Chapter 411: Zhukov counterattacks
This was only the first step of the Soviet army, the second step of the Soviet army's attack was soon launched, countless cannons began to bombard the fourth line of defense fiercely, the flying shells with orange firelight, drawing an arc against the fourth line of defense and smashing down, the fourth line of defense, which had been blown to pieces, instantly fell into the fire purgatory again, trembling, burning, tearing under the fierce shelling, every inch of land could not escape the test of purgatory.
However, the Soviet army's expected German artillery counterattack did not appear, this situation is really a bit abnormal, Chernier originally served in the Far East, a year ago was still a squad leader, in the Far East because of several great achievements in the war against Japan, was exceptionally promoted to a captain company commander, the abnormal situation on the front line, soon made Chernier found that the German German army was really a bit abnormal, and quickly reflected this situation.
Zhukov soon received the situation from the front, but now Zhukov is ready to send an arrow, he has to send it, and still issued an order to attack according to the original plan, hundreds of thousands of troops are now all in place, Zhukov is impossible to give up the attack because the German reaction is a little abnormal, that is not Zhukov's character, as long as it is something Zhukov believes, it is difficult for external factors to make Zhukov turn back or change his mind.
As the commander of an infantry company, of course, it is impossible for Che Neil to break through on the front line, more than 500 tanks of Zhukov's armored corps roared towards the German defense line, and the Soviet tanks were basically light tanks, and even slightly better medium tanks like the T28 were very few, but the 500 tanks were still amazing.
Lieutenant General Cabaye, as the supreme armored commander of the Soviet army, commanded the armored corps in the Far East in an armored duel with Japan. Easily annihilated the 4 tank wings of Little Japan, although the tank junk of Little Japan, this gave Cabaye a lot of combat experience......
The fourth line of defense is only twenty kilometers away from the third line of defense, and for light tanks, it will be there in ten minutes, and as for the little alert force that Boulter left on the fourth line of defense, there is no shadow for a long time, and the rocket artillery and artillery bombardment directly make them all disappear, as if they had never come to lead the world.
The assault of the Panzer Corps of the Soviet Army was fast and completely disconnected from the infantry in the rear. After all, the current theory of the Soviet army's large-depth offensive is mature. However, it has not been practiced, and the large-depth offensive organized by Zhukov in a hurry is not at all like anything, and Zhukov also knows the lack of experience of his troops. Therefore, only two lines of defense were chosen to attack the Germans. That's forty kilometers.
If the German positions have not been taken by daylight. Zhukov also had the option of retreating or getting tangled with the Germans, so that the threat of German aircraft would be greatly reduced, and if that was the case, Zhukov would most likely choose to retreat. These elite Zhukovs can't afford to lose.
Once these elites are finished, Zhukov's hole cards will be finished, if Zhukov wants to hold Baku, it is also an impossible task, millions of cannon fodder soldiers, must be in the case of the elite as a pillar, in order to play a role, the backbone has collapsed, what is the use of the details! Delivery only.
The Soviet armored assault group attacked very smoothly, the fourth line of defense ran over, and then rushed towards the third line of defense, because the Soviet army was light tanks, and the speed was too fast, so the Soviet infantry was left behind for a long distance, and the Soviet armored army was transferred from the Far East, and they beat the little Japanese ghosts and howled wolves, so the morale of the Soviet armored army was high, and they did not care about the infantry behind, and they crushed the third line of defense.
"Attention all tanks, charge at full speed, we are going to take advantage of the fact that the German devils have not yet reacted, we are going to send this group of damned devils to hell, all for Stalin, comrades rush ah!!"
Well, the German army was all for Germany, for the great Führer Hitler, and the Soviet army for Stalin, and began the largest tank battle since the outbreak of the Soviet-German war. If Cabaye's Panzer Corps were fully staffed, it would be more than 1,000 tanks, but Cabaye's Panzer Corps would be less than full.
In January 1940, the Soviet Army decided to reorganize large-scale tank forces - mechanized corps, independent tank divisions, and independent motorized divisions. The mechanized corps consists of two tank divisions, one motorized division, one motorcycle regiment, one independent communications battalion, one independent engineering battalion, and one aviation brigade. The tank division consists of two tank regiments, one motorized infantry regiment, one artillery regiment and a number of logistics support units. The strength of the division is 11,343 people, about 60 artillery pieces and mortars of various kinds, and 375 tanks (including 63 KV heavy tanks, 210 T-34 medium tanks, and 102 T-26 and BT tanks).
The motorized division consists of two motorized regiments, one tank regiment, one artillery regiment and a logistics support detachment. The strength of the division is 11,650 people, about 100 artillery pieces and mortars, and 275 light tanks. 1 mechanized corps with troops directly under the army totaled more than 36,000 people, 1,031 tanks, 258 artillery pieces and mortars, more than 5,000 vehicles, 350 tractors and about 1,700 motorcycles.
By the time the Soviet-German war broke out, the Soviet army had formed a total of 29 mechanized corps. The scale was there, but under the conditions of the time, it was difficult to effectively command such a large force. Compared with the German Panzer Division of the same period, the Soviet tank division had 1.5 times more tanks than the German Panzer Division (equipped with 152 tanks) with 2 battalion tank regiments, and nearly half more than the German Panzer Division with 3 battalion tank regiments (equipped with 207 tanks). Even the number of tanks in the motorized division of the Soviet army was more than 1/4 more than that of the armored division of the German army with a 3-battalion tank regiment.
However, the gap in the quality of personnel (especially for middle- and lower-ranking officers) and communications equipment between the two sides makes the gap in command effectiveness obvious. Moreover, most of the mechanized corps formed by the Soviet Army in the spring of 1940 had intermediate commanders accounting for only 20%~40% of the establishment when the war broke out, which aggravated the difficulty of command. In addition, at the beginning of the war, the mechanized armies of several border military districts were equipped with an average of only 53 percent of the total number of tanks, and the proportion of new tanks was very small. It was under this circumstance that the Soviet mechanized army was thrown into the unprecedented battle of the Soviet-German war.
The same is true of Cabaye's Panzer Corps, the tank hunting rate of the entire army is more than 50%, so Cabaye's armor only has more than 500 tanks, most of which are light tanks, and only a small number of T26 medium tanks, which are not at the same level as German tanks at all.
The speed of the assault of the Soviet armored forces is very fast, the distance of 20 kilometers, it is also the effort of smoking a cigarette, if the huge tank group assaults, without any reconnaissance, the German army will know that there are a large number of Soviet tanks charging towards their positions, the German army can judge the distance of the Soviet tank assault group according to the shaking situation of the ground, and the Soviet army can only judge the distance of the third line of defense according to the terrain and landform.
…… (To be continued......)
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