The Rise of the Third Reich

At about 8:30 in the evening on May 7, 1943, Comrade Solzhenitsyn, the artillery reconnaissance company commander of the 4th Infantry Corps of the Soviet Red Army, was vomiting!

The vomiting was so severe that I almost vomited out bile. Of course, the reason why he vomited was not because he had eaten something bad, but because he saw something he shouldn't have seen and smelled something he shouldn't have smelled.

It turned out that his unit retreated to the Katyn Forest area on the north bank of the Dnieper River, about 20 kilometers west of Smolensk, in the evening of May 6. This is the gateway to the west of Smolensk. If it is occupied by the Germans, the next battlefield will be Smolensk city.

Because there are large wheat fields between the Katyn Forest and the city of Smolensk, the German tanks can directly crush them! Therefore, the 4th Army of the Red Army received an order from General Yefremov, commander of the Smolensk Group, to hold on to the Katyn Forest at all costs.

A German armored group (composed of the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division and the 3rd Armored Division) pursued the retreating Soviet army all the way to the Katyn Forest on the night of May 6.

So the two sides started a fierce battle on the western edge of the Katyn Forest, and the battlefield quickly moved from the western part of the Katyn Forest to the middle of the forest. Because the terrain of the Katyn Forest was not conducive to the power of the German armored forces, the two sides were in the middle of the forest. The area became a stalemate, and everyone began to dig trenches and build fortifications (the Katyn Forest has been cut down for many years, so the trees are not particularly dense, and there are still some open areas in the middle).

Solzhenitsyn's unit was assigned to an open area that exuded a strange odor. As a result, after some digging, they found severely decomposed human corpses, and not just one or two, but many. a lot of……

"Comrade Company Commander, they seem to be Poles..." a platoon leader who participated in the Soviet-Polish War in 1939 said to Solzhenitsyn, who had just finished vomiting and his face was ashen. "These dead people are wearing the clothes of the Polish White Army." Military uniforms! They must be Polish prisoners of war. We captured many Polish prisoners of war that time, hundreds of thousands of them!"

"You're talking nonsense!" Solzhenitsyn has been serving as the political deputy company commander these days. His awareness is slowly rising. Of course he knows what to say, and once he says it, he will go to the punishment camp.

The big-mouthed platoon leader was stunned for a moment when he saw Solzhenitsyn's reaction, and then began to talk nonsense, "Comrade company commander, what I said is true. These people are Polish prisoners of war, and they are wearing The costumes of the Polish army, and..."

"Stop talking! You must be drunk..." Solzhenitsyn suppressed the feeling of vomiting and shouted loudly, "These people cannot be prisoners of war. They must be Polish Whites who were killed on the front line. Transported here for burial! Because our Red Army never tortures prisoners, let alone kills them. Only the Nazis and the Polish White Army can do this!"

When Solzhenitsyn said this, the nonsense platoon leader suddenly broke into a cold sweat. What he just said was indeed out of line. He was talking about the great Soviet Red Army massacring prisoners of war. How could such a thing happen? Who would say such a thing except anti-G life elements?

…

"Oh my God, are we fighting in hell? How could something so terrible happen? How could the Soviets do this?"

On the German frontline, only about 3,000 meters away from Comrade Solzhenitsyn, Brandt, a peace-loving socialist, was holding his nose and talking nonsense.

His unit also dug up corpses in the Katyn Forest, and some veterans immediately recognized them as Polish soldiers from the tattered military uniforms worn by some of the corpses. However, unlike what Solnichen saw, here Not all of the corpses were wearing military uniforms.

Some of the corpses were wearing civilian clothes! Obviously not soldiers, they were probably Polish civilians who were captured together with the Polish White Army - they should be various Polish reactionaries on the land of Western Belarus. Like the captured Polish soldiers, they were also placed under "highest security measures" by the Soviet authorities.

"Herbert, don't make such a fuss, they are just Poles." Brandt's boss, Sergeant Schmidt, was born in West Prussia and was expelled by the Poles with his family when he was a baby. Naturally, he has no good impression of the Poles. , I wish they would die.

He said: "I think the Russians finally did something right this time... This saves us a lot of trouble. If only our big shots had such determination!"

Because they adopted a relatively mild method such as the Alliance of Monarchs to annex Poland, the Poles are really a trouble for Germany. It can only be dealt with through dispersion (using the name of war to disperse to various European Community countries), tolerance and slow assimilation. Moreover, there are many Polish nationalists among the nearly 20 million Poles...

"How can you say that? These are people!" Brandt shouted.

"They are all dead! Dead Poles!" Sergeant Schmidt glared at Brandt, "If you are caught by the Soviets, you will be like them! If you don't want to be like them, then go quickly Find a suitable ambush position and kill a few more Bolsheviks!"

Brandt nodded. This time he actually felt that it was very necessary to kill the Bolsheviks! He also thought: "We must not fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks. That would be too terrible! It is even more terrible than dying on the battlefield..."

…

"It cannot fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks! Absolutely not!"

While eating a hot dinner, Honorary Sergeant Pavlyuchenko secretly made up his mind. She was not the only one who had the same idea. All the Ukrainian officers and soldiers in the 17th Ukrainian Cavalry Division of the SS had the same determination as her, and they would rather die than be captured by the Soviet Union.

Because all of them know that being captured means death, and they will die miserably!

In this time and space, the Soviets and Germans on the Soviet-German battlefield still abide by some principles of "gentleman's war." But there was a bloody feud between Ukrainians (Western Ukraine and Right Bank Ukraine) and the Soviets.

The Ukrainians in the German Wehrmacht would never take prisoners of the Red Army. They would kill them one by one on sight, even if they were wounded soldiers!

The Ukrainian German Wehrmacht and West Ukrainian Defense Force soldiers captured by the Red Army will not be treated as prisoners of war - they will be treated as traitors to the Soviet Union, and Article 58 of the Criminal Code will apply.

As for the Ukrainians in the SS, they would definitely die in an ugly way if they were caught!

Therefore, the officers and soldiers (Ukrainian) of the 17th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion, who knew that they would not be spared lightly, all prepared their weapons for themselves. But most of them don't need these poisons, because General Lukin of the Soviet Red Army has prepared enough artillery and tanks for them.

In addition to the tanks and mechanized troops that laid ambushes on the evening of May 7, the Soviets seemed to be continuously deploying troops this night!

At least that's what "it sounded" to Pavlyuchenko and her comrades! Throughout the night, the Soviet army that surrounded the 13th collective farm in Klimovich did not launch an attack, but continued to gather troops. The roar of tanks and car motors kept coming from the nearby road!

Obviously, the Soviets transferred a large group of tanks and cars from nowhere! This time the 17th SS Reconnaissance Cavalry Battalion encountered a rather large Soviet tank group.

"Commander, it seems that the Soviet tank group is to the north of us!"

Lieutenant General Hube, chief of staff of the 1st Armored Group of the German Wehrmacht, arrived at General Mackensen's office early in the morning with an urgent telegram from the 17th SS Ukrainian Cavalry Division.

"Are you sure?" Mackensen was reading the report sent by the 5th SS "Viking" Panzergrenadier Division at this time. The "Viking" division stationed in Gomel also discovered a large number of Soviet The army arrived east of Gomel, and there seemed to be tank troops among them.

"It's basically certain," Lieutenant General Hube said. "Soviet tanks passed outside the farm where the 17th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion was stationed. The sound of motors roared all night long, and there were thousands of vehicles of all kinds deliberately deployed."

"Thousands of units?" General Mackensen frowned. "Is it a Soviet tank army? Then they did not attack the collective farm."

"No." Lieutenant General Hubei replied.

"Then what do they want to do?" General Mackensen felt a little incredible.

"Perhaps they want to attract reinforcements by besieging our troops," Lieutenant General Hube thought for a while and then said, "Maybe the Soviets deliberately exposed some of their strength and wanted to attract our armored forces to go north for a decisive battle."

"What about east of Gomel?" Mackensen asked. "The Viking Division also reported the discovery of Soviet tank troops. Do the Soviets want to attack us from both sides?"

"Unlikely," Hubei shook his head. "The two places are more than 100 kilometers apart. Aren't the Soviets afraid of being defeated by each of us? Their tank army is not our armored army. In fact, its combat effectiveness is at most equivalent to one The armored corps, even if it concentrates 3-4 tank armies, cannot defeat us, so it is unlikely to divide its forces. "

General Mackensen nodded and asked, "How are Lieutenant General Lenzky's preparations going?"

Lieutenant General Lentsky is the division commander of the 1st Cavalry Division of the German Wehrmacht. His full name is Arnold von Lentsky.

At present, the three cavalry divisions heading north to the eastern part of Mogilev Oblast are all under the command of Lentsky, among which the 17th Ukrainian Cavalry Division of the SS is also reported. After learning that the Soviet tank troops surrounded the 17th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion, Lieutenant General Lendsky immediately began to mobilize troops to prepare to rescue the trapped troops.

"A division-level group has been assembled, including two cavalry regiments, a regiment-level group consisting of wheeled assault guns and wheeled tank destroyers, and a regiment from the 1st SS Panzergrenadier Division. "Lt. Gen. Hubei said: "In addition, the Air Force is also ready for support. There will be more than 100 fighter jets and the same number of Breguet attack aircraft to support Lieutenant General Lenzki's troops." He paused. After a moment, "Commander, do you want to cancel the rescue plan?"

General Mackensen shook his head, "It doesn't matter, let Lenzki go. With the support of the air force, our people will not suffer big losses."