Due to De San's strategic arrangement, the frontal defense was not strong. Therefore, when Mao Xiong's attack was launched, they quickly and smoothly broke through De San's defense.
The victory at the front line did not arouse Mao Xiong's suspicion or vigilance. In the eyes of Mao Xiong's high-ranking general, such a victory was naturally taken for granted!
After all, they had been preparing for this battle for a long time, and they had even launched such a fierce artillery attack on the enemy's position before launching the attack. The German three could not withstand their artillery attack and had to give up their position in a sorry state. Wasn't this expected?
Therefore, Mao Xiong did not suspect anything and crossed the Pena River in front of the battlefield of Kursk.
At 11 AM, most of the 2nd Tank Army had successfully crossed the Pena River.
Perhaps it was because they were prepared, or perhaps it was because their morale was high, or perhaps it was both.
In short, Mao Xiong's performance was surprising. Their soldiers took great risks and fought against the possible counterattack of German artillery. They worked hard to build dozens of pontoon bridges on the Pena River. Among them, eight were steel bridges that could support tanks across the river.
With the excellent performance of Mao Xiong's logistics team, the morale of the soldiers in the central army was also high. After crossing the Pena River, they planned to charge straight into the center of Hans 'army. Mao Xiong's target was Kuer SK.
The commander of the Second Tank Army, Lieutenant General Romanenko, even issued a call to the troops. After taking down Kulsk, he would have lunch at Kulsk!
Therefore, the soldiers of the Second Tank Army were encouraged. Their morale soared. Everyone bravely advanced and pushed their tanks to the maximum speed!
They rarely encountered any obstacles along the way. The few bunkers and fortresses that caused trouble for them did not slow down their attack.
Mao Xiong directly bypassed the bunkers and fortresses equipped with anti-tank cannons, leaving them to the infantry behind him to deal with. They pushed their speed to the limit and really arrived at the city of Kursk at around 11:50!
However, the bear's good luck ended here!
Hans had already prepared Mao Xiong's armored group to charge forward, so on the main battlefield of Kursk, they had set up three large minefields in advance. These minefields included anti-personnel mines, anti-tank mines, and many other mines.
This kind of mixed mine posed a big threat to Mao Xiong's armored soldiers. After all, anti-tank mines were cleared by engineers. Anti-tank mines generally would not be detonated by non-armored targets, so as long as the location was confirmed, clearing the mines was very simple.
However, Hans was too wicked. He had actually scattered a lot of anti-personnel mines in the minefield. Moreover, the placement of these anti-personnel mines was extremely random and had no pattern at all.
The soldiers could see the exposed mines from afar. It was as if they had been casually thrown on the ground!
However, when the engineer went to clear the mine, he did not expect that there was a hidden mine buried in front of him. The engineer's attention was completely attracted by the exposed mine on the surface and did not realize that there was another mine in front of him. After all, who would plant two mines at such a close distance? Wasn't it too wasteful?
In the end, Hans wasted it just like that, and the effect was indeed outstanding!
Nearly half of the first batch of engineers sent out to clear the mines had been lost. This made the engineers behind them more cautious, and the speed of clearing the mines had also slowed down.
What was even more embarrassing was that the tanks were moving too fast, so the tanks at the front didn't have time to brake when they found the minefield.
As a result, more than 50 tanks plunged into the minefield. After more than a dozen tanks were blown away on the spot, the remaining tanks were terrified!
They quickly turned the steering wheel and planned to retreat. However, on the way back, they accidentally hit a mine and blew up more than ten tanks!
When the remaining tanks were safely withdrawn, the bear-like soldiers counted and realized that they had already lost 36 tanks!
Compared to the 6,000 tanks Mao Xiong had gathered on the Kulsk battlefield, 36 tanks were not worth mentioning.
But for the 2nd Tank Army, they lost 36 tanks, which was almost the loss of an entire tank battalion!
They hadn't even encountered the enemy, but they had already lost a tank battalion. Everyone felt that this wasn't a good sign.
As a result, the morale of the 2nd Tank Army had dropped significantly.
When they finally figured out the scope of the minefield, they carefully bypassed the minefield and continued to move forward.
It was already three in the afternoon!
It had been ten hours since they had breakfast at five in the morning!
At this moment, the furry bear soldier only felt his stomach rumbling. He was almost starving to the point that his chest was touching his back!
Previously, they had been too excited or too excited, so they had not realized this. However, now that they had safely avoided the minefield and relaxed, they immediately noticed it!
What should he do now?
He couldn't possibly let the soldiers attack Kursk on an empty stomach, right?
Lieutenant General Romanenko had no choice but to order the attack to be postponed and let the soldiers eat first!
Just as Mao Xiong stopped his advance and hid in the tank to eat, Hans's sixth army and the sixteenth army that was originally stationed in Kulsk were already on standby and ready to face the enemy!
However, the first to engage Mao Xiong was not these two troops, but the Hans Armored Division, which had entered from the northwest!
This was Hans '72nd Armored Division, which was led by Gordian's 18th Armored Corps.
The appearance of this armored division was beyond Mao Xiong's expectations. Why would the enemy come out from behind them?
It also inadvertently opened the prelude to the large-scale tank battle between the two sides since the outbreak of the Battle of Kursk!
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。