"Max, I think you were scared by the Russians." Seeing his troops progressing so smoothly, Dietrich said disapprovingly: "I have observed carefully that there are not many living people after being hit by the powerful artillery fire of our army. Moreover, our tank assault was so rapid that even if there were still a few Russians who were not killed, it is probably normal that they have not yet awakened at this time and cannot organize decent resistance."
The tanks of the armored regiment rumbled over the Soviet position without any resistance; the armored vehicles that followed also rushed in, but still did not find any resistance from the Soviet army. Until the infantry approached the Soviet position, it was still silent. Ditrich, who was originally arrogant, realized that there was something wrong.
"What the hell is going on?" Dietrich murmured: "Why didn't the Russians fight back?"
"General Dietrich," Simon finally came to a conclusion that he couldn't believe after a careful observation: "The reason why your troops were not resisted is that the Russians have given up this position."
"Impossible, it's absolutely impossible." Hearing Simon say this, Dietrich immediately retorted loudly: "It's not the first day that you and I have dealt with the Russians. Faced with the powerful offensive of our army, their commanders will only give orders that they will not be allowed to retreat. If any commander dares to order the troops to give up their positions and wait for his fate, they will be sent to the military court."
Regarding Ditrich's statement, Simon shrugged and said with a wry smile: "General Ditrich, don't forget that our opponent is General Sokov. He is different from other Russian commanders. I don't think there is anything he dare not do."
"Come here!" Ditrich turned his head and shouted behind him. Soon his adjutant came to him. Ditrich ordered the other party, "Immediately contact the troops in front and let them figure out the situation of the Russian positions and see if there are no defenders inside."
Before the adjutant could figure out the situation ahead, Hauser called Simon: "Hey, General Simon, General Dietrich's flag guard division has successfully tore open the Russian defense line. You immediately put your troops into battle. You must not give the Russians any breathing opportunity, and you must completely defeat them."
Simon originally wanted to tell Hauser that the Soviet army might have given up its position, but opened his mouth and swallowed what he wanted to say again. Dietrich's investigation has not yet been achieved. If he was anxious to tell Hauser about this, he would not only not believe such a scruple-free thing, but he would even feel that he was timid and timid. Therefore, he could only grit his teeth and answer, "I understand, Mr. Commander, I will immediately put the troops into the attack."
The troops had already been assembled, and with Simon's order, they rushed forward along the road opened by the Flag Guard Division. Looking at the attacking troops, Simon thought to himself: Since Sokov's troops have given up the frontal defense, it will only take a few hours for his own Skeleton Division and Flag Guard Division to reach outside the city of Prokholovka.
Shortly after the Skeleton Division was dispatched, Ditrich received a report from his subordinates: In the occupied Russian positions, except for a few dead bodies for a long time, no living person was found, which means that the Russians had long given up this position.
After listening to the report from his subordinates, Dietrich put down the phone and said to Simon: "General Simon, you are right. The Russians have indeed given up this position. All we occupy is an empty position."
"But I don't understand." Ditrich said with a frown: "The Russians gave up the position ahead of us, which is equivalent to making way for the road to Prokholovka. What are their intentions to do this?"
Simon naturally had his own thoughts about what was happening in front of him. "I think Sokov had no extra troops in his hand to defend this area that was easily attacked, so he concentrated all his troops on the main positions to defend. Even if we bypassed their defense zone, this unit that remained behind us would always pose a threat to us, preventing us from concentrating all our strength and attacking the city of Prokorovka."
"General Simon, you're too worried." Ditrich said disapprovingly after hearing Simon's words: "As long as we leave a unit to monitor them, they dare not act rashly. After we seize the city of Prokhorovka, we will turn back and destroy them."
Ditrich's words sounded a bit reasonable, but Simon always had an ominous premonition in his heart. He felt that Sokov took the initiative to give up some defensive positions and there might be some unknown conspiracy behind it. He warned the other party carefully: "General Ditrich, Sokov is not a simple Russian commander. Fighting with his troops, you must be highly vigilant, otherwise unexpected things will happen if you are not careful."
Seeing that Simon was so afraid of Sokov, Ditrich didn't agree with it. He remembered that a few months ago, Simon, who was still a colonel, was captured by the troops commanded by Sokov. If it weren't for the escort to Moscow, he happened to encounter a broken team attacking the convoy, and he probably was growing potatoes in the Siberian prisoner-of-war camp.
"General Simon, don't think too much. Sokov doesn't have much available troops in his hands now, and it does not pose any threat to us." Ditrich comforted the other party and said, "As long as we advance quickly to the city of Prokholovka, assist friendly forces in capturing the city, and turn around to attack Sokov's troops, they can destroy their entire army. Don't worry, I will definitely hand over the honor of capturing Sokov in person and let you avenge your previous shame."
Being captured by Sokov's troops has always been a heart-wrenching problem in Simon. If Manstein and Hauser had not tried to protect themselves, not to mention continuing to serve as commanders of the Skeleton Division, they would have been transferred back to the rear and allowed themselves to take care of the concentration camp. At this moment, when Ditrich said that the honor of captive Sokov could be handed over to himself to complete it, he suddenly felt a sense of passion in his heart.
When Manstein learned that the Flag Guard Division and the Skeleton Division had successfully broken through the Sokov troops' defense line and was advancing eastward towards the city of Prokholovka, Manstein was still very happy. In order to destroy the defense line of the Soviet tank 2nd Army ahead as soon as possible, he immediately ordered the bomber formation to take off and carried out unprecedentedly fierce bombing on the Soviet defensive positions.
The Soviet Tank 2nd Army had no decent fortifications, and when they were air strikes by enemy planes, they were suddenly in chaos. After finally waiting for the enemy plane to fly away, the commander was ordering his subordinates to count the casualties, but he found that the German tank troops appeared in front of him and could only order the tanks that survived the bombing to counterattack the German army.
The small number of Soviet tanks rushed to attack the tank cluster of the Flag Guard Division without any organization. As a result, in less than a quarter of an hour, all more than 20 tanks involved in the attack were destroyed by the German army, while the Flag Guard Division lost only three old No. 4 tanks.
After destroying the resistance of the 2nd Tank Army, the armored regiment of the Flag Guard Division continued to advance. After more than three hours, they finally arrived at the remote suburbs of Prokholovka at 10 a.m.
The commanding height 252.2 outside the city was defended by the 2nd Battalion of the 26th Regiment of the Guard Paratroopers. Faced with the tide of the enemy, the paratroopers fought tenaciously and repelled the eleven German attacks. The positions were filled with burning tanks and armored vehicles, as well as corpses in a row.
Although the tenacious resistance of the paratroopers caused huge casualties to the German army, their own casualties were quite large. After several hours of fierce fighting, there were only more than 20 people left, including five wounded people. The battalion commander Major Upiz said to the regiment headquarters over and over again: "Comrade Commander, I am Major Upiz. Now there are less than thirty people left in my battalion, and there is not much ammunition left. Please support, request support."
"Comrade Major," the paratrooper commander also knew in his heart what consequences would be brought if the 252.2 high ground was lost. But he was also powerless now. Because the enemy used artillery fire to block the road from the regiment headquarters to the high ground, he sent two companies of reinforcements in succession. Before he could climb to the high ground, he was injured and killed by the German artillery fire. "The enemy's artillery fire was too fierce, and the reinforcements I sent could not pass the artillery blockade line at all. You must find a way to hold your position and must not take a step back..."
Before the commander could speak, the telephone line was blown off by artillery fire. Major Upiz, who was unaware of it, shouted to the microphone without any sound: "Hey, Comrade Commander! Hey, Hey, Comrade Commander, can you hear me talking?..."
"Comrade Battalion Commander, Comrade Battalion Commander." A soldier with a bandage on his head and carrying a rifle rushed in and shouted loudly at Upiz: "Enemma, the enemy is coming!"
When Upiz learned that the enemy was coming up again, he threw the microphone, grabbed the submachine gun placed on the table, shouted, "Come with me!" and rushed out.
After Upiz rushed into the trenches, he felt very pleased. Although there were hundreds of German infantry rushing into the trenches, the officers and soldiers at a disadvantage did not panic and scramble around, but bravely fought with the enemy. Even the wounded who could not move sat in place, raised their weapons in their hands and fired at the enemy in sight.
Upiz picked up the submachine gun and shot at the German soldiers who appeared beside him, knocking them down one by one. After all the bullets were shot, he did not change the magazine, but threw the gun, bent down and picked up the submachine gun next to the German corpse, and continued to shoot at the enemy. Two bullets hit his abdomen, and then he threw away the weapon in his hand, covered his abdomen with both hands, staggered forward for two steps, and then fell softly to the ground.
But Upiz did not die immediately, he was only seriously injured. A wounded man struggled to climb to his side, approached him and shouted loudly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, there are too many enemies, we can't stop them..."
Upiz recognized the talking soldier, one of his engineers, so he tried to squeeze out a smile on his face and asked, "Are you ready?"
The soldiers understood Upiz's intention. A few hours ago, in order to prevent the Germans from occupying the highlands, Upiz ordered engineers to line up in many places in the trenches, and buried explosives. Once the position could not be defended, they would die together with the enemy. The soldiers nodded vigorously and said firmly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, as long as you give your order, I will detonate immediately."
Upiz turned his head and looked to the side, seeing more and more German officers jumping into the trenches, while there were few commanders and soldiers who were still fighting on his side. He nodded to the soldier and signaled that he could detonate the explosives buried in the trenches.
With the order issued, the injured engineer suddenly pressed the detonator, and the explosion blew up from the feet of the officers and soldiers on both sides who were still fighting. Countless explosions suddenly exploded, and shrapnel splashed by the violent explosion and the flying gravel intertwined each other, like a sweeping storm, tore the officers and soldiers in the trenches into pieces. The rising black smoke and flashing flames enveloped the entire mountain top position.
The paratrooper commander at the foot of the mountain couldn't help but burst into tears when he saw that the mountain was blown into a sea of ​​fire. He beat the wooden wall with his fists hard, feeling extremely upset that he could not help his subordinates.
On the other side, Ditrich, who came to watch the battle in a tank, was stunned when he saw his troops rushing to the high ground and were engulfed by gunpowder and fire. After a long time, he murmured: "Crazy, crazy, these Russians are simply crazy. Seeing that the position could not be defended, they actually died with our soldiers."
After a brief sigh, Dietrich immediately issued a new order despite the thunder on the hills being rolling and the smoke of gunpowder had not yet dissipated: "Immediately send new troops to occupy the 252.2 highland, and seize the time to repair fortifications to prevent possible attacks by the Russians."
Dietrich's analysis was correct. The 252.2 highland was crucial to the Soviet army. After the commander of the 33rd Army of the Guard Infantry learned that the highland was lost, he immediately called the commander of the 26th Regiment and asked in a stern tone: "Comrade Commander, why did you throw away the 252.2 highland? Don't you know that once the enemy occupied this commanding height outside the city, you can establish artillery positions on it and bombard our defensive positions in the city from a high point?"
"Comrade Commander," the regiment commander replied in a panic: "The enemy blocked our road to the highlands with artillery fire. I once sent two companies to reinforce, but they were all injured and killed under the enemy's artillery fire. I could only watch the second battalion, which was standing on the highlands, was completely wiped out by the enemy."
"Comrade Commander, I don't want to hear any reason." The commander raised his hand and looked at his watch, then said: "It's 13:40 on the 11th. I hope to hear the news that you will regain the highland before 15 o'clock."
Chapter completed!