USSR 1941

Major General Ellen sank to the bottom of his heart when he received Manstein's telegram, because he knew that another meaning of "persevering to the last moment" was that there would be no reinforcements.

But Major General Ellen had no other choice, he could only pass on this order.

"Persist until the last moment!" Major General Ellen said, "Do everything possible to hold back the enemy!"

Major General Ellen said this, that is, he knew what Manstein meant: Surovikino could only be abandoned, because the enemy had a navy and the German army did not have a navy.

Although this so-called navy is nothing more than an amphibious landing ship.

But sometimes such a small advantage can determine the outcome... The German army has no ships, and even a temporary fishing boat cannot compete with the Soviet army's large-scale amphibious landing craft in Surovikino.

In addition, and more importantly, German tanks, armored vehicles, cars, etc. were unable to fight in the flooded Surovikino.

Therefore, all efforts to reinforce Surovikino are futile, and it will only send troops one after another into the encirclement of the Soviet army.

Major General Ellen's orders were transmitted one by one by the signal unit with signal flags.

Although the German soldiers of the 29th Panzergrenadier Division knew that the situation was not good, they still carried out this order and fought desperately against the Soviets in the building.

This made the Soviet army a little embarrassed, because it could indeed hold back the 51st Army.

"Comrade Shulka!" Andrianka reported: "The enemy shows no signs of collapse!"

There is no sign of collapse, that is, the Soviet army must clear one building after another before it can completely occupy Surovikino... and the 51st Army must advance quickly, otherwise it is not difficult to imagine that the German reinforcements or retreating troops will be destroyed. Can build a second line of defense in the right place in the rear.

This situation surprised Shulka. He had thought that he would be resisted by the German army, but he did not expect to encounter such a strong resistance. An enemy that should collapse after being flooded, now wants to be attacked one by one. Gnaw it in.

Mikhailvich said while looking at the map: "Can we wait for the water level to drop before attacking?"

Shulka understood what Mikhailvich meant.

The difficulty of storming at this time is that amphibious landing ships are used.

Although there is no problem with amphibious landing craft attacking buildings,

The attack was also smooth, but the capture of buildings was not fast.

Mikhailevich hoped to attack with tanks after the water level dropped.

Obviously, the speed of tanks attacking buildings is much faster than that of amphibious landing ships using soldiers to clear them one by one. The muzzle blasts at the building, or the machine gun shoots at the enemy, and the armor can block all the enemy's firepower. Just slam the tank into the building...all problems are solved.

But Shulka shook his head and dismissed the idea.

"The tank attack has its limitations!" Shulka said: "Surovikino was originally muddy, but now it was flooded, and the tanks would be stuck in it almost everywhere except along the railway! In this case it is hoped to rely on tanks to attack..."

Needless to say, the most likely way to do this is that the 51st Army will continue to be blocked here. The German army may even plant anti-tank mines on the railway line after the water level drops or directly blow up the railway embankment. , even the tanks will not be able to pass by then.

In other words, Surovikino must be completely occupied before the water level drops at noon.

Shulka looked at his watch. It was two hours before noon.

"How long will it take us to clear the enemy?" Shulka asked.

Andrianka circled some buildings on the map, then calculated the average building occupation time, and then replied: "It will take at least five hours... Moreover, the further you go to the core area, the more difficult it may be, because the buildings are denser!"

Shulka knew what Andrianka meant.

The denser buildings mean that the German troops in several buildings can cover each other. For example, two buildings with a distance of only 50 meters between them actually form a line of defense, because the amphibious landing ship cannot be inserted between the two buildings, if it is forced to do so You will be hit by the crossfire of the two buildings.

These are just two buildings. If multiple buildings are densely connected in a circle or layered together with different heights, they will actually form a firepower fortress.

In this case, the amphibious landing ships of the Soviet army completely lost the advantage of besieging a building from all directions.

On the contrary, it also formed a disadvantage of "the enemy is in the dark and I am in the light", and "the enemy is in the high place and I am in the low place".

Once such a confrontation is formed, it is almost impossible to take Surovikino until the enemy has finished firing the bullets, which is far from being achieved in five hours.

"We can consider bombing with artillery!" Andrianka made a suggestion.

"This requires a lot of shells!" Mikhailvich objected: "The targets we want to bomb are relatively scattered and not large. It would be fine to bomb a few of the buildings, but so many buildings..."

The building was flooded with only a small roof exposed. It was not easy for the artillery to hit the target accurately, unless they used a dozen shells or used "Katyusha" to cover and shoot a target.

So, as Mikhailvich said, it is still possible if there are a limited number of buildings, but all the buildings must be blown up... The supplies of the Soviet army are not yet strong enough.

After thinking about it, Shulka asked, "Are most of the houses in Surovikino wooden or brick?"

"Mostly it's a mixture of brick and wood!" Andrianka replied: "Just like our other buildings, we use bricks to build the frame, and wood to build the roof and even the side walls!"

Shulka nodded, and asked again: "Do we have an attack aircraft pilot?"

"Yes, the 206th Division of the Attack Air Force!" Andrianka replied: "This aviation division is all Il attack aircraft!"

"Comrade Shulka!" Mikhailvich said, "you don't mean to use these attack planes to deal with those buildings?"

"Why not?" Shulka asked back.

"That won't have any effect!" Mikhailvich said: "The battlefield is full of smoke and water vapor, coupled with light rain...It is difficult for the pilot to find the target, and even if they find the target, it is difficult to hit it accurately! They're even dangerous!"

This is not to say that the Il-2 will be shot down by the German army. With the armor of the Il-2, the German light weapons basically cannot pose a threat to it.

What Mikhailvich said was that the Il-2 was operating at an ultra-low altitude with low visibility, and if you were not careful, you would bump into a protruding building or something else.

But of course Shulka knew this.

He replied: "Maybe, we don't need to find the target!"