At dawn on August 6, the German Army Group Center, which decided to teach the Russians a lesson, issued an order to encircle and annihilate the Third and Tenth Armies, and according to Bock's requirements, the attack would first start with the armored forces, and strive to complete the division of the Russian army in the shortest possible time, and then throw in the infantry to eat the unknown Bolshevik heretics little by little.

The first to attack was the Fereber battle group of the 3rd Tank Group, which at that time had 78 units of Tank II, 38 units of Tank III and 19 units of Tank IV, as well as a considerable amount of direct artillery cover.

However, the actions of the German armored forces did not go smoothly from the beginning, and in the direction of the attack of the Fréber battle group, Kirponos deployed the last anti-tank force of the army group, including 18 F22 cannons, 12 57-mm ZIS-2 anti-tank guns, and the only remaining tanks.

As soon as the Fereber battle group emerged from the horizon, it was hammered by the Red Army's anti-tank artillery, and after advancing only one kilometer, Colonel Freiber lost more than 8 tanks. In desperation, he could only call off the attack first.

After re-studying the terrain and, most importantly, sending a reconnaissance unit to re-conduct a detailed fire reconnaissance, Freber had to admit with frustration: "The Russians have a strong defense, and the artillery bunkers are so cleverly built that they cannot be suppressed by artillery alone." ”

Fereber was not a rigid person, and seeing that the tanks, armored vehicles and artillery could not handle the opponent, he immediately began to call for air support, and he believed that Stuka would be able to blow the enemy to pieces easily.

Soon, however, the unfortunate thing happened to Freiber's surprise, shortly after Stuka took off. The weather on the battlefield suddenly changed dramatically. The high-temperature barbecue weather that lasted for more than ten days was instantly replaced by a storm of lightning and thunder.

Such bad weather. Naturally, the Air Force could not be expected to come and play with their lives, and even the torrential rain turned the battlefield into a quagmire, and tanks, half-track vehicles, and artillery tractors would sink into the potholed mud as long as they were not careful, and they would not be able to move at all, becoming targets for slaughter.

After a morning of struggling in the quagmire, Freber's assault group had no choice but to abandon the attack, and even paid a considerable price in order to tow back the tanks and armored vehicles in the quagmire. Under the command of Kirponos. The Red Army took advantage of the fact that the Germans could not move to launch a round of rapid counter-charge, which made the Germans cry wolf, and could only hurriedly abandon a dozen tanks and armored vehicles and flee from the battlefield.

On August 6th, it rained so hard that Freibo wanted to hit the wall, knowing that in the hot summer months, it is rare for the Warsaw area to have such a large amount of rain, and this damn rain ruined everything!

Taking advantage of the fact that the Germans were unable to attack, Kirponos ordered his troops to hurry up and strengthen the fortifications and dig more and deeper trenches. Collect ammunition and food as you can, and even make your way through the German blockade. "Recovered" a part of the heavy weapons.

It was not until August 9 that the rain subsided, and as soon as the rain stopped, Freiper once again went on the offensive and put on a posture of trying to eat the Red Army, and his armored forces pressed from the front.

However, such a posture may be able to scare the recruits of the Red Army who have never seen the world, but for the veterans of the Third and Tenth Armies, this is a live target, and they are preparing to do a big job after a few days of rest, and the Germans will automatically send them to the door to find death, do you think they can be unhappy?

At that time, the German armored units were trudging through the muddy fields, while the Red Army opposite them was firing with all their power, and the shells rained down like raindrops, as if they didn't want money. On this day, Freber tried three strong attacks, the first time he was directly urinated by the heavy artillery fire of the Red Army, the second time he was severely repaired by the few remaining tanks of the Red Army, and the third time, he was once again counterattacked by the Red Army and was directly hit head-on.

Late that night, in the face of Marshal Bock's questioning, Freiper replied helplessly: "Your Excellency, my soldiers and I have done our best!" ”

In fact, the shrewd Bock had noticed Freber's embarrassment, and knew that he would not take advantage of continuing to charge hard, so he ordered Freber to hand over his position to the 127th Infantry Division, withdraw from the line of fire without attracting the attention of the Red Army scouts, and then maneuver south, bypassing the carefully set up anti-tank positions at Kirponos.

At the same time, Bock ordered the troops of the 9th battalion of the 1st Panzergrenadier Regiment of the SS to sneak up on the Red Army under the cover of night. At that time, the company commander, Lieutenant Crowke, asked Second Lieutenant Kunigek to take his second platoon as the front and sneak attack the Red Army over a twenty-five-meter-wide canal. The grenadiers waded across the river, leaving all their artillery and heavy weapons on the side of the canal, ready to provide fire support as soon as the battle began.

As soon as Kunigek's troops came ashore, they were spotted by Red Army sentries, and then there was a burst of gunfire, flashing ballistics tearing through the night sky, and soon artillery joined the battle group. In the midst of the chaos, Second Lieutenant Kunigek forcibly ordered the troops to move on, and in his opinion, it was better to rush forward than to stay in place and be beaten into a sieve by the Red Army!

Bet! The second lieutenant was determined to make a desperate gamble, and led his men to pounce on the Red Army position, but the Red Army soldiers did not give them any chance, and the Germans only came out of their bodies, and the bullets whizzed over, and the deputy platoon commander, Sergeant Virig, was shot three times in the chest, and in an instant he lay down in Kunigek's arms and died. Immediately after two more soldiers were shot, seeing that the Red Army was well prepared and the firepower was really fierce, in order to avoid greater casualties, Second Lieutenant Kunigek could only give up the attack and choose to retreat.

As unlucky as the second lieutenant Kunigek was the 1st platoon, which also smuggled two hundred meters downstream of Kunigek. However, the channel downstream of the canal widened abruptly, and the river, which was about 50 metres wide and two metres deep, could not swim at all. The 1st platoon could only borrow part of the rubber boat and throw it into the river, and then the grenadiers dodged to follow.

Like Kunigek, the platoon pinned its hopes of success on the paralysis of the Red Army, but the Germans soon realized that they had made a big mistake, first with dazzling searchlights and then with ferocious machine-gun and mortar fire, and one by one the fragile rubber boats began to leak, and many of the poorly water-based grenadiers drowned alive.

The only thing that could give Commander Crowk some comfort was Second Lieutenant Alberechet's 3rd platoon. In the event of successive defeats of friendly forces. The grenadiers of this platoon were lucky enough to avoid the sight of the observation post on the opposite bank. Drove a rubber boat across the canal.

After landing, Albrechet personally killed a Red Army soldier who was on guard with a bayonet, and led his men and horses towards the deep positions of the Red Army. Although he sternly ordered the grenadiers to watch their footsteps and breathing, they could not escape the bright eyes of the Red Army soldiers.

After passing through several rows of undergrowth, Alberechet's troops entered an open field, where the Red Army's light and heavy machine guns, which had long been hidden on the nearby heights, began to fire from all directions, and a one-sided massacre officially began! In the end, only two soldiers of the platoon fled the battlefield.

After this night's attempt, Bock also knew that the Red Army in the encirclement was not easy to deal with. At least raids and sneak attacks don't do anything. The vigilance of the Red Army in the encirclement was too high, and it was not necessary to hide from them at all.

In desperation, Bock could only order Fereber to continue the assault, but fortunately, this time Stuka was finally able to appear, and the aerial bombs almost plowed the positions of the Red Army, and most of the fire points on the Red Army's front-line positions were destroyed, and the only ones could not resist the crushing of the German armored forces.

Company Commander Crowk, who had been carrying his luck all night, finally breathed a sigh of relief, and just as Stuka was leaving, Ensign Kunigek's troops finally occupied the Red Army positions on the opposite bank, and after being taught a bad lesson last night, he asked nervously: "The machine gunners of the Russians have been eliminated, right?" No way. Go make sure they get killed! ”

The atrocities of Second Lieutenant Kunigek undoubtedly greatly undermined his character. The Germans, who had just been transferred, soon ran into new troubles. Just as he was waiting for reinforcements to continue the advance of the Red Army, another group of Stuka arrived at the battlefield, and the pilot, mistakenly believing that the position was still in the hands of the Red Army, dropped a string of aerial bombs with a roar, and the bomb position happened to be at the assembly point of the second lieutenant Kunigek and his allies, killing more than 80 people on the spot, and also attracting the attention of the defenders of the Red Army on the opposite side.

Captain Crowk was stunned when he heard the bad news, and after being stunned for a moment, he hurriedly applied to his superiors for assistance, and he must hurry to increase the number of troops in Kunigek's position, otherwise the Red Army can use a counterattack to push the remaining small soldiers of Kunigek back to the riverbank. Fortunately, at this time, the Red Army was also in a hurry, and there was no extra strength to counterattack at all, so it could only let go of this good opportunity.

By dusk of the same day, the Germans had broken through part of the southern line of Kirponos, and because of the lack of forces to counterattack, Kirponos had to order the line to shrink again. So on the second day, when the Germans launched an attack according to the predetermined plan, it was more smooth, in the words of Freber: "Our unit has successfully penetrated into the depth of the Russian army, and is confident that the Russian army will be divided in the next day." ”

At the same time, Kirponos also knew that the situation was difficult, but he did not have much to do but to cheer up the commanders and fighters at all levels again: "Today, the enemy has broken through a considerable part of our army's positions, and as far as I know, a considerable number of comrades have withstood more than ten times the enemy's siege, and I am very satisfied and admired for the fighting spirit of the comrades...... However, as our positions are compressed little by little, tomorrow's battle will be even more difficult and cruel, and I hope that all comrades will be mentally prepared to give the German devils a head-on blow! ”

In fact, the situation was even more difficult than Kirponos said, with the high-intensity combat consumption in the past two days, the ammunition of the troops had basically bottomed out, and a considerable part of the fighters could only pick up ammunition from their comrades to continue fighting, and even some Red Army soldiers began to fight with German weapons. And the food was all gone, and for three whole days, the vast majority of the Red Army soldiers did not eat a grain of rice. As for medicines, they were so unheard of that one field doctor who witnessed the wounded unable to be treated committed suicide by swallowing a gun in agony.

The only good news for Kirponos and the Red Army soldiers was that the weather was still not fully improving, and a leprosy drizzle was constantly enveloping the battlefield, which not only prevented the enemy's air force from being able to use it to its fullest, but also made the muddy battlefield even more disgusting.

On 9 August, Freber's troops struggled with the dirt all morning, a nightmare for the Germans, almost making it impossible for them to move an inch. When they easily pulled the tanks and armored vehicles out of the mud, at two o'clock in the afternoon, another downpour swept the entire battlefield.

Neither the tracks nor the wheels can do any maneuvering on such a muddy road. Especially the German positions near the canals. In the torrential rain, it has become a flooded country. Even the sappers transporting the bridge-building equipment were soaked in water and could not move.

It wasn't until three days later, when the sun was scorching the earth again, that the Germans relented. On 12 August, Freber ordered the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the SS 20th Panzergrenadier Regiment to attack the Red Army's important support point on the battlefield, Heights 130, in two directions, preparing to occupy this vital commanding height.

For a whole day, the two sides engaged in a fierce battle around the high ground, and the Red Army's stubborn defense and rapid counterattack made the SS somewhat overwhelmed, and a small number of T-54s played the role of anchors. The German tanks and anti-tank guns were almost helpless against the T-54.

Fierce fighting until dusk. A small number of Red Army fighters, under the cover of a T-34, made an incredible skirmish, cutting off the connection between the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 20th Panzergrenadier Regiment in one fell swoop.

At the critical moment, Major Frank, the commander of the second battalion, immediately tried his best to counterattack, personally led the charge, and fought fiercely for a whole hour, Major Frank's counterattack was repulsed, and the major himself was killed.

The death of the battalion commander dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the 2nd Battalion, which made it more difficult for the Germans to occupy the 130th Heights, and perhaps the only consolation was that Major Frank was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross the day after his death.

The battle on the 12th told Fereber that it was impossible to complete the task of dividing the Soviet army in a short time. The only thing that would make Fereber feel a little better. The next morning, Bock sent reinforcements - the 3rd Battalion of the SS 20th Panzergrenadier Regiment.

Almost at the same time as the arrival of the third battalion of the 20th Panzergrenadier Regiment of the SS on the battlefield. Kirponos also knew that the shape was getting more and more severe, and throughout the day, the general visited the troops at all levels, and his footsteps were almost every battalion, and he constantly told the commanders and fighters of the Red Army: "You must pay attention to gathering your troops, do not fight the enemy recklessly, and never sacrifice our lovely soldiers in vain!" ”

At 9 a.m. that day, the Germans carried out the heaviest artillery bombardment since the encirclement of the 3rd and 10th Armies, accompanied by a more powerful penetration and assault than the previous day. Kirponos felt the pressure like never before, and his troops were no longer able to talk about the infiltration of the Germans as they had done a day before, and instead were brutally reported of lost positions.

Kirponos knew that he had to accept the reality that more than twenty days of fierce fighting had exhausted all the strength of his troops, lacking food, ammunition, medicine, and even drinking water, and that the soldiers huddled in foxholes and trenches were yellow and thin, and a considerable number of them suffered from athlete's foot or trench foot.

The soldiers of Kirponos felt like a dying man had exhausted his last strength. In the evening of the same day, Kirponos sent a long telegram to the Military Commission and the Ukrainian Front, detailing the fighting of the troops after the siege, and even sending a list of all the commanders and fighters he could collect who fought bravely until they died.

This unprecedented telegram lasted three hours until a new round of heavy German shelling destroyed the last radio station in the Kirponos headquarters, and this was the last time the military commissar contacted Kirponos.

From 14 August to 15 August, the encircled Red Army soldiers were still resisting as much as they could, and late at night on the 15th, Kilponos summoned all the commanders of the only units he could contact to his headquarters to lay out the final battle plan.

"We still have fifteen T-54s and T-34s that can be moved, Comrade Lavinchenko, please bring all the 3,000 comrades who can still walk, and break through!"

At that time, the chief of staff of the group army, Ravinchenko, who was so hungry that he was fighting, subconsciously asked: "Then what should you do?" ”

At that time, Kirponos smiled faintly: "I am already old, and as the supreme commander of the army, I should be responsible for the current situation." I will stay with other comrades who cannot break through and fight to the end! ”

Ravenchenko also wanted to persuade Kirponos to give up this idea, because in his opinion it was not Kirponos's responsibility to fight like this, on the contrary, Kirponos had fulfilled or even exceeded his obligations, and no one could demand that Kirponos do better.

However, Kirponos still refused to break through, and his attitude was completely unshakable: "Comrade Ravenchenko, this is an order, please carry it out!" ”

That night, Ravenchenko tearfully shook hands with Kirponos for the last time, and before leaving, Kirponos gave Ravinchenko his military boots: "You can't break through without shoes (the soles of Ravenchenko's boots are worn out), and this will be our parting gift." Also, please bring these letters to my wife and children and tell them that I love them! ”

From that day on, Ravenchenko kept the last gift from Kirponos until after his death, when it was donated to the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War, along with the old boots, Kilponos's diary. In the early hours of August 18, when the Germans stormed his headquarters, the general, who was so hungry that he could barely stand up, resolutely pulled the explosives pack. After the earth-shattering bang, the brave and fearless general fulfilled his promise to the country, the nation and the party...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank Katyusha, ds135, Liangzi 913, Lilu, Xuanyuan Extreme Saint Emperor and hzwangdd!