The correspondent handed the latest information to Yang Mingzhi. He looked at the piece of paper and couldn't help but feel nervous.
Seeing this, Yevlov quickly asked: "The front line is fighting, how is the battle situation?"
"We repelled the enemy's attack."
"That's great! But why don't you smile?"
"Come and read Balzen's cable!"
Yang Mingzhi really couldn't laugh, because the victory of the blockade was inevitable, but the price paid was a bit high. This was definitely not because of Balzen's special move, but because of those German tanks!
Both Yevlov and Fomin read the contents of the telegram clearly.
"What? The armor thickness is already 90 millimeters, but it's so thick!" Yevlov frowned, "We have never encountered such a German tank before. Our shells actually don't work!"
"Of course! Explosive warheads are no longer effective against such a thick steel plate!" Yang Mingzhi pinched his waist and blamed himself: "This is my mistake. To deal with such a thickly armored tank, we need real armor-piercing bullets, or use catfish
Direct rocket bombardment."
"Although the casualties were serious, they still won." Fuming said consolingly, "Next, we still have to implement the following combat plan step by step."
"Yes, I have to order the troops from Homnich to speed up."
The Soviet army once assembled a large number of combat troops in the forest of Homnich. When Balzen was in the north of Loyev, desperately blocking the enemies coming from Van, Homnich's reinforcements were marching quickly.
The first and second regiments of the 284th Division, plus Warmansky Jr.'s reinforced cavalry battalion, have a total strength of nearly 5,000 people.
The order they received was to fight to the forest west of Loyev City as quickly as possible.
They were equipped with some heavy weapons, including a lot of recoilless rifles and more shells. As a result, in order to achieve the fastest advancement, the combat troops and the baggage troops had to keep distance.
Roshakov and Lavrenti ordered the light infantry in the army to break away from the heavy troops and run quickly. However, there was no real road in front of them, and the soldiers had to walk through the primeval forests of the temperate zone.
It is impossible to maintain a forced march speed of ten kilometers per hour. Although they are light infantry, their burdens are more than 20 kilograms. Not only will they tire quickly if they run fast, but if they are not careful, they will seriously sprain their feet and withdraw from the battle.
For this reason, the reinforcements of these two regiments failed to catch up with Balzen's blocking battle. When they came into contact with Balzen's outer sentries, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon.
They groped for nine hours in the primeval forest and covered a long distance of 49 kilometers in a straight line. Thanks to long-term physical training, only this unit could carry a large amount of equipment and run nearly 50 kilometers in such a short time!
After hearing the news that the reinforcements had finally arrived, Balzen, who had been worried that the enemy would not give up and launch a third attack, was completely relieved.
At 5:30 in the afternoon, the reinforcements had arrived with 4,000 troops. In addition to the horse-drawn carriages transporting ammunition and reserve rations, the combat troops were still moving through the twists and turns of the forest.
Balzen rushed to their camp with great interest. He saw this powerful new army and a large number of cavalry troops, which he did not expect.
Balzen paid no more attention to these troops. After the two regiment commanders and the cavalry battalion commander arrived, the military meeting began immediately.
After all, except for the cavalry battalion, the rest of the troops are part of the 284th Guards Infantry Division, and they are all old comrades in arms.
After a few people chatted for a while, Balzen began to explain the results of the battle so far.
Especially after hearing the casualties of the troops, Roshakov felt a little worried about future operations: "It is really unexpected that the Germans have strengthened their tanks, so that we can only get close and shoot on the sides.
Is it possible to destroy it?"
Balzen explained in detail: "If you use Catfish rockets, you will definitely destroy them! The enhancement of the enemy tanks is just to thicken the armor."
"So, does the enemy still have tanks?" Lavrenti asked.
"There should be none. They must have put all their tanks into battle without reservation. Therefore, we will not deal with enemy tanks during the general attack tomorrow. However, I estimate that the enemy should still have a combat strength of 3,000 people." As he said,
Balzen pointed to the north, "The scouts I sent just came back. After they passed through the forest, they discovered the enemy's camp along the river. It was quite large. They also arranged many machine gun positions. This will be our
The biggest enemy in tomorrow’s battle!”
The two regiment leaders nodded. As for how to deal with these machine guns, their ideas coincided with Balzen's.
In order to cope with this battle, the reinforcements brought a batch of catfish rockets. These rockets, which are more powerful than large-caliber howitzers, will be prepared for artillery fire first.
"Since you all support it, you will hand over all the rockets to our department. Tomorrow, your army deployment will be carried out according to the previous plan. Only during combat, after our department has launched the rocket attack, you can start charging again.
.What do you think?"
"I have no objection," Lavrenty said.
"I agree. But what about our friendly forces to the east? Will the paratrooper brigade act step by step?" Roshakov's question was also Balzen's question.
Balzen pinched his chin: "We have to contact Tepunov directly about this matter. As far as I know about that guy, the biggest advantage of that guy is that he will resolutely execute orders, regardless of any troubles along the way."
In this way, more than 4,000 fresh troops hurriedly arrived and quickly began to deploy.
The vast number of soldiers marched for too long, and everyone was very tired. The first and second regiments of the 284th Division moved to six kilometers northeast of Loyev City, and centered there, the troops were arranged in battalion units.
They formed a long snake formation and used the cover of the forest to ambush them.
The Soviet army knew the terrain here very well. After all, the map of the area in their hands was carefully drawn by the Soviet authorities before the war.
The forest where the two infantry regiments are hiding is ten kilometers long, and there is a lake with a length of four kilometers on the northern edge of the forest. Nearly 4,000 infantrymen are deployed in the forest, and the cavalry battalion is deployed at the lake. At 8 p.m.
, that is, at the last moment when the sun sets, the two regiments of the 284th Division completed their deployment, and the cavalry battalion also moved to its proper position.
The German army did not detect the movement of the Soviet army. The German army commander Quetzal was in a dilemma at this moment. He received an order from the division commander to continue to hold on to the current position. The so-called new reinforcements were being planned. If he retreated without an order, the consequence would be to be shot.
Therefore, the German army obeyed the order and did not continue to retreat. The soldiers were frightened, and the so-called sentries did not dare to continue deeper into the forest. Therefore, the German army had no knowledge of the Soviet army's large-scale troop increase. The German army was extremely
Unexpectedly, in terms of macro formation, the total 9,000 troops dispatched by the Soviet army had already completed the prototype of the pocket formation.
At zero o'clock on June 26, officers and soldiers of three battalions of the paratrooper brigade ambushed in the Dnipraze area, with a large number of rafts, officially quietly began to attack the Dnieper River section 20 kilometers northeast of Loyev.