The iron hooves of the armored cavalry came to a halt 3 kilometers north of Wovich on the north bank of the Buchula River, and the worst came.

The reconnaissance battalion was attacked by the Russians when it appeared near two adjacent bridges on the north bank of the Buchula River, and although about a battalion of Russians was no threat to the Germans with Mosin Nagant's shots, the defense line formed by two lonely trenches also showed that the Russians had not been able to build a complete defensive position for a long time.

But this is bad enough, although the Russians have a rudimentary defensive line, the establishment of a bridgehead on the northern section of the railway bridge means that the Russians have deployed troops in Wovich and began to build defensive positions, you must know that Wovich at the fork of the railway is not a small town like Soldao, you can place a battalion in front of the railway bridge and road bridge on the north bank of the Buchula River, and you can see some Russian positions on both sides of the bridge on the south bank of the river, which shows that the Russians are not small here

With a battalion on the north bank and an unknown number of troops on the south bank, it is likely that the Russians will have an infantry brigade at Wovich unless they put most of their forces on both sides of the Buchula River, and who knows if the Russians will deploy more troops at this important railway crossing.

The rudimentary defensive line on the north bank could be chiseled through by a surprise attack by the armored cavalry of the reconnaissance battalion, but it would take a lot of time to cross the bridge after it was pierced, and the defensive strength of the Russians on the south bank was unknown, and if there was enough firepower on that end, all the troops on the bridge would have to become targets, and even if the Russians were not very strong, it was not a good idea for such a small number of troops to rush into the city and engage in street fighting with a brigade of Russians.

However, the reconnaissance battalion was not unable to do nothing before waiting for the arrival of the main forces in the rear, and when the guys who had been torn in the cavalry chariot got out of the car to relax their butts, the battalion artillerymen decided to keep the Russians busy first.

Using the chassis of the No. 1 cavalry fighting vehicle, the Wasp self-propelled howitzer that changed the entire space behind the driver into a semi-open fighting compartment saved the artillerymen the time to tow the artillery to change the marching state, and the use of the self-propelled chassis allowed the battalion-level troops in the 1st Armored Cavalry Division to have the same level of firepower as the regimental artillery in the infantry division.

How could the Russians not have imagined that the shelling of the Germans on the opposite side would come so quickly, and the signal soldiers who went back to report the news had not yet run back to the city, and the shells fell on their heads first.

Thanks to the good foundation of the chassis of the No. 1 cavalry chariot, the Wasp's fighting room was stored with 50 rounds of 105 mm shells, and it was not the turn of the self-propelled guns to fight with the Russians when they entered the city, and the main force was behind, and there was no need to worry about logistics, so the German artillerymen decided to shoot as much ammunition as the car could before the arrival of the follow-up troops.

So 8 self-propelled guns lined up, and the artillerymen began to rivet ammunition over the heads of the Russians.

Eight guns were not much, but the excited German artillerymen threw 400 shells on the Russians in 30 minutes, depleting the ammunition stored in the car. If the Russians had fortified themselves well, the shells would have been a mouthful of dirt for the Russians at most, but now the rudimentary Russian defensive line has been reduced to a mess by 400 rounds of 105 mm shells.

But the suffering of the Russians did not end there, and the artillery of the 1st Regiment of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Division, which was in place, took over the job, which also meant that the Germans, with the main forces in place, were about to attack!

The armored cavalry who had been leisurely watching the show had all boarded the vehicle, and the No. 1 cavalry chariot trembled with the roar of the engine. Kenson Jr. stood inside the machine-gun tower and waited for the signal to attack.

The armored cavalry of both regiments were to launch an offensive from two bridges at the same time, and the reconnaissance battalion, as the vanguard, was to rush across the Buchula River from the railway bridge on the east side before the 2nd armored cavalry regiment!

A green flare rose from behind, and Pony Kenson raised his right hand high and slashed down: "I'm Eberhard, all forward!" ”

The driver hung up the clutch, and the cavalry chariot started with a bang, with 4 assault guns as the lead, 23 chariots rushed through the bushes and rushed to the Russian positions on the north bank of the railway bridge!

The four assault guns were fired all the way to 200 meters in front of the Russians' first-line trenches, but they did not find a single target worthy of their 75-mm guns. The Russian lines, which did not even have a single direct artillery, were no threat to the Germans, and the previous shelling had clearly caused the Russians heavy losses, and even though the shelling of the positions had stopped, the German fire suppression began to extend to the line on the west side of Wovich, and the guns that the Russians could still stand up and fire back were scarce.

No amount of heavy artillery fire could kill everyone on the position, and although the 75-mm guns of the assault guns were not used, the German tanks were still firing fiercely.

The powerful MG5 on the cavalry chariot became the most effective weapon at this time, and the earthen breastwall piled up by the Russians could not protect them, and the 12.7 mm large-caliber machine gun bullets would penetrate the wall along with the people!

The dense bullets pressed only Mosin Nagant's Russian strafing, and the heroic return fire of the Russian soldiers who had held out in the previous heavy shelling was nothing in the eyes of the Germans. The armored cavalry of the reconnaissance battalion did not even need to get off the car, they just ran over the heads of the Russians, and the work of clearing the remaining Russians in the line was carried out by the follow-up units of the 2nd regiment.

There were also Russians on the south bank of the bridge, and under heavy German artillery fire, the Russians withdrew a considerable part of their troops and retreated to the south bank. Moreover, considering the safety of the bridge, the Germans did not have the retreat of the Russians to block it, and even when the artillery fire extended to the south bank, they only fired suppressive fire on both sides of the bridge, but did not directly shell the south end of the bridge.

Therefore, the Germans still encountered Russian resistance when crossing the bridge, and there were still 4 76.2mm field guns on the Russian positions on the other side of the river! This is the regimental artillery of the Russians! Because the firing position of the Wasp self-propelled howitzer was outside the range of the Russian artillery, and there were bushes blocking the view, the Russians, who could not return fire, could actually endure the wild bombardment of the German artillery and let their artillery wait for the most vulnerable moment when the Germans crossed the bridge before firing!

If the reconnaissance battalion had recklessly gone directly to the bridge, it was likely that it would have suffered a big loss on the bridge, and even the destroyed cavalry chariots would have become a roadblock blocking their advance!

The Russian artillery positions exposed by the fire were immediately counter-suppressed by the regimental artillery of the 2 armored cavalry regiments, and the Russians tried to insist on returning fire at first, but the overwhelming shells completely destroyed the efforts of the Russian artillery. The covered shelling of 32 Wasp self-propelled howitzers of two regimental artillery batteries made the 4 field guns of the Russian regimental artillery dumb down after firing less than 20 shells, and what was even more terrible was the violent explosion that swept through the artillery positions after the ammunition was hit!

Most of the dozen or so shells fired by the Russian artillery before fell into the Buchula River, and a few hit the bridge deck, but fortunately the 76.2 mm field guns were not very powerful, and the damage to the railway bridge did not affect the passage of the Germans, only one hit the front of the chariot that rushed to the front, and the No. 2 assault gun, which served as a shield, blocked this shell, but the driver almost drove his chariot headlong down the bridge and planted in the Buchula River.

As the assault guns crossed the railway bridge, the bridgehead established by the Russians at the southern end of the bridge looked like paper paste in the face of direct fire from the 75-mm field guns, and the reconnaissance battalion that crossed the bridge quickly spread out to both flanks and continued to advance into the city of Wovich.

However, an easy breakthrough of the Russian Buchula did not mean that everything was going well for the Germans, and the Germans knew that their troubles had only just begun after entering the city. Many of the narrow roads in Wavich could not even allow two cavalry chariots to drive side by side. And the complex city roads did not allow the troops to gather together and squeeze into one road, so the armored cavalry advancing along one road in groups of 2 cars were divided by buildings on the adjacent streets.

Just rushed into the city and drove less than a hundred meters, the cavalry chariot that drove through an intersection was attacked by the Russians, and the cold hairs stood up when he heard the clanging impact on the armor plate, and the thin machine gun tower armor could not give the little horse Kensen a sense of security at this time.

"Reverse! Reversing! Reverse now! Pony Kenson shouted and stomped on the driver's back with his foot, and the driver, who did not control the force of the kick in a hurry, stumbled forward, and pushed forward with both hands holding the lever, and the cavalry chariot not only did not immediately rush forward for a short distance.

Fortunately, the driver reacted quickly enough, and after braking suddenly, he quickly reversed the vehicle into the rear street after changing to reverse gear, so that the rear of the vehicle was in a position obscured by the building, and the infantry could get out of the car under cover.

Pony Kenson banged his fist the bulkhead of the crew compartment and shouted through the in-car communicator: "Get out of the car!" The machine gun of the Russian guy is in the house opposite! ”

The two cavalry chariots turned their machine gun towers to the left and right, and without looking where the Russians were firing the bullets, they began to suppress the fire with MG5s at the windows of the buildings at the intersection.

However, the old masonry buildings were unusually strong, even if the rubble of the building on the opposite side was flying with large-caliber machine guns, the fire point of the Russians on the opposite side did not mute.

The soldiers who got out of the car were blocked at the intersection and could only hide in the buildings on both sides, and the open area of the intersection allowed the infantry to rush over by themselves to die, and the two assault guns assigned to their company were on the street next to them for a while.

At this time, it was discovered that the number of Russians on the opposite side was not large, and there were probably only a dozen Mosin Nagant and a Maxim machine gun firing at him.

The little horse Kenson, who was blocked by the Russians of 1 squad and blocked the road, gritted his teeth, was ruthless in his heart, and ordered to the driver: "Forward!" Let's go up! ”

This is to bet that the Russians on the opposite side have no way to take the 20 mm front armor of the cavalry chariot, otherwise the destroyed cavalry chariot will become an obstacle to the advance of the troops when it is blocked at the junction.

The Russians did not know that the armor of the machine gun turret of the cavalry chariot was only 10 mm thick, and that the relatively wide hull of the cavalry chariot was a better target than the small single machine gun turret, and the Russians hit all the bullets in the front of the hull.

Listening to the sound of metal crashing like raindrops in front of him, the driver was frightened and let the chariot drive through the street more than ten meters wide, although the 20 mm front armor was hit with potholes, but it still withstood the test, and the chariot drove through the intersection and blocked directly in front of the Russians' guns!

The infantrymen, who were following behind with the hull as cover, immediately rushed forward and threw two grenades through the window, and the blast of air mixed with debris sprayed out of the window and smashed on the front armor of the combat vehicle.

The Germans, who stormed the building, began to fight the Russians in the room.

This was the case on the entire front of the German advance, where the German soldiers who stormed the building were met with resolute resistance from the Russians, and in this kind of battle, where only a wall could be heard and the voices of the enemy next door could be heard, even though the German soldiers with cavalry versions of semi-automatic rifles, submachine guns, and grenades had the upper hand in firepower, the Russians continued to inflict casualties among the German soldiers by firing bullets through the door panels and suddenly leaning out of the corner of the corridor to pull the trigger.

It took Makenson Jr.'s crew 40 minutes to drive a 10-minute street, and this was only the outskirts of the city, where the Russians had apparently not had time to organize an effective defense, and the Germans had not yet met strong resistance. Even so, the occasional bullets from the buildings on both sides forced the Germans to sweep the houses on both sides of the street, house by house, and the pace of advance was seriously delayed.

The further they advanced into the city centre, the stronger the resistance became, and at the three-way junction in front of the district courthouse, the Germans faced the heaviest resistance since entering the city, and the three-storey red-roofed masonry building at the intersection blocked the road on either side.

"Cavalry chariots retreat! There are field guns in the building! Cavalry chariots retreat! When Pony Kenson reached the intersection, he was stopped by his own men. The Mazovieka Humanist Pedagogy School, also a three-story masonry structure, blocked the Russians' view to the northeast and the view of the younger Mackenson in the direction of the junction.

So after hearing the news that the Russians on the opposite side had field artillery, Little Ma Kensen was also scared into a cold sweat. Climbing out of the chariot and following the lieutenant who had stopped him up to the third floor of the school to look at the intersection to the west, Kenson knew how bad it would be if he hadn't been stopped by friendly troops.

To the east of the intersection was a large lawn around the Catholic church, and to the north of the intersection was a public green space, which made it impossible for the Germans to storm the district court through the buildings, and the Maxim machine guns on the third floor made the open areas on both sides of the building impassable death zone. Moreover, the Russians also hid 2 field guns in the building, and the 4 cavalry chariots of the 1st company that tried to break through were directly hit, and the destroyed vehicles were paralyzed at the intersection, and the members of the vehicle crew who were lucky enough to survive climbed out of the chariot and were also swept down by machine guns at the intersection, and the corpses were lying not far from their chariots.

"We need direct artillery support! We need direct artillery support! The lieutenant acting platoon commander didn't care about the relationship between his superiors and subordinates at this time, and grabbed Pony Kenson's shoulder and shook it vigorously.

After the destruction of the four cavalry vehicles, the soldiers of the platoon still tried to attack the buildings in front of them, but the soldiers operating the two recoilless guns for direct fire at close range could not destroy the outer wall of the opposite building with too little force after exhausting all the ammunition at an unbearable casualty rate.

The platoon commander was killed, more than half of the troops were killed, and the remaining dozen or so men could only advance into the school, staring at the sturdy façade of the district court across the green space of the Catholic church.

Looking at the four destroyed cavalry chariots at the intersection, the Pony Kensen knew that this friendly army had lost all means of communication at this time, and had to rely on the radios on their own vehicles.

"The 1st Company, 2nd Platoon, and 3rd Company, 1st Platoon of the Reconnaissance Battalion were blocked at the three-way intersection in front of the District Court, and the Russian army built fortifications in the building, and the defense was very strong, and requested all nearby assault guns to concentrate on the Higher Humanist School!

Repeating on one side, the 1st Company 2nd Platoon and the 3rd Company 1st Platoon of the reconnaissance battalion were blocked at the fork in the road in front of the district court, and the Russian army built fortifications in the building, the defense was very strong, and all the nearby assault guns were requested to concentrate on the Higher Humanist School! ”

Back in the car, Kenson felt that even the 75mm field gun of the No. 2 assault gun might not be able to deal with such a building, and could only hope that the problem would be solved by numbers.

However, the response from the headset was beyond his expectations: "Two peonies are right behind you, and they will be there soon!" ”

Two peonies? Divisional 150-mm self-propelled heavy mortars!