Chapter 365: interspersed
The Volga River Bridge was once bombed by the Soviet army, and more than half of the bridge deck collapsed. However, the river was not frozen at that time, so there were no traces of ruins in the river channel... The collapsed section of the bridge deck has already sunk to the bottom of the river.
The German army built a line of defense here.
This was completely expected by Shulka.
Because on the one hand, the German army responded quickly, and on the other hand, the broken bridge was covered by piers and remaining bridge decks, and these things were quite strong, able to withstand Soviet artillery fire and even aerial bombs, especially Those bridge arches are a natural bunker after a few sandbags are erected.
The Germans did exactly that, and they even hoisted several anti-tank guns into the bridge arches for preparation.
In addition, before the broken bridge, there is another line of defense consisting of pontoon bridges.
Of course, this was not built by the German army, but built by the German army for the passage of cars after the bridge was blown up, but as the river water froze, these pontoon bridges were also frozen.
This is a perfect line of defense for the German army. There is condescending firepower on the broken bridge, and there are natural anti-tank trenches made of pontoon bridges on the river... Unless the Soviet army blows it up, the climb of "Matilda" will A high ability cannot cross a pontoon bridge that stands in its way.
Kubile intends to block the Soviet army here, because he thinks this is the time when "enough is enough".
So, he immediately hung up the phone and reported to Marshal Luge.
"Your Excellency, Marshal!" Kubiler said nervously, "The Russians penetrated into our defense!"
"What do you mean?" Marshal Luge asked suspiciously: "You told me not long ago that you can block their attack!"
"They have found a loophole in our defense, Your Excellency the Marshal!" Kubile said, "The river, the river has always been a weak point of our defense... Before that, it was a river, and it was still half-frozen not long ago, so we couldn\'t lay down on it. But now it is completely frozen, it is now a flat road, almost without any obstacles and obstacles, and the Russian tank troops are attacking along it!"
Marshal Luge couldn\'t help being startled when he heard the words, and then turned his gaze to the map. After looking at it for a while, he said in shock: "Block them, General! You must block them no matter what, otherwise the Fourth Tank Army will be finished!"
"Yes, Your Excellency the Marshal!" Kubil replied, "That\'s exactly what I did!"
After hanging up the phone, Kubil showed a smile that was difficult for others to detect.
Everything is under his control, Kubil is very satisfied with the result.
First of all, he believes that the defense line of the Volga River Bridge can block the Russian attack, because it is actually surrounded on three sides. If the Russian army dares to attack the bridge, it will soon be surrounded by the river.
Of course, Kubil will not eat up the Russian army so quickly.
Secondly, he believed that with such a threat, the Fourth Tank Army and even the Supreme Command would be shaken.
Kubile was right.
Marshal Luge reported the news to Hitler as soon as he put down the phone.
After receiving the information, Hitler walked around in front of his desk in a hurry, and then ordered: "Order the air force to prepare, and attack this Russian army as soon as the sky is bright, and they must be wiped out!"
This may indeed be a solution. Although the German Air Force is no longer dominant at this time, the Soviet Air Force cannot guard the sky over the 1st Guards Tank Brigade 24/7.
At the same time, there is nothing in the sky above the river and there is no cover. The German Air Force only needs to concentrate its forces to launch a sudden attack. It is still possible to repel the Russian army or cause it to suffer heavy losses.
However, what Hitler and Kubiler did not expect was that the Soviet army suddenly changed its marching direction.
That is to say, the first brigade of guard tanks came ashore, and launched a thunderous offensive towards the residential houses on the east side of the river.
In fact, this is normal. No one is so stupid as to know that there is a trap ahead and continue to jump into it. This is actually the strategy of the German "Blitzkrieg".
The same is true for the 1st Guards Tank Brigade at this time.
The east side of the river is the defensive weakness of the German army, and the main city of Tver is on the west bank of the river.
There are few buildings on the east bank and most of them are dilapidated and unsuitable for defense. The German army will naturally concentrate its forces on the west bank.
At this time, the sky was just dim, and the tank drove out of the river with the sound of "rumbling" motors, and then covered the infantry and broke into the houses...
As I said before, there are few buildings on the east bank and they are generally low, and a considerable part of them are wooden houses.
These were not much of a threat to the 1st Guards Tank Brigade. The tanks opened fire on the houses from a hundred meters away, and only heard a burst of "booming" cannons, and those houses were blown up and down.
Although "Matilda" lacks firepower, it is more than enough to attack wooden houses with it.
Another advantage of "Matilda" is that it has many load wheels and is slow... Although slow speed is a disadvantage, everything has two sides, and disadvantages can also be advantages.
For example, the moving speed of "Matilda" makes it very stable when driving, so it still has a certain accuracy when firing while driving.
This also makes it the only tank other than the Sherman that can fire on the move.
So, along the way, the houses were first blown up with tank guns, and then the bazooka, and the closer the distance was, the grenades were thrown into the windows. When the Soviet army saw those houses, there were only **** ones left inside. dead bodies or struggling wounded.
Of course, if the building has not been blown down, the infantry will occupy it and temporarily defend it.
They didn\'t want the Germans to suddenly attack the tank troops from the side.
Shulka saw almost no living Germans along the way. He only saw soldiers on both sides rushing in with submachine guns after throwing a grenade into the building.
Then there were gunshots and screams, and occasionally German begging for mercy.
But begging for mercy could not get the mercy of the Soviet army, and then there was no doubt that there were several gunshots... At this time, the Soviet army was interspersed, which meant that they could not take prisoners.
The German Air Force just flew over the battlefield at this time, but they turned around and couldn\'t find the target...they got the news that the enemy was on the river, but the river was empty at this time.
Although the pilots were quickly informed that the Soviet army had entered the residential area, they were powerless because they could not distinguish friend from foe.
At this time, the Soviet fighter planes that had been waiting in the sky suddenly swooped down, and another fierce air battle kicked off in the sky.
(end of this chapter)