In normal times, June in Belarus is rainy. After the rain began on June 2, the rain gradually became heavier. No one knows how long this rain will take, and older Belarusians estimate that they won't see the sun for a week!

The rain interfered with too much of the work of the guerrilla republic, and also caused a considerable degree of distress to the German troops stationed in this area.

After a good bombing at the end of May, the German top brass gave Koch's air brigade high praise. They did not blame the five fighters that this air force group lost, after all, they were able to shoot down fighters, and it was by no means that the excellent pilots of the Third Reich were not heroic, but that the Russians were really powerful!

In Berlin, Hitler and Goebel always preached that the Germans were the best in the world, and the Slavs were as stupid as fat pigs.

A large number of hot-blooded young Germans went to the Eastern Front for the so-called establishment of a new Germany, and they were contemptuous of the Soviet military and civilians at the beginning, until they were slapped in the face by reality!

At the airport in the north of the city of Gomel, all flight plans were suspended due to bad weather, and for the pilots, they also got a real vacation. As long as the rain continues, they can continue to drink beer in the bar and live a comfortable and peaceful life. And while drinking and having fun, sighing about the bombing operation, and the sacrifice of several comrades.

This rain swept almost half of Belarus, as well as almost all of Ukraine.

The German 734th, 707th and 722nd Divisions continued to strengthen their defensive lines along the road and rail line from Mozyr to Gomel. Since it is untimely to take the initiative to attack, then dig trenches, and as long as the Russians in the swamps do not cross the line of communication and attack it, they are very responsible. The three German infantry divisions had to go on the defensive, and by June they were longer and criss-crossed with trenches. A large number of barbed wire fences were intertwined, machine gun bunkers were built every 100 meters, and even they built some turrets out of reinforced concrete! Before its position, a lot of mines were also laid!

In particular, the 707th and 722nd Divisions, based on their experience in long-term battles with Soviet troops in the swamps, considered such measures to be the most cost-effective at present.

They no longer have the luxury of trapping the swamp after establishing a no-man's land, as long as the Russians do not take the initiative to attack. The German air raids in May were portrayed as a great victory over the partisans, and the German propaganda machine claimed that the heroic Third Reich Air Force had annihilated 2,000 bandits.

Whether this is an exaggeration or not, the German soldiers on the front lines believe that this is largely true.

Besides, it's raining! The rain had made their lives around the trenches miserable, and they believed that so did the Russians, and that it was good to suffer now, and that the Russians would not attack in this extremely muddy condition!

True, the 63rd Army, in the period of rain, had absolutely no offensive intentions.

Lieutenant General Commander Yang Mingzhi spent most of his time developing the so-called early warning radar. Major General Deputy Commander Yevlov, together with a group of ordinary staff officers, held a detailed discussion on the preliminary plan for attacking Loyev, and the final results of the study will be submitted in writing to the commander himself for perusal.

The entire guerrilla republic has worked hard to overcome all troubles in the midst of the continuous rains, and has been actively producing and accumulating strength in this bad weather.

On the other hand, this rain naturally fell on the Kharkov generation.

On June 4, the command of the Southwestern Front, which had withdrawn to Luhansk, finally established the fact that Bobkin's troops trapped in the encirclement, the 6th and 57th armies, had run out of ammunition and food, and a large number of personnel had surrendered to the Germans.

At this point in time when the war was fought, the besieged forces were only two army groups after all, and the facts proved that it was very wise for Timoshenko to find out that something was wrong more than ten days ago and ask Stalin to approve the request for a strategic retreat. And Stalin finally approved Timoshenko's request, which was also recognized as wise by all the high-ranking personnel of the Soviet Union.

Their leaders managed to avoid the catastrophe of the siege of Kiev in 1941 this time, and the Southwestern Front and the Southern Front still saved a large number of main forces!

The two armies put up a desperate resistance, and the support of the three transport planes was a drop in the bucket, and in the face of a shortage of ammunition and food, 90,000 soldiers chose to surrender and entered a brutal prisoner of war camp.

For Paulus, the counterattack was quite good, and in his opinion, part of the objectives of the Fredkus operation had been accomplished.

It was only as accurate information reached his Sixth Army command that he realized that the operation had not been done so ideally.

The encirclement was achieved, and the Soviet troops in it were completely annihilated, and when the preliminary count of prisoners of war was carried out, the number was less than 100,000! In this battle, the Soviet army did have a large number of casualties, and the total number would not exceed 100,000 at most.

How many of the main forces of the Soviet army were in the Balvenkovo salient as the enemy? The Soviets claimed a million men, Paulus and his staff believed six hundred thousand. Even if the results of this battle of the German army were overestimated, at most 200,000 Soviet troops would be annihilated. It is equivalent to saying that the main forces of the Soviet army have retreated.

Paulus's speculation soon became a reality.

The main German counteroffensive continued, and several vanguard units had already crossed the Oskol River, and then encountered stubborn resistance from the Soviets. The focus of the German offensive was Severodonetsk, and there were many reasons to occupy it, such as the fact that the airfield was available to the Germans.

The frontal Germans tried to open the gap, but the offensive failed. They then hoped to bypass the forests and swamps, allowing the elite tanks and armored vehicles, mainly assault forces, to search for a breakthrough from the southwest of the city.

In this direction, the Germans also encountered a fierce counterattack by the Soviet troops. Their tank unit even encountered a strange group of fighters.

A large group of armed men in civilian clothes, holding grenades alal, ran towards the tank.

"I saw these Russians, as if they had been bewitched in some way, running towards us in a frenzy. Some of them were carrying rifles, others were carrying grenades. Our machine guns wiped them out like mowing grass, but the Russians were not afraid of death at all, and immediately lay down when they heard the gunshots, and continued to run after our shooting was quiet. ”

"They fired rocket-propelled grenades at us. God forbid, my tank is welded with a metal mesh, otherwise my crew will be completely destroyed. ”

"The Endeavour on the left was blown up by the Russians. The Eagle on the right, whose tracks were broken by an anti-tank gun, came running and we shot the man with a machine gun, but soon the Eagle was shattered by a violent explosion. ”

These are the later descriptions of this battle by the German Panzers.

Nearly a hundred tanks of the German army, which carried out the first round of the offensive, were brutally hit. The citizens of Severodonetsk, improvised armed, launched the Ula charge. Because of the lack of anti-tank weapons, they could only talk about a large number of grenades tied together, or rush to make some explosive packs. When the enemy tank is in the trench after all, jump out of the trench and charge Ulla.

Many of them are citizens, most of them are seriously lacking in military training, and some are just enthusiastic and have cluster grenades in their hands.

They ran to the German tanks one after another, and after paying a huge price in death, they achieved great success.

This suicidal scene is horrifying! The first round of the German offensive failed, and many subsequent attacks failed to capture Soviet positions.

And on the 500-kilometer-long front, the Soviet army has basically collapsed from the initial collapse and gradually gained a firm foothold.

With the rains that began on June 2, the land became muddy. Even if the German tank and infantry had reconciled, they soon launched a terrible attack on June 3 in the pouring rain and were repulsed by the Soviets.

In Severodonetsk and its environs, the Soviets did deploy elite troops, coupled with the continued mobilization of citizens, and even allowed women to fight on the front lines for emergencies. The Soviet troops here were under the deputy commander of the Southwestern Front, Kostenko, and the defensive line was impregnable.

This timely continuous rain also further thwarted the German offensive!