USSR 1941

  Chapter 62 Ambush

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

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 Muller: "The Russians in front are very cunning, they disguised the bunkers as wooden houses..."

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

   "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 used anti-tank guns to attack the side armor of our tank!" The adjutant said: "As you can see, we have suffered heavy losses!"

   "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 30 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. The tank in the middle is facing the enemy as long as it does not turn easily. In theory Don't worry about enemy flank 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 Müller 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 were real. Fake.

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

   There was a burst of laughter from the subordinates in the earphones:

   "Yes, Major! Those that will collapse are wooden houses, and the ones with concrete blocks are bunkers!"

   "We can also use tanks to bump!"

  …

   Then there was another burst of laughter.

   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, 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 in the wood, and then paint the cement black...so camouflaged Rough perforation certainly can't fool people in the near distance, but it is fatal to German tank soldiers who are in the distance and looking out with a periscope in the tank, especially at this time when the battlefield is still full of thick smoke from burning wood.

   You need to know the tactics of the German army to attack the bunkers, which is 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 five flowers in front of them are 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 false, shoot freely!"

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

  So the tank "boomed" and slammed toward the bunkers in front.

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

   Seeing this, Major Muller couldn't help but frown. If the enemy's bunker firepower cannot be effectively suppressed, the infantry's charge will 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 said there was not enough shells!" said Major Gavrilov.

   "Insufficient ammunition?" Commissar Fuming 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 very intense, 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 Fuming looked at the German armored unit in a dilemma in front of the bunker in disbelief. It only took one round of artillery fire here to cause heavy losses to the German armored battalion, but the headquarters easily let go of this opportunity.

  At this time, Commissar Fumin 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 is unwilling to see the 333rd regiment win again, because it will not only be of no benefit to him, but may even put him in danger.

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

   This has the nature of fire reconnaissance: if the bombs 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 thick smoke rose around the tanks.

  Major Muller 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 sight and also interfere with their own sight, which is even more detrimental to the non-moving bunker.

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

  (end of this chapter)