The loss of three infantry divisions and 594 tanks in one night (58 of the troops attacking Satpayev also lost) was a heavy price. There are 3 combat engineer regiments and 20,000 veterans! The former was the truly elite division of the Soviet army, consisting entirely of engineers, miners, and veterans of at least three battles, so even though the Slavic peoples had always had a tradition of sparing their lives in wars, Zhukov had to immediately call officers overnight to study countermeasures.

But the more detailed he understood, the more Zhukov felt that this trench was not simple, especially because the trench was too deep and surrounded by rocky and hard soil, which was very difficult to fill. Moreover, because there is a mound of earth on the opponent's side, even if the bridge is built, the height difference will be formed, and the tank needs to face anti-tank fire on the hill behind when going uphill, and the weakest top will be exposed when going downhill, and the 20 mm thick top steel plate can easily penetrate even small-caliber anti-aircraft guns. Just when everyone was running out of options, Golikov suggested abandoning the frontal detour from the north. But this proposal was rejected by Zhukov, because as soon as his main forces also moved north, it would inevitably attract the defender's armored forces to the north, which would lead to the early detection of the 5th Tank Army from the north.

What made him make this judgment was that the soldiers who fled back said that they had seen at least 100 tanks on the Ultau heights (Soviet soldiers used hunting tanks as their main tanks, which was a common occurrence in World War II), and that the troops attacking Satpayev were counterattacked by at least one full tank division. According to intelligence, the standard armored division of the Chinese National Defense Forces is a two-regiment system, with about 118 tanks in each regiment, so this size has exceeded three regiments, which happens to be the total number of armored forces of the Second Army. So he judged that the 2nd Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht was in front of him, and if it went north, then the 2nd Panzer Division would also go north, and the outflanking of the 5th Tank Army would turn into a strong attack. Fighting against the absolute main force of the 2nd Panzer Division in the wilderness was completely denied after East Kazakhstan.

After thinking about it again and again, he decided to continue the offensive, but because the Soviet army did not have mechanized bridge-building equipment, in the end, according to everyone's opinions, it was decided to first use heavy artillery to level the mound, then use trucks filled with sand and soil to rush directly into the trenches, rely on trucks and sand to fill some key positions, and finally use fast tanks and tractors to tow steel plates to approach, and the sappers will complete the laying. After determining the tactics of filling the trenches, hundreds of punitive battalion soldiers were first loaded into trucks filled with sand, and in order to prevent these men from escaping and being cowardly, Zhukov also ordered the removal of all brakes.

He then ordered all the steel plates that could be put together, and finally quietly moved the B4 and BR5 heavy guns, which had not been destroyed, closer to the trenches. But he was actively preparing for the second wave of attacks, but he didn't know that Liu Mingzhao had expected that his weak position would be selected as the breakthrough point five days in advance, so he not only chose tactics and weapons suitable for this terrain such as Golan trenches and K16, but also concentrated all the armored troops that could be drawn around him, and finally decisively handed over most of them to Zhuo Fan to fight against his Fifth Tank Army.

At 6 a.m., the first wave of 120 IL2s and 68 Tu-2s from field airfields such as Alkarek finally arrived, and together they dropped 250 tons of bombs on the defense line of the Ultau mountains. But they didn't have long to do it, and the Chinese air force, which arrived at high speed from Zhezkazgan and Kyzyl Odar, took over the skies. The 112 Thunderbolts formed the largest aerial shelter group since the beginning of the battle, and it took only 50 minutes to sweep away the Soviet fighters at a slight cost of 12 aircraft.

When the Soviet soldiers hiding in the bunkers watched their planes fall one after another, Zhukov had already taken advantage of the opportunity of the air strangulation battle to block the airspace and make it impossible to bomb, and gave the order to attack. The order was simple: "Fill the trenches and break through the line at any cost, and all those who dare not attack, regardless of officers and soldiers, will be executed on the spot!" ”

While this cold order sent chills down the hearts of the Soviets, he ordered to take out all the vodka looted along the way and distribute it to each of the punitive battalions and assault soldiers. First the threat, then the liquor, the alternation of hot and cold not only shows his way of governing the army, but also arouses the desperate heart that has been depressed by the massacre last night.

At 6:25, the offensive began. Thousands of artillery pieces locked the gauge on the trench and the heights of the Ultau Mountains at the same time, and the most powerful 20 B4 203 mm and 6 BR5 280 mm howitzers concentrated their fire on the trenches. In particular, the latter is equipped with a 246-kilogram high-explosive grenade, which can blow trenches and mounds to pieces with each fall. In just twenty minutes, 160,000 shells of various types fell on the entire defense line of the Ultau Mountains! That's the equivalent of throwing 3,400 tons of steel!

However, Zhukov's artillery met an opponent this time, because the defense line of the Ultau Mountains was originally a key point to prevent the Soviet army from entering Kyzylorda, so Liu Mingzhao continued to strengthen it from the time he led the Second Army into the station, and even took the initiative to reduce rations and ammunition due to the tight transportation capacity caused by heavy snow and road closures in winter, leaving the supply tonnage for cement and steel plates and other materials, and after five days of emergency reinforcement before the war, I dare not say that it was foolproof, at least it was very complete. Moreover, Liu Mingzhao also withdrew the garrison troops to the fortifications on the western slope early, allowing the troops to avoid most of the shells.

The frenzied artillery fire didn't last long, and the K16 cannon on the hill was the first to lock on to the most powerful BR5 and B4 heavy guns. With a range of up to 22,800 meters, a straight trajectory and strong bunker protection, they quickly destroyed the BR5 position, and also destroyed the seven B4 positions in a row. Immediately after that, the thunderbolt group descended from the sky and launched a wave of * strafing at the Soviet artillery positions.

Although Zhukov regretted that the trenches were not completely destroyed, they did play a role, and his current logistics could not afford to sustain the shelling for a longer time, so after ordering the artillery fire to be extended, he ordered the attacking troops to set off. In order to break through the strange trenches and drag the enemy's main force on the heights of the Ultau Mountains to cover the 5th Tank Army, he threw in more than 1,300 assault groups of trucks, tanks, armored vehicles, and tractors in one go, and also put five infantry divisions to follow as a second wave. To prevent confusion, the assault forces were also organized into thirty small groups, and each vehicle was equipped with flare guns.

The rolling iron flow, once again mighty to the defensive line, because the fighters are dealing with the Soviet artillery, so the main force of long-range strikes is still the artillery of the Second Army. Hundreds of artillery pieces blew up tank vehicles into fireballs, while anti-tank gunners hiding in bunkers also rushed all the way from the western slope to the eastern slope position.

Due to his judgment in advance, after Liu Mingzhao transported three anti-tank artillery battalions by air and other means within five days, the Second Army's anti-tank capability was already quite strong. The first to fire was the No. 133 hunting tank, which destroyed 11 tanks in a single vehicle yesterday, and the commander who was familiar with the performance directly targeted a leading T34 at a distance of 2,600 meters, and chose a high-speed tungsten bomb to ensure penetration.

"Boom!"

The power of the 105-mm split cannon was so great that even from this distance, the high-velocity tungsten shell still penetrated the front face of the T34 and hit the internal shell. The T34 exploded and decomposed in the fireball, kicking off another round of death for the Soviet army. After the first hit, all 157 anti-tank weapons of various types from 70 mm to 105 mm were fired, especially the 105 mm rifled cannon equipped with the Tiger Hunter B, which could penetrate any part of the T34 within 2000 meters, even with ordinary carbide steel armor-piercing shells. But today's anti-tank fire is not as easy as last night, as long as the aircraft does not cover in time, the concealed Soviet artillery will pour shells on the anti-tank points, resulting in many anti-tank positions being destroyed by Soviet artillery.

As tanks and vehicles were destroyed, the Soviet charge was littered with burning steel wreckage, and the corpses of soldiers crackled in flames. The infantry who followed behind did not dare to look at the surface, but Zhukov turned a blind eye to these losses, staring intently at the punitive battalion that followed behind the tanks, filled with sand.

Valency turned out to be a second lieutenant, but was sent to the punitive battalion for an early retreat during the East Kazakh campaign. The punishment battalion is a place where every Soviet soldier does not want to stay, because this is actually the death squad. And his mission this time is to drive the truck full of sand directly into that damn trench! Along the way, there were dead bodies and exploding tanks everywhere, and since all the death squad trucks had their brakes removed before departure, he had only two options, either jump out of the car and be killed by the infantry behind as a deserter, or complete the mission and restore the honor of captain and company commander as long as he did not die.

So he, like everyone else, pressed the accelerator to the end, constantly hitting the steering wheel, and sometimes even running directly over the bodies of his comrades, just to fight for that glimmer of opportunity. "Boom!" At the same time as the T26 in front of him was destroyed, he picked up the bottle and drained most of the strong vodka in one gulp. His eyes were bloodshot from his burning throat, and he looked at the thin trench, screaming like a beast to burst through the fireball.

Without brakes, trucks filled with sand rushed straight into the trenches at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour. Then it slammed into the destroyed BT7 underneath. The violent impact shattered the windshield and splintered directly into him. But he no longer cared about the pain, and crawled out of the deformed carriage. As he jumped into the trench and ran wildly, truck after truck fell from it, and at last he had to crouch in the corner with his head in his hands. Perhaps favored by heaven, he was not buried alive by trucks and sand, nor was he killed, but spent six years in a prisoner of war camp.

Under the desperate pit-filling tactics of Valency and other punitive battalion soldiers, the trenches soon appeared in areas filled with sand and truck wreckage, and although the tanks had to wait for the steel plates to be laid before they could go up, a large number of infantry who had survived to the front of the position had quickly clashed from these gaps to the hillside.

While the first Soviet infantry crossed the trench, the light and heavy machine guns deployed by the Second Army on the hillside opened fire simultaneously, and the soon filled road section was filled with corpses.

The tractors with steel plates tied to both sides finally arrived, and the Soviet sappers quickly cut the rope and rushed towards the filled gap with the steel plates. But they, like the infantry, were also covered by frantic fire, and hundreds of sappers were killed and wounded in just a few tens of meters. When the steel plate was finally laid, the tank soldiers behind rushed up directly with their flesh and bones, regardless of the corpses all over the ground.

However, the T34 tank did not go over the mound, because the exposed roof was hit by three 40mm anti-aircraft guns at the same time when it was going downhill. This stop directly killed the tanks behind, and because the road was blocked, the tanks that rushed forward in front of the passage were piled up in a cloud and turned into artillery magnets, attracting more anti-tank fire.

Exploding Flames Explode! This was the scene in front of the entire trench. Due to the anti-tank fire of the Second Army, only thirteen of the thirty trench filling points calculated by Zhukov were completed, and the remaining punitive battalion trucks were either destroyed by anti-tank fire, or died in vain because they did not rush to their positions to avoid artillery fire. Thirteen landfills are thirteen tank graves, hundreds of tanks and vehicles were destroyed in just a few minutes. But just as the armor was once again devastated, the infantry group following the tanks finally rushed to the trenches. They were much more agile than tanks, some of them bypassed tank obstacles, and some of them directly used the wooden planks they brought to build bridges over them.

The infantry attack was flexible, but the casualties were even more severe: in just one hour, tens of thousands of Soviet infantry lay in front of the high ground, and the wounded were even more numerous. But Zhukov did not stop this way of attacking, perhaps because he believed that as long as he held out until the afternoon, the Fifth Army would be able to open the situation, or he saw that the infantry had already torn through the line and thought that he would soon be able to break through the line, or he realized that if the situation could not be opened here, the counterattack would be in vain, so he mobilized four infantry divisions again and launched a third wave of attack.

The investment of nearly 100,000 Soviet troops made the pressure on the defense line of the Ultau Mountains increase sharply several times, although the air force continued to come to support, but at this time the second wave of fighter formations consisting of 48 BF109, 75 MiG-1 and 225 IL2 began to arrive from all directions, and the Soviet pilots delayed Zhukov enough time by sacrificing time for time.

100,000 Soviet troops and 40,000 officers and men of the Second Army defending fought each other on the short 47-kilometer-long high ground. But just when the defense line was tight, Liu Mingzhao did not hurry, quietly returned to the headquarters of Rezkazigan, handed over the steel helmet to the guards, and walked to the map: "Have the support troops set off?" ”

"Xu Shuai is very generous this time, the first batch of six divisions and three armored regiments have set off from Talas (Taraz), and the 103rd armored division and two cavalry divisions of the Kazakh Independent Army have also moved closer to us from Karaganda, and it is expected that all of them will arrive within four days." Lieutenant General Xu Zuyi, chief of staff, pointed to the map to introduce the progress of reinforcements.

"8 infantry divisions, 5 armored regiments for four days, it should be about the same." Liu Mingzhao calculated the time, marked it in his notebook, and then looked at the homework map for a long time, and only raised his head after a long time: "By the way, what about Zhuo Fan?" ”

"Here, 137 kilometers north of us. The reconnaissance plane reported an hour ago that his main force had passed through Kurgasen, but it did not stop, and it was not even deployed in defensive positions! Xu Zuyi is also a veteran of the Wehrmacht who participated in the last European war, a high-achieving student in the third phase of the artillery department in Baoding, and studied in France for three years halfway. It is not easy for him to survive in the army for 20 years to get to where he is today, so he is most unaccustomed to officers who are not used to working well and only want to be promoted. Zhuo Fan, who was promoted from major to brigadier general in just two years, was also not very friendly, and complained a little: "Look, Kulgasen is the only way to go!" Now three Soviet armored divisions and three infantry divisions are coming 40 kilometers east of him. It stands to reason that the position should be set up first, but he was better and drilled directly into the woods to the north, but the reconnaissance plane could not find it. And this kid has been silent on the radio since he set off, and he has not even paid attention to the telegram I sent! ”

"Didn't make a stay? What bad idea is this bastard boy? ”。

Wonderful Novel [Net] Remember our website: