USSR 1941

  Chapter 140 Lake

   From this aspect, Rundstedt still has some brains.

  His move of the Romanian army between the two lines of defense obviously took various circumstances into consideration: the supply of Transnistria, the Romanian anti-tank guns, the armor thickness of the Soviet tanks, etc.

   But he still missed a little bit...

   "I think!" Shulka said: "The weak point of the enemy's defense is these lakes!"

  Major Gavrilov was stunned for a moment, and asked suspiciously: "Lake?"

   No wonder Major Gavrilov was surprised, because it was precisely these serpentine lakes that restrained the attacking troops, and Shulka said that they were the enemy's weak point.

   "Yes!" Shulka said: "Because these lakes cut the enemy's defense line into sections, and the lake water will change with the rainy and dry seasons, it is difficult to build fortifications nearby!"

   "But it's useless!" Major Gavrilov pointed to the map and said: "They built several forts on both sides of the entrance of the lake, and blocked the lake with the firepower from the forts!"

"I'm not talking about attacking from the lake, Major!" Shulka pointed to the map and explained: "These lakes are all vertical, they extend from the outside of the defense line to the inside of the defense line, and some even cross two lines. Defensive lines...why don't we use these lakes to infiltrate the outer defensive lines and attack inside and outside?"

   "You mean...a gas mask?" Major Gavrilov's eyes lit up involuntarily, and he remembered the thing about refitting a gas mask in the Brest Fortress and diving across the Bug River to break through.

   "Yes!" Shulka nodded: "As long as we sneak into a small army and attack from the inside out, and at the same time launch a fierce frontal attack..."

   Needless to say, all the defense lines are facing outward, which means that the enemy stationed on the defense line will be attacked from the back.

   "Is the depth of these lakes suitable for diving!" asked Commissar Fuming.

  Political Commissar Fuming also has experience in this. He knows that too deep or too shallow is not suitable...too shallow cannot be hidden, and if it is too deep, the extension tube of the gas mask will not be long enough.

   "That's not a problem!" Major Gavrilov replied: "All the lakes in this area are deep in the middle and shallow on both sides. We can change the position to adjust the depth!"

   "Is the enemy prepared for this?" Commissar Fuming raised another worry.

   This worry is reasonable. After all, the Soviet Army used this method once, and it will be used a second time at this time...

   "The enemy should not know!" Major Gavrilov thought for a while and said, "You know, they didn't publicize our battle at the Brest Fortress!"

  As mentioned before, the top Soviet officials believed that the Battle of Brest Fortress was an "escape", so it was not worthy of publicity and of course it was not a hero.

   There are many such examples, and many heroes in the Kyiv campaign in history were not recognized.

   But this is also good, that is, the details of the Brest Fortress battle are not exposed, such as the modification of gas masks.

   "But the Germans may know the situation through the prisoners!" Political Commissar Fuming was still a little worried.

   Commissar Fumin's concerns were justified. During the Battle of Brest, many Soviet troops surrendered to the enemy, including after crossing the river with gas masks.

   So, it's entirely possible that the Germans knew this method either from interrogating captives or from traitors.

"That's the Central Army Group!" Major Gavrilov said: "That battle is a shame for them, they will not tell this to the Southern Army Group, especially when we are facing Romanians now! "

  Commissioner Fuming hesitated for a while, then nodded.

   Major Gavrilov said exactly what Shulka thought.

The commanders of the Central Army Group may know the details. After all, they are cautious Germans. They have a kind of obsession with war. They will want to know what caused their failure, so they will try their best to find out the problem. The carelessness of the corps commander was the exact opposite.

   But the problem is precisely this sense of honor of the German officers... because of the sense of honor, they just don't spread this "shame" everywhere, especially for those servants who they look down on.

  So, several people in the headquarters looked at each other, nodded at each other and decided to do it.

   Shulka and others guessed right, although not entirely right... At this time, it was not the Romanians who were commanding in Odessa, but Schobert, the commander of the German 11th Army.

  However, Schobert is only a nominal commander or advisor, and he cannot fully control the Romanian Army.

   This is also what troubled Schobert.

  Schobert's headquarters is located in a bunker in the middle of the defense line, which is closer to the Romanian 4th Army headquarters, so he can take care of both ends.

   On this day, he found General Rakowitza, commander of Luo's 4th Army.

   "We need to invest more artillery in the direction of Odessa, General Rakovitza!" Schobert said a little excitedly: "This way we can take Odessa as quickly as possible!"

"But we also need artillery to defend the outer line of defense!" General Rakovitza retorted: "The outer line of defense is under heavy attack from the enemy. If we take Odessa but the outer line of defense is breached, then has no meaning?"

   After the end, General Rakowitza added: "I know how to fight this battle, General Schobert!"

   Schobert couldn't help but secretly cursed, these Romanians really regarded them as Germany's allies.

What Schobert said was right. At this time, the Romanians really regarded themselves as allies of Germany rather than servants, so they also had honor and backbone. They would not hand over command power casually, especially It was when a battle was about to be won... Rakowitza even thought that the Germans sent Schobert to take credit from him.

  But Schobert knew in his heart that the immediate focus was on Odessa rather than the outer line of defense.

There is no doubt about this.

The outer line of defense is wide open. Although the enemy tanks are numerous, they are nothing to worry about. The previous attacks also illustrate this point. The Romanians' 25MM anti-tank guns are already enough to withstand the Soviet T26, not to mention that they also added tanks from the Soviet Union. The captured 37MM and 45MM anti-tank guns.

   Instead, it was Odessa, where the attack of the German 22nd Infantry Division was constantly hindered due to lack of artillery... What happened in Odessa was street fighting. The Russians occupied several buildings and stood firm. It was almost impossible to break through without artillery support.

   But Schobert was still helpless, because the arrogant Romanian general just refused to transfer the artillery to the direction of Odessa, and the artillery did not even fire a few shots when they were heading towards the outer defense line.

  What Schobert didn't know was that while he was right about the artillery he was wrong about it...he had more to worry about than Odessa but the outer defenses.