In fact, Paulus was still too optimistic, yes, you read that right, he was really too optimistic, he also thought that he could escape from the encirclement with half of the main force, and thought that he would be able to reserve a certain degree of armored assault force for the German army, but in reality this was simply impossible!

Why did Ubolevich's launch a full-scale general offensive only on July 4? You must know that Paulus had already begun to retreat on June 30, and it stands to reason that when he found the Germans fleeing, Ubolevich should have ordered his troops to immediately pounce on them in pursuit. But why didn't he do it?

The reason is simple, Ubolevich knew very well that with the forces at hand, it would be easy to defeat Paulus, but it would not be easy to completely annihilate Paulus. Paulus's cluster, though short of supplies and tired and hungry, was an army of hundreds of thousands, not hundreds of thousands of pigs. And even if it is hundreds of thousands of pigs, it is not easy to catch them all in one go!

Ubolevich knew very well that the German army's combat effectiveness was still very strong, and with his current forces, it was very likely that it would become a pot of raw rice. So Ubolevich wisely thought of a solution, or rather, took advantage of Paulus's eagerness to retreat.

Ubolevich knew that Paulus would definitely leave a part of his forces to block him in order to cover the retreat of the main forces. Therefore, he deliberately did not launch a full-scale attack to defeat Paulus's blocking forces at the beginning, so it was easy to arouse Paulus's vigilance, and he would immediately change his original plan, and the whole army would stay behind and continue to deal with him, so that the battle would not be easy to fight.

Ubolevich deliberately did not storm and defeat Paulus's blocking force, but adopted the method of slowly infiltrating and gradually encircling: first encircled Paulus's blocking force, waited for Paulus's main force to open a certain distance from the blocking force, and then launched a fierce attack to eat this small number of blocking troops in one fell swoop, and at the same time sent one or two mechanized corps to pursue Paulus's main force and scare Paulus with great momentum. Forcing Paulus to divide his forces for the second time.

Speaking of which, the big guy knows what Ubolevich is up to, right? He deliberately forced Paulus to divide his troops, and then fought a war of annihilation with more battles and fewer battles, eating up about one of the opponent's troops at a time, and accumulating a lot of them several times in a row. It was much easier to do this than to surround Paulus in one go, compress the German army into a group, and then slowly and painstakingly divide it.

Ubolevich constantly forced Paulus to abandon his son to achieve the goal of annihilating the weak enemy with superior forces. I have to say. His plan succeeded, and Paulus, who was only thinking about a safe escape, fell into the scheme. Soon after his second division, the Red Army once again surrounded the blocking force he had left behind, and what Ubolevich needed to do was to eat the first blocking force, and then lead the main force to the south to quickly join the mechanized army, and then eat the second course.

There may be comrades who want to say that this method is good or not, but there is a problem, Paulus's main force has not yet run away. At best, this tactic would annihilate half of the forces of the Paulus group. I can't fulfill the instructions issued by the Military Commission to annihilate the Paulus group!

It is well said, if it is only fought like this, it will indeed let go of a considerable part of the main German army, and the goal of annihilating the Paulus group will not be achieved. This problem Ubolevich has already taken into account, he has arranged it in advance.

Do you remember the KGB air assault brigades that Li Xiaofeng supported him? As Paulus desperately drove south, he did not notice that the helicopter units of the Red Navy were moving troops in front of him in formation, and setting up blocking positions in front of him.

Ubolevich's idea was simple. On the one hand, they accumulated a large number of blocking forces to annihilate Paulus, and on the other hand, they constantly took advantage of the transportation advantages of helicopters. Lay nails in the path that the opponent must pass to escape, slow down Paulus's escape, and buy time for the main force to catch up again and annihilate the enemy.

This approach is quite effective, the air assault brigade of the KGB is already good at special operations, and they have countless ways to delay a fleeing army of the enemy. From laying mines to cold guns and cold artillery harassment, if it doesn't work, they will destroy railways and highways, or occupy key points on the road through which they must resist.

All in all, Paulus was tormented by chicken feathers and duck blood along the way, and the more he wanted to hurry. But the more he couldn't get up, the more he recalled: "The elusive guerrillas have made us suffer a lot, they use all kinds of methods to make us trouble, you ignore them, they will become more and more rampant, and to ignore them will waste a lot of time and energy......"

Paulus was so depressed that he wanted to vomit blood, for these enemies who did not play according to the routine, he was a German academic who received formal military education, and he really had no choice but to passively order the troops to strengthen their vigilance and increase vigilance, as for the effect? And then the eggs.

Of course, Paulus was not the only one who was depressed at the time, but also Manstein and Moder. Because the battle around Konotop was really not going well, Zhukov stuck like kraft candy, even if the two repeatedly strengthened the offensive, but they just couldn't drive the fifth group away. On the contrary, as Manstein and Moder's troops became fatigued, Zhukov's troops became more and more energetic.

This must be an illusion, no one can fight more and more energetically, and the reason why Manstein and Moder have such an illusion is actually only one reason: as the Red Army continues to accumulate combat experience, when new soldiers become veterans, and veterans become old fritters, the combat effectiveness is naturally not the same. Therefore, even if the Fifth Army suffered relatively large losses, after this tempering, its combat effectiveness did not decrease but increased, especially when the troops could give full play to the power of the new weapons, could the German army not feel a headache? Even the Red Army, which was once bursting with combat effectiveness, carried out a fruitful counterattack.

German Lieutenant Steenbeck recalled: "We had to keep repelling the counterattacks of Russian tanks and infantry, and according to the report of the reconnaissance battalion, we were about to attack a very low-lying muddy field. Moreover, the Russian army has laid out a powerful defensive system, with a large number of mines, machine guns and anti-tank guns, and our tanks will be destroyed as soon as they get close to the enemy's positions, and for a time we are at a loss......"

And the aforementioned Kurman recalled: "Our company lost a third of its brothers in the previous night shelling by the Russians, which promoted me from third to second private. We took the grenades out of the bulky wooden boxes and tied them in pairs with rope and hung them around our necks, or pinned to the belt of our armies or inserted into the barrels of our boots, so that a man could carry ammunition that only three people could carry before. Then we left the farmhouse where we were hiding, and cautiously approached the enemy lines......"

"The battle that followed was as fierce as before, with us frantically shooting, cannonballing, or throwing grenades. After a long day of fighting, there were only 50 people left in our company, and most of them, including the company commander, either died or were wounded and withdrew from the battle. ”

On 7 July, a sudden hailstorm struck Konotop, making the plain muddy again. The German grenadiers panted and attacked in the hail. But they were resolutely resisted by the Red Army. Kuhlman lay on the ground, crawling forward in the mud under the rain of bullets, and the dense machine guns and shells hit the muddy ground to set off "pillars of mud", and occasionally a few shells hit the grenadiers directly, blowing them to pieces. It was only at dusk that the grenadiers, almost drenched, finally captured the positions of the Red Army.

According to the recollections of the Germans: "The 27th Panzergrenadier Regiment was ordered to launch a strong attack on the Russian 201st Heights west of the battle line, with the 1st Battalion on the left and the 2nd Battalion on the right, with the elite 14th Anti-Tank Battalion in the front. At the same time, the regimental artillery and heavy firearms supported its power. At 12:30, the 2nd Battalion arrived at the intended attack position. The enemy immediately bombarded the 2nd Battalion with mortars, and at the same time, the Il-2 attack aircraft continued to strafe and drop bombs, and in extremely difficult circumstances, the 2nd Battalion still stubbornly advanced and occupied the burning vineyards. At this moment, the Red Army field artillery group suddenly launched a covering fire on the 2nd battalion, due to the enemy's heavy fire. The 2 battalion could not move a single step, and the losses were enormous. ”

Until 19:30 that night. The 2nd Battalion of the German 26th Regiment was disabled by fire before retreating to a safe area under the cover of night. At this time, only the 1st Battalion of the regiment succeeded in opening an offensive route, and the 14th Anti-Tank Battalion soon acted together with the 1st Battalion, and after advancing several hundred meters, was again repulsed head-on by the fierce counterattack of the Red Army.

Seeing that the infantry alone could not achieve an effective breakthrough, Manstein had to commit what little armor he had. The 1st Panzer Regiment of the SS, temporarily assigned to him, bypassed the 201st heights and prepared to plunge directly into the rear of the Red Army north of the city to cut off its supply routes, and a bloody encounter broke out immediately.

Captain Lesser, commander of the regiment's 3rd Company, recalled: "We slowly moved out from behind the slope and passed a section of downhill road without fire cover, which was a hellish journey. At the cost of the destruction of three No. 4 tanks...... We struggled to get around Heights 201 and then continued our attack, and then Ivan's tanks and planes came at us again and again, and anti-tank guns continued to bombard us from the flanks. The moment we pulled out of a pass, we were hit. Thankfully, everyone was unharmed, and a few hundred meters behind us, the battalion commander radioed two No. 4 F2 tanks to follow, but they were destroyed in an instant. We couldn't do anything with just one tank, so we had no choice but to slowly retreat and abandon the operation......"

A Red Army T-34 tank crew named Kuznetsov, who had participated in the defensive battle here, still remembers the terrible battle 17 years later: "'The comrades north of Konotop are in danger...... The Germans tried in vain to cut us off from them...... Comrades, we must thwart them, we must crush them! "That morning, when we set out, the commissar said this to us...... The team rushed towards the Germans, and on the way we encountered German tanks...... I've been through tank battles a few times before, but what we saw was an overwhelming array of German tanks coming at us! ――Unbelievable! It looks like Hitler has all the tanks in his hands here, you know, a few minutes before the start of the battle, we neither heard any tank tracks, nor fired a single shot, as if I was watching a silent movie, and then suddenly a cannon shot broke the surrounding silence, the enemy tanks opened fire on us, and the melee suddenly began! ”

In this melee, about 35 tanks No. 4 and 18 T-34-76s were killed together, and in the three-hour tug-of-war, a total of 40 tanks remained on the land forever, of which the Red Army paid the price of 15 tanks completely destroyed, while the Germans destroyed 25 No. 4 tanks and another 12 were damaged. Anyway, this area has been turned into a tank graveyard. Over the next twenty days, there were three large-scale tank battles and seven small-scale tank encounters. According to post-war statistics, 172 destroyed tanks were found here.

By July 10, the Battle of Kursk had come to an end, and Manstein and Moder were unable to repel Zhukov, and the line of communication from Kursk to Konotop was deadly closed. And Paulus's side is not going well. He retreated to Korenevo only when the second rear blocking force was encircled and divided and eaten, and at this time Ubolevich once again freed up two mechanized corps to pursue him, and in front of Vorozhyba there was still the main force of the KGB blocking force waiting for him.

After learning about the latest battlefield situation, Paulus was entangled again, the two mechanized corps of the Red Army were not a joke, and they might not be able to rush out if they continued to retreat in the direction of Konotop, so it was time to consider the second option.

The so-called second option is simple, and that is to abandon the railway line. Instead, he crossed the Seim River to the west and moved closer to Shostka, bypassing the Red Army's Fifth Army to intercept and retreat to Krolevets, halfway between Shostka and Konotop.

Paulus, after some thought, solemnly presented his proposal to the General Staff and the Wolf's Lair, which was quickly endorsed by a large number of high-ranking German generals. The reason is very simple, Konotop is afraid that it will not work now, and even before Paulus arrives in Konotop, he will be overtaken by the Red Army, and it is difficult to say what will happen at that time.

And turning to Krolevets avoided the interception of the Red Army, where the Red Army's defenses were not strong. Only the Sixth Group, which lacked the 4th Mechanized Corps, was fortifying, and the focus of the defense was still Southka.

The German generals believed. Leaving a part of the troops in Konotop to contain Zhukov's Fifth Army, and the remaining main force was led by Manstein to Krolevets, with the strength of the Paulus group and Manstein's troops, it was not a big problem to break out of the encirclement.

The plan was quickly adopted and immediately executed, and Paulus chose to cross the river at Korenevo at once, and then quickly and lightly marched straight to Rolevets. The efficiency of his actions surprised even Ubolevich.

However, Ubolevich's reaction was quick, or he had already estimated this, so on the one hand, he ordered his troops to speed up the pursuit of Paulus, and on the other hand, he ordered Zhukov to counterattack as much as possible to delay Manstein and Moder. The air force was then ordered to intensify air strikes on Paulus, preferably inflicting heavy damage on the German mechanized units crossing the river.

Of course, these three orders are not the most critical, the most critical thing is that Ubolevich immediately ordered Lukin to lead his 6th Army to the south quickly, and he must hold Krollevets!

For Lukin and the Sixth Army, the order was somewhat abrupt and somewhat beyond its capabilities. Because after the transfer of the Fourth Mechanized Corps to Zhukov, the 6th Army had only two infantry corps left, and the opponents they were about to face were initially estimated to be more than four corps, and Paulus still had a large number of tanks, which was a lot of pressure!

However, Lukin gladly accepted the task, and without hesitation, he led two infantry corps and made a rapid advance towards Krolevets, and a race against time began. However, it will take time for Lukin to get to the center of the stage, and for the time being, it will still be Zhukov's performance time.

The Politburo and the Military Commission were very satisfied with Zhukov's operations in the previous stage of the Fifth Army, believing that the army had successfully resisted the onslaught of the two German armies and that it had held Konotop to close Paulus's escape route, which was very rare and commendable.

Zhukov's command ability was even more satisfactory from top to bottom, and it was generally believed that he was a general with great potential, that he could be promoted to the rank of commander of the front army, and that his ability was on a par with Rokossovsky's.

It should be said that this evaluation is neutral, and Zhukov is really powerful. Of course, the Politburo and the Military Commission not only praise but also hope, they hope that Zhukov can continue the good performance in the previous stage and also show excellent performance in the counterattack and annihilation stage.

For example, Ubolevich was optimistic that Zhukov's ability should be able to hold back Manstein and Moder and buy Lukin more time. But in reality? In fact, Zhukov was not able to do this.

According to Ubolevich's orders, Zhukov resolutely carried out a large-scale counterattack, ready to follow Ubolevich's means to stick to the German army, however, Moder is not Paulus, the former can be called a defensive master, in the face of Zhukov's stormy counterattack, Moder held his position lightly.

The German Ninth Army was so awesome that no matter how Zhukov attacked, its defense line was as stable as Mount Tai, even if Zhukov jumped and threw the Fourth Mechanized Army and the First Guards Mechanized Army out and rushed and attacked, it was still to no avail.

And under the cover of Moder, Manstein walked with ease, and his troops quickly broke away from the battle and rushed towards Krolevets at a gallop...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to the old schoolboys, huangliqun, the Southern Rangers, the glorious charter and Comrade Juventus!