Iron Cross

"I agree to launch a tentative attack on the Tula front. The commander will be General Kirchner, the commander of the 6th Armored Division, and the number will be called Kirchner Armored Group." Hoffman paused, "But reinforcements for the 9th Army are essential. Give two air force wings, plus the 2nd Armored Division, and the rest of the 3rd Armored Army will remain. In addition, the attack on Moscow is not this year, at least not the goal of this campaign. We can scare Stalin, but we must not deceive our own people."

Everyone laughed when he said this.

The 2nd Armored Division is the only reserve armored division in the hands of the General Staff. Zeitzler was a little reluctant, but since the Führer had given the order, he could only execute it.

Model asked, "My Führer, do you need me to go back to Smolensk to take command?"

"Let Scherner take command. You must fully trust your subordinates, just as I trust you." Hoffman flattered himself and explained, "Your mission is to take Borisoglebsk as soon as possible and eat up the right wing of the Central Front. I always feel a sense of trepidation about the defense of Karachi - who knows if the Italians will suddenly collapse?"

Model smiled and nodded. Although the Führer rejected his grand plan, he was particularly moved by the trust and respect.

Hoffman never expected that Baghramyan felt the same as him, and was also trembling with fear: the Italians in Karachi were too difficult to deal with, and they could fight so badly. Are they still Italians?

"Who spread the false news that the Italians are weak in battle? Who boasted in front of me that we could take the position with just one charge?" He was furious in the front-line command post. "After fighting for four whole days, you have only advanced 1,800 meters. If you continue to fight at this speed, you won't be able to break through the Italian defense line this week, not to mention this month."

The group of army commanders and corps commanders below were all silent, not daring to breathe.

Baghramyan stood in front of the commander of the 9th Mechanized Army and sneered: "Comrade Ivanov, you promised me that you could take Highway 7 in 24 hours. Now three 24 hours have passed and Highway 7 is still in the hands of the Italians. What are you going to do?"

"Enemy...enemy...air power is too strong, anti-tank firepower is endless...our army tanks have suffered heavy losses!"

"Asshole, why don't you use infantry to push up? Do you have more people or the enemy has more anti-tank guns?" Baghramyan shouted, "Come on...pull this compromising and wavering coward down...shoot him immediately!"

The blue hats of the Ministry of Internal Affairs rushed forward and took away poor Ivanov without saying anything. He was confused and realized that the commander was not joking and was going to take real action. He shouted loudly, but before he could shout a few words, there was a "bang" outside. This commander, who had just been transferred from the Far East and had not seen the cruelty of the Eastern Front, lost his life in a confused way.

Baghramyan was still furious: "Listen, Karachi is our target. If we fail to complete the task, Comrade Stalin will shoot me, and I will shoot you!"

"Comrade Primakov!"

"Yes!"

"Now it's your turn to attack the 4th Guards Mechanized Army. How long will it take you to complete the task?"

"I...can I make a small request?"

"Say it!"

"Comrade Commander, please give me an independent rocket artillery battalion. I guarantee 2..." Primakov wanted to say that he would take it in 24 hours, but seeing that Baghramyan's eyes had turned blood red, he quickly changed his words, "Take the position in 20 hours!"

"It's too long. I'll give you 2 rocket artillery battalions. You must take it within 12 hours. The time starts from the arrival of the rocket artillery battalions."

Primakov gritted his teeth, hurriedly replied "Yes!" and turned away.

Highway 7 is the only way to Karachi. The Italian Ram Armored Division deployed a large number of firepower points here using the terrain, woods, and bushes. In addition to heavy machine guns, most of them are 50mm anti-tank guns replaced by the German army, and some are Russian-made 76.2mm anti-tank guns. Compared with the era when only 37mm anti-tank guns could be used as a facade, the equipment has been greatly improved. The Russian tanks also seem to have become more vulnerable. Those T-34 armored vehicles often have a hole in one shot when they are hit by 50mm anti-tank guns.

In addition to these semi-fixed firepower positions, the division also put two battalions of tank units into mobile defense. Whenever the defense line was shaken by the impact, tanks or assault guns would appear in time to reinforce. In addition, the German Air Force provided strong air cover. Whenever the Red Army tried to launch a dense charge with artillery and infantry, He-218 dive bombers and Ju-87G ground attack aircraft would always arrive at the request of the infantry, using firepower to recklessly harvest the Red Army officers and soldiers below.

At nightfall on June 3, Primakov commanded his troops to quietly enter the starting position. The Italians encountered the most fierce attack since the beginning of the Karachi Defense War.

After receiving the position and the independent rocket artillery battalion in the afternoon, Primakov did not rush to attack. Instead, he carefully studied the lessons of Ivanov's failure and found that he still used the same tactics to deal with Japan in the attack, first covering with artillery and then attacking with tanks. This tactic was of course overwhelming for the Japanese Kwantung Army that lacked heavy equipment, but it could not be used well on the Eastern Front: the German army firmly occupied the air superiority, and the daytime attack could neither achieve suddenness and concealment, nor escape the pursuit of air firepower, and the rear artillery support could not be too dense, otherwise German bombers would come to attack.

At the beginning, Baghramyan reported to the General Staff that the 2nd Air Force Group Army could be transferred to support the northern line on June 1. Unexpectedly, by the afternoon of June 3, the group army was not only unable to transfer, but also lost nearly half of its aircraft. In addition, the headquarters and even Stalin himself continuously sent him telegrams urging him to attack, and the wording was tougher and more severe than the last one. Baghramyan felt that he was being strangled.

After studying the position and listening to the complaints of several division commanders under Ivanov, Primakov decided to set the attack time at night. Everyone was worried about him - Commander Baghramyan only gave 12 hours, and once the attack was launched at night, there would be less than 8 hours left. However, the former believed that if the attack was successful, a 1-2 hour attack would be effective. If the attack could not be completed in one round, let alone 12 hours, I am afraid that even twice the time would not be enough.

"Ura! Ura!"

Groups of Red Army soldiers shouted and followed the T-34 to launch a tidal-like attack. Although Primakov's troops were named guards, in fact, the quality of the soldiers was worse than that of Ivanov's troops transferred from the Far East. They could not play advanced infantry tactics such as dividing and attacking, infiltration operations, and flanking. The best thing they were probably only the human wave tactics, letting the infantry follow the tanks to charge.

Not long after they entered the preset position, the Italian heavy machine guns and mortars on the left and right wings immediately opened fire fiercely, causing the soldiers to lie down in panic, and slowly advance while trying to suppress the firepower on both sides. The tanks continued to move forward regardless of everything - once they stopped, they would become live targets for anti-tank firepower, and they used artillery shells to sweep the surrounding firepower points, trying to open a path for the team. There were many tanks and corpses left on both sides of the road, all left by the friendly forces in front of them. There were various ways of death, and most of the tanks were destroyed by anti-tank guns or mines.

The two sides exchanged fierce fire, and the Red Army infantry battalions were deployed one after another. Three regiments have been successively promoted. In addition to adding a lot of casualties and a lot of corpses, it seems that there is not much progress. More than 30 tanks have been killed.

But Primakov seemed unaware and still commanded the troops to attack continuously, as if he wanted to pile up a passage with human lives.

After about 5 minutes, he picked up the phone and asked the artillery director: "Have all the enemy's firepower points been exposed? Have you written them down?"

"Written down!"

He waved his hand fiercely and shouted into the microphone: "Fire!"

After the order was given, the two independent rocket artillery battalions that had been advancing in secret and had already touched the front line not far away suddenly opened fire fiercely, aiming at the firepower points exposed by the Italians just now, regardless of whether there were any soldiers or tanks nearby, and carried out large-scale indiscriminate attacks. The continuous whistling sound made people's scalps numb. The entire Highway 7 formed groups of fires on both sides, and the flames illuminated half of the sky. Then, in the astonishment of all the surviving soldiers, the second attack echelon, with a total of more than 60 tanks and 3 battalions of assault infantry behind them, roared and drove through the most thrilling section at the fastest speed, regardless of whether there were Red Army corpses where the tanks ran over.

In order to take the position without being shot, Primakov was almost crazy.

The officers and soldiers of the Ram Division did not expect the enemy to launch a ruthless attack. Many firepower points were destroyed in the rapid rocket rain before they could be transferred, and the defensive firepower was greatly reduced.

The heavy artillery firepower in the deep zone only remembered to respond to the Soviet artillery fire and intercept the enemy's second echelon at this time, but it was obviously too late. Tanks and infantry on Highway 7 continued to pour in following the landing point of the rocket artillery. These moving targets were too small to distinguish, and finally they could only pour retaliatory artillery fire on the Soviet rocket artillery battalion that had not yet been completely transferred.

The tank troops of the Ram Division tried to play the role of firefighters again, desperately rushing towards the Red Army tanks, and the leading tanks launched a counterattack with the enemy. Although the defense level of the T-34s continued to decline, the offensive firepower was still the same as before. In addition, both sides were in close combat and mixed combat, and the Red Army, which had more infantry support, was obviously more advantageous. In the subsequent 20-minute tank firefight, the Ram Division destroyed nearly 50 Red Army tanks at the cost of more than 30 tanks, but eventually retreated because it was unable to support itself.

At 11 o'clock in the evening of June 3, the Red Army completely occupied the front line of Highway 7, and the follow-up troops continued to advance and began to besiege Karachi.