For Stolbuch, it was not the German tanks and infantry that were in danger now, but the roaring artillery fire!

In the east and west directions, the Germans concentrated all the artillery that could be gathered in this area to cooperate with the attack on Stolbucci, and there was a great posture of bombarding the small city!

Army Group Center would face a superior Red Army counteroffensive, and Stolbutch was stuck in the throat like a floodgate—von Bock handed over the task of opening the Minsk-Brest passage to the Ninth Army, which was resting. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Because most of the troops of the Ninth Army were on the west side of the Neman River, the urgently assembled troops participating in the night attack were only one division, but they were supported by almost half of the army-sized artillery!

The entire battlefield in central Belarus was in "chaos," the German troops on both flanks had to resist the Red Army's onslaught, and the Ninth Army did not have enough troops on the east side of the river, so it had to transfer troops from near the city of Minsk to the Ninth Army -- in addition to the headquarters of the Ninth Army on the east side of the river, the German troops west of Minsk City were also making large-scale movements and approaching Stolbch.

On the west side of Stolbucci, the German forces near Baranovic, Mir, Gorodjea, and Nesvizh were also approaching Stolbucci in an attempt to take this choke point from east to west.

The first German tank mixed infantry charge was repulsed before it could get close to the range of assault rifle fire - the Germans did not expect such heavy fire from the Soviets! Not at all like a lightly armed army of surprise assault (although there are tanks and a small number of artillery, but such an ammunition consumption, don't die down in an hour!) The commander of the 6th Army of the Ninth Army, General Helmut Furster, was the commander of the 6th Army of the Ninth Army, General Helmut Furster, whose command was located 3 kilometers east of the city.

After the first attack was repulsed, Forster knew that it would be impossible to retake the town tonight! The Red Army had enough troops, and there was enough firepower with small arms! Because Stolbutch is a large diversion station, the opponent must have used his own supplies!

"Stop the ground offensive, order all the artillery on both sides of the strait, give me all the shells, the maximum capacity!"

Forster knew that only in this way could his ground offensive be effective by weakening the living forces of the Russians with artillery shells - if it was only infantry and a hundred tanks, then he would have to pay at least several times the price of occupying the city, because the Russians were holding on!

Terteny's tank fired only three grenades plus two armor-piercing shells, and the Germans retreated! In the dark night, I just want to use the cannon to fight back and I don't know where to put it, holding on is the only choice!

The shells fell whistling, one after another, and the intermittent was simply endless! The casualties of the troops were increasing, and the Germans were using long-range artillery fire, and the artillery positions were at least 10 kilometers away from them, and it was impossible to determine the exact location of the opponent by fire!

There is no other way but to be beaten passively! This is a bit like the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army in Bastogne: the same ice and snow, the same small city, except that there are fewer forests on the periphery of the city, the Germans have more tanks, more obvious infantry superiority, more artillery, greater determination, and strong support that the Germans on the Western Front do not have!

However, the Red Army had tank units and "almost" sufficient ammunition that the 101st Airborne Division did not have: no one in the Red Army here knew what "Bastogne" was, but they all knew that the German army in front of them had extremely tenacious and powerful combat effectiveness!

The 101st Airborne Division faced the elite of the German army as the German army in front of Tertenay, here is a group of German troops who firmly believe that the Third Reich will win the final victory in the war! Now 41 years, not December 44.

"Commander, I see that the Germans want to eat us slowly with artillery!" Terteny's tank had retreated behind a section of the debris, and the tank was pressed against a crater created by the explosion of a 105 grenade, and Mariahin's call was heard in the headset.

Sergeant Kirevnik was convinced that no two shells would have landed in the same place, and if that were the case, with Stalin-type armor, even a 150 mm shell would not have been able to do anything to the side.

"It is estimated that the Germans will attack again before dawn!"

With the exception of the tanks, all the defenders were either hiding in trenches or in relatively strong buildings, hoping that everyone would be lucky and not a single shell would fall on their heads!

Throughout the night, the whistling shelling did not stop intermittently, from the 75-mm "small meaning" to the 105-mm "ordinary goods", and then to the "big guy" fired by the 150-mm heavy howitzer to the train shells that blew up half of a building with a single shot, and the shelling in both directions did not stop!

At 5:30 a.m., the shelling "with difficulty" stopped for two hours, and Stolbutch suffered the most terrible attack - the roar of the aircraft group was heard in the air, and the German bomber group flying from the west carried out an intensive bombardment of the town!

Terteny poked his head out of the tank's conning tower and saw the whole town burning: in just one night, a beautiful town was history!

On the side is their own cluster headquarters, and the staff officers did nothing else overnight, so they were busy sending line soldiers to connect the blown up telephone lines, which was better than commanding in the tank themselves.

In the post of supreme commander of the cluster, Terteny gave the actual command to his chief of staff, a veteran comrade who had defended the city and had participated in the defense of Tsaritsyn, and he still commanded his own tank troops.

Tank warfare himself is an expert, urban warfare - Terteney does not know much.

"Hey, Command? I'm Terteny, and the Germans are coming up! ”

Telling the personnel of the command who were hiding in the basement, Terteny asked Sergeant Kirevnik to move the tank more than twenty meters to the south, leaning against the edge of a collapsed two-story building.

As soon as the bombing stopped, the shells came up again, this time in a large and small caliber, needless to say that the Germans were about to attack. Through the periscope, Telteny could see the figure of the German tank in the distance, "Attention the whole regiment, right ahead, German tank!" At a distance of 1800 meters, free fire! ”

The sky was gradually hazy, and the artillery commander Sergeant Erasovsky calmly made fine adjustments, and at a distance of 1,700 meters, he stepped on the firing button! The tank gun violently recoiled, and the cartridge case automatically ejected and fell into the cartridge case collector below. Corporal Kokikov finished reloading with a "clang": "Armor-piercing bullets, reloaded!" ”

That shot just now was an armor-piercing shell, but Comrade Gun Commander scolded - the distance was measured incorrectly, and it was two meters closer, and it missed!

Aim again, fire! Two seconds later, the turret of the German tank in the scope flew up!

"Dog mongrel! Go to hell! ”

Cursing, turn the turret twice to the right, and aim again!

This will also start firing at the 88-mm anti-aircraft gun positions in the northeast corner, but only one German cannon will still work! Three hours ago, after the Germans had paused for a while, a heavy shell fell on the northeast corner of the city, and the explosion was overwhelming!

Rocket artillery, the Germans also had rocket artillery, this is not the patent of the "Katyusha" - most of the gunners hid in improvised anti-artillery trenches, only to be smashed by icy earth and stones, but the exposed cannons and woods were not so lucky: one was directly destroyed and turned into a pile of scrap steel; The ammunition was detonated, and the other two doors were blown up and couldn't be used!

Before it could play much of a role, the 88-mm anti-aircraft guns that had been pulled over with great effort lost seventy-five percent!

Those 37-mm anti-aircraft artillery positions are also in bad condition, and there are not a few left, even if they can still be used, they are scarred! Those trucks in the city have suffered heavy losses, and it is estimated that there are not many that can be counted on today!

Forster's plan was correct, now his ground forces were facing at most half of the artillery fire of the defenders, and the infantry combat effectiveness should also drop considerably.

But even the heaviest artillery fire could not kill everyone, and the soldiers leaned out of the buried bunkers and trenches, holding their weapons and staring at the slowly approaching Germans in the distance!

The commanders of the infantry and airborne forces on the front line were loudly ordering: "Hit closer, and fire again at 300 meters!" Three hundred meters! ”

The mortarists were busy reconstructing their firing positions - mortars and shell boxes had them withdrawn to their bunkers, and now craters were visible everywhere on the positions, as well as broken rubble flying nearby.

"1000 meters away, 10 dense positions to the left, fire!"

The whole city was like a big hedgehog covered in long thorns, the Germans kept falling under intensive fire, and tanks were constantly being hit and exploded!

In order to get a better firing range, several Stalinists did not care about the hidden position, rushed straight behind the first-line infantry line and opened heavy fire with cannons and machine guns!

For these daring Russian tanks in front of them, the German tanks hit the fire shelling, but the result was - whether it was 50 mm armor piercing shells or 75 mm armor piercing shells, it was useless! The "Stalin" are still firing!

One KV can hold you in the way of a division, not to mention a group of "Stalin"! The "Red Mammoth" is like an invincible giant, it stops steadily, one after another, and unhurriedly bombards one German target after another into the sky!

The Germans retreated again, their will to attack was knocked out by the seemingly impossible destruction of Soviet tanks!

On one side, the tanks' performance was boosted, while on the other side, Helmut Forster received an incredible report that the Russians had new heavy tanks, and it was impossible for the troops to get past them!

Forster thought of Stuka! (To be continued.) )