As the explosions and artillery subsided, Stalin, who was buried in a pile of papers, suddenly heard a knock on the door. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info And then there was the voice of his secretary Pavlov (another Pavlov).

"Comrade General Secretary, Comrade People's Commissar of National Defense requested to receive you."

It was Voroshilov who came, and Stalin thought to himself: there must be good news, good news, otherwise Voroshilov would not have come to the Kremlin at night.

"Comrade General Secretary, the 37th Army under the command of Comrade Vlasov has arrived on the banks of the Vistula, and the vanguard of the army is crossing the river!"

Sure enough, that's good news!

"What about the 4th Army? Did they get to Legionovo? Stalin asked about another army group.

"Not yet," Voroshilov said, "Legionovo is more than 50 kilometers from Mazovscheminsk in Poland." Moreover, there were still a small number of German and Polish puppet troops stationed in Legionovo, and Comrade Korobkov's 4th Army would not be able to liberate Legionovo until noon tomorrow at the earliest. ”

Because of the bend of the course of the Vistula, the 4th Army, which was preparing to cross the river from Legionovo on the northern route, had to walk more than 50 kilometers to outflank Warsaw. And the 37th Army, which took the southern front, only had to walk 20 kilometers. Therefore, the 37th Army on the southern front was basically attacked by air raids, and it was able to climb to the Vistula River in one night. The 4th Army on the Northern Front, on the other hand, was much slower and was expected to arrive in the early morning of June 10.

In addition, Legionovo is relatively close to the city of Warsaw, and the railway from Warsaw to Danzig also passes through Legionovo. Therefore, it was very easy for the German 6th Army to transfer troops from Warsaw to Legionovo, and it was 30 minutes to get on the train from the Warsaw railway station.

As for night air raids or something, there is He-219, a "mosquito killer", and there is no need to worry about Soviet planes coming to Warsaw at night to find trouble.

So when Alexander. Lieutenant General Korobkov sat on the Gas-61 and braved the bombs dropped by the Do-217 that flew above him from time to time for a tribulation march. His opponent, SS General Steiner, had arrived early in a very comfortable sleeping car.

Joining Admiral Steiner were the 501st Heavy Panzer Battalion and the 5th SS Tank Battalion under Major Rudel.

Rudolph. Feng. Ribbentrop's old superior, Gustav. Schwarzenegger also followed the 5th SS Tank Battalion to Legiononovo, where he was now a captain and company commander of the 4th Company of the 5th SS Tank Battalion, commanding 22 Type 4H tanks.

According to Admiral Steiner's plan, the 501st, 502nd, 503rd, 504th, and 505th terrible heavy armored battalions would be the main force of the defensive battle. 220 Tiger and Panther tanks will repel the attack of the Soviet armored cluster with powerful firepower and strong defenses.

The 88 Type 4H tanks of the 5th SS Tank Battalion and the 18 No. 3 assault guns of the 5th SS Assault Gun Battalion were tasked with more complex tasks. They will first form a counterattack group with the 3rd SS Panzergrenadier Regiment and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Smoke Launcher Regiments, under the personal command of General Steiner, and advance to the Vovomin line to deliver a surprise strike on the vanguard of the Soviet Northern Front cluster - 2 salvo strikes with 162 SWR40 self-propelled rocket launchers from 3 smoke generator regiments, The Panzergrenadiers were then directed into the counterattack with 88 No. 4 and 30 No. 3 assault guns (2 SS Panzergrenadier Corps and 12 No. 3 assault guns).

After inflicting heavy damage on the Soviet vanguard, this "counterattack group" immediately retracted to Legionovo, where five heavily armored battalions held back the trailing Soviet tank cluster. After the victory of the blockade, the 5th SS Tank Battalion had to go into pursuit again, striving to inflict a annihilating blow on the invading Soviet tank group!

……

It was very comfortable for the tanks to march on the train, but it was a bit troublesome to get on and off the train, and it was even more scrambling to drive the tanks out of the station and assemble in a hidden place outside the city of Legionovo.

The whole process lasted three or four hours, until it was dawn, and Gustav. Captain Schwarzenegger had all 22 No. 4 tanks driven behind a wooded field. As he was directing his men to hang camouflage nets on these precious tanks, the roar of the motors rumbled, which was more terrifying than the sound of 22 No. 4 tanks when they were moving, and it sounded as if hundreds of tanks were coming.

"Tanks! Heavy tanks! ”

"What kind of tank is this?"

"Oh my God, look at its cannon, this is an 88mm cannon, right?"

"Company commander, when will we be able to replace this tank!"

Hearing the roar of the motors of the 22 Tiger tanks, all of them stopped what they were doing and turned their heads to look. And after seeing the mighty body and thick barrel of the Tiger tank, every tanker has a desire to drive it.

This is the king of land warfare that tank crews dream of! Compared to it, Tank No. 4 was simply insignificant.

"This is the Tiger tank! The most powerful tank in the world! "Gustav. Schwarzenegger said loudly.

He knew about the existence of the Tiger tank, and yesterday afternoon at a meeting attended by the commander of the tank company/assault gun company, he learned about the Tiger tank and the Panther tank. And he was told that the Tiger and Panther tanks ceased to be a "secret weapon" from June 10.

"However, the 5th Tank Battalion of our Party Guards will not be equipped with the Tiger for the time being," said Gustav. Schwarzenegger said, "Because our No. 4 tank is the real master of the land battlefield!" Tank 4 is very good and reliable, and it can defeat all tanks in the world, except for the Tiger and another new German tank, the Panther.

Well, comrades (also called comrades within the Nazi Party), now do your job and camouflage our tank No. 4. This afternoon, and tomorrow at the latest, they will show their skills and teach the Russians a lesson that they will never forget! ”

……

"Comrade Commander, the Air Force has discovered a German mechanized unit that is heading south from Legionovo!"

The commander of the 4th Army, Alexander Murphy, was slowly moving north along the potholed road in a gas 61 car. Major General Korobkov was taken aback by this sudden news.

Major General Korobkov, whose face was somewhat gloomy, and his old partner, Colonel Sandalov, the chief of staff of the army group, who was sitting next to him, glanced at each other.

The mechanized units of the Germans, still moving south from Legionovo, needless to say, must have come to find their own 4th Army for a decisive battle!

Colonel Sandalov took the report from the staff officer that had been thrown from an Il-2 attack plane with a cameo reconnaissance plane (it was thrown in a tin can), and after a careful look at it, his brow, which had been twisted, had loosened.

"It's a brigade-sized column, about a hundred tanks, and the 16th Mechanized Corps should be able to deal with them."

"Alright then, let the 16th Mechanized Corps crush this southbound enemy." Major General Korobkov did not think of much doom that this southward enemy would bring him, and without much thought, he decided to let the powerful 16th Mechanized Corps deal with it.

The 16th Mechanized Corps is one of the 6 mechanized corps of the Soviet Union, and the establishment is the same as the 9th Mechanized Corps, which is 1 tank brigade and 3 motorized rifle brigades. Dmitrievich. Major General Sokalov.

"What? A brigade-sized armored cluster? "When Major General Sokalov learned of the order of his superiors, he immediately had a sense of foreboding.

"Comrade commander, we should immediately deploy our troops." Sokalov's chief of staff was a lieutenant colonel, surnamed Kurbsky, very young, a figure promoted after the Great Purge. Revolutionary enthusiasm was high, but the Germans were never taught how powerful they were.

Sokalov, on the other hand, had fought the Germans in World War I and knew that they rarely showed their flaws on the battlefield. The man who can now become the commander of the German army in Warsaw must have made great achievements in the past three years of war, and will not be an easy character to deal with. How is it possible to send a brigade-sized cluster against a Soviet army group?

However, the opinion of the development is not bad, no matter whether the opponent is a brigade or an army, the 16th Mechanized Army cannot turn around and escape.

"Okay, let's start on the spot, and we'll take on the Germans in Vovomin." Major General Sokalov thought for a moment and began to make mistakes cautiously. "But let's not take the initiative to attack, go on the defensive, build positions around Vovomin, and let the Germans meet and bleed."

"Comrade Commander, are we really going on the defense in Vovomin?" Lieutenant Colonel Kurbsky felt that his immediate boss was really a little timid, and he should attack because he had superior forces.

"Of course," said Major General Sokalov, "the enemy certainly has more than one brigade, most likely an armored division." We must first ensure that we will not be defeated, and only when the main forces of the group army come up, there is no reason why we will lose. ”

The 4th Army had 1 tank corps, 1 infantry corps and 1 mechanized corps, with as many as 100,000 men, hundreds of tanks and thousands of artillery pieces. It's really going to be a fight, and Admiral Steiner's cluster is probably not an opponent.

But Admiral Steiner's German Superman would not give the 4th Army a chance to gather its horses, when the Soviet 16th Army drove near the town of Vovomin and was preparing to start a defensive battle. On the plain, less than 6 kilometers from Vovomin, the armored group under the command of General Steiner was already in formation and preparing for the attack.

And this offensive, first of all, will be launched by the rocket artillery of the Germans! (To be continued.) )