Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

"how so?"

As mentioned earlier, in response to the German bombing, Smolensk's sewers and subways were transformed into underground bunkers, and some solid underground air defense facilities were reinforced and expanded, turning it into an underground city. Commander Shaposhnikov was originally confident that he could withstand the German bombing and avoid casualties, but he did not expect that the German bombs could hit underground fortifications.

Most aerial bombs have trigger fuzes, and even delayed fuzes cannot penetrate several meters of soil and concrete fortifications.

Is it possible that the ground in District 11 is particularly thin? Just as Commander Shaposhnikov was about to check where Area 11 was on the map, another staff officer hurried in. "Comrade Commander, Area 32 has collapsed! A German bomb exploded in the underground fortifications. The number of casualties is currently unknown."

Commander Shaposhnikov frowned slightly. Are the German bombs so powerful?

The Germans naturally knew that there were huge defense fortifications underground in Smolensk. Therefore, heavy bombers such as HE-177 and ME-264 dropped not ordinary aerial bombs, but ground-penetrating bombs specifically designed to deal with underground fortifications. These ground-penetrating bombs equipped with rocket boosters can easily penetrate several meters of concrete fortifications and then explode.

Although I don’t know the specific underground structure of Smolensk (even if I know, there is almost no accuracy at a height of several thousand meters), there are many bombs that can be dropped, and there will always be a few that will accidentally hit the underground fortifications. . And even if no underground fortifications are found, the explosion of the ground-penetrating bombs will affect the foundations of surrounding houses. If a few ordinary aerial bombs hit them, these shaky houses will collapse.

Suddenly, Commander Shaposhnikov's expression suddenly changed. "Is District 32 a residential area?" In fact, all the people in Smolensk are now soldiers. Although Yakov repeatedly begged to let women and children who have no fighting ability leave, Stalin did not pay attention, and the residents of Smolensk They were also full of fighting spirit, and everyone volunteered to stay to fight the invaders. Without Stalin's approval, Commander Shaposhnikov naturally did not dare to let people leave without permission, so these residents also hid in underground fortifications. District 32 is one of these residential areas. "Go immediately to find out how many casualties there are! Go there yourself!"

"yes!"

Listening to the continuous explosions coming from the ground, Commander Shaposhnikov cursed quietly. "How many bombers did these Germans send? Do they want to completely destroy the entire Smolensk?"

The first wave of German bombers dropped thousands of tons of bombs and then flew away. A small ruin appeared in the huge city of Smolensk, as if a piece of the city had suddenly been bitten off by a beast.

Not long after the bomber group left, the second wave of fighters flew over. This time it is an attack aircraft group, including the Il-2 and Stuka that are about to be eliminated, as well as the latest Il-10 and the land-based version of the A-1 attack aircraft. These low-flying attack groups can destroy targets one by one more accurately than high-altitude bombers, houses to be precise.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

There was an explosion, and one tall building after another was blown down. Bricks and stones fell from the sky and hit the street hard.

Looking at the smoke and dust rising in the city of Smolensk in the distance, a German soldier in the outer encirclement could not help but gasp. "Does the higher-ups want to use bombers and attack planes to bombard Smolensk? If we use this bombing method a few more times, we won't have much trouble."

The soldier next to him lit up his cigarette leisurely. "You can rest assured that there are many enemies who want you to kill them. You may think that the bombing is very fierce, but in fact it won't kill many people. In the end, we have to rely on our ground troops to eliminate these bastards."

The soldier couldn't believe it. "Is it true? I think this kind of bombing would kill even rats."

The smoking soldier smiled. "During the Battle of the Somme in the last war, my father and his men endured seven days and seven nights of shelling. In the end, they were still alive and well and beat up those British guys."

When the Battle of the Somme broke out, the British had assembled nearly 1,400 artillery pieces and millions of artillery shells in forward positions. The British idea was to use artillery to destroy the German trench defense system while suppressing German artillery attacks. Once the above strategic goals are achieved, the infantry can charge to annihilate the remaining German forces under the cover of artillery.

Starting from June 24, 1926, the British began a week of indiscriminate bombing. According to statistics, the British fired 1.5 million artillery shells at the German positions. On the day of the attack on July 1, they also fired 25 shells. Thousands of artillery shells. After the shelling ended, the British soldiers picked up their rifles and rushed out of the trenches towards the German positions. However, contrary to the British expectations, most of the German soldiers survived the shelling.

The German army built a network of underground tunnels up to 12 meters deep. The entire tunnel network was criss-crossed, and its entrances and exits were hidden in nearby villages and woods, making them difficult to find. The fortifications are fully equipped with field kitchens, laundry rooms, field hospitals, etc., and sufficient ammunition, food and medical supplies are stored. Electric lighting was provided by special generators (you know, electric lights were almost not used by civilians at that time and were a luxury product). All the preparations made by the German army made the Somme one of the most fortified military areas in the world.

As a result, the British charge was met with a fierce counterattack by the Germans. Although the British also achieved some results on the battlefield, the British army lost nearly 60,000 people on July 1 alone. It can be said that this strategic bombardment was a failed military operation.

"So no matter how fierce the artillery fire is, there is a way to survive. I guess the Soviets in Smolensk must have hid underground like mice. Once our shelling and bombing is over, they will return to the ground to prepare for battle. The air force's bombing is to destroy the bunkers they have deployed on the ground. Without these bunkers, the casualties we pay during the attack will be much smaller."

The other soldier nodded in realization. "So that's it."

Commander Shaposhnikov in the basement received a terrible casualty figure. He was really shocked that more than 3,000 residents of District 32 died. "how so?!"

The German ground penetrating bombs have a variety of warheads, some are ordinary high explosives, some are napalm, and some are cloudburst agents. The warhead of the earth-penetrating bomb that penetrated into Area 32 happened to be a cloudburst agent. There was not enough air in the underground space to begin with. As a result, when the cloud bomb exploded, all the surrounding oxygen was consumed in an instant, and most people suffocated to death.

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