USSR 1941

  Chapter 138 Attack

   Shulka was right, because just as Shulka was discussing with Major Gavrilov and others in the headquarters, the battle on the front line had already begun.

   The two tank divisions are engaged in the attack... The tank division has more tanks, and of course it should be the main attack task.

   This is also the reason why Shulka and others got a short rest time.

   Commanding the battle was Major General Toliczka, the commander of the 9th Army. The reason why he was so eager to launch the attack was due to two points:

   First of all, the situation does not allow Major General Tolicka to delay.

  The news that the 9th Soviet Army arrived in Odessa reached the city of Odessa... This is good news, and at the same time Petrov finally believed that the support army that Moscow said was true.

  Because the telegram sent from Moscow said: "The 9th Mechanized Army has arrived in Odessa, and will soon launch an attack on the outer defense line. Please cooperate with the 9th Army's attack!"

   No one would lie like that, because it's easy to see through.

   "Odessa has been reached", "the attack will be launched soon"... Liars don't use these words, because you only need to wait a few hours to hear the sound of attacking guns to know the truth.

  But things often have its two sides. When the reinforcements arrive, it means that the German army must end the battle in the city as soon as possible.

That is to say, the German army and the Romanian army stepped up their offensive against Odessa, and they even took the risk of sending bombers to bomb Odessa... The bombers threw gasoline barrels and bombs into Odessa, and the whole Odessa fell into a hellish chaos. In the flames, the allied forces of Luo and Germany launched a fierce attack on the Soviet army like a tide.

  Petrov's telegram to Moscow is: "The reinforcements had better move faster, otherwise they will have to collect the corpse for us!"

  Moscow conveyed this sentence to Major General Tolicka verbatim.

  Major General Toliczka may not need to care about the issue of "corpse collection". He doesn't know Petrov, although they both graduated from the Frunze Military Academy.

  The problem is that if Odessa is completely occupied by the enemy, its defense line will be further consolidated and it will be more difficult to attack... This is related to the vital interests of the 9th Army and even Major General Tolicka.

  Secondly and more importantly, the earlier the attack gives the enemy less preparation time.

   This is of course, especially the German defense line is still the Odessa defense line that was taken from the Soviet army.

  Obviously, when the Romanians attacked the line of defense, they also had to bombard with artillery fire or blow up bunkers one by one.

So when the Odessa defense line fell into the hands of the Romanians, it was already dilapidated. Before that, the Romanians didn't even think they should repair these fortifications...until they got Rundstedt's deployment of the main force between the two defense lines two days ago Order.

  Two days.

  The Romanian army needs to dig trenches that are almost blown out, lay mines in front of the positions, pull up barbed wire, repair bunkers, arrange firepower, and even dig anti-tank trenches, etc. Obviously, there is not enough time for preparation.

   So obviously, the earlier the attack, the easier it is to attack.

  So Major General Toliczka did not hesitate, and immediately organized two tank divisions to launch a fierce attack on the Odessa defense line.

   At least one thing Major General Toliczka has learned: use a roller to modify a tank to clear mines.

   In fact, two tanks had learned this before, especially the 20th Tank Division.

  The 20th Tank Division is the main force of the 9th Army. It is advancing along the railway from Kyiv to Odessa and is in the lead... Two tank divisions advance along the railway one after the other.

  The reason is that for tanks, the road condition of the railway will undoubtedly be much better than that of the road... The railway has a solid roadbed and even sleepers. Even in this heavy rain, the tank will not be stuck in the mud and unable to move.

   But one thing is the same, that is, the Germans will also lay mines on the railway.

  Useful tactics on the battlefield will spread quickly, and one of them is the modified mine clearance tank.

It is said that Major General Toliczka sighed when he learned of this method: "It's unbelievable... so many of us, so many staff officers, have been fighting for many years, but we have never thought of this simple and practical method! Finally It was discovered by this sergeant!"

  Major General Toliczka was a little annoyed. Although he had already agreed with Shulka, he still couldn't suppress a little bit of jealousy in his heart... a major general of a mechanized army commanding tens of thousands of people is jealous of a sergeant? !

   Then naturally, this minesweeper tank was used to attack the Odessa defense line:

   The dozens of tanks driving in front were all equipped with rollers, and dozens of tanks behind were ready to be replaced at any time. They pushed forward slowly in the rain, and then heard the sound of landmines "swelling" and exploding in front.

  If this was in the past, the Soviet army would use artillery shells to blow up a safe passage forward.

  But now... there is no need to waste so many shells at all, all the problems are solved by rolling the roller forward, and even the barbed wire can be rolled to the ground one by one. (Note: If the tank runs directly over the barbed wire, it will often get stuck in the track, making it difficult or even impossible to move)

  Then the infantry moved forward under the cover of the tank.

   At this time, the following infantry behind the tank armor played a considerable role.

  Usually it is very difficult for tanks to fight in such a poor line of sight situation.

  From an outsider’s perspective, a tank looks like it’s just driving forward and firing at the target, but only when you’re actually hiding in the tank can you know...its field of view is completely different from the open state of the outside world.

Tank crews rely on narrow observation holes or periscopes to observe. Things that can be easily done by the outside world, such as estimating the distance of the target, can only be guessed by tank crews who were not equipped with rangefinders during World War II... People in an open field of vision The target can be positioned according to the surrounding scenery and the two eyes, and then a large estimate can be made. Observing in the tank will greatly weaken this perception.

   In addition, the narrow field of view inside the tank makes it difficult to detect and locate your natural enemy in time...anti-tank guns.

  That's why there is a popular saying among tank gunners: "ranging depends on guessing, firing depends on feeling", of course, survival is also dependent on luck.

  But it’s different if there are follower infantry who keep in touch with the tank crew at the later moment...following infantry can report their range measurement to the tank crew at any time.

   "The blockhouse directly ahead, 270 meters!"

   "Machine gun fort at two o'clock, 300 meters away!"

  …

   These data are obviously very important to the tank crew, because this is how the gunner finds the target and shoots.

   More importantly, they can report the position of the enemy's anti-tank guns to the tank crew in the first time.