The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Thank you brothers for your messages of encouragement. My child has entered adolescence and started to rebel. I did his ideological work all night last night. As a teacher, I can't manage my own children. It's really ironic!

But even if Mehlis intervenes to coordinate, the reinforcements the Soviet army can provide to Kerch Port are very limited.

In terms of air force, the Soviet army also faced the same problem as the German army...it shifted its strategic focus to Kharkov. Coupled with the Crimean Front's previous losses in air power, the Soviet army could only barely gather 370 fighters on the Taman Peninsula.

Although this number is very large, in fact, most of the Soviet army's available fighters are the inferior I-15 fighters... This fighter is an old-fashioned biplane with a top speed of only 442 kilometers per hour. The Soviet army once used it to fight against the enemy in the Battle of Nomonhan. The Japanese army's old-fashioned fighter aircraft constituted an advantage and later supported China. However, because the Japanese army was already equipped with the advanced "Zero" type, the aircraft suffered a disastrous defeat in China.

The Soviet Army called this biplane the "Seagull" fighter because the upper wing structure was a seagull-shaped design.

It is certainly no match for the German BF109 fighters and FW190 fighters, so although there are many of them, the air superiority is still in the hands of the Germans.

It's just that this "Seagull" fighter became popular again in the historical Caucasus battle... The reason is that the terrain of the Caucasus is complex and the mountains are towering. Fighters flying at high speed are often unable or have no time to avoid the mountains. Instead, they " Low-speed fighter planes like the "Seagull" took to the Caucasus like a fish in water, frequently dispatching bombings and blocking the German army and its supply lines, playing an unexpected role.

Of course, if the German army followed the Black Sea and bypassed the Caucasus, similar problems would not arise.

Next is the navy.

The Black Sea Fleet had frequently deployed to provide fire support for Sevastopol during the previous Battle of Sevastopol, and even withstood repeated bombings by German fighter planes. At this time, many warships needed maintenance and could reinforce the Crimea. The front only had three warships and two transport ships, which was obviously not enough to provide sufficient supplies and fire support for the three armies trapped on the other side of the German army.

In fact, they could not safely provide supplies to the three armies many times, because it would be a drop in the bucket and would be robbed by Soviet soldiers, and once they docked, the Soviet troops would swarm up in hopes of leaving on transport ships.

Again it's the tank.

The Soviet army has hundreds of tanks in the Caucasus, but the problem is not with the tanks but with transportation... Prior to this, the Soviet army worked hard to transport supplies to Sevastopol, and the German army used its air force to blockade them. During the blockade and counter-blockade The Chinese and Soviet armies lost a considerable number of transport ships and were unable to transport a tank brigade to the Kerch Peninsula as requested by Kozlov in a short period of time. In the end, only two tank battalions and fifty tanks were delivered.

Among them are 3 KV2 tanks, 8 T34 tanks, 16 BT7 fast tanks, and 23 T26 light tanks.

After receiving these tanks, Kozlov immediately deployed them on the defense line in conjunction with the defense of the 46th Army.

This can be said to be Kozlov's failure.

Because tanks are mainly mobile, and Kozlov simply used tanks as forts and deployed them on the defense line, which did not pose much of a threat to the German army.

The correct approach should be to deploy tanks on the second line like Rommel did in Africa and push the enemy back wherever the enemy breaks through.

However, it seems that this cannot be blamed on Kozlov. He was born in the Infantry Academy. Not only him, but senior Soviet officers generally did not know how to flexibly command tank operations.

Two days later, the German army finally arrived at Kerch Port after all the hardships.

Manstein raised his telescope and looked in the direction of Kerch, then frowned.

"The enemy has obviously made some preparations in the past two days!" Manstein turned back to Colonel Qinchuan and Slain and said, "They have occupied favorable terrain, and I seem to have seen a KV tank!"

Qin Chuan understood what Manstein meant.

There are two important pieces of information contained in this statement:

One is "favorable terrain". Kerch is a port city. It was built at a higher altitude... There is always a reason why more than 100,000 people live here.

Therefore, compared to the surrounding areas, which are muddy and swamp-like during heavy rain, Kerch Port has relatively dry and hard ground, which is very suitable for the Soviet army to transport supplies.

The Soviet defense line was just outside the city. They built trenches, stretched barbed wire and laid mines, and then dispersed tanks into the trenches to strengthen firepower and cover.

Qinchuan did not agree with the Soviet army's practice of dispersing tanks among the trenches. In fact, the Soviet army had dry and hard land in the city that could allow tanks to maneuver internally, but the Soviet army obviously did not seize this opportunity.

However, these tanks and defenses will still cause a lot of trouble for the German army: the main reason is that the surrounding area is muddy, and it is very difficult for the German army to march, let alone attack the Soviet defense line... It is conceivable that if you keep your head down like this, it will be very difficult. If so, the Soviet attack on Fodosia will be repeated in Kerch, but this time the Germans will suffer heavy casualties.

Another piece of information is the KV tank.

The KV tank can be said to be a strange existence in the Soviet army. Basically no weapons and equipment on German land can penetrate its frontal armor... The frontal armor is 110MM thick, and it is also equipped with a 152MM caliber howitzer.

Because its turret towered like a small toilet, and at the same time it showed disdain for the Russian army, the German army called this tank the "Russian toilet".

But this kind of tank once created a brilliant record. Several KVs were like steel monsters, completely ignoring the German firepower and rushing into the German armored forces. They crushed and crushed more than 40 artillery pieces, and Covering other tanks, forty tanks were destroyed.

According to the memories of German soldiers, "In this battle, one-third of our tanks were Panzer IV tanks. Our tanks fired in three directions at the monster (KV tank) that drove forward. There was no trace of it at all." The shells tickled the enemy tanks, while our tanks were knocked down like dominoes!"

Therefore, when he saw the KV tanks on the Soviet defense line, Tain, the Manchu, felt his heart skip a beat.

Of course, KV tanks cannot be said to be invincible. Its flaw is that the failure rate is too high, so that most KV tanks are not destroyed by the enemy but abandoned because of malfunctions and unusability.

However, the German army cannot wait for these KV tanks to malfunction in front of the defense line, especially since the German army cannot afford to wait at all... The first requirement of the Blitzkrieg is to be fast. If you continue to wait like this, the Soviet army will become stronger and stronger, and the German army will The combat effectiveness will become weaker and weaker.

Needless to say, what will happen next is what no one wants to see.