USSR 1941

The German Fifth Armored Battalion was transferred to the Morlior fortification area more than half an hour later.

The commander, Major Muller, was somewhat puzzled by this order. His armored battalion had already broken through the first line of defense of the Soviet Army in the south. It should have continued to pursue the victory, but it was abruptly dragged back on the way forward and deployed here. deployed and ready to attack.

This is rare in the German army, which has always paid attention to speed.

However, after seeing the terrain here, Major Muller understood the reason why Admiral Kleist did this. There is a road and railway passing not far from the north of this fortification area, and then there is a swamp to the north, and ten miles to the south. There will be another road a few miles away... In other words, the Soviets in this fortified area will directly threaten the speed of the German army's supply.

"Major!" The adjutant pointed to the map and said to Major Mueller: "The Russians in the front are very cunning. They disguised the bunkers as wooden houses..."

"It's not going to work!" said Major Muller.

"Yes, I believe that!" the adjutant replied: "But not long ago, the attack of our two battalions has failed!"

"Yes, I saw it!" Of course, what Muller saw was not the battle process, but the corpses and tank wreckage on the battlefield.

"They hit the side armor of our tank with anti-tank guns!" said the adjutant. "As you can see, we lost a lot!"

"This kind of thing won't happen again!" Major Muller said confidently: "My assault gun will teach them a lesson!"

The adjutant nodded: "I will let the 5th Artillery Regiment and the 3rd Armored Battalion cooperate with you in attacking!"

So, after a burst of fierce artillery fire, the Fifth Armor, equipped with seven "No. 3" assault guns and thirty tanks, led the infantry and "rumbled" up.

Major Muller's tactics are very simple. As usual, use the "No. 3 assault gun" to protect the two wings... The two wings are more likely to be attacked by the enemy's side fire, and the tank in the middle is facing the enemy. As long as it does not turn easily, the theory Don't worry about the enemy's side fire.

This tactic is very effective. When the "No. 3 Assault Gun" was not equipped with much equipment, it repeatedly broke through the Soviet defense line.

Major Muller believed that the bunkers in front of him were no different...they were just camouflaged with some wooden planks, and these wooden camouflages had been blown to pieces. The German army already knew which wooden houses were real and which ones is fake.

"Look!" Major Müller said to his men on the walkie-talkie in the tank: "Ivans are trying to trick us with these wooden houses, I don't think you will be fooled!"

A burst of laughter from the subordinates came from the earphones:

"Yes, Major! Those that will collapse are wooden houses, and those that show concrete blocks are bunkers!"

"We can also use tanks to bump!"

...

Then there was another laugh.

But they soon discovered that the problem is not so simple.

Because while they were talking, perforations were drilled in the wooden house, densely packed, of all sizes...

"Damn it!" Someone became nervous: "Their bunkers are full of weapons!"

"No, Jonas! A bunker cannot be equipped with so many weapons!"

"Some of the perforations are fake!"

"We couldn't find a real perforation!"

...

The Germans guessed right, there are indeed many fake perforations, and it is very simple to do. You only need to saw a hole the size of the perforation on the board, and then paint the cement black... Of course, such rough perforation can't deceive people in the near distance, but it is fatal to the German tank soldiers who are in the distance and looking out with the periscope in the tank, especially at this time when the battlefield is still full of thick smoke from burning wood.

You must know that the tactics used by the German army to attack the bunkers are to use tanks or assault guns to suppress the firepower of the perforation and then let the engineers touch it and blast it.

But now,

The mess in front of them is full of perforations, which makes it impossible for tanks and assault guns to know which one to suppress...

"Fire!" Major Muller ordered: "Regardless of whether it is true or not, shoot freely!"

This order may be right, this is a bit like a wooden house, if it is true or not, you can tell if it is true or not by bombarding it with a shell.

So the tank "boomed" and slammed toward the bunkers ahead.

Only then did they discover the problem. Even with the quality of the German tank soldiers, it is difficult to ensure that the shells can accurately hit the perforation and distinguish between true and false.

Seeing this, Major Muller couldn't help but frowned. If the enemy's bunker firepower could not be effectively suppressed, the infantry's charge would undoubtedly be in danger.

What Major Muller didn't know was that Major Gavrilov also encountered difficulties on the other side.

This was the best time for the Soviet army to implement artillery coverage, but when Major Gavrilov made a request to the command, he was rejected.

"What's going on?" Commissar Fuming asked.

"They say there's not enough shells!" said Major Gavrilov.

"Insufficient ammunition?" Fuming's political commissar looked puzzled: "Not long after the battle started, they said there was insufficient ammunition?"

"Yes!" Major Gavrilov said, "The staff said that the fighting in other directions is fierce, and they must give priority to providing artillery support for other directions!"

"But here... have you told them about the situation here?"

"Of course, Comrade Commissar!"

Political Commissar Fumin looked in disbelief at the German armored units in front of the bunker, who were in a dilemma. It only took one round of artillery fire to cause heavy losses to the German armored battalion, but the headquarters easily let go of this opportunity.

At this time, Commissar Fomin and Major Gavrilov didn't think much about it, thinking that the battle situation was indeed as the command said, because other directions were more needed, so they could not provide artillery support to the 333rd Regiment.

But the real situation is that Colonel Ovich does not want to see the 333rd Regiment win again, because it will not only do him no good but may even put him in danger.

At this time, the battlefield has changed again, and the German army has sent engineers to leap over the tanks towards the bunker group...

This is somewhat of the nature of fire reconnaissance: if the shells are not effective, then let the engineers go up, the real perforation will shoot bullets, but the fake ones will not.

"We have to rely on ourselves!" After saying that, Major Gavrilov ordered the signal soldier: "Get ready to fight, smoke bomb!"

"Yes, smoke bomb!"

Smoke bombs were fired from the second line of defense with mortars, and soon a thick smoke rose around the surrounding tanks.

Major Müller said to himself: "What are they going to do? Interfere with our sight?"

As we all know, smoke bombs are a double-edged sword. When the enemy and the enemy are so close, they will interfere with the enemy's line of sight and also interfere with their own line of sight, which is even more detrimental to the non-moving bunkers.

But at this moment, there was suddenly violent machine gun fire behind them, so Major Muller understood that they were ambushed by the Soviets again.