The Rise of the Third Reich

"It's over! It's over! Now I'm going to be a reactionary..."

The 16th Mechanized Corps and the 1st Tank Brigade suffered a disastrous defeat, the troops suffered heavy casualties, and the tank group was almost completely wiped out! The whereabouts of Sokarov, commander of the 16th Mechanized Army, and Fegulov, political commissar, are unknown. Qiuxin, commander of the 1st Tank Brigade, died heroically...

When Lieutenant Colonel Kurbsky, chief of staff of the 16th Mechanized Army, made a phone call and told Major General Korobkov, commander of the 4th Group Army, the bad news on the front line, he immediately felt like the sky was falling.

This was the first real disastrous defeat since the start of the world revolution! Although the Red Army had a record of failure in the Soviet-Finnish War, the Soviet-Polish War of 1939, and Afghanistan, there had never been a mechanized army that was defeated or a military commander or political commissar disappeared. Moreover, this time there is also a glorious 1st Tank Brigade...

Comrade Ponomarenko, political commissar of the Western Front, had just signed a commendation order calling on all front forces to learn from the glorious 1st Tank Brigade. In the blink of an eye, the 1st Tank Brigade was almost wiped out by Germany.

Where does this leave Comrade Ponomarenko’s face? If Comrade Ponomarenko tolerates this matter, how can he be the successor of the world revolution in the future? If Ponomarenko, the political commissar of the Front Army, wanted to find someone to act on, then Korobkov would definitely become a reactionary.

Who made the whereabouts of Sokarov and Fegulov unknown? Whether he died as a martyr or was captured as a traitor, it has nothing to do with Comrade Ponomarenko. No matter how big the political commissar of the front army was, he could not control the concentration camps where dead people and enemies were.

Just when the thought made my heart tremble, the voice of Lieutenant Colonel Kurbuski on the phone receiver suddenly became more trembling.

"Comrade Commander, the Nazis, the Nazi tanks are coming, they are coming soon! The 16th Mechanized Army is going to collapse!"

After saying that, the phone was hung up with a bang. It was obvious that the headquarters of the 16th Mechanized Army was about to be transferred.

On the other end of the phone line, Major General Korobkov was even more dumbfounded. what happened? Is the 16th Mechanized Army about to collapse? How can it be? That's an army! Even if the 46th Tank Brigade and the 1st Tank Brigade were destroyed, there were still three motorized infantry brigades left. How could it be possible for the German armored forces to collapse in a few hours?

He was at a loss when suddenly someone shouted: "Rockets! Conceal!"

Korobkov subconsciously wanted to find a hole to crawl in (the engineers had built anti-artillery fortifications near his headquarters), but the sound of a series of rumbling explosions came to his ears, but Korobkov himself was unharmed. .

It turned out that the target of the German rocket launcher was not Korobkov's headquarters, but the Red Army's 28th Army, which was deploying a defense line ahead. This army was marching towards the city of Legionovo two hours ago. After the news of the failure of the 16th Mechanized Army came, it was ordered to deploy defenses on the Vovomin front line.

But how could an army with 3 motorized infantry divisions and 5 motorized artillery regiments (2 for corps and 3 for divisions) start from a marching state and complete its defenses within 2 hours? They are not an armored force. They can fight the enemy's armored soldiers as long as they move their vehicles out of the way. Their infantry had to build fortifications, dig trenches, lay mines, and arrange various artillery positions before they could possibly block the enemy's tank groups.

But how could the German Nazis give the Soviet Red Army's 28th Infantry Corps time to deploy defenses?

When he thought that the 28th Infantry Army might collapse in a short period of time, Korobkov no longer wanted to stay in the headquarters to listen to the report. He took a few staff officers and guards and headed to the northwest of the town of Wovomin. .

Before the GAZ 61 car he was riding in reached the destination, he heard shouts of "Ula! Ula!"

The troops that had just been attacked by rocket launchers had now been re-energized under the encouragement of military officers and political cadres, and some of them were preparing to launch a desperate counterattack against the German armored clusters!

…

"Captain! Look! The Bolsheviks are coming!"

Captain Gustav Schwarzenegger was sitting in the commander's seat, head lowered, eating black bread with hard sausage (this was his breakfast), when he heard gunner Ogg shouting.

Captain Schwarzenegger hurriedly stuffed the food into his pockets, then leaned out of the open top hatch, and then saw an incredible sight.

Countless Red Army soldiers were carrying Mosin-Nagant rifles, PPSh submachine guns and anti-tank grenades, shouting "Ula! Ula!" and launched a charge like a tide.

"Quick, quick, quick! Get out of the car and stop the Bolsheviks!" Captain Schwarzenegger shouted repeatedly, asking the grenadiers riding on the tank to get out of the tank and fire at the Soviet infantry with MKb-42 automatic carbines - no matter what We can't let these crazy Bolshevik infantrymen get close!

Soon, the machine guns on the MKb-42, MG-42 and No. 4 tanks in the hands of the Nazi infantry fired bullets like raindrops, knocking down the charging Red Army soldiers one by one.

However, the desperate charge of the Red Army infantry also temporarily blocked the advance of the German armored group. Taking advantage of this breathing space won with blood, a division of the Soviet 28th Infantry Corps also quickly shrank into the small town of Wowoming. And began to hastily build crude fortifications. Because time was too tight, the Soviet infantry could only take materials from the courtyards of each house and pile up debris such as pallets, wooden boxes, furniture, etc. to build barricades and anti-tank fire bunkers.

Some of the M1 anti-tank guns and ZIS-3 76.2mm anti-tank guns that survived the German rocket attack just now were dragged into the town of Wowoming and deployed at various intersections.

Some Red Army snipers also entered the houses on the outskirts of the town. Due to two rocket attacks, most of these houses were somewhat damaged, but they could still be used as firepower bases. Rifles, machine guns, and anti-tank guns were set up. Referring to the open area ahead, everyone held their breath, waiting for the German attack.

The 28th Army of the Red Army received special training in street fighting before the start of the world revolution. Each of them knew various street fighting skills by heart and knew how to fight in central cities like Warsaw, Berlin, and Paris where the bourgeoisie gathered. Put the red flag on the Warsaw Castle, the Reichstag in Berlin, and the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Of course, they also knew how to use the city's buildings to repel the counterattacks of Nazi German tanks and infantry!

However, the Nazi tanks and infantry attacking today did not intend to recapture Wowomin. They were only ordered to launch a short assault. The purpose was only to maximize the damage to the Soviet troops and delay their attack on Warsaw.

For Model, the current commander of the 6th Army, the biggest difficulty in holding on to Warsaw is the lack of troops. He has only 270,000 officers and soldiers under his command, and his opponents may have as many as 1 million.

Therefore, any attack that may cause heavy losses but cannot completely repel the Soviet army is worthless.

Therefore, after discovering that the Soviet infantry retreated into Wovomin in an attempt to hold on, General Steiner, who was commanding the battle on the front line, decisively gave up the action of recapturing Wovomin. On the one hand, he ordered the artillery cluster (excluding rocket launchers) to bombard Wovomin to kill and injure the Soviet infantry standing there; on the other hand, he ordered the pursuing armored cluster to bypass the town and gather towards the artillery positions and rear elements of the Soviet 28th Army. Launch an attack in the area.

The 28th Soviet Army was already in chaos. According to the plan, they were supposed to attack Legionovo. Before the collapse of the 16th Mechanized Corps and the 1st Tank Brigade, they were still on the march. Before it was fully deployed, it was covered by German rocket launchers and attacked by armored troops, and it was completely messed up.

When the German armored group repelled the desperate counterattack by the infantry of the 28th Army, three German smoke launcher regiments launched a rocket launcher raid targeting the rear area of ​​the 28th Army under the guidance of aircraft.

So when hundreds of Type 4 H tanks, Type 3 assault guns and more than 10,000 armored grenadiers attacked, the artillery positions of the Soviet 28th Army had just been halfway deployed, and they were also hit by nearly 2,000 rockets. Covered with bullets, everything was a mess and a mess, unable to withstand the impact of the German armored cluster.

The headquarters of the 4th Army of the Red Army is just behind the 28th Infantry Army, and some scattered troops directly under the 4th Army are also around the headquarters of the 4th Army.

When Korobkov returned from the front line in despair, these scattered troops were setting up defenses, and the 4th Army headquarters was not ready to move. The political commissar of the group army, Telekin, was like an ant on a hot pot. He was scurrying around in the headquarters while holding a telephone receiver and shouting angrily: "No retreat! Vovomin must be defended! Anyone who dares to retreat is against G's order and is reactionary." molecular!"

Seeing Korobkov come in, Telekin finally breathed a sigh of relief. He was just a political officer and didn't quite know how to fight.

"Comrade Commander, how is the situation?" Telekin asked.

"They're coming!"

"Them? Who?"

"German armored units!" Korobkov replied. "They have bypassed Wovomin and are coming towards us. At most..."

Boom boom...

The sound of exploding artillery shells was already heard. This was the firing of the Wasp self-propelled artillery that was following the advancement of the German armored forces.

"Comrade Commander...are the Germans coming?" Telekin asked with a livid face.

"coming!"

"Then what do we do?"

"What should we do?" Korobkov sighed, "If you don't want to be a prisoner, then move immediately and join the 1st Tank Corps... There are still 2 tank brigades there, which should be able to stop the German armored forces from counterattacking. ”