Chapter 551: tank wreck
In fact, the German army had already started artillery preparations before the sky was dark.
Lieutenant Colonel Edmund was so anxious because he thought that the daytime belonged to the Germans, and they should make full use of every minute and every second of the daytime.
"Last time we almost occupied the entire Mamayev Hill!" Lieutenant Colonel Edmund said, "It was almost the last line of defense. This time, as long as we seize the time, we can completely occupy it. As for keeping our weaknesses exposed to the enemy!"
The weakness Lieutenant Colonel Edmond mentioned refers to the two wings of Mamayev Gang.
Since the Soviet army's raid last night, Lieutenant Colonel Edmund realized the problem of the two flanks of defense.
But sometimes it's one thing to know about a problem and quite another to be able to fix it.
For example, the problems on the two wings of Mamayev Gang cannot be solved.
To be precise, if the enemy is still occupying a part of Mamayev Hill on the reverse slope, the weaknesses of the German army's two wings will always be weaknesses.
The reason is very simple, just as the frontal **** of the Soviet army is always exposed to the artillery fire and direct fire of the German army. Since the "Red October" new village and the urban area on both sides of Mamayev Hill are under the control of the Soviet army, its two wings Even the positive **** will be under the guns of the Soviet army at night.
This is a bit like "Feng Shui turns around". The advantages and disadvantages of the Soviet and German armies on Mamayev Post are in turn with the change of day and night.
The pros and cons of this time can be said to be half and half. To be precise, the German army is more dominant... Time entered April, and the daylight hours were extended to 13 hours.
(Note: The longest daytime near Moscow is July, which lasts 17 hours and 26 minutes, that is, only six and a half hours are nights)
But these times are still very difficult for the German army to take the entire Mamayev Gang.
What makes Lieutenant Colonel Edmund helpless is that once they fail to seize control of the entire Mamayev Hill, the fiasco of last night will happen again, that is, Mamayev Hill will repeat the past again and again What happened... During the day, the German army had the upper hand to attack the reverse slope, and at night, the Soviet army took the upper hand and then they took it back.
So Lieutenant Colonel Edmund decided to race against time.
He made all the preparations for the attack at dawn, the artillery prepared three basic ammunition, a tank battalion and an assault artillery battalion came up from the rear, and five infantry companies were added, and even the air force was ready to take off .
Then the first thing to do was to use artillery fire to blast the slope, and then the infantry attacked under the cover of tanks and assault guns.
This time, the German attack on the positive **** was unexpectedly easy.
The obstacles in front of them are mostly barbed wire and landmines, in addition to a few snipers on the top of the hill.
"This is a good sign!" Lieutenant Colonel Edmond said: "We have more time to attack the reverse slope, and the end of the Russians is here!"
Immediately afterwards, there was another fierce battle for the hilltop position, and everything seemed to be repeating the steps of yesterday... Sometimes the battle is so boring, repeatedly fighting for the same position, even though this position may only be a few hundred square meters, every inch of its land is occupied. The shells have been plowed deeply, and every step has a dead body or blood.
But in the end, the German army gnawed down the hilltop position abruptly under the cover of air power and smoke bombs.
The German officers and soldiers, including Edmund, thought that the next battle would be easy.
Of course the German army would not think that the Soviet army would keep those tank wreckages to facilitate their charge, but they could still use tanks and assault guns to build new bunkers.
But the truth is not what they thought.
The Soviet army kept the wreckage of the tanks, but the wreckage of the tanks had become part of the Soviet defense line in front of them.
At that moment, the German frontline commander was even terrified. Instead of ordering a charge, he called Lieutenant Colonel Edmond to report immediately.
"Lieutenant Colonel, they have reinforced the line of defense!"
"Is there any problem?" Lieutenant Colonel Edmund was puzzled for a while, isn't it a matter of course to strengthen the defense line? Would the enemy do nothing and wait for him to attack? !
"No, no, Lieutenant Colonel!" Major Erich replied, "They reinforced the line with wrecked tanks, and they are standing in front of us! I mean a steel line..."
Lieutenant Colonel Edmund couldn't help being stunned when he heard this.
A steel line of defense, a line of defense built from tank wreckage, and it's still their tank wreckage.
Lieutenant Colonel Edmund knew what this meant, because the Germans had used tank wreckage as bunkers not long ago.
Such as tanks or assault guns, tank wreckage is more advantageous in some aspects as a cover.
The German army lacked anti-tank equipment.
They don't have the Soviet bazooka... This is an individual anti-tank and anti-armor weapon, especially on complex terrain.
So the Germans had only a few options for dealing with these tank wrecks:
Anti-Tank Grenades, Air Force, Anti-Tank Guns.
But neither option is suitable.
Anti-tank grenades need to be close, which will definitely pay heavy casualties.
The air force, because the enemy is constantly burning waste tires, has no clear vision, otherwise the reconnaissance plane would have sent an alarm.
Anti-tank gun, which means that the Germans are going to push it up Mamayev hill.
Let’s not say that this is difficult to do, even if it is done, it is easy to become the target of the enemy’s attack by placing the anti-tank on the top of the mountain.
on the other hand.
Tanks or assault guns often burn or even explode when hit by shells, fuel, etc. Therefore, anti-tank guns are more effective against tanks and assault guns.
But the wreckage of the tank...it's actually a pile of scrap metal, and the infantry hiding in it are also infantry instead of tank soldiers.
So even if the anti-tank gun pierces the wreckage of the tank, it is nothing more than killing a few infantry and adding a perforation or observation hole for the opponent.
From this point of view, the survivability of fortifications built with tank wreckage is even much stronger than that of tanks, unless assault guns can be used to bombard their perforations at close range, or they can be blown up with explosives.
But the Germans didn't seem to have any choice, they could only choose to attack.
So Edmund no longer hesitated, he ordered Major Erich: "Attack, Major! It's just a tank wreck. You have much more than them, and they can still move!"
Major Erich looked in the direction of the positive slope, where several assault guns were waiting for an attack order.
They are indeed tank wrecks, moving tank wrecks.
But Major Erich didn't think these moving tank wrecks would be of much use in this case.
(end of this chapter)