The Third Reich in Desperation

"Ivan! Come and escape with us! These enemies are too ruthless, they dare to fight against such a bombing! I guess, the enemy troops who rushed into the city are all their death squads, deliberately guiding planes to bomb important goals of the city.”

"But, in this way, won't their death squads be bombed by their own plane?" The soldier named Ivan obviously didn't figure out why this happened.

"You don't even understand this?!" The Soviet officer who reminded Ivan to avoid him sneered, "The demons of these allied countries are beasts that are not afraid of death, especially the Germans. I heard that they would die in war! This time they Isn't it crazy enough to brave the bombing to attack the city?!"

I see!After hearing this, Ivan nodded his head. He thought that the enemy had accidentally blown up his own people. It turned out that this was exactly the tactic of the enemy death squad.

"Enemy situation!" Suddenly, a shrill scream broke the conversation between Ivan and the officer.

I saw 3 motorcycles in front, leading more than a dozen tanks, galloping towards the bridge.

On the motorcycle, the six soldiers wearing German helmets are obviously the German army they just talked about.

Thinking of how the Germans were not afraid of death and madness, and dared to launch an attack under such a bombing, the defenders of the bridge felt a wave of fear for a while.

Within a few minutes, they broke up one after another, scattered to avoid the charging German army.

Rentup and his party took advantage of the situation to speed up, leaving behind Frank and the soldiers of the German teaching company whose motorcycle passed by, and got out of the car in time to eliminate the explosives left by the Soviets to blow up the bridge here. Spanish tanks rushed across the bridge and seized the bridgehead on the south bank.

Subsequently, Mora commanded the main force of the Spanish armored division to drive across the bridge in a mighty manner and march further south.

The next day, the Spanish Armored Division and the German 1st Armored Group successfully joined forces and closed the outer encirclement net.

Two days later, the Italian black shirt army captured the important traffic town of Priluki on the Udai River, cut off the rear channel of the Soviet army, and completed the inner outflank.

Text 780 Breakout Program

Due to the formation of a large German encirclement, many Soviet troops lost effective supplies.After the Spanish and Italian Expeditionary Forces and the German Army completed their final meeting, the situation near Kiev suddenly became one-sided, and many of the main forces of the Southwest Front Army were divided and surrounded by the German Army.

The Military Council and Headquarters of the Southwest Front Army in the encirclement could no longer continue to implement Stalin's bullshit counterattack order at this time, and they deployed overnight retreat operations to break out of the encirclement.

The military committee, most of the headquarters, the political department, the services of various arms, and all rear personnel who are usually far away from the battlefield must now participate in the breakout.

The entire breakout force, under the direction of Kirponos, was to pass from the village of Upper Yarovka to Piryatin, where a small local bridge spanned the Udai.

It is said that it is a breakout force, but it is actually less than 3 people. At best, it is a command center of the Southwest Front Army to break out.

As for the other units of the Southwest Front Army, they have now been divided and strangled by the German army, fighting on their own, unable to carry out any orders from the Front Army Command, let alone launch a breakout operation together.

The only thing that Kirponos can quickly assemble and control now is his guard company, headquarters, military committee, political department, and service personnel of various arms.

As long as they can lead this group of people to break through, the core and upper echelons of the Southwest Front Army can be preserved. As long as a large number of new recruits are added in the future, it is not impossible to rebuild a front army.But the most Kirponos can do now is to try to bring these people out of the encirclement.

It would be impossible to take away all the 50 people in the encirclement who had already dispersed.Not to mention the chain reaction that such a large-scale mobilization would trigger, no matter how slow the German army was, it would be impossible for such a large-scale army to rush out of the encirclement from under their noses.

Only, Kirponos took the core personnel of the Southwest Front Army, accompanied by the main combat troops of the guard company, and arrived at the Udai River in the middle of the night.

During the day, the German Stuka bombers had already come to bomb the ferry here, so now it is very difficult for Kirponos' team to maintain formation when crossing the river.

However, as long as there is no battle, even if the battle formation is not maintained, there will not be any major consequences immediately.

So with no choice, Kirponos should let the team find their own way and cross the river piecemeal.

After crossing the river, this force, which was included and commanded by the Southwest Front Army Command, passed through Pilyatin and headed for Chernukha, an inconspicuous settlement.

But before dawn, Kirponos and his party encountered the impact of a German armored reconnaissance unit from the north, which cut off their connection with the accompanying infantry unit.

Having lost the infantry units of the two companies that had been drawn nearby, the weakened command column had no choice but to change direction again, turning to pass a rural road along the left bank of the Udai River, avoiding the mainland, and reducing collisions with the German army.

It wasn't until the evening of the second day that Kirponos summoned all the accompanying leaders from the headquarters to hold a "Front Army Combat Conference" in a country farmhouse.

The headquarters of a front army is already equivalent to the level of the headquarters of an army group of the German army.But they had to hide in an unknown village and hold a meeting in a farmhouse.

This is really ironic and aggrieved, but everyone present can do nothing about it.

In such a depressing atmosphere, General Tupikov, Chief of Staff of the Southwest Front Army, first reported the situation: "The enemy forces are encircling from all directions. Especially the German army, they have strengthened their frontal north-facing defense on the south bank of the Udai River. And Italian and Spanish tank and motorized units also occupied the east bank of the Mnoga River. As a result, all major settlements to the north and northwest of us have been taken by the enemy."

"There are not many areas left for us. Moreover, most of them are small and medium-sized residential areas, which are completely unsuitable as headquarters settlements." Tupikov sighed heavily.

After listening to these disturbing intelligence, everyone fell silent.Compared with the heaviness in Tupikov's words, the heaviness in their hearts at this moment is even thicker.

In the end, Kirponos, the commander, was the first to break the suffocating silence.

"There is nothing else to say. There are too many bad things, not just one or two. But one thing is obvious, that is, our headquarters column must break through. Now, we only need to know which direction to break through. Other things, we will have the opportunity to discuss and summarize in the future.”

Sure enough, as soon as Kirponos spoke, the topic was immediately shifted to the key direction.

Soon, someone, inspired by Kirponos, came up with suggestions that apply today.

"Without further delay, I suggest that tonight, with the support of the guard company, our headquarters column forced to cross the Mnoga River near Gorodishh, headed for Lokhvica overnight, and finally rushed out of the German army in this direction. encirclement."

It was a young combat staff officer who spoke.Regarding this breakout plan, he had already thought about it, but it was only after Kirponos had just said that the staff had the opportunity to propose this breakout plan that was contrary to Stalin's "holding the ground and waiting for an opportunity to counterattack" .

If the commander of the front army doesn't start with this, then a small combat staff officer is not qualified to make such a statement.Maybe, making a big fuss will bring about the charge of decapitation for timidity.

But even if someone summoned up the courage to propose a breakout plan, the problem still seemed unsolvable.

As for the staff plan, General Tupikov alone has firmly opposed this proposal.

"The Germans were waiting for us to do this, and they must have set up an ambush at the head of the bridge. At this moment the pressure on the Mnoga River, and probably just put my column in an ambush by the Germans, and the whole army was wiped out there."

Tupikov firmly stated his point of view: "On the contrary, I think we should go upstream, near Chernukh, that is, go 12 kilometers northwest from here, and forcefully cross Mnoga at that position. river."

Minister of Operations Bagramyan, who had just been promoted to major general, immediately stood up at this time to express his support for Chief of Staff Tupikov's combat policy.

In this small farmhouse, Baghramyan spoke in front of many command personnel: "We have confirmed that the German army attaches great importance to every bridge, and its importance is even higher than our own!"

Based on the information in his hands, Baghramyan analyzed: "The advantage of breaking out near Chernukh is precisely that it can create an unexpected effect on this basis. There are some good camps there. , so that the river can be crossed without taking the bridge, and the troops can be brought out of this natural blockade."

"I think it's okay!" An older combat staff officer immediately made a decision: "This is much better than the previous plan."

"I think it's okay!"

"I think it's okay too!"

...More and more people are nodding to this new breakout plan, so much so that the young staff officer who first proposed the first breakout plan has also become a supporter of the new plan.

Text 781 Front Road

This new plan has been adopted by most people, and Kirponos has no reason to deny it.

Therefore, Commander Kirponos finally decided to re-divide the headquarters column in this small village and establish three battle groups: one for the vanguard battle group to clear the way for the front army headquarters, and two A flank battle group responsible for covering the safety of the flank.

Chief of Staff Tupikov was in charge of commanding the vanguard battle group built with a guard company as the core, and Minister of Operations Bagramian was ordered to command a company of the NKVD. The task was to cover the entire column and prevent enemy troops from attacking from the side.

The other flank battle group is in charge of a battalion commander of the logistics force with armed logistics personnel.

Among the two flanking battle groups, Bagramyan's battle group can be regarded as a truly combative team.Because he commanded a young team of 150 young men.