Soviet soldiers hope that their troops can continue to win a great victory, and since the beginning of the strategic counteroffensive in Moscow at the end of last year, the Soviet army has tried to counterattack on all fronts in the past six months.

The northern front was in a stalemate, and the Soviet army in the south won two consecutive battles, so this major battle to liberate the Kharkiv region and try to liberate half of eastern Ukraine, the fierce offensive of the Soviet Red Army, a total of one million troops, the balance of victory was simply tilted to the Soviet army at the beginning of the battle.

In the days after the start of the war, the Soviet army was indeed overwhelming, however, the German side was by no means a soft persimmon.

The Soviets did not know anything about the personnel changes of the German army in front of them, they did not know that Paulus had assumed the post of commander-in-chief of the Sixth Army at the end of April, and they did not know that Paulus had personally drawn up a huge plan, that is, after a period of preparation, to launch an active offensive and defeat all the Soviet troops in the entire Barvenkovo salient.

For various reasons, Paulus planned the offensive on May 20, and in the history of this plane, the Soviet and German armies reached a strange coincidence.

The lower limit of action given by Stalin to Timoshenko was precisely May 20, and if Timoshenko had acted in full accordance with the lower limit, then more than 100,000 Soviet vanguard troops would have met the German attacking troops head-on!

However, Timoshenko moved ahead of schedule, he did so only by a day, which was enough for the Soviets to gain a tactical advantage in a preemptive strike.

The Germans also suffered heavy losses in the first two days of the battle, and Paulus did not expect that the Soviet offensive momentum would be so fierce.

After all, the Germans also planned to attack on their own initiative, so they did not build a strong defensive position at all. The operation Friedricus that they set would not change because of the active offensive of the Soviet troops, because all this was ordered by the Führer. According to Hitler's Order No. 42 of the year, issued in early April, the south was the main direction of the German army's advance in 1942, with the ultimate goal of seizing the Soviet Volga basin and the large oil field Baku. Only in this way was the German army able to lay the foundations for a military victory over the Soviet Union in 1942.

It was May 22, the day when the Soviet offensive began to hit a wall. The two most elite tank armies seemed to be at the end of their strengths, and fierce battles broke out in the fields west of Kharkiv with the main forces of the German Sixth Army.

And the Kleist panzer group, they have already begun to march on the left flank of the Soviet salient. Compared with that plane, the Kleist cluster in this plane, their personnel and equipment have been further supplemented, and their comprehensive combat effectiveness is more powerful.

The movements of this elite force were also quickly learned by Timoshenko himself, who knew very well that when the main forces of the troops were trying to advance on the front line, partly to resist the German counteroffensive, and to continue to try to encircle and annihilate the German divisions that were surrounded in the wilderness east of Kharkiv, he really lacked a few elite troops in his hands to withstand the enemy's "sharp blade poking into the soft belly".

Timoshenko sent a pessimistic telegram to Moscow: "Our weak flanks are under heavy attack from German armored clusters, and our troops cannot withstand the enemy's attack with infantry alone. Once the flanks are lost, all the anti-war Red Army around Kharkov will be wiped out! ”

However, the Germans did not launch a fierce counteroffensive on that day, so Stalin made an important instruction: "Victory in this battle will lay the foundation for us to liberate Ukraine, the Southwestern Front must hold the front, and Kharkov must be resolutely liberated!" ”

This was the battle around Kharkiv on May 22. If May 19 to 21 was the period of strategic offensive of the Soviet army, May 22 was a strategic stalemate, after which the Soviet army was at the end of its strength, and they had to defend with all their might on the existing front! As for whether the Soviet army could succeed in defense, the calculating Timoshenko made a simple conclusion: the Soviet army had a great chance of defeat in this battle.

It was a night when the Marshal of the Soviet Union could not close his eyes, and the entire command of the Front Army was in chaos, and countless telegrams fell like hail on Timoshenko's desk. His mind was mainly on the map, and as the current positions of the various units and the positions of the German troops were likely to be corrected to the standard positions, he saw the strategic intentions of the German army thoroughly.

Everything seems to go back to 1941, when the siege of Kiev left the Southwestern Front severely disabled and the loss of personnel heartbreaking. Although the current front army is numbered in the millions, ninety percent of the soldiers have been recruited in recent months. It was beyond Timoshenko's expectation that such an army, which was dominated by new recruits, would achieve the current victory, but the victory was based on the premise of high casualties in each division.

In order to ensure that the Soviet troops on the front line were abundant, the troops with large losses had to be withdrawn to consolidate the rear, which was really helpless for the command, and many senior officers were of course aware of the huge risks of doing so.

No, the aggressive armored clusters of the Germans are already moving to the left flank of the salient!

Timoshenko, whose forehead was covered with sweat, asked the Chief of the General Staff: "Comrade Tupikov!" With this going on, do you believe we can achieve the ultimate victory? ”

"Me? What else can I believe! How can we not trust our leaders? Tupikov said this, and in his heart there was already a trace of despair about the battle.

"You are the only high-ranking officer in the command that has been fruitful after the battle of Kyiv last year, and I think you have noticed that the current situation seems to be repeating the tragedy of last year."

"Yes!" Tupikov pointed to the small city of Pavlovsk on the lower reaches of the Barvenko River, "There is a bridgehead that is vital to us and the focus of our current defense." If we hold on to this area, our flanks will be safe, but I doubt it. ”

"You don't have to doubt it! Our soldiers are too young, they are very short of anti-tank weapons, not to mention excellent RPG weapons, even anti-tank guns, they are not very armed! What's more, the German air force was far stronger than ours! Timoshenko shook his head pessimistically, "Last year, the main force of the German armored forces captured the crossing of Kremenchug and successfully crossed the Dnieper River, which also cut off the connection between our army and the local troops in Crimea, and also blocked the reinforcements of our army from the east. The German front was like a bottle, and in the end, they sealed the mouth of the bottle......"

Speaking of this, Tupikov couldn't help but gasp, Kirponos led the officer corps to break out of the siege and the enemy broke out in a fierce battle, in which he narrowly broke through, but Kirponos died.

"Not good! History is repeating itself, and if the Germans carry out a full-scale counteroffensive, our army will likely be surrounded! ”

"This is it!" Timoshenko pressed the city of Pavlovsk on the map fiercely, "We have no choice!" Only by holding this city can we avoid defeat. ”

"In that case, let the reserves come on!"

"Reserves?" Hearing this, Timoshenko's reaction was really better than crying, he grinned and shook his head: "Dear Comrade Tupikov, our reserves have been thrown into the attack on the city of Kharkov and the besieged German army!" We have not yet succeeded, and if we withdraw our reserves to defend the southern line, the besieged German army will blossom in the center! We don't have enough troops now! ”

"What then? Do you sit back and wait! Our leader has given us the order to hold on to the present line of defense! He had no idea what was going on here. "Tupikov is actually knowingly asking, he, a dignified chief of the General Staff of the Front, can he know that the most important thing to do at the moment is to shrink the defensive line of defense? However, Stalin's attitude was very paranoid, that the army had to attack!

Timoshenko shook his head: "Don't you understand my hope? So far, let's continue to carry out the leader's orders! We no longer care about the lives and deaths of the vast number of soldiers, perhaps, only the front-line positions have been lost, especially the city of Pavlovsk in the south. Only when all this happens, will the leader realize that he will continue to stubbornly hold on to his command and repeat the mistakes of Kyiv, and I will personally ask him for a strategic withdrawal of the whole army. As long as we maintain our main force, we can build a new defence and make the show solid again. 2k reading network