After breakfast, Shulka and his men wrapped themselves in a marching blanket and nestled in a corner to rest for a while.

Although a chill continued to seep through the surroundings, Shulka soon fell asleep...... There was no rest from a long day of intense fighting, allowing Shulka to fall asleep at any moment.

But within a few minutes of sleep, Shulka was woken up.

It is the whistling sound of an airplane, and there are a lot of voices that can be heard.

Then there was a sudden burst of gunfire and various screams, and there was a mess overhead, but because Shulka and the others were indoors, they couldn't see what was happening in the air.

"This is a German counterattack!" The instructor said: "It seems that they have dispatched a lot of planes, and it seems that they want to regain air supremacy!" ”

"Reclaim air supremacy?" Shulka was a little strange when he heard this.

At a time when the Soviet and German armies were engaged in fierce street battles in Tver, air supremacy did not make much sense.

Both sides are inside buildings, and even when fighting on the streets, it is difficult for the aircraft to be effective.

On the other hand, because of the poor equipment of the German airfields, it took a long time for its aircraft to take off for combat in extremely cold weather.

Why did the Germans do this?

They are clearly not untargeted.

In the next second, Shulka thought of the reason, and without saying a word, he grabbed the phone and called the command headquarters.

"Comrade Colonel!" Shulka said: "We need to pay attention to the direction of the river! ”

"The river?" This took Katukov by some surprise.

"Yes, the river!" Shulka said: "This is the reason why the Germans want to seize air supremacy!" ”

Hearing this, Katukov immediately understood.

This was indeed a solution, the river was empty, allowing the Germans to avoid street fighting with the Soviets, and the width of the river ranged from 300 to 500 meters, and the German armored units only needed to know the distance to avoid the bazooka with a range of only 100 meters.

"They're going to attack from the river?" The instructor looked at Shulka suspiciously: "That used to be our offensive line!" ”

"Yes!" Shulka replied: "But that doesn't mean the enemy can't use it!" ”

Whoever has air supremacy can attack from the direction of the river, and now air supremacy is clearly in the hands of the prepared Luftwaffe.

"What do they want to do?" Pukarev asked.

"Take the Tver Bridge!" Shulka replied: "Then surround us in this residential area so that they can repair the railroad and resume transportation!" ”

"They're delusional!" Said the instructor.

But in reality, Shulka thought the Germans could do it.

The reason was that the area around the river was open land, and the German army, which had air supremacy, clearly occupied the initiative.

Although the Germans could not enter residential areas to fight the Soviets because they were afraid of bazookas, they could keep the Soviets from getting out...... As soon as the Soviet tanks stepped out of the residential area, they would be exposed to the enemy's sight, so the planes and PAK40 anti-tank guns would greet them vigorously.

So, one came out and destroyed another, and the bazooka in the hands of the Soviet army was not even within range.

It can be said that it was only now that the Germans really found a correct tactic against the bazooka.

Of course, this was not good for the Soviet army.

After a few minutes, Katukov called Shulka.

"You're right!" Katukov said: "They launched an offensive from the river, leaving a detachment of troops to reinforce the Tver Bridge with the main forces!" ”

"Yes!" Shulka responded and gave the order for reinforcements.

If the Soviet army did not have a bazooka in its hands, it was afraid that it would collapse due to insufficient troops.

The reason was that their forces were too scattered, the number of tanks was small and the movement was very slow, and it was difficult for the infantry to hold back the German tank and infantry attack, even in street fighting.

But with bazookas, only a few platoons equipped with bazookas were needed to block the enemy and fill the gap in the defensive line, and the main forces were transferred to the bridgehead.

By the time Shulka arrived at the bridgehead with his troops, the battle had already begun.

Garrisoned at the bridgehead was a tank company plus an infantry company, a total of eleven tanks, mostly Valentine and M3 medium.

Originally, it was judged that there was little chance of a tank battle in the bridgehead, but these two tanks could deal with it, especially the M3 medium, whose 75mm gun could well block the roads and railways on both sides of the Tver Bridge...... Although it has a small firing range, both railways and roads are fixed targets, and the M3 medium is completely capable of dealing with them.

The problem: At this time, the Germans had seized air supremacy and the bridgehead position was exposed to the open field, and the German fighters swooped down one after another to bomb them wildly.

All five "Valentine" tanks were blown up because they were too slow, and even two of them were blown up because they skidded and could not move because of their track problems.

Three of the other six M3 mediums were also blown up, and only three took refuge in residential areas at speed...... Places in the residential areas were set up to hide the tanks, in fact, canvas was used to prop up a space so that enemy pilots in the air could not detect them, and even some streets that needed to be maneuvered.

It was along such streets that Shulka's troops were reinforced to the bridgehead.

As soon as the front foot reached the German artillery fire, they attacked the buildings near the bridgeheads on both sides of the river, apparently with the aim of knocking out these places where the Soviets could hide and reducing the pressure of the German attack.

The artillery fire lasted a full twenty minutes.

It seems that last night the Germans prepared not only fighters, but also artillery shells.

Because for the Germans at this time, artillery preparation on this scale was rare.

What Shulka didn't know was that Kubil was using all the shells that were destined for the 4th Tank Army...... Hopner, of course, would not object, because the transport line was already cut off and not a single shell could be transported, so what difference did it make to Kubil to open up the transport line? The latter was at least a hope for the 4th Tank Army.

Twenty minutes later, when Shulka looked up from the trench, he found that the buildings around him had been reduced to piles of rubble, and even those that had not been blown up were in ruins.

The communications soldier handed the phone to Shulka, and it was Katukov who called.

"The Germans are already rushing to repair the railway!" "The bridgehead position is of paramount importance, if lost," Katukov said...... They may be able to resume shipping in an hour, and our efforts will be wasted! ”

Shulka understood what Katukov meant, and at this time he was afraid that there was a lot of ammunition backlog in Tver, and there were even trains on standby.

As soon as the railway was opened, these supplies would flood to the 4th Tank Army north of Moscow, so that the 4th Tank Army could hold out for some time.

In other words, the lever that skidled the entire battle is the bridgehead in front of you.