Bismarck

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The Soviet heroes once again repelled the enemy's attack, but the entire unit had been wiped out!

Lying beside the last usable heavy machine gun on the flank of the trench, the instructor breathed a long sigh of relief as he watched his subordinates searching for abandoned ammunition and weapons as much as possible on the battlefield littered with corpses, and then looked at the machine gun ammunition chain with only four or five rounds left.

At least, this time, I survived and held on.

But next time, I really don’t know if I can keep it up…

There were originally more than 400 infantrymen in the battalion, but now there were less than 40 comrades who could move on the position, and the ammunition was basically used up. If he hadn't dragged the last wheeled heavy machine gun to the side and then suddenly swept across the entire German skirmish line from the relatively narrow side when the enemy was about to rush to the position, catching them off guard, perhaps the position would have been lost just now...

"But... never mind. We killed so many Germans and held our ground for five hours... Motherland, we have done our best..."

Gently closing his tired eyes, he leaned against the side of the trench, thinking this in his heart. However, thinking that there would be even more brutal battles to come, the instructor opened his hoarse voice and shouted weakly to his subordinates:

"Those who are still alive, report your numbers!"

Before he finished speaking, waves of terrifying screams were heard from the sky! The faces of all the people still alive on the battlefield changed drastically in an instant. They covered their hats one by one and ran towards the anti-gun holes - even the few guns and ammunition that they had collected with great difficulty before were not brought into the trenches in time!

And in the next second, the shells fell on his head like hail!

Another German attack has begun!

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During the war, the Kremlin was covered with camouflage nets. But even so, it could not cover up the numerous bullet holes on the building, which was shocking at first glance!

"Comrade Stalin, although it is a pity, Kaluga could not hold out any longer... The 316th Infantry Division deployed on the Kaluga Highway withstood the siege of Guderian's -man army and at least tanks. It held the highway for three days. Most of the soldiers including the division commander Panfilov died gloriously... Later, Katukov's Guards Tank Brigade went up to reinforce and rescued the remnants of the division from Guderian..."

"It's hard for our comrades to face such a difficult situation..."

Listening to the report of Marshal Vasilevsky, the Chief of General Staff, Stalin, pinching his nose, could not help but remain silent. After thinking for a long time, the man named Steel silently grabbed the pipe on the table, and then took a big puff...

"In my name, I suggest that the 316th Infantry Division be awarded the honorary title of 'Guards Red Banner Division'. All meritorious personnel below the division commander should be posthumously awarded the Order of Hero of the Soviet Union once verified. This heroic unit deserves such an honor."

Stalin, who was awarding honors to the martyrs, could not help but look at the large map hanging on the wall as he spoke:

"In addition...if Kaluga is lost now, Guderian can directly attack Moscow - it is less than 200 kilometers away from here to Moscow, and there is no strategic location to defend. And now that he has broken through, the positions on the north and south sides will also be very dangerous...especially Guderian's south wing. The commander of the Fifth Panzer Army opposite Tula is the African God of War that the British are afraid of to death. If Rommel goes further, it will be the German Army Group 'B' in the south..."

Although he did not ask any questions and his tone was just statements, as the Chief of the General Staff, Vasilevsky could clearly hear what Stalin wanted to ask.

"Comrade Stalin, you are right! Tula is now the key to the entire front - we must not let Rommel and Guderian join forces, as their joining forces would mean the joining of two army groups!" Vasilevsky said, thinking of this key point. Finally, the Chief of the General Staff gritted his teeth and nodded vigorously: "I will immediately dispatch a batch of reinforcements and supplies to Tula, and appoint a defense expert as the city defense commander to ensure that this place will not fall into the hands of the Germans!"

Stalin, with bloodshot and tired eyes, said nothing, but just nodded slightly.

It's like I want to save even the energy to speak...

Chapter 786: Tula

Tula, 180 kilometers south of Moscow, is an important transportation hub in the Soviet Union and a long-established military industrial and mining city.

At the same time, this is also one of the most important east-west transportation hubs in the area south of Moscow! It is the throat for the German Army's Bock and Rundstedt Army Groups to communicate with each other!

It is 90 kilometers east of Kaluga and 140 kilometers west of Ryazan. It is the northern end of the hill-water network in central Soviet Union. Although the hills here are less than meters high, hills are hills, and obstacles to communication are obstacles to communication. Moreover, there are dense forests, river valleys, paddy fields and swamps here, all of which are hated by the military and transportation fields.

Given the hilly and swampy terrain in central Soviet Union and the situation on the battlefield, if the Soviet army could hold on to Tula, the transportation links and material dispatch between the two German army groups would have to go around to the Orel area 200 kilometers to the south!

What does this mean?

If we take Moscow as the center of the circle, and the distance between Moscow and Tula (180 kilometers) or Moscow and Orel (400 kilometers) as the radius, and then calculate the impact using the circumference of the circle algorithm, this means that the logistics line of the Rundstedt Army Group, which is attacking Ryazan in the east and intends to outflank the deep rear east of Moscow, will be stretched to more than 230 kilometers for no reason - compared to the direct eastward advance from the Tula Highway, the straight-line distance of only kilometers, the length of the logistics line has increased by nearly three times.

You have to know that at this moment, the German offensive has shown considerable fatigue, and the Soviet guerrilla activities behind the front are very rampant. This has a great impact on the efficiency of logistics, which is a great problem!

What’s even more terrible is that the troop movements of the two German army groups will also be affected by the length of the transportation lines!

There is a military principle that the direction of the army's deployment and the direction of the logistics line should preferably be deployed vertically along the traffic line. In this way, if the enemy wants to outflank the rear, they must bypass the main force of the party. In addition, the distance the enemy needs to move to bypass the road, as well as the road conditions, are naturally several times more efficient than the main force of the party that goes straight on the main road. At the same time, even if such a deployment is defeated on the front line, since there is no need to worry about outflanking, it can also evacuate the battlefield directly along the highway.

But what if the traffic line and our own positions are deployed in parallel?

Then the fun will be great.

Deploy along the traffic line, in other words, the lifeline of the troops is right next to you. As long as the opponent's attack opens a point, it is equivalent to directly cutting off your own transportation line! Even if the opponent's commander has a strong intention to attack, as long as he follows the road, he can directly cut off the flanks of our other positions and then cut all the way...

(As soon as they thought of this possibility, a group of German generals immediately shook their heads like rattles)

After all, for the Soviet Union, the German army was an invader! Whether from the perspective of military geometry to measure risk, or from the reality of the occupied areas full of guerrillas, or even the fatigue of the troops, the cruel losses, and the overwhelmed engineering troops, not to mention the hilly and water-network terrain is doubly disgusting...

We are all soldiers, and no one wants to be the background board of "Driving seven hundred miles in fifteen days, sweeping through thousands of troops like a rolled up mat. Some people cry, sighing that it is too late to move forward step by step in the camp."

Therefore, the communication between the two German army groups can basically only be established after the capture of Tula...

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"...Comrades, I am Brigade Commander Katukov! Our current situation is extremely difficult! The Kaluga direction of our right wing has been broken through by Guderian's Second Armored Group, and a division of more than 50 German devils has come over there and has already fought with the temporary regiment of the th Army!"

"... You must know, comrades, the German devils on the flank are not the only threat! Now in front of us is Rommel's Fifth Armored Group of 316 troops - even now, the so-called 'African God of War' has deployed four divisions of 156 troops and more than tanks on two roads! Now our brother troops, the th 'Panfilov Division' that we just brought back from Kaluga a few days ago, and the th Regiment of the Internal Guard of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, have been stuck in a tough battle!"

"As for our left wing, the enemy on the New Moscow side is Model's Fourth Army. Although our brother unit, the 50th Army, is guarding that direction, we are still attacked from two sides. If the situation worsens, we have to be prepared to be surrounded on three sides, or even completely surrounded by the German devils here."

After speaking for a long time, Brigade Commander Katukov had to take a breath. But when he spoke again, his tone became more severe: "But! The current situation is that two German army groups are attacking our capital, Moscow! Tula's position is here, she is blocking the connection between the two German army groups!"

"Moreover, the people of this city, the 300,000 people of this working-class city, have clearly refused to move! They are still working in the factories, providing our great Soviet motherland with ammunition and weapons to resist the fascists! They have built three lines of defense in the city and several towns around the city, and the urban area is also full of barricades! They have even organized hundreds of guerrillas and a workers' regiment! This is a heroic city, and its people are the symbol of the Soviets..." Having said that, Major General Katukov stood up suddenly and waved his hand: "The Soviets will never surrender. The people of our country have shown their firmness with their actions! - As a regular army, as the 4th Independent Guards Tank Brigade with the title of Guards, should we use our actions to tell the fascists that the Soviet motherland is not easy to bully?!"

"want!"

In the square below the brigade commander, the only 2,800 officers and soldiers left in the brigade shouted at the same time - as the elite guards, the soldiers not only stood in neat rows, but also shouted in unison.

Glancing at his high-spirited subordinates, the brigade commander's mouth curled up slightly:

"Very good! Now, all troops go back and prepare for battle, and be ready to attack at any time - disband!"

After receiving the brigade commander's order, everyone immediately headed towards their own squad's station. Around this square, dozens of huge monsters, either covered with camouflage nets or hiding under the eaves, were silently hiding their grandeur.

There are actually fifty T-34/85 main battle tanks!

but……

"What a pity, now we only have half of our brigade's tanks left... Shura, I think we should think of something else."

"I think you should ask the brigade commander about this and see what he has to say."

"Ask the brigade commander? The brigade commander's tactics are very dirty, either ambushes, mines, or surprise attacks..."

"I can't pretend I didn't hear that, so Yongfu, you'd better bribe me with a pack of cigarettes, otherwise... I'll see you at the instructor's place!"

"Get lost! Where is the 'pack' of cigarettes these days? Don't people just roll up their own tobacco with a piece of newspaper and smoke it?"

"Hey hey hey~"

In a half-collapsed barn, two tanks, still emitting the smell of dust and gunpowder but kept clean and tidy, were quietly waiting for the order to attack.

As the tank platoon leader and the commander of the wingman vehicle, Shura and Yang Yongfu led their subordinates to carry out the final maintenance and combat readiness of the tanks while chatting with them casually.

The last shell was carried into the tank turret. Yang Yongfu threw away his cigarette butt and jumped off the tank: "Shura, I just thought about it. We have three tanks in our platoon and now there are only two of us left. I think we should think about how to cooperate."

"What are you going to do?" Shura over there also filled his tank with diesel at about the same time. He dropped the hand pump, took out a rag from somewhere and wiped the oil stains on his hands. He also looked at his old friend with interest.

"Simple, have you noticed the terrain in this area? ... The road here is only two cars wide, with paddy fields and swamps on both sides, and hills and pine forests in the past - the enemy is on the offensive, and the terrain on both sides is very obstructive, so they couldn't outflank us at the beginning!" Yang Yongfu said as he grabbed a stick and scribbled a few strokes on the dusty ground: "I noticed that the average width of the road on both sides is less than 500 meters. Several intersections are a little wider but only about 1,000 to 1,500 meters, which is the width that an infantry company or even a reinforced platoon can hold... I estimate that at the beginning, we were probably acting as a fire brigade to stabilize the front and hold off the German devils' vanguard. ... In this place, if we follow the original triangle formation of three tanks in a platoon, we can't deploy at all. But now our two tanks can just cooperate with each other."

"How to do it?" Shura asked - after all, the current military production is very tight, and tank radios are still not popular. If the combat strategy is not discussed in advance, the actual combat will suffer a great loss!

"Basically there are two ways - when entering and leaving the battlefield, we try to move in echelons, and be responsible for the left and right wings respectively. ... If it is a positional battle or defense, then we should disperse on both sides of the road as much as possible, and then use cross-fire... Do you understand what I mean?" Yang Yongfu drew a few tactical diagrams and asked Shura.

Although Zoya's sacrifice made this old friend of mine mature and colder, his funny personality is still funny. I remember that when he came back from the training class, his test results in the tactics class were just a little bit better than the passing line!

This result is quite bad for me...

You know, Katukov, the commander of the 4th Guards Tank Brigade, is a famous tank tactician in the Red Army! His tactical operation ability is among the best in the entire Red Army!

Moreover, this man was a "learning soldier" who was very good at summarizing combat experience and lessons to improve tactical operation. The war had only been going on for sixteen months, but the brigade commander already had five or six tactical reference books and tactical textbooks! As a tank platoon leader, he was often dragged by the company commander and battalion commander to listen to the brigade commander's tactical lessons when he was not fighting.

But the person in front of me...

"Isn't it just one on the left and one on the right, with each taking responsibility and covering each other? Got it, got it." Shula waved his hand nonchalantly, "Such a simple tactical operation can't be difficult for me."

Yang Yongfu really wanted to complain: I know you actually listened to me, but don’t you feel guilty for being so arrogant to me?

ps: The Battle of Tula will have three or four chapters, because it is an important part of the southern line of the Battle of Moscow. The success or failure here will determine the success or failure of the Battle of Moscow.

Chapter 787: Rommel's Dilemma

October 1942, :

The Germans must be impatient... The weather improved a little yesterday, and today Rommel's troops resumed their attack on us. Guderian's 293rd Division on the left wing was also attacking our flanks. The battles at the bend of the Oka River, at the town of Dugna, and at the crossing of the town of Aleksin, nearly kilometers to the north, were in full swing. The brigade commander ordered our battalion to be split into small teams, and to reinforce the positions of the infantry comrades everywhere.

The infantry comrades fought bravely and their tactics were flexible. They also did a good job of covering the battlefield environment. Camouflage nets were pulled above the road, and some people even used wire ropes to pull the tall pine trees in the woods on both sides of the road together to serve as natural shelters. Thanks to their efforts and hard work, Shura and I were often able to avoid the pursuit of the buzzing German Stuka attack planes.

October 1942, :

Guderian, furious, called in another heavy artillery regiment and dropped a large number of incendiary bombs in the forests on both sides of the road! Our camouflaged positions and bunkers in the forest, as well as the blocking points on both sides of the road, are now unusable.

Fortunately, we have the power of the people! The villagers of Novogrovsk, seven kilometers behind the ferry position, refused to evacuate, and in the past few days, they worked tirelessly to build the town into a simple second-line position under the fascist incendiary bombs. Together with the engineering company, they buried two trucks of 2,000 mines on the road and in the paddy fields and woods on both sides! With the support of the Soviet people, the brigade commander transferred a reinforced company from the second battalion, with two anti-tank guns and two heavy mortars, to resist the attack of the fascists there... If it weren't for their support, after the ferry was lost, the fascists could rush directly to Nenishhevo behind us and completely wrap us up...

October 1942, :

As expected, there are traitors everywhere! When we were fighting on the front line, there were bad elements lurking in Tula, spreading rumors and causing trouble everywhere! This morning, a granary in the city was blown up by the German devils, but when the workers' pickets patrolling nearby came to rescue the food, they accidentally caught the saboteurs who pointed out the location to the fascists - two legal thieves (Russian anti-G mafia) and a former Polish corporal, and a rich peasant, all of whom were extremely reactionary guys! According to the wartime decree, these people were shot on the spot by the Internal Security Force after the public trial and the announcement of their crimes!

Speaking of which, these bastards were hiding quietly, but now, probably because they saw the fascists coming, these latent counter-revolutionaries have jumped out one by one, making the city a mess! Fortunately, at noon today, our superiors transferred a Red Navy sailor battalion to us. The city defense commander General Lukin asked them to go to the south to replace the position of the 156th Regiment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and let the NKVD Internal Guards come back to carry out the purge. This time, our company's mission is to cover the rotation of the southern highway...

October 1942, :

It started raining again last night, and we completed the shift change during the rainy night. But marching at night is very troublesome, especially the mud raised by the tracks of the front vehicle, which can make the entire front of the vehicle completely covered! Even I, the company commander who sat on the roof of the tank, observing the road conditions while "remotely controlling" the driver, had a mouthful of mud.

When we evacuated our positions at dawn, my platoon was responsible for covering the rear. As a result, the retreating tank accidentally fell into a mud pit on the side of the road. The time was very tight at dawn, and we couldn't turn on the lights. Shura's tank took a lot of effort to drag me out of the swamp. Then we spent a long time cleaning the tracks that were entangled by the water plants...

Fortunately, until we entered the camouflage area, the fascist bombers did not pay attention to our two tanks...

October 1942, :

Rommel is indeed an old fox. He actually thought of letting his engineers build pontoon bridges and roads in the swamps; infiltration with the tactics of attack! Now all the outer positions of the highway southwest of Tula have been lost. The remaining soldiers of the Panfilov Division have used up their last strength. In order to preserve their manpower, the city defense commander had to order them to evacuate their positions...

Now the vanguard of the 90th Fascist Armored Division has entered the town of Insinskiy, only five kilometers southwest of Tula. In addition, they also have the 164th Light Division and another 293th Division, which are attacking from two small roads on the other side in the direction of Bemiki and Leninsky. Together with Guderian's rd Division and a newly transferred motorized infantry division, they are attacking our right wing from both sides...

October 1942, :

General Lukin, the city defense commander, decided to concentrate all the tanks and troops we could use to launch a counterattack in the Leninsky direction! The counterattack plan was to choose the time when the enemy attacked, when they left the cover of the position, and catch them off guard!

Leninsky is only a few kilometers away from Tula, a large town with a factory area and tens of thousands of people. The German bombing seems to have turned it into a pile of ruins, but this also makes the terrain more open when we rush out of the hidden reinforced buildings, and there will not be too many obstacles!

At dawn, we had entered the starting position and hid. The 22 tanks and more than 800 soldiers that the whole brigade could gather were all put into battle! The arrogant Germans did not find us and thought they could rush into the town. But when they rushed to less than 50 meters from the town, they ran into our counterattack. The arrogant Germans were scared and collapsed completely - I still remember the dumbfounded expressions of the Germans when our tanks broke through the wall and rushed out of the town!

Our tanks mixed with their fleeing soldiers, and while they had no time to call for artillery fire, we drove them all the way into their positions! Then we chased them all the way, taking advantage of their confusion to continuously recapture more than ten kilometers of positions on the road, and also forced the 732th Armored Division of the German devils on the other side to stop the attack! By the time the German planes finally arrived, we had already retreated under the cover of our comrades in the Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment...

This assault defeated the German 90th Light Division, but we also lost six tanks. However, compared to regaining more than ten kilometers of depth and deterring the fascist th Armored Division from attacking again, it was a considerable achievement.

However, even with this victory, there was a problem with our left wing...

Just when we had just withdrawn to Leninsky, we received bad news - the German devils on the left wing in the direction of New Moscow broke through the defense line of the friendly 50th Army and reached Grizovsky (on the left side of Tula), and also sent a considerable number of troops to attack us - more than 40 people of the fascist th Armored Grenadiers - this was one-third of the strength of the fascist Fourth Army!

Now, we are attacked from three sides instead of two sides...

October 1942, :

The situation was becoming increasingly difficult. Guderian’s Army on the right had already rushed behind us, to Sopakov, the last position of our front. I heard that the last two divisions of the front commander had already been deployed, and the road from Tula to Sopakov, which was also the transportation line behind us, was also in danger. Model’s Army on the left had already occupied the city of Grizovsky and was attacking the town of Wenyuvo in our rear. Moreover, the 40th Army they sent had already reached the eastern suburbs of Tula, and the Internal Guard and the Tula Workers’ Corps were in a bitter battle. Rommel in the south had also reached the southern suburbs of Tula, and was using engineers everywhere to build temporary roads for the troops to maneuver in the areas they occupied. The brigade commander led us to fight everywhere, acting as a mobile fire brigade, relying on short assaults to curb the enemy’s offensive along the entire front. Sometimes we had to move to several locations in a single day.

Today our company commander died. When his tank was covering the evacuation of the infantry, it was shot through the roof by a German Stuka attack aircraft with a 30mm machine gun under the wing from behind the turret, and then exploded... When the plane pulled back to attack Shura and me, we used the crossfire of the anti-aircraft machine guns temporarily installed on the roof by the workers of the Tula Arsenal to damage the engine of the JU-87, but it still flew away... If I am not mistaken, the tail number of this enemy plane should belong to that Stuka devil Rudel! It is said that hundreds of comrades have died under the muzzle of this guy...

I hope this fascist bastard gets his comeuppance soon!

October 1942, :

The weather turned rainy again, and the muddy and cold weather made people feel very uncomfortable. But even in such weather, the German fascists still did not stop their attack. It can be seen that in order to capture Moscow before winter comes, Hitler's gangsters are already anxious!

We are surrounded on three sides, and now we only have a small road from Nenashevo to Kashira. But even this road is within the range of the Germans' artillery fire and is in a precarious situation...

Even so, Soviet comrades still tried every means to bring us food, ammunition and other supplies. At the same time, the workers in Tula also organized themselves to provide logistical support for our battles. The municipal party committee and party branch organized citizens to participate in military training and position construction, and the distribution and storage of food and medicine were also controlled. The workers in the arsenal manufactured machine guns and rifles, produced ammunition and artillery shells, repaired damaged tanks, artillery and cars, and even joined the army directly on the spot. Women formed transport teams and rescue teams to transport supplies to the soldiers on the front line and evacuate the wounded. The elderly and children, under the organization of the party branch, cooperated with the internal security forces and pickets to carry out voluntary patrols to prevent sabotage by enemy agents.

If it weren't for the support and cooperation of the people of Tula, our army of only 10,000 would have been exhausted by now!

My tank was also damaged in the bombing the day before yesterday, so I borrowed Shura's tank to fight today. He started working with the 3rd Company in the east of the city with the infantry since the evening of the day before yesterday, and fought off more than 30 enemy tanks and seven or eight attacks and five or six night raids by a regiment. They fought until this morning to stabilize the front line. Now he is still lying on the floor and sleeping soundly! So I borrowed his tank for a while.

Now we have more and more damaged tanks, many troops can no longer be organized according to the establishment, and the personnel are also very tired - our brigade has a tank establishment of 94 vehicles, but even if we count the reinforcements sent intermittently through the small roads in the back, and the cars repaired by the workers, now the entire brigade can only use no more than a dozen tanks. Sometimes seven or eight are not enough... The brigade commander had to rotate us as much as possible, often changing people without changing cars, and try to form temporary formations to fight.

The brigade commander was extremely worried about the deployment of troops and logistics repairs. I saw him working all night in the brigade headquarters more than once...

Come to think of it, I don’t know when my tank will be repaired…

October 1942, :

At noon, Shura and I received a mission to support the battle in the town of Incinski with two other tanks. We were the only four tanks that the brigade commander could spare. All our troops had suffered heavy losses, but no matter what, even if we had to sacrifice here, we would never let the fascist German invaders occupy the heroic city of Tula!

The enemy seemed to be desperate, and they came out in full force in the cold rain, and under the cover of tanks and heavy artillery, they attacked us crazily in wave after wave! Although the weather was gloomy and the German planes could not be deployed, our battle in the town of Insinski was also suppressed by their heavy artillery. It seemed that Rommel had dragged out all the heavy artillery in his hands...

The enemy seems to be really anxious these two days. Now they are launching a full-scale attack on us! The enemy is too many and too strong. We have no way to get reinforcements... There are only two tanks and more than 120 remnants of the sailor battalion on this side, and a hundred or so workers who support the battle... The anti-tank artillery position was covered by artillery fire during the second attack of the fascists, and the mortar company of the sailor battalion was also destroyed by them, leaving only one gun that can still fire...