USSR 1941

What Shulka didn't expect was that what he thought was impossible happened.

Two hours later, they got off at the city of Voskohede... The train can only reach here at the farthest, and the railway line ahead was blocked by German artillery fire.

The 4th Tank Brigade continued to advance in the dark and reached the second line of defense after walking for more than an hour.

To be precise, it was only the second line, but what Shulka saw was the desolation of the ground, bomb craters and dead bodies everywhere, as well as dense crowds of people in sackcloth digging trenches in the mud, even at night. There is no rest, or it is divided into several batches to take turns to rest.

The troops marched into a camp that cannot be called a camp, because there were no walls or sentries there, and it was difficult for soldiers or even civilians from other troops to sneak in in the dark... The organization of Soviet troops has always been so chaotic, Shu Alka is no stranger to it.

At this time, it has entered mid-October, the sky has already started to snow lightly, and the branches and the ground are already covered with a thin layer of snow... Such weather is a test for the soldiers and the people who are building fortifications. It's better to just freeze or have a thicker snow cover, but now it snows and rains, and the alternation of rain and snow is always confusing because it drenches your clothes and then freezes you half dead.

If you don't have a change of dry clothes, it's best not to go out in this weather.

This is what the Soviets used to do. At this time they should have completed the harvest process and stored food for the winter.

But war doesn't care about that, so they still have to fight outside in the rain and snow.

Then, when Shulka was hoping for a hot supper, the first supply they got was a bucket of paint, a bucket of white paint.

"Paint all vehicles, tanks and artillery white!"

This is easy to understand. White is a protective color under the disguise of snow. It may not be very obvious from the ground, but it is likely to be a vast expanse of white when viewed from the sky.

Then, a set of white cloaks was sent out, which can wrap the general uniform, and even each soldier received a small bundle of white cloth...that was used to wrap the rifle or other exposed things.

Shulka's brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

It looks like it's setting up for an offense, and an offense in this situation is... unimaginable.

really,

Shulka's fears were quickly confirmed.

"Tomorrow at six o'clock, we will launch a counterattack against the enemy!" Katukov said.

These words exploded in the meeting room in an instant. Unlike Shulka's complexion, many officers were excited about it:

"Finally waited until this moment!"

"We're going to drive those invaders out of our territory!"

"The end of the Germans has come!"

...

At this moment, Shulka suddenly understood the meaning of counterattack.

Counter-offensive is clearly more morale-boosting than pure defense, though that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

"Do we have enough troops to counterattack?" Major Gavrilov asked Shulka the question he wanted to ask.

"Our counter-offensive forces include the 17th, 20th, 24th, 44th, and 50th Cavalry Divisions, as well as the 78th Infantry Division, including our 4th Tank Brigade and the 27th and 28th Tank Brigades! "Katukov replied: "These troops are all organized into the 16th Army, commanded by Comrade Rokossovsky!"

It sounds like there are many numbers, at least tens of thousands of people, and there are three tank brigades... But Shulka saw different information in Katukov's eyes, and Katukov seemed to have no confidence in this counterattack .

Then Shulka understood that these were just numbers.

At this time, the Soviet army had many situations like this, with a lot of numbers but few people and not much equipment... They were all troops that broke out or were scattered by the enemy.

The facts are indeed as Shulka guessed, the divisions mentioned above, in fact, the total strength of a division is only 3,000 people, at most it can only be regarded as a regiment.

What other tank brigades are there? Except for the fourth tank brigade, the other tank brigades are temporarily formed with T26 plus a small number of KV tanks or a few T34s. The 27th and 28th tank brigades are added together There are only more than 20 T34 tanks in China.

But Shulka didn't say anything, because he knew he shouldn't say anything at this time, and the helplessness in Katukov's eyes had already given the answer... This is not something that he can control, and of course it is not something that Shulka can control.

What Shulka didn't know was that not only the counter-offensive force was like this, but the entire 16th Army was almost put together like this.

The original strength of the 16th Army was surrounded at Viazma, and the headquarters escaped by luck.

Speaking of this paragraph is still a legend, the 16th Army headquarters received an order to receive reinforcements from the three divisions on the second line, but when they arrived at the designated location, they did not see the three divisions mentioned in the order, on the contrary they were Hit the interspersed troops of the German army... After a tense battle, the headquarters escaped stepping on the edge of the German encirclement.

Then flee all the way to receive the defeated army, which even includes the militia, and after fleeing and fleeing, there is the 16th Army.

When they received the order to defend Volokolamsk, the supreme commander even gave them an order: "There is no problem with the lack of troops. When you go to the destination, all the troops you encounter are under your command!"

The absurdity of this order is that it shows that the Soviet Supreme Command does not know where its troops are.

If, during this period, a unit sent to the front line with an urgent task happened to be hit by the 16th Army, did that mean that the order was repeated?

Katukov glanced at Major Gavrilov and Shulka, then pointed to the map and said: "Our mission is to capture the troops stationed in the villages of Skirmanovo, Mabeno and Kozvo. The 10th Armored Division of the German Army in the village. According to our information, this armored division has more than 100 tanks and more than 50 assault guns, which pose a great threat to our defense line. We must Kill them to open a breach in the German defenses, and then push west..."

"Comrade Katukov!" Shulka couldn't help asking: "Are we ready to counterattack in other directions?"

"Yes!" Katukov replied: "There is also an army counterattack from the direction of Serpukhov!"

Shulka sighed secretly, it was just a counterattack in one direction, which was obviously far from enough.

Because if there is no counterattack from other directions to fully contain the German army, all the victories achieved by the Fourth Tank Brigade...in fact, they will be trapped in the enemy's encirclement.

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