The Rise of the Third Reich

On August 31, the tank battle on the battlefield near Minsk seemed to have gradually come to an end because of a timely heavy rain.

In the early morning of September 1st, on the battlefield of Zaslavl, where the fighting was originally the fiercest, there was no more roar of tank motors, no more shouts of "Ula! Ula!", and no more intensive gunfire, artillery and bomb explosions. The only sound left was the rustling sound of rain and the occasional muffled sound of firing flares.

Under the night sky, these flares shine with blazing white light, making the land of Belarus in the rain particularly desolate and chilling.

Major Gustav Schwarzenegger was sitting in a half-track armored command vehicle covered with an awning. He was not sleeping. Instead, he was smoking and watching a group of shirtless German supermen sweating profusely outside. Digging trenches.

Not far behind him, there was a forest that had been destroyed by gunfire and only a blackened tree stump was left. Under the cover of darkness, 34 "Rhino" destroyer tanks belonging to the 5th SS Destroyer Tank Battalion (one less than in the morning) were lined up in a row, with their muzzles raised, as if they were ready to fire at any time. look.

A low roar of the motor reached Major Schwarzenegger's ears. He stretched his neck out of the car and looked into the rainy night. I vaguely saw a burst of lights flashing rhythmically. This was a company of the 5th SS Armored Reconnaissance Battalion returning from the enemy's front line.

Major Schwarzenegger picked up the communicator and said to the commanders of the "Rhino" tank destroyers who were ready to fire at any time in the dark: "Everything is normal, continue to be alert."

A half-track armored vehicle drove past Major Schwarzenegger. Someone shined a flashlight on the vehicle and asked for the password. At this moment, Major Schwarzenegger recognized a captain in the car and asked casually: "Hey, Hank, what are those Bolsheviks doing?"

"Like us, we are also digging trenches and setting up defenses!" the person in the car replied.

"Also setting up defenses?" Major Schwarzenegger muttered, "It seems it's time for us to attack!"

…

“This is Minsk, the base camp of the Soviet Red Army in Belarus, this is Zaslavskoye Lake between Minsk and Zaslavl, and here is the Norabok Forest, 34 kilometers away from Zaslavl. The Red Army's front now stretches from Minsk to the Nora Bok Forest, stretching for more than 60 kilometers. It seems to be a defense line that is taking shape..."

The next morning, at the German Army Group Northern headquarters in Riga, Tipelskich was reporting the latest situation on the front to Manstein.

In the past dozen hours, the situation on the Minsk frontline has changed greatly. The Soviet counterattack seemed to have given up halfway and turned to defense, and a defense line of more than 60 kilometers was drawn west of Minsk to the forest zone between Minsk Oblast and Grodno Oblast.

"What's on this line of defense are their mechanized troops?" Manstein asked.

"It seems so," Tipelskich said. "According to aircraft reconnaissance, a large number of mechanized troops are arriving from Dzerzhinsk, Smilovichi and Chervin south of Minsk in the past two days. Towards the Zaslavl-Norabok forest area.”

"About how many?"

"There are at least several tank corps or mechanized corps." Tipelskich said, "There may be a concentration of 2,000-3,000 tanks/self-propelled artillery. If they are all placed between the Zaslavl-Nolabok Forest, the mechanized troops The density is still very high. Commander, we may be able to take a detour from their west or east."

"Why the detour?"

"Because we are going to surround them," said Tipelskich. "There are several mechanized corps!"

"But as soon as we make a detour, they may run to Minsk." Manstein laughed. "In fact, they only need to run to Zaslavl to connect with the Minsk defenders. We want to eat them. It’s difficult.”

"We can surround it, even Minsk."

"It can probably be encircled," Manstein shook his head, "but siege is worse than annihilation. There is already a large encirclement in Leningrad, and Warsaw will probably also need to be sieged, and Brest... ..." He counted on his fingers, "If Minsk is encircled again, there will be four large encirclements, and 600,000 people in each encirclement will equal 2.4 million people! How many mobile troops do we have on the eastern front? "

"If we don't encircle...then how are we going to fight?" Tippelskirch asked.

Manstein still shook his head, "It's not that we won't encircle, but that we can't drive the Soviet mechanized troops into Minsk to encircle them, but we must encircle them west of Zaslavl!"

As he spoke, Manstein waved his hand and made a slashing gesture, "Cut the Soviet front line from the area west of Zaslavl into two sections, and then eat the western part."

"Is that... a frontal penetration from the Soviet mechanized forces to launch defense?"

"Yes!" Manstein nodded, "We now have 11 armored divisions plus 5 heavy tank battalions, so we should be able to complete this task!"

"But the losses will be huge."

A strong attack from the front will definitely cause losses, especially since the Soviet Union now has many T-34/57 tanks and ZIS-2 57mm anti-tank guns.

Manstein shrugged and said with a smile: "Don't think so much, just let go! Didn't the Imperial Marshal say that we can produce 1,500-2,000 tanks and assault artillery every month? It's not enough to supplement what we have in Belarus." Loss?"

He thought for a while and said: "You can assign the five heavy armored battalions to five armored divisions that are responsible for the main attack, and then concentrate the 'Rhinoceros' tank destroyer battalions of each armored division and put them in the main attack direction."

…

After Manstein gave an order, Major Schwarzenegger of the 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion was once again placed at the forefront.

He received the order to temporarily go to the 1st Armored Division to help on September 2. Then he took his 37 "Rhino" coolie guns (3 more than on September 1, because 3 vehicles under repair had completed repairs) to report to the 1st Armored Division.

The commander of the 1st Armored Division is Major General Val T. Kruger. When Major Schwarzenegger arrived at Major General Kruger's division headquarters, the major general was listening carefully to the introduction of the Soviet Union by Major Rudel, commander of the 501st Heavy Armored Battalion. The situation of the army's tank troops - although Major General Kruger was a division commander who rose from the armored battalion commander, he had never competed head-on with the Soviet tank troops.

Rudel of the 501st Heavy Armor Battalion recognized Major Schwarzenegger, pointed at him and told Kruger: "Major General, Major Schwarzenegger has more experience in this area than I do. His destroyer tank battalion just fought with the Soviet Army." tanks."

"Really?" Kruger saw Major Schwarzenegger giving him a German salute and raised his hand to return the salute. "Major, tell me what you think."

"General, our enemies are getting stronger!" Major Schwarzenegger said, "They are learning and improving. At first, their T-34 tanks and KV-1 tanks could not deal with the No. 4, but now they are equipped with 57mm guns. "

In fact, both the T-34/85 and KV-1/85 are being developed at the fastest speed and will appear on the battlefield soon.

"The Russians are good at learning," Major General Kruger nodded. "They have been learning since Peter the Great. But in Belarus, they have little chance of progress, because we are about to launch an attack to destroy the Soviet Union. tank cluster!"

"Are we about to attack? Is the 501st Battalion taking the lead?" Major Rudel asked immediately.

"The 1st Armored Division is taking the lead," Major General Kruger said, "and will form a division-level assault group! The 501st Heavy Armor Battalion and the 5th SS Tank Destroyer Battalion will work with the 1st Armored Division's armored vehicles and armored grenades The soldiers formed a super assault formation together and forced a breakthrough from the 15 kilometers of woodland and plains between Rakov and Zaslavl! "

…

"Comrade Dzhugashvili, Major General Lyapin, Chief of Staff of the Front Army, hopes that you can go work for him."

The current commander of the 9th Mechanized Army of the Soviet Red Army is named Andrei Antonovich Grechko. He was originally a cavalry division commander. He had been fighting with the SS Polish Volunteer Cavalry Division during the Polish Campaign, and he was very successful. not bad. Therefore, after Rokossowski was ordered to stay in Warsaw as the general adviser of the Polish People's Army, he was promoted to the commander of the 9th Mechanized Army.

However, the newly appointed army commander seemed to have no official authority at all. He was currently discussing matters with his subordinate, artillery director Major Yakov Dzhugashvili, in a very respectful manner.

"You want me to serve as a staff officer at the front army headquarters?" Yakov was stunned, "But I won't do it."

He really didn't know how to do it. He only went to military school for one year, and all he learned was artillery-related knowledge, and he didn't know how to do staff work at all.

"Comrade Dzhugashvili," Grechko said with a smile, "you'd better go to Minsk. There will be a war in Rakov soon, and it will be dangerous then."

"Comrade Commander, what do you mean?" Yakov Dzhugashvili was unhappy when he heard this. "Do you think I am a coward who is greedy for life and afraid of death? Please tell Comrade Liapin that I If I don’t go to Minsk, I will be in the 9th Mechanized Army!”

The 9th Mechanized Corps commanded by Grechko is currently stationed in Rakov and is at the forefront of the confrontation with the German army. Yakov Dzhugashvili might be in danger if he stayed here, so the thoughtful Major General Lyapin planned to transfer him to Minsk.

However, the Chief of Staff of the Western Front was not doing things well. Things that could clearly be solved with an order had to be done by Grechko, a rough man with a cavalry background, to seek Yakov's opinion. As a result, Grechko, who could not speak, told the truth that he should not have told in front of Yakov. The consequences were of course very serious...