779 Six key points of the sunset of the Soviet Empire

Tver is the capital of the Tver region in the northwest of Moscow, and judging by the map, the city is located on the road from Petersburg to Moscow, just 165 kilometers from Moscow!

In the Second World War, there was not much fighting here, because it was not the only way for the German army to advance eastward. And in this plane, this Tver has never been a particularly important place. Although the transportation was very well developed, and at the beginning of the year the Red Army marched to Petersburg along the roads and railways, but it was impossible for anyone to think of stationing heavy troops here. Besides, this is a vast plain as far as the eye can see, and there is no danger to defend it, and no defense system has been built. For the Red Army, the war would not have burned here at all, because the White Army would not have the strength to attack Moscow, and even if they had reached Tver with the support of Germany, the Red Army's defensive positions would have been placed outside Moscow. It has been in full swing for months, hundreds of kilometers of anti-tank trenches have been dug, countless permanent and semi-permanent fortifications have been built, and even every street and house in Moscow has been transformed into a fortress-like defensive system. If the self-righteous fascists had dared to come, the Red Army would have been able to wipe them all out under Moscow!

But things often turn out by surprise, and just when everyone thought that the German armored forces would rush towards Moscow, these cunning fascist bandits made a big turn north of Smolensk and headed straight for Tver! And due to the negligence of the Soviet high command (in fact, it was not negligent and did not stop the strength of 5,000 tanks), when they determined that the goal of the German armored forces was to cut off the retreat of the Northwestern Front, the German 7th Panzer Division had already arrived. They quickly launched an attack on the Soviet 425th Division stationed there, and with little effort, they expelled the newly formed rifle division (which was not yet equipped with artillery). And this also marked the successful cutting off of the 1.5 million troops (100,000 people had already lost) of the Soviet Northwest Front, which was retreating from the battlefield near Lake Ilmen, by the Germans!

For the Soviet Union, if the Northwestern Front was surrounded and annihilated by the German army and White Russia, it would basically be equivalent to the destruction of the country! Because these 1.5 million people account for almost half of the total strength of the Soviet Red Army at present, and they are also the most well-equipped and well-trained half. With the remnants of the military-industrial system of the Soviet Union, there is no longer the strength to equip such an army. Therefore, Stalin and the Soviet high command knew that there was little hope, but they still made up their minds to save the Northwestern Front.

In the early morning of May 12, the General Staff of the Soviet Red Army finally came up with an operational plan for the liberation of the Northwestern Front. This hastily developed plan has the following key points:

1. The defensive forces of all fortified cities on the Western Front (including the regular army and the workers' Red Guards) must fight with all their might to pin down the main German forces.

2. The North-Western Front will immediately dispatch three assault groups and one fully motorized infantry army to the northwest of Tver by 13 May, and launch an offensive against the German armored forces that have not yet gained a firm foothold as soon as possible.

3. The Northwestern Front will draw out two infantry armies to organize defenses on the lakes and rivers around Borogoye in order to delay the offensive of the White Russian bandits.

4. The three army groups withdrawn from Velikiye Luki were placed under the command of the Moscow Front, and they were immediately rushed to Moscow by detour, avoiding as much fighting as possible with the Germans along the way.

5. The Moscow Front will dispatch at least one group army and all the tank units it can collect (mainly the Moscow Tank and Armored Forces School) to launch an attack in the direction of Tver with the cooperation of the last 200 or so I-15 and I-16 planes of the Red Air Force, in an effort to echo the east and west of the Northwest Front and help the Northwest Front break through the encirclement.

6. In the unlikely event that the Northwestern Front's plan to break out of the encirclement fails (in fact, there is a great possibility of failure), the Front must turn to the defense on the spot and hold out until the last man has a single shot!

7. Political commissars, internal affairs and counter-espionage personnel of all units must devote themselves to their work with the utmost enthusiasm! Anyone who delays a fighter, fails to advance, or retreats without authorization will be sentenced to death! There are no exceptions.

8. All branches of the GCD committees, Komsomol committees and NKVD committees in the areas to be conquered must organize local GCD and Komsomol members, as well as all Soviet citizens who love the GCD and the Soviet Union, to form partisan detachments to persist in the resistance movement! Until the expulsion of the fascist bandits and the remnants of the Romanov dynasty from the territory of the Soviet Union.

In short, for the USSR, the time has come for a dead horse to become a live horse doctor. If the North-Western Front managed to break through the German panzer blockade and return to Moscow, then Stalin still had a slight chance of keeping his capital, otherwise...... Not only Moscow will not be able to hold on, but even the Soviet Union will be afraid that time is running out.

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While the Soviet Union was preparing to serve as a dead horse doctor, the two German Panzer armies, which had just completed a 400-kilometer long-distance penetration, began to arrange defensive positions without caring about the lack of people and horses, and did not have time to open champagne to celebrate. Although the two armies had more than 4,000 tanks and artillery pieces (more than 800 broke down on the road), they did not have many infantry, except for the 11 panzergrenadier brigades assigned to the armored divisions, there was only one motorized rifle corps, with a total strength of only about 260,000 men. And the number of artillery is also insufficient, if you do not count the 75mm cannons of thousands of tanks, the entire German armored group has only 15 artillery regiments, after counting the brigade and regimental artillery, it has only more than a thousand cannons, and 150mm heavy guns are only 306 (including the 150mm caliber No. 3 self-propelled gun). So it seems that the Soviet army, which has an overwhelming advantage in numbers and artillery, is not without a little chance.

However, fortunately, the German army now has overwhelming air superiority, this time and space due to Sino-German cooperation, Germany's aviation industry does not have a blank period of more than ten years, so at present, the quality and quantity of German aircraft are undoubtedly the first in the world, as for their opponent, the Soviet Air Force, since the time of the German invasion, has basically withdrawn from the sky, and can only occasionally show its grandeur to show its existence.

Under the command of Guderian, the entire German panzer group, including the Chinese 8th Panzer Division, began to build a strong defensive position around Tver. In order to hurry, the Germans hung pushers in front of the tanks and rolled out many half-man-high "earthen walls" on the cultivated land around Tver that were used as bunkers for tank positional warfare. In front of these earthen walls, the German infantry dug several trenches, drove wooden stakes, built anti-artillery bunkers, laid mines, and pulled up barbed wire. Of course, anti-tank trenches are completely unnecessary. In a matter of days, trenches and earthen walls to cover tanks appeared on the Tver Plain. The entire line of defense was divided into two parts, east and west, with the focus on the western front, where a frantic offensive by the Soviet Northwestern Front was expected. On the Western Front, the Germans dug six trenches that stretched for more than 20 kilometers, laid hundreds of thousands of anti-infantry mines, and pulled up hundreds of kilometers of barbed wire. Six armored divisions and two infantry divisions were placed on this line, which looked quite shapely. To the east, the defense line against the enemy from Moscow was much thinner, with only three lines, two armored divisions and one infantry division. Another 3 armored divisions were reserved as reserves.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that the 8th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht from China, in this Tver blockade, was arranged by Guderian, the commander-in-chief of the German armored group, in the middle of the defense line of the western front of Tver, which was considered the most likely place for the Soviet troops to break through! Therefore, it is necessary to be accompanied by the most elite troops. And the Chinese Eighth Armored Division, which performed extremely well in the battle at the end of 37, was undoubtedly the most suitable unit.

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At the same time that the German armored forces were building fortifications with maximum cleanliness, preparing to defend against the sea of Soviet infantry fortifications. The actions of the Soviet Red Army, however, dragged on somewhat slowly. Due to the indiscriminate bombardment of the Luftwaffe and the entanglement of the White Russian army, the main forces of the Soviet Northwestern Front did not reach Torzhok, about 60 kilometers northwest of Tver, until May 15. In the early morning of the 16th, the new commander of the North-Western Front, General Timoshenko (who had just been promoted along with Zhukov), sent a telegram to the great leader of Moscow, in which General Timoshenko declared that the North-Western Front was now in high morale and well prepared to attack the enemy in Tver at any time!

Of course, this is certainly an exaggeration. Due to the cutting off of the rear road and the bombing by the Germans for several days, the morale of the Northwest Front was already quite low, and a large number of officers and soldiers fled from all the infantry divisions! In particular, the troops sent to the rear of the palace to block the pursuing troops of the White Russians, often after a symbolic resistance, happily raised the white flag and surrendered to the opponent in a systematic manner! Therefore, after more than ten days of fighting and retreating, the total strength of the entire Northwest Front has dropped to about 1.3 million. After leaving two army groups to hold Borogoye, Timoshenko's army to Torzhok was only about 1 million.

On May 16, General Timoshenko received a telegram of commendation from Stalin himself, and heard that Tukhachevsky, Yaquil, Blyukhel, and all the families of the Soviet generals who had defected to Empress Anastasia had been executed in Moscow! He was ruthless and ordered the 1st, 2nd, and 4th assault groups, the 31st Army and other units to immediately advance to the east and launch the first wave of attacks on the enemy in Tver!

According to Timoshenko's plan, the first wave of his offensive would involve four army groups, three of which would be assault groups attached to tank divisions. In total, there were 3 tank divisions and 9 infantry corps, which on paper was a very formidable force. First of all, the three assault groups suffered heavy losses in the offensive on 2 May, especially the three tank divisions suffered almost devastating losses, and by the time the offensive was launched on 16 May, only 91 tanks were able to be operated by the three tank divisions, and the rest were either destroyed in battle or abandoned after breaking down in the later retreat. And the situation of the 9 infantry corps (four of which are motorized infantry corps) is not much better, these corps were used to assault the Russian line from the front in the battle on May 2, suffered considerable losses, in the next ten days of retreat, they were chased by German planes all the way, by May 16, the 9 infantry corps together had lost more than 50,000 people! In addition, nearly 30 percent of the heavy weapons and materials such as artillery, trucks, and baggage were lost.

Although the situation of these units was not good, the Soviets launched a surprise attack. At 6:30 p.m. on May 18, 1938, just after the sun set, the 3,000 large-caliber guns that Timoshenko had managed to piece together began to emit a deafening roar. Streams of orange or dark red fire swept through the sky with a sharp whistling sound and flew towards the German defensive positions. Immediately afterward, there was a huge roar like rolling thunder, and countless pillars of smoke and flames rose from the ground. Thick smoke and scorching flames filled the entire German defensive position, and fragments of artillery shells rained down like black dirt rolled up by the blast wave...... It's a pity that at this time the German positions were almost empty, and all the infantry were on standby in the reserve positions in the rear - after all, there were thousands of tanks there to support them, and the Germans were not worried about the Soviet infantry following the shells to attack.

The Soviet artillery bombardment was menacing, but the duration was very limited, and after 6:50, the Soviet artillery stopped abruptly after firing 70,000 or 80,000 shells. Immediately after that, the attack of Soviet tanks and infantry began. For the four Soviet armies that were engaged in the attack, the plan for this offensive was very simple, that is, a round of artillery bombardment and a ** sea of people, even if it was a pile of corpses, the German positions had to be piled up! The main direction of the breakthrough was in the center of the German defensive line, that is, the area under the responsibility of the 8th Panzer Division of the Chinese Wehrmacht. In the first wave of the charge, Admiral Konev, who was in charge of directing the attack, committed all three tank divisions, plus four infantry divisions, for a total of about 60,000 troops.

Seeing the Soviet artillery shells raining down on his position, Hu Lian knew that his 8th Armored Division could sing the leading role again this time! He hastened to give the order to defend, and as soon as the Soviet shelling stopped, a regiment of the 8th Panzergrenadier Brigade of the Chinese Wehrmacht quickly moved into position.

At 7 o'clock in the afternoon, the attack queue of the Soviet Red Army appeared on the vast battlefield. Led by 91 T-26 tanks, weakly armored and underfirepowered, slowed down the land that had been plowed several times by artillery in order to accommodate the infantry advance. Around them were tens of thousands of Red Army infantry.

When the Soviet assault force rushed to about 500 meters from the forward position of the Chinese 8th Panzer Division, 30 civilian 26-year 57mm anti-tank guns (imitating the Soviet Zis-1 anti-tank gun) assigned to the 8th Panzergrenadier Brigade began to wield. "Boom! Rumble! Boom ......" accompanied by a loud sound, a Soviet T-26 tank charging with its head covered turned into a bright fireball, and the burning tanks were like fires, illuminating the entire battlefield.

Seeing the destruction of the tanks, the attacking Soviet infantry hesitated for a moment, but soon a string of machine-gun bullets from behind them restored their confidence in victory - it was a warning shot from the internal affairs personnel overseeing the battle, and if they dared not advance, the next bullets would really kill them!

"GCD officer! League member! Rush with me! Ula ......" I don't know who shouted loudly with a voice that seemed to come from the bottom of his heart, and then "Ulla! Ulla! The shouts echoed throughout the battlefield, and the Red Army infantry, as if they were crazy, began a sea of people assault!

"What a bunch of guys who don't know whether to live or die!" Seeing this scene from the telescope, Hu Lian frowned and shook his head slightly, and then shouted loudly to the staff officer behind him: "Let the artillery bombard!" Tank fire also participates in the shooting! ”

Less than a minute later, 18 150mm No. 3 self-propelled guns and 36 105mm No. 2 self-propelled guns of the three self-propelled artillery battalions of the 8th Panzer Division in the rear of the battle line first let out a roar, and then more than 300 No. 2 and No. 3 tanks and No. 3 assault guns hiding behind the earthen wall also fired at the moving Soviet infantry with their 75mm or 88mm cannons! Then, mortars and machine guns from the 16th Panzergrenadier Regiment, which had already entered the front-line defensive positions, joined the "chorus of artillery fire". Round after round of shells exploded at the front of the positions of the 8th Panzer Division, and columns of smoke and fireballs continued to rise. The charging Soviet officers and soldiers seemed to have hit a high wall of artillery fire, and they were all smashed into pieces of scorched black corpses with green smoke by the huge shock wave and scattered shrapnel! has become cannon fodder in the true sense of the word.

Seeing that his troops were engulfed by the enemy's artillery fire, the face of General Konev, who commanded the Soviet army to fight, did not change in the slightest. It seems that this situation has long been expected by him.

"Order the artillery group to open fire and suppress the enemy's fire; Order the first echelon to retreat, and the second echelon to launch an assault ......" Admiral Konev gave a series of instructions in a light tone, then raised the telescope in his hand and continued to watch the battle.

The powerful Soviet artillery group once again let out a thunderous roar, countless shells fell around the positions of the 8th Panzer Division, and some tanks and self-propelled guns were directly hit, igniting a raging fire, but the vast majority were unharmed. Continue to support the defense of the Panzergrenadiers with their firepower. In this way, the night of May 16 was spent in rounds of Soviet artillery bombardment and infantry charges. However, the front defended by the Chinese 8th Panzer Division remained immovable under the full attack of the Soviet army......

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