The commander of the Northwestern Front, General Kuznetsov, was very troubled by the Norwegian Army's move to occupy Stara Rusa. At the same time, a sense of danger enveloped General Kuznetsov's heart. This feeling lasted for a year. Former Admiral Kuznetsov did not feel this when he participated in the Soviet-Finnish War. Since the Norwegian Army occupied Old Rusa, the retreat route of the Northwest Front became very dangerous, and bypassing Old Rusa was obviously not a good choice. , there is only one way before General Kuznetsov, and that is to occupy Stara Rusa and get rid of the encirclement and suppression of Marshal Loeb's Army Group Northern.
The Eighth Army of the Soviet Northwest Front blocked the advance of the German Army Group Northern. General Kuznetsov did not have to worry about the fate of General Pavlov's troops in a short period of time, but the Eighth Army alone could resist the advance of the Northern Army. The group's offensive was still too reluctant. According to General Kuznetsov's estimate, the Eighth Army could only support it for two to three days at most. Once they collapsed, the fate of the Northwest Front could be imagined. The Northern Army Group attacking from the west and the Norwegian Army Group from the northeast will definitely encircle the Northwest Front.
Considering the dangerous consequences, General Kuznetsov couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. If he lost the entire Northwest Front, he could imagine his fate. It would be like a lucky breakout. Will Stalin let him go? Thinking of the influence that the so-called Trotsky Group had suffered within the Red Army in recent years, General Kuznetsov had some lingering fears.
"Order the Eleventh Army and the Twenty-seventh Army to attack Stara Russa, remember, at any cost!" After careful consideration, General Kuznetsov issued an almost cold order. From the beginning of the war, The commander of the Soviet Red Army suddenly discovered that in equal numbers, the Soviet Red Army was no match for the German Wehrmacht. So gradually, the words "no matter the cost, must, no matter," gradually appeared in the orders of commanders at all levels of the Soviet Red Army.
On July 2, the Soviet Northwestern Front's Eleventh Army and the Twenty-seventh Army's attack on Stara Rusa began. Unlike the Soviet Fourth Army, which stood out from the encirclement, the Eleventh Army and the Twenty-seventh Army This group army retained a considerable amount of weapons, including artillery, which the Soviet Red Army had always attached great importance to.
Thousands of artillery pieces from the two armies were gathered together by General Kuznetsov. Although this was a bit wasteful, General Kuznetsov could no longer control so many. Once these artillery pieces were obtained by Germany, they would immediately change. It became a big killer weapon that hunted down the lives of Soviet soldiers. It was better to use it on the German army near Stara Russa now. The firing of thousands of artillery pieces at the same time was indeed earth-shattering. Even though the 21st Army had been prepared for it, it was still captured by Kuznet. Admiral Zoff was stunned.
Fortunately, the Norwegian Army Group is a group army composed of mountain troops. It does not have the concept of city defense like ordinary infantry divisions. It was scattered around Old Rusa early in the morning. Although there are not so many mountains here, fortunately, the forest coverage is still The tall, dense woods withstood many impacts for the soldiers of the 21st Army.
The 21st Army immediately reported the situation of being attacked by the two Soviet armies to Marshal Loeb, commander of the Norwegian Army Group Headquarters and Northern Army Group. The purpose of reporting the situation above was to let his superiors know the situation here, and there was no requirement at all. The idea of reinforcements, because they also know that the Northern Army Group is still being sniped by the Soviet Eighth Army, and the large forces of the Norwegian Army have to rely on walking to get here, which will take at least two days. In two days, the Soviet Eighth Army can only To keep from collapsing within two days under the attack of Army Group North, the Norwegian Army also needed two days to get on its way, which meant that the 21st Army of the Norwegian Army had to withstand the full attack of the two Soviet armies for forty-eight hours.
In terms of numbers, a German army of nearly 50,000 troops is more than enough to garrison Old Rusa. No one dares to guarantee that Old Rusa can be captured in two days, but this also depends on who the opponent is. The Soviet Union with two armies The number of troops is nearly 400,000. Although many tanks have been lost, the remaining tanks are still four times more than the 21st Army stationed in Old Rusa, and the artillery is five times that of the 21st Army. If the Soviets attack regardless of cost, the fate of the 21st Army is still unknown.
But there is no doubt that the 21st Army's move to disperse its troops in the forest also made it more difficult for the 11th Group Army and the 27th Group Army to attack. In the forest, the 21st Army, which is a mountain force, occupied Obviously, the Eleventh Army and the Twenty-seventh Army were unable to fully deploy due to too many people. As a result, the Soviet Union's numerical advantage was not brought into play. Therefore, in the initial stage, the German army was still firmly entrenched. Controls Old Rusa.
Germany once used tanks to break through the Maginot Line from the jungles of the Ardennes region, which should have been a reference for the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet tank crews are obviously not as good as the German armored troops. This does not mean that the Soviet tank crews are not at a high level. Moreover, the Soviet tank troops entering the jungle cannot form effective contact, so even if they pose a threat to the German soldiers, Also very limited. This is because Soviet tanks use semaphore to communicate with each other, and the jungle greatly limits the strength of semaphore communication. Scattered tanks can easily be killed by German soldiers in the jungle.
In the first four hours of the attack, General Kuznetsov heard almost no news that the attack was going well. The mountain troops of the 21st Army were like candy sticking to the Northwest Front in the forests along the Baltic Sea. It is not advisable to bypass the old Lusa, but according to the current offensive, unless the supplies of the 21st Army are exhausted, but by that time the Northwest Front Army may have been caught up by the Northern Army Group and destroyed. General Kuznetsov almost wanted to burn down the jungle where the German troops were staying, but this idea was just a thought. It was simple that during this period, the Baltic Sea coast was always rainy, and the rainy weather made the Northwest Front retreat. The pace slowed, but at the same time it prevented the emergence of the Luftwaffe and the advance of the German Panzer Army, which now came to the aid of the XXI Mountain Corps in Stara Rusa.
The rainy day had an impact on both the Soviet Union and Germany, but it was not possible to draw a conclusion so early on which one had a greater impact. After Marshal Loeb knew that the German troops in the Old Russa area were attacked by two armies, he ordered the 16th Army of the Northern Army Group to put pressure on the Soviet 8th Army, and at the same time ordered von Küchler's 18th Army to open the channel. The road to Stara Rusa.
Erich Heppner's Fourth Armored Army advanced towards the Velikaya River. The front line of the Velikaya River has already been stationed by General Kuznetsov with two infantry divisions.
But this did not stop the advance of the 41st Armored Army. Despite the stubborn resistance of the Soviet armored forces, they still occupied Psko on the shores of Bepas Lake at night, but the next situation put the German army in trouble . The German troops in pursuit of the victory began to advance rapidly. They moved along the narrow passages in the swamps and forests towards Opochka and Novolzhev in the northeast, but when they reached Velika south of Lake Bepas They encountered difficulties on the front line of the Yahe River. Because traces of the originally flat roads there suddenly disappeared. Even if some roads did not disappear, they still encountered sections of narrow paths blocked by tanks, artillery, and vehicles dropped by the Soviet army. Faced with this extremely complex situation. The German advance eventually came to a halt. The idea of laying an emergency military road through the swamp was also abandoned, because the terrain there was simply not suitable for laying a roadbed that would allow tanks and half-track armored vehicles to move.
After General Erich Heppner learned of the specific situation, he had to send a telegram to Marshal Loeb, indicating that the Fourth Armored Army was no longer able to advance, and the troops of the Norwegian Army in Stara Rusa could only survive on their own. It's over. Marshal Loeb received the telegram from Admiral Erich Heppner and sighed after a long time.
General Kuznetsov woke up refreshed on the morning of July 3rd. The rainy days were getting worse and worse. The offensive of the German Panzer Army had been contained. Now General Kuznetsov had no hope of rainy weather. So disgusted, in just one day, General Kuznetsov believed that the two armies would clear out the German 21st Mountain Army stationed in Old Rusa and open the channel. General Kuznetsov could move the Northwest Front Army brought back to Soviet territory.
Just when Marshal Loeb and Admiral Kuznetsov were racking their brains to point each other to death, outside the land, no one expected that a force that would affect the war situation appeared, consisting of two Bismarck-class battleships, two sandships The Enghorst-class battleship, three George V-class battleships, two Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers, and one Bismarck-improved battleship, along with all the German destroyers, have penetrated into the Baltic Sea. The third Bismarck-class battleship has blocked the north. The fleet's home port.
What this powerful German navy now has to deal with is the Baltic Fleet of the Soviet Red Navy, which is also the most powerful fleet in the Soviet Union.
The Baltic Fleet consisted of 2 battleships, 2 cruisers, 2 destroyer leaders, 19 destroyers, 48 torpedo boats, 69 submarines, 656 aircraft, several coastal defense corps and air defense corps. It was the most powerful Soviet navy. One of the joint battle formations, with its basic forces stationed in Tallinn and Riga, facing off against the German and Finnish navies.
In the armored command room aboard the Bismarck-improved battleship Hindenburg, German naval commander Marshal Redel was studying the battle situation on the land. Before Marshal Redel came out, he had already asked Marshal Blomberg to share intelligence, so in the old The war in Rusa has never escaped the attention of Marshal Redl.
"Admiral Gunther Lütjens!" Marshal Redl called the name of the German Navy's most outstanding surface ship commander.
"Yes, Marshal, I have always been here!" Admiral Gunther Lütjens's precise movements reflect the inherent temperament of the German military. He once killed the battlecruiser Hood and the commander of the Battle off the coast of Belgium. , and are still always ready to accept the challenge.
"Lütjens, sit down!" Reidel gestured to sit down and speak, "I assume you already know the strength of the Baltic Fleet, right?"
"Yes, Marshal!" Gunther Lütjens replied, "Two old-fashioned battleships, the rest are not worth mentioning. Compared with the British Royal Navy we once had, they are far behind. !”
"The Baltic Fleet cannot shrink, and we have nothing to do!" Redl said sadly, "I hope you can lead a Bismarck-class battleship and two Scharnhorst-class battleships to block the Baltic Fleet of the Soviet Red Navy. Home port Tallinn! If possible?" Redl paused slightly, "Make them disappear!" Through the glass of the armored command room, Marshal Redl's eyes were cast into the deep blue water of the Baltic Sea, as if arrangements had been made for the Soviet Red Navy. tomb.
"I'm very honored to have arrived." Gunther Lütjens also followed Marshal Redl to the window, staring ahead, with a smile that was not easily noticeable to others from time to time. He has been fighting at sea for decades and has experienced the Battle of Jutland in World War I. He can be said to be an experienced, calm and steady commander. There was a decisive battle with the British Royal Navy at an absolute disadvantage. Although it relied on the suspicion of the German Air Force, no one can doubt the courage of Gunther Lütjens, and now the Soviet Red Navy, whose strength is not worth mentioning, is even more impossible. Let Gunther Lutjens pay attention.
After bidding farewell to the Bismarck-class battleship formation led by Admiral Gunther Lütjens, Marshal Redl carefully studied the map and ordered, "Look for a landing position in the direction of Demyansk and move the Soviet The Northwest Front intercepts it! Notify the transport fleet in Helsinki that there is no problem with the route and the transport fleet can set sail!"
The situation of the German 21st Mountain Army in Old Rusa is no longer optimistic. The Soviet 11th Army and the 27th Army have compressed them into a position of only about ten kilometers in length. Soldiers died under the shelling of the Soviet Red Army. Two days of defense time had passed. The troops of the Norwegian Army did not arrive on the battlefield on time. Although they were very close, they were blocked by the sudden appearance of Soviet troops.
In the direction of Army Group North, the German army finally began to advance again. Encountering resistance from the Soviet rearguard, the German troops were advancing less than seven miles per day. Every enemy fire point and every covering tank at the bend of the road must be destroyed one by one. The German army lacked infantry, and the narrow terrain prevented their dominant armored mobile units and artillery from fully functioning. They also often discovered Soviet troops with new designations. The distance between the Norwegian Army Group and the Northern Army Group is still nearly two hundred kilometers.
Of course, the entire battlefield is not without good news. At least there is good news from Army Group Center. The armored armies of Guderian and Hoth, the Fourth Army and the Ninth Army mobilized by Marshal Bock, surrounded Biawe. The Soviet Western Front troops in the Stok and Nalibok forests carried out encirclement and annihilation.
News from the front line confirmed that the Russians were fighting hard everywhere, even if only the last person was left... What people saw was that only a few people were captured in the captured artillery positions. The Russians either fought to the end or disguised themselves as peasants and tried to escape from the encirclement. In the encirclement, many Red Army soldiers gathered together with rifles that had few rounds of ammunition, braving the fierce fire from German machine guns, mortars, and even tanks, shouting and launching a desperate charge. In the section of the German Second Motorized Division, Soviet soldiers who preferred death to surrender even held hands and shouted while advancing towards the German machine guns that were spitting fire. The main breakthrough point of the Soviet army was chosen in the forest near a small town called Zeba, where they used cavalry groups to launch an attack, and later also used armored trains. However, under the fierce firepower of the German army, the Red Army, which left behind large swaths of corpses, ultimately failed to enable the besieged main force to break the German siege. Before and after, the Soviet army also made many breakout attempts. Many of them were killed, but only some of them managed to escape from the encirclement with a narrow escape and crossed the Dnieper River back to their own people under the cover of darkness. The largest unit to break through was the 45th Infantry Corps of the Thirteenth Army.
Those who remained within the siege were increasingly in dire straits. After the failed breakout, many troops were dispersed and the remaining personnel entered the forest. The small amount of ammunition and supplies was quickly exhausted. Without preset positions and effective command, it was difficult to organize effective resistance in the encirclement. In actual wars, a soldier's personal bravery can often be fully exerted if there is sufficient ammunition, solid position support and effective command. They will fight to the death at all costs. And if these conditions are lost, the soldiers' resistance at the cost of their own lives will become meaningless, and their will to resist will undoubtedly be greatly reduced. The same was true for the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of besieged Soviet troops. The twenty-five fully manned and well-equipped German army divisions surrounding them, with the strong cooperation of the Second Air Force, were constantly dividing and compressing the encirclement.
On the front of the First SS Armored Corps, in the direction of the encirclement, nearly two hundred thousand Soviet soldiers have gathered. Like their comrades in the encirclement, even if there is a glimmer of hope, these soldiers will Nearly ten minutes of effort to attack. General Paul Hausser's plan to unite with the Hermann Goering Armored Division to encircle and annihilate the Soviet Fourth Army was finally abandoned. The reason was simple. None of them had the confidence to encircle and annihilate 200,000 enemies with less than 100,000 troops. Maybe they have enough armor strength, but without enough infantry cooperation, the besieged Soviet soldiers can easily break out. Guderian and Holt's armored group army has already missed it once. Paul & Hausser don't want to Come once.