On January 6, 1940, Field Marshal Mannerheim, Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defense Forces, received very disturbing information from the Germans, which stated that the Soviet Union's most elite First Panzer Corps and the best general, Catherine Viktoevna Ivanova, would arrive at the Karelian Isthmus Mannerheim Line in the near future.

Field Marshal Mannerheim attaches great importance to this information, the war of invasion of Poland has made Western countries know, it turns out that there are experts in blitzkrieg in the Soviet Union, and the blitzkrieg in the Soviet Union is also extremely sharp, and the Soviet blitzkrieg theory and practitioner is the youngest female general of the Soviet Union, Catherina Viktoevna Ivanova, one of the founders of the blitzkrieg on the same level as Guderian in Germany.

Although Marshal Mannerheim attaches great importance to the intelligence of the Germans, he is not very worried about the arrival of Ouyang Yu and the First Panzer Army, this is because the terrain of Finland restricts the play of the blitzkrieg, especially the Karelian Isthmus, dense forests, numerous rivers and lakes, and the transportation is also quite inconvenient。

On January 7, 1940, Stalin ordered the formation of the North-Western Front on the Karelian Isthmus, appointing the former Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko as commander of the Front, replacing Meretskov as commander-in-chief of the front, which was under the command of the Seventh Army and the newly formed Thirteenth Army. At the same time, 24 infantry divisions, 20 artillery regiments and 15 newly built aviation regiments were transferred to the Soviet-Finnish border, and Ouyang Yu's 1st Armored Army was also in the reinforcement sequence. He arrived at the front on January 9, 1940.

"Comrade Timoshenko. It's nice to be able to fight under your command this time. ”

Inside the headquarters of the North-Western Front. Ouyang Yu saluted and greeted Brother Timoxin with full of energy.

Timoshenko smiled back, "Comrade Ivanova, I'm also glad to be able to fight side by side with you, your arrival makes me feel that the war won't be over soon." ”

After Ouyang Yu and Timoshenge chatted for a while, Timoshenko pointed to a person wearing a lieutenant general's uniform next to him and introduced: "This is Comrade Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushev, the political commissar arranged for you by Comrade Stalin. ”

"He's Khrushakiv?"

Ouyang Yu quickly looked at the other party, the current Khrushaki is not the bald fat man he was later, he is only in his thirties and his hair is very thick. The figure is also relatively thin, and a pair of godly eyes are also looking at Ouyang Yu.

"Hello Comrade Khrushev, I am sure that we will get along very happily in the coming days. ”

"Hello Comrade Ivanova, I also think that we will get along happily. ”

Ouyang Yu and Khrushaki's hands were tightly clasped together.

On January 10, 1940, before Ouyang Yu's planned offensive was launched, a group of huge steel monsters drove in front of her, the two latest heavy tanks developed by the Soviet Union, the KV-1 and KV-2.

"What a mesmerizing little cutie. ”

Ouyang Yu stroked the hull of a KV-2 tank and circled around the KV-2 before reluctantly withdrawing his hand. Of course, the gray KV-2 tank icon in the system has also been changed to color.

The KV-1 and KV-2 tanks, newly developed by the Soviet military-industrial complex. This time, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Soviet-Finnish war, they each sent a few vehicles to the front line for actual combat testing, and Ouyang Yu's First Armored Army was naturally the first choice for testing.

At 9 o'clock in the morning of 10 January, the offensive began, and it was still the powerful air force under Ouyang Yu that launched the first wave of attacks, with more than 100 rag-3 fighters and more than 100 I-153 fighters covering 80 SB-2 bombers, and indiscriminately bombarding various firing points on the Finnish Mannerheim Line.

In the past, Finnish pilots could rely on excellent piloting techniques and tactics to defeat the Soviet pilots who were more numerous but less trained and tactically backward, but this time the Finnish pilots encountered the same excellent technology and tactics, and the tactics were almost the same, and the performance of the fighters was even more than a large number of pilots of the First Panzer Air Force, and the Finnish Air Force was shot down more than 10 fighters in just one shot, and the air battle ended in less than half an hour, and the Soviet side won a complete victory, shooting down 41 Finnish fighters, but they did not suffer any losses。

After seizing air supremacy on the battlefield, the SB-2 bomber and the I-153 fighter, which had been reduced to the role of attack aircraft, confidently and boldly lowered their altitude, destroying most of the firepower points that the Finnish army had worked hard to build, especially the anti-tank positions that posed a huge threat to tanks, and were the priority targets, and after the first wave of air raids, the Finnish army's anti-tank weapons lost 60 percent, which greatly weakened the Finnish army's anti-tank capability.

After the air raid, it was covered by overwhelming artillery fire, further eliminating and weakening the resistance of the Finnish army, the standard Ouyang Yu's opening style, simple, rough but very effective, there are not many enemies who can carry the past, the tenacious Finns with their love for the motherland and hatred of the enemy, they have survived Ouyang Yu's two axes, but their own losses are also extremely serious.

After the air raid and artillery bombardment, it was the ground offensive, this time Ouyang Yu adjusted her previous tactics, in the past, it was the tank and other armored forces in the front, and the infantry was in the back, this time she put the infantry in front and the tank in the back, as mentioned above, the complex terrain of the Karelian Isthmus is not conducive to the development of the large corps, and the positions arranged by the Finns are very hidden, and the tanks with very poor vision can be easily destroyed if they are in front.

The tactics arranged by Ouyang Yu this time were to take it step by step, not caring about how much land they occupied in Finland, not caring how many kilometers they were advancing rapidly every day, but with the main purpose of consuming and annihilating the living forces of the Finns.

The Soviet soldiers under Ouyang Yu slowly advanced in a company and in a loose skirmish line under the cover of the T-28 tank, which was originally designed to support infantry combat, and its weight and size of seventeen tons were more suitable for Finnish soil than the T-35. The 76 main guns and the two machine guns in front of the hull could effectively support the attacking infantry. Acts as a mobile battery for the infantry.

Take, for example, a company. More than 100 infantry searched for the attack in front, and four T-28 tanks followed the advance at a distance of 50 to 100 meters behind the infantry, so that the Finns' anti-tank weapons, especially the mobile and flexible anti-tank guns, were difficult to pose a threat to the T-28, and once the infantry was attacked by the Finn's fire point, the T-28 tank could also quickly support, and if the T-28 tank could not deal with the target, the infantry could also call for artillery support in the rear or fighter bombardment in the sky at any time. In order to ensure the smooth operation of the battle, Ouyang Yu equipped the radio station to the company level, so that the infantry could call for various supports at any time.

More than 100 soldiers of the 3rd Battalion and 8th Company of the 5th Regiment wore thick winter suits and white cloaks on the outside, and walked cautiously in the dense forests of Finland.

"Dadada...... Da da ......!"

In the snowdrift not far ahead, three Finn machine guns suddenly opened fire, and about two platoons of Finnish soldiers also poked their heads out of their hiding places and fired at the eighth company with rifles in their hands, and a dozen Soviet soldiers who were walking in the front were knocked down. The rest of the Soviet soldiers of the 8th Company immediately lay down, and their white cloaks provided them with the best camouflage. The Finnish machine gunners lost most of their targets at once, but the Finns' machine guns did not cease fire, but turned from point fire to suppressive strafing, and one bullet after another flew over the heads of the Soviet soldiers of the eighth company, hitting them so that they could not lift their heads.

"White Bear No. 64 calls Brown Bear No. 3, about seventy meters in front of the enemy machine gun, a few infantry, kill them!"

"Brown Bear Three understands. ”

The four T-28 tanks in the rear of the Eighth Company picked up speed and advanced to a distance of about 100 meters from the Finn machine guns and stopped, and the turrets slowly turned to aim their guns at the Finns' machine guns.

"Boom, boom, boom......!"

After several explosions in a row, the machine-gun positions of the Finns were blown into the sky.

"Dada...... Da da ......!"

The machine-gun towers in front of the hulls of the four T-28 tanks began to suppress fire, and this time it was the turn of the Finns to be suppressed and unable to raise their heads.

"Davarich, follow me!"

"Dirty......!"

The soldiers of the eighth company jumped up from the ground and rushed to the Finnish position, and when they approached the Finnish position thirty or forty meters, each Soviet soldier threw out one or two grenades, and the Finnish position was suddenly overwhelmed by an explosion.

The commander of the 8th Company asked some of the soldiers to carry the bodies of the dead soldiers and the wounded with a dozen prisoners back first, and the remaining 80 or so Soviet soldiers continued to advance.

In a concealed Finn anti-tank position, a German-made 37 anti-tank gun was aimed at the advancing T-28 tank.

"Fire!"

"Bang!"

"Boom......!"

The frontal armor of a T-28 tank was pierced, the shell exploded inside the hull, half of the crew members died on the spot, and the remaining half were also injured in various ways, unfortunately the explosion caused a fire, billowing smoke came out of the tank, a crew member with a less injured scream jumped out of the tank, the nearby infantry immediately helped to extinguish the flames on his body with snow, several brave infantry climbed onto the burning tank, trying to save more crew, but were shot down by a sudden dense number of bullets, and the body fell to the ground with blood flowers。

"Smoke bombs!"

Several white smoke bombs were thrown out, and a large amount of white smoke blocked the view of the Finns, and the soldiers of the 8th Company took the opportunity to carry away the bodies of the dead and dying soldiers and retreated several hundred meters.

"White Bear Sixty-Four calls to Little Bear and requests fire coverage of the OOXX area, over!"

"Bear received, fire coverage in five minutes, done!"

About ten kilometers from the front line, twelve 122 artillery groups received orders from the command, and the artillerymen shook their muzzles to aim, and one after another high-explosive shells were stuffed into the chambers.

"Ready...... Put!"

"Boom, boom...... Boom, boom, boom......!"

Twelve 122 guns opened fire in turn, and in five minutes a total of five rounds of shells were fired, which landed accurately on the Finns' ambush positions, blowing up the Finns' ambush positions.

After the shelling, the eighth company attacked again, the resistance of the Finns was not very strong, the only anti-tank gun had been blown into parts, the third company of the eighth company T-28 tanks became the main force of the attack, high-explosive shells and machine guns eliminated most of the surviving Finnish soldiers, and the eighth company again succeeded in eliminating dozens of Finns.

Battles like the Eighth Company were staged on the entire Mannerheim Line, the 1st Panzer Army advanced step by step with unreasonable superior firepower, and the Finnish soldiers, who lacked heavy firepower and anti-tank weapons, could only desperately resist with light weapons and flesh and blood in their hands, but their resistance was futile, and every resistance would attract heavy shelling and bombardment from the Soviet army, and the Soviet troops who attacked with every bullet fired by the Finns would return one or more shells, and under such an attack, although the Finns paid a huge price, they still could not stop the pace of the 1st Panzer Army, and on the first day of the offensive alone, the 1st Panzer Army advanced twenty kilometers, this is also the reason why Ouyang Yu deliberately slowed down his pace, otherwise forty kilometers would not be a problem.

The days in Finland in winter were particularly short, and it was already dark at three o'clock in the afternoon, and the First Panzer Army had to stop attacking and defending on the spot, looking at the battle report sent to Khrushakiv and smiling from ear to ear.

"Comrade Ivanova, you and your 1st Panzer Corps have indeed lived up to their reputation, not only advanced 20 kilometers in today's battle, but also eliminated more than 7,000 enemies and captured more than 300 people, while they themselves only lost 16 tanks, killed more than 1,000 people, wounded more than 2,000 people, and the casualty ratio was almost 1 to 2. ”

Hearing Khrushaki's appreciation of Ouyang Yu, he shook his head disapprovingly, "Our army occupies all kinds of advantages to fight one to two, in my opinion, today's battle is actually a failure, the Finns are very tenacious in resisting, and they are also very good at using various natural environments to offset the advantages of our army, and the progress of the day depends on whether it can be held at night, so the key to the battle is not to look at the day but at night, but I have no intention of fighting with the Finns at night." ”

In Khrushaki's puzzled eyes, Ouyang Yu picked up the phone and gave an order that he was puzzled about. (To be continued.) )