At 3 pm on May 25, the main force of the South Wing attack, the SS Skeleton Armored Division, which served as the spearhead of the attack of the 4th Armored Army, approached Ertily's front line and officially launched a roundabout encirclement against Tambov.

During the fierce battle for several hours in the early morning, they defeated the blockade of the 3rd Red Army Army in front of them and successfully tore the army apart. In just over 5 hours, the army with more than 80,000 troops and nearly 70 tanks was divided and surrounded by the German army. The commander of the army, Batov, completely lost contact with his subordinates and divisions, and only the tank brigade had a desperate telegram.

"Comrade Commander, there are too many enemy tanks, all of them are tiger-like! We can't resist it, so we ask for reinforcements!"

He had no idea that during this telegram, the tank brigade was in a completely one-sided battle with the armored forces of the Skeleton Division. The Red Army had more than 70 shoddy T-34s, and the Germans had more than 2000 units of No. 4 H and more than 50 Tiger. In less than 20 minutes, the tank brigade was completely wiped out, and only 2 tanks escaped. This was because the Germans were eager to go to Eltilly and let them go.

When the 3rd Army finally confirmed that it was being divided and surrounded, most of the tank troops of the armored divisions belonging to the 4th Army had actually passed them. What was solved was the infantry division and armored grenade division that were later promoted. Although the Russians tried to resist stubbornly, their firepower and cooperation were not as good as when they were faced. What was even more dangerous was that they also had threats from the air. Whenever the Red Army commanders tried to gather large troops to counterattack, the German army would summon planes to attack. After repeated dispersions, these tens of thousands of people were completely unable to gather.

The 3rd Army of the Red Army, now divided into dozens of large and small pieces, with a few thousand people, and a few hundred people. The German infiltration offensive was like sucking ink, and soon turned the whole piece of white paper into black. Faced with the reality of being trapped, the Red Army soldiers of each army and the division instinctively tried to retreat, hoping to break out of the encirclement when the German encirclement was not yet close. Thousands of Red Army soldiers were covered with grasslands, slopes and depressions on the infinite grasslands. Many German soldiers initially watched the large-scale and disorderly troops without attacking formations pounce on them, but the officers with rich experience immediately issued orders to attack this crowd of people. They have seen too many in the past two years.

The leading team was first thrown into the sky by the high-explosive bombs sprayed from the cricket-style 15m self-propelled artillery, but more and more attack waves followed, and then the mg42 machine gun began to shoot violently. The sound of tearing apart the cloth sounded numb. The Red Army fell into a pool of blood in an instant, but there was still a constant stream of people coming to die.

Every attempt to attack the closed front by the Russian army cluster was defeated by the firepower of machine guns, artillery and heavy weapons, or balls of flames would explode in the crowd, which was simply destroyed by the throwing distance. Half an hour later, more gathered Red Army seemed to have a lava storm pouring in from the east, attacking a battalion on the flank of the German 4th Armored Grenadier Division (affiliated with the 4th Armored Army). The attacking team rolled like huge waves, but the battalion was unshakable, as if the rocks in the turbulent sea were standing, but everyone was a little busy.

Just as the pressure was getting stronger and the defense line in the encirclement was about to be unable to hold on, the German rocket launcher company that came to reinforce finally arrived. The Himmler organ burst out with a breathtaking whistling in a short time, and hundreds of rockets burst into a dense crowd, making a sound like a sea of ​​rush. Even the most tenacious Bolsheviks could not withstand the spurt of fire and steel. The Red Army soldiers threw down their weapons, stumbled away from the hellish crossfire and deadly armor encirclement, and then raised their hands to surrender.

This scene is almost a microcosm of the battle of the 3rd and 50th Army of the Red Army on the first day of the Castle Campaign. Their technical weapons and heavy equipment were first destroyed by deadly air strikes and large-scale artillery attacks, and then attacked by German armored troops and divided and surrounded them. Finally, they faced the encirclement of six German infantry units that followed. In just one day, two armies with a total of 170,000 horses lost their combat effectiveness and could not even organize decent resistance.

Ertily, attacked by the Skeleton Division, was almost the relay point between Voronezh and Tambov. From here, it broke through 10 kilometers northeast and reached the city of Tambov. If you advance 60 kilometers in the east, it basically cut off the railway line between Tambov and Borissogrebsk, which was equivalent to cutting off the close connection between the enemy Bryansk Front and the Central Front. Even if the Soviet army could still detour through other roads, its convenience and mobility would be greatly reduced.

This is the most important part of the scheduled plan for the castle battle. Before the enemy reacts, the central front army will be cut off, so that the central front army will be afraid of being afraid to react to the German encirclement and annihilation of Tambov's Soviet army. After Tambov completely encircled, if the central front army is willing to rush over again, the German army will not mind coming to a surround and attack aid.

At 3:15 pm, the Soviet troops in the direction of Eldill were still moving forward desperately to reinforce friendly forces on the front line. Unexpectedly, the Germans had already arrived. The Red Army soldiers lined up in an orderly column were extremely frightened to see more than 2oo tanks and armored vehicles rushing down from the hills and raiding their marching columns. Many artillery and machine guns on armored vehicles spit out flames at close range. The few tanks in the team were quickly destroyed. Black smoke columns emerged from the wreckage of the destroyed tanks and rose into the sky. The trucks caught on the bomb fell sideways and began to burn. Many soldiers were killed by shells in the car. More people jumped out of the trucks and searched for nearby hidden places to fight back. Some even counterattacked in despair under the mobilization of the political commissar, but how could they withstand the armored torrent?

The fierce firepower of the German army caused horrific casualties. Seeing that the situation was over, the surviving Soviet soldiers rushed to flee, but they encountered a surging stream. The water level rose after the rainy season. In the end, the desperate 2ooo many could only surrender.

At 16:00 p.m., Zhukov arrived at the military airport behind Tambov under the escort of two aviation fighter divisions. He originally wanted to land nearby in Tambov, but he did not expect that the front report that German fighters had completely controlled the entire sky. Not one of Tambov's neighboring airports was intact. For safety reasons, his plane could only land in the rear. Then he rushed to the Front Command in the city of Tambov. It was already past 8 o'clock in the evening when he arrived at the command.

What surprised him was that the command center was panic, and all the scenes of disaster came into view. The staff members were frustrated in their faces. The orderly soldiers even began to burn important documents and telegrams. The atmosphere at the scene was so panicked that no one expected to greet Zhukov when he saw him coming in. He rushed into the command center directly.

"Hold on, hold on to me..." As soon as I entered the door, I heard Leuter shouting at the microphone at the top of my lungs, "I have sent the 1st Guard Tank Army to reinforce you!"

"What the hell is going on?"

As soon as Leiphir saw Zhukov, he almost cried. He stepped forward and hurriedly saluted, and then asked anxiously: "Comrade Zhukov, have the reinforcements... have the reinforcements come?"

"The two fighter divisions have arrived and can be put into battle tomorrow."

"Oh, what's the point of their use!" Unexpectedly, Leipzier was not happy at all, but instead stomped his feet hatefully, "At least 1 ooo planes and 1 ooo tank reinforcements are needed to save the situation..."

"What's going on the front line?" Zhukov was also stunned. "Before I came out, didn't you say that the enemy was still attacking the first line of defense, and we are fighting bravely? Although the losses were a little bigger."

"It was true at that time, but now the situation is completely different." Leiper pulled Zhukov to the front of the map. "A few hours ago, the enemy in the south occupied Ertilly and was trying to cut off the traffic line between Tambov and Borissogrebsk. The enemy in the north occupied Lipetsk. Just got the news that they were attacking Michulinsk. If they succeed, not only will the second line of defense be completely collapsed, but the traffic line between us and Moscow will be cut off, so I sent a guard tank army to go up."

"So fast?" Zhukov was also surprised to see the map: Michulinsk is less than 70 kilometers away from Tambov, while Ertil is only more than 10 kilometers away from Tambov. According to this degree, if the fast is tomorrow, if the slowest is tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, Tambov will be surrounded by the German army.

"Why are the troops fighting so badly?" His face turned pale, "I remember you deployed two armies in the third and fifth lines on the front line! They had received supplements not long ago, and their combat effectiveness was not bad!"

"This is how it is deployed, but in the afternoon, the two armies could not be connected. And judging from the situation where the German armored troops had appeared behind them, their defense line was completely penetrated." Leider complained to Zhukov, "We are only two infantry armies, but the enemy dispatched two armored armies, not part of the force, but the main force of all! I have heard of the numbers of 7-8 armored divisions or armored grenadier divisions, as well as endless infantry, the enemy's troops, tanks, and planes are much more than us!"

While talking, another wave of German planes came to bomb. Zhukov heard it very clearly. It was not a deafening explosion, but a muffled sound, and then there were flames rising everywhere, which were a large number of incendiary bombs. One of them exploded near the command center. The ejected heat wave was very clear even if it was more than 60 meters away. A team of guards rushed over and put them out with sand, gravel and rubble. (To be continued.)8
Chapter completed!