Chapter 436: Burning Moscow (6)
The artillery cover of the Ming army began to reduce the frequency of shelling after three hours of shelling. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 info no longer pursues comprehensive fire coverage, and chooses to carry out battlefield interdiction to provide fire support to troops on the front line. Because the dense artillery support blocked the large-scale reinforcement of the Russian army to the front line, the Ming army soon erected two pontoon bridges again before lunch. One for heavy vehicles and one for infantry.
The infantry of the Ming army generally marched by car, otherwise it would not be called a mechanized army. The second pontoon bridge is a combined pontoon bridge of the same model, which is reserved for numerous transport vehicles in order to increase infantry artillery and supplies to the front line. These vehicles, loaded with all kinds of supplies, passed quickly one after another on the pontoon bridge like a long line.
From time to time, Russian artillery shells will fall on the surrounding river surface, and there will be splashing columns of rushing water. The Allied pilots in the sky were also brave men who sacrificed their lives to drive their planes closer to the river in an attempt to destroy the pontoon bridge. The pilots of the Ming Army's Army Aviation kept expelling them.
Allied pilots rarely had the Japanese who could fly directly into their targets. However, it was necessary to hit the small pontoon bridge under the blockade of numerous Ming fighters and hundreds of artillery pieces of various calibers on the ground. This kind of thing is almost impossible to achieve, at least in this era without precision guidance. Unless they are massive, intensive bombardment.
It's just that if you want to carry out large-scale and intensive bombing under the condition that the Ming army is blocked by land and aviation in the sky and intercepted by anti-aircraft guns of various calibers on the ground, at least the Allied air power on this battlefield cannot do it.
Zhukov was very surprised by the fierce offensive of the Ming army, which was completely different from the Ming army he had encountered in the previous years. The previous Ming army would not have fought so bravely to the death! The previous Ming army fought a war of confrontation in a formal manner, and they basically would not have done the current battle that completely disregarded losses and material consumption. Now, however, everything has changed. In fact, with Zhang Cheng personally in charge, once the Ming army, which had been suppressed for several years, was liberated, the combat effectiveness that erupted was absolutely unparalleled.
Zhukov, whose scalp was numb and shocked by the rapid assault of the Ming army, hurriedly sent his armored troops to launch a counterattack against the Ming army crossing the river, trying to drive all the Ming troops down the river. At the same time, Zhukov sent a very serious telegram to his superiors, making it clear that if he could not provide him with strong support, he might not last more than two days in Sarova.
Zhukov's boss is Olekse, who is in charge of the central theater of operations of the puppet Russian army. Grand Duke Nicholas. The Grand Duke was the uncle of the current Tsar and was responsible for commanding all the forces in the Central Russian Theater of Operations, centered on Moscow. Theoretically, the Grand Duke could also command the Allied forces sent by various countries, but whether those allied forces would obey orders or not was another matter.
After receiving a telegram from Zhukov, the commander he admired the most, Grand Duke Nikolai personally approached the commanders of various countries and asked them to support the Russian army for various reasons.
At this time, the Russian troops in the hands of Grand Duke Nikolai, except for those who were defeated and scattered, the rest of the troops were gathering in the area near Moscow, building fortifications and preparing for defensive operations. The support that could be provided to Zhukov was limited. The only practical reinforcement is air support.
At this moment, the Russian army is facing a threat to the entire Volga coast, as well as to the Caucasus and the Black Sea coast, and everywhere is in dire need of reinforcements and air power. The air force in the hands of the Russian army has been used almost to the limit, which is the main reason why Grand Duke Nicholas asked the Allies for help.
Although they had been playing soy sauce all along, the allies had already sniffed out the unusual smell from this large-scale attack by the Ming army. They knew that the time had come to decide the course of the war, and in addition to the ground forces beginning to mobilize and prepare for combat, the allies desperately cobbled together air power to go to the front line to provide support to the Russian forces everywhere. The Sarova front also received tremendous support. This support was so strong that it was in a state of confrontation with the Ming army and air forces near the Sarova front.
After receiving a telegram that all available troops around him were moving at high speed towards Sarova, Zhukov was finally able to relax his nervousness a little and began to direct the counterattack of the armored forces. He knew very well in his heart that once the Ming army succeeded in establishing a strong position on the east bank of the Sato River, it was only a matter of time before Sarova was lost.
The Russian 13th Tank Army took up the main task of the counterattack. In addition to the 32nd Tank Division, which was previously crippled in the village of Kremenki, the 13th Tank Army had an armored unit of a tank division and a tank brigade. In order to strengthen the force of the counterattack, Zhukov also sent out his direct subordinate unit, the 158th Tank Brigade, which was used as a reserve.
More than 400 tanks of various types rumbled out of their positions under the cover of thousands of soldiers and slaughtered towards the bridgehead of the Ming army. In order to provide support to the counterattack troops, Zhukov gritted his teeth and ordered all the remaining artillery and the concealed artillery in his hands to counterattack towards the artillery positions of the Ming army, exchanging huge casualties for the way of the counterattacking troops.
In fact, the distance between the two sides is not that far. On both sides of the Sato River are endless fields, and this terrain is perfect for an armored duel between the two sides.
The armored units of the Ming army that had crossed the river belonged to several different armored units, and the total number of them had exceeded 200 vehicles. After learning that the Russian army had launched a counterattack, He Wenzhao hurriedly ordered Major General Niu Ben, commander of the 24th Armored Division, who had already crossed the river, to command the troops crossing the river to resist the counterattack of the Russian army. At the same time, the speed of the troops crossing the river will be increased.
Niu Ben unified several different troops, with more than 20 Tiger tanks as the core, deployed the Leopard and No. 4 tanks around the Tiger to form an armored phalanx, and collided with the Russian armored corps that pounced.
Numerically, the Russians have an absolute advantage, but they have a large number of light and fast tanks in their establishment. These light tanks were fast, but their firepower and armor protection were inadequate. Their 37 mm or 50 mm guns could not penetrate the front armor of the Ming No. 4 tank, let alone the Haw Par, at a distance of 500 meters.
The lack of attack power may not be enough to be fatal, but the desperate armor of the Russian light tank is a one-shot death in front of the Ming army. No matter which type of Ming army tank it is, as long as it can hit the target, the Russian light tank will only be killed after being penetrated. This light tank, which had little combat capability, was quite numerous in this counterattack, with more than 100 units.
When the armoured corps of the two sides met, it was these light tanks that were the first to be hit. Because these light tanks knew their weakness, they outflanked them from both flanks at high speed, trying to rush to the pontoon bridge to cut off the rear of the Ming army and attract the attention of the Ming army at the same time. In this case, how could the Ming tank group be regarded as not seen? Number Four and the Haw Pars immediately used ferocious fire to turn Russian light tanks into burning scrap metal.
It's just that, in terms of the technology of this era, even the most technically capable Daming can't hit a single shot when shooting a high-speed tank. Even the training and equipment of the Ming army were very good, but it still allowed at least half of the Russian light tanks to successfully bypass the battlefield and go straight to the pontoon position in the rear.
After a short period of thought, Niu Ben ordered to let go of the light tanks and focus his main attention on the approaching Russian armored corps. As for the light tanks that made a detour to raid the pontoon bridge, it was left to the infantry stationed at the bridgehead.
It sounds strange to have the infantry deal with the armoured forces, especially at this moment on the plains. It's just that the infantry of the Ming Dynasty is not an ordinary infantry, and the armored forces of the Russian army are not powerful armored forces.
The infantry of the Ming Army is all mechanized infantry, equipped with a large number of equipment and equipment, and anti-aircraft guns of various calibers are one of them. Although the 88 mm anti-aircraft guns, which were now effective against tanks, were not delivered in the first place. But a large number of anti-aircraft guns of 40 mm caliber and 20 mm caliber were already deployed near the bridgehead.
These small-caliber anti-aircraft guns are naturally more than capable of dealing with those KVs, but they are more than enough to fight those light tanks of the Russian army. In particular, these anti-aircraft guns have an extremely fast rate of fire, and they can shoot a large number of shells in a short time to form a barrage, which is simply an artifact against those very fast Russian light tanks. And there are very many of them.
And so it is. Dozens of anti-aircraft guns of various calibers were deployed on the bridgehead. The wars of the past few years have long tempered the officers and men. The veterans have a lot of battlefield experience. They knew that the deployment of these anti-aircraft guns would not only be able to deal with aircraft in the sky, but also tanks on the ground. At this time there were a number of 88 mm caliber anti-aircraft guns on their way.
Dozens of Russian light tanks were originally going to pick up cheap, but they didn't expect to hit their heads on the iron plate. Dozens of anti-aircraft guns with a high rate of fire used a dense rain of bullets to bring back the only commendable advantage of the Russian light tanks, their ability to maneuver.
A long chain of bullets covers the past, no matter how fast you run, can you pass the plane as fast as possible? As long as even one shot is hit, with the Russian army's light tanks, which are completely used to make up the number, it means that it is dead.
Dozens of Russian tanks were exploded one by one like firecrackers set off during the Spring Festival, and they were not even able to get close to any of the pontoon bridges. As for the counterattack of these light tanks. They didn't dare to stop and fire, and in this era, the shooting hit rate of tanks on the move was miserable even for the Ming armored troops, and the Russians fired completely by luck. In this case, only three of the Ming guns were destroyed.
After the Russians lost all their light tanks, the warm-up ended. The armored corps of both sides began to fight each other with their steel fists! (To be continued.) )