The Rise of the Third Reich

"Bazooka! Hurry and take cover!"

I don't know who suddenly shouted. Major Gustav Schwarzenegger, who was standing next to a half-track armored command vehicle, reacted quickly and threw himself to the ground. He rolled again and moved his body to the ground. Beside the tracks of the half-track, he covered his head with his hands. At this moment, harsh "whoosh" sounds and violent roars came one after another, and Schwarzenegger, who was lying next to the half-track vehicle, also felt a fiery storm passing by on his back.

He knew that a Soviet rocket had just exploded near him. If he hadn't fallen down next to a sturdy half-track in time, he would have gone to see God by now.

The Soviet rocket bombardment went away as quickly as it came. After a loud noise that was so violent that people thought it was the end of the world, the battlefield filled with choking smoke and hot air suddenly became extremely quiet.

Major Schwarzenegger, who had witnessed many volleys of rocket launchers on the battlefield in Warsaw, ignored the buzzing in his ears, pushed the ground hard with both hands, and got up from the grass.

He looked around, and the first thing he saw were six large "Rhino" tank destroyers, all of which were intact. Because the "Rhinoceros" in this time and space has a top armor baffle. Although it is only 10mm thick, it is enough to defend against rocket fragments. Unless it is hit directly or a rocket explodes at a very close distance and overturns the vehicle, it will not cause much damage.

Then he saw that the 19 No. 4 H tanks spread out on both wings and covered with camouflage nets were also safe and sound. His battle group originally had 22 No. 4 H models, but now 3 are under repair and only 19 are operational. If you include the 6 "Rhinoceros" coolie guns that are all intact, the intactness rate of the main combat vehicles is close to 90%. Such a high equipment integrity rate shows on the one hand that Germany's No. 4 series tanks are technologically mature and of high quality; on the other hand, it also shows that the intensity of the battles in these days is extremely low - this shows that the Soviet Red Army deliberately put the German army into Near Minsk.

Perhaps the real battle has just begun now!

"Check the equipment and prepare to fight!" Major Schwarzenegger shouted immediately. He knew that after the artillery bombardment, there must be an attack by tanks and infantry.

But at this moment, the sad and melodious whimpering sound of the hand-cranked air defense siren sounded!

Although the Soviet Red Air Force lost most of its air superiority, they did not disappear. In fact, the Soviets replenished fighter pilots much faster than their opponents - after all, in the past many years, the Soviet Union has always attached great importance to the construction of air force reserve forces, and they also have enough fuel for those who love flying, and politically Reliable Soviet citizens went to learn to fly airplanes.

In order to save fuel, the number of reserve pilots trained by Germany was far smaller than that of the Soviet Union. Moreover, their overly serious and rigorous temperament has made the training of air force and naval aviation pilots slower. Therefore, the German Air Force and Naval Aviation are still at a disadvantage compared to the Soviet Union in terms of quantity, but they have an overwhelming advantage in terms of quality.

What appeared in sight was a group of low-flying dark green fighter jets. Major Schwarzenegger raised his binoculars and tried to identify whether they belonged to IL-2 attack aircraft or other types of fighter jets. At this moment, someone beside him suddenly cheered loudly. Schwarzenegger turned his head and saw 12 light green painted planes flying from the north. They looked light and vigorous, flying very fast at low altitude, and passed over the Schwarzenegger battle group position in the blink of an eye.

Gustav Schwarzenegger recognized these aircraft at a glance as Fokker Zeros, a type of fighter that had been very reliable in covering German ground forces in the air since the outbreak of the war.

Any experienced German army officer knows that as long as the Fokker Zero appears at low altitude, enemy attack aircraft and bombers have little chance to drop bombs on their heads.

Amidst the cheers of the SS soldiers, the 12 Fokker Zeros were divided into six two-plane formations and rushed towards the Soviet fleet, and took the lead in making the "click-click" sound of the cannons. The Soviet aircraft originally flying in formation seemed to be stunned by this sudden attack, and two more Ilyushin-2 fighters fell down, dragging thick smoke. I don’t know whether it was intentional or a coincidence, but one of the two Soviet aircraft actually rushed towards the Schwarzenegger cluster position. In the blink of an eye, it fell next to a 38t self-propelled anti-aircraft gun that was firing, and crashed. explode. Immediately, the anti-aircraft gun modified from the obsolete 38t tank chassis was submerged in the sea of ​​​​fire.

"Another Bolshevik madman!" Gustav Schwarzenegger knew that the collision was probably intentional. He had seen this kind of thing too many times on the battlefield in Warsaw. There are many fighters in the Bolshevik air force who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the ideals of communism.

"Get ready to fight!" Schwarzenegger no longer paid attention to the battle in the sky. He knew that the Fokker Zero was very reliable at low altitudes, and even the American P51 was no match. And at medium and high altitudes, there must be an Fw-190 ambushing now. The sky above today's battlefield must belong to the German Air Force!

"Rhino Cannon, fire at 2,000 meters!" Major Schwarzenegger continued to give the order, "No. 4, fire at 1,000 meters!"

The "Rhinoceros" tank destroyer is equipped with the same artillery as the Tiger tank. When using high-speed armor-piercing projectiles (tungsten alloy cores), it can penetrate a 110mm homogeneous steel plate placed at a 30-degree angle at a distance of 2,000 meters. Theoretically, it can penetrate the frontal armor of the current T-34 and KV-1! Moreover, the hit rate of this artillery is extremely high. A well-trained crew can achieve an 80% hit rate at a distance of 2,000 meters (hit rate in training), so for the "Rhinoceros", 2,000 meters is a suitable range. firing distance.

The 75mm L/48 tank gun used by the No. 4 H type is much less powerful. It is not a big problem to use high-speed armor-piercing projectiles against the opponent's T-34 at a distance of 1,000 meters, but it is a bit difficult to fight KV tanks.

When issuing the order, Major Schwarzenegger was sweating in the palms of his hands. He was only commanding a strengthened battalion-level battle group, and the only ones he could use were 19 No. 4 vehicles and 6 "Rhino" vehicles. If he really encountered Going up to the Soviet tank sea would be a disaster!

The fierce battle goes on as scheduled! The first wave that rushed up was a cluster of dozens of T-34/57 and large KV-1 tanks, followed by countless infantry.

Because the Schwarzenegger cluster was on the right wing of the six German armored battle groups, it was the first to be attacked by the Soviet army commanded by Vatutin. Although only one tank brigade, two cavalry brigades and a rocket launcher battalion of the Soviet 1st Assault Army have arrived on the battlefield now, and they were bombed several times by French Breguet aircraft on the way, the vehicle's intactness rate is still not high. to 60%. But it's still much more powerful than the Schwarzenegger cluster!

Lieutenant General Vatutin also knew that the German follow-up troops were coming in a steady stream, and the counterattack must be short and powerful. Therefore, he invested half of his tanks and 3,000 dismounted cavalry in the first wave of attacks.

Seeing the Soviet tanks and soldiers approaching step by step, Major Schwarzenegger became a little nervous. Just looking at the scale of the first wave of Soviet attacks, he knew that this was likely to be the beginning of a decisive battle.

There should be a lot of tanks and Soviet soldiers behind, right? Major Gustav Schwarzenegger suddenly felt an inexplicable sadness: This battle may last for a long time...even many years.

Having fought hard against the Soviet army in Warsaw, he knew very well that the Soviet Red Army was not an enemy that could be easily defeated!

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

At this moment, the 88mm guns of the six Rhino anti-tank destroyers began to roar, and the collision of tanks between the Soviet and German armies had begun!

…

"Sir, the leading troops of the 5th SS Armored Division and the leading troops of the Soviet tank group exchanged fire, and the fighting was very fierce." Tippelskich, commander of the Northern Army Group, reported the news just received to Manstein.

"The vanguard was fighting very fiercely?"

"Yes, it seems that the Soviet army is very determined to counterattack." Tipelskich said, "As long as we can achieve an overwhelming victory in this tank group battle, it is not impossible to capture Minsk."

"What cannot be captured," Manstein shook his head, "all intelligence shows that the Soviet army is making preparations to hold on to Minsk for a long time. Even if they lose in the tank battle, they still have enough strength to retreat to Minsk. After all, the battle The area is very close to Minsk, and the defeated Soviet army can quickly enter the city of Minsk. "

Because of the experience of the Battle of Warsaw and the Battle of Lviv, both sides now know that a fortified city is difficult to conquer. Therefore, Manstein believed that the probability of the Soviet army abandoning the strong city of Minsk was almost zero.

"But I don't want Minsk either. What's so good about Minsk? It's just a medium-sized industrial city, and it's not worth our effort to attack with hundreds of thousands or hundreds of thousands of casualties."

Storming a fortified city was an unsolvable problem during World War II. Even with the B-4 demolition cannon, a storm would be littered with casualties. Therefore, in the "Blue Plan", there were almost no plans to storm cities. For large cities heavily defended by the Red Army, they basically adopted siege methods and used starvation to force the defenders to surrender.

Therefore, in the plan that Manstein is currently implementing, the first thing to seek is a field battle outside Minsk. After defeating the Soviet tank group, if the Soviet army refuses to abandon Minsk, the German Army Group North will adopt encirclement methods to surround the Minsk defenders and cut off the defenders in Warsaw and Brest and the rear. Main transportation lines.