On the morning of January 3, the Germans were holding on to the main line of defense, and in the ruins of Ofrooch, the grenadiers frantically strafed the rushing Soviet soldiers, and the two sides fought over every foxhole, every crater left by the shells, and every inch of land seemed to be filled with the lives of countless soldiers on both sides.

The Soviet Red Army's offensive seemed to have become less sharp, as they ran into German soldiers who were determined to hold their positions. Rokossovsky finally knew how resilient the German soldiers before him were, and he knew what a formidable opponent his former generals faced.

"Comrade General, let me rush again! I promise this time that I will be able to take the high ground on the opposite side!" The bearded commander of the 2nd Guards Front, the most capable general under Rokossovsky, was now wearing a bandage around his head, and blood could still be seen oozing from it. He had been knocked off his helmet by shrapnel during the charge, leaving him with a deep wound on his head.

However, after a simple bandage, he asked to return to the front line and continue to lead his troops to attack, but unfortunately Rokossovsky listened to his request and reluctantly waved his hand to reject his suggestion: "I have changed an offensive force, and 100 brand-new KV-1 tanks have also been put on top, I don't believe that their defense line is iron, and such a strong force cannot be taken!"

When he said this, his voice was a little embarrassed, because of the failure of the continuous attack, it is conceivable how he is feeling now, now that he has been in contact with the commander of the other side, he will use the cleanest way to capture the high ground in front of him, and then kill Ofroucci, who has been reduced to ruins by artillery fire.

"Lizheng!" A political officer stood in front of the lined up Soviet soldiers and raised his arm holding a pistol: "Comrades! We must not fail Comrade Stalin's trust in us! We must fight for the future of the motherland until the last moment! The great motherland is with us! The great leader, Comrade Stalin, is with us!"

"For the Motherland!" everyone replied loudly, clenching their rifles in their hands.

"Attack! Let the damned Germans see how powerful we Soviets are!" the regimental commander gave the order to attack, and he led the way in the direction of the heavy gunfire, and behind him, a full 1,000 soldiers with their weapons in their hands, took a step, and launched a new round of attack in the deep snow.

Every time they attacked the German positions, the Soviets filled the gap with a whole regiment of soldiers, and 1,000 men pulled up to start the attack, and there may not be even 200 people left, but the new 1,000 people were pushed into the battlefield, and it seemed that this kind of battle would never end.

The Germans were not passively beaten this time, more than 20 Leopard tanks rushed out of the hidden bunkers, these tanks caused a lot of trouble for the attacking Soviet Red Army, at least a large number of KV-1 tanks involved in the offensive turned into wreckage and burned on the battlefield where tracer shells constantly flew by.

In front of the position is a German minefield, the German soldiers rushed to lay a whole 20,000 mines last night, and now there are not many mines left in this minefield, the Soviet Red Army carried out rough demining work with artillery, and then relied on the soldiers to step on the rest little by little with their feet, turning a minefield into a clean passable area.

The area was no longer covered with white snow, and the ground was either cold and congealed with blood, or black on the muddy ground that had been trampled on countless times. The rest of the place, there are corpses that are not in sight, the corpses of the Germans, and the corpses of the Soviets.

German mortars became the most reliable assault weapons infantry could rely on, at least when covered by the Soviet Red Army's heavy artillery firepower, these small mobile firepower could provide fire support and inflict considerable casualties. Together with the elusive light machine guns of the German grenadiers, the Soviets paid a heavy price in front of the German positions.

Amid Rokossovsky's roar, the Soviet soldiers finally stormed the main positions of the German perimeter defense at about 4 p.m. that day, where, although they did not find the German front commander, they found a regimental flag that had been burned half and a flag of the divisional headquarters that had been burned two-thirds of it. This marked the annihilation of the second formed division of the German army by the Soviets, and at the same time all the obstacles of the German army on the periphery of Ofroch were removed by the Soviets.

The Soviets began to attack the city overnight, only to find that it was simply a murderous paradise carefully constructed by the Germans, with ruined streets and buildings becoming excellent hiding places for German soldiers, and bullets fired from all directions ruthlessly harvested the lives of Soviet soldiers.

The two sides fought from more than 8 p.m. to the early hours of the next morning, and the Germans still controlled more than half of the block, and the Soviets had no way to break through the ruins. The Germans have already lost a full 20,000 dead here, and the cost of the Soviet Red Army is enormous. The two infantry corps in charge of the general offensive were basically defeated, and Rokossovsky still failed to capture the city called Ofruch on time.

In stark contrast to the Soviet Red Army's northern attack, the German Army Group G, which was responsible for the main attack, Guderian's troops also reached the designated position on January 3, compared with Rokossovsky's difficulty, his troops suffered considerable losses, but not so great. Moreover, Army Group G also captured a full 150,000 Soviet soldiers and cleared the outer perimeter of Sheberingka in front of them.

Under Guderian's order, the Germans also kicked off the battle of the city that day, but the Soviet Red Army guards near Sheberingka obviously did not have the combat capability of the German Army Group E, although they also put up stubborn resistance and fought very bravely, but in the end, in the afternoon, they were driven out of Sheberingka and lost the southern gate of Kharkiv.

As for how tenacious this unit was, Guderian praised this Soviet unit in a personal letter to Brauchitsch, and there was a division of the Soviet Red Army that held the center of Sheberingka until it ran out of ammunition and food, and finally they set fire to the buildings in the center of the city and died a heroic martyr with their own weapons.

The other unit also resisted stubbornly until the afternoon of the same day, and this unit, without anti-tank weapons, held its ground until the last moment, and the Soviet infantry regiment fought until the last soldier despite the death of the regimental commander, still refusing to surrender. Compared with their scattered and captured counterparts in the city, they can be said to be the epitome of the Soviet Red Army's combat heroism.

Guderian finally stood on the doorstep of Kharkov, and also on the edge of the trap that Zhukov had dug for him. At this time, he was in the city of Sheberinka, which had just been occupied, in a house occupied and cleaned by the Wehrmacht, and spread out the battle map in his hand.

He looked at Kharkov, who was just on his lips, then raised his head to look at his chief of staff, as well as the commander of the 1st Panzer Division who came to the army headquarters of the group army, and the commander of the 3rd SS Panzer Division, Flick, and others, and cracked his mouth and laughed. He pressed his hand on the map, on top of the city of Kharkiv, and looked at his men.

"General Guderian, my division needs to rest, after all, they are tired from continuous battles. Frick was the first to speak. It was true that his armored division had taken the lead all the way, but it was really a lie with his eyes open to recuperate, and he followed Guderian all the way to the north and south, at least when he fought in France, he needed to recuperate more than now, and he did not ask for such a rest at that time.

On the other side, the commander of the 1st Armored Division also opened his mouth and poured dirty water on himself: "The losses of my troops are not small, the consumption of ammunition is also very huge, and ...... They also lacked rest and could not attack immediately. ”

Since Guderian was promoted to commander-in-chief of Army Group G, the commander of the 1st Panzer Corps has become the first general to follow Accardo, Hulk, who has finally reached the level of seniority in the Wehrmacht's early division commander who followed Accardo, and has become the commander of the most elite armored forces in the Empire. He watched the commanders of the two armored divisions assigned to him complain on the side, but did not speak. As a typical Prussian soldier, he obeyed orders and did not like to speak, even if they were wrong.

In fact, the commanders of the armored corps shirked this mainly because they were worried that their troops would suffer heavy losses in street battles, so they made all kinds of excuses. It's not that they need to rest, but they don't want to enter the evil city of Kharkiv. Many of the rank and file commanders saw that the city was full of danger, so they preferred to complain rather than be the first to be sent to attack.

Guderian once said, "Don't believe your soldiers when they tell you that there is no fuel, because if they need to rest, they will run out of fuel!" and now he knew what his men were talking about, and he laughed.

"Hahaha!" he laughed a few times, then looked at his men. Then he spoke slowly, as if on purpose, and said with a bit of teasing: "So many troops need to rest, but I still have a lot of combat tasks to be arranged, and there must always be troops to start the task of continuing the offensive first, isn't it?"

His words plunged everyone into deep fear, it seems that Kharkiv, a city full of nails, will not be able to advance this time by Army Group G. Just when everyone was in a dilemma, Guderian was heard to continue: "I thought that the new attack would be rushed to complete it, it seems that everyone really needs to rest." ”