Paulus began to realize that something was wrong, and as his troops advanced to the outskirts of Kursk, the resistance of the Red Army became more and more resolute, and he fought with his troops twenty-three times for the sake of a humble village, until the village was completely razed to the ground, and his boys were unable to capture the village.

And this is only a drop in the ocean, Paulus's cluster is completely frustrated, and it has not been able to move forward. Not only could he not move forward, but on the contrary, he could not even retreat. With Ubolevich's deliberate indulgence, the front of the two armies showed a staggered situation, which can be described as an enemy with us and an enemy with an enemy.

Of course, this is what normal military commanders hate the most, and they will do their best to avoid it. But Ubolevich was not a normal military commander, he belonged to the best generals of his time, and their thinking was very different from that of ordinary people.

Ubolevich was well aware that in Kursk he had only two army groups, and these forces were not enough, after all, the German army opposite was about the level of two army groups. And the Germans also had a tactical advantage, after all, they were mostly veterans.

So it is obvious that it is impossible to encircle and destroy the enemy with the 37th and 38th armies, this is not enough. Even counting the 5th and 6th armies allocated to him by the Military Commission was not enough, after all, they were pinned down by Manstein and Moder on the southern front, and their combat support to the north was limited.

So, it was clear from the very beginning that at the first and second stages of the campaign, his job was to fish, to firmly stick the Paulus cluster to Kursk. Let them advance and not retreat. Little by little, the morale and sharpness of the German army were consumed. By the time the Germans were almost exhausted. He will be able to ask the Military Commission for help. And now, he thinks it's about the same.

"After the attrition of the first and second phases of the campaign, the enemy Paulus group has lost all its strength. What our army needs to do is to increase its forces as soon as possible and encircle and annihilate the cluster near Kursk. ”

However, what the Military Commission is most afraid of hearing now is that the generals below are asking for more troops, because the strength is indeed very tight, mainly because the gap in weapons and equipment is too large, especially after reaching an agreement with Britain and the United States. After preparing to pay for a large number of T-34s, this gap became even wider.

Of course, the Central Military Commission and the Politburo also know that it is basically impossible to use four group armies to encircle and annihilate the enemy's two group armies, and counting the 9th and 11th group armies reinforced by the enemy's periphery, this is actually four group armies against four group armies, let alone encirclement, and the Red Army can be beaten under this kind of comparison of forces last year.

The previous assumption of the Politburo and the Military Commission was that the war of annihilation should be fought in July and August. It would take a month or two to consume the enemy, but now Ubolevich is about to enter the next stage more than a month in advance. This somewhat caught the Central Military Commission and the Politburo by surprise.

"Is the time ripe?" Trotsky asked.

To tell the truth, Lao Tuo really wanted to hear Ubolevich say that the time was not ripe at this time, but the answer was: "It is fully ripe, if it continues to drag, the enemy will probably make up his mind to flee, or increase his troops again, and then the pressure on the 5th and 6th armies will be very great!" ”

This is indeed possible, in fact Paulus has now sensed that something is wrong, he is judging the situation, and it will not be long before he will find that there is no point in continuing the attack, and he will also find that the Red Army is trying to encircle him, and at that time, even if the strong man breaks his wrist, he will probably retreat immediately. In that case, it's troublesome.

Trotsky was puzzled and asked: "How many troops are needed to encircle and annihilate the battle?" ”

According to Ubolevich's idea, at least three more reinforcements are needed to give him three armies, of course, he also knows that it is tantamount to a fool's dream to have three armies now, so he replied very sincerely: "It is better to support three armies, but I know that this is not very likely, but at least give me two armies, otherwise it will ......"

Otherwise what, Ubolevich did not finish, and he did not have to finish, because the big guys understood what he meant. However, this very sincere request still made it difficult for the Politburo and the Military Commission, where to squeeze out two army groups to support Ubolevich?

Spreading out the map, we can see that the closest to Kursk is the 40th Army of the Voronezh Front. However, as everyone knows, this group army is just an empty shelf, and there is no one to ask for weapons or weapons, and it is certainly not possible to count on it. Then there are the 39th, 41st and 42nd armies of the Central Army Group, of which the 39th Army has basically completed the refitting work (most of them are equipped with stocks of weapons after the First World War, such as Mosinagan such as Makqin machine guns, as for tanks, I'm sorry, I really don't even have many T-26s, a huge army group is all infantry divisions, and the only tank unit is still a tank brigade equipped with T-26, which is really miserable. ）。

And the most critical thing is that this army group is still on the line of Moscow and Tula, too far from Kursk. Except for the 39th Army, the 41st and 42nd armies were in a similar situation to the 40th Army, only a small number of troops were armed, and the rest were in the process of waiting for people and equipment, which seemed to be no fun.

It is better that these two armies are on the line of Oryol and Bryansk, relatively close to Kursk, at least they can reach the battlefield within the stipulated time.

In addition to the Central Front, the strategic reserve of the Red Army included the Western Front and the Northern Front, each of which had four newly formed army groups, the only regret was that the main forces of the Western Front were on the Smolensk and Vitebsk lines, while the main forces of the Northern Front were on the Riga and Pskov lines. Moreover, most of these units are also in a state of full training, and their personnel still lack tactical training and are not fully equipped.

Then there is the strategic reserve in the hands of the Military Commission, which is almost the strength of the three army groups, and the troops have basically completed their training, and the weapons are still abundant, but the problem is that it is too far from Moscow. For example, the 50th Army, which is actually composed of troops drawn from the Far East, most of its personnel and equipment are still on the Baikal line, and are heading to Moscow by rail. It will take half a month to reach Moscow at the earliest.

For example, the 51st Army and the 52nd Army. These two units were drawn from the Central Asian Military District. Part of it is still in Georgia, the other part is in Kazakhstan, and it is also a veritable far water.

At this time, the military commissar felt the troubles of happiness, and it was not a good thing that the generals below were too capable of fighting. You see, Ubolevich, Konev and Vasilevsky are a bunch of fierce men who get together and make the Germans deflated in minutes.

In the end, Lao Tuo really had no choice but to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall, so he ordered the troops of one army to be transferred from the 40th, 41st, and 42nd armies to Ubolevich. Then the 39th Army near Tula was ordered to speed up its southward movement, and even ordered the Airborne Forces stationed in Kaluga, as well as part of the NKVD Internal Affairs Units, to immediately board the plane and fly to Kursk for use by elite infantry.

Let's put it this way, Lao Tuo has given all the old bottom to Ubolevich, and the Military Commission at this time really has no reserves at all. It is also said that if Ubolevich wins, it will be fine, and if he does not win, it will trigger a new chain reaction.

Ubolevich also knew this, so he devoted all his energy to this battle, carefully preparing every detail and leaving no loopholes for the Germans to exploit.

A few days later, the first to arrive in Kursk were the Airborne Forces, which totaled about a division. Of course, there is absolutely more than one division of the number. Because these airborne troops are left over from Tukhachevsky's last squander, it is not an exaggeration to say that they are the seeds of the airborne forces. Ubolevich organized the three airborne brigades into an infantry division and entrusted them with the defense of the Kursk city.

The 205th Infantry Division of the 79th Infantry Corps, which was replaced by the Airborne Corps, immediately pulled out of the city and entered the front line of battle. After another two days, the NKVD cobbled together about a brigade of men and horses and delivered it to Kursk, and Ubolevich, who was lighter than the paratroopers, also made full use of these security forces, and let them act as logistics support detachments, and they were also good at this.

The Red Army was actively preparing, and Paulus was not idle, and after some field investigation and careful consideration, he sent a telegram to the General Staff and Army Group Center requesting: "It has been preliminarily determined that there are about six Russian troops in front of our army, and the strength of the enemy and us is very close, and the possibility of continuing to break through is very small. Whether it can be transferred to defense, look forward to instructions. ”

In fact, what Paulus wanted was not to go on the defensive, but to retreat. But he could not say it explicitly, the reason was very simple, the last commander who asked for a retreat Guderian was dismissed on the spot, and the Führer personally planned the battle with great hopes, and he Paulus was raised by the Führer, and directly asking for a retreat at this time was tantamount to a slap in the face of the Führer.

Paulus could not do such a stupid thing, so he could only hint very vaguely that the prospects were not good, hoping that the General Staff and the Führer would understand his distress and agree to his retreat. It's just that Paulus's idea was too naïve, he didn't dare to mention the retreat, and how dare those in the General Staff? Whether it is Halder, Yodel or Keitel, they are also soft bones, and their demands for the Führer have always been compromised, and they have tried every means to meet the Führer's expectations. And now the Führer is expecting to take Kursk, where do they dare to mention the stubble of retreat? Not only did he not mention the topic of retreat, but he even vetoed Paulus's official request to move to defense in situ.

"We must take Kursk by the end of June."

This is the answer of the General Staff, and for this kind of fucking request, Paulus eggs hurt, if he can take Kursk, will he take it? The problem is that I can't take it! The opponent is very strong and tenacious, not to mention the end of June, and the end of August will not be able to take Kursk!

In desperation, he could only draft another telegram and began to shout that he was short of troops and demanded reinforcements immediately, otherwise...... Otherwise, he will not be able to take Kursk at the end of June.

So the Germans have the ability to reinforce the? The Red Army was nervous, how could the Germans be relaxed, in fact the Germans were even more nervous than the Red Army. As mentioned earlier, Germany has not entered a state of war now, and a considerable part of its industrial capacity is used to ensure civilian use. They are not half a little worse than the Soviet Union, which has already been fully mobilized. What's more, the Germans were superstitious about those sophisticated weapons and equipment, which led to their equipment production capacity being even worse. In other words, it was useless for Paulus to ask for reinforcements.

Moreover, even if there are reinforcements, I am afraid that they will not be able to reach Kursk, and now two important passages to Kursk have been closed by the Red Army. It was quite difficult for the Germans to provide logistical support to Paulus now. A large number of supplies are backlogged in Konotop. Only a small part can be delivered to Paulus.

In fact, Paulus was still a little sluggish. If he was shrewd enough, he should have realized that there was a problem with his logistics. Although there are no problems with his material support now, it is based on the Air Force's strengthened airlift and airdrop. The railway line was intermittent and could only provide him with supplies intermittently. In other words, if the weather turns bad or the Red Army strengthens the air blockade, it will be very difficult for him.

However, Paulus ignored this at the time, and he probably thought that Moder and Manstein would soon and completely unblock the communication lines, at least to ensure his supplies. So at that time he was not particularly in a hurry, but at the request of Hitler and the General Staff. The final onslaught was launched.

This round of attacks was so fierce that Paulus threw all his combat forces into it, and he probably wanted to prove to Hitler with this kind of practical action: "Führer, it's not that I didn't work hard enough, it's that the Russian army is too stubborn." I've gotten out and fought with no result, so let's retreat first! ”

To put it bluntly, Paulus wanted to give an explanation to Hitler in this round of attacks, but what he didn't expect was that this round of attacks would drain the last bit of sharpness of his troops. What is even more terrifying is that in order to maintain such a large-scale fierce offensive. He had to consume a considerable part of his stockpile, which directly led to his later tragedy.

The fierce German offensive lasted a week. During this week, both the German army and the Red Army paid a huge price. This week alone, about 50,000 people remain on the battlefield forever.

"In accordance with the instructions of the Führer, in order to ensure the smooth capture of Kursk by the Paulus cluster, our air force will be responsible for the supply and transportation of the cluster in the case of difficult ground transportation...... In the beginning, we were able to land at the field airfield outside Kursk and calmly unload the supplies, only occasionally disturbed by the Red Army partisans, who would secretly shoot at us or attack the airfield with mortars, but the scale was not large, and the trouble and losses caused to us were negligible. ”

"However, the situation changed as the battle progressed, especially after the last large-scale offensive by the Paulus cluster. The Russian army has more and more fighter jets, patrolling around Kursk almost day and night, and air battles are breaking out every moment. Through the porthole, you can see the BF-109 or FW-190 scuffling with the Russian Jacques and Lag, the sky is full of tracer bullets, and every now and then a fighter plane pulls a puff of black smoke down......"

"We put in a lot of fighters, and the Russians are no exception, and we all know that whoever has air supremacy will win the battle. The difference is that we have taken a very different approach to them. Our fighter pilots are better at aerial safaris, and small crews and crews wander around like rangers, stalking like vultures when they find their targets. The Russians, on the other hand, were more disciplined, and with the exception of some fighters who were responsible for air patrols, many fighters carried out their mission of escorting bombers and attack planes. ”

"It's not that I'm complaining about anything, to tell you the truth, I have a hard time feeling about our fighter pilots. They had previously achieved a brilliant record on the Eastern Front, shooting down many Russian planes, but this also caused them to focus only on their own battles, and never paid much attention to the protection of transport, bomber and attack aircraft. When fighter pilots fight the enemy, they never take into account the feelings of us transport and bomber pilots. ”

"We are exposed to the air without protection, and at any time there may be new Russian fighters in front of us (the Russians have more fighters), and sometimes even the cunning Russians will deliberately send some fighters to attract away the fighters escorting us, and then another team of fighters in ambush will come to reap the fruits of our battle. It's infuriating that our fighter pilots are always fooled, they rarely learn their lessons, and when they see Russian fighters, they are as excited as they see sleek beauties, and they forget about us old men and goddesses! ”

"On more than one occasion, my wingman and friend plane were beaten into fire ducks by the Russians before the fighter pilots reacted. More than once, I had to cover myself from a hail of bullets from Russian fighters; On more than one occasion, I staggered back to the airport with bullet holes and engines emitting black smoke and flames; More than once, I have no doubt that I will be the next time I will be shot down. ”

"Fortunately, my luck is not bad, although there are a few times when I almost go to Huangquan, but I finally survived without danger. It's just that those army brothers on the ground are not so lucky, even at an altitude of thousands of meters, I can feel the cruelty and fierceness of the ground battle. At that time, the surface of Kursk was like the moon, full of craters and craters, and around these craters, there were tanks and cars on fire, destroyed artillery, and of course, more of ...... corpse with an unrecognizable face" (to be continued......

PS: Bow and thank you to the king of riders, ds135, the dog that plays with frogs, back and forth, Ula ~~ and Comrade Juventus!