USSR 1941

   Chapter 137 Odessa

   Two hours later, the Soviet army embarked on the journey again.

   Soon there were landmines on the road again. Obviously, the German or Romanian army recovered and continued to mine.

  Although they knew that the mines would not be of much use, but when "time is victory", a little delay counts as a little bit.

This idea is indeed correct, because the speed of the tank pushing a roller is indeed slower, and it cannot march without scruples. It must be run over by several modified tanks in the front, and it has to be replaced when encountering anti-tank mines from time to time. one time.

   At noon the next day, the vanguard of the 9th Army finally arrived at the outskirts of Odessa, which is 40 kilometers away from Odessa.

  Everyone thought that they would encounter enemies here, especially some soldiers who were familiar with the terrain in this area.

   Cossack is one of them, he worked here for two years before joining the army.

"There is a Transnistria River in the west!" The Cossack shined a flashlight on the bottom of the carriage, where there was a thick cardboard. To the west of Desa, a 40-kilometer-long bay is formed there. To be precise, it is not formed by the Transnistria River, but formed by the influx of sea water into the low-lying inland. We call it Transnistria. The bay or the valley of Transnistria!"

   "He is like a barrier on the west side of Odessa!" Shulka said.

   "Yes!" Cossack said: "But this also means that the supplies shipped from the direction of Romania must bypass this bay, which is where we are now!"

   "But there are no enemies here!"

   "We just need to take the top of this bay and cut off their supply lines!"

   "It is impossible for the Germans to give up the supply line!"

   "Yes!" Shulka agreed: "I think...they will choose to go by sea, that is, across the Transnistrian Gulf!"

  The Cossacks nodded in agreement, although this will be much more troublesome than going by land, because they have to reach the west bank of the bay to unload, then load the ship, cross the bay, and then unload and transport it by car to all directions.

   But the Germans can indeed do this.

  Of course, the spontaneous discussions of the soldiers are not of great significance. They just want to know what kind of difficulties they will face in the future.

   Soon Shulka knew he was right.

  Because not long after the car stopped and received the order to prepare for battle.

At the same time, a signal soldier riding a three-wheeler parked the car nearby and shouted to Shulka from a distance: "Comrade Shulka, Major Gavrilov asked you to go to the headquarters! "

   "Where is the headquarters?" Shulka asked.

   "Get in the car, Comrade Shulka!" The signalman raised his head towards the empty seat next to him and said, "This is from the Germans, I hope you don't mind!"

   "No, of course not!" Shulka stepped up as he spoke, and added after sitting down, "I'm only worried about being regarded as a German by others!"

  The communications soldier laughed: "Don't worry, Comrade Shulka, even if they don't know me, they will know you!"

   As soon as he stepped on the accelerator, Bian Sanruo drove towards the rear with a "boom".

  The headquarters is located in a residential house two miles away from the front line, facing the north by the mountain.

  This location was chosen very professionally, because the main force of the enemy is in Odessa in the south, so most of the shells are fired from the south. Choosing a residential house with a mountain in the south means that it is a dead end for the enemy's artillery fire.

   "Shulka!" Seeing Shulka walk in, Major Gavrilov beckoned him to come forward.

Commissar Fumin stopped Shulka halfway, shook hands with Shulka, and said: "Comrade Shulka, your performance has been reported to me by Comrade Major. You have done a good job. You can even say... we The fact that the troops arrived here and achieved such a great victory is largely due to your advice, thank you, and thank you for your contribution to the motherland!"

   "That's as it should be, Comrade Commissar!" Shulka answered boldly.

  Commissar Fomin nodded, and then invited Shulka to Major Gavrilov's map.

   "The military situation is urgent, so I won't count your contributions like the political commissar!" Major Gavrilov made a not very funny joke.

   "Of course!" Shulka and the political commissar responded with a smile.

   "The enemy deployed the main force between the two lines of defense!" Major Gavrilov said: "They voluntarily gave up the periphery and used Odessa's outer line of defense to defend, which was originally our line of defense!"

   "Are they sending supplies through Transnistria?" Shulka asked.

   "Yes!" Major Gavrilov spread his hands and said, "It seems that you have already understood the situation!"

   "I don't know much!" Shulka replied, and then turned his attention to the map on the table.

   Shulka was telling the truth. The sketches and dictation drawn by the Cossacks were just a vague idea, which gradually became clear after seeing the map.

   Geographically speaking, Odessa's advantages can be said to be unique.

  It not only has a Transnistrian Gulf as a barrier on the west side, but also has a long strip of Tiligur Lake on the east side that is also tens of kilometers long.

   That is to say, Odessa is actually surrounded by water on three sides: the bay on the west, the Black Sea on the south, and the lake on the east.

  Odessa's outer line of defense is to connect the bay to the west and the lake to the east, so a short 80 kilometers forms a closed line of defense without gaps.

  And there are even several "W"-shaped lakes and swamps in the 80 kilometers, which is obviously quite beneficial to the defenders.

  At this time, Shulka understood why it took 73 days for the Romanian army to attack this place, and in the end, it was not the Romanian army that captured it, but the Soviet army withdrew on its own initiative.

   "It is not suitable for mechanized troops to attack!" Major Gavrilov said: "It is also not suitable for large troops to deploy! It seems that we can only attack from the west side of the defense line!"

This is clear from the map. A large area on the east side is blocked by lakes and swamps like several long snakes. If you attack from the east side, you must swim between these lakes and swamps, and finally pass through several lakes. through a narrow passage before entering Odessa.

   And these narrow passages only need a few machine guns and a few artillery pieces to block them.

   "Our advantage is..." Gavrilov said: "The Romanians lack anti-tank equipment. They are equipped with 25MM anti-tank guns. This anti-tank gun cannot penetrate the T26 armor at a distance of 300 meters!"

  300 meters... This advantage is actually not obvious, because it is a rainy day with poor visibility, and Soviet tank gunners also cannot see the enemy 300 meters away.