For Ponomarenko, he once thought that the attack he planned had failed miserably. Unexpectedly, with Belekov's intervention, the misfortune turned into a great victory. Judging from the intelligence collected so far, the Romanian division suffered heavy losses.
It's true, there was a big chaos in Chernihiv, and three German divisions reinforced the German 634th Division stationed in Chernihiv.
But is the so-called "Flying Fish rockets bombarding the city" true? After this battle, the Soviet army fighting behind enemy lines defeated a Romanian army division, pinned down four German army divisions, and eliminated a large number of puppet troops. This was indeed a great battle.
Win!
Ponomarenko made the decision that the issue of rocket launchers should be suppressed for the time being. At this time, he had to personally contact Berekov, Salinchkin and others. In the document of "Phase Report on the Guerrilla Movement" handed to Stalin himself
, the series of battles that took place around Chernihiv from May 5th to May 21st were the best answers he delivered!
The documents were delivered to the Kremlin early in the morning on May 23. On that day, a large number of documents were piled on Stalin's desk.
In the past few days, Stalin was most concerned about the outcome of the Kharkov Offensive Battle, because in this battle, he took into account the international situation and urged the Soviet army in the south to launch this massive battle. Before the battle, some senior generals expressed their concerns about
This battle showed his pessimistic attitude, especially Timoshenko, who was the commander of the Southwest Front at the time, even believed that the hasty offensive troops might fail.
At that time, he denounced angrily: "Don't you think about the international reputation of the Soviet Union? As we all know, the only one that is resisting Germany with all its strength is the Soviet Union! We must declare our attitude to the world. You must attack resolutely. Victory belongs to us.
of!"
In the first half of 1942, the three great sects of Germany, Italy and Japan were blooming all over the world!
Although the German army's offensive in the Soviet Union suffered a slight setback, their front line was basically stable along the Leningrad-Vyazma-Donbas Basin. The German Afrika Korps and the Italian Army achieved great results in North Africa. The British Army and the Free French Army
The morale of the hundreds of thousands of colonial troops was low, and a large number of soldiers were taken prisoner.
In the Pacific, Japan reached the pinnacle of its national destiny. After attacking Pearl Harbor, they logically occupied the vast Southeast Asia region.
In order to attack Australia, Japan must first occupy Port Moresby in New Guinea. When the combined fleet rushed to the port, it encountered the U.S. Navy.
Just as it was supposed to happen, the Battle of the Coral Sea broke out in early May. This was also the first battle between the Japanese and American naval aircraft carrier forces.
Perhaps it was the butterfly effect brought about by the presence of Yang Mingzhi. Although the result of this battle was that the United States won, the process changed.
As a result of the battle, the Auspicious Twin Cranes were sunk one after another. The sinking of these two standard aircraft carriers launched after the treaty era in the Five Air Battles immediately failed the Japanese plan to occupy Port Moresby, and the fleet had to return.
On the American side, Lexington was sunk and York City was severely damaged. The U.S. military tried its best to control the damage but was still unable to prevent Lexington from sinking. Fortunately, they were able to save York City.
Fletcher, the commander of the U.S. Navy, vowed to annihilate all Japanese aircraft carriers that participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor. In that dimension, his troops only sank Zuikaku in this encounter, and Shoukaku fled after being destroyed.
In this plane, perhaps due to luck, all the auspicious cranes were sunk. This was also a truly huge military and spiritual victory achieved by the US Navy after the Doolittle air raid!
All the allies in the anti-fascist alliance needed good news of victory. Undoubtedly, this good news deeply stimulated Stalin and a number of senior Soviet officers.
Objectively speaking, the U.S. military's victory in the Coral Sea Battle stimulated Stalin's determination to launch a counterattack in Kharkov. The Soviet Union also needed a big victory to show other countries that its strong strength still existed. What's more, the Soviet Union's momentum this year is very good
, all fronts have been counterattacking for half a year, and he has great confidence in victory. As for the possibility of failure, he has never thought about it.
He is not a frontline commander, however, he is somewhat confident in commanding the military.
Especially after the battle started on the 19th, he received one good news after another. The Soviet Red Army had the momentum to completely defeat the German Army Group South. It seemed that the entire left bank of Ukraine would be liberated in a short time.
.
Stalin was in a very good mood. However, his good mood ended on May 23!
He already knew that the Soviet army had to take a defensive position on May 22. At that time, he urgently ordered Timoshenko to stabilize the current direction and capture the city of Kharkov.
Since then, under the influence of the ominous premonition, Stalin had an uneasy sleep that night. After sleeping, he never expected that the situation would change dramatically.
It is said that soldiers are very fast. The Kleist Armored Group went against the normal pattern of German attacks. They actually launched an attack in the dark of night. Hundreds of tanks and tens of thousands of infantry coordinated with infantry and tanks to attack Balvinko.
The bridgehead city on the river, Pavlovsk, launched a fierce attack, and more than a hundred Stukas also took the risk to launch an attack at night.
After all, it was a quite clear night, the Barvinko River was glowing under the moonlight, and the few searchlights that were not extinguished by the Soviet troops in the city became reference targets for the Luftwaffe.
Bombs fell like raindrops, and the city burst into flames! The German army looked at the bright red sky in the north, and tens of thousands of people began to attack.
The Soviet troops guarding here are all withdrawn troops. They suffered heavy losses on the front line, so they had to defend in the rear and rest and reorganize at the same time. This was originally given by Timoshenko to give him the current strength and to maintain the highest overall strength of the frontline troops.
quality, and made a reasonable choice. In fact, he was also very clear that the Soviet army marched from the Barvinkovo salient and now created a larger salient, which made the Soviet army's already risky flanks extremely risky.
He concluded that if the Soviet army would fail, the source of the failure would be the German army's fierce attack on the flanks.
He never expected that the German attack would be so sudden and so unreasonable.
Just at dawn, the battle to defend Pavlovsk entered a critical moment. Although the Soviet army defended desperately, they even used advanced RPGs to shoot at the enemy's Panzer IV tanks. However, this individual anti-tank weapon was no match for the enemy.
Stuka dive bomber.
Kleist was very aware of the importance of this bridgehead to the German army, so the Air Force did not hesitate to use aerial bombs to destroy the Soviet bridgehead.
The German army did not intend to engage in street fighting with the Soviet army. Their planes bombed the city indiscriminately and defeated the Soviet army's defense. When the German tanks successfully passed the bridge, the remaining resistance of the Soviet army was irrelevant.
Stalin was greatly surprised when he held the urgent message. The time of receipt was marked at five o'clock in the morning, Moscow time.
He immediately became furious: "Why? Why didn't you wake me up?! The enemy launched a counterattack early this morning, and the direction of our army has been torn apart by the enemy!"
No one dared to wake him up rashly, not even Timoshenko himself. The majesty established by Stalin made everyone fear him!
He quickly looked at his watch. It was only seven o'clock in the morning. In just a few hours, he estimated that the German army would not make any further progress.
Stalin paid close attention to the battle situation on the Kharkov front line. Nothing was more important than the intelligence of the battle situation. He simply stopped reading the other reporting documents on his desk! He hurriedly made a hotline call to the front line and directly contacted
The headquarters of the Southwest Front, whose headquarters is located in the city of Severodonesk, asked Timoshenko, whose eyes were bloodshot after a sleepless night, how his defense line was so breached!