Completely different from the central and northern fronts, both the Soviet Union's Southwest Front and Germany's Southern Army Group fought with great caution. Like General Kirponos of the Soviet Southwest Front, Marshal Rundstedt, commander-in-chief of Army Group South, also had a headache. His opponent was completely different from the idiots Marshal Bock and Marshal Loeb dealt with. He had not committed any crime since the beginning of the war. What an obvious mistake. It was this steady performance that made Marshal Rundstedt even more at a loss. After all, judging from the overall strength comparison, the Southern Army Group was in a weak position rather than the Southwest Front. The more than one million troops of the Southwestern Front made Marshal Rundstedt's happy mood disappear all of a sudden because he had just received two Romanian armies to join the war in the past few days. Now all I think about all day is how to break the deadlock.
"Rundstedt, are you still troubled by the Southwestern Front?" The speaker was none other than Marshal Rundstedt's partner for many years, Manstein, who was now promoted to marshal together, and he was very interested in Rundstedt. Calling him by his first name, and searching all over Germany, only Manstein dared to do so. Although Manstein formulated Operation Sickle and was promoted to marshal based on it, these were not enough for Manstein to become the commander of the army group at once. The commander-in-chief, Marshal Blomberg, hesitated for a long time before letting Manstein. Stein came to Army Group South and took charge of Army Group South together with Rundstedt, his partner in the Polish campaign.
"Yes, the enemy is very powerful!" In front of his old friend, Rundstedt had no need to hide his thoughts, and Rundstedt also knew that in terms of talent, Manstein's ability was better than He is much stronger, and it is better for Manstein to make decisions on many things.
"Yes, the enemy is very powerful! But the final victory must belong to us!" Manstein didn't know how powerful his enemy was, but Manstein now had full confidence in winning the victory and said,; "The SS Gendarmerie Division, Police Division, and Skeleton Division have arrived in Romania. Now we don't need to worry about the Soviets' superiority in strength!"
Marshal Rundstedt's eyes suddenly lit up and he said in disbelief, "Is it true? Manstein, we finally don't have to endure the gap in strength!"
"Yes, the SS troops are rushing to Romania at the rate of two divisions per day. Now we should imagine how to annihilate the Southwest Front!" Manstein said confidently, "Limited by losses, there are still The gap in our strength makes some plans too risky, but I don’t have such worries now, just watch, I will break through the Southwest Front’s position right away!”
"Calling all group army, corps, division commanders and chiefs of staff together! The war has begun!" When Marshal Rundstedt gave the order again, his tone was full of confidence. No one knew what this meant, but the Soviet Union's largest front army was The fate of encirclement and annihilation has begun.
These days, the Army Group South headquarters transferred the First Armored Army away from the Sixth Army. The reason for the transfer was that the commander of the Sixth Army, Field Marshal von Reichenau, failed to crush the Soviet Fifth Army near the Pripya Swamp. Army Group, and was also restrained by the Soviet Fifth Army. According to the plan, the First Armored Group Army should maintain the freedom of excitement and assault on the Dibennie River as soon as possible. As ordered by Marshal Rundstedt and the Sixth Army, the First Armored Army acted alone and advanced along the Lutsk and Rivne roads.
At this time, the German 17th Army, which was inevitably fighting, also crushed the resistance of the Soviet Red Army. On the 30th, its subordinate mountain division captured Lviv. Shortly after the German Wehrmacht entered the city, the Ukrainian Freedom Movement tried to stage an uprising in the city, but was defeated. Due to the suppression of the Wehrmacht, Ukraine's fate will also need to be better in the distant future, but now it must become a logistics base for Germany.
On July 1, after Stalin figured out the progress of the German Wehrmacht, he ordered the Southwestern Front to retreat to the Stalin Defense Line, which was actually the border between Russia and Ukraine. If the Soviet Red Army retreats to the Stalin Defense Line, it means that the Soviet Southwest Front's actual defense line has been shortened by 500 kilometers, which will undoubtedly be beneficial to the current war situation. After Marshal Rundstedt learned of the Soviet Red Army's movements, he reported it to the Supreme Command and ordered Army Group South to launch a full-line offensive.
However, there is an exception for one Soviet army, that is, the Soviet Fifth Army still in the Pripyat Swamp. This move shows that the Soviet Supreme Command still has not given up hope of counterattack. Marshal von Reichenau's Sixth Army still has Under tremendous pressure. Rundstedt had to throw the police division and skeleton division that had just arrived on the battlefield to the north of the Soviet Fifth Army in order to relieve the pressure on Marshal von Reichenau's Sixth Army.
At this time, the offensive and defensive posture of Army Group South and the Southwestern Front suddenly reversed. As Manstein issued orders one after another, the offensive of Army Group South became more and more fierce. The Seventeenth Army was in Sarney-sur-Glen. Attacking with a wide front in the south, the 29th Army was northeast of Sarny, the 3rd Motorized Army was on the right wing, and the 48th Motorized Army bypassed Berdichev and occupied the railway line south of Zhilenmir. The 55th Army advanced towards Lyubar, and the 14th Motorized Chinese Army continued its assault from the south of Lyubar to the northeast. The 49th Mountain Corps and the 3rd Army advanced eastwards on a wide front on the Proskurov Heights and established contact with the Hungarian 8th Army.
At the same time, the southern flank was also advancing, and the two Romanian corps had held the area south of Kamenets and Podolski. The Ninth Army on the flanks reached the front area of Mogilev, and the Third Division and the 54th Army approached the Dniester River. With the withdrawal of the Southwest Front, Army Group South has fully approached Stalin's defense line.
The news of the smooth progress of Army Group South finally relieved the Supreme Command, which had been concerned about the war situation in the South. In fact, due to the difficulties of Army Group South at the beginning, the Supreme Command had already separated part of Army Group Center to cooperate with the South. As for the Army Group's plan to attack, it is well known that both the Central Army Group and the Northern Army Group are stretched thin, and it would be very difficult to separate a force.
The actions of Army Group South just allow the few forces in other areas to be fully utilized, and they can concentrate on solving the Soviet Red Army units they face, such as the currently surrounded Western Front Army and the defeated Northwest Front Army. The sniper battle of the First SS Armored Corps on the Berezina River continued. In the two days of June 30 and July 1, the Soviet Fourth Army launched more than 40 attacks, once an hour. The level of madness makes people marvel at how powerful the desire to survive bursts out from people in desperate situations. Heavy machine guns, grenades, aircraft bombings, and artillery shelling could not stop the Soviet soldiers who wanted to escape.
Later, the Soviet soldiers who charged later had to first clear their own obstacles and piled up corpses of Soviet soldiers. Because of the continuous attacks, they did not give the German soldiers a chance to clean up these corpses. In areas within the range of German small arms, many people died. The corpses of Soviet soldiers have been piled up more than one meter thick and have become a burden for the Soviet Red Army's offensive.
"They are so crazy. If such soldiers are well trained, it is simply unimaginable!" General Paul Hausser's telescope has been lowered as the Soviet Fourth Army was repelled again, but the Soviet soldiers just looked at death as if they were home. The charge made General Paul Hausser never forget it. Now it seems that he can still hear the sound of the Ura like a mountain roaring and a tsunami in his ears... This is one of the few Russians that Paul Hausser can understand. Long live the meaning.
"For this reason, we cannot let them run away, otherwise these soldiers will cause us huge losses sooner or later. Maybe they lack training now, but who knows what will happen in the future?" Admiral Felix Stanel's words His expressions were not very good either. This suicidal charge made them, the executioners, feel uncomfortable. It was terrible.
"I think it's better not to think about encircling and annihilating them. Just block their escape routes. Leave the plan to annihilate them to Guderian!" General Paul & Hausser no longer had any interest in annihilating the Soviet Red Army. In just a few days, Paul Hausser had learned a lot about the situation on the Soviet battlefield. Compared with the German campaigns in Poland, France and the United Kingdom, it was a hundred times crueler. If both sides in those battles still maintained some bottom line of gentlemanly style and behavior, nothing is needed in the war here. Compared with those battles, the situation here was hell, and the one-meter-high bodies in front of the 1st SS Panzer Corps position also proved this.
"The leader is calling!" Dietrich used one sentence to attract General Paul Hausser and Admiral Felix Stanel, coughing slightly and loudly said, "The Berezina River sniper operation is very special." Success has created very good conditions for encircling and annihilating the Soviet Western Front. The continuous high-intensity operations must have made you all very tired. At ten o'clock tomorrow morning, General Kesselring's Second Air Force will airdrop supplies to you. , together with the comrades of the Hermann & Goering Armored Division, the main force of the Hermann & Goering Armored Division will rush to the Berezina River along your marching road, and will appear in about two days. The rear of the Fourth Army!"
"Two days?" Admiral Felix Stanel asked, playing with the cup in his hand, "How is the combat effectiveness of this air force's ground forces? If we cooperate internally and externally, by joining forces with them, we can Can't encircle the Fourth Army?" General Felix Stanel was very happy to hear the news, but he was worried about the combat effectiveness of the Hermann & Göring Armored Division.
General Paul Hausser personally trained the first unit of the Waffen-SS. He has much better information about this than General Felix Starner, a man who doesn't care about anything. Listen. General Paul Hausser frowned and said, "The Hermann-Göring Armored Division? It is based on the seven main armored divisions of the Waffen-SS." They are based on the same equipment and heavy weapons configuration as ours. Among the SS, only the Gendarmerie Division is larger than him. As for the specific combat effectiveness, all I know about them is their unique clothing! "Hermann Göring Parachute Panzer Division, the eagle emblem of the Luftwaffe (they were affiliated with the Air Force) was pinned on the black uniforms of the armored personnel (the uniforms of the armored personnel of all German services are black), and on the collar was the skull of the Waffen-SS emblem (to show loyalty to the country and determination to face death).
The doubts of the three people were temporarily suppressed to the psychological level, but they would learn about the combat effectiveness of Germany's most unique force, because at this time, Major General Karl Rothmann, commander of the Hermann Goering Parachute Armored Division, had arrived at Admiral Kesselring's. The Second Air Force will parachute into the area controlled by the First SS Armored Corps tomorrow along with the command organization.
One day has passed. On July 2, the fighting of the previous day continued across the Soviet Union. The German Wehrmacht was still attacking across the board. The Western Front Army surrounded by the Belarusian encirclement had completely cut off its way of survival. Guderian and Huo Huo The special armored group army was carrying out the final blow. Although the surrounded Soviet army suffered heavy losses, it was very tenacious and was still artificially delaying the collapse of the Western Front. The 1st SS Panzer Corps, which defends the Berezina River and is responsible for blocking the breakout of the Soviet Fourth Army, is still rock solid and holds the only way out for the Soviet Fourth Army. No matter how many attacks the Soviet Fourth Army launches, The 1st SS Panzer Corps was unable to defend itself. As time goes by, the situation of the Soviet Fourth Army will only become more and more dangerous.
The battle of Army Group North is still very dull. Generally speaking, Army Group North has the advantage. However, due to the terrain of the three Baltic countries, it is impossible to create an effective encirclement. Therefore, the captured Soviet soldiers are very few. There are currently only more than 10,000 people. . However, Marshal Loeb still ordered the troops of Army Group North to ensure that the Soviet Red Army and the German Wehrmacht did not break away from contact, to stick to the Soviet Red Army as much as possible, and to delay the retreat of the Soviet Red Army. For Marshal Loeb, a frontal attack would annihilate the Northwest Front. It is really too difficult. The only chance is for the Norwegian Army Group to move south. In this way, Loeb's Northern Army Group attacks from the west and the Norwegian Army Group attacks from the northeast. They can definitely completely annihilate the Northwest Front and open the way to Leningrad.
However, the situation of the Northern Army Group was not optimistic. After all, the Norwegian Army Group was too far away. The three divisions that set out earlier only reached Stara Russa, and another important location, Holm, fell into the hands of the Soviet Red Army. The Norwegian Army Group is trying to capture Holm, and the Soviet Northwest Front wants the same thing as the Norwegian Army, hoping to capture Stara Rusa to ensure that the success of the Northwest Front's retreat is not threatened.
Although the fight did not start immediately, a small-scale battle had begun. The first to set off was the search battalion of the division, followed by the armored regiment that the Norwegian Army had managed to get out, and closely behind the armored regiment were the grenades. The first battalion of the regiment. An officer at the battalion headquarters wrote in the report: "In front of us are the troops of the Armored Regiment, and behind us are the Second Artillery Battalion of the Artillery Regiment. The seventh and eighth companies of the third battalion The company was mopping up the remaining enemy forces in a village to the south under the cover of fire-breathing tanks. In the process, the 7th Company successfully destroyed three of the opponent's tanks. Our subordinate 23rd Company and Battalion Headquarters followed closely. We had just made our first contact with the Russians. The Russian tanks were hidden behind the farmhouse and fired at us frequently. One of our half-track personnel carriers was destroyed. At that time, it was a few meters away from my vehicle. Only ten meters away. I saw with my own eyes that the car turned into a huge fireball. But at the same time, I also drove to the first burning Soviet tank. This tank was not too big. From the shape of the turret It looked like it was a Soviet BT tank. It was not the Soviet heavy tank T34 that the staff officers had been emphasizing. After a few minutes, we got new news. The Russians were ready to abandon the village, and they began to escape eastward. Very soon Soon we received a message from the battalion commander, asking them to immediately launch a pursuit and occupy the village. The tanks of the armored regiment advanced to the entrance to the far end of the village. However, they did not encounter strong resistance during this period. On the contrary, we caught some people along the way. Many lone Russian prisoners arrived. After entering the village, our battalion broke away from the cover of the tanks and began to clear out the remaining German troops in the northern part of the village on its own. At the same time, new defensive positions were built in the north and east of the village, and the battalion The headquarters was first set up at the entrance to the west of the entire village of Brysovska, and then moved to the defensive position in the north of the village.
That afternoon, troops of the armored regiment were defending near the village, waiting for the arrival of new orders. And this stay lasted most of the day. During this period, the German position was not very stable. Soviet tanks continued to harass the German defense line. Two Soviet tanks deployed German light howitzers in the position east of the village of Brisovska. Chance, at that time, the tank was only twelve meters away from the headquarters of the German 3rd Infantry Battalion.
But immediately, the armored regiment stationed in the village received an order to defend the 21st Army of the Norwegian Army in Stara Russa. They gave up here and returned to Stara Russa immediately, because the Soviet Northwest Front Army, which was stuck on the retreat route, could no longer wait. , there is Army Group North attacking behind them, and they must break through the obstruction of the Norwegian Army and retreat to a safe location. After a day of observation, they have discovered that there are not many troops of the Norwegian Army arriving here, only about one corps, so they are ready to forcefully open the road and annihilate the 21st Army of the Norwegian Army in Stara Rusa.