USSR 1941

Before the poor two German soldiers could yell out, the Soviet soldiers rushed forward, covered their mouths with military thorns and pricked them into a hornet's nest.

At this time, Shulka certainly would not pay attention to such trivial matters.

He got up from the ground and looked forward, then ordered: "Accord to the plan!"

"Yes!" Several company commanders responded, and led their troops to advance in different directions.

At this time, it is obviously inappropriate to use the battalion as a combat unit, because the German artillery fire is relatively scattered, and it is inefficient to work together and it will also give the enemy more reaction time.

Therefore, it is necessary to fight in a company or even a platoon.

It's just that it is difficult for the Soviet army to fight in units of platoons, because they lack communication equipment, and if a platoon is released in the dark to fight, it will be difficult to get it back, and of course it will be impossible to command.

Shulka personally commanded the third company.

The third company is Shulka's old army, with many old subordinates, it is easier to command, so Shulka is always used to being with them.

The plan was simple, to attack along with the sound of German artillery.

And all the attention of the German army was focused on the main force of the Soviet army attacking from the front. Their infantry was also fighting fiercely with the Soviet army in the front trenches. artillery positions.

The sound of the artillery was getting closer and closer, and Shulka could even hear the voice of the German artillery commander yelling at the metadata.

The artillery bunkers of the German army were very secretive. They dug a hole on the ground to hide the entire gun body inside, and then propped up a piece of white canvas on it, revealing only a white-painted gun barrel outside... If it weren't for the sound of the guns and the flames from the muzzles, it would not be easy for Shurka and others to find them, let alone the reconnaissance plane in the sky.

"Fight!" Following Shulka's order, several Soviet troops who had reached the bunker immediately stood up and rushed up, and then shot at the German troops in the bunker.

A few nimble German soldiers realized that something was wrong and tried to run, but they were quickly knocked down by a burst of bullets from the "Poposa".

Then there was the sound of gunfire and the occasional explosion of grenades.

But these grenades should be fired by the Germans... Before the war, Shulka ordered the Soviet army not to use grenades as much as possible.

On the one hand, the Soviet army was prepared to fight unprepared, and at the same time it was infantry against artillery,

Can easily destroy the enemy.

On the other hand, grenades are likely to cause shells to explode and cause unnecessary losses and casualties.

More importantly, howitzers are too important in Rzhev. If they can be captured, especially if there are a considerable number of shells, then a radius of ten kilometers will be under their control.

So it is a considerable wealth for the Soviet army... This wealth is not just the artillery itself.

In fact, the German howitzer is of little significance to the Soviet army. As I said before, the standard M30 howitzer of the Soviet army has a range of 1.5 kilometers farther than the German howitzer, and it is more powerful.

More importantly, it can buy considerable time for the troops.

The artillery and shells captured by the German army can be put into use immediately, providing cover for the Soviet army and even supporting the 9 divisions of the Soviet army surrounded in Sychovka... Sychovka is only a dozen kilometers away from Rzhev , That is to say, the German armored units that surrounded the Soviet army were even under the guns of Rzhev.

The German army quickly fell into disarray.

This is not to say that the quality of the German army is not good, but that the German army originally relied on the artillery fire from the rear to suppress the Soviet tank troops attacking from the front.

There were even some Soviet troops who, after capturing the German artillery, immediately adjusted their muzzles to hit the German defense line one after another... This was not planned, it was purely because there was a unit in the 1st Infantry Battalion The part is the artillery following from the Brest Fortress. At this time, the artillery captured at this time will of course be itchy and will be used immediately.

Model on the other side, he didn't even realize that Rzhev was in danger.

At this time, he took the FW189 reconnaissance plane to fly to Wolf's Lair... The FW189 reconnaissance plane has a good view, and it is usually a small aircraft used by the German army to calibrate artillery firepower.

Model flew to Wolf's Den urgently because he knew that the reinforcements from Berlin had arrived at this time, and Hitler didn't seem to want to hand over the reinforcements to him and planned to use them for attack.

Yes, Model was sure of this, and their head of state did not give up attacking Moscow even under such circumstances.

This was obviously a mistake, and Model wanted to correct it.

Therefore, as soon as he walked into Hitler's headquarters, he said bluntly: "Your Excellency, I need reinforcements, otherwise we will not be able to stop the Russian attack!"

"What's the matter? My general!" Hitler replied: "I think you have done a good job so far... You not only held our defense line, but even surrounded the enemy who broke into the defense line! This also proves that I What you said is right, as long as we boldly launch a counterattack, the enemy will undoubtedly be defeated by us!"

"However, Your Excellency the Fuhrer!" Model replied, "The good situation on the front line is only superficial. The Ninth Army has only 67% of its troops, and quite a few of them are still wounded. In addition, our tanks and anti-tank guns are also weak." Insufficient, which makes us helpless against the besieged Russians... We should have eaten them long ago and stabilized the entire line of defense. But now, our front line is seriously insufficient!"

Hitler was silent for a moment, then replied: "Well, my general! I can give you a panzer division..."

"No, Your Excellency the Führer!" Model interrupted Hitler: "I need all four divisions!"

The reinforcements consisted of the 5th Armored Division, the 11th Armored Division, a part of the 10th Armored Division, and a part of the Imperial Division, which was quite a powerful force.

Model's request was not just to supplement the Ninth Army's victory in this battle. The subtext was to tell Hitler: Give up attacking Moscow, that's unrealistic. What we need to do is to hold the line of defense to ensure that our troops do not collapse.

Hitler understood Model's words.

He hesitated for a while... If it was before, he wouldn't have hesitated at all.

But now, after the generals were replaced by him one by one, there was finally a general who could turn the tide.

Hitler was worried that if he did this again, no one would be able to support the front-line command.

So his tone was surprisingly less tough than before: "I think you can think about it, my general, the current situation is equally severe for the Russians!"

At this time, the staff officer walked into the headquarters, and he said to Model in a panic: "Your Excellency, the front line has an urgent call, and Rzhev has been attacked by the enemy!"