"Report! It's artillery support called by the 3rd detachment of the special forces. An officer came from the direction of the radio with a completed record form in his hand: "They discovered a battalion headquarters of the Soviets in the process of covert infiltration and called for artillery fire directly." ”

"......" Rundstedt felt that he didn't know what to say, for a long time, especially since the First World War, the elimination of opponents in a structured way has become the pursuit of all commanders. Although the Germans often managed to kill a battalion of troops in the field, they never so cleanly eliminated a battalion headquarters in street fighting.

What is even more exaggerated is that the official offensive has not yet begun, and only a force responsible for infiltration has done what was previously possible with heavy casualties. Rundstedt suddenly felt that his shells were worth a lot of money! He turned around, took the form, and saw the detailed statistics on it, including which unit called for artillery support, what it was for, and whether it had achieved any results.

"The firepower requirements for the troops are still too great. After reading the form, Rundstedt finally said a little helplessly. This style of play is almost to compress the firepower of a division or even an army to a battalion for support, so of course, no matter what kind of opponent it faces, this battalion can take out a battalion of the enemy.

Of course, covering a battalion with the heavy firepower of a division can certainly achieve unexpected results, but when it comes to the consumption of ammunition and other issues, Rundstedt now prefers to lose some soldiers - the lives of soldiers in this era are not much more valuable than in the 21st century, but Germany's steel and production capacity for weapons are very valuable, and the ammunition produced cannot be wasted on such a large scale.

The street fighting style of later generations was based on the progress of smooth communication, high-precision weapons and firepower, and if you barely practice it at this stage, it will be this kind of combat method that looks gorgeous, but in the end you can only give up painfully.

However, Rundstedt still had a home in Smolensk, and he desperately needed such a quick assault to end the street fighting in Smolensk, consolidate his defenses, and give his troops time to recuperate. So he felt that at least this time, the ammunition consumption he had put in was worth the ticket price, and as for the next time - he was not sure yet.

However, we have to admit that this kind of street fighting method proposed by the Führer can indeed reduce the personnel losses of the troops, and also point out the direction for the street fighting method in future wars. Rundstedt's inexplicable solution to the street fighting was solved by such a redistribution of firepower to form a fist assault.

Cooperate with a group of 10 special forces squads to infiltrate and artillery fire positioning attacks on the enemy's important defense nodes, and then widely deploy snipers to cover the occupied areas and front-line positions.

"We don't have time to waste our precious time by wasting our precious time on such a drain on ammunition. Rundstedt glanced at the officers of the special operations forces beside him, and said: "Use your people, your methods, cut this city into 4 pieces, and I will fill in the most elite grenadiers to prevent the enemy from escaping and interspersing." ”

He pointed to the map spread out on the ruins, and drew a cross over the entire city of Smolensk, and the two intersecting lines were like two sharp knives, cutting into the center of the entire city: "Then I will have the recruits start clearing these areas one by one, as long as they cannot run around the city, I intend to accelerate the capture of the entire city at the cost of five thousand to ten thousand people." ”

Zhukov was eyeing the frontal battlefield, and Rundstedt did not dare to delay too long in an already besieged city. He was afraid that the weak side of the German army's weak logistics would be perceived by the opponent, and if this happened, the problems faced by the German army would be very serious.

I am not afraid that Zhukov will immediately counterattack, after all, the Germans still have reserves of fuel and enough ammunition in their hands. I am afraid that Zhukov will knock the entire defense line with a short assault, and after consuming the limited supplies of the German army, he will concentrate his forces on the attack, which will be the most deadly. According to the best estimates of Rundstedt and Brauchitsch, after this situation, the Germans would at least cede the whole of Belarus to the Soviet Union.

In this case, if the Soviet Union did not choose to move west, but to the south, Guderian and Manstein would be quite dangerous. As soon as the German army in the Caucasus was in a dilemma, then the entire German plan to attack the USSR was a complete failure. The Germans will be locked in an endless war of attrition, and even if they win in the end, they will lose the strength and opportunity to dominate the world.

"Forgive me for being cold-blooded, Colonel. Rundstedt sighed and said regretfully to the officer in charge of the special operations: "I am a field marshal, and sometimes I have to make difficult trade-offs. In order to ensure victory, I can only regret pushing thousands of soldiers to the front line to die. This is war, the war of helplessness. ”

The officer nodded and said to the marshal in front of him: "I fully understand your feelings, my troops were formed to reduce casualties, but when there are other elements of time that are higher than the casualty control requirements, there is no need for us to stubbornly implement tactics." ”

On the front line, a German infantryman poked his head out of the corner and looked at the quiet street opposite, where a few flames were still burning on the roofs, and the glass windows were shattered, and the windows were black and hollow, looking like cannibalistic mouths.

He retracted his head, then gestured to the infantry behind him, and from his weapon, it was clear that this unit was not the battalion that the Germans had experimented with, nor was it the main force, but only an infantry to be consumed in urban combat. Most of them were armed with Mauser rifles, and most of them were not even equipped with white smocks for winter warfare.

Some of the Germans in the back were struggling to push the heavy equipment up, and they were pushing something like a cannon, but compared to the German 75mm field guns, this guy was taller and looked a little heavier.

The two German soldiers rubbed the wheels with their hands, and the rest of the soldiers pushed and pulled hard, and finally got the small weapon around the corner, and then the canvas covering it was torn off, revealing the true face of the weapon.

This is the production version of the "Infantry Frederick", which is customized according to the needs of the front, that is, the factory official version of the multi-barreled Iron Fist rocket launcher that the original infantry improved themselves. Its weapon was codenamed "Marx", though soldiers still liked to call it "Building Destroyer". The name they used for almost a year, so it's more affectionate and easier to remember.

"Ready!" As the platoon commander at the front shouted a slogan, a group of German soldiers suddenly pushed the MLRS through the corner and set it up on the wide street. The bullets of the Soviets on the opposite side rained down on this rocket launcher with a clanging sound.

A soldier was shot in the knee, fell to the ground screaming, and was dragged back to the corner by two comrades pulling on the strap of his tactical vest. With a command, the sapper pressed down the launcher, and the rocket launcher began to shoot rocket after rocket in a violent shake.

"Be careful! Stay safe!" with a command, everyone tried to lower their bodies as much as possible. With a whooshing sound, the rockets were sprayed with a slight swaying of the entire rocket launcher rack, spreading to the front of the building at the end of the street, like a heavy hammer, striking the walls of the building one by one.

The smoke and dust began to spread, and the walls of the building began to slowly collapse as the holes continued to increase, and as the load-bearing structure collapsed after the rocket explosion, it finally collapsed in the white smoke, and with dozens of Soviet soldiers inside, fell to the ground and shattered into rubble.

A German soldier took advantage of the smoke to rush out of the corner, past the still smoking rocket launcher, and ran to the other side of the street, where he picked up his assault rifle to cover another soldier who was following him.

The soldier ran through the street and then crawled on the side of the road, and with a quick movement set up a machine gun, pointing the muzzle of the black hole in the direction of the enemy. Beside him, the third German assistant shooter who ran over threw the ammunition box beside him, and then held up the chain of the machine gun.

Then more Germans began to grope their way against the wall to the end of the street, advancing very quickly, bending over to minimize the possibility of being shot. Soon the soldiers completely occupied the street, and the follow-up troops began to enter the corridors, one by one to check whether there were any Soviet soldiers hiding.

The gunfire gradually became more dense than sparse, and the Germans and the counterattacking Soviet troops exchanged fierce fire across several buildings, and the casualties began to gradually increase, and the German field hospital, which was almost empty, was filled with a full 400 wounded soldiers in just an hour.

Smolensk, which was originally planned to hold out for a month, was unable to form effective support and mobilization in the divided environment caused by the new German style of fighting, and lost a quarter of the city in just one day. The Germans methodically combed the streets, endured casualties and forced to fight the Soviet troops in turn, making the Soviet defenders pay a heavy price.

On March 25, 1939, street fighting in Smolensk continued, but the weather in the Soviet Union had changed from cold to slightly warmer.