In the face of more than 200 German tanks rushing by, the Soviet commanders and fighters put up a stubborn resistance, and they used a weapon to stop the German tanks from rushing in.

The 45-mm anti-tank guns equipped with Soviet positions were simply unable to penetrate the frontal armor of the Tiger tanks at a distance of 500 meters, so the anti-tank artillery fighters shifted their positions and hid on the flanks of the German offensive line to attack the relatively weak armor of the German tanks from close range.

And the infantry and engineer fighters who were defending on the front were not idle, they carried anti-tank mines, held anti-tank grenades, flasks, climbed out of the trenches, and carefully touched the enemy tanks with the help of craters or the wreckage of destroyed German combat vehicles. When the distance is only a dozen meters, they will stand up sharply and throw the anti-tank mines, grenades and flasks they carry at the enemy tanks.

If the German tanks that carried out the assault were only a few, then their tactics were undoubtedly successful. However, at this moment, the German tank formation was dense, with as many as 20 tanks in each row, and the mutual cooperation between them greatly reduced the blind spot of the tank crew's field of vision in the tank. Therefore, the Soviet commanders and fighters often stood up and were discovered by the German tank crews, and several machine guns fired at a target at the same time, instantly beating the Soviet soldiers to the ground.

Although they saw their comrades fall under the guns of the Germans one by one, the commanders and fighters behind still bravely rushed forward. There were always two or three lucky fighters who were able to evade the German strafing and smoothly rush to the German tanks, stuffing mines, throwing grenades and flasks under the tank tracks. However, very few of these fighters who destroyed the German tanks survived, some were killed on the spot by the shock wave of the explosion, and some were unfortunately killed by the machine guns on other tanks.

Under the stubborn resistance of the Soviet commanders and fighters, the first offensive of the German tank units failed. They immediately reversed, firing their guns as they retreated into the distance.

The battle ahead is fierce, and the troops trapped on the south side of the water are seizing the time to pave the way in the water. Babkovsky and Potapov stood on the shore, anxiously looking at the wooden bridge in the water, stretching at an extremely slow pace towards the opposite bank, and could not help but be anxious. Potapov said, "Hell, if you pave the road at this pace, you won't even think about reaching the other side in another day." By the time they had laid it, it was estimated that the water would have receded long ago. ”

The commander of the Guards walked up to the two of them and asked humbly: "Comrade two brigade commanders, do you have any good ways to increase the speed of Puqiao?" ”

"Comrade Commander, please take a look." Potapov pointed to the fighters who were paving the way in the water and said to the commander: "It is a great waste of time for your soldiers to put bundles of firewood together. It is better to put a bundle of firewood every two or three meters, and then put a few logs in the middle of the two bundles of firewood, so that a bridge can be built quickly. ”

After saying that, he also squatted down and built a simple model of the stones and branches on the ground for the Guards Commander to see. After the latter saw it, he nodded and said approvingly: "Yes, Comrade Colonel, this method of yours is really good, and I will immediately let the troops use your method to build a wooden bridge." ”

Thanks to the new bridging method, the speed at which the wooden bridge in the water extends forward is greatly accelerated. Babkovsky turned his head to look at Potapov and asked: "Comrade Colonel, how long do you think this wooden bridge for tanks will be completed?" ”

Potapov sighed, "No matter how fast the fighters build the bridge, it will take at least two or three hours. I don't know if our fighters in front will be able to hold back the attack of the German armored clusters during this time. ”

The first attack of the German armored forces was repulsed, but the Germans were not resigned to their defeat and waited for the infantry behind to arrive and re-launched the assault. In front of them were a hundred tanks lined up in five rows, followed by countless armored vehicles and cars laden with soldiers, and behind them were the ant-like dense infantry.

In the face of the German army, which adjusted its offensive tactics, the Soviet army behaved very unwell. The anti-tank guns deployed on the flanks of the offensive line often had just fired two or three shots, and were either destroyed by the German tank guns or by the infantry who disembarked from the armored vehicles. And the fighters who ran out of the positions and tried to blow up the tanks with anti-tank mines, grenades or flasks were wiped out by the infantry who followed the tanks this time without a chance to get close to the tanks.

For a time, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse and went in a direction unfavorable to the Soviet army.

……

Rokossovsky received a telegram from the front and knew that the troops of the 17th Guards Army, in the direction of the breakthrough, were met with a frantic counterattack by the Germans. After he put down the telegram, he called Rudenko directly and asked straight to the point: "Comrade Rudenko, I wonder how many planes you can send out there to compete with the Germans for air supremacy over Kursk?" ”

Hearing Rokossovsky's question, Rudenko said in embarrassment: "Comrade commander, I have already dispatched more than 200 fighters and more than 150 bombers, and the use of troops has reached the limit, and it is impossible to send new planes to the battle. ”

Rokossovsky can be regarded as experiencing the difficulty of "a clever woman is difficult to cook without rice" at this moment, don't look at the fact that he has an air force group army under his command, but the number of planes that can be put into battle is limited after all, and it is impossible to put in more planes without being supplemented by his superiors. Therefore, instead of reproaching Rudenko, he said in a consultative tone: "General Rudenko, do you think you can let your air force move to the position that was broken through yesterday and go there to fight the enemy for air supremacy?" If necessary, it was also possible to bomb German tanks on the ground. ”

Seeing that Rokossovsky was in a low tone, Rudenko discussed with himself, and after a short thought, he nodded and said: "Okay, Comrade Commander, I will immediately order the aircraft that are fighting to move to a new location to strike at the enemy and provide sufficient air support for our ground forces." ”

With the adjustment of the combat order, the fighters and bombers of the Soviet army were successively assembled in the direction of the breakthrough point where the fierce battle was raging. Some brave bomber pilots, regardless of the interception of the German fighters, desperately lowered the flight altitude and threw bombs at the tanks or infantry on the ground, beating the Germans who had just broken through the Soviet defensive positions to the ground.

Although in the half-hour-long air battle, the Soviet army lost more than 20 aircraft, but at the same time shot down more than a dozen German planes, and also successfully destroyed 20 or 30 German tanks, forcing the German armored forces, which had broken through the Soviet defensive positions, to retreat to the starting position of the attack.

The stubborn defense of the brave air force and ground forces bought precious time for the troops who were laying the bridge. Potapov personally led the 288th Tank Battalion, drove over the rickety wooden bridge and successfully crossed the wide water. After a slight adjustment on the north bank, the tank battalion formed a battle formation and quickly headed for the area where the battle was raging.

When the tank battalion led by Potapov arrived at the Soviet line, the third German offensive began. Facing the ant-like German tanks, Potapov only felt that his back was wet with sweat. He knew very well in his heart that there were one or two hundred German tanks rushing over, while the tank battalion he led only had twenty-four tanks, which was only a fraction of others.

However, considering that there were no decent anti-tank weapons on the position, if he did not take the initiative to attack, his tank battalion would still be annihilated when the German tanks rushed over. Therefore, he decided to lead the tank battalion to take the initiative and at the same time buy some valuable time for the follow-up tank troops.

Having made up his mind, Potapov shouted to his subordinates on the radio: "Comrades, I think you have all seen the German tanks coming from the opposite side, the enemy is not several times the number of us, but there are still a large number of Tiger tanks, if we take the initiative to attack them, what awaits us will be the end of the total annihilation." ”

When he said this, he deliberately paused for a moment to see if anyone would raise objections, but after waiting for a while, it was still quiet on the radio, and no one spoke, seeing that although everyone had opinions in their hearts, no one raised objections. Then he continued: "Comrades and brethren, I think you should know very well in your hearts that because that damned water is blocking the way of our army, making it impossible to transport heavy weapons, our infantry who hold their positions have no decent anti-tank weapons, and they can only use their own flesh and blood to resist the torrent of German steel. In order not to make any more senseless sacrifices for my infantry comrades, I decided to take the initiative and attack the enemy. I will rush to the front of the whole team, and behind me are the tanks of the battalion commander, company commander, and platoon commander, and all the commanders and fighters must rush ahead of the soldiers.

I know that if we do this, we may not be able to come back, but we will buy precious time for the troops in the rear. By the time our tanks continued to come up, the Germans would not be far from defeat. ”

After saying this tirade, he decisively ordered: "All obey my orders, launch tanks, and charge the German tanks on the opposite side." Advance~! ”

"Ulla!" As soon as he finished speaking, shouts came over the radio. He smiled with satisfaction, and then called Babkovsky, who was still in the rear, on the radio: "Hey, Comrade Colonel, I'm going to command the tank battalion and launch an assault on the enemy's tank cluster, you guys hurry up and catch up!" After speaking, he instructed the driver next to him, "Attack!" ”

The 288th tank battalion of 24 tanks, led by the tank brigade commander Potapov, crossed the trenches of the Soviet positions and rushed towards the German tanks in the distance without hesitation.

The German tanks, which were approaching the Soviet position, suddenly saw dozens of Soviet tanks rushing out of the position, and they were startled at first, and when they saw that the number of the other side was far less than their own, and many of them were still early T-34 models that they had no way to do, they were relieved and boldly continued to rush forward.

When the distance between the tanks of the two sides was only 800 meters, the tanks in the first row of the German army stopped, and the Soviet tanks aimed at the rapid rush opened fire. As soon as the shooting was over, the German tanks continued to move forward.

In the first round of German shelling, two unlucky Soviet tanks were shot, one was directly removed from the turret, and the soldiers inside did not even leave a corpse, while the other was shot through the frontal armor, causing the ammunition in the vehicle to detonate. Fortunately, Potapov's tank was unscathed.

After entering a distance of 700 meters, the tanks of both sides made a short stop at the same time, fired a shot, and then continued to move forward. This time, five Soviet tanks were shot, four of them burned on the spot, and the other was blown off its tracks, and the tank members hurriedly got out of the car for emergency repairs. The Germans also had three tanks shot, and in addition to one tank No. 4 that was destroyed, the other two Tiger tanks only paused for a moment and continued to move forward.

The battle damage of the tank battalion was reported to Potapov by observers at any time. When he learned that he had lost nearly a third of his tanks, the muscles in his face twitched violently a few times, and then he shouted over the radio: "Tanks speed up, rush into the ranks of German tanks and fight them in close combat." ”

The purpose of this order was to overcome the shortcomings of the old T-34's shells that could not penetrate the frontal armor of the German Tiger tanks by shortening the distance between the tanks of the two sides.

A few minutes later, tanks from both sides rushed into each other's ranks. By this time, the Soviets had lost more than 15 tanks, while the Germans had lost only three, and two were slightly damaged.

Potapov suddenly felt a shock to the body, and then he felt the tank spin in place at high speed. According to his experience, it must have been the tracks of his own tank, which were interrupted by German artillery fire. After waiting for the tank to stop, he decisively ordered: "The battalion commander took over my command and continued to rush into the enemy's depth." ”

Then he instructed the driver and gunner: "Let's stop here and destroy the German tanks that pass by us." ”

The commanders and fighters of the Soviet infantry who were holding their positions could not help but shed tears when they saw their tank units rushing towards the German tanks that were several times more numerous than themselves without hesitation. One of the little fighters cried and said: "Our tank battalion, is it all over like this, is it all over like this?" ”

"Comrades, our tank crews will not die in vain," a major next to him said loudly: "Our tank battalion is buying us precious time, everyone hurry up and hurry up to repair the fortifications, and when the enemy rushes up again, we must resolutely defeat them." ”

The major's words aroused everyone's enthusiasm, and except for a few who were on guard, the rest of the commanders and fighters took up sapper shovels, and shovels began to strengthen the fortifications they were holding, preparing to resist the more ferocious German attack again.