The rumbling sound rang beside the farmlands in the Kursk region in the early morning. German tiger-style tanks painted with camouflage moved their engines in the bright sunshine. These terrible tanks have been silent in Kursk for a long time. Today, the German army finally got a large amount of oil supply and could start moving on a large scale.

The German G Army, which had been resting in the southeast corner of Kursk, finally changed from a strategic defensive situation to a strategic offensive. Hundreds of tanks spread out in the vast Kursk plains. Just like the first Kursk battle not long ago, the second Kursk battle once again began with groups of tanks advancing.

The tracks of a Tiger King tank crushed a piece of fence blocking the road ahead, and groups of German grenadiers crossed the farmland with weapons on their backs. After several weeks of careful preparation, the German army's attack showed great momentum from the beginning.

The artillery fire of the general attack flooded several positions guarded by the Soviet defenders. Most of the Soviet resistance was in front of the crushing superior forces, which seemed vulnerable. However, the Soviet defenders still fought the most tenacious resistance they could. German soldiers were hit by Soviet soldiers in some node areas. After all, Soviet soldiers were also the elite among the elites. The two sides fought wildly in the Songcaiwo area. However, because the reserves were limited, the Soviet Union began to be weak one day later, and the Soviet army was eventually surrounded and annihilated.

Yastrebovka and Dym were soon captured by the German army. Once these two cities were lost, the defense line on the flank of Kursk was on the verge of collapse. If the German army could continue to move north, the Soviet army left behind in cities such as Kursk would eventually be completely surrounded.

Gorschinoye was then occupied by German armored troops, and the four local defenders were all annihilated by German armored grenadiers. Although the troops here chose to rather die than surrender and really resisted to the end, when their town defense line was divided and surrounded by German troops, they did not fight each other well, but tried to break through, but were chased and surrounded by German armored troops.

Guderian's offensive plan pointed directly at Higre. The 1st Armored Army's footsteps seemed to be unstoppable. The collapse of the Soviet defense line was faster than Zhukov expected. The flank of the Kursk defense line, which seemed extremely strong, was easily torn a huge gap.

Voronezh, a city occupied by the German army and later captured by the Soviet army, once again appeared in the suburbs of the German army. The infantry responsible for covering the Guderian G army came from General Qusiral's N-group army. Under the cover of the 9th Armored Division of the SS, they began to try to attack this city, which Stalin called great and unyielding.

When attacking Saint Rudolf (Stalingrad), the heavy artillery troops gathered by the German army entered into battle in this direction. Dozens of large-caliber artillery easily turned the streets of Voronezh into ruins. German tanks easily broke through the Soviet defense line from both sides of the city. The Soviet army defended the city counterattacked hard, defending the city to the seventh day after the Second Battle of Kursk.

The loss of Voronezh completely collapsed the defense system in the area south of Moscow. The German army chased and killed the Soviet infantry in the field, and there were groups of Soviet prisoners everywhere. By June 3, the entire Voronezh Prefecture was occupied by the German army. In early July, Guderian's armored troops headed north along the border of Voronezh Prefecture and Kursk Prefecture, and successively captured Oremsky Kastornoy. Finally, under the cover of some armored grenadiers, the Third Panzer Division captured Kershinsky in one breath.

The Soviet defenders did not expect their defense system to collapse so quickly, nor did they expect the Germans to come from behind. So the bridges west of Kershinsky were not blown up, so they gave them to the German vanguard. So German tanks almost passed through these rivers, and in just 3 hours, they occupied Cheremisinov in front of the Soviet defeated troops.

Zhukov had already transferred his main force to the area north of Kursk. He was trying to retreat in secret in Moscow, but the German attack was too fast, which completely failed to retreat in secret. So he ordered the main force of the 1st Front Army of the Guards and the 3rd Front Army of the Guards to go north, but he led the remaining troops to gain as much time as possible for the main force of the Soviet army to go north.

He was not prepared to die with the rear guards, but hoped to encourage the remaining troops to fight to the last moment through his attitude of leaving. So when the German vanguard troops had already begun to attack Cheremisinov, Zhukov remained in Kursk to preside over the military meeting and asked his troops to defend all existing defense areas as much as possible.

Hundreds of thousands of Soviet infantry could not easily withdraw from the Kursk war zone, because if they start to retreat rashly, with the German offensive, the Soviet army would soon stage the second tragedy of the Leningrad cluster being wiped out in the wild. So Zhukov's idea was that all troops would counterattack on the spot, and with the construction of fortifications, they would delay the time when the German occupied Kursk as much as possible.

To put it bluntly, since retreating is a collapse, and defending to the death is a collapse. It is better to defend the existing positions to annihilate more German enemies. However, because of the loss of a large number of armored troops to jointly defend, the resistance of the Soviet infantry was not as solid as Zhukov imagined.

"Comrade Marshal!" A staff officer handed the war report from his hand to Zhukov, who had been talking less and less recently. He had just received the news, and the front line of defense also began to shake under the influence of the collapse of the flank. Oboyan's important front line has been surrounded by both sides of the German army, and the defenders are struggling to support and demand reinforcements: "Oboyan's defenders call and ask us to support the tank troops and counterattack the enemy's armored forces."

"Where are there any tank troops?" Zhukov opened his dry lips and said, "I have sent the last anti-tank unit to Higre, you know. And that unit has no good equipment. Most of them are 76mm anti-tank guns modified from T26 tanks. It is difficult to deal with Leopard tanks, not to mention the German tiger and tiger kings."

"If the German tanks capture Oboyan, then our frontal defense system will be difficult to protect." Of course, the staff knew that the reserve team had been sent to the flank by Zhukov, but he still wanted to seek some reinforcements for Oboyan's defenders, even some infantry. Because he knew that once Oboyan was lost, the next one to stop the German army from moving forward would be Medvinka, the southern division of Kursk.

The number of Soviet tanks was already seriously insufficient. Most of the tanks recently added were self-propelled artillery. These scattered forces hidden in various parts of the front line did not have a great impact on the power balance of local theaters. Although German tanks suffered a certain loss, the capture of strategic goals was not delayed.

You should know that on the west side of Guderian's army is General Kluge's F Army. This army has pushed its vanguard into Oryor Prefecture. Although the progress and momentum of these German troops are not very good due to the drag of Moscow, it has really added huge pressure to Zhukov.

Zhukov looked at the arrows representing the German offensive route on the map, sighed helplessly, temporarily forgot about the defenders requesting reinforcements in the direction of Oboyan, and asked an unrelated question: "Where has the 1st Front of General Konev's Guards reached now?"

"Comrade Marshal! General Konev's 1st Front Army has now entered the southeast of Orel Prefecture and is continuing to move northward." An officer quickly answered Zhukov's question.

"So, has the Third Front Army of General Vasilevsky's Guards arrived in Yeretz now?" Zhukov asked his second question. No one knew what he was thinking now. These two front troops were originally the core main force of the Zhukov cluster heading south, but are now placed in the safest position.

"Very good! As long as these two fronts can continue north safely, everything we insist here will make sense." Zhukov nodded, and his mood seemed to be better. He stared at the map with his hands behind his back, and finally said, "Tele to the defenders near Oboyang to tell them that for the honor of the motherland, we will stick to the last soldier and one soldier! No retreating! No surrendering!"

Then he turned his eyes to several officers in the command office, and then ordered: "You set off immediately and go to Medvenka! Strengthen the defense line there, and supervise the defenders there! Be sure to keep them until the last moment!"

"Yes! Comrade Marshal!" Several officers stood attentively and quickly carried out the marshal's orders. They were the most elite and loyal part of the Soviet army's sequence, so they were more determined and reliable when executing the orders. Seeing them turn and leave, Zhukov found a chair and sat down, then raised his head to look at the portrait of Stalin hanging on the wall, and murmured: "I have tried my best to help you get time. I hope you can persist until the moment of victory in Moscow."

The sunlight outside the window is still bright, and the recent days have been extremely clear and good weather. Zhukov hates such good weather because he can see a long distance where German planes are hovering in the sky.

The next chapter will be even late. You can wait until tomorrow morning to watch it, so as not to affect your rest.
Chapter completed!