Chapter 454: The Battle for Warsaw (10)
After being forcibly dragged back to the command post, General William Loeb was still in a state of euphoria, describing with relish the scene of the two armies fighting each other.
"It's really unseemly for the old general to do this! In the unlikely event of an accident, the troops will be leaderless, and I will not be able to account to Mr. President and Chief of Staff Hoffmann, not to mention the fact that Minister Zeckert and Commander-in-Chief Rundstedt have repeatedly told me to protect you. Rommel had never said such a thing to William Loeb.
"Well, well, I'm very sorry, Your Excellency. I just want to have a good time, if this old bone doesn't take the opportunity to rejuvenate itself, I'm afraid it will only be a real old decay. William Loeb said embarrassedly.
William Loeb was like a child who never grew up, mischievous and cute, so much that Rommel couldn't laugh or cry, and immediately ordered the guards to change the old general's bloodstained military uniform and bring hot water to wash up.
At this moment, the Soviets continued to pounce on the German positions as if they were crazy, and the cavalry had already made several charges, and the corpses in front of the positions were slowly piled up into a hill. On the glittering battlefield, the horses that have lost their owners are galloping and roaring, and the soldiers who are missing arms and legs are struggling desperately......
The Soviet cavalry charges were repulsed again and again, but again and again they used 122 caliber cannons to start the prelude to the charge.
"Heavy artillery, large-caliber heavy artillery! God, where did the Soviets get such powerful artillery? And there is such a long range" the Germans were puzzled.
The first wave of sudden attacks of the Soviet army caught the Germans off guard, suffering heavy casualties, and then they were frightened by the momentum of the Soviet army, and the position was repeatedly seized by the Soviet cavalry. However, the panicked German troops soon gradually regained their fighting consciousness and recaptured the forward positions under the pressure of bullets from officers at all levels.
"I'm most worried about their cavalry, the sword flashed, it was too late to hide, and if I wasn't careful, my head would move." The German soldiers had a new understanding of the strength of the Soviet army.
"Don't worry, brothers, the Soviets have just one head, and their cavalry is not so invincible, if they come again, everyone will use the guys in their hands to pile them down in front of the position." The officers kept cheering on the soldiers......
At 5 o'clock in the morning, it was already dawn, and the recovering German troops, under the command of Rommel, decided to retaliate with a tooth for a tooth and suddenly began a fierce shelling of the Soviet positions. The Soviets had no choice and hastily organized artillery to return fire.
"Inform Lieutenant Colonel Fritz Witte of the commandos! Let him come and see me at once. Rommel felt that the position of the Soviet artillery was questionable, and he wanted to find out.
Not long after the messengers left, Witt arrived at the general headquarters.
"Lieutenant Colonel, do you see the artillery fire of the Soviet troops? Is their range questionable? Rommel asked Witte suddenly.
"See, Deputy Commander-in-Chief. You must have noticed a problem with the position of their artillery, right? Werther saw this very keenly.
"Very well, Lieutenant Colonel, I think you already know what to do."
"Yes! Rest assured, deputy commander-in-chief, I will take out the artillery positions of the Soviets right away! Werther was about to leave.
"Come back, Lieutenant Colonel." Rommel still seems to have something to say.
"Yes! Deputy Commander-in-Chief. Werther stood straight in front of Rommel again.
"After attacking the Soviet artillery positions, go straight to Ivanov's command and want to cause chaos in their rear." Rommel said as he lifted his military cap.
"Please rest assured, deputy commander-in-chief!" Witt gave a military salute.
After Werther left, Rommel patted his head and suddenly turned around and shouted to the staff officers of the command: "Give me non-stop artillery coverage!" Inform the Lodz airbase to quickly deliver an air strike on the defenders of Trojanny. The tank units of Donbruvka and Tevushchi were ordered to prepare for the charge. ”
Amid the rumbling of artillery, the Soviet position had become a sea of fire, many soldiers' limbs were littered, and most of the survivors were shivering with fear, cowering in the damp tunnels.
At this time, the assault team led by Witt had touched the artillery position of the Soviet army, and the Soviet army was caught off guard and hurriedly confronted with light weapons, but Witt's assault team came prepared, and the Soviet army was obviously at a disadvantage, and the two sides fired fiercely, and finally because of the disparity in strength, the Soviet army slowly retreated and was forced to abandon all the artillery on the forward position.
At dawn, the German DO234 fighter-bombers flying over like a swarm of bees bombarded indiscriminately, and the Soviets hurriedly fired into the air, but they gained little, and the German fighters dropped hundreds of tons of bombs and disappeared in the northeast with the tail flame of victory.
While the miserable Soviet troops were licking their wounds, the German tank units were mainly attacking Trojanny frontally, and the tanks of Donbruvka and Tvuschi also attacked the Soviet positions at the same time. Three tanks marched in unison and pounced on the Soviet positions.
At this time, the Soviet 3rd Guards Tank Army, which had rushed to reinforce from due north, also arrived at Trojanny at the same time, and in an area of nearly 20 square kilometers, the tanks were in hand-to-hand combat, which was spectacular. The two sides once again engaged in a tank battle that was unprecedented in their history.
Although the Soviet army clearly had the upper hand in the number of tanks, it was difficult to play to the advantage because of the narrow geographical area. The Germans invested only more than 80 tanks, but they were very powerful and very flexible. As a result, the Germans boldly approached the Soviets and made it impossible for them to use their hands and feet.
The Soviet army was finally unexpected, and immediately took care of one thing and the other, and the position was in chaos, while the German army took the opportunity to expand the results of the battle and broke through each one. On the battlefield strewn with corpses, the Soviets threw down the wreckage of more than 100 tanks, and the rest of the tanks fled.
Having completed the strike on the Soviet artillery positions, Werther's assault team quickly interspersed and entered the Soviet advance headquarters in Trojanny, however, they were a step late. Because of the appearance of German fighters, Ivano sensed the danger, so he led the staff officers of the command headquarters very early and left the position to the miserable defenders.
At this time, Rommel once again gave the order for an all-out march to Trojanny, and nearly 150,000 German troops were overwhelming, sweeping towards the Soviet positions.
The defenders of Trojanni, who had already gone to the throne, trembled, threw away their armor and fled. Seventy or eighty thousand Soviet soldiers died and surrendered, and the cruel part only hated their parents for missing two legs, and rushed to Lazimin and Wovomin, who had no natural danger to defend.
At the same time, the German forces in the southeast also began to strategically shrink, compressing the encirclement to Koubel and Gulakar. The German 14th Army, west of Warsaw, with the strong cooperation of the air force, also continued to advance by surprise, and the large army had already occupied Talqin, Buvogne, Grozisk and other vast towns and plains.
At about seven o'clock in the morning, the German tanks pursued the victory with the infantry, and soon occupied Trojani and the surrounding vast land, and took advantage of the situation to take Mokre, advancing the forward position to the front of Razmin.
Lazimin, who was in no danger to defend, could be attacked by the Germans at any time, and Tukhachevsky, knowing that he could not do anything at this time, deliberately set up a formation here, as if he was preparing for a final battle with the Germans on this vast plain.
However, William Loeb and Rommel were not in a hurry to seek a decisive battle with the Soviets, but waited and waited for the situation.