Woohoo......

Just as Pavlyuchenko and her comrades were pondering how to arrange their post-war life, suddenly, a sharp and piercing whistling sound was cut through the air. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info This sound sounds like a ghost roar from hell, and it seems like a dozen or dozens of huge pipe organs being blown at the same time, and the piercing sound pierces people's eardrums and goes straight to the heart and lungs!

"Rocket artillery! Hide! ”

Immediately someone screamed in horror. People who have been fighting on the battlefields of Lviv and Ukraine for almost a year are all too familiar with this Soviet rocket artillery, known as "Stalin's organ".

Due to the disadvantages of the Red Air Force, towed artillery that took a lot of time to deploy and placed was difficult to survive on the battlefield and could only be used very carefully. Therefore, the Soviet Red Army is extremely favored by rocket artillery that can instantly drop a large amount of ammunition and can also hit artillery at a moment's notice, and the number of equipment is increasing, and the frequency of use is also increasing, and it has the potential to replace towed artillery as the main force of the Red Army's artillery.

So this kind of rocket artillery, which was launched with great momentum, inflicted great losses on the attacking "Ukrainian" German army on the battlefield of Western Ukraine in the autumn and winter of 1942. It has naturally become the most hated weapon of the Ukrainians.

By the way, the Germans played no worse than the Soviets, and even better, the Germans played such an abominable weapon.

However, the use of rocket artillery by the Germans is still different from that of the Soviets, and now the German rocket artillery is divided into reserve rocket artillery units directly under the artillery director (at this time Germany does not have rocket artillery), which is mainly equipped with heavy rocket artillery of the 280/300/320mm level, which is generally attached to the group army group or the headquarters of the group army, and is mainly used for attacking fortified operations, so the mobility of rocket artillery is not emphasized, and the equipment is towed rocket artillery.

The other is the rocket artillery belonging to the combat sappers, which is also equipped with large-caliber rocket artillery, but is mounted on a half-track. Such rocket artillery was used to clear obstacles, clear mines and blow up enemy fortresses.

The third type of rocket artillery belonged to the divisional artillery, and each division belonging to the Wehrmacht Army and SS had a rocket artillery battalion, armed with medium and light rocket launchers mounted on cheap 2-ton trucks, of which the infantry units were armed with 10-barreled 150mm rocket launchers, and the armored and panzergrenadiers were armed with 48-track (guide) 80mm light rocket launchers.

These two classes of rocket artillery are now the most widely used, and they are heavily equipped under the supervision of Hersmann himself, so they are both called "Hirschmann's Organ".

Pavlyuchenko, who had been bombarded by rocket artillery on the battlefield in Ukraine for an unknown number of times, reacted quickly, and when the ghost cry of "Boom" came, she flipped off her horse - the rocket artillery was so loud that it was easy to scare the horse crazy - and before she could stand firm on the ground, the sound of rocket explosions followed.

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble......

The explosion slammed into the ground, the powerful shock wave turned into a violent wave, and the shattered shrapnel swept mercilessly through the ranks of the 14th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion like the sickle of death.

Pavlyuchenko was lucky, she was right behind an armored Cougar, and when the rocket hit, the driver of the Cougar immediately hit the brakes. The armored car came to a halt in front of Pavlyuchenko, who had flipped off her horse, and she immediately crawled forward desperately and got under the chassis of the Puma, which was thin and not heavy, but it was enough to withstand the fragments of the rocket, and it would not be destroyed unless it was hit directly or the rocket exploded at close range.

So Pavlyuchenko found himself a very safe place, but the officers and soldiers who were exposed to the power of the rockets were miserable, and many of them were beaten into blood by shrapnel before they could even jump off their horses. There were also some people whose horses were frightened, and they scurried around uncontrollably, carrying their masters and running wild in the rain of bullets!

In less than a minute, the SS cavalry reconnaissance battalion had suffered heavy losses, nearly 80 of the more than 300 men were killed or wounded, and the horses suffered even greater losses, either killed or ran away.

Those who escaped the catastrophe also have no time to grieve, because they know that the battle has just begun!

It is certainly not the Soviet partisans who can bombard them with rocket artillery, but the real main force! Looking at the momentum of the rocket artillery bombardment just now, at least a rocket artillery battalion is firing a salvo (in fact, it is not very accurate, otherwise the losses will not be the only ones). And the troops that can be attached to a rocket artillery battalion are at least a division. This Soviet division will not be pulled down after a burst of rocket artillery without a head, and the bitter battle has just begun!

"Attention, attention, prepare for battle!"

The cries of the officers and the screams of the wounded rang in Pavlyuchenko's buzzing ears almost simultaneously. She immediately rolled and got out from under the chassis of the Cougar armored car. Then he looked around, and found that his war horse was lying on the ground with blurred flesh and blood, still panting rapidly. She hurriedly ran over and removed her backpack and G43 semi-automatic rifle from the dying warhorse. The backpack showed signs of flame burn, but it was not broken, and the brand new G43 semi-automatic rifle was intact.

Just when Pavlyuchenko wanted to check the wounds of his big Polish horse, someone shouted again: "Tank! Tanks of the Soviets! ”

Pavlyuchenko raised his head and looked at the sky, it was almost evening, which meant that the Luftwaffe could not help much...... It seems that the commander of the Soviets was an experienced general, and he chose a very good moment to strike.

The Soviet commander who commanded the ambush was named Mikhail. Fedorovich. Lukin, with the rank of general, was the commander of the 5th Tank Army of the Red Army.

His tank 5th Army arrived in Roslavl, south of the Smolensk region, on the night of May 5. As soon as he got off the train, he learned from the commander of the militia division stationed in Roslavl that the German armored forces (in fact, armored cavalry) had occupied Klimovich, 70 km away!

Lukin took this news very seriously, believing that the troops arriving in Klimovich were the main force of the German Panzer Group on the southern route (in fact, the 1st Panzer Army was the main force and was still on standby near Lechtsa), and that their target must be Smolensk, 130 km away (north of Klimovich).

So Admiral Lukin made a decision at that time to place the main force of the German armored cluster on the southern route in the southern part of the Smolensk region, which was also the northern part of the battlefield of the "Junction Campaign", which was being prepared.

And when Lukin personally led a mechanized corps (the 5th Mechanized Corps) to the border area of the Smolensk and Mogilev regions overnight (there was bombing during the day, and he could not walk), he received information from the partisans of the Mogilev region that a regimental battle group composed of cavalry and tanks (the Soviet partisans mistook the cougar for tanks) was heading north from Klimovich.

Lukin judged that this was the vanguard of the German armored forces, so he planned the ambush on the afternoon of May 7, mobilizing a mechanized infantry brigade, a tank battalion, a strong artillery battalion, and a rocket artillery battalion. And Lukin himself was on the front line, and he wanted to see with his own eyes the power of the German armored forces.

The plan for the ambush was developed by Lukin and the commander of the 109th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, Colonel Cheremisov, to cover it with rocket artillery first, then to make dumplings with four battalions of the 109th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, and then to reinforce or pursue with a tank battalion belonging to the 57th Tank Brigade and a tank destroyer battalion directly under the 5th Mechanized Corps.

The plan was very good, but in the process of implementation, there was a situation that Lieutenant General Lukin did not expect - the Germans (in fact, the Ukrainians) had a kind of "wheeled tank" that ran fast, and they reacted quickly, Lukin's T-34 just rushed out of the ambush woods, and the German infantry (cavalry) climbed into the "wheeled tank" and "wheeled armored vehicle" and turned around and ran. And the T-34, which is known for its speed, can't catch up with each other!

"What kind of tank is this? How do you run so fast? Lukin, who was standing on the roof of an armored command vehicle, put down his binoculars and asked the commander of the 109th Mechanized Brigade, Colonel Cheremisov, who is an expert in tank and mechanized warfare.

"It's a heavy armored vehicle with a turret on it, as if it was a 50mm cannon, which should be the one on tank No. 3." Colonel Cheremisov replied, "But the Germans can't run, the 5th Separate Tank Destroyer Battalion will pick them up!" ”

The 5th Separate Tank Destroyer Battalion is part of the 5th Mechanized Corps and is equipped with 15 Su-85 tank destroyers, of which 12 are currently operating. This is a mobile anti-tank gun modified from the T-34 chassis. Possessing an S-85 tank gun, an improved version of the 18mm anti-aircraft gun, it is said to be able to penetrate the frontal armor of the Tiger tank (Tiger E, not the shrunken Tiger G) at a distance of 500 meters.

However, because there is no turret, it is not suitable for tank group fighting, and the best use is to ambush (the accuracy of Soviet tanks and artillery is not high, so it is not possible to shoot black artillery at a long distance like the "Rhino" tank destroyer), so Lukin and Cheremisov ambushed these 12 Su-85s on the retreat of the 17th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion. But the 12 Su-85s still failed to annihilate the cavalry reconnaissance battalion of Ukrainians, but only blocked them in a collective farm.

"Comrade commander," Cheremisov reported to Lieutenant General Lukin about 45 minutes later, "the Germans were cunning, they stretched the line very long on the way back, our Su-85 destroyed only 6 vehicles, and the rest retreated to Collective Farm No. 13 in the Kremovich region. ”

"PF No. 13?" Lukin looked at the map sent by the staff officer, which already marked the location of the collective farm, on the road from Kremovich to Smolensk, about 20 kilometers from Kremovich.

"We'll surround them," Lukin said after a moment's thought, "and see if we can get their reinforcements." (To be continued.) )