BXBX NOVEL Chapter 312: Strategy
The German army angrily launched a burst of artillery bombardment on possible pocket positions.
But this is really useful. Two T34s were hit and destroyed by enemy artillery fire, and another one was blown up and buried in the snow... The tank crew was fine and rescued soon. The snow buried the exhaust pipe and quickly turned into water, and then poured back into the engine, making it paralyzed in place and unable to move.
Major General Funk reported to Hult tremblingly.
"General!" Funke said, "Our attack has failed!"
This surprised Holt very much.
"Failure? I heard you right!" Holt said, "What else can they do to stop you?"
"Tanks, General!" Funk replied: "I think it's the 4th Tank Brigade!"
"Are you sure?" Holt asked.
"No, I'm not sure!" Funke said: "But they are all T34, at least dozens of them, we broke into their ambush!"
"Ambush circle?"
"Yes, they put the tanks in the tank bunkers!" Funke explained: "Our air force can't even find them, and we lose a lot because of it!"
Huot did not respond to this. He knew that it was meaningless and unfair to blame his general after losing the battle.
Saying it doesn't make sense is because it won't do anything, much less likely to turn the tables and possibly worse.
It's unfair because even if you are in command at the front line, you will probably make the same decision and fall into the enemy's trap.
After being silent for a while, Huot hung up the phone. After looking at the map for a while, he immediately made a call to the headquarters of the 14th Motorized Infantry Division.
"Attack immediately, the right wing of the enemy's 1075 regiment!"
"Yes, the sooner the better!"
So the battle in the other direction soon started, and the artillery shells poured into the 1075th regiment's position in pieces. The Luftwaffe also turned to that direction, while the battlefield in the direction of the 333rd regiment became quiet.
Shuerka secretly said that something was wrong. The reaction and speed of the German army were completely beyond his expectation.
The German army's style of play is very clever.
There is only one fourth tank brigade of the Soviet army, and it is determined to ambush on the left flank of the 1075 regiment. Although the German army has just suffered a big loss here, at least the location of the fourth tank brigade has been determined.
In addition, the German army knew that there were not many tanks in the Fourth Tank Brigade, so they determined that other directions were safe.
In this way, the 4th Tank Brigade can only watch the Germans attack in other directions and cannot provide reinforcements... Reinforcements may mean exposure. Can't hide T34 anymore.
Sure enough, the order came down soon: "The first battalion reinforces Duboshekovo!"
Dubosekovo is the right wing of the 1075 regiment.
"Are the tanks coming for reinforcements?" Shulka asked.
"No!" Venyakov replied: "Only us!"
There is no need to say more about the reason. The tank can only stay in place, and any movement may be blown up by the enemy planes.
Since they know that their transfer will be blown up, of course no one would be stupid enough to insist on doing so.
But this also means... the 1st Battalion has to face the enemy's attack without tanks.
Dubosekovo is the junction of the defense zone of the 3rd Cavalry Army and the defense zone of the 1075th regiment.
Obviously, this joint is more complicated than the joint between the two regiments, because it even involves the command of another army, which will also involve the issue of artillery coordination... For example, the 1075th regiment launched a counterattack, and the 3rd army But it provided the front line with artillery fire to stop shooting, so that the shells hit their own heads as soon as they exploded.
When the first battalion arrived here, the battle had been going on for more than half an hour.
At this time, it happened to be a gap between the German army's offensive, so the troops entered the position smoothly.
There were dead bodies lying everywhere in the trenches, including Germans and Soviets. Obviously, the Germans had rushed into the trenches to start hand-to-hand combat with the Soviets.
"Who is in command here?" Venyakov asked loudly.
A second lieutenant with a dark face stood up: "Comrade Captain, I am in command!"
"How many of you are there?" Venyakov asked.
"73 more!"
"What anti-tank equipment is there?" Venyakov asked again.
"Anti-tank guns, grenades..."
Venyakov's expression darkened as soon as he heard the beginning.
When reporting equipment, the most powerful ones are usually ranked from the least powerful ones, but now the anti-tank guns are actually ranked first!
Just as he was talking, the whistle of shells rang out above his head.
As soon as Shuerka buried his head in the trench, the shells "rumbling" exploded around him, and the soil and snow water stirred up by the shells rushed over Shuerka's head like waves.
Ten minutes of preparation for the artillery fire. Before the sound of the artillery stopped, the tanks followed the artillery fire and "rumbled" forward.
This is a tactic of the German army... when the artillery fire extends in depth, the tanks follow closely behind.
This is easy to say, but it requires close coordination between artillery and tank soldiers, because any mistakes, such as inaccurate artillery fire or too fast tanks, may cause artillery fire to accidentally injure your own tanks.
The advantage is that it may enter the enemy's position before the enemy reacts from the artillery fire.
This is the case this time.
"Ready to fight!" shouted Shulka.
But amidst the cannonade, he couldn't even hear the shout.
However, seeing that Shulka had set up a gun on the trench, the soldiers also set up rifles and machine guns on the trench one by one.
There are more than 20 tanks, seven or eight of which are "No. 3" tanks, and the rest are "No. 2" and "35T".
After all, this is a motorized division, and they are more equipped with light tanks.
"Anti-tank rifles!" Under Venyakov's order, a dozen anti-tank rifles were put on the trenches.
But putting anti-tank rifles in the trenches so early seems unwise.
One of the shortcomings of the anti-tank rifle is that the gun frame is too high, and because the gun body is more than two meters long, it is like a cannon in front of the trench, and it will be observed by the enemy from a long distance.
So the machine gun bullets quickly poured over and knocked down several anti-tank riflemen on the trench.
But this seems to be impossible, because the enemy tanks following the artillery fire are only more than 300 meters away from the Soviet defense line... The distance of more than 300 meters may only take a minute for a fast 35T tank.
"Mortar!" Captain Venyakov shouted.
The soldiers immediately fired mortar shells at the enemy's position.
The mortars provided good cover for the anti-tank guns, and there were even a few smoke rounds, but they certainly couldn't stop the tanks from advancing.
A tough battle is inevitable.
(end of this chapter)