Zeitzler's estimate was a little more optimistic, and even with the assistance of the 4th Air Force, the replenishment of the 2nd and 4th Panzer Armies continued until 10 a.m. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoThis supply is completely unprecedented, the entire battlefield gathered more than 2,600 tanks/tank destroyers, and more than 1,400 armored vehicles of various types, if these forces are measured at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, it is almost equal to the size of half of the armored forces of the Eastern Front, and now it is actually concentrated in the main breakthrough direction of less than 300 kilometers long and 200 kilometers wide, and the combat effectiveness of the hedgehog is naturally extremely strong.

If it weren't for the 10 base numbers of fuel that had been stockpiled before the war and the tens of thousands of tankers built on the basis of standard truck specifications that accompanied the army, the fuel supply alone would have driven the logistics supply department crazy, and even so, some of the transportation capacity would still have to rely on the Air Force to complete the support, and the Army General Staff had finally learned the "might" of advancing much faster than the planned plan -- 30 years earlier, this kind of advance speed would have been enough for a few months for troops to fight by the standards of World War I.

It was precisely because of such a prominent advantage that the two Red Army armies of nearly 200,000 men could not hold out even a day, and in the nearly 30-hour battle, the total number of Red Army attrition (killed, wounded, and captured) exceeded 180,000, while the German losses in the same period were less than 10,000 (including the losses of the air force).

However, when the attack on the left flank of Michurinsk and Tambov continued, the troops felt that the enemy's resistance began to increase significantly, and tanks and tank destroyers appeared more and more frequently, and those Su-85 and Su-122 destroyers caused a lot of trouble to the rumbling German armored forces, and at the same time, the Red Army's Il-2 attack planes also braved their lives to attack armored targets on the plains, and more than a dozen tanks, including the Tiger, were poisoned. It wasn't until the BF-219 arrived quickly to shoot down the fighters.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the campaign headquarters in Smolensk received a less than ideal message: the results of aerial reconnaissance showed that the troops of the enemy's central front were being assembled, and it was estimated that two infantry armies and one tank army were preparing to enter the battlefield, but the direction was not as originally planned to move northward to try to open up contact with Tambov, and it looked more like it was going westward.

"Judging by the momentum, they're going to fight Karachi." Zeitzler frowned and said, "It's a bit of a surprise, but it shouldn't be a big problem." ”

"Karachi?" Hoffman paused for a moment, "Who's defending there?" ”

"General Hoth's Army Group B, to be exact, the Italian Eighth Army."

Hearing the words of Italy, Hoffman's head began to ache -- every time the Red Army could not defeat the Germans in person, they would take out their anger at the Italians or Romanians, and although these multinational units, which had been streamlined and optimized in terms of personnel and equipment, had achieved good results for most of the year, the Russians had always enjoyed a psychological advantage over the Italians or Romanians, and their combat effectiveness could be brought into full play. Another issue that should not be overlooked is that the reason why the Axis Allies have been doing well recently is basically because there are other German units in the theater of operations as the backbone, and there is a question mark over the performance of the Red Army on its own.

"Are there any of our people there?"

"There are 2 infantry divisions, there are no armored divisions, oh...... There was 1 Italian Panzer Division, the Ram Division, which was said to be quite decent in combat, with almost 200 tanks, half 4, half 3, and possibly a battalion of 3 assault guns. Zeitzler knew what the Führer was worried about, "and the level of equipment is pretty good for the Italians." The overall anti-tank firepower of the Eighth Army was not bad, and it had just given them more than 130 50mm anti-tank guns not long ago. ”

Although Zeitzler's tone was relaxed, Hoffmann remembered the destruction of Paulus's troops in history when the Romanian army was the first to collapse, and he summoned Moder and Jodel to hear their opinions on the changes in the battlefield, and was supposed to call Field Marshal Weix, but in order to carry out the tactical confusion to the end, the latter had already gone to the front line of Orel yesterday.

Moder looked at the map for a long time and thought about it seriously, and finally said: "The strength of the Italians is definitely stronger than before, there is no doubt about it!" But Karachi's location is also important and cannot be missed. The Russians had the same idea as we did -- to attack the north-south junction, and I think it would be useful to consider making an adjustment of the campaign in advance, with Admiral Reinhardt's 4th Panzer Army moving south after encircling the southern flank of Tambov to attack the flank of the enemy's central front, and the southern flank being temporarily taken over by the 2nd Panzer Army on the northern flank, and then handing over the Tambov encirclement to the army group after Marshal Weix's Army Group Eastern was in place. ”

According to the original battle plan, once the siege point reinforcement is entered, the three Panzer armies will not be responsible for the encirclement of Tambov, where Army Group East will be responsible for the siege, and the goal of the Panzer Army is to strive to annihilate the Red Army's reinforcements and mobile forces based on the superiority of mobility, according to the current dispatch of Moder, it is equivalent to entering the state of encirclement and reinforcement in advance without considering the solution of the Tambov enemy as soon as possible -- and this reinforcement is not yet sent by the enemy, and the 4th Panzer Army needs to advance at least 120 kilometers to the south to take the initiative to fight.

Zeitzler and Jodel nodded together, they thought that this adjustment was more in line with the logic of the campaign, and if Field Marshal Manstein's Panzer Army was sent out to the rescue of Karachi now, then the Red Army's Southwestern Front, which was supposed to be in direct opposition to Army Group South and commanded by Vatutin, should be liberated - that would be too much to do.

Hoffman thought carefully for a moment and decided to agree to the adjustment, and out of an abundance of caution, the command not only informed Admiral Rouse's 3rd Panzer Army to prepare for battle as soon as possible, but also told Daddy Hube's 6th Panzer Army to prepare accordingly.

At 5 p.m. on May 26, the anxious Leityr finally waited for a clear order, but the words on it made him happy and sad: happy that Moscow finally agreed to him to gather his troops and hold on to Tambov, sad that the General Staff did not approve his proposal of building a double encirclement to realize the central flowering campaign, and there would be no direct reinforcements, the Western Front would continue to focus on the Orel line, and the mobile units of the Central Front would attack Karachi to the west -- in an attempt to force the Germans to turn their attention away from Tambov, he suddenly felt a little crying and laughing.

The telegram demanded that he must hold on to Tambov for three weeks, but did not mention a word about reinforcements, which made him frown: with the strength he had now, it would be very difficult to hold out for a week, let alone three weeks. After thinking for a moment, he decided to send another telegram to ask for reinforcements - the crying child had milk to drink, and he did not believe that Meretskov could not draw a single soldier.

At about the same time, Baglamiyan also received clear instructions to take Karachi and annihilate the Italian forces as quickly as possible and at all costs.

The situation was as expected by Zhukov, and Bagramyan divided the 500,000 troops of the Front into three parts: 150,000 troops were arranged for cover on the right, but most of them were newly added recruit divisions this year, with low combat effectiveness, and only 4 divisions and about 20,000 troops were transferred from the Far East, which was regarded as the core backbone of the right wing cluster; He prepared more than 250,000 men for the assault group that went on the offensive, with the 13th and 70th Infantry Armies and the 2nd Guards Tank Army, except for the tank army that has been fighting on the Eastern Front, most of the divisions in the infantry army are Far Eastern troops, with a veteran rate of more than 70%, and even some units are veterans who participated in the Battle of Normenhan; After the assault on the cluster, he left another 100,000 troops in reserve, and as for the left flank of the front's advance, he had completely handed it over to Vatutin, believing that the Southwestern Front would be responsible for the cover without worry.

At 10 o'clock in the evening of the 26th, Marshal Weix, with a dignified face, issued an order at the headquarters of Army Group East, and all officers above the division level participated in the meeting, and when they heard that the troops had been transferred overnight, and that tomorrow dawn would not be to attack the direction of Tula northeast of Orel but to prepare to transfer to Tambov, which was more than 400 kilometers away, everyone was in an uproar, and several people stood up excitedly and asked why the original plan had been changed.

"The situation on the battlefield is changing, our army has broken through the Tambov line of defense and is preparing to encircle the enemy's Bryansk Front, and the General Staff is determined to attack Ryazan in the northwest direction after taking Tambov, bypassing the Tula line that the Russian army is heavily fortified......" Marshal Weix said calmly, "The heavy task of encircling and annihilating this front will be completed by our army group!" ”

At this time, he did not forget to put a smoke bomb - the battle of the castle did not give Army Group Eastern the task of attacking the Ryazan line at all.

"Hooray! ......"The generals of the Ukrainian Defense Forces were the first to cheer, and then all the generals stood up and cheered.

The old marshal smiled slightly, his eyes behind the lenses projected a terrifying light, and he commanded in an accentuated tone: "In order to keep secrets, the troops will be transferred after 2 hours, and all officers and soldiers will not be allowed to leave the troops for any reason, and violators will be punished as spies!" ”

"Yes!"

The troops were mobilized overnight, and the scene was heavily guarded, and when they heard about a completely different combat mission, some people were so anxious that they scratched their ears and cheeks and tried to get the news out, but it was too late. The gendarmes and counter-espionage agencies had long since deployed a wide net on the periphery, and all those who had left the unit were caught and locked up; although they were certainly inevitably wronged, the military orders were like a mountain, and the orders had been repeated in advance, and everyone had nothing to say, and the spies who were mixed in were either arrested together or had no chance to report at all.

Before dawn on the 27th, Meretskov, who was sitting in Tula, believed that the German army was about to launch an offensive according to prior intelligence, and asked the front-line troops to prepare for counter-artillery fire in advance, but his strategy was completely empty, and more than 100,000 precious shells did not hit any valuable targets except for the earth-shattering sound...... (To be continued.) )