Nanfeng achieved his goal successfully, which was a great encouragement for Hitler. He proudly showed off his wisdom to the staff members of the wolf's den more than once, and claimed more than once that "the truth is in the hands of a few people"!

Naturally, Hitler was even more confident about the next heavy rain operation. He kept urging Ditrich to speed up his movements and constantly intervened in the front-line troops. Under Hitler's powerful "interference", the German troops involved in the South Wind almost had no time to breathe and entered the next stage of combat.

According to the force report of the German Southern Army Group on March 21, 1944, the total strength of the Axis powers under the Army Group was about 53, including 430,000 German troops and 100,000 Hungarian troops. The attack troops directly participated in combat missions were about 169,000. The fourth division of the 91st Army of the e-Group Group, which was responsible for assisting attack missions, had a total of 20,000 people.

In order to implement the plan, the German army gathered about 995 tanks, assault guns and self-propelled artillery, and 5,360 other types of artillery. Among them, 822 tanks, assault guns and self-propelled artillery equipped by the main attacking troops, and 3,280 artillery and mortars. The Second Armored Army has 68 tanks, assault guns and self-propelled artillery, and the 91st Army of the E-Group have about 6 tanks and 15 assault guns. In addition, part of the 4th Air Force Air Force and the Hungarian Air Force have a total of about 850 combat aircraft to provide air support.

The 1st Panzer Division also strengthened the Tiger King tank with the 509th Heavy Tank Battalion, and the 1st Panzer Division strengthened the 31 Tiger King tanks with the 501st Heavy Tank Battalion, and the 12th Panzer Division strengthened the 14 No. 4 tank destroyers, 7 Cheetah tank destroyers and 8 No. 4 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.

In addition to his every effort, the German intelligence department even secretly planned to incite the Romanian army to rebel in an attempt to fight for Nazi Germany. This plan was called the "Skydiver Operation". The Germans airdropped some German and Romanian agents to Romania and successfully contacted some senior Romanian officers and government officials.

The purpose of the entire plan is to instigate two Romanian armies fighting against the German e-army group in western Romania. They counterattacked during heavy rains and assisted the German army in surrounding the Romanian Red Army. After success, the German army will immediately counterattack into Romania.

The entire parachuting operation was not a whimsical idea. It was always a big idea, but what made KGB and Li Xiaofeng laugh and cry was that a Romanian idiot would agree to cooperate with the Germans. However, this time the Romanians' motives were not because of their pro-Germany, but under the instigation of MI6, they were ready to use Germany's influence to clear the Soviet Union's control over Romania.

After negotiation, some idiots in Romania reached an agreement with the Germans on the condition that after the German army fought away the Soviet Red Army, the German army could only be stationed on the border between Romania and the Soviet Union.

These enigmatic Romanians were attracted by the big cake drawn by the MI6th Division, thinking that as long as the German army drove away the Red Army, the British and American allies would soon enter Romania. By then, Romania would receive asylum from Britain and the United States.

But people with a little common sense know how naive this idea is. The British and Americans are busy carrying out overlord operations and they don’t care about the Balkans at all. Moreover, Bulgaria is still under the control of the Red Army, and Greece is still occupied by the German army. Could it be that the British and American allies fly over?

What's even more ridiculous is that the Romanians actually regarded the Germans as living Lei Fengs. When Germany reoccupied Romania, they would act obediently according to Romania's instructions. I'm afraid that the Germans will be the masters and the ones who keep their word by then.

Anyway, Li Xiaofeng was amused and crying about this group of Romanians. Is this a group of funny guys? So he sent these funny guys to hell in minutes. Romania's last remnants of pro-Germany and pro-British America were wiped out.

Of course, in order to paralyze the German army that was about to take action, kgb used the captured secret radio station to continue contacting the German army. He forged the illusion of smooth operation and even used the radio station to induce the Germans to airdrop weapons and ammunition to the Romanian army that was preparing to "turn against". Of course, this batch of things was quickly sent to the Far East by railway, and the **** in China were just right.

Hitler naturally didn't know about these things. In his opinion, everything went well, and everything was ready, but the east wind was not the east wind. But in fact, the Germans not only did not have the east wind in terms of the weather, but instead had a lot of trouble.

Before the implementation of the Spring Awakening Plan, German meteorologists predicted that in March, Romania and Hungary, southern Europe will still be under frost control. Low temperatures will freeze muddy roads, which will help armored forces operate.

But the actual situation is completely different from what meteorologists predict. Southern Europe began to thaw from late February, and then the weather began to be capricious. Sometimes it was minus ten degrees below zero, and sometimes it was minus ten degrees above zero. This directly turned the relevant area into a big quagmire. What's worse is that the German army's battlefields were numerous, which further deteriorated the terrain.

As early as the south wind operation, the German army suffered from the torture of the terrain. Not to mention marching in the wilderness, even on the roads, it was hard to move forward. Ironically, the Romanian puppet troops and the Hungarians once reminded the Germans that the location here is not suitable for large-scale armored groups to fight! However, these "superstitions" and "good news" were regarded as wind by Hitler.

So when the heavy rain operation really began, the Germans had to pay the tuition. Not long after they advanced from the attack starting point, the Germans found that the situation was not good. The snow-covered road turned into a mud, and many tanks struggling to move in the fuel tanks or were trapped in the mud. The unmovable steel giant beasts desperately swung the mud tracks, but they could no longer stand up like an arrow on their knees. One by one, they slowly collapsed in the mud, and only the Maybach engine still made dying screams.

Tank soldiers and car drivers cursed the damn weather and the damn road conditions, but they could kick the car with their fists and feet, and the car was still motionless. At this moment, the Red Army began to greet them. Countless orange halos flashed from the muzzles on the opposite position, and anti-tank shells sprinkled on the German army like dense raindrops from all directions. Sharp sounds and Mars were knocked on the tank's turrets and front armor, and then turned into dazzling meteor bombs around.

Major General Otto Koumss, the commander of the lssag Division, recalled: "The attack area of ​​our unit became very soft due to the thawing, and could not bear the weight of tanks and armored vehicles at all. In addition, the enemy was covered with mines. Almost all the tanks that we had invested in the first wave of attacks were lost. To put it bluntly, our attacks were not effective except for tickling the enemy. Instead, we were embarrassed by this bad terrain!"

The assault engineers who were demining the mines on the line of fire immediately after the tank and the armored grenades who were slightly obstructed in despair also found themselves in despair in a dense rain of gunfire woven by machine guns, mortars and rocket shells, pressed against the cold and muddy ground and could not move. The German soldiers who were barely getting up and charging kept wailing, and were harvested in the mud by the scythe of the god of death.

The poor terrain seriously affected the German ammunition supply and the combat effectiveness of tanks. Only extremely limited and lucky tanks and assault guns could pass through the swamp, and the rest could only stare at the quagmire helplessly.

Due to limited aircraft and bad weather, the most important thing is that the powerful fighter air force of the Red Army seized air supremacy. The Luftwaffe's Air Force was unable to provide effective ground support from the air. In this case, the deeper the Red Army's defense line, the more the German army could not move. Although the Ss Young Division on the right of the LSSah Division had achieved certain success at the beginning, it was like the LSSah Division, and it was directly exposed to the Red Army's perfectly constructed and fiercely firepowered positions. Under the attack of the 3rd Infantry Division of the Red Army, the Ss Young Division suffered heavy casualties, and the commander had to order the troops to temporarily suspend operations and wait for the tanks to follow up for support.

In order to expand the breakthrough efforts, Ditrich ordered nine artillery regiments to be sent to the battlefield for support. The First Armored Division and the 356th Infantry Division went through more than a dozen rounds of fierce attacks with artillery fire support. Only then could barely drill a hole in the defense line of the 155th Infantry Division.

However, the results achieved by the German army that day were limited to this. The battle became more difficult after turning around, because the temperature on the battlefield rose above zero. The frozen soil on the ground became softer and the road conditions further deteriorated.

In the early morning, the Third German Armored Grenadier Regiment of the Imperial Division was the first to enter the battle. Under the cover of fierce artillery fire, grenadiers and tanks rushed to the left wing of the 155th Infantry Division of the Red Army at all costs. The Red Army soldiers used all weapons they could use to resist the enemy's attacks. Many fox pits were crushed by tanks. The brave Red Army soldiers often threw the last anti-tank grenade or ******* to the tank before their death. Finally, the Red Army soldiers even pulled up anti-aircraft cannons to intercept the German tanks that poured into the defense line.

Various guns and soldiers' calls sounded in the battlefield, and in an emergency moment, the 170th Tank Brigade and the 1016th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment on the second defense line of the Red Army adopted a clever ambush tactic. After intensive artillery attacks, they continued to skillfully use the terrain to change their shooting positions, weakening the assault power of the German offensive spearhead.

They first resisted the tank attack of the Imperial Division. Then they decisively adopted a coordinated offensive and began a series of counterattacks. The German army's good offensive momentum was interrupted, and even the German army in some areas were forced to retreat. In despair, they realized that the resistance of the Red Army seemed insurmountable. Not to mention continuing the attack, even the wedges that had already cut into the defense line were in danger.

After a day of concentrated attack, the ss-Armored Army, which launched an attack later than the Imperial Division, was still struggling to expand the breakthroughs on the positions of the 3rd Infantry Division and the 68th Infantry Division. The lssah Division gave up the frontal attack and tried to detour from the southwest.

About forty tanks covered grenades riding in half-tracked armored vehicles and threw themselves into the battle. However, the Red Army failed to make the LSSah Division responded quickly and dispatched mobile anti-tank units to enter key strongholds. Among them, the 1965th Anti-tank Artillery Regiment of the 43rd Anti-tank Brigade played a crucial role in the subsequent battle.

In the early morning, the Red Army infantry defending the outer positions of the village and the aggressive SS armored soldiers first fought in a close battle. They could not withstand the heavy pressure of local armored troops and were forced to retreat. More than 20 German tanks and armored vehicles rushed to the position of the 6th Artillery Company of the 1965th Regiment.

According to the recalls of the Red Army veterans participating in the battle, with the uninterrupted fire support of several six-unit rocket launchers, the German tanks fired with the strafing of vehicle-mounted machine guns and quickly rushed forward at a speed of more than 30 kilometers per hour.

The young men of the 6th Artillery Company were under the bombardment of artillery fire. They calmly looked for fighter jets and dropped the enemy's Tiger King tanks at an extreme distance of about 100 meters before firing. In this battle between artillery bayonets, the 6th Company destroyed three Tiger King tanks in one fell swoop and became famous tiger-slaying heroes. Of course, what people can see is the honor of the 6th Company. However, they rarely pay attention to their casualties. In this battle, 75% of the soldiers, 90% of the artillery and 100% of the officers of the company were all sacrificed. After repelling the German attack, the company only had one anti-tank gun left to continue fighting.

However, the sacrifice of the 6th Company was worth it. After this battle, the Germans immediately shrank and did not dare to do anything detour again. Teacher Lssah honestly shrank back and continued to chew the Red Army's solid frontal positions.

Seeing that the frontal attack during the day suffered huge losses, and the Red Army's positions were still unable to succeed. The German army adopted a large-scale night offensive in the next two days. However, except for the grenadiers who received tank support, they achieved certain results when the offensive part of the anti-tank positions without the defense of the Red Army's infantry, the rest of the German offensives were successfully resolved by the Red Army.

At the same time, in the direct confrontation with German tanks, the Romanian First Front Army, which belonged to the second-line troops, was also learning and growing rapidly. They began to re-optimize the deployment of positions and equip the infantry division with mobile troops composed of tanks and self-propelled artillery to provide close support. In particular, since the su-100 and su-122 self-propelled artillery have played a huge role in recent defensive battles, they have been frequently concentrated as battlefield firefighters.

Just as the Germans became weaker and the Reds became smarter, the climate deteriorated sharply again on March 25, hail fell from the sky, and the rain and snow made it difficult for any non-tracked vehicle to move forward. Especially for the attacking side, this was simply a disaster!

Lieutenant Lu Songbeck, the company commander of the 2nd Company of the ss Armored Regiment, recalled: "A sudden hail broke out our attack. Hail as big as an egg hit the steel helmet and we could only try our best to find cover. A few minutes later, we moved out of the cover. This hail made my company continue to lose personnel. Several soldiers were knocked out, and a few were frozen... The attack started again. We climbed a descent without fire cover. This was a journey to hell. The machine guns and mortar shells made mud and water splashed, and the entire battlefield was covered with water vapor... We rolled and slid down the slope. After counting the losses, we found that this distance of less than 200 meters was destroyed. The heavy price of more than 20 casualties..."

A platoon leader of the 9th company of the same regiment also recalled: "Ivan's tanks and planes attacked us again and again, and anti-tank guns kept rushing from the flanks. Just as we drove out of a pass, we were hit by a Red Army assault gun. Fortunately, everyone was safe and sound. A few hundred meters behind us, the division commander used radio to order two black panthers to follow, but in a flash they were destroyed... Ivan's su-100 was too powerful. All tanks and armored vehicles, including the Tiger King tank, could not withstand its thunder attack. Of course, the Tiger King often self-destructs themselves. They were all lame ducks on the battlefield with a lot of problems with engines, transmission systems and walking devices!"

Another day later, the battlefield finally cleared the clouds and fog dissipated. The sun was bright, the temperature rose to about 15 degrees Celsius, the ground finally began to dry, and some areas began to be suitable for tank marching. However, this was meaningless to the Germans. In the bad weather before, they had exhausted almost all their energy. Even if the weather improved, they could not move.

At this time, the battle also entered the third stage, which was the counterattack stage of the Red Army. Under the order of Konev, the 33rd Infantry Army of the Red Army, under the cover of dense artillery fire, launched several waves of counterattacks at the bridgehead of the 1st and 26th Armored Grenadier Regiments, and gradually repelled the German army backwards. Then the Red Army on the entire front took action and launched a full-line counterattack on the German army!

This situation surprised Ditrich and was inexplicable. To be honest, his troops had suffered a heavy blow before and were indeed staggering, but this did not mean that they did not have the ability to continue attacking. According to his own plan, they were ready to continue attacking in the past two days. The Russians launched a counterattack without exhausting all of his energy, which seemed too frizzy no matter how they looked.

So is Konev really too frizzy? No, he also knew very well that the German army still had enough strength to attack, but he had to start a counterattack immediately, because the 38th Army of Vasilevsky in the south had been encircled and was about to launch an attack on Timisoara. Once Ditrich discovered that there were a large number of Red Army soldiers near Timisoara, he would definitely be vigilant, and maybe he would turn around and run out of the encirclement immediately. In order to keep this piece of fat, Konev must take action in advance to keep the guests! (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!