A rumbling sound sounded in the early morning on the edge of the farmland in the Kursk region, and German camouflage-painted Tiger tanks started their engines in the bright sunshine. These terrible tanks have been silent in Kursk for a long time, and today they can finally be used on a large scale because the Germans have received a large amount of fuel supplies.

The German Army Group G, which had been resting in the southeastern corner of Kursk, finally switched from a strategic defensive posture to a strategic offensive. Hundreds of tanks spread out over the vast Kursk Plain, and like the first Battle of Kursk not long ago, the Second Battle of Kursk once again began with a advance of hordes of tanks.

The tracks of a King Tiger tank crushed a section of the fence that blocked the road ahead, and hordes of German grenadiers crossed the village from the farmland with weapons on their backs. The German offensive, after several weeks of careful preparation, showed great momentum from the outset.

The artillery fire of the general attack flooded several positions guarded by Soviet defenders, and most of the Soviet resistance was vulnerable in the face of the overwhelming superior forces. However, the Soviet defenders still fought the most stubborn resistance they could, and the German soldiers were met by the Soviet soldiers in some node areas, after all, the Soviet soldiers were also the elite of the elite, and the two sides fought frantically in the Songtsevo area, but because of the limited reserves, the Soviet Union began to be weak a day later, and the Soviet army was finally surrounded and annihilated.

Yastrebovka and Tim were quickly captured by the Germans, and as soon as these two cities were lost, the defense line on the flank of Kursk was on the verge of collapse, and if the Germans could continue to move north, then the Soviet troops remaining in Kursk and other cities would finally be completely surrounded.

Gorshechnoye was then occupied by the German armored forces, and the local 4,000 defenders were all annihilated by the German panzergrenadiers, although the troops here chose to die rather than surrender, and really resisted to the end, but when their town defense line was divided and surrounded by the German army, they were not able to fight separately well, but tried to break through, and were chased and surrounded by German armored forces all the way in the field.

Guderian's offensive plan was directed at Higray, and the footsteps of the 1st Panzer Army seemed to be unstoppable, and the collapse of the Soviet defense line was even faster than Zhukov expected, and the flank of the seemingly impregnable Kursk defense line was easily torn open a huge gap.

Voronezh, a city occupied by the Germans and later recaptured by the Soviets, once again appeared on the outskirts of a large number of German infantry, which was responsible for covering Guderian's Army Group G, from General Quchler's Army N, and under the cover of the 9th SS Panzer Division, they began to try to attack the city, which Stalin called great and unyielding.

During the attack on St. Rudolf (i.e., Stalingrad), the German heavy artillery units were engaged in battle in this direction, and dozens of large-caliber guns easily turned the streets of Voronezh into ruins. German tanks easily broke through the Soviet lines from both sides of the city, and the Soviet defenders fought back hard, holding the city until the seventh day after the start of the Second Battle of Kursk.

The loss of Voronezh completely collapsed the defense system in the area south of Moscow, and the Germans pursued and killed the Soviet infantry in the field, and there were groups of Soviet prisoners everywhere, and by June 30, the entire Voronezh Oblast was occupied by the Germans. At the beginning of July, Guderian's armored forces moved north along the border between the Voronezh and Kursk regions, capturing Oremsky Kastornoye one after another, and finally the 3rd Panzer Division, under the cover of some panzergrenadiers, captured Keshinsky in one go.

The Soviet defenders did not expect their defenses to collapse so quickly, let alone the Germans coming from behind. Therefore, the bridge west of Keshinsky was not blown up, and it was ceded to the German vanguard. So the German tanks quickly crossed these rivers and in only 3 hours, they were ahead of the Soviet rout and occupied Cheremisinov.

Zhukov had already transferred his main forces to the area north of Kursk, and he was trying to retreat in the direction of Moscow, but the German attack was so fast that his attempt to retreat in concealment was completely frustrated. So he ordered the main forces of the 1st Guards Front and the 3rd Guards Front to move north quickly, but he himself led the remnants of the troops to buy some time for the main Soviet forces to go north as much as possible.

He was not prepared to die with the rearguard troops, but hoped to encourage the remaining troops to fight until the last moment by leaving last. So when the German forward troops had already begun to attack Cheremisinov, Zhukov remained in Kursk to preside over a military meeting and demanded that his troops hold all the existing defense areas as much as possible.

Hundreds of thousands of Soviet infantry could not be easily withdrawn from the Kursk theater, because if they rashly began to retreat, then with the speed of the German attack, the Soviet army would soon stage the tragedy of the second Leningrad cluster being completely annihilated in the field. So Zhukov's idea was that all the troops would counterattack on the spot, and with the construction of fortifications, they would delay the German occupation of Kursk as long as possible.

To put it bluntly, since retreating is also a collapse, and holding on to death is also a collapse, it is better to hold on to the existing positions to annihilate more German enemies. However, because of the loss of a large number of armored forces to coordinate the defense, the resistance of the Soviet infantry was not as solid as Zhukov imagined.

"Comrade Marshal!" a staff officer handed the battle report in his hand to Zhukov, who had been speaking less and less lately, and he had just received the news that the frontal line of defense had also begun to waver under the influence of the collapse of the flanks. The front town of Oboyan was surrounded on two sides by the Germans, and the defenders were struggling to support and ask for reinforcements: "The defenders of Oboyan have called us to support the tank units and counterattack the enemy's armored forces. ”

"Where do I have any tank troops......" Zhukov opened his somewhat dry lips and said, "I have already sent the last anti-tank unit to Higray, you know." And that unit also had no good equipment, most of them were T-26 tank modified 76mm anti-tank guns, which were more difficult to deal with Leopard tanks, not to mention the German Tiger and Tiger King. ”

"If the Germans' tanks capture Oboyan, then our frontal defense system will be difficult to protect......" The staff officer, of course, knew that the reserves had been sent to the flank by Zhukov, but he still wanted to get some reinforcements for Oboyan's defenders, even some infantry. Because he knew that once Oboyan was lost, the next person who could stop the German advance would be Medvinka, the southern gateway to Kursk.

The number of tanks of the Soviet army has been seriously insufficient, most of the recently replenished tanks are self-propelled guns, these scattered forces hidden in various parts of the battle line have not had a great impact on the balance of forces in the local theater of operations, although the German tanks have suffered certain losses, but the speed of seizing strategic targets has not been delayed.

You must know that on the west side of Guderian's troops is General Klug's F Army, which has pushed its forward troops into Orel Oblast, although because of the drag in the direction of Moscow, the advance speed and momentum of these German troops are not very good, but it really adds huge pressure to Zhukov's back.

Zhukov glanced at the arrows on the map that represented the German offensive line, sighed helplessly, temporarily forgot about the defenders' request for reinforcements in the Oboyan direction, and asked an irrelevant question: "Where has Comrade General Konev's 1st Guards Front been now?"

"Comrade Marshal! General Konev's 1st Guards Front has now entered the south-east of the Orel region and is continuing its transfer to the north. One of the officers hastened to answer Zhukov's question.

"So, has the 3rd Guards Front of Comrade General Vasilevsky now reached Yelets?" Zhukov asked his second question, and no one knew what he was thinking now, these two fronts, which were originally the core and main forces of Zhukov's cluster in the south, were now placed in the safest position.

"Very well! As long as these two fronts can safely continue northward, then it makes sense for us to insist on everything here. Zhukov nodded, and seemed to be in a better mood. He stared at the map with his hands behind his back, and finally spoke: "Send a telegram to the defenders near Oboyan, tell them that for the honor of the motherland, hold on to the last soldier!

Then he turned his gaze to the officers who were in the headquarters office, and then he commanded: "Leave at once, go to Medvinka! Fortify the defenses there, and supervise the defenders there! Make sure they hold out until the last moment!"

"Yes, Comrade Marshal!" several officers stood up and saluted, and hastened to carry out the marshal's orders, they were the most elite and loyal part of the Soviet army's ranks, so they carried out their orders more resolutely and reliably. Seeing them turn away, Zhukov found a chair and sat down, then raised his head to look at the portrait of Stalin hanging on the wall, and muttered: "I have tried my best to buy you time, and I hope that you will hold out in Moscow until the moment of victory." ”

The sun is still shining outside the window, and the last few days have been extremely sunny. Zhukov hated such good weather, because he could see far away, where German planes were circling in the sky.

The next chapter will be even later, so you can wait until tomorrow morning to read it and not affect the rest.