"Tell me how the Russians bypassed our defense!"

Longdested stared at his subordinates angrily, hoping that the Prussian elites could give a reasonable explanation for why the Russians quietly bypassed his defense line and destroyed his most important offensive weapon.≥,

But no one can give a reasonable explanation, yes, it is just a reasonable rather than a real explanation. The very rigorous and sophisticated Virtues really can't figure out what was wrong.

Longdested wrote in his diary that day: "No one knows where the Russians emerged. Some people say they were Russian guerrillas, but I don't believe that the guerrillas can find the K5 position so accurately? Can they cooperate with the air force to destroy these cannons? Can they disappear cleanly after success? With the same conditions, even the best Germans can't do it. Why can the mere guerrillas do it?"

Longdested did not believe that his cannon was destroyed by the guerrillas, but he still ordered a mobile force to be drawn to sweep the surrounding Ukrainian villages to see if he could find any clues.

As a result, the guerrillas and stragglers and stragglers caught a lot, but undoubtedly these people were not the masterminds behind the destruction of K5. In desperation, Longdested could only order the troops to strengthen their security, especially at night to expand the patrol range and take to the double post!

But these are not very meaningful. K5 has been destroyed. What is the use of fixing the dead? What is the problem before Longdested. What he uses to destroy the Red Army's defense line?

It is not impossible to chew the fortifications in Kiev with tanks and grenadiers. However, the efficiency is very low and the casualties will be very high. Although the fortifications in Kiev are a little bit sloppy, they are not made of tofu. It is not realistic to let Stuka do some cleanings on the Air Force, because the Red Army's air force is very active and powerful, basically controlling the air supremacy in the surrounding areas of Kiev. In some key areas, the Red Army has arranged a large number of anti-aircraft guns, and the Air Force has hit the head and blood for several consecutive attacks. In desperation, Longdested has just joined the K5. Now the K5 has been destroyed, which makes the Southern Army Group, which is originally the weakest among the three major armies, seem helpless.

"Apply for another batch of heavy artillery. Without heavy artillery, it is impossible for us to destroy the enemy's fortifications!"

As he had no choice but to order the siege to be suspended and instead ordered some troops to continue to develop northward. Perhaps in his opinion, Kiev is now surrounded by a group of people and is a dead place, even if he doesn't attack the city, the Russians can't escape. Moreover, he thinks that hungering the Russians is not a bad thing, and hunger can destroy people's hearts the most. Maybe after a period of siege, the Russians will surrender obediently.

I can only say that Longdested thought the problem too simply. First of all, as I said before, Kiev has a relatively abundant material reserve and can support it for a long time. In addition, a large number of helicopters have airlifted supplies from the periphery to Kiev. It is too difficult to trap Kiev to death.

What's more, Shaposhnikov held back a large number of German troops in Kiev, allowing the Military Commission to see a possibility that Kiev could completely use it to restrain the German army's vitality, and then concentrate part of the reinforcements to stabilize half of Ukraine. After the Belarusian front is stabilized again, it seems that it can still be used to cut off the enemy of Ukraine.

Moreover, although Longdsted fought a beautiful battle and advanced to the hinterland of Ukraine in one fell swoop, he also faced quite a few problems. First, the supply problem, because air supremacy in most parts of Ukraine was still controlled by the Red Army, which led to the German supply routes being unstable. Il-2 and Su-1/2 continued to attack German trains and cars, resulting in the supply of the Southern Army Group always intermittently. Not only the air force caused trouble for the Germans, but a considerable number of the Red Army scattered in Ukraine who were defeated and scattered in Ukraine began to restore the organization after the main force of the Germans headed north. They began to take up weapons to attack the Germans' rear, igniting a flame in the heart of the Germans.

Among them, the largest and best-organized part of the straitors was Rokosovsky's Ninth Mechanized Army. After being defeated by Guderian's second tank cluster, the army quickly retreated and gained its foothold in the Kamen-Kashirsky region near Brest in northern Ukraine.

On the one hand, Rokosovsky actively reorganized his troops and accommodated a large number of defeated troops from the former Ukrainian Front Army that had collapsed from the Lublin direction. After the reorganization, the Ninth Mechanized Army gradually recovered its vitality. Although there were relatively few tanks and artillery, the personnel were quite abundant.

On the other hand, after the initial rectification of the troops, Rokosovsky did not choose to wait foolishly. On the one hand, he built a line of defense to protect the security of the southern line of the Brest Fortress. On the other hand, he merged the remaining armored forces of the former Eighth and Ninth Mechanized Army into an armored cluster. He often launched attacks and attacked the traffic route from Warren to Kiev, which made it impossible for the German army to use this line to provide supplies to the Southern Army Group.

As of September 5, Rokosovsky even recovered most of the cities in Warren, except for the capital of Lodmir, and cooperated with the troops who reinforced from Minsk and Bryansk to firmly defend the northern region on the junction of Ukraine and Belarus.

At this time, the situation in Ukraine was roughly in this state: the Axis forces, mainly composed of the German Southern Army Group and the Romanian Army, occupied most of the land south of the Dnieper River and occupied the Cherkasse-Kirovaglad-Nicoliev line south of Kiev. In addition, under the strict defense of the Red Navy and the Red Flag Ice Sea Army, the German army failed to capture Odessa, and the arduous siege was still in progress. To the east of Kiev, the two sides confronted north and south along the Lodmir-Kiev railway line, but in this section, because the German army was relatively weak, the Red Army troops could not only defend the defense line, but even counterattack.

A group of generals, including Rokosovsky, frequently launched attacks southward, forcing the troops entering Ukraine to not provide too much support to the Southern Army Group, and strongly supported the battle to defend Kiev.

In this case, there are two choices before Germany. One is to suspend the attack on Kiev. Let the Southern Army Group turn around to assist the Central Army Group in clearing the northern part of Ukraine. It is best to successfully insert Belarus from the southern line. Then there is a flank surround and fight another big annihilation battle in the area east of Minsk.

The second option is to let the Central Army Group strengthen its offensive and break through Brest as soon as possible. As long as Brest falls, Rokosovsky, who are operating in northern Ukraine, may be forced to retreat (unless they really want to fight guerrilla behind enemy lines).

At that time, the German army did not have a unified opinion on these two plans. The officers led by the German General Staff thought that the first plan was better. First of all, the Southern Army Group was indeed weak. Instead of siege Kiev without doing anything, it would be better to turn around and clear the traffic routes in the rear and lay a good foundation for the next stage of the offensive.

However, Hitler did not like this plan. In Xiaomou's opinion, it was indeed safe to turn around and clear traffic routes. If you just want to occupy Ukraine, there would be no problem doing this.

"Our goal is not only Ukraine, nor is it only Belarus, East Prussia and the Baltic Kingdom. Our sacred mission is to completely eliminate the Bolsheviks, forever. Eliminate the threat of the empire in the East once and for all! Therefore, we must never turn around. We can only attack without hesitation, keep moving forward, occupy Moscow, occupy Leningrad, and exile the Slavic pigs to Siberia!"

In his opinion: "Once the Southern Army Group turns around and clears out some irrelevant Slavic guerrillas, use this time, the Bolsheviks will mobilize more troops from other directions to Ukraine and Belarus. At that time, even if we eliminate the guerrillas, what's the point of opening up the traffic line? At that time, the war will return to the state of 1918, and repeatedly fight around trenches until Germany sheds the last drop of blood!"

Objectively speaking, Hitler's analysis room makes sense. Although they achieved certain victories in the previous battles, they did not completely eliminate the vitality of the Red Army. Compared with the Barbarossa operation in history, the results achieved are far inferior.

The Red Army was beaten up at most, but it was all skin trauma and had no injuries at all. For the Red Army, the only thing they need now is time. As long as they are given enough time, when the troops from Central Asia and the Caucasus are dropped back, blocking the holes in Ukraine and Belarus will be no problem. At that time, the German blitzkrieg was exhausted in advance, and they could only accompany the Red Army to slowly consume them.

Hitler knew very well that this war of attrition was not good at the German army, and Germany did not have so many war resources to consume. Once the Bolsheviks were not eliminated as soon as possible, the British in the west would never give up. After the Americans on the other side of the ocean entered 1941, they were quite restless and constantly transfusions to Britain, making the plan to trap Britain unable to succeed.

Once that time comes, Germany will inevitably fall into a battle on two fronts again. Even thanks to his teammate Italy, North Africa is in a stalemate, which involves a considerable part of Germany's attention. If there is a mistake, it will not be a battle on two fronts but a third front.

Therefore, Hitler could not allow or accept the plan to turn the South Army Group. In his opinion, time was temporarily beneficial to him. He had put the noose around Ivan's neck. All he needed to do is to pull it hard. As long as he could continue to maintain the attack, the Soviet Union would soon collapse, just like Poland and France before.

After a quarrel, the head of state used his authority to tame the generals who looked down on him. Not only did the Southern Army Group continue to attack, but the Central Army Group and the greatly weakened Northern Army Group also attacked, and they had to swallow Russia with a tide-like offensive!

On September 7, Longdested ordered his armored troops to split into two groups under the cover of the Romanian army, attacking Kharkov one by one, preparing to destroy this important military base in one fell swoop, while the other went directly north towards Moscow.

Among them, there were about three armies attacking Moscow, with about ten divisions, while about two armies attacking Kharkov, with about six divisions. In this way, Shaposhnikov's pressure was much less. Although about 40 divisions still surrounded Kiev, compared with before, there were much fewer enemies.

Not only was the pressure in the direction of Kiev, but the attacks of Nikolayev, the German and Romanian troops were also repelled, while Kirovoglad's Axis Team simply turned to defense. In a sense, the Red Army's previous shaking defense line in southern Ukraine was actually stabilized with the help of the Germans. This was probably something Hitler did not expect.

Of course, the head of state did not expect much. He had always thought that the Soviet Union was already at the end of the road. As long as he continued to attack and added another force, the stupid camel would soon be crushed. But he did not expect that the Red Army's resilience was much stronger than he thought.

The troops heading north to attack Moscow were attacked by the mechanized 30th Army, the 50th Infantry Army and the 62nd Army as soon as they arrived in Klotop, the 7th Army of the Red Army, and the 7th Army. These seven divisions not only blocked the German army, and easily defeated the German army in the subsequent battles, forcing the German army to retreat.

Why did this happen? The German army clearly has an advantage in its military strength. Let's put it this way, the German army's military strength is only on paper. It seems that the German army has concentrated ten divisions, probably combined with the strength of a group of troops, which is very good and powerful. But it must be seen that after more than two months of battle, it is not only the Red Army that has been consumed in large quantities, but the German army has also paid a huge price.

Take the Southern Army Group as an example. After high-intensity continuous combat, the combat troops were reduced by one-quarter on average, especially the armored troops. Under the attack of the Red Army, the armored troops of the Southern Army Group, which were not as powerful, suffered a considerable loss, almost half of the equipment.

Looking at the 30th Army of the Red Army, this army belongs to the Central Front and the Reserve. Although the equipment is a little poor (most of the tanks are BT series, and even a considerable number of T-26s are made up), it cannot withstand the full capacity. A full Red Army mechanized army is very powerful, with more than a thousand tanks and is in the northern part of Kiev. The Luftwaffe could only stare at him, and naturally it was one-sided.

The Germans' defeat came faster than they thought. From September 6 to September 13, within just one week, the cluster of the Southern Army Group attacking Moscow was driven back to Nosovka step by step. If the Red Army had not been tired after this period of battle, they could have driven the Germans back to Kiev.

The German army on the other side was even more miserable. There were only about three divisions in this cluster, the German Wehrmacht, and the other three divisions were provided by the Romanian and Hungarian vassal army. As soon as they advanced to Grebionka, they collided with the 6th Tank Division, which had just been transferred from the Caucasus direction. This division was an elite unit in the Caucasus direction and had relatively strong combat effectiveness. When passing by Kharkov, they temporarily changed into a regiment of T-34s. The result of the head-on collision was that the Germans were blown away. As for the Romanian and Hungarian friendly forces, they had long run out of sight. The cluster was quickly driven back to Berezan, and they could only hold on, so I couldn't mention the embarrassing look.

The new round of offensive of the Southern Army Group was not smooth, and the same Northern Army Group was also deeply trapped. In East Prussia, the cluster was in big trouble and struggled in the face of the Jewish bunker tactics. It had just turned into the offensive and had to stop and defend again. In other words, the Jewish army lacked armored power and could not carry out a breakthrough counterattack, otherwise the Northern Army Group would have to kneel down.

It has to be mentioned here that the Jews did have problems with the application of tanks. They used tanks more as mobile firepower points and evenly dispersed among infantry units as firepower support forces. The armored troops are most powerful only when they hit each other to form a spearhead. This is equivalent to self-destruction. This is also an important reason why the Northern Army Group can gain a foothold even if it is drawn miserably.

As for the Central Army Group, one fist was trapped in Urgenia and the other fist was blocked in Brest. Even if the two powerful tank clusters were using their strength, they could not cross the Red Army's defense line. Especially in Urgenia, the First Mechanized Guards Army was consumed and only one regiment was left, and they could still defend their positions and rely on the city to greatly damage the German grenadiers, especially the fragile German tanks, which were almost equivalent to iron cans in street battles.

Of course, the price paid by the First Mechanized Army of the Guards was also very heavy. At the time of full force, there were only more than 40,000 people left in the army. There were less than 100 tanks that could be operated in the end. The commander of the army, deputy commander, chief of staff, and political commissar all died heroically. In the end, Petrovsky, commander of the First Mechanized Infantry Division, was able to command the battle.

The cruel defensive war lasted until September 14. In the afternoon of that day, Petrovsky finally received an order from the Military Commission: "Your troops have successfully completed the blocking mission and can break through. The Party and the country will always remember your sacrifices and great contributions to the Patriotic War!"

After receiving this order, Petrovsky did not breathe a sigh of relief. To be honest, it was already difficult to break through at this time. It seemed that the best choice was to surrender. However, he did not choose to surrender. The war was at this point. If they surrendered, how could they be worthy of their comrades who had sacrificed before?

On that night, Petrovsky summoned the remaining officers and announced that he would break through immediately. In just two hours, the remaining soldiers of the army were concentrated. Except for those who were seriously injured and unable to evacuate, a total of about 3,000 people participated in the subsequent breakthrough operation. This breakthrough was also a rare miracle in World War II... (To be continued...)

ps: Bow to thank the parasite Schistosoma parasite, uyiqing1985, Admiral Hood, Pig Xiaosha 2, Armored Train and Comrade Juventus!
Chapter completed!