Burning Moscow

Facing Starikov's reproach, I behaved very calmly. After he finished venting his anger, I smiled politely at him and said, "Comrade General, you are right. Tanks without infantry cover will definitely be attacked by German anti-tank guns and anti-tank fighters. the goal……"

Starikov heard what I said, snorted, and said angrily: "Since you know, why do you want our tank soldiers to die?"

Meletskov has long been accustomed to my ingenuity. He didn't show any surprised expression, but just nodded at me and motioned me to continue.

Encouraged by Meletskov, I became more confident, and the smile on my face became stronger. I said confidently: "Comrade commander of the group army, the reason why I suggest that the tank troops attack the high ground is to consider These kv heavy tanks are indestructible. Although they are slow to move, the German 50mm Pak38 anti-tank gun is of no use to these behemoths."

"Comrade Major," a strange voice suddenly rang behind me. I turned my head to see that a middle-aged colonel was standing behind me. He asked with a serious expression: "I don't know who has such a lack of military knowledge. Instilling such ridiculous common sense into you made you have the wrong idea that the German anti-tank guns can't damage our tanks. You know, in the past three days of fighting, our army was repelled by anti-tank guns. There are hundreds of T-26 and T-34 tanks.” After that, he took a step forward and reported to Meretskov: “Hello, Comrade Commander of the Front Army. Eighth Army Chief of Staff Golov Colonel Chiner reports to you. I am waiting for your orders."

Meletskov stood up. Reach out to the colonel. He asked with concern: "Colonel Golovchiner, I have been in the headquarters for so long and haven't seen you. I was about to ask General Starikov about your whereabouts, so you showed up. I said , Where did you come out of the fight?"

The colonel replied: "Report to Comrade Commander, I only came back from the offensive position on the south side of the high ground. The troops are currently resting and wait until the time is right. We will attack again."

Meretskov asked with interest: "Chief of Staff Golovchiner, how is the mood of the troops?"

The chief of staff heard the greeting from the commander of the front, shrugged, and replied: "How is it? The commanders and fighters are full of fighting enthusiasm. Although we were frustrated with several attacks on the high ground, the commanders and fighters quickly thought about it. The comrades in the Leningrad Front Army can join forces and break the siege of the city by the fascist bandits. Their morale is immediately high. As long as they are ordered by their superiors, they can go into new battles at any time."

When the two were talking. I noticed that Colonel Golovchiner’s boots were stained with mud, and the back of his military uniform was also wet. At a glance, I knew that I had just returned from the battlefield.

Meretskov said something to the chief of staff, then turned his gaze to me, and asked strangely: "Lida, why did you stop and continue talking. We are all still waiting to hear you." What a good opinion."

Because I got the support of Meletskov, the colonel next to me didn't say anything, but walked to Starikov's side, bent down and whispered something to him. As soon as he said a few words, Starikov interrupted him and said, "Comrade Chief of Staff, I will talk about these things later. Sit down and listen to what Major Oshanina said. ."

Colonel Golovchiner didn’t know where I came from. The two commanders actually helped me speak, but in this case, he was not easy to ask questions, so he sat down in Starikov with full of doubts. By your side.

After everyone was seated, I coughed gently, cleared my throat, and began to speak clearly about the brilliant achievements of the KV heavy tank: "Comrades, commanders, when I was working in the Western Front, I had seen our army's The performance of the KV heavy tank on the battlefield mentioned in the battle report and the captured German intelligence.

On the second day after the war broke out, our KV tanks and German tanks fought fiercely in Lithuania. At that time, the 2nd Tank Division with kv tanks was ordered to follow the 12th Mechanized Corps to the direction of the Dobiza River to block the German army that was advancing along the main road, Zilkite-Chavilia Avenue.

The 2nd Tank Division encountered the advancing 6th Armored Division of the German 2nd Armored Group on Chavilia Street. The commander of the Division, Major General Solia Liangchen ordered the troops to deploy on the spot, with 80 BT fast tanks lined up in battle formations. With the support of 20 kv tanks and T-34 tanks, they launched a fierce attack on the German armored forces. After a fierce battle, most of the German tanks were destroyed, and the rest had to withdraw from the battlefield in a desperate manner.

In order to allow the remaining tanks to escape smoothly, the Germans used artillery against our tank units. A 150 mm howitzer from the German army hit a KV tank of our army at a distance of 100 meters, and the tank of our army stopped immediately. Just when the German artillery was overwhelmed and ready to aim the muzzle at another tank of our army, the KV tank that was shot started again and squashed the howitzer in front of the dumbfounded German artillery, and continued to attack.

After the battle, the division counted the results. In this street battle, the 2nd Tank Division destroyed 40 German tanks and destroyed and destroyed 40 German artillery pieces of 37 mm and 105 mm or more.

In the battle report of our army, there is another more interesting phenomenon: the vast majority of kv tanks do not carry shells at all. The reason for the attack is to take advantage of the thick armor of the body and not easy to be destroyed, to specifically crush the German artillery. of. ..."

Speaking of this, although the faces of the commanders sitting at the table all showed surprised expressions, Colonel Golovchiner interrupted me unceremoniously, and he narrowed his mouth, unconvinced. Said: "Comrade Major, I know General Sorya Liangchen, the commander of the 2nd Tank Division. He is a commander with rich combat experience. He used hundreds of tanks to attack German tanks in the process of marching. Victory is not a difficult task for him. After a KV tank was shot, it also crushed the German artillery, which does not explain the problem."

Meletskov listened to his words. He smiled and said, "Colonel Golovchiner. Don't worry. Patiently listen to Major Oshanina finish. The excitement is still to come. Go on." The last sentence was addressed to me.

Seeing that everyone was listening, I continued: "Because I was rushing to rendezvous with the 12th Mechanized Army fighting in the northern part of Ras Yenia, the 2nd Tank Division left the battlefield before noon. Because of this. In the morning battle, the division almost ran out of all ammunition and fuel, and many old tanks also failed. In order to redistribute spare ammunition and fuel and carry out repairs, General Solya Ryanchin ordered the troops to march on the Dobiza River. , To find a relatively safe environment. Soon after they left, the German 6th Armored Division occupied Las Yenia and quickly built two bridgeheads on the Dobiza River. One was located in Leudwiller. The northern bridgehead, one on the far lower reaches of the Dobiza River, is defended by an armored battalion, and the troops are equipped with light tanks.

At the time, General Kuznetsov, commander of the Northwest Front Army, knew that Ras Yenia had been lost, and immediately ordered the troops to retake the city. In order to break these bridgeheads, the 2nd Tank Division prepared to counterattack. In order to cut off the connection between the German army in the city of Ras Yenia and the German army by the river, the division commander Solyya Ryanchin allocated a kv2 tank with sufficient ammunition and an infantry unit to attack.

On the afternoon of June 23, the armored battalion at the northern bridgehead assumed that our army would attack from behind them. Therefore, part of the anti-tank guns from the 41st Tank Destroyer Battalion and 105mm howitzers from the 76th Artillery Battalion were allocated to defend their southern side. At this time, Kv2 and the infantry unit intervened, cutting off the connection between the battalion and the main force. Isolate it on the side of the bridgehead.

In the early morning of June 24, the German rescue force set out from the city of Ras Yenia, attempting to join the bridgehead separated by our tanks. The Kv2 tank first destroyed 12 German trucks. It blocked the road to the two bridgeheads. At the same time, the main force of the 2nd Tank Division was in a **** battle with the Germans at the northern bridgehead. 2 The morale of the tank division rose sharply and the offensive was further strengthened. The German 6th Armored Division immediately called the neighboring ace troops-the 1st Armored Division to carry out a side attack on the Kv2 tanks blocking the road.

On the afternoon of the 24th, the 1st Armored Division sent 6 new 50mm pak38 anti-tank guns and selected gunner squads to covertly advance to the Kv2. They set up positions at a distance of 550 meters and fired violently. The Germans fired 7 rounds with a 100% hit rate. The damage is zero. Kv2 then destroyed all these 6 artillery pieces.

The Germans decided to use a larger artillery. An 88mm gun of the 298th anti-aircraft artillery battalion located in the outskirts of Las Yenia was carefully camouflaged and towed by a tractor to approach the kv2. In order not to be discovered by our army's tanks, the Germans hid behind the wreckage of the truck and moved forward slowly, but the kv2 tanker intuitively moved the turret to follow them. When approaching 900 meters, the German artillery stopped and began to set up positions. At this time, the kv2 tank, which was already ready to go, broke off and destroyed the German artillery and tractor with two consecutive artillery. Nearby German troops rushed to try to drag the wounded soldiers to a safe place, but they were knocked down one by one by the machine guns on the kv2 tank.

On the night of the 24th, the German army dispatched a task force from the 57th Armored Engineer Battalion, which was crawling through the night, and blasted the Kv2 hull with twice the usual amount of explosives. As a result, after the violent explosion, our army's kv2 tank was not destroyed. The tankers fired fiercely at the enemy with machine guns. The German army was beaten so hard to raise its head and had to climb back along the original road. After our tankers stopped firing, a German engineer quietly climbed over to confirm the effect of the explosion and found that although the explosive had broken the track, it had no effect on the armor. Before leaving, the engineer used a small explosive pack to blast the 152mm artillery of the kv2 tank, but it also had little effect.

While the German 6th Armored Division was turned around by a kv2, the German 1st Armored Division, which came to reinforce from the east, had a large-scale tank battle with the Soviet 12th Mechanized Army and the 2nd Tank Division. As the elite of the German Army, the 1st Armored Division is equipped with better No. 3 and No. 4 tanks, but it is also unable to shake the armor of the KV tanks. A soldier from the Division’s 1st Armored Regiment described: “On June 24, we encountered terrible kv1 and kv2 tanks on the road to Leningrad. We even started shooting from a distance of 800 meters. No. Up to a distance of 50 meters. Our cannonballs were still being bounced off. The kv tank does not look at us at all. Drove past us to attack the infantry. As a result, we must turn around and catch up! We won’t be able to break some of them from behind with pzgr40 tungsten core armor-piercing bullets until 30 meters away! ’

Although the commanders of our army performed very bravely, because most of our tank divisions are old bt tanks and t26 tanks, and the German 6th Armored Division is also equipped with artillery and tanks on high ground for flanking, our army will finally be in June. Lost in the evening on the 24th.

I learned from the captured German intelligence that a total of 29 kv1 and kv2 tanks in our army were destroyed, but most of them were trapped in soft and wet areas and other technical reasons. One of them was hit by more than 70 guns. Nothing runs through! The 37mm anti-tank guns of the 37th Tank Destroyer Battalion of the German 113th Panzergrenadier Regiment were all crushed. "

Hearing this, General Starikov couldn't help but interjected and asked: "Major Oshanina, I want to ask, what happened to this brilliant Kv2 tank?"

I sighed and continued with some regrets: "Because our army failed in the battle with the Germans, we had to withdraw from the battlefield. In this way, the German 6th Armored Division sent a tank platoon to attack from the bridgehead and drove to it. The lonely Kv2 was stationed at the crossroads and was hidden in the bushes. At this time, it was on the other side of the crossroads. The Germans brought another 88mm anti-aircraft gun from the city of Las Yenia, in order to disperse the tanks of our army. Attention. The German tanks lined up and kept firing at it. The 88mm gun on the front took the opportunity to get into position and hit the Kv2 tank with 6 consecutive shots. After the smoke cleared, our tanks did not burn. And those German tank soldiers thought we were our army. Their tanks were destroyed, and they jumped down to confirm the results. However, they were shocked: only 2 of the 6 88mm shells penetrated the Kv2 armor, and 7 very shallow pits were confirmed. The 50mm shells left behind, but the 37mm shells didn’t even leave a pit. Just as the Germans were inspecting and preparing to board the KV2, the tank turret began to spin! The German tank soldiers had to run with the turret to avoid being caught by me. The army’s machine gun was shot. In the end, the Kv2 turret hatch without ammunition was pried open by German engineers. The tanks in the car were all killed by the enemy's grenade."

After I finished telling the story in the post I saw in the military forum of future generations, everyone was silent. I don’t know if they regretted our army’s failure or felt sorry for the few tankers who sacrificed. .

After a long time, Meletskov asked, "After listening to Major Oshanina, what do you think?"

Starikov looked around, and then hesitated: "Comrade General, if what Major Oshanina said is true, then what she just proposed is to use KV tanks to open the way and cover the infantry forces to attack the highlands. I personally think that there is still a certain degree of feasibility for the plan." At this point, he turned his head and asked Golovchiner next to him: "What do you think? Comrade Chief of Staff."

Golovchiner thought for a while, and said with some worry: "At the moment, our KV tanks have no ammunition. Even if they rush to the German positions, they can crush the artillery, but they are still helpless for those solid fortifications. what."

Hearing that the chief of staff of the group army was worried about the tank’s lack of ammunition, Meretskov laughed. He raised his voice and said to Golovchiner: "Comrade Colonel, you don’t have to worry about the tank’s lack of ammunition. This is a problem. , We have resolved it in the discussion just now."

"The ammunition of the KV tank has been solved?" Golovchiner asked Starikov in disbelief: "Comrade Commander, is this true?"

Starikov nodded vigorously and said affirmatively: "Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff. Before you return, Major Oshanina once proposed to use the heavy howitzer shells destroyed by the Germans in our KV. On the tank."

"Is it okay to give the howitzer shells to the tank?"

"I have called the brigade commander of the tank brigade to confirm, and he said that the shells of the two are common."

After listening to Starikov’s words, Golovchiner stood up abruptly and said with some excitement: "Great, Comrade Commander, now that the tank’s ammunition problem has been solved, we will be able to renew it soon. Launch an attack on the high ground."

Meletskov smiled and asked him: "Comrade Colonel, I want to hear what plans you have?"

Golovchiner straightened his body~www.wuxiaspot.com~ and said confidently: "Comrade General, I plan to let the tanks attack first. When the tanks pass through the minefield and clear the way for the infantry, the infantry will attack again. At this time, the tank stopped at the front and used artillery to destroy the strong firepower points of the German army one by one, covering the infantry's attack on the high ground."

Hearing what he said, Meletskov said half-jokingly at him: "Comrade Colonel, are you not afraid that our tanks will stop at the forefront and be targeted by German anti-tank guns and anti-tank fighters?"

Golovchiner laughed embarrassedly, then straightened his body again, and asked Meletkov seriously: "Comrade General, allow me to go to the front to command this attack?"

Meretskov glanced at Starikov, and when he saw the latter nod slightly, he smiled and said to Golovchiner: "Go, Colonel. I will stay in the headquarters with your commander. Waiting for the news of your victory."

Golovchiner replied loudly: "Please rest assured, Comrade Commander, I promise to complete the task." After saluting, he strode out of the headquarters. (To be continued...)

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