Colonel Reinhardt led his troops through the town of Boguslavka and continued their march north, and within five kilometers of the march came before them a riverside town.

Through information from the FI-382 Black Hawk helicopter in the sky, Colonel Reinhardt knew that there was an enemy garrison in this riverside town.

Instead of wasting time in the town of Krugoliakivka, Colonel Reinhardt brought in the 75th Infantry Division to be assigned to his vanguard, a force consisting of the division's reconnaissance battalion and a No. 3 assault gun company.

Colonel Reinhardt told this unit to monitor the enemy in the town of Krugoliakivka and wait for the infantry of the 75th Infantry Division to catch up before taking it, but he himself led the troops of the 104th SS Heavy Armored Brigade out of the road and onto the farmland on the east side of the road.

The 104th SS Heavy Armored Brigade is equipped with all tracked or semi-tracked vehicles, with good cross-country ability, and the farmland on the east side of the road is all dry land, without the barrier of paddy fields, and the troops have excellent passability.

Huge armoured clusters drove by, leaving countless rutted marks on the farmland, crushing all the corn stalks and wheat that stood in their way, and passing through a stretch of field about ten kilometers long to a small village called Kopiskinivka, north of the town of Rugoliakivka.

As if not anticipating that the enemy would bypass the town of Krugoliakivka to the south and hook themselves with a beautiful right hook, the defenders of the village of Kopiskinivka saw the hordes of E-50 "Tiger" tanks rushing towards them and fell into a great panic, and before the troops of the 104th SS Heavy Armored Brigade rushed into the village, some soldiers had already turned around and ran out of the village and fled north.

Six "donkey" self-propelled rocket launchers fired a salvo of 60 150-mm rockets on the heads of the defenders, completely crushing the courage of the few remaining defenders.

Almost without encountering much resistance, the vanguard of the 104th SS Heavy Armored Brigade managed to capture the village of Kopiskinivka.

Colonel Reinhardt was not overjoyed by a small victory for his troops, but shouted over the radio with a stiff face: "The heavy armored battalion is in front, the panzergrenadier battalion is in the rear, under the unified command of Major Piper, ready to meet the enemy from the north, they are approaching us, and we are running out of time." ”

Through helicopter reconnaissance, Colonel Reinhardt learned that a large armored force was heading south towards his troops, and that he and his men had to hurry to find a suitable location to meet the enemy.

To the south of the village of Kopiskinivka, there is a small river flowing from east to west, this small river is a natural anti-tank trench, Colonel Reinhardt did not want this small river to be used by the enemy as a fortification, so he bypassed the town of Krugoliakivka in advance, and went straight to the village of Kopiskinivka on the north bank of the small river, successfully seized the village before the arrival of the enemy's armored forces, and established a bridgehead on the north bank of the small river.

Receiving orders from Colonel Reinhardt, the heavy armored battalion and the panzergrenadier battalion of Kopiskinivka moved separately, and the heavy armored battalion left the village and looked for their own hiding places on the outskirts of the village, ready to meet the enemy tanks.

Panzergrenadiers occupied the buildings in the village, as well as the bushes between them, ready for battle.

Colonel Reinhardt was in the vast farmland southeast of the village, leading the rest of the troops on standby.

Glancing at the Wild Bee self-propelled howitzer with its barrel held high behind him, Colonel Reinhardt turned his gaze to the two helicopters cruising in the sky.

However, Colonel Reinhardt was waiting for news that surprised him.

The enemy's tank units did not go straight to the village of Kopiskinivka, but split into two armies.

A small force, probably a force of about thirty tanks, advanced to the north, about two to three kilometers from the village of Kopiskinivka, taking advantage of the vegetation there and another riverside town, and turned into a defensive position.

Another larger force, with more than 100 tanks, was moving southeast, about seven or eight kilometers east of the village of Kopiskinivka, in a riverside village called Pishane.

"The Russians have learned wisely, they know that they have outflanked in a roundabout way, and last year, they only knew how to charge head-on." Colonel Reinhardt said with a smile.

After saying that, Colonel Reinhardt turned around and walked to the rear of the SD KFZ 251 armored car, pushed open the hatch and jumped out of the car, and climbed into the armored car with his adjutant and parked next to the armored car, where an E-50 "Tiger" tank with the number B01 was parked.

With the radio headset on, Colonel Reinhardt was half exposed outside the turret and issued a series of commands into the headset.

After receiving the order, the No. 4 Tank Battalion of the 104th Heavy Panzer Brigade of the SS and the Panzergrenadier Battalion, reinforced from the Panzergrenadier Division of the "Großdeutsches", were successively launched and attacked Pishane in the northeast.

After the order was given, Colonel Reinhardt's tank was activated, and with a piercing roar, joined the ranks of the fourth tank battalion.

No sooner had the troops set off than Colonel Reinhardt heard the rumbling of artillery from behind.

The "Wild Bee" self-propelled howitzer entered the battle first, hindering the movement of the enemy in the north with artillery fire.

Tanks and armoured vehicles charged across the mountains and reached the south of Pishane in less than half an hour.

Originally, he wanted to leave this village to the 75th Infantry Division to attack, but now it seems that he will change his plan and use this village to design a trap for the enemy.

The village of Pichagne was divided into north and south by a small river, and Colonel Reinhardt led his troops to the south of the village, stopping behind a gentle slope about two kilometres from the village.

Tank B01 slowly drove up the anti-slope and stopped near the top of the slope, and from the north, only Colonel Reinhardt's head could be seen.

Through the binoculars, Colonel Reinhardt could clearly see that, despite his own artillery fire, the enemy's tank units had rushed into the village of Pichagne first, joined up with the defenders of the village, and were now entering the south bank of the river from the north bank of the river through bridges and ferries over the creek.

Colonel Reinhardt spoke into the miniature microphone of the radio, and the continuous gunfire behind him stopped.

After a short interlude, more powerful artillery fire descended on the battlefield again.

Sixty 150-millimeter rockets were the first to land in Pichagne, and in the violent explosion, half of the village's houses on the south bank of the river were destroyed in an instant.

The Wild Bee self-propelled howitzers and Scorpio self-propelled cannons followed suit, smashing 150-mm and 88-mm high-explosive shells into the village of Pishane.

The houses were smashed one by one, the shells fell into the creek and splashed high white jets of water, the tanks that had just crossed the river were scurrying around the village like headless flies, and the infantrymen who had crossed the river with the tanks disappeared without a trace, each looking for a place and lying on the ground to avoid the artillery fire.

Heavy artillery fire suppressed the Soviet infantry, but could not stop the tank units from continuing to cross the river.

As if they were fired by heavy artillery fire, the Soviet tank units did not stupidly stop in the village and be bombed, but rushed out of the village one after another to the south, rushing in the direction where the shells were flying.

"They are out, the troops are ready."

Following the order of Colonel Reinhardt, in the No. 4 medium tank battalion, the No. 4 tank destroyers of the fourth company took the lead up the ramp and occupied the middle position of the defensive line, and the three No. 4 H tank companies drove up the ramp one after another, exposing only the turret.

Colonel Reinhardt retracted the turret, closed the turret hatch, and the tank slowly moved forward, exposing the turret to the slope.

The turret of the E-50 Tiger heavy tank not only gives the tank a dreamy appearance, but also gives the 105mm tank gun an 8-degree depression angle, just like the No. 4 tank destroyer next to it.

By using a gentle slope to cover the hull, the E-50 Tiger tank only needs to leave the turret exposed before it can go into battle.

Only the turret is exposed, and the projection area is small, which can greatly increase the difficulty of enemy hits.

Colonel Reinhardt's heavy tank fired the first shot of the blockade.

Condescendingly, the first armor-piercing shell ignored the front armor of the T-34 tank and penetrated the steel plate on the right side of the machine gun muzzle, burrowing into the tank, destroying the tank.

Colonel Reinhardt personally directed the gunner to the target, and the turret slowly turned to aim the gun at a slow-moving KV-85 heavy tank.

"Boom ·····" The mighty sound of the cannon made the blood flow of Colonel Reinhardt's whole body accelerate, and the adrenaline rose instantly.

The KV-85 tank in the distance shook the turret and, as if not yet finding the enemy's bearing, was hit on the "cheek" on the right side of the turret by a flying armor-piercing projectile.

A fragment of a steel plate that I don't know where it was was thrown into the sky, arcing and falling to the ground.

On the battlefield, the sound of artillery continued, and the first salvo of the No. 4 Medium Tank Battalion left at least 20 Soviet tanks dead in the wilderness.

Some Soviet tanks were even attacked by a number of German tanks, and there were three or four more bullet holes on their bodies in an instant.

Soon, on the battlefield, the fuel of the destroyed tank was ignited, the fire was burning, and the black plume of smoke drifted in the wind.

In a chaotic formation, the surviving Soviet tanks were in disarray, swarming towards the slope where the Germans were located, with T-34 tanks rushing in front and KV-85 heavy tanks following behind.

Ignoring the T-34 tank, which was relatively close to him, Colonel Reinhardt focused on the KV-85 heavy tank in the distance.

In an instant, two more KV-85s were hit by 105-mm armor-piercing shells, one was pierced through the front armor on the right side of the hull, and the other was pierced on the left side of the turret, stopping on the battlefield with round bullet holes.

Colonel Reinhardt's "selling heads" tactics were tested on the battlefield and achieved great results, with German tanks firing an average of five shells per tank before destroying the oncoming Soviet tank clusters.

To the north of the slope, the wreckage of sixty or seventy Soviet tanks was scattered.

Seeing that the surviving Soviet tanks turned their heads and retreated in a panic towards the village of Pishane, Colonel Reinhardt decisively gave the order to pursue.

The No. 4 Tank Battalion drove up the slope, swooped down again, its tracks rumbling and turning, drove past the corpses of Soviet tanks and tankmen, and pounced on the village of Pishane in front of them.

Colonel Reinhardt's tank B01 followed as it climbed to the top of the slope, but did not go down.

The Colonel got out of his tank and looked west of the village of Pichagne with a telescope, just in time to see a tank unit moving east along the south bank of the Little River.

That force consisted of two companies of E-50 Tiger tanks and a company of panzergrenadiers.

Since the enemy did not intend to attack the village of Kopis Nikivka, there was no need to let too many troops waste time in the village, so Colonel Reinhardt promptly drew this unit and sent it back to the south bank of the Lesser River, along the south bank of the Lesser River, and cooperated with the No. 4 Tank Battalion to flank the village of Pishane.

Seeing that the tank unit was rapidly approaching the village of Pishane, arriving almost simultaneously with the enemy's defeated tank unit, Colonel Reinhardt nodded in satisfaction.

The defeated tanks brought panic to the defenders of Pishane.

Looking at the two clusters of tanks charging from the south and west, the defenders of the village fled in a hurry, crossing the creek and escaping into the village's complex on the north bank of the small river.

However, under the command of Colonel Reinhardt, the artillery unit extended its artillery fire to the north of the Lesser River.

The "Tiger" heavy tank, which hurried to the battlefield, just intercepted the defeated Soviet tanks.

A panicked T-34 tank did not detect the enemy from the west, and only wanted to quickly cross the river crossing and flee back to the north bank, but was hit by a shell from the left side of the rear of the car.

With inertia, the tank rushed out seven or eight meters away and stopped on the south side of the ferry, blocking just half of the ferry.

A T-34 tank was following behind, trying to drive past the right side of the tank, but could not escape the tracking shells.

As soon as the front track of the tank entered the water, it was hit by a flying armor-piercing projectile in the middle of the left side of the hull.

The turret hatch opened, and the two surviving tankmen jumped out of the tank, dripping waist-deep through the creek and escaping to the north bank.

Less than fifty meters away, a string of machine-gun bullets flew in, and a ball of blood appeared on the backs of the two of them, and they fell headlong on the green grass.

Captain Michelle Wittman, commander of the 4th Company of the E-50 Tiger Heavy Armored Battalion, was the first to rush to the edge of the ferry, slowly approaching the destroyed T-34 from the side, and pushing the tank eastward, until the wreckage of the tank was pushed into the grass east of the ferry, and the tank was pushed backwards.

Turning the wheel, Captain Weitmann's tank was the first to drive down the river, passing the left side of the hull of the T-34 tank in the river, and with the soaked hull, the first to rush to the north bank of the river.

The coaxial machine gun on the turret threw a string of machine-gun bullets into the village, and the muzzle of the 105mm tank spewed black smoke, firing a high-explosive shell at a very close range of less than 100 meters at a house that blew the house and the machine gunner inside, and Captain Michel Wittman managed to seize a piece of safety on the north bank of the river.

E-50 Tiger tanks and Wolf infantry fighting vehicles waded across the river, and Panzergrenadiers jumped out of their vehicles and followed them into the village complex.

To the east of the ferry, the No. 4H tank group also chased the enemy into the village, swooping down on the bridge over the creek and another crossing to the east.

Colonel Reinhardt, seeing the battle in the village of Pishane, withdrew his gaze and looked up at the helicopter cruising in the sky.

"Colonel, the enemy is on the run, no new enemy has appeared, they are all hiding in the villages and towns by the river."

Receiving the report from the helicopter, Colonel Reinhardt relieved himself and hurriedly called in the artillery unit.

Self-propelled guns had long ceased shelling and were advancing in the direction of the village of Pichagne.

Tanks and Panzergrenadiers made their way through the village, leaving corpses strewn as they tracked the retreating enemy towards the north.

There is a distance of less than twenty kilometers from the village of Pishane to the destination Kupyansk, and if the enemy is fleeing to Kupyansk, then pursue them until Kupyansk.

As for the Soviet troops hiding in the villages and towns along the Oskol River, let them continue to be shrunken turtles and ignore them.

In the pursuit battle, the most tragic thing was the Soviet infantry, from time to time the Soviet infantry saw the German armored vehicles approaching, stood up from the grass, raised their hands and surrendered.

The second tragedy was the KV-85 heavy tanks, whose off-road speed put them at a disadvantage in the race. Tankers got out of their tanks one after another, stood by the tanks and raised their hands in the air, waiting for the Germans to take over.

The T-34 tank managed to escape, as well as some of the clever infantry who jumped on the tank to hitch a ride.

Captain Michel Wittmann led his men of the 4th Company, throwing down groups of Soviet infantry who had surrendered with their hands raised and told them to surrender to the Panzergrenadiers behind them.

Chasing the T-34 tank in front of him, Captain Wittmann chased it out for ten kilometers.

A village appeared ahead, and T-34 tanks in front of it were moving towards it.

From afar, plumes of black smoke rose from the village and flew diagonally into the sky.

Captain Wittmann was all too familiar with the smoke columns, and there was fighting going on in the village.

In the line of sight, in the T-34 tank group driving at high speed in front, the two tanks driving in front suddenly stopped, and the hull of one of the tanks exploded violently, and the turret rolled and flew into the sky.

There were friendly troops in the village ahead, and it was they who stopped those tanks.

Captain Weitmann's tank group continued forward for about a kilometer, bringing the T-34 tanks that had intercepted outside the village into range of the tank guns.

The 4th Tank Company fired a salvo and was exposed to the field, and the Soviet tanks blocked at both ends were wiped out.

The surviving tankers abandoned their vehicles and fled with the surrounding infantry.

Two E-40 "Panther" tanks rushed out of the village ahead, followed by seven or eight SD KFZ 251 armored vehicles.

Armored vehicles rushed into the farmland and rounded up the Soviet infantry who were fleeing for their lives on the farmland.

"They should be the people of the 'Großdeutschland' division, they are one step ahead of us." Captain Michelle Wittman said, staring at the tank in the distance.

More than half an hour later, Colonel Reinhardt arrived in the small village called Pishawn.

In the village, Colonel Reinhardt met Colonel Count Stakhwitz, commander of the "Großdeutschland" Panzergrenadier Division, who had arrived one step ahead of him.

Seeing Colonel Reinhardt, Count Stachwitz greeted him warmly, shook Colonel Reinhardt's hand and said, "Your Waffen-SS is faster than I thought, and it is almost catching up with the speed of our army. ”

Colonel Reinhardt blinked and said calmly: "My troops are dragging an infantry division of your army forward with great difficulty, and I am very satisfied with this speed. ”

Count Stakhwitz let go of his hand, pointed to the northeast and said: "In front is Kupyansk, where my troops have arrived and are preparing to attack the city. Please lead your troops as a reserve and cover our left flank. ”

Colonel Reinhardt said, "It's a pity, Earl, that I have to go back and take care of the infantry brothers of the 75th Infantry Division behind me, and I can't leave too many troops for you." ”

。 Sogou