Chapter 850 The Final Battle - Ukrainians (3rd Update, Please Give Me a Monthly Ticket)

The Battle of Klimovichi, which began on May 7, 1943, was later called the Battle of Collective Farm No. 13 in history. Because this battle was fought around Collective Farm No. 13 in the city of Klimovichi.

And this battle is regarded as the beginning of the joint battle and a decisive battle!

If the 11th Armored Corps of the German Wehrmacht defeated the Soviet 5th Tank Army in the Battle of Collective Farm No. 13, then the 11th Armored Corps would be able to join forces with the 24th Armored Corps coming south from Oryosha in the north, and then join the Gomel battlefield on the southern front together. At that time, the German army will be able to concentrate a total of 4 armored corps on the Gomel battlefield, namely the 3rd, 11th, 14th and 24th.

The number of armored divisions under these 4 German armored corps will reach 6, and the number of armored grenadier divisions will reach 7. In theory, the number of tanks/assault artillery will reach more than 5,000!

On paper, the Soviet 1st and 2nd Tank Armies only had about 2,100 tanks/assault guns, not even half of their opponents. If they crashed into them, they would definitely be crushed to pieces.

If General Lukin's 5th Tank Army could hold back the German 11th Panzer Army and the German 24th Panzer Army that would join the battle later in the Battle of Collective Farm No. 13, and if the troops of the Southwestern Front on the southern line could hold back the German 14th Panzer Army that had entered the Chernogov area (this task was also difficult to accomplish, because the main force of the 14th Panzer Army did not go deep, but gathered near the city of Chernigov, only about 100 kilometers away from the Gomel battlefield), then the enemy that the Soviet 1st and 2nd Tank Armies had to deal with was only the German 3rd Panzer Army (with 2 armored divisions and 2 armored grenadier divisions).

If the Soviet 1st and 2nd Tank Armies could defeat or annihilate the German 3rd Panzer Army on the Gomel battlefield, then the situation on the Soviet-German battlefield would be reversed, and the GCist cause might be possible!

So on the evening of May 9, when Comrade Lukin learned that a huge German "armored army" was approaching him, he knew that he and the 5th Tank Army were now responsible for the success or failure of the GCist cause.

"Comrades, the survival of the Soviet motherland and the happiness of all mankind now depend on our glorious 5th Tank Army!"

At 7 o'clock in the evening, Admiral Lukin said to the chief officer of the army headquarters and several chief officers of the 5th Mechanized Army in his front-line headquarters: "We are now facing an enemy that is far more powerful than us. They have a large number of tanks and artillery, and the soldiers are armed to the teeth. They are coming with great momentum and are ready to destroy the Soviet motherland.

If we can't hold them back in Klimovichi and can't attract more enemies with the hard work of the 5th Tank Army, then the joint forces will The battle will fail! This will mean unimaginable catastrophic consequences!

If we fail in the battle of the junction, the next battle will start in the capital of our great motherland, and Leningrad may also fall. Our motherland will face a life-and-death test.

So our 5th Tank Army must fight to the end in Klimovich, at all costs! "

The 5th Tank Army is to fight in Klimovich... Actually, it is near the 13th collective farm in Klimovich, so it is very important to occupy the headquarters and living area of ​​this large collective farm and a large forest nearby.

Because there are not only woods where tanks and tank destroyers can be ambushed, but also solid headquarters buildings, warehouses, schools, clinics and residential areas. It is a small town with thousands of residents - the Soviet Union's agricultural collectivization is not only plundering without construction!

In fact, collectivization brings about large-scale and mechanized management of agriculture, which is not much different from what large agricultural companies in the United States do. The reason for the failure is not "scale" and "mechanization", but the particularly serious bureaucracy brought about by "political and economic integration" (collective farms are not just business entities, but also a level of government).

However, the bureaucrats of the 13th collective farm in Klimovichi, Belarus, were still very motivated. At least they invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the face-saving project (this is actually a model collective farm), and built a very impressive and solid farm building in the Soviet Union in the 1940s.

This three-story building with a basement and an area of ​​about 3,000 to 4,000 square meters (also the headquarters of the cooperative, the agricultural machinery station, the savings bank and the militia headquarters) became the last stronghold of more than 100 Ukrainian German troops on the evening of May 9, 1943.

Pavlyuchenko and her assistant Tymoshenko retreated here in the afternoon of May 9.

Major Helmut Zints, the commander of the 17th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion, said to her at the time: "Lyudmila, you don't have to stay here, because you are a woman... You can disguise yourself as a civilian and leave. Just walk a few kilometers south and you will find our main force."

There are almost no women in the front-line troops of the German Wehrmacht, which is not in line with the tradition of the Junkers. Only a small number of female soldiers (who are still female assistants of the Wehrmacht) exist in the Ukrainian troops. So there is still a possibility that Pavlyuchenko disguised herself as an ordinary Soviet peasant woman to escape.

But this Ukrainian female soldier from Kiev rejected Major Zints's proposal.

"No, Comrade Major (also known as Comrade in the Nazi Party), I am a soldier!" Pavlyuchenko said, "I want to fight for honor and the freedom of Ukraine."

She was born and raised in Right Bank Ukraine and was never a Soviet. Naturally, she regarded the Red Army who "liberated" Right Bank Ukraine as invaders and wanted to fight them to the end.

However, at this time, she and most of the Ukrainian soldiers fighting for the German Empire had realized that Germany's intentions for the black land of Ukraine were actually the same as those of the Soviet Union. The only difference is that the Germans will divide the land on the right bank of Ukraine equally among Ukrainian farmers - only the "right bank" will be distributed, excluding Western Ukraine and left bank Ukraine.

The land ownership relationship in Western Ukraine (part of the former Austrian Ukraine) will not change. The fertile land in Left Bank Ukraine (referring to the east bank of the Dnieper River) will be used to settle German immigrants (no need to check the N generation, as long as they are white and trustworthy). God, just speak German), and at the same time became the territory of the German Empire. In other words, the Ukrainian nation, which suffered heavy losses in this war, could only get half of Ukraine, and they had to regard the German Emperor as their monarch...

Of course, for Ukrainian intellectuals like Pavlyuchenko, German rule will bring them an additional benefit - they can live freely in any big city in the European Community while enjoying the benefits of European citizenship and Welfare of Imperial Citizens.

It is certainly not worth sacrificing one's life for the welfare provided by the Germans, but the Ukrainian soldiers regarded as "traitors" by the Soviet Union now have no choice but to fight to the end with the Soviet Red Army and become cheap cannon fodder for the Germans—— We originally belonged to the same nation, but now we have become sworn enemies on the battlefield. This cannot but be said to be a huge tragedy.

Pavlyuchenko and her assistant Tymoshenko, who were in tragedy, entered the basement of the building in the evening of May 9. This is actually a semi-basement. The top of the basement is higher than the ground, and there are 10 small windows opened in the part above the ground.

The basement had been remodeled, and the cement floor had been dug out with explosives and shovels to create several bomb shelters. All windows have been transformed into firepower points. 3 machine gun groups, 3 anti-tank groups (each equipped with a "Doll" 88mm recoilless rifle) and 3 sniper groups are in place. Pavlyuchenko and Timo Shenke is the fourth sniper team deployed in this basement.

The person who commands these 10 combat groups is a sergeant named Poroshenko - the number of officers in the German Army has always been relatively small. Usually only the company commander and 1st platoon commander in a company are officers, and the remaining platoon commanders are non-commissioned officers. The officer configuration of the 14th SS Ukrainian Cavalry Division is also the same, so there are not many officers in the 14th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion. In the previous battle, several officers were killed, so now it was a sergeant's turn to command the platoon-level battle group huddled in the basement.

Honorary Sergeant Pavlyuchenko is one of the two sergeants in this battle group, so he is Poroshenko's substitute. Once Poroshenko is killed, she will be the commander of the battle group. But the current Honorary Sergeant Pavlyuchenko still doesn’t know that this basement and this sturdy field building will become the place where she becomes famous.

While the remnants of the 17th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion retreated to the No. 13 collective farm headquarters building, the 5th Tank Destroyer Brigade and the 108th Mechanized Infantry Brigade under the 5th Mechanized Corps of the Soviet Red Army also retreated to No. 13 Collective. The farm is fortified.

Although the field building has not yet been captured, this collective farm living area, which can accommodate thousands of residents, is still an area of ​​great defensive value. For the convenience of living, working and construction, the living area of ​​Collective Farm No. 13 is located next to the highway. There is also a river dozens of meters wide and a large forest nearby, which are all favorable terrains that can be relied upon. Surrounding the farm living area and a large forest nearby are endless stretches of farmland, scattered small woods and warehouse buildings belonging to collective farms. It is really the most ideal battlefield for a tank battle!