USSR 1941

Two hours later, the Soviet army embarked on the journey again.

Soon there were landmines on the road again. Obviously, the German or Romanian army recovered and continued to lay mines.

Although they know that Bray won't play much role, but in the "time is victory" time, a little delay is a little bit.

This idea is indeed correct, because the speed of the tank pushing a roller is indeed slower, and it cannot march without scruples. It must be run over by several modified tanks in the front, and it has to be replaced when encountering anti-tank mines from time to time. one time.

At noon the next day, the vanguard of the 9th Army finally arrived at the outskirts of Odessa, which is 40 kilometers away from Odessa.

Everyone thought that they would encounter enemies here, especially some soldiers who were familiar with the terrain in this area.

One of them was the Cossack, who worked here for two years before joining the army.

"There is a Transnistria River in the west!" The Cossack shined a flashlight on the bottom of the carriage, where there was a thick cardboard. To the west of Desa, a 40-kilometer-long bay is formed there. To be precise, it is not formed by the Transnistria River, but formed by the influx of sea water into the low-lying inland. We call it Transnistria. The bay or the valley of Transnistria!"

"He's like a barrier on the west side of Odessa!" Shulka said.

"Yes!" said the Cossack, "but this also means that supplies from the direction of Romania must go around this bay, which is where we are now!"

"But there are no enemies here!"

"We just need to take the top of this bay and cut off their supply lines!"

"It is impossible for the Germans to surrender their supply lines!"

"Yes!" Shulka agreed. "I think...they will choose to go by sea, that is, across the Transnistrian Gulf!"

The Cossacks nodded in agreement, although it would be much more troublesome than going by land, because they had to unload the cargo on the west coast of the bay, then load it on a ship, cross the bay, and then unload the cargo and transport it by car in all directions.

But the Germans can do it.

Of course, the spontaneous discussion of the soldiers is not of great significance, they just want to know what kind of difficulties they will face in the future.

Soon Shulka knew he was right.

Because not long after the car stopped and received the order to prepare for battle.

At the same time, a signal soldier riding a three-wheeler parked the car nearby and shouted to Shulka from a distance: "Comrade Shulka, Major Gavrilov asked you to go to the headquarters! "

"Where is the headquarters?" Shulka asked.

"Get in the car, Comrade Shulka!" The signalman raised his head towards the empty seat next to him, and said, "This is handed over from the Germans, I hope you don't mind!"

"No, of course not!" Shulka stepped up as he said, and added after sitting down: "I'm only worried about being regarded as a German by others!"

The communications soldier laughed: "Don't worry, Comrade Shulka, even if they don't know me, they will know you!"

As soon as he stepped on the accelerator, Bian Sanlun drove towards the rear with a "boom".

The headquarters is located in a residential house two miles away from the front line, leaning on the mountain and facing north.

This location was chosen very professionally, because the main force of the enemy was in Odessa in the south, so most of the shells were fired from the south. Choosing a residential house with a mountain in the south meant that it was a blind spot for the enemy's artillery fire.

"Shulka!" Seeing Shulka walk in, Major Gavrilov beckoned him to come forward.

Political Commissar Fumin stopped Shulka halfway, shook Shulka's hand, and said, "Comrade Shulka, your performance has been reported to me by Comrade Major. You have done a good job. You can even say... It is largely because of your suggestion that our troops arrived here and achieved such a great victory.

Thank you, thank you for your contribution to the motherland! "

"That's as it should be, Comrade Commissar!" Shulka answered boldly.

Commissar Fomin nodded, and then invited Shulka to Major Gavrilov's map.

"The military situation is urgent, so I won't count your contributions like the political commissar!" Major Gavrilov made a joke that wasn't very funny.

"Of course!" Shulka and the political commissar responded with a smile.

"The enemy deployed the main force between the two lines of defense!" Major Gavrilov said: "They voluntarily gave up the periphery and used Odessa's outer line of defense to defend, which was originally our line of defense!"

"Are they sending supplies through Transnistria?" Shulka asked.

"Yes!" Major Gavrilov spread his hands and said, "It seems that you have already understood the situation!"

"I don't know much!" Shulka replied, and then turned his gaze to the map on the table.

Shulka was telling the truth. The sketches and dictation drawn by the Cossacks were just a vague idea, which gradually became clear after seeing the map.

Geographically speaking, Odessa's advantages can be said to be unique.

It not only has a Transnistrian Gulf as a barrier on the west side, but also has a long strip of Tiligur Lake on the east side that is also tens of kilometers long.

In other words, Odessa is actually surrounded by water on three sides: the bay to the west, the Black Sea to the south, and the lake to the east.

Odessa's outer line of defense is to connect the bay to the west and the lake to the east, so a short 80 kilometers forms a closed line of defense without gaps.

And there are even several "W"-shaped lakes and swamps in the 80 kilometers, which is obviously quite beneficial to the defenders.

Only then did Shulka understand why it took 73 days for the Romanian army to attack this place, and in the end it was not the Romanian army that captured it, but the Soviet army voluntarily withdrew.

"It is not suitable for mechanized troops to attack!" Major Gavrilov said: "It is also not suitable for large troops to deploy! It seems that we can only attack from the west side of the defense line!"

This is clear from the map. The large area on the east side is blocked by lakes and swamps like several long snakes. If you attack from the east side, you have to swim between these lakes and swamps, and finally pass through several lakes. through a narrow passage before entering Odessa.

And these narrow passages only need a few machine guns and a few artillery pieces to block them.

"Our advantage is..." Gavrilov said: "The Romanians lack anti-tank equipment. They are equipped with 25MM anti-tank guns. This anti-tank gun cannot penetrate the T26 armor at a distance of 300 meters! "

300 meters... This advantage is actually not obvious, because it is a rainy day with poor visibility, and Soviet tank gunners also cannot see the enemy 300 meters away.