The German army in Homnich has been facing threats from guerrillas every day since the reinforcement of troops. Bullets often appear unexpectedly, and those who hit them are either killed or injured. There have been more than 70 casualties in the past week.
, the morale of the soldiers dropped to the extreme.
The commander of the German 715th Division had to consider again. Sending a battalion seemed to have a situational advantage and could serve as an eyeliner to monitor the guerrillas encircling the road, but whether the price paid was too high.
But division commander Schulz had more things to pay attention to. The German army's logistics was relatively fragile. More and more wounded soldiers were retreating from the front line. Some carriages and trucks transporting the wounded passed through his defense area. Mozyr-Left
He would check this section of the road and then go straight to the rear. His division must provide enough supplies for these wounded soldiers to ensure that they can return safely.
At the same time, arms and cotton-padded clothes must be transported under armed escort to be given to soldiers fighting on the front line.
"Isn't it too late now? The cold weather has lasted for almost a month, and our soldiers' cotton-padded jackets have just begun to be transported to the front line." Schulz could not imagine the plight of the front-line soldiers. He had to complain to the transport teams and complained to the transport teams.
expressed concern about the prospect of this battle.
Anyone with a little common sense knows that when the weather is too cold and people wear little clothing, they will either die from frostbite or become seriously ill from the cold. Every time Schulz checks the wounded soldiers who have retreated from the front line, a large number of them are not injured by gunshots or artillery.
Many of them had severe frostbite, and many poor guys had ten of their toes frozen off. Many of them also had high fevers. At his division's station, wounded soldiers often went to rest and recuperate, and some died almost every day.
people.
The tragedy greatly shocked the 715th Division. They were very lucky to be in the rear and were able to capture a large number of Soviet coats even through looting. Their comrades, on the other hand, did everything they could to keep warm. Many wounded soldiers were still wearing Soviet cotton coats.
, and the fighting hoods of the Soviet army, obviously they were picking up the bodies of dead people.
As time went by, Schultz even failed to detail how his troops could capture Moscow. It was the military and political center of the Soviet Union. Even if it was captured, what would be the use? Will the Soviets stop resisting? No! They are constantly attacking
Increase troops. Even if Moscow is captured, the German army will pay huge casualties, and the Soviet resistance will not stop at all.
Just as Schultz speculated, after the October Revolution military parade on November 7, the Soviet strategic reserves were put into the battlefield. The sudden feeling of this new force was completely unexpected by the German army.
The reserves supplemented the strength of the Western Front and even included some new weapons.
Many German offensive troops participated in the Belorussian Campaign, and some generals still remember the tragedy encountered by the 7th Armored Division. In this war, it was obvious that the German intelligence department did not do a good job. The Soviet army had some shocking and troublesome weapons. For example, like
A kV2 heavy tank with 6-channel walking naval guns, and rocket weapons that can be fired by a single soldier.
The former's mechanical problems were too serious, and its power was great but its maneuverability was worrisome. The latter was shocking. The German army captured some individual rocket launchers, and their ingenious designs were shocking.
Because it is not restricted by caliber at all and the warhead is outside the launch tube, the body diameter of the seized rocket is actually 12o mm.
Guderian had heard of this weapon during the offensive. The 7th Armored Division was defeated by this weapon. The tank regiment was annihilated by a group of Soviet infantry within a few hours. Compared with anti-tank guns, this weapon can be called an anti-tank weapon.
monster.
The top Soviet officials did not forget that this weapon belonged to the Chinese Yang Ming Zhiming. For these reasons, he was appointed as the deputy commander of the infantry division with the title of Guards.
The factories in Moscow are stepping up production of this weapon. In this era, as long as you have the blueprints, even the ak47 can be manufactured. The industrial capacity is completely sufficient, but what is missing now is the genius design. Compared with the production of anti-tank guns, at medium and short range
, rockets that can be aimed and fired by a single soldier are obviously the most cost-effective.
However, mass production has just begun, and the Soviet army is still far from being able to ensure that each squad has one shooting tool.
After the German army broke through the Vyazma-Bryansk defense line, hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops were captured again! After that, the German army continued to attack fiercely, and finally hit a wall on the outskirts of Moscow.
Guderian did not fight idle battles. Perhaps in this situation, only the Japanese would shout and charge with a black card, and then be covered by the machine gun and artillery fire of the waiting Soviet army.
Guderian ordered his men to carry out tactical detours. Because the city of Moscow is very large, it can maintain a strong defense line in the east. But what about the rear? Just like advancing from Ryazan in the south and Tula in the southeast, is the southern part of Moscow?
Its soft belly?
The German army has taken action. Compared with the fierce battle with the Soviet army on the front, logistical problems have become a huge problem for the German offensive.
In any war, it is people who determine the outcome of the war. The theory of weapons alone cannot completely influence the war, unless it is a nuclear bomb. The German army's tactics always rely on the suddenness of blitzkrieg, knocking the enemy into confusion with a hammer. The only
The only countermeasure is a war of attrition. The Soviet army is consuming the strength of the German army.
Time dragged on little by little. The German army hoped that the war would end before winter. The shortage of winter clothes still troubled the soldiers. Many of the German soldiers who attacked Tula and Ryazan were still wearing single clothes, and some were dressed up.
There are all kinds of things. They robbed Soviet villages and put all kinds of things to keep out the cold on their bodies. Their military appearance was in a mess.
Every night, the German army moved out the empty gasoline barrels and burned precious gasoline to keep warm. Some people also lit torches to heat the frozen truck water tanks.
As for the Soviet troops on the other side of the war, they all wore white combat cloaks with excellent camouflage, their firearms were covered with antifreeze cotton covers, and the fuel tanks of armored vehicles and trucks were filled with ethylene glycol to prevent frostbite.
The German offensive gradually became exhausted, and by the end of November, the balance of the battle gradually moved closer to the Soviet side.
The most violent offensive of the entire German army was a motorized engineering battalion of Hoppner. At the end of November, they invaded the suburbs only ten kilometers away from the center of Moscow without scruples. After encountering a fierce attack by the Soviet army, the entire army
Destroyed. This was the closest the German attack came to Moscow, but the German army never got this close to Moscow again until the end of the war.
In terms of strength comparison, Zhukov asked the 20th Army, the 10th Army and the 1st Assault Army as reserves to be handed over to his Western Front. Since then, his military strength has reached 1.1 million people and 7,000 artillery pieces.
There are 700 tanks and more than 1,000 aircraft. The German army and the slave army have 1,300 artillery pieces, 1,100 tanks, and 600 aircraft.
The German army had significantly more troops than the Soviet army, but it could not guarantee victory in the battle. They had more than a thousand tanks, and Guderian's tank troops encountered fatal blows in the direction of Tula and Ryazan.
Soviet soldiers used the latest secret weapons. For the sake of success, they often hid in foxholes. When the enemy tank was about fifty meters away, they suddenly jumped out and fired rockets. The rockets easily hit the German Panzer III tank with a flat shot. Here, Soviet soldiers
The army did not need armor-piercing bullets at all. As long as a large amount of high-energy explosives were loaded into the warhead, the German tanks quickly turned into parts sputtering all over the sky under the huge pressure wave. These parts also created secondary damage. The German infantry and tanks fought together, and the soldiers also
So the losses were huge.
Tanks and half-track armored vehicles were being massacred. Compared with the original history, Guderian ordered the troops to retreat tactically to the original defense line earlier than before to defend and wait for new orders. At this time, the number of German tanks attacking in this direction dropped sharply.
to the original 50%.
On November 29, it seemed that the balance of the war had turned to the Soviet Union. Zhukov called Stalin and claimed that the opportunity to counterattack had finally arrived. This time he could avenge his past humiliation. He was even so ambitious that he hoped to eat all the more than one million German troops.
Lose!
The Soviet Union wanted a victory so much that Stalin announced that night: "The entire army will launch a counterattack."
His order immediately spread throughout the Soviet Union, including the tall antenna in Catfish Village, which completely received the signal from Moscow. The strategic counterattack from Moscow finally began. (To be continued.) 8