the Red Army's defensive line, and the 298th Infantry Division swarmed in, and two infantry divisions advanced rapidly along the railway towards the city of Klingzi.

Admiral Hort's report on the battle at the front received that morning was described as follows: "Our 298th and 73rd Infantry Divisions have launched an attack at four o'clock in the morning as planned, and the vanguard of the 298th Infantry Division has advanced to the vicinity of the high ground east of Klinzi, as only a small amount of enemy resistance has been encountered; The situation of the 73rd Infantry Division was not so rosy, and in the north-west it was stagnant with Soviet resistance, and now it has been called for unprecedented support. ”

Admiral Hodt was clearly not satisfied with this result, and the Führer put considerable pressure on him, and under the constant rebuke and orders of the Führer, he had to reluctantly throw in his armored forces in order to take Klinzi in one go.

The tanks of the German 8th Panzer Division first passed through the positions of the 73rd Infantry Division, after helping the 73rd Infantry Division to repel the enemy in front of them. The tank units were again ordered to move to the northwest. Immediately after the 8th Panzer Division was the 3rd SS "Skeleton" Division. The division was engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with the Red Army as soon as it entered the battlefield. For a whole afternoon, the battle around the 107 heights was inextricable.

In the "Skeleton" division. The most "brilliant" was the newly formed Panther Panzer Battalion under the command of Major Mulchlenkamp, and it is worth mentioning that all the crews of the battalion were temporarily "seconded" from the remaining SS units of the Home SS and went to the battlefield after only a short period of training.

It is conceivable how much combat effectiveness the troops that have been improvised all this time can have, especially since they are still piloting the early version of the Panther A, which is known for its extremely high failure rate. For the whole day, the battalion was "fighting" with endless mechanical problems, and it was not until four o'clock in the afternoon that it actually entered the battle. But soon the battalion ran headlong into the anti-tank minefields of the Red Army. With the roar of several explosions, the group of "temporary workers" had to leave behind the three Panthers that had caught fire and exploded and withdrew from the battlefield.

At the same time, on the other side, two armored battalions and three infantry battalions of the 8th Panzer Division have arrived at the designated assembly area and will be able to directly attack Klinzi from west to east. The 298th Infantry Division had taken control of the roads and railways south of Klintsey, and the vanguard was conducting fire reconnaissance of Klintsey. As for the 73rd Infantry Division, it finally overcame the stubborn resistance of the Red Army and began to advance steadily.

Although on the first day of the offensive, the Germans were unable to take Klinzi in one go, most of the troops also arrived at the predetermined position largely as Hort demanded, after a calm night. The soldiers on both sides will be plunged into even more brutal fighting.

It's four o'clock in the morning again, and it's the same troops again. The second day of the Battle of Klinzi finally arrived. The 298th Infantry Division, which had progressed most smoothly the previous day, failed to continue the good fortune of the previous day, advancing only three kilometers to Klinzi in the morning, and by two o'clock in the afternoon, the division had to temporarily halt the pace of the offensive under the stubborn counterattack of the Red Army. After a two-hour rest, the division sounded the horn of the attack again, and by sunset, it advanced seven kilometers in one go.

Let's talk about the Muhlenkamp, who had been out of the country the day before, and after receiving the support of the divisional artillery, the battalion reappeared. Soon after, Stuka of the Fourth Air Force also arrived to help. After a burst of heavy shelling and bombardment, the positions of the Red Army were already dusty, and Muhrenkamp knew it was his turn to strike.

With the order of Muhlenkamp, the Panther tanks that had already warmed up attacked in all directions, and the guns were pointed directly at the Red Army positions on the high ground on the right flank. Led by Captain Schünabel's 1st Company, followed by Lieutenant Frugel's 2nd and 3rd Companies.

After running over the first anti-tank trench of the Red Army, the German tanks stopped moving forward and instead provided fire cover for the engineering units that were crawling. A sapper who participated in the battle vividly recorded their journey:

"After our tanks stopped, Sergeant Sarriffin led us cautiously and step by step towards the Russian position, while carefully searching for and removing all mines and other obstacles in our path. From time to time, Russian shells flew over our heads. While climbing over a trench, Corporal Sennar, who was next to me, was hit in the head by a flying bullet, and blood was pouring down. I'm used to it, and almost every time I clear mines, something like this happens, maybe one day it's my turn. ”

"Soon, the infantry brothers who followed up followed, and with their support, we finally no longer had to worry about the firepower of the Russian army, and soon under the cover of machine guns and tanks, we successfully opened a safe passage in the minefield. When the Panther Tanks ran past me, my only thought at the time was: This new tank is really big! ”

With strong support from the engineering troops, Mulchlenkamp's armoured forces managed to take the high ground in front of them, but the stubborn resistance of the Red Army caused him to lose three more valuable Panther tanks.

Coincidentally, the German 8th Panzer Division, which was at the northernmost point of the attacking force, was also led by engineer units in the offensive on another day. Before dawn, the engineer platoon from the 1st Battalion of the 66th Panzergrenadier Regiment (a model unit carefully assembled by the Germans, all equipped with armored personnel carriers carrying various types of artillery, achieving the perfect combination of mobility and firepower) opened a zigzag path for the main force, but it itself was unable to move under the pressure of the Red Army's fierce counter-fire. In desperation, the battalion commander, Major Brookney, commanded his armored personnel carrier to rush forward, regardless of his own safety. It was a sweep against the pillboxes of the Red Army. It even ran out of ammunition for the on-board machine gun twice.

Of course. The anti-tank guns of the Red Army were also not vegetarian, and with a fierce fire, two German armored vehicles that were charging together with Major Bruckney were destroyed in succession. At a moment of great crisis, it was the tanks of the 4th Panzer Regiment that stepped forward to solve the problem.

As the Red Army's positions were broken through little by little, the tanks and armored vehicles of the 8th Panzer Division were finally able to rumble through the Red Army's defensive positions, and the remains of the Red Army killed could be seen everywhere on the battlefield. However, to the surprise of the Germans, they barely captured a few prisoners, and most of the Red Army died heroically in stubborn resistance.

And just when the Germans thought the door to Klinzi had been opened. As their 8th Panzer Division advanced rapidly, the Reds finally made a killer move. The 8th Panzer Division on the march was suddenly covered by rockets. From time to time, rockets fell from the sky on the heads of the German attacking troops, and no less than ten armored personnel carriers alone were destroyed. What made the 8th Armored Division feel breathless was that the Red Army's rocket artillery units were very mobile, and they hit and ran on the full-track chassis, which made the Panther tanks that were ready to pursue them out of reach, but the Panther caught fire and burned two of them because of the driving too fierce.

By October 5, most of Klintsey's Red Army outlying positions had been captured by the Germans, and the sudden German attack also aroused Rokossovsky's high vigilance. As one of the troika of the future Red Army, Rokossovsky was keenly aware that the Red Army's offensive was very unusual. On October 3. He sent a telegram to the Military Commission: "I believe that this German offensive is not a small-scale trial, but the beginning of a large-scale offensive. The enemy threw a considerable number of troops. Including a large number of armored units equipped with Panthers and Tiger tanks, the appearance of these elite units shows that the enemy still wants to capture Bryansk and thus surprise towards Moscow! ”

Ubolevich also noticed the unexpected attack of the Germans, and he was keenly aware of the unusual significance of this attack, which he suspected was the beginning of a new large-scale German offensive.

However, at this time, the General Staff of the Red Army was very chaotic, and the downfall of Tukhachevsky caused a series of chaos, with some officers who had no intention of working and were busy running for the future, while others were incompetent enough to take charge of themselves.

More critically, the previous focus of the work of the General Staff was on the Minsk counterattack operation. Everything is centered around this operation. After Ubolevich came to power, although he immediately stopped this plan, it was inevitable that this plan had already involved too much energy in the General Staff, so that they did not notice the enemy's movements.

Moreover, there were also different opinions within the Military Commission on whether the German army should carry out a new large-scale offensive operation. According to the estimates of the intelligence department of the General Staff, from December 1941 to August 1942, the German army suffered heavy losses, a large number of armored units were annihilated, and judging by the domestic tank production in Germany, it was unlikely that it would have the ability to attack again before 1943.

This report is the exact opposite of the situation on the battlefield, so who should I listen to? Seeing that the Red Army was about to delay the fighters, at a critical moment, one person changed the trend of the battle and pulled the Red Army back from the precipice.

The man's name was William. August. Fisher, probably many comrades are very unfamiliar with this name, because this name is really not well-known. But when it comes to another name of this duke, it may be much more well-known, and that is Rudolph. Abel! The famous Soviet spy king!

A brief introduction to Abel's life. He was born in Newcastle, England. Isn't it amazing? A super-agent comparable to 007 who made significant contributions to the Soviet Union turned out to be not a native of Russia. Well, in fact, the more surprising thing is yet to come, in a sense, Mr. Abel is not a Russian or a Slav.

His father and mother (Heinrich Rich. Fisher and Lyubov. Fisher) were all Germanic Russians. His father, Heinrich, an old Bolshevik, studied with Lenin in St. Petersburg and engaged in revolutionary activities together during the Tsarist period, but was arrested in 1896 for opposing the Tsarist regime and exiled. Then fled to England in 1901.

Fisher the Elder was arguably a hardcore Bolshevik, even during his exile in England. I also tried my best to support the comrades in the country. For example, the repatriation of weapons to the country through secret channels.

I have to say. The elder Fisher's revolutionary activities had a considerable influence on the young Abel, who was active in his family from an early age with many revolutionaries who spoke English, Russian, German, French, and Polish, and the exchange with these revolutionary heroes led Abel to embark on the revolutionary road. Of course, the most important thing is that these uncles, uncles and aunts have given Abel one of their most valuable assets - language skills.

As a child, Abel quickly learned the most authentic Chinese languages from these seniors, and this young genius could speak English, French, Russian, German, and Polish proficiently and without accent when he became an adult. And Abel also has a talent for music and painting. In particular, the level of photography is quite good. And these will be the most valuable weapons in his later career as an agent.

In 1921, after the Soviet revolution had been victorious, Abel returned to Moscow with his parents, first as a translator for the Comintern, then as a KGB, and later as a candidate for the Gestapo because of his Germanic roots.

Historically, Abel played a major role in his successful penetration into the Gestapo. And in this historical time and space, because of the addition of a certain immortal, the weight of Abel has become even more important. 1942 year. He became Himmler's aide-de-camp and had access to the core political and military secrets of the Third Reich.

After Hitler was determined to launch a new offensive. As Himmler's aide-de-camp, Abel soon learned of this important information. However, what made Abel depressed was that in order to achieve the suddenness of the attack as much as possible, Hitler imposed a high degree of isolation on all personnel who were informed of the new offensive plan, and even Himmler could only hide in the wolf's den for the time being and wait for the Führer to begin. Naturally, Abel couldn't walk away either.

Fortunately, after the battle began, the relevant secrecy policy was suspended, and Abel, who had regained his freedom, immediately found his contacts and fed back the overall battle plan that Hitler named "Redbeard" back to Moscow.

Therefore, when Li Xiaofeng walked into the conference room of the Central Military Commission with a full set of plans related to "Red Beard", the outcome of this offensive operation, on which Hitler had high hopes, was doomed.

"It's insane!" This is the exclamation that Ubolevich made after reading the plan "Red Beard".

It is no wonder that Ubolevich was surprised, because the Führer's plan was indeed a brainstorm. In order to gather enough armored troops, Hitler almost exhausted the armored forces on all other fronts, and concentrated most of his tanks in the direction of Gomel. Such behavior is completely contrary to military common sense, and of course, in the future, Hitler will use this kind of brain-opening tactics more than once, such as the Ardennes counterattack, such as the Hungarian operation of the south wind, which are all examples of demolishing the east wall and making up the west wall.

"No wonder the General Staff Intelligence Bureau made a miscalculation," Yegorov also spoke, but he said good things for the General Staff Intelligence Bureau, "If according to normal strategy and tactics, the German army really does not have the ability to counterattack!" ”

Why did Egorov say good things for the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff? The reason is very simple, the General Staff has been tossed miserably because of Tukhachevsky's resignation, and it can be said that everyone is in danger for a period of time. At this time, because the "redbeard" General Staff Intelligence Bureau has made another big mistake, if they are punished or punished, the General Staff is afraid that it will really be a pill. So even if the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff made a mistake and almost misled the Military Commission, Yegorov had to say good things for them, without him, he really couldn't toss anymore.

Li Xiaofeng also knew this truth, in fact, he did not mean to apply for the intelligence bureau of the General Staff, because their mistake was understandable, and because of Tukhachevsky's interference, most of their attention was in the Minsk direction, and it was normal for them to miss Gomel's intelligence.

Therefore, Li Xiaofeng also said smoothly: "The key issue now is not to hold those responsible, but how to deal with the German army's 'Red Beard' plan." Judging by the available intelligence, the enemy has completed combat readiness and has already thrown himself on the offensive. On the contrary, the 2nd Belorussian Front was not ready for battle, and in preparation for the Minsk counterattack, it had frequent movements, lacked rest in its troops and did not have a reliable line of defense against enemy attacks. ”

The situation with Rokossovsky is really not good, the strength of the Second Belorussian Front is small, and the previous battles have a lot of consumption, and the capabilities of this front alone may not be enough to resist the German army. Reinforcement of Rokossovsky was an inevitable choice.

"Transfer the 37th, 38th, and 5th and 26th armies to the direction of Bryansk, and order the 2nd Ukrainian Front and the 1st Belorussian Front to draw part of their forces closer to Gomel, and resolutely not let the enemy open a hole in the center of our front!" Ubolevich said categorically, "We must not only crush the enemy's offensive plot, but also fight another war of annihilation, and strive to annihilate the enemy's large force again, and it is better to boil the enemy's newly formed armored forces in one pot!" (To be continued.) )