Chapter 516: The Encirclement of Kiev

“What? No way! How many people did you say they captured? Workers? That many workers? Explain it to me in detail!… Yes! In detail!” Guderian shouted into his phone, hardly believing his ears. The person on the other end reporting the victory was clearly also very excited and, after talking for a long time, had only been celebrating, which made Guderian even more confused.

Finally, the excited Division Commander Frick on the other end of the line had celebrated enough and explained the matter clearly. “General, the unit led by Rein fought an extremely brutal blocking action near the small town of Y107. They captured 400 Red Army soldiers and also captured 5,000 skilled workers who were evacuating from Kiev, along with their production equipment. Over a hundred trucks! Apart from the ones destroyed by the air strike, they are all ours now!”

Now Guderian understood. It turned out that the Soviet convoy moving the factories had been blocked by the unit led by Rein. This Rein was truly a lucky bastard whose luck defied the heavens. He seemed to run into all the good things. With such a huge victory this time, this fellow would probably get at least a pair of Swords for his Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross. Just thinking about it made him envious; he, an army group commander, didn’t even have one yet.

This meant that they had completely encircled the retreat route of the Soviet forces, wrapping up the hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers in Ukraine like dumplings. Guderian looked up at the map, narrowed his eyes, and carefully analyzed the likely positions of both sides.

These Soviet units lacked heavy equipment like tanks, because most of that equipment had been abandoned in Poland. In the nearly one month since the war had begun, the German army had destroyed or captured no less than 6,000 Soviet tanks, which was more than the total number of the German armored forces on the Eastern Front.

Of course, most of these tanks were the obsolete BT and T-26 models, and many were also broken-down tanks that had been voluntarily abandoned by the Soviets. More than half of the captured number was just padding their own statistics, a bit of a self-boast. What was there to show off about capturing a T-26 with a Tiger tank? Have you no shame?

In this huge encirclement, including the Russian units, there were at least 400,000 regular troops. If you counted the hastily mobilized units, nearly 600,000 Red Army soldiers had nowhere to run. The counter-attack plan prepared by the Soviets had been shattered by the lightning-fast Guderian before it had even begun. The supreme commander of these encircled Soviet forces, Timoshenko, was still in the north and had not yet reached the Kiev front! And Kiev itself was already completely surrounded by the German army.

Guderian stood up, pressed his hand on the map hanging on the wall, and carefully looked at every village and every town. These places were now more or less in the bag for the German army. According to the plan, as long as they annihilated these forces, the Soviet Union would have little choice but to accept Germany’s peace treaty.

At that time, the only one unwilling to accept peace talks, Britain, would have been beaten to a pulp. And that was a naval contest, which would not arouse the resistance of the domestic population. Germany would enter a relatively stable period of development. First, they would beat their plowshares into swords and conquer the world, and then they would beat their swords into plowshares and let their warhorses graze on the southern mountains, welcoming peace. This was truly the most glorious era for a general.

Who truly wishes for a general to die in a hundred battles? Who truly wishes to return home wrapped in a horse’s hide? The generals who shouted such tragic slogans were simply in a dark environment with no end in sight. If they could truly achieve success and fame, be remembered and praised by the entire nation for their glorious achievements, who wouldn’t want to command a million men and swallow mountains and rivers?

Guderian felt it was all worth it. He looked at the Soviet towns being conquered by him one by one and felt that his life had been worthwhile. If not for Akado’s recognition and promotion, his theories on armored warfare might still be a pitiful file on paper. If not for Akado’s promotion, he would at most be a pitiful colonel or major general now. Perhaps he would be thinking every day about how to resist the provocations and insults of foreign armies. How could he have the opportunity to command hundreds of thousands of men and fight a decisive battle with the enemy on the vast land of an enemy country?

Twenty years, twenty years to sharpen a sword! Germany had emerged from the shadow of its defeat in 1919 and, in twenty years, had swept through Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, France, and Britain, and was now standing on the Ukrainian plains for a life-or-death struggle with the Soviet Union. To vie for supremacy of the world was no longer a dream. The Führer had given him this grand stage; how could he not repay the Führer with a hundred victories in a hundred battles?

“Heil Führer!” an officer said, walking to the door. He knocked and interrupted Guderian’s reverie. He was here to deliver a document, the latest intelligence from the front.

“The next time you knock and enter, you must shout the Führer’s name. Don’t be so casual,” Guderian reminded his subordinate for the first time. “Our victory is due to the Führer’s wisdom and greatness. To be able to win a hundred battles is not only due to our own efforts, but also because we are standing on the shoulders of this giant, the Führer.”

The officer, hearing this, knew that his superior had probably been inspired by this victory, so he immediately stood at attention and saluted. “Long live the Führer, Akado Rudolph!” he shouted, his voice loud and full of passion. Guderian was extremely satisfied.

So this general, who had just been marveling at the Führer’s greatness, asked his subordinate, who was standing at attention, “What is it?”

“General Keitel has sent a telegram. His advance units have successfully linked up with our 1st Panzer Division. Kiev is now completely surrounded,” the officer replied immediately. “The infantry coming up from the rear are strengthening the defenses on our flanks to prevent the enemy from breaking out.”

This was clearly another piece of good news. Guderian smiled and nodded. “Call the logistics department. See if they can send some more supplies down. Let the soldiers also celebrate the victory!”

“Yes, sir!” the officer replied, standing at attention.

“Oh! Right! Draw up a promotion plan. Promote Lieutenant Rein Hardt to Captain, to continue as the commander of tank 113. His position will not change,” Guderian continued. “Report Rein’s achievements this time and apply for the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords for him!”

The officer was surprised for a moment, then nodded. This was naturally something everyone was concerned about. Whichever unit produced such a superhero first was a great honor for that unit.

Moreover, the 502nd Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion was an absolute ace unit. Nearly two-thirds of the tank commanders in this unit had their own Iron Crosses. If these commanders were to be lined up, young, handsome, and heroic, a group photo of them would probably make girls scream even more crazily than a photo of the Italian national football team.

Of course, screaming crazily was one thing; taking it a step further was another. After all, you can’t imagine how thick the thighs of an Italian football star are, nor can you imagine how strong the smell of engine oil on a German panzer crewman is. But this did not in the slightest affect how dashingly handsome they looked in black and white photographs.

Subsequently, Guderian’s staff began to make phone calls to the railway transport department, hoping to prepare a train to transport the 5,000 Ukrainian skilled workers and the corresponding technical equipment to Warsaw, Poland. And they also had to find a place to accommodate these truly “strategic resources.”

Under the command of Guderian and Keitel, the German soldiers of Army Group G and Army Group E quickly completed the task of strengthening the encirclement. The hope of the Soviet troops to break out became more and more slim. Timoshenko, who had not yet arrived at the front to take over command, had become a lone commander without an army. Even if he had world-class talent, he had no way to save his men.

Timoshenko, who had originally wanted to fight a decisive battle with Guderian and Keitel, was now reduced to gathering routed troops, improving defensive lines, and asking Khrushchev and Marshal Voroshilov for men and guns—the work of a logistics officer. He could only watch helplessly as the 600,000-strong army in the Kiev encirclement had no way to go to heaven and no door to enter the earth.

What was even more tragic was that he also had to pray that the German army would not take the opportunity to launch an attack on Moscow, because the troops he had on hand were no longer sufficient to stop the German army. His forces were too small, and his defensive line was too long.

At the same time, in the Soviet capital of Moscow, Stalin was furious over the fall of the Kiev industrial region. The cooperation with Germany back then had allowed the Soviet industry to take off, but it had also laid the groundwork for all sorts of problems now.

A large number of industrial areas had been established in the regions close to Europe. These areas were now either occupied by the rapidly advancing German army or had been surrounded. The industrial equipment that the Soviet Union had spent a great deal of money on back then was now all being returned to its original owner.

A large part of the railways and highways in the region of the Soviet Union near Poland had been built with German aid. They also followed German design standards, using the standard European railway gauge and number of sleepers. This allowed German trains to drive straight in, transporting the strategic materials that the German army urgently needed without any obstruction.

Now, all these problems needed to be solved by the Soviet leader, Stalin—including how to get the near-collapsed industrial system back into production, how to stop the ever-victorious German army, how to stabilize the border defenses, and how to stabilize his own precarious rule in Moscow.

It seemed that the rash attack on Germany and the rash rejection of peace talks were indeed not very wise decisions. Stalin narrowed his eyes and sighed, then called his secretary. “Go and find the German special envoy. I want to have lunch with him! Arrange it quickly!”

“Yes, sir!” Stalin’s secretary quickly nodded, then respectfully withdrew. With the war at the front going badly, he was afraid that Stalin would really vent his anger on him.

Published: 2025-09-01T04:04:55.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-12-08T19:01:40.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c516-of-kiev-137832389

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