Chapter 360 General Mud, help me! Kursk next?
And then the sky curtain officially began to tell the story of the war in the Kharkov region.

A large number of Soviet and German troop deployments and attack directions were drawn.

So that the ancients could understand it easily.
Randomly point fingers at others.

Canopy.

【After the Southwestern Front retreated. 】

[The Voronezh Front in Kharkov had its flank completely exposed.]

[Seven German armored divisions and seven mechanized divisions marched northward.]

[Head straight to Kharkov! ]

[In addition, the German army was already outside Kharkov, confronting the Soviet army. ]

[Both sides formed a pincer attack! ]

[In order to completely defeat the Voronezh Front, even the German Army Group Center sent two armies to come here, all under Manstein's command.]

[On the Soviet side, the Voronezh Front has the strength of 5 army groups and urgently requested support. ]

But their position is too prominent.

[Supply difficulties.]

[And the Voronezh Front was not without advance preparation. ]

[As early as late February, when the German army attacked the Southwestern Front, the Voronezh Front stopped its offensive and switched to defense.]

【And three divisions were specially deployed on the south side of Kharkov. 】

【But in general. 】

[The Voronezh Front is now in a very weak state with its forces dispersed and supply lines stretched out.]

[This danger was naturally noticed by the Soviet high-ranking officials.]

[But, will we just hand over the hard-won Kharkov to someone else? ]

[This is also totally unacceptable.]

【So the Soviet General Command issued an order.】

[The Voronezh Front held its ground and sent the elite 64th Army to reinforce.]

Outside the sky.

Western Han Dynasty.

When Huo Qubing saw this, he couldn't help but start complaining.

Although Huo Qubing preferred and supported the German army.

However, Huo Qubing saw that after the retreat of the Southwestern Front, the Soviet troops in the Kharkov area were isolated and helpless, and could be surrounded at any time.

And then why don't you withdraw?

Huo Qubing said: "It is impossible to defeat the Soviet army in Kharkov!"

"At this time, if we still let them stay where they are, wouldn't that just send the soldiers to die in vain?"

"The Germans don't know how this will play out later."

"But I know that if the Germans play well."

"If we encircle Kharkov in one go, I'm afraid all these hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops will be wiped out!"

“I don’t know what the Soviet army is thinking.”

"They should have retreated, but they insisted on holding on in Kharkov and even sent reinforcements."

"It's useless to send too few reinforcements!"

"Too many reinforcements? If we could really send out so many reinforcements at once, there would be no need for the Southwestern Front to continue fighting for a long time!"

"This shows that the Soviet Union will definitely have reinforcements."

"But how rich?"

"I'm afraid not."

Huo Qubing felt that the Soviet Union forcibly ordered the Voronezh Front to hold Kharkov.

This is a very stupid strategy.

But Liu Che obviously understood it.

Liu Che did not refute Huo Qubing.

I just said silently in my heart:

Sometimes, the defeat of a battle leads to the destruction of an army.

It is a price that must be borne.

Just as the German Sixth Army must remain firmly in Stalingrad.

The Soviet Voronezh Front would have abandoned Kharkov without a fight.

The impact on the whole political aspect,
But that's too bad!

Liu Che sighed silently again:

"It's a pity that the Soviet troops in Kharkov will suffer heavy losses."

"I don't know if they can withdraw after being surrounded?"

"Or will they be like the German 6th Army, holding out in the city until the very end, until the entire army is annihilated?"

Sky. [Before the Soviet reinforcements arrived, Manstein launched a series of offensives! ]

[On March 3, the German 2th Panzer Corps and the th Panzer Corps began to attack the Soviet rd Tank Army.]

[The Soviet Third Tank Army is the ace unit of the Voronezh Front. ]

【There are 2 soldiers and 300 tanks.】

[Faced with the fierce attack of the German army, the Third Tank Army resisted very tenaciously. ]

【After two days and two nights of fierce fighting. 】

[The entire army group, except for the 6th Guards Cavalry Army under it, was relatively well preserved.]

[The rest of the troops suffered heavy losses.]

[In one company, only a few people were left.]

[The army group is unable to fight again.]

[The German army took advantage of the situation to continue to break through and surrounded the Soviet Third Tank Army and the 69th Army in Kharkov.]

[And cut off the railway line connecting Kharkov with the rear. ]

[By March 3, the Soviet situation south of Kharkov was completely out of control.]

【Total defeat】

[In order to strengthen the offensive, the German army dispatched new reinforcements from the rear. ]

[On March 3, the SS took the lead and broke through the Soviet defense line! ]

[A blitzkrieg attack reached the northern suburbs of Kharkov.]

【Kharkov was surrounded on three sides by German troops.】

[Inside the city, only a few disabled troops are left.]

[The SS Guard Panzer Division is the main force advancing into the city, and street fighting breaks out again! ]

[During the street fighting stage, the German army's armored advantage could not be brought into play and suffered heavy losses.]

[However, during the days of street fighting, the entire Kharkov Soviet Army was completely surrounded, and the supply was cut off. There was only a small amount of airdropped supplies, and it was completely impossible to continue the war.]

[On March 3, the Soviet army ordered the abandonment of Kharkov.]

[On March 3, the German army took full control of Kharkov.]

……

[Around Kharkov.]

[The Soviet Third Tank Army has been the Soviet Army's vanguard since the counterattack phase of the Battle of Stalingrad.]

【He made great military achievements.】

[This army group marched westwards, and the depth of the battle line reached 300 kilometers! ]

【But at this time, this army also fell into a state of collapse. 】

[The Third Tank Army lost almost all of its heavy equipment during the breakout, suffered huge sacrifices, and suffered countless casualties.]

[Finally broke through the encirclement and retreated to the rear. ]

[While commanding the German army to capture Kharkov, Manstein was also operating on multiple fronts. ]

[The German Fourth Panzer Army continued to move northward, attacking the Belgorod area and quickly captured it.]

[The German army then continued to pursue.]

[Manstein's original plan was to launch a pincer attack with Army Group Center before the muddy spring.]

[Capture Kursk in one fell swoop! ]

[But in the end, the German army's insufficient manpower slowed down its advance. Soon, the ice and snow melted, the roads became muddy and difficult to travel, and the German armored offensive could no longer be maintained.]

[And the Soviet army quickly dispatched a large number of troops. ]

[A new defense line was established in Kursk to confront the German army. ]

[At this point, the entire Kharkov counterattack ended. ]

[The German army successfully captured the Kharkov area. ]

[The German army, in a disadvantageous situation, concentrated a small number of elite troops and defeated the Soviet army of 10 with 50 troops head-on.]

【Manstein's plan was a great success.】

[Throughout the battle, the Soviet army suffered more than 10 casualties, while the German army suffered only a little over 1 casualties.]

[After the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, this brilliant counterattack greatly inspired and boosted the morale of the German army. ]

[Not to mention that it was already 1943, the German army's firepower had been weakened, and the Soviet Union's combat capability had also been greatly enhanced.]

[Even in 1941, with a : disadvantage in troop strength, the US Navy still achieved a : casualty ratio.]

[It is also an extremely dazzling achievement! ]

[If it hadn’t been for the muddy period, the 60-ton Tiger tank would have been difficult to advance.]

[It is possible that the German army could capture Kursk in one fell swoop.]

[And after this, Manstein's masterpiece, the Kharkov Counterattack. ]

[In the nearby Kursk region, another bloody and brutal Battle of the Bulge will gradually begin.]

(End of this chapter)