After reoccupying the west bank of Hom, Matevich was not happy at all, because after counting the losses, the Soviet army suffered more than 3,000 casualties, 37 artillery pieces, and hundreds of tons of ammunition and supplies...... Some of this ammunition was stored in transit in Holm.

With trepidation, Matvich answered the phone call from General Pukaev.

"Comrade Pukaev!" Matevich reported: "I regret to report to you that last night we suffered a sneak attack and suffered heavy losses! ”

"I've heard!" Pukaev replied.

"I beg you to give me sanctions, Comrade Pukaev!" Matevich said: "I didn't finish the task you gave me! ”

Matevich had in mind the image of Major General Vardani committing suicide.

Matevic also thought about escaping, but he knew that he had nowhere to escape, and there was only one way in front of him, and that was to face it head-on.

But the situation is much better than Matevich imagined.

"Comrade Matevich!" The voice of General Pukaev came from the other end of the phone: "No one can guarantee that you will always win on the battlefield, you have done a good job, don't take last night's defeat to heart, the organization believes that you can finally defeat the Germans and regain Holm, continue to work hard!" ”

Matevich couldn't help but lose his mouth when he heard this, and then he breathed a sigh of relief and let go of a big stone in his heart, he knew that he had escaped.

Pukaev did this because he was also following the war in Holm...... The town of Holm had become more and more conspicuous among the Soviet and German armies, and the army group commands on both sides had their eyes set their eyes on this small town, which was only a few square kilometers.

Therefore, Pukaev knew the difficulties of the Battle of Holm, and at the same time knew that Matevich performed quite well in this battle, and even came to the verge of victory several times, but the performance of the Germans was even more unexpected by everyone.

"But, Comrade Matevich!" Then Pukaev changed his tone and said: "I hope you understand that Comrade Stalin never asked about the process, so you know what to do!" ”

"Yes!" As soon as Matvich stepped forward, he replied: "I promise not to disappoint Comrade Stalin and you!" ”

After hanging up the phone, Matevich set his eyes on Petronorev, and the two couldn't help but hug in celebration.

This may be a kind of sadness for the Soviet generals of this era...... Most commonly, they die not at the hands of the enemy, but at the hands of their own people, so they are more worried not about how to deal with the enemy, but how to face their own people.

The Germans let out a cheer, and I don't know who started shouting, and the soldiers shouted in unison one after another:

"Frick!"

"Frick!"

……

"Captain!" Colonel Slain shook Qin Chuan's hand and hugged him warmly, saying, "You have won, again!" While I know I have to get used to this, I can't do it because you know, every victory you win is pretty much a death for us! So, please, Captain, if you can, next time you think of a way sooner, and it's better to defeat the enemy as soon as you come up, so that we will all have an easy time! ”

The officers and soldiers around him were amused by Colonel Slane's words.

"A memorable battle, Captain!" Major General Hartman came up and shook Qin Chuan's hand and said, "Like I said, gold shines everywhere!" ”

Of course, Qin Chuan knew what Hartmann meant by this, but he pretended to be confused and replied simply: "Thank you, General!" ”

After recapturing the defense line of the Lovati River, it had a great advantage over the German defense, because this would keep the Soviet army in a large unsheltered low-lying area to be suppressed by the Germans, and more importantly, the Soviet army's trench filling plan could not be implemented...... After the tunnel of the drop line was opened, there were more tunnels on the east bank of the defense line, and these tunnels were like pillbox holes facing the Soviet army, and if the Soviet army still used bridge erection trucks and bulldozers to construct as before, there was no doubt that the tunnel crossings would paralyze them with a rocket when they approached.

As a result, the only thing the Soviets could do seemed to be to start with supplies as before: on the one hand, increase the blockade of Holm, and on the other hand, use one attack after another to consume Holm's ammunition.

Although this point is very important, to be honest, it doesn't have much to do with Qin Chuan's infantry, because this is a problem that belongs to the Air Force.

Qin Chuan only got some relevant information from Colonel Slane when he was on the phone:

First of all, the Soviets increased the distance and density of air defense, and the Germans had the information that the Soviets had put in at least three anti-aircraft artillery regiments, which were arranged in the near, middle, and far sections of the outer perimeter of Kholm.

The near section was the last line of defense of the Soviet air defense, and the middle and far sections were distributed within a radius of more than a dozen kilometers from Kholm, which was precisely the distance at which the glider was dehooked from the transport aircraft.

The Soviets' approach was to assume that the Germans had gliders supporting Holm in this direction, assuming that the Germans had gliders supporting Holm in that direction, they immediately ordered the anti-aircraft fire of the far and middle sections to maneuver to the nearest route for interception, and the near section was also prepared.

This approach is really effective, because it actually acts as an early warning.

But this effect can only play a limited role, because listening to the sound is really unreliable and it is easy to be deceived...... The Luftwaffe only needed to send a few transport planes to feint in a certain direction, using their voices to trick the Soviet air defense units into rushing in a certain direction, and on the other hand, they would send real support troops in the opposite direction to fly to Holm.

The Soviet air defense forces, on the other hand, were mobile on the ground, and their speed, especially in the snow at night, was very slow, so they could never keep up with the rhythm of the transport planes.

The second is that the retreat of Army Group North has almost been completed, so that the German air force has some fighters free, so that it can increase the supply and fire assistance to Holm.

This was of course good news for Holm, as a significant change was the resumption of airborne resupply...... Each airdrop was an indiscriminate bombardment of Soviet air defense positions by fighters and bombers, and then airdropped by Heinkel HE111 bombers.

The efficiency of airdropping with bombers is obviously much higher than that of transport planes, after all, transport pilots are in principle non-combat troops, and their tasks are generally transports rather than airdrops, while bombers perform the task of dropping bombs and delivering them accurately.