Steel Soviet Union

In order to cope with the battle that may come at any time, Malashenko, together with Political Commissar Petrov and his deputy Lavrinenko, prepared several sets of combat plans for counterattack, defense and other different tactics. Adjustments will be made based on actual conditions.

But now it seems that all these battle plans prepared in advance have been in vain. The offensive force that the German army invested in Mamayev Ridge to make the final decision is more ferocious than Malashenko expected.

It was originally planned to conduct a counterattack against the German army before the possible offensive to disrupt the opponent's offensive deployment. Chuikov's combat plan was also completely disrupted because the German army did not follow the routine and played cards in advance. He had no choice but to bathe in the German army. They struggled to survive this challenge under unprecedentedly ferocious offensive firepower.

In fact, whether it was Malashenko or Chuikov, almost everyone underestimated the powerful effect and side effects of Hitler's stimulant shot on Paulus.

Now Paulus is almost devoting all his strength to launch a crazy attack without any hesitation, and Mamayev Hills, an important high ground that can cut Stalingrad in half, is the one he must fight for no matter what in his plan. The most important thing to win.

After a full hour of continuous artillery preparations for the Mamayev Hills, the 51st Army of the Sixth Group Army, which concentrated all its forces on the Mamayev Hills, finally began to launch a real attack.

After an indiscriminate bombardment, the red-eyed German army even skipped the exploratory attack of fire reconnaissance. More than 60 tanks directly opened up the charge formation and swarmed the armored grenadiers towards Mamayev. Gang came to kill with his sword.

The earth-shattering bombardment directly collapsed many Soviet artillery holes and hidden bunkers on the front-line positions. The Red Army soldiers who were hiding in them to avoid the German shelling were directly buried alive and suffocated to death.

However, more Red Army soldiers who were swaying around came out of the shell holes and bunkers that had not been destroyed by the German shelling. The soldiers whose bodies were so shaky that they could not even hold their weapons firmly were still struggling to move forward, leaping. The moment he entered the trench, he immediately picked up the weapon in his hand and pointed it at the enemy that was about to kill in front.

"Hurry! Dig quickly, dig it out quickly! The German tanks are coming!"

In front of an anti-tank gun emplacement that was built before but is now just a huge crater buried by empty soil, a second lieutenant is directing the soldiers around him to try their best to dig out something from the soil with their hands. .

The concerted efforts of everyone finally paid off. A ZIS-3 76mm anti-tank gun, which was buried by a large amount of floating soil raised by the shelling, gradually revealed its true appearance.

The Red Army soldiers present were immediately overjoyed when they saw what they had gained. This anti-tank gun was the last remaining anti-tank gun in their entire company. All the remaining equipment was destroyed or destroyed by the Germans in the final suburban defense battle. It was forced to be abandoned. Without this only anti-tank gun, it was impossible to deal with the German steel behemoths that were coming towards us.

"Well done, comrades! Now push it out and destroy those German tanks!"

More than a dozen Red Army soldiers used all their strength to get the anti-tank gun that survived the shelling out of the pit by pulling or pushing it with their hands.

The second lieutenant, who was digging hard with a shovel in his hand, found the ammunition box buried in the floating soil at almost the same time. After prying one of the boxes open with a shovel, he directly picked up an armor-piercing shell and turned around and sent it into the gun barrel.

"Aim at the Kraut's tanks! Fire!"

boom--

The first sound of defensive artillery was the initial starting point for the entire position to open fire.

More and more Red Army soldiers who survived the shelling ran out of the shell holes and began to join the brutal battle to block the German attack.

From the sound of guns in twos and threes to the intensive firepower, the German tanks rushing at the front quickly felt a lot of pressure and realized that their opponents still had strength.

Some of the German tanks that were charging stopped, turned their turrets, and pointed their black muzzles at the exposed anti-tank gun emplacements.

The bottom-up charge and upward attack are in a disadvantageous position for the German tanks to attack. The Soviet anti-tank guns from high up have a wide field of view and can easily destroy the German tanks. It is important to eliminate the extremely threatening anti-tank guns as quickly as possible. The top priority that the German army must do during the charge is.

Many of the troops stationed at the forefront of Mamayev Heights were troops who had withdrawn after participating in counterattacks.

These troops are poorly organized and have scarce equipment, especially technical weapons and heavy weapons. The anti-tank minefields that were originally laid in advance to block the charge of the German armored troops were almost completely destroyed by the Germans in the preparations for the fierce artillery fire. Leftover.

The outermost positions on the hills, which had weak anti-tank firepower, were quickly rolled over the trenches by German tanks at a slight cost. The German armored grenadiers who followed closely behind them were riding on half-track vehicles. While suppressing the remaining Soviet infantry with machine guns, they opened the rear hatch of the vehicle and filed out of it. They picked up the automatic firearms in their hands and aimed them at the nearest enemy. The opponent just shoots randomly.

A large number of Red Army soldiers equipped with Bobosha 41 submachine guns continued to fight to the death even after being run over by German tanks in the trenches. The German armored grenadiers who entered the position to clear out the remaining enemy infantry encountered unexpected obstacles. With strong resistance, the Bobosha 41 submachine guns in the hands of the Soviet infantry were simply death harvesters in the trenches at close range.

Seeing that the outermost position was overrun by the Germans, Chuikov, who was closely watching the real-time battle situation ahead in the command post, immediately ordered a tank brigade with a total strength of only 19 T34s to be sent up, with strict orders to drive out the German tanks as quickly as possible. hills.

Chuikov put down the telescope in his hand and frowned solemnly. Except for Malashenko's 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment, the last ace reserve team, Chuikov now has no tank in his hand that he can mobilize. Used to make up for the gap.

The fierce battle was obviously tilting in an extremely unfavorable direction for the Soviet army. The battle had only begun for more than two hours, and the position was already crumbling and was about to be penetrated by the German army. Chuikov, who originally thought he had made adequate preparations, He began to frown as he thought about the worst possible scenario.

What Chuikov didn't expect was that Malashenko, who had been personally ordered by him to wait for orders and wait for an opportunity to attack, would take the initiative to come to the group army headquarters at the most critical moment of the battle. The request he made was even more surprising to him. Not within reach.