USSR 1941

The Germans launched two more attacks that day, but were eventually repulsed by the Soviets.

The heavy rain caused a lot of trouble to the German army, making their combat effectiveness unable to perform normally, but the Soviet army relied on field fortifications to stabilize their position.

Otherwise, if the weather is clear and the line of sight is good, it is indeed difficult for such field fortifications to block the German attack.

Because first of all it was the indiscriminate bombing of artillery fire, fighter planes and bombers. After a few rounds of bombing, the trenches would no longer be trenches, and the anti-tank trenches would basically be flattened. Then the German army sent tanks and assault guns to cover the infantry advancing..." Even the "Stalin Line of Defense" could not be successfully blocked, so how could field fortifications be possible.

This is not to say that there is a problem with the "roller" defense mentioned by Shulka, because this is not just a problem of defense. The Soviet army has built three lines of defense behind it. There was one, when the Germans thought they had broken through the last one, but the Soviets who had fled to the rear built another one...these repetitions are endless.

Therefore, unless the German army can break through several lines of defense at the same time in a short period of time and then drive straight in, it is destined to fall into the trap of this "roller" defense.

The problem is that Shulka or the 333rd Regiment did have some luck, otherwise they might not be able to stop the Germans for a day on the line of defense with only field fortifications, and this often means death.

Fortunately, none of this happened, so Shulka and others smoothly entered the retreat procedure at one o'clock in the morning.

Because of the previous experience... To be precise, it was not my own experience but the experience of the friendly army retreating and being spotted by the German army and being chased by the tail. This time the Soviet army did not dare to be sloppy at all before retreating.

First they had to dig two more fortifications behind the line of defense.

This is for cover troops.

There are never too many fortifications in a war, especially when the enemy has tanks and the Soviets don't have them... The Soviet tanks suffered heavy losses after the battle, some of which were destroyed by the Germans during the battle, What's more, the mobility of the Soviet tanks is not good. When retreating, they are damaged while retreating. There are enemies chasing behind them and there is no time to repair them, so they can only be blown up.

Then there was this thing that confused many soldiers: the Soviet army had many planes and tanks before the war, but they were almost invisible after the war.

After laying out the defense line in the rear, a large number of mines were laid on the original position.

The mines are PMD mines, which are often referred to as "wooden shell mines" by modern military fans...Soviet equipment is often rough, simple, low-cost but very practical, and "wooden shell mines" are one of them.

It is actually two wooden boxes buckled upside down like a lunch box, with a pull or push fuze and explosives in the middle, as long as you step on the upper cover, the fuze will be driven and the mine will be detonated.

Because it is a wooden landmine, it makes the German landmine detector completely useless. The disadvantage is that it is not powerful enough and does not have an iron shell as shrapnel to kill nearby targets.

However, this does not affect its deterrent power as a mine.

It was only at this time that Shulka learned how to lay mines... The landmines were transported to the soldiers in large quantities by the engineers in the rear, and then the engineers needed to teach the soldiers on the spot to lay the mines and the precautions.

This is because the entire defense line is more than 100 kilometers long from south to north, and if it is all laid by engineers, there will be insufficient manpower.

But at the same time, this also exposed the lack of rigor of the Soviet army... The combat troops were allowed to mine large areas on the battlefield, and there were many recruits who had just joined the army for only a few days.

The thought of Shulka made her tremble with fear.

"First of all, you must make sure that there are no friendly troops in front of you!" A master engineer explained to Shulka and others: "If you don't pay attention to this, you will soon find that your friendly troops have been trapped in the minefield and cannot get out. !"

The soldiers let out a burst of laughter.

The engineering soldier said very seriously: "This is not a joke, comrades, because it is very likely that this 'friendly army' is yourselves!"

What this said is indeed that things on the battlefield are like this. Your own negligence may cause the death of your allies, and similarly, the negligence of your allies may also cause your death.

Therefore, only by cooperating with each other and carefully restraining ourselves can we ensure that each other will not become "friendly troops" trapped in the minefield.

"Then, you have to do this!" The engineer sergeant said and demonstrated the mine-laying process to Shulka and others.

The process is very simple. After setting the ray, pull out the safety pin, and then gently close the upper cover...you don't even need to do camouflage.

Of course, this is because the engineers have lowered the requirements for the combat troops: the engineers are worried that the combat troops will detonate the landmines when they lay a camouflage, that is, cover them with something. Some waterproofing measures have been taken.

Then, the soldiers lined up almost in a row, and then laid the mines in front, and then took a few steps back and repeated this action.

Although this makes the mines very regular, the point is that your team will not be chaotic to minimize accidents during the mine.

But inevitably there have been a few accidents.

At the beginning, everyone was very careful, and even did it with a sense of awe, because as long as such a small landmine could take a person's life.

But after a long time, the soldiers became a little unruly... When Shulka and others were still laying mines, there was only a "boom", followed by a burst of wailing. Get all over him.

"What's going on?" The engineering soldier ordered the medical soldiers to go up and asked a few people nearby: "Who did the good thing?"

"I don't know, sir!"

"I don't know either!"

...

Of course no one admitted it, but the engineer master quickly found the problem. He grabbed a soldier on the right and pushed him to the ground, cursing: "You bastard, you are one step faster than others!"

So, sometimes it's not a good thing to move too fast.

After the original position was covered with mines, the troops retreated under the cover of the follow-up troops.

Shulka was thinking on the way:

It is 165 kilometers from the "Stalin Line of Defense" to Kyiv, and there are 16 defense lines for every ten kilometers of defense lines. The German army captures one or two lines of defense every day, and it takes almost ten days to arrive in Kyiv, which means that Kyiv still has ten days. preparation time.

This time is enough for Kyiv, after all, they only need to lay out camouflage and use basements such as cellars.

Then, it is not a big problem to block the German Army Group South on the Kyiv defense line, and the focus is on the rear.