Chapter 1162 The most important day

Political Commissar Petrov is responsible for the political and ideological education of the army, and the entire brigade political worker team is led by Political Commissar Petrov. The entire Stalin Guards 1st Heavy Tank Brigade was tempered into a tenacious team with firm faith and unyielding will.

Malashenko has reason to believe that there will be no soldiers in his army who want to survive. This is a heroic team with the name of the supreme leader of the Soviet Union. Every soldier, commander and fighter who can join is either a recruit. The outstanding ones among them are either experienced veterans who are good at fighting in their respective original units.

And when all this was supported by the political and ideological education of Commissar Petrov, a unit that was able to face difficulties at all times was born. The perseverance and indomitable will to fight, and the spirit of being ready to fight the enemy to the death are the most basic guarantees for Malashenko to dare to face any powerful opponent.

Although it may sound pessimistic, at this point in the battle, both Commissar Petrov and Lavrinenko understood that Malashenko was just discussing the matter and preparing for the worst in advance. That's all.

Political Commissar Petrov, who looked a little heavier than before, was about to say something. The Communications Director, who had been sticking to his post not far away, suddenly ran over in a hurry with a telegram in his hand.

"Comrade Brigade Commander, Comrade Political Commissar, urgent call from the Front Army Headquarters!"

When Malashenko, who had his head lowered and his hands pressed on the table, heard this, he immediately raised his head with energy, as if the unknown content recorded in the telegram indicated the hope of redemption.

"Give me the telegram!"

Malashenko stood up and immediately stretched out his hand. Naturally, the communications director who was on standby did not dare to neglect at all, and immediately stepped forward and handed the thing in his hand to Malashenko's hand.

Malashenko grabbed the telegram and immediately began to read it quickly. Lavrinenko on the side couldn't help but came over immediately. Even the usually calm political commissar Petrov came over and read it together. .

There was not much recorded on the telegram, only a few short lines of handwriting.

The general meaning is that the support troops coming from multiple directions have approached the Prokhorovka war zone and are currently increasing their emergency march towards the place where Malashenko is surrounded. Some of the successful breakout troops who jumped out of their pockets before the enemy encirclement was completed are currently undergoing unified reorganization, preparing to integrate with the reinforcements to form a new powerful breakthrough force.

In short, the content recorded in the first half of the telegram is to tell Malashenko not to give up. Reinforcements will arrive soon. He only needs to hold on until the sun rises tomorrow, and comrades may come to the rescue at any time. hope.

As for the air support that Malashenko always thinks about and never forgets, the answer to the question of why not a single plane appeared throughout the whole day was also given in the telegram.

Known as the German God of War, Manstein's cards are quite impressive! This man with great powers mobilized more than half of the 52nd Fighter Wing, the most elite fighter unit in the entire German Air Force, to rush to support Prokhorovka and ensure a sure victory for air supremacy in the theater.

The battle for air supremacy between the only two fighter aviation divisions in Vatutin's hands and the 52nd Fighter Wing lasted for a whole day.

The Soviet fighter aviation units deployed in full force fought fiercely with the proud Germans of the 52nd Fighter Wing, refusing to give in to each other.

When the battle in the sky was at its most intense, ground troops even reported that a dozen fighter planes were smoking or burning in the sky at the same time, but most of them were Soviet fighter planes.

When there is no generational difference in equipment quality between the two sides and they are basically at the same level, the superb air combat skills of the 52nd Fighter Wing are obviously slightly superior. Various two-aircraft formations and three-aircraft cover dog fighting formations were used with great proficiency and skill.

Fighting against such a powerful opponent caused the Soviet fighter aviation units to pay heavy casualties, but the intermittent air battles of different sizes and scales still continued into the evening and dusk, until both sides were unable to continue fighting due to limited vision. At this time, it was finally considered that they all stopped, and everyone paid their money and returned to the airport.

Therefore, even if the battle lasted for a whole day, in the key node theater of Prokhorovka, local air superiority in the theater was still controlled by the German Air Force.

Everyone knows that the German Air Force, which has insufficient stamina, will find it difficult to maintain such local air supremacy for much longer.

Support from the Soviet fighter aviation units continued to arrive like a tide, but the German Air Force, which had already begun to fight on two fronts in the east and west, had already begun to consider how to withstand the powerful Allied air power in Western Europe.

Under the circumstances, even the most elite 52nd Fighter Wing of the German Air Force cannot guarantee that tomorrow's battle for air supremacy will continue to be as reliable as it is today.

To put it bluntly, when the sun sets tomorrow, it will be hard to say whether the thing flying in the sky will be an iron cross or a red five-pointed star.

The situation where the Soviet army regained air supremacy with a backhand will be a terrible situation that cannot be ignored for the German army in Prokhorovka. Coupled with the fact that Soviet ground support troops are arriving in a steady stream, a change in strategic defense will be foreseeable in a short period of time.

But before that, the SS troops fighting in Prokhorovka still had to solve a key and difficult problem: eating the Soviet troops that had been trapped in the encirclement. Only in this way can they free up their hands to resist The Soviet army's second offensive turned from defense to offense, and finally realized the entire strategic intention and achieved the predetermined tactical objectives.

The impatient Vatutin was anxiously urging the troops to march quickly. On the other side, Manstein, who also realized that the winner would only come within one day tomorrow, was also racing against time in his headquarters.

"There is no need to urge Holt anymore. He has put all his chips on the table now! Contact Hauser directly. His Second Armored Army must make a quick decision tomorrow morning! We have enough intelligence to prove that the prisoner is The Russians in their pockets only have less than three defeated divisions left, and their actual strength may not even be half of their apparent numbers!”

"His Second Armored Corps has three of the most powerful and reinforced Waffen SS armored divisions, including the Führer's standard guard! Eat up the enemy in his pocket, and then immediately turn his guns to deal with subsequent attacks. Death of the Russians!”

"I have a hunch that tomorrow's battle will be the most important day that determines the entire southern Kursk campaign! We must go all out, and the Russians will too. Only the one who persists until the end is the final winner!"