April 25, 1944, north-west of the Moscow region, Volokolamsk. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Artillery fire roared, chariots rumbled.

Thousands of elite German Panzergrenadiers braved the morning light, under the cover of Grizzly assault guns and No. 4 H tanks, and advanced along the newly opened dirt road. The minefields laid by the Soviets were first swept by rocket artillery, and the combat sappers cleared them with demining rods, opening up a path with enough armor and infantry clusters to attack.

The resistance of the Red Army remained stubborn, with heavy fire from machine guns, rifles, anti-tank guns. In each of the anti-tank strongholds that survived German shelling and air raids, a ZIS-3 76mm cannon was firing frantically - although the gun did not penetrate enough to reach the Tiger H and E-50A tanks, nor the front of the fighting compartment of the Grizzly assault gun. But at a close range of 300 meters, the armor-piercing shells fired by the ZIS-3 76mm cannon could still penetrate the front of the hull of the Grizzly assault gun and the No. 4H tank.

Moreover, the ZIS-3 cannon had a maximum rate of fire of up to 25 rounds / min, which was still a great threat to the armored vehicles of the German infantry. The muffled sound of the 76mm cannon's rapid fire resounded throughout the front. The crossfire fired from various machine-gun fire points of the Soviet army also formed a network of fire on the path of the German advance.

Bullets whizzed around the German combat sappers who rushed to the front, and from time to time heroic officers and men were shot and fell. However, the warriors behind followed closely behind, and finally rushed into the anti-tank trench more than three meters deep and five meters wide. These trenches have been blown out of large and small gentle slopes in previous German shelling and bombardment. Now German sappers planted explosives on the inner walls of the trenches that had been cut into vertical cliffs to create more gentle slopes that could be used by tanks.

The German No. 4H tank and Grizzly assault guns flooded into these gently sloping trenches - this is just one of the many anti-tank trenches on the Volokolamsk battlefield!

Because the German army in this time and space always avoided winter battles and rash advances, the Soviet high command had enough time to deploy the defense of Moscow's periphery. So on the battlefield of Volokolamsk, close to Moscow, at this time a number of anti-tank trenches with deep and staggered depths appeared, which greatly delayed the actions of the German tank forces.

At the same time that the German tanks stormed the Soviet anti-tank trenches, the counterattack of the Soviet infantry began. Dozens of assault detachments launched counterattacks along the staggered trenches, attacking with American-backed bazooka bazookas and Soviet copycats of their own "red iron fists" or captured German iron fists. At the same time, some Soviet warriors who had been hiding in foxholes or bullet casings on the inside of the anti-tank trenches that had been broken by the Germans suddenly burst out and rained RPG-43 anti-tank grenades into the German tanks and assault guns in the trenches. In addition, the Soviets planted a lot of anti-infantry mines in the anti-tank trenches, on which from time to time German infantry stepped on them.

Explosions rang out one after another, and more than a dozen tanks and assault guns were immediately smashed into a ball of fire. Soviet howitzer fire was also desperately exploding outside the trench, trying to cut off the follow-up of the German infantry.

At this moment, the firepower and will to fight on both sides were carried forward to the highest point. The Red Army is desperately resisting, and the Germans are holding on to the offensive with the greatest strength!

German infantry firepower was now decisive, and the Panzergrenadiers' Mkb-42 automatic carbine (called assault rifles in another time and space) was as powerful as a light machine gun. In the hands of veterans of the Wehrmacht, it is an out-and-out murderous weapon. The officers and men of the Soviet commandos who launched a counterattack along the anti-tank trenches fell one by one, and only a small number of "Zubaka" and "Red Iron Fist" could exert their might.

At the same time, some machine gun and mortar groups that were advancing with the tanks/assault guns also set up firing points on the outside of the breached anti-tank trenches, and the shrill firing of the MG42 machine guns tearing sackcloth and the explosions of 80mm mortar shells continued to sound, which soon completely suppressed the Soviet daredevils lurking in the foxholes and craters on the opposite side of the trench.

There were also some Tiger H-tanks that slowly drove up against the muddy and soft ground, but they did not immediately rush into the anti-tank trench, but stopped outside the first Soviet anti-tank trench and acted as a fixed fire point, using 88mm guns to name the exposed Soviet anti-tank gun strongholds and machine gun fire points.

Viewed from the rear, the Soviet front line looked like a group of volcanoes erupting together, with mud mixed with gunsmoke and flames rising up. While the old pillar of smoke had not yet fallen, a new column of smoke rose again. In the meantime, countless infantry on both sides rolled in the mud and charged towards each other.

The first and second anti-tank trenches of the Soviet army were broken through by the Germans one after another, and most of the firing points behind the two anti-tank trenches were also destroyed by the 88mm guns of the Tiger tanks. Fierce fighting ensued in front of the trenches held by Soviet infantry. After a dense explosion of 150mm grenades and 80mm mortar shells fired by Grizzly assault guns, the corpses of Soviet soldiers in the trenches were already full of pits. But the living Soviet fighters still desperately shot and threw bombs next to the corpses of their comrades.

Now the grenades thrown by the Soviet army are all RPG-43 type, this kind of grenade is very heavy so it cannot be thrown far (generally about 20 meters), and the explosion power is very amazing (the charge is as much as 612 grams), so it is a weapon that is very dangerous to the enemy and the bombardier. If the soldier does not have time to hide after dropping the bomb, he will be killed and injured by the grenade he throws - this design is the Soviets - but throwing it out of the trench has no problem, just pull out the safety and throw it out, even if it can't blow up the German tanks and armored vehicles, it will blow up a large part of the infantry!

The Germans also had grenades in their weapons in response to the Soviets, but not PWM anti-tank grenades (similar to the Soviets' RPG-43, but less powerful), but M43 anti-infantry grenades, which were much lighter than the Soviet RPG-43s, so they were thrown accurately and far. In the hands of the veterans of the German army, it was definitely a trench warfare weapon no less than an 80mm mortar.

However, the trench weapons in the hands of the Germans that were most feared by the Soviet infantry were not the M24 grenades and 80mm mortars, but the No. 3 Spitfire. This special tank, which was converted from tank No. 3, is now composed of battalion units, and is now an independent unit under the direct jurisdiction of an army group or army group, and is assigned to an armored division or panzergrenadier division when needed.

And when these Spitfire tanks enter the battlefield, it often means the end of the battle for trenches. 45 Spitfire No. 3 tanks lined up, pulled out of the front of nearly 500 meters, and under the cover of No. 4 tank, advanced to 30 meters away from the Soviet infantry trench, and at the same time sprayed scorching flames, the flames swept by, and groups of Soviet officers and soldiers were burned all over the body, screaming and rolling in the mud, and some officers and soldiers were defeated by their own fear, and fled along the communication trench to the rear. Subsequently, some Soviet fortresses, which were still insisting on firing, also became targets for Spitfire tanks, and the losses were burned into a sea of fire. The flames flew so high that the Soviet soldiers, unable to stand the smoke and heat, ran out of the pillboxes, either surrendered with their hands raised, or were killed by German infantry with machine guns and Mkb 42 carbines.

The defense of the Soviet army is once again on the verge of collapse!

At about 4 p.m. on the 25th, a signal flare, symbolizing the successful capture of positions, rose on various trench lines outside Volokolamsk. This means that the attack of the German 3rd Panzer Division and the 6th Panzergrenadier Division on the main position of the Volokolamsk outer defense line has been successfully carried out on all fronts!

Now the offensive road to the Volokolamsk city is completely open. As soon as the Germans surrounded or captured the small city northwest of Moscow, their next stop would be Kling on the Red October railway line, 58 kilometers away.

At this moment, on a high ground near the city of Volokolamsk, Marshal Zhukov, Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Red Army and Commander of the Central Front, was looking through a telescope at the hellish battlefield ahead. There, the German artillery fire was already dense and scoreless, as if a high wall of flames was constantly rising and falling, while the Soviet artillery fire was only sporadical.

The battle has clearly been decided, and the Soviet artillery is now withdrawing from the battlefield, leaving only a small number of artillery firing. The remnants of the Soviet infantry, which had been fighting hard with the Germans for a day, had now begun to retreat in an orderly manner, with only a small number of troops in the rear of the palace holding on to the reserve positions and being bombarded.

Zhukov then put down his binoculars and said to Marshal Konev, commander of the reserve front of the Red Army, who was watching the battle with him: "Ivan. Stepanovich, what do you think? ”

"Very strong! Really strong! "But we can still beat them, because they're running headlong into the trap we've laid for them." As long as you fall into a trap, no matter how fierce the beast is, it will be a dead end. ”

"So can you reserve the front army and continue to fight?" Zhukov asked, "Can the High Command hand over to you the defensive operations west of the Red October Railway between Kalinin and Moscow?" ”

The Reserve Front was really beaten badly by General Hoth's 4th Panzer Army in the fierce fighting from the 20th to the present. The three armies all suffered heavy losses, with the total strength reduced from more than 500,000 to less than 300,000, and heavy equipment was also heavily lost.

"Yes!" Konev replied, "But we can't hold it." ”

Zhukov laughed: "There is no problem, you don't need to keep it...... All you need is to lure the enemy into a trap. In the process, their strength should also be consumed as much as possible. ”