The artillery battle between the two sides lasted for a full hour. After an hour, as the horrific explosions around them gradually subsided, shrill whistles sounded in the German trenches, accompanied by the roars of the officers, and the soldiers who survived the artillery fire shook off one after another.
With the dirt on his body, he climbed up the ladder with the rifle in his hand, stretched out the muzzle of the gun, and waited for the charge of the Russians on the opposite side.
At this moment, the ground beneath them began to tremble slightly.
"Chariot!" The soldiers who were already very familiar with them screamed one after another. At the same time, from the combat anti-artillery bunkers, 25 or even 37-mm combat anti-artillery was launched one after another, aiming the muzzles at the gap between the two armies.
In the buffer zone between them, the gunners stared nervously at the thick smoke and fog, feeling the increasingly clear shaking of the ground.
A vague black shadow appeared.
"Fire!" shouted the officer next to the nearest anti-tank gun.
The muzzle flame spurted out instantly, and a 25mm tungsten alloy armor-piercing bullet roared out. For an instant, the black shadow flashed in front of it, but then it continued to advance slowly.
At this moment, another black shadow appeared next to it, and then more and more black shadows gradually became clear like a legendary monster. The one at the front even revealed its true appearance, and its semicircular turret slowly
Slowly turning, just as the anti-tank gun on the opposite side fired for the second time, the tank's muzzle flashed, and then a grenade exploded in front of the anti-tank gun bunker.
At this time, the German soldiers lying in the trenches were stunned. They suddenly discovered that the tanks gradually driving out of the smoke seemed to be endless, driving out of the thick fog one after another. In a line
A total of three hundred tanks lined up on a front line about two kilometers wide, appearing in front of the German army like a steel wall.
Seeing this scene, even many anti-tank gunners forgot to shoot. On the previous battlefield, dozens or even a few tanks were usually used to provide support for the infantry. A group charge of hundreds of tanks was unheard of, but I just thought.
They never thought that when they saw this chariot regiment that looked like ancient heavily armored knights appearing, the German division commander in charge of this position already knew that it would be difficult for him to hold it today.
However, as a veteran who had experienced three years of war, he quickly calmed down and ordered the frightened soldiers in the trenches to stick to their posts. At the same time, he notified the rear heavy artillery to restart firing, and even asked the headquarters to deploy airships for support. Unfortunately, these were all
It takes time. Even the heavy artillery that has just finished the artillery battle will need some time to readjust its coordinates. But Denikin, who is rushing towards the German defense line at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, cannot give him time.
At this time, on the German position, with the appearance of the Russian tank corps, the soldiers had also understood the danger they faced. All the anti-tank artillery fired wildly, and armor-piercing shells roared towards the enemy one after another, even
Even the nearby mortars and small-caliber rifles joined the blocking ranks. Unfortunately, compared with the number of tanks, the Germans had too few anti-tank guns. It was impossible for them to allocate hundreds of them to the defense of a division.
In fact, the regular establishment of the German army is each infantry regiment has one combat anti-artillery battery with six 37-mm or 25-mm combat anti-artillery pieces. The defensive front of a division can only have twenty or thirty combat anti-artillery pieces at most. This is
The battle between East and West tanks is basically a one-time thing. If you can't defeat the opponent, you will be finished. With this small number, faced with a group charge of 300 tanks, they were drowned almost as soon as they met.
As for the effectiveness of those mortars and rifle artillery, it goes without saying that even if an 82mm mortar shell with less than one kilogram of charge hits it directly, it is impossible to cause substantial damage to a tank weighing more than ten tons.
After losing only ten tanks, Denikin's armored division had completely cleared out all the German anti-aircraft artillery. Then these steel beasts rushed into the German trenches under the cover of the infantry behind them.
The German infantrymen armed with powder packs, cluster grenades, and even Molotov cocktails began to rush forward heroically. But they were immediately cleared away by the accompanying infantry and machine guns on the tanks.
In fact, this trench has been breached by now. As the Russian tanks passed by one after another, the German soldiers guarding them began to fight with the Russian infantry who followed them.
Retreating towards the second line of defense, at the same time the German heavy artillery also began firing, trying to intercept the Russian army with artillery fire and then launch a counterattack to recapture the trenches.
Originally, this was indeed a normal tactic. It was not surprising that the two sides occasionally made breakthroughs with each other. The rest was nothing more than a tug of war. They were also just chariots supporting the infantry. In this case, they would stop and continue to mix among the infantry. But
Today, the German commander who was organizing his men to withdraw to the second line of defense discovered that the Russian tanks did not stop. Even these tanks ignored the infantry that was entangled with the German army. Instead, they drove at full power with a small number of mounted combat vehicles.
The infantry in the car rushed towards the German second line of defense at high speed.
Compared with their speed, the German infantry moved as fast as a tortoise. Before the second line of defense could be organized, the armored division led by Denikin had already rushed over, and then it was the same as when it broke through the first trench.
This huge steel army did not pause at all. The front of the car turned and headed straight towards the rear of another nearby German army.
At this time, after artillery preparations, nearly eight million Russian troops on the entire Eastern Front from Latvia to Odessa on the Black Sea had launched an attack on the German troops opposite them at the same time. Denikin's armored group charge was just one of the large-scale
In the battle, it was just an experimental node. At this time, more than 10 million troops from both sides on the entire front were in a desperate struggle, which of course also included the German troops who were approaching the breakthrough.
This is the tactic developed by Denikin. Concentrate all the armored forces to break through at one point, and then use the speed advantage to go around to the rear of the German army and attack the infantry from the front, just like eating sugar cane, eating away at the German defense line to expand the breakthrough point as much as possible.
The breach was large enough, and when enough Russian troops poured in, the entire front was completely broken. The vast plains of Ukraine provided the best stage for his tactics.
Nearly three hundred tanks of an entire armored division, together with a regiment of infantry, inserted directly into the rear of the German defense line like an oversized shit stick, and then began to wreak havoc crazily.
His move stunned Marshal Hazeler, the German commander in the Ukrainian battlefield. This veteran from the Prussian era was already a bit out of step with the times, not to mention Denikin's ability to play.
It was so fashionable that I felt at a loss for a while. Fortunately, the German army was really full of talents at this time. Soon the staff officers came up with ideas for him. Isn't Denikin playing a tank group? Then quickly mobilize nearby
All the tanks that could be mobilized were used to stop him. At the same time, the airship troops originally prepared to bomb the Russian army were also mobilized. Ground tanks were used to block the attack, and airships were bombed from the sky. At the same time, some infantrymen were mobilized to carry combat anti-aircraft guns and deploy emergency defenses on his attack route.
But unfortunately, they still underestimated the speed of the tank assault. Less than an hour after breaking through the German defense line, Denikin launched an attack from the rear against the German Eighth Army, which was stalemate on the front.
The elite, which had now swept almost all of Eastern Europe, tasted a disastrous defeat for the first time. More than 40 tanks that had been hastily organized to fight were instantly submerged in the huge Russian tank group. With enemies from both sides, the German army was completely in disarray.
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On the long defense line of tens of kilometers, these steel beasts emerging from behind were like huge battle axes, opening gaps one after another in the German defense line, and then the charging Russian infantry on the opposite side would
Easily breaking through this gap, he cut the originally dense defense line into small sections. After cutting off a section, Denikin turned around again and rushed to the next target without hesitation. The entire German defense line collapsed section by section.
On the battlefield in Ukraine, the Allies did not have no tanks. On the contrary, they had many tanks. The three countries of De Oro deployed at least more than 2,000 tanks of various types on this vast plain. If pure armored vehicles are included,
The number was even greater, but just because they were distributed on a front line of hundreds of kilometers, they had to watch Denikin and his more than 200 tanks destroying their defense lines unscrupulously.
Nothing can stop these steel beasts. On their attack surface, no German army can muster enough anti-tank forces. Those combat units at the division and brigade level have at most a dozen or dozens of combat anti-tank guns.
, only the group army level has direct combat vehicle units, and then these tanks are evenly distributed to each army to cover infantry operations. The Eighth Army was initially able to gather forty tanks simply because it happened to be the division that Denikin was going to attack.
, received the support of a tank battalion from the military headquarters, and prepared to launch a counterattack.
Such an arrangement was like a mantis acting as a chariot in the face of a group charge of hundreds of tanks. Although they also destroyed many Russian tanks, the impact of these tanks on the battle situation was almost negligible.
"Quick, faster, go and poke the Germans in the butt!" Standing on the turret of his command tank, Major General Denikin shouted proudly. In just two hours, he defeated three entire German divisions.
The defense line opened a ten-kilometer-long breach. Now millions of Russian troops are pouring in from this miracle created by him like a flood that bursts a dike. The defeat of the entire Allied Powers in Ukraine is almost over.
It became a foregone conclusion. Although he also lost more than fifty tanks, this was really insignificant compared to the unprecedented victory.
While he was enjoying himself there, he suddenly heard a soldier on a tank next to him exclaiming: "Airship, German airship!" (To be continued)