I asked you to escape, but you became a soldier in World War II

Chapter 124 Operation Rumyantsev Begins
On the night of August 8, the Soviet mobile forces (the 1st and 3th Guards Tank Armies) began to enter the starting positions, 4-2 kilometers away from the German front line. On the nd, the combat maps began to be distributed to the platoon level, and the front-line commanders and fighters took the time to familiarize themselves with the offensive route.

"Captain Lin Chen, we have achieved a great victory, so a counterattack on the southern front is imminent. The code name of the counterattack is 'Rumyantsev' (Peter Rumyantsev, a famous general of the 16th century Tsarist Russia who punched Frederick the Great and kicked the Ottoman Turks). The purpose of the battle is to crush the enemy Belgorod-Kharkov group and create conditions for the liberation of Ukraine on the left bank of the Dnieper River.

The battle plan was to launch a frontal assault on the junction of the 4th Panzer Army and the Kempf Group from the northwest of Belgorod using the adjacent flanks of the Voronezh Front and the Steppe Front.

The general direction of the assault was Bogodukhov, Valki, and Novodrag, in order to split the enemy Belgorod-Kharkov group in two and then encircle and annihilate the enemy in the Kharkov area.

"Comrade Brigade Commander, what is the mission of our brigade?" Lin Chen learned from Colonel Parosovich that the counterattack in the Battle of Kursk was finally about to begin.

"We don't know yet. The mission will be issued before the battle begins. We just need to be prepared."

The German Army's espionage capabilities were very powerful. In order to maximize the suddenness of the launch of the campaign, delaying the issuance of orders as much as possible was a very good idea.

"Is the comparison of the strength between the enemy and us clear?" Lin Chen has been focusing on military training during this period and is not very clear about the overall situation on the southern front.

"The Voronezh Front and the Steppe Front have a total of 98 people and nearly 3000 tanks and self-propelled artillery. In addition, there is support from the Second and Fifth Air Armies, as well as a large number of artillery reserves!" said Colonel Parosovich excitedly.

At the same time, he added his assessment of the German army: "The German army group defending in this direction has been weakened, because the German command was forced to withdraw part of its forces from the group and transfer them to the Donbass and Orel directions in the second half of July.

At present, the German army in this area only has the Fourth Panzer Army and Kempf Battle Group with about 21 people, 250 tanks and assault guns. The only bad news is that the German army has a pre-established complete defense with a depth of 90 kilometers. "

(The German troops in the Belgorod region in early August could only be described as "weak". It is hard to imagine that this group had the most powerful armored assault group in the history of the German Army on the Eastern Front a month ago.

Once this area was home to 5 German armored divisions, 1 armored grenadier division, 3 SS armored grenadier divisions and 13 infantry divisions, in addition to 1 armored division, 1 SS armored grenadier division and 1 infantry division as reserves, but now this large cluster nominally has only 15 infantry divisions and 4 armored divisions.)
After listening to Colonel Parosovich's introduction, Lin Chen had a rough idea that the German army would definitely not be able to defend Belgorod and Kharkov.

The ratio of enemy and our own troops and armored forces reached an astonishing level. It can be said that there was no pressure to win. The only suspense was whether we could encircle and annihilate or severely damage the German army.

Lin Chen even thought that the most sensible thing for the German army to do now was to retreat in big strides, preserve their vitality as much as possible, and shorten the battle line. If they just ordered their troops to fight for every inch of land, they would only be wiped out bit by bit in front of the powerful Soviet army.

On the night of August 8, the troops finally received the order to attack. On the Belgorod front, millions of Soviet troops were already on the alert, waiting for the signal to attack.

Rotmistrov's Fifth Guards Tank Army was set to break through to a depth of 100 kilometers, that is, after crossing Valki, it would continue to pass west of Kharkov and attack southward.

After the massive transfusion, the number of tanks under Rotmistrov's army recovered to nearly 500. In addition, a large number of self-propelled artillery were added. Lin Chen and his tank brigade, as the spearhead force, needed to advance to Besonovka with the main force of the army.

At 1943 a.m. on August 8, 3, the much-anticipated Operation Rumyantsev officially began.

The code word for the attack, "uregan" (Hungarian), was sent to Soviet frontline units via radio. Soviet artillery began to roar.

The Voronezh Front, which was responsible for the main attack, carried out extremely sophisticated pre-war artillery preparations, starting with five minutes of rapid firing, followed by a 5-minute interval for engineers to clear obstacles, and enough time for the German army to re-enter the front-line positions. This was followed by 30 minutes of comprehensive fire coverage (60-2 kilometers in depth), with bombers, heavy mortars and rocket launchers playing the leading role.

What followed was 70 minutes of precision strikes, with the approaching heavy howitzers accurately knocking out the remaining German frontier positions based on the bombardment coordinates provided by the previous scouts.

Finally, a five-minute rocket barrage was conducted to ensure that there were no living creatures on the German front lines.

Under such fierce and artistic artillery preparation, all the German bunkers were blown into the sky, even the minefields were carpet-plowed, and the carefully constructed defensive positions were basically razed to the ground.

When the last wave of rockets with long tail flames landed, it was followed by the roar of countless tanks on the side of the Soviet starting position.

When the first batch of commandos followed the T34 tanks into the German trenches that had almost been flattened, they found that the few surviving German soldiers had been blown silly. Some of them died in a daze, while others became hysterical. Of course, they were all shot to death by submachine guns in the end.

The Soviet offensive on the first day went beyond everyone's expectations. Before the end of the day, the First Tank Army cut off the Tomarovka-Belgorod highway, and the Fifth Guards Tank Army advanced to Besonovka. After a day of attack, each army advanced an average of 30 kilometers.

Belgorod's outer defense line had been torn into pieces by the Soviet army's steel torrent.

What depressed Colonel Parosovich was that his troops had hardly any fighting that day.

At 8 o'clock in the morning on August 4, the Soviet army repeated the same trick and used powerful artillery to clear the way. The already loose defense line of the German army collapsed at the first touch. Then the infantry began to storm the German troops in Tomarovka.

However, because the German Army transferred the 255th Infantry Division and the 19th Armored Division overnight to strengthen the entire defense line, the vanguard of the Soviet Fifth Guards Tank Army only made minimal progress in the northwest.

Lieutenant General Rotmistrov personally called Colonel Parosovich's command headquarters. After receiving the call, Colonel Parosovich was of course extremely excited and immediately led the main force of the brigade to the front line.

By going to the front line with Lin Chen to observe, combined with the opinions and suggestions given by the commander of the troops who had fought very hard before,
Lin Chen pointed out that the reason why the German positions were difficult to attack was because the Germans had tank reserves. Every time the Soviets were about to break through, they would always strike at the most critical moment, making the Soviets very passive.

"Do you have any good ideas?" Colonel Parosovich knew that Lin Chen had a lot of clever ideas.

"It's not that difficult actually. When the next wave of attacks comes, we will directly use the SU-152 heavy artillery to hold the line. When the German tanks counterattack, we will give them two waves of close-range volleys. I guarantee that they will never dare to do so again next time." Lin Chen smiled slyly.

When the Soviet army's fire attack began, the German army huddled in the solid rear bunkers. After the artillery fire extended, they only sent a small number of German troops to the front line to see if the Soviet army really attacked.

Until they saw that a large number of Soviet infantry followed the tanks to launch another charge, a large number of German troops emerged from the rear bunkers and quickly entered the front-line positions. The German long-range firepower was very accurate, causing heavy losses to the attacking forces, and several leading tanks were directly killed. Unfortunately, the German artillery supply seemed to have problems. After only one round of firing, the heavy artillery disappeared.

The Soviet artillery fire had poor accuracy, but the numerical advantage completely made up for this shortcoming.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

After a round of heavy bombing, several German forward firepower points were eliminated.

The Soviet army quickly broke into the position, and at this time, the German 19th Armored Division launched a counterattack.

The armored forces, mainly composed of Panzer IV tanks, soon appeared on both wings of the German positions, trying to encircle the Soviet offensive forces.
But how could Lin Chen let them succeed? Lin Chen's heavy self-propelled artillery battalion played its full role at this time. After quickly assaulting the front line, they began to fire at the German armored forces on the side that was rushing over.

Twelve 12mm howitzer shells whizzed out and exploded in the German tank formation. The powerful attack force made whoever was hit by the German army unlucky.

With just one round of salvos, three German tanks were destroyed, and the infantry suffered heavy casualties. How could they continue the attack?
As for the other counterattack force, it was defeated by the second wave of attack from the Soviet army because of its isolated strength.

The position fell into Soviet hands very easily.

After breaking through the German defenses, the Soviet Sixth Tank Army and the Third Mechanized Army arrived at the Orlovka line (between Borisovka and Belgorod), splitting the triangle in half.

At this point, the Soviet army had already created a huge breakthrough in the riddled German defense line, 10 kilometers wide and 15 kilometers deep.

However, Lin Chen and the others were not happy for long before they received new news.

While attempting to outflanking Tomarovka from the northwest, the 502rd Guards Rifle Corps engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with the German nd Heavy Armored Battalion.

The German army dispatched two Tiger tanks, and the Soviet tank units suffered heavy losses. The attack was contained by the German army.

Colonel Parosovich immediately ordered the troops to pack up quickly and move forward towards the 502nd Heavy Armored Battalion with strong mobility.

The army headquarters even promised air support.

When they arrived, it was almost dark. According to the aerial reconnaissance intelligence received previously and the feedback from the attacking Soviet army, the German army had deployed at least two Tiger tanks here.

Lin Chen realized the seriousness of the problem and quickly went to discuss with Colonel Parosovich. Previously, when he dealt with Tiger tanks, he used his mobility advantage to attack its rear, but he had never fought this kind of positional warfare.

The key point is that he felt that fighting this way was exactly the same as the classic Tiger combat examples he had read about in his previous life.
He didn't want these tank killers on the Eastern Front to become famous in front of him.

Colonel Parosovich pondered for a while and seemed to disagree with Lin Chen's opinion. The consecutive victories had already made him a little arrogant, not to mention that his troops were strong and had the most powerful armored force in the entire 5th Guards Tank Army.

If I still don't dare to fight the German army, how can I have the face to go back and see the commander?
But out of respect for Lin Chen, he still asked, "Do you have any other good ideas?"

Because if he can avoid a forceful attack, then it would naturally be better not to do so. It is not easy to replenish his tanks. If he can gain victory at a lower cost, he would be happy to see it happen.

"We can send out a tank regiment to maneuver to the enemy's rear. Although the Tiger tank is powerful, its supply requirements are extremely high. As long as its supply line is cut off, this type of tank will become scrap, and we can then seize it." Lin Chen put forward his own opinion.

Unexpectedly, Colonel Parosovich interrupted impatiently, "Now our brother troops are watching us from behind. How long will it take for me to send troops to move behind enemy lines? Commander Rotmistrov will not agree. The situation of our encirclement of the German army in Belgorod is very clear now. I don't want the entire encirclement plan to fail because of our procrastination."

Lin Chen fell silent after hearing this. He knew that Colonel Parosovich was eager to be promoted to major general and become a general commander of the Soviet army. Moreover, the Soviet army's offensive was too smooth recently. They were no longer willing to study any combat skills. They were too lazy to take other approaches that could be achieved with numerical advantage.

The front commander, General Konev, was even more eager to prove his ability, and the advantages he possessed were indeed enough to allow him to accomplish this brilliant achievement.

So Lin Chen could understand their thoughts, but if they did so, there would inevitably be heavy casualties.

"Comrade Brigade Commander, if we attack head-on, our armored forces will suffer great losses. Please pay attention to this." Lin Chen could only remind him again.

"Got it. Go to the back and prepare your self-propelled artillery battalion to provide firm support to the front line!"

Colonel Parosovich waved his hand. He felt that Lin Chen would not give him any constructive suggestions. It was meaningless to emphasize the heavy casualties. How could there be no deaths in war?
The most crucial point was that on his way here, he had received news that the Army's First Mechanized Army had approached the Vezelka River and was preparing to attack deep into the German defense line with powerful forces.

If the other side achieved this result, the German troops in Belgorod would either retreat or be surrounded, so he had to speed up, otherwise he would not even be able to drink a sip of hot soup.

(End of this chapter)