At five o'clock in the morning, Rosakov ordered all the soldiers to get up. Chinese website
In December, the Arctic falls into permanent darkness, and in high latitudes, sunlight comes even later. Five o'clock in the morning is the coldest time of the day, and it is also the time when human body temperature is the lowest.
However, all the soldiers knew that there would definitely be a battle on this day, and the German army would definitely appear under their noses.
The soldiers emerged from the snowdrifts and held their positions. While there was still peace, everyone hurried to eat.
Roshakov and Klavsky did not want to be exposed, so they discussed and set up several bonfires among the rubble of the city, set up large pots to boil hot water, and then threw canned meat and sauerkraut into them.
Some soldiers even used the kitchens of civilian houses, so everyone had a hot breakfast.
Everyone can only endure such a difficult environment. As time goes by, the dawn of the east slowly emerges.
When the sun comes out, the enemy will advance. They have no experience in sneak attacks at night, but they are very effective in attacking during the day. Even though they have won several battles, they were all flexible sneak attacks. This time it is an upright city attack and defense battle.
, the soldiers did not dare to neglect. Now, the clever soldiers were already discussing what the first wave of German attacks would be, and the majority of soldiers immediately thought of artillery attacks.
In this regard, the Soviet army had already made a plan. In addition to the general attempts to avoid artillery, they also dug deep holes. In the end, they only hoped that they were lucky enough when the enemy's artillery fire came down.
On the other hand, it is rare for many soldiers of the two German infantry regiments to sleep outdoors, not to mention the fact that it is more than ten degrees below zero. The cold has caused many people to accidentally catch the wind chill after spending this night.
This made Hoffman very angry.
"A bunch of idiots, fighting in the Soviet Union, you have to overcome this damn low temperature. Before the war, there are a group of people who can't fight due to injuries. What a tragedy! Is it because there is a war today? Everyone is so excited that they even forget to wrap up their clothes.
Tight blanket? In the past few days of marching, there were not so many diseases!" He scolded more than a hundred soldiers who were kicked out. Some of them were coughing desperately, and some even had high fevers.
They were sick, so we couldn't ignore them! Nearly 150 soldiers in his regiment alone were too sick to charge and fight. For this reason, he had to leave at least 300 soldiers to take care of them, so that only his
The regiment lost more than 400 combat troops in this way.
Statistics throughout the morning showed that Floyd's regiment was in worse shape, with 200 men falling ill.
"This night seems to be colder than the past few days. Damn winter, I hate it! Now my regiment only has 2,000 people to fight."
The two of them considered it together, how could they be discouraged by a small setback in today's battle? In this regard, Hoffman still encouraged himself and said to Freud: "Since it is cold in winter, those Slavs will not
Maybe it really doesn’t matter how cold it is, and we will be lazy if we do so. We still have more than 4,000 combat troops, so as long as we attack them in one go, the city will still be easy to break."
The two discussed it for a few words, and the focus fell entirely on the German artillery.
Since the German 715th Division is not a front-line force, their artillery has been further weakened on the basis that it was not very strong in the first place.
As the army participated in the Homnich battle, the artillery battalion had only five 1o5mm caliber howitzers and two 15omm caliber howitzers. This configuration originated from the German occupation understanding, that is, to deal with guerrillas, the use of powerful firepower was entirely anti-aircraft artillery.
To fight mosquitoes, the infantry has more individual firepower to take advantage of sudden encounters.
Therefore, they have more individual mortars, mostly small mortars with a caliber of 50 mm, which function more like the rifle grenades of later generations.
Of course, the German infantry regiments were also required to be equipped with field artillery. After the invasion of the Soviet Union, the front-line troops underwent some firepower changes. Almost all 75mm infantry guns were decommissioned and handed over to the second-line troops for use.
Each of the two regiments of Hoffman and Floyd also has four such 75mm infantry cannons for front-line fire support, but both of them felt that pushing the infantry cannons forward in the snow was simply too much.
A disaster.
The sun slowly rose, and the German troops were already advancing. They continued to advance in formation until they stopped advancing five kilometers beyond Homnich.
"Now, establish a heavy artillery position immediately!" Hoffman ordered.
The German artillery battalion immediately began to take action. Their actions were also directly observed by the defenders in Homnich. News of the appearance of the German troops and their unusual pause was immediately transmitted to the Soviet headquarters - a basement.
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After listening to the messenger's report, Roshakov waved his hand. "Okay, you go down too and be prepared to protect yourself from artillery shells."
The situation has become very obvious. The enemy must be setting up artillery positions. As commanders, Roshakov and Klavsky immediately summoned the messengers: "The enemy is preparing for artillery fire. Everyone should take precautions and wait for the artillery fire to pass."
, the battle will begin.”
More than 20 messengers ran away in a hurry, leaving only a few people in the headquarters.
Roshakov sat calmly in front of the desk, holding his chin with his hands: "Then it will be our time to make a contribution. We must hold on until the deputy division commander's new attack is successful."
On the German side, due to the limitations of the times, it was impossible for them to deploy the light large-caliber howitzer M777 in just three minutes like the US military seventy years later. The German army unloaded the heavy artillery from the carriage, and then relied entirely on the manpower of a dozen people.
It took twenty minutes to set up the artillery.
Only three huge artillery shells can be placed in a box. All the artillery shells carried by this unit are only enough to fire all the artillery. For no other reason, the German 715 Division has already put most of the heavy artillery shells, according to the orders of the superiors, with the
A large number of artillery pieces were sent to the front line in Moscow.
All the artillery was lined up, five kilometers was not far away, and the air was clear. The Soviet army watched nervously the actions of the German army. Those artillery fires standing abruptly on the snow had already aimed their barrels at the city.
"End on the 1st!"
"No. 2 is over!"
…
The German artillerymen pushed the artillery into the barrel and reported immediately. Soon, all the artillerymen were ready.
Hoffman once again raised the telescope and looked at Homnich in the distance. "It seems to be very quiet there. I didn't see any enemy activity."
"I think so too. Maybe the Soviets are hiding like rats, or they have already withdrawn," Floyd said.
"God knows what will happen." Hoffman shook his head and signaled to the flag bearer. "All artillery, two, rapid fire!"
The red flag fell fiercely, all the artillery fired at the same time, and a fire suddenly broke out in the snow. The Soviet troops on the defensive side realized what had happened, and almost everyone was lying in the tunnel.
The artillery shells fell from the sky with a unique whistling sound, and their targets were mainly in the city. Suddenly, huge clouds of dust were raised in the city.
Under the attack of artillery shells, it was impossible not to have casualties. All the Soviet army could do was to try to avoid unnecessary casualties. They built the trenches into a zigzag shape to avoid breaking through the entire trench and killing everyone.
In the city, soldiers can hide in basements, and more people are required to be outside the city when shelling occurs.
The shock wave of the explosion shook the ground, and Roshakov and Kravsky endured it hard in the basement. Each explosion caused a large amount of dust to fall, and even the kerosene lamps were extinguished.
"Really! This is fighting in the dark, and we just endure it!" Rosakov complained while coughing.
"Keep waiting, I don't believe those Germans can hit a hundred with one cannon?!"
"One hundred? You fool, if the Germans really did this, their gun barrels would be so hot that they would melt if they hit fifty."
After saying that, the two of them immediately started laughing, having fun in their misery.
Each cannon fired only two shots. Hoffman observed that there seemed to be no reaction in the city, and there was only a large amount of dust swaying up with the air waves.
"The effect looks pretty good. Are these Soviets really running away?" Floyd said.
"Run away? I don't think so. Let's do another bombing to see what happens." Hoffman ordered another four after a ten-minute rest.
In fact, as long as one shot is fired, the barrel will be very hot. In order to cool down the artillery, the best thing is actually vinegar. How can such a high-end product be carried? After the Germans fired twice, the barrel overheated, and the cooling was the snow on the ground.
The ten-minute rest is also to give the artillery time to cool down. After that, the four shots will probably be fired sequentially.
In these ten minutes, the Soviet army immediately began to check the casualties. In this round of shelling, many people were killed, and some unlucky ones were injured, and the wails spread. The militia camp suffered the worst losses.
More than thirty people were killed directly in the shelling, which made Ninelli very angry.
However, his annoyance immediately turned into new fear. The veteran reminded him that the infantry should attack immediately after the German artillery fire was prepared. However, after several minutes passed, the German army still did not take action, which only meant that the artillery bombardment was not over yet.
It's actually like this! As soon as Ninelli heard this, he immediately got back into the tunnel, hugged his head, and waited for the next wave of bombardment. (To be continued.) 8