The Rise of the Third Reich

The Battle of Klimovich, which began on May 7, 1943, was later known as the Battle of Collective Farm No. 13 in later history. Because this battle was fought around the collective farm No. 13 located in the city of Klimovich.

And this battle is regarded as the beginning of the Junction War and a decisive battle!

If the 11th Panzer Army of the German Wehrmacht defeated the Soviet 5th Tank Army in the Battle of Collective Farm No. 13, then the 11th Panzer Army could join the 24th Panzer Army moving south from Oryosha in the north, and then join the South together. At that time, the German army will be able to concentrate a total of four armored corps, the 3rd, 11th, 14th and 24th Armored Corps on the Gomel battlefield.

The number of armored divisions under these four German armored corps will reach 6, and the number of armored grenadier divisions will reach 7. Theoretically, the number of tanks/assault artillery will reach more than 5,000!

The strength of the Soviet Union's 1st and 2nd Tank Armies on paper is only about 2,100 tanks/assault artillery, not even half of their opponents. The result of a head-on collision will definitely be shattered.

If General Lukin's 5th Tank Army can hold off the German 11th Panzer Corps and the German 24th Panzer Corps that will join the battle later in the Battle of Collective Farm No. 13, at the same time the troops of the South-Western Front on the Southern Front can also Detain the German 14th Armored Corps that has entered the Chernogov area (it is also very difficult to complete this task, because the main force of the 14th Armored Corps did not go deep, but gathered near the city of Chernigov, about 10 kilometers from Gome The battlefield in Liberia is only about 100 kilometers), so the only enemy that the Soviet 1st and 2nd Tank Armies need to deal with is the German 3rd Armored Army (which has 2 armored divisions and 2 panzergrenadier divisions).

And if the Soviet 1st and 2nd Tank Armies can defeat or annihilate the German 3rd Armored Army on the Gomel battlefield, then the situation on the Soviet-German battlefield will be reversed, and the cause of GCism may be realized!

So on the evening of May 9, when Comrade Lukin learned that a huge German "Armored Army" was approaching him, he knew that he and the 5th Tank Army were now responsible for the success or failure of the communist cause.

"Comrades, the survival of the Soviet motherland and the happiness of all mankind now depend on our glorious 5th Tank Army!"

At 7 o'clock in the evening, General Lu Jin said to the chief officer of the group army headquarters and several chief officers of the 5th Mechanized Army in his former enemy headquarters: "What we are facing now is an enemy that is far more powerful than us. They With a large number of tanks and artillery, the soldiers were armed to the teeth and menacing, ready to destroy the Soviet motherland.

If we cannot hold them back at Klimovich and cannot use the fighting of the 5th Tank Army to attract more enemies, then the battle of the junction will fail! This will mean unimaginable catastrophic consequences!

If we fail in the Battle of the Junction, the next battle will start in the capital of the great motherland, and Leningrad may also fall. Our motherland will face a test of life and death.

Therefore, our 5th Tank Army must fight to the end in Klimovich and sacrifice at all costs! "

The 5th Tank Army is going to fight in Klimovich...actually near the collective farm No. 13 in Klimovich, so it is very crucial to occupy the field and living area of ​​this large collective farm as well as a large area of ​​forest nearby. .

Because there are not only woods where tanks and tank destroyers can be ambushed, but also solid field buildings, warehouses, schools, health clinics and residential areas. It is a small town with several thousand residents - the agricultural collectivization of the Soviet Union can It’s not all about searching and not building!

In fact, collectivization brought about large-scale and mechanized agricultural operations, which was not much different from what large agricultural companies in the United States did. The reason for the failure did not lie in "scale" and "mechanization", but in the particularly severe bureaucracy brought about by "political and economic integration" (collective farms were not just operating entities, but also a level of government).

However, the bureaucrats at Collective Farm No. 13 in Klimovichi, Belarus, were quite motivated. At least they invested a lot of manpower and material resources in cosmetic projects (it was actually a model collective farm) and built the 1940s For the Soviet Union, it was a very impressive and solid field building.

On May 9, 1943, this three-story building with a basement covering an area of ​​about 3,000 to 4,000 square meters (also the location of the cooperative headquarters, agricultural machinery station, savings bank and militia headquarters) At night, it became the last stronghold of more than a hundred Ukrainian German troops.

Pavlyuchenko and her assistant Tymoshenko evacuated here on the afternoon of May 9.

Major Helmut Zinz, the battalion commander of the 17th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion, said to her at that time: "Lyudmila, you don't have to stay here, because you are a woman... You can leave as a civilian, as long as you Walk a few kilometers south and you will find our main force.”

There are almost no women in the front-line troops of the German Wehrmacht, which is not in line with the Juncker tradition. Only a small number of female soldiers (who are still female assistants of the Wehrmacht) exist in the Ukrainian troops. Therefore, there is still a possibility that Pavlyuchenko could escape by dressing up as an ordinary Soviet peasant woman.

But the Ukrainian female fighter from Kiev rejected Major Zintz's proposal.

"No, Comrade Major (also known as Comrade in the Nazi Party), I am a soldier!" Pavlyuchenko said, "I want to fight for honor and the freedom of Ukraine."

She was born and raised in Right Bank Ukraine and was never a Soviet. Naturally, she regarded the Red Army who "liberated" Right Bank Ukraine as invaders and wanted to fight them to the end.

However, at this time, she and most of the Ukrainian soldiers fighting for the German Empire had realized that Germany's intentions for the black land of Ukraine were actually the same as those of the Soviet Union. The only difference is that the Germans will divide the land on the right bank of Ukraine equally among Ukrainian farmers - only the "right bank" will be distributed, excluding Western Ukraine and left bank Ukraine.

The land ownership relationship in Western Ukraine (part of the former Austrian Ukraine) will not change. The fertile land in Left Bank Ukraine (referring to the east bank of the Dnieper River) will be used to settle German immigrants (no need to check the N generation, as long as they are white and trustworthy). God, just speak German), and at the same time became the territory of the German Empire. In other words, the Ukrainian nation, which suffered heavy losses in this war, could only get half of Ukraine, and they had to regard the German emperor as their monarch...

Of course, for Ukrainian intellectuals like Pavlyuchenko, German rule will bring them an additional benefit - they can live freely in any big city in the European Community while enjoying the benefits of European citizenship and Welfare of Imperial Citizens.

It is certainly not worth sacrificing one's life for the welfare provided by the Germans, but the Ukrainian soldiers who were regarded as "traitors" by the Soviet Union now have no choice but to fight to the end with the Soviet Red Army and become cheap cannon fodder for the Germans—— We originally belonged to the same nation, but now we have become sworn enemies on the battlefield. This cannot but be said to be a huge tragedy.

Pavlyuchenko and her assistant Tymoshenko, who were in tragedy, entered the basement of the building in the evening of May 9. This is actually a semi-basement. The top of the basement is higher than the ground, and there are 10 small windows opened in the part above the ground.

The basement had been remodeled, and the cement floor had been dug out with explosives and shovels to create several bomb shelters. All windows have been transformed into firepower points. 3 machine gun groups, 3 anti-tank groups (each equipped with a "Doll" 88mm recoilless rifle) and 3 sniper groups are in place. Pavlyuchenko and Timo Shenke is the fourth sniper team deployed in this basement.

The person who commands these 10 combat groups is a sergeant named Poroshenko - the number of officers in the German Army has always been relatively small. Usually only the company commander and 1st platoon commander in a company are officers, and the remaining platoon commanders are non-commissioned officers. The officer configuration of the 14th SS Ukrainian Cavalry Division is also the same, so there are not many officers in the 14th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion. In the previous battle, several officers were killed, so now it was the turn of a sergeant to command the platoon-level battle group huddled in the basement.

Honorary Sergeant Pavlyuchenko is one of the two sergeants in this battle group, so he is Poroshenko's substitute. Once Poroshenko is killed, she will be the commander of the battle group. But the current Honorary Sergeant Pavlyuchenko still doesn’t know that this basement and this sturdy field building will become the place where she becomes famous.

While the remnants of the 17th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion retreated to the No. 13 collective farm headquarters building, the 5th Tank Destroyer Brigade and the 108th Mechanized Infantry Brigade under the 5th Mechanized Corps of the Soviet Red Army also retreated to No. 13 Collective. The farm is fortified.

Although the field building has not yet been taken down, this collective farm living area, which can accommodate thousands of residents, is still an area of ​​great defensive value. For the convenience of living, working and construction, the living area of ​​Collective Farm No. 13 is located next to the highway. There is also a river dozens of meters wide and a large forest nearby, which are all favorable terrains that can be relied on. Surrounding the farm living area and a large forest nearby are endless stretches of farmland, scattered small woods and warehouse buildings belonging to collective farms. It is really the most ideal battlefield for a tank battle!