"Comrade Commander, the Chinese have captured Novokuznetsk and are now marching towards Krasnoyarsk. We are surrounded." A Soviet officer was a little panicked in the command post of the Front Army in Nizhny Uginsk.
He said to Vasilevsky who was lying on the table and looking at a map.
"Why are you panicking?" Vasilevsky frowned and scolded the officer, "Our main force is still there. As long as we hold Krasnoyarsk and their encirclement, there will be no way to form an encirclement."
Having said this, Vasilevsky stood up slowly and said, "You should immediately give Lieutenant General Mamonov an order to secure Irkutsk. I still say the same old saying as long as you can hold on."
Victory will be achieved in three months. At the same time, we sent a telegram to Comrade Sergei Matveyevich Shtemenko that the Chinese army must not be allowed to cross Krask Yarsk even half a step. It is related to the lives of our Southeast Front.
You must hold it firmly."
"Yes" the officer took the order and left.
At this time, more than 400,000 people from the Soviet 23rd and 87th Army Groups were gathered on the defense line covering hundreds of kilometers in Irkutsk, while the Chinese army on the opposite side gathered the First Army Group.
There are more than 700,000 people in the three armies. Since the two sides began to contact a week ago, the ground troops have only engaged in small-scale exchanges of fire. However, several large-scale air battles have broken out in the air. The brutality of the air battles is beyond imagination.
The expectations of the commanders on both sides.
In these air battles with an average scale of more than 500 fighters, the Soviet Yak fighters took the lead and performed very eye-catching. They performed admirably in the battle with the BF109 and P47 equipped by the Chinese army.
It is remarkable, especially in the hands of veteran Soviet pilots who fully utilized the maneuverability and flexibility of this aircraft.
However, as the air battle continued, the Soviet fighter aircraft's insufficient follow-up configuration became apparent. By August 8, after the more than 450 new Yak fighters equipped by the Soviet army in Siberia were consumed, the Soviet army's new fighter aircraft
The supply has gradually failed to keep up with the extent of losses, and the balance of air supremacy has gradually tilted towards China.
As of August 10th, the losses of fighter planes on both sides of China and the Soviet Union had reached 137:562. The Chinese Air Force relied on the excellent performance of fighter planes and well-trained pilots to occupy Iraq.
The sky above Irkutsk. With this understanding, Liu Yecheng, commander of the First Army Group, immediately ordered the ground troops to launch an attack, and with the cooperation of the air force, gradually reduced the Soviet army's living space.
Wang Qinglong stood in a small forest, holding a telescope and looking at the Soviet artillery position in front of him. It was an intricate position composed of crisscrossed trenches, barbed wire, bunkers and traffic trenches. It was also the work of the Soviet army for more than half a month.
Results.
The sunset dyed the sky of Irkutsk into red clouds. Dozens of Stuka tactical bombers lined up in a dense bombing formation, continuing their mission on the position, bombing, non-stop bombing, burning jungle
The thick smoke rising from the position and the smoke clouds from the explosion almost covered half of the sky.
Wang Qinglong asked the officer standing behind him without looking back: "Colonel Li, when will our artillery be ready?"
"Sir, the artillery has been set up and ready to fire at any time."
"Okay, order the 155th Artillery Regiment to immediately fire a base number of artillery shells at the enemy position. At the same time, order the reconnaissance aircraft in the air to help us observe the bullet points, and have the 305th Heavy Artillery ready to fill in at any time."
"yes"
As soon as the order was given, the roar of 155 howitzers immediately rang out from the hidden grass behind. In less than ten minutes, more than 60 howitzers poured dozens of tons of shells towards the Soviet frontline.
The army's position was immediately shrouded in layers of thick smoke and flames.
With a bang, a shell casing slipped out of the opened gun barrel and fell onto the dew-covered grass. A puff of water vapor rose up.
"Quick, load the shells," the gunner ordered loudly. The loader, who had been waiting with the shells in his arms for a long time, held the fuse-loaded shells and fed them into the chamber.
The gun bolt slammed shut with a "pop" sound.
"put"
As the commander standing behind waved the small flag fiercely, the gunner pulled the gun rope, and with a loud "boom" accompanied by thick smoke rising from the muzzle, another shell was shot out of the barrel.
This group of artillerymen went crazy, and with their efforts, shells fell one after another on the Soviet position.
Looking at the Soviet army's position shrouded in artillery fire, Wang Qinglong secretly admired the Soviet army's will to endure. Even at this time, their artillery did not show up. They were really tolerant.
Accompanied by the scorching heat waves and shrapnel flying in all directions, an atmosphere of helplessness and despair enveloped the Soviet soldiers, and the Chinese heavy artillery struck their hearts like death spells.
Since the Soviet army failed in the fight for air supremacy, the Chinese air force and artillery began to bombard the Soviet positions unscrupulously. Aerial bombs and heavy artillery shells almost razed the Soviet positions to the ground. At the beginning, there were
The Soviet artillery counterattacked, but then they discovered that this counterattack was simply a joke with their own lives. As soon as the Soviet artillery fired, they would be discovered by the Chinese reconnaissance aircraft circling in the sky, and in less than three minutes
Within a short period of time, the Chinese artillery on the opposite side would accurately deliver their artillery shells to the Soviet position. In the three days of shelling, the Soviet army had lost hundreds of artillery pieces. Such a huge loss made the Soviet commander
Realizing that without air superiority, it is simply a suicidal act for one's own artillery to engage the opponent's artillery.
"Comrade Lieutenant General, please let our air force attack. If we let the Chinese artillery bombard us like this, our soldiers will be killed alive by them," a major general in the headquarters begged Mamonov.
Lieutenant General, Commander of the 23rd Group Army.
"Comrade Sloya, please forgive me for not meeting your request. Our new aircraft have been completely lost in the air battles in the past few days, and the remaining old-fashioned fighters are no longer enough to shoulder the heavy responsibility of protecting the skies over our positions. In this situation,
Under such circumstances, shooting them to attack will undoubtedly send them to death. It has no meaning other than letting those Chinese people add a star to their fuselage." Mamonov shook his head solemnly. These days he went to West China.
Levsky's headquarters sent numerous telegrams requesting to send additional aircraft to seize air supremacy, but the reply he received was that all aircraft had been dispatched, and there was nothing he could do until new aircraft were sent from the rear.
"Comrade Lieutenant General, if this happens, the morale of our troops will be depleted very quickly. Not even an iron man can stand the Chinese bombardment regardless of the cost."
Major General Sloya's words made Mamonov ponder for a while and then said: "Comrade Sloya, our task is to hold on here for three months, but blind defense is not in line with the offensive spirit of our great Soviet army.
Yes, tomorrow morning at 5:30 your division and the 367th Infantry Division, together with the 17th Tank Division, will launch a probing attack against the Chinese army. You must be careful and don't be surrounded by the Chinese. Look.
If something doesn’t feel right, go back immediately.”
"Understood, Comrade Lieutenant General"
The sky is gray, and the sun has not yet appeared in the east. There are dewdrops hanging on the tips of every leaf in the pine forest, and the night air is hidden in it. The grassland wind blows very hard in the early morning, and the strong wind also covers up many sounds.
Zhang Danian was woken up by a sudden urge to urinate, which made him a little annoyed as he originally wanted to take a nap. He lay in his sleeping bag for a few minutes. After he was sure that he could not calm down, Zhang Danian got out of bed with an annoyed mood.
I got out of my sleeping bag and out of the shell-proof cave.
"Damn, it's such a strong wind"
Shivering from the strong wind, he came to a sheltered corner of the traffic trench.
"It's still so dark, I should be able to sleep for a while." He took out his tools and poured some water on them for a while. Finally, he emptied all the inventory from last night and walked back, shaking his head that was still a little dizzy.
, suddenly Zhang Danian stopped.
There seemed to be some kind of sound coming from the wind in front of me. The sound was a bit like the harsh sound made by the friction of two steel plates, and also a bit like the "gada gada" sound made by the collision of gears.
"Hey, no, this is the sound of a tank."
"The tank is not good, and here comes Lao Maozi's tank."
Zhang Danian rushed up to the trench and stretched out his head to look forward. The night sky ahead was still pitch black, making it difficult to see clearly with the naked eye.
Zhang Danian opened his eyes hard and looked forward. After looking for a long time, it was still dark and there was nothing. However, the sound of metal friction coming from the front showed that they were getting closer.
Zhang Danian immediately ran back to the artillery cave, kicking and beating dozens of soldiers to wake them up, "Old squad leader, big man, get up quickly, the old man is coming up, the old man is coming up."
"What, Lao Maozi is here. I said Zhang Danian, please don't lie about the military situation. That will lead to a military court." A sleepy-eyed soldier said impatiently.
"Really, big man, I can hear the sound of tanks." Zhang Danian was anxious.
"real or fake"
"Okay, don't worry about whether it's true or not, let's go out and take a look." The old squad leader picked up the gun and walked out of the shell-proof hole first. He came to the front and asked the sentry standing aside, "Dongzi, did you hear anything?"
"No," the sentry replied, shaking his head.
"You want to scare us to death." The soldiers around him stopped, and Zhang Danian was pulled over by the big guy in the class and gave him two blows.
"It's true, didn't you hear it? It came through the wind." Zhang Danian was anxious. It wasn't him who blew the whistle. Zhang Danian's ears were usually the best in the company.
"Well, don't make any noise. Listen again. It sounds like the sound of a tank." This is when the old squad leader's face suddenly changed.