The Soviet army launched a massive offensive on the Rzhev-Sychovka front, and the German army had to resist in this direction.
In January 1942, Model took over command of the Ninth Army and was ordered to stop the Soviet offensive.
He is an expert in defensive warfare. Unlike other troops, after he took over the Ninth Army, he immediately adjusted the deployment of troops, transforming this offensive force into a defensive force.
The tank army group was broken up, allowing tanks to return to their original meaning - to support infantry operations. A steady stream of new troops came to report to him, and he decisively divided these recruits into battalion-level troops, which were flexible and flexible.
Delivered to weakly defended areas.
The so-called principle of not accepting the orders of foreign emperors, Model did not implement Hitler's orders, so he disobeyed orders and set up multiple lines of defense. This resulted in the Soviet army attacking one after another and achieving some victories.
After that, it became the end of the battle. The German reserve army filled the holes, but the front line was still not broken.
However, to complete such a defensive battle, the logistics must be done well. Only by providing Model with a large amount of military assistance can the front be guaranteed to be like an iron barrel.
This requires that the smooth flow of material transportation must be ensured, including the long road line from Mozyr to Gomel.
When the war was going on, the top Nazi leader in Belarus, William Kube, gave the order to the 715th Division: obtain new equipment, strengthen the defense of the highway, use brutal means to clean up the guerrillas, and ensure that the transport convoys are not attacked by the guerrillas.
Now, new equipment and new troops have arrived. Schulz changed into his military uniform and went to inspect his new recruits.
In Iron Castle Town, unlike the logistics troops, the newly arrived troops showed great vigor. These are young people in their early twenties. They are tall and strong, and they are in the prime of life.
Historically, Nazi Germany did not enter a wartime system until 1944. At the end of that year, the Nazis planned to turn the war into a people's war. In 1942, the German army still adopted a recruitment system. These newly arrived young people were all
These were high-spirited people who responded to Yuan's call to establish Greater Germany in Russia and joined the army.
In a big victory, fighting spirit is very important. Schulz saw two battalions of infantry coming here.
In addition to a large number of weapons and equipment, this batch of reinforcements has a strength of up to three battalions, namely two infantry battalions and one armored battalion.
What Schulz is more interested in is the armored battalion, also known as the tank battalion. These Panzer III tanks are all long-tube type, and the look just now is shocking.
However, this armored battalion is still severely shrunk. A normal armored battalion is divided into three armored companies, and each company usually has 60 tanks. But this battalion only has 20 tanks. It seems that Nicklaus's battalion has reduced the number of Assault III tanks.
Cannons are also included.
At the unloading yard of Iron Castle Town, fifty assault guns and twenty armored vehicles were displayed. More than a thousand infantrymen stood in front of these preparations, carrying their own rifles and general-purpose machine guns.
Schultz and Swager, with their hands behind their backs, inspected this army formed by young people with great interest.
"They are young. I am afraid that such warriors have the enthusiasm for fighting, but their technical and tactical skills are too poor. They have never even been to a real battlefield." Schultz shook his head and couldn't help but worry.
"Division commander, you don't have to worry. We will integrate these new recruits into the infantry regiments of Hoffman and Floyd who suffered heavy losses. They will naturally learn battlefield skills quickly under the leadership of veterans," Swager said.
The two of them continued walking. These soldiers, wearing brand new helmets, brand new winter military uniforms, and holding the latest production line weapons, were indeed very powerful.
Suddenly, Schulz stopped because he saw a soldier carrying a strange weapon.
The weapon seemed to be round. It was carried on the shoulder and the tapered weapon at the rear made him immediately think of this weapon. Could this be the legendary rocket weapon?
"Soldier! Step forward! Get out of the queue!"
The soldier took a mechanical step and stood in front of Schulz.
"Soldier, tell me, what kind of weapon are you carrying?"
"It's a rocket-propelled grenade, sir!"
"Oh? Is this our latest weapon?"
"Yes, sir, this weapon can destroy Russian tanks within a hundred meters."
The soldier's answer can't help but make people daydream. Schulz still remembers what happened during the Minsk offensive battle. The 7th Armored Division was hit by a special weapon used by the Soviets. A tank regiment was almost wiped out in an instant.
After the war, it was proved that this was a special rocket weapon encountered by the Russians. Later, this weapon also appeared on the front line in Moscow. Since it was captured, the German army also began to imitate it.
Schultz became interested. He waved his hand and called all the accompanying officers over, and ordered the soldier: "You can demonstrate this weapon to me now. I want to see how you operate it."
The soldier was stunned for a moment and said quickly: "Sir! This is a dangerous weapon. If it must be demonstrated, I need a large enough area."
"Just demonstrate it here, and I'll have someone clear a space for you." Schultz didn't want to wait any longer. He just wanted to see how powerful this new equipment was.
Therefore, he ordered the logistics soldiers to immediately clean up the useless debris in the empty field and clear a distance for the soldier to demonstrate.
Only twenty minutes later, an area of 100 meters was cleared, and a carriage became the target.
The soldier said that this weapon is divided into two types of warheads, one is a tungsten-core armor-piercing projectile, specially used for anti-tank, and the other is a high-explosive projectile with only explosive added, used for anti-infantry. The one used in this display is
High explosive bombs.
Under the watchful eyes of the officers, the soldier half-knelt and shouldered the weapon. Because this was a German imitation, their strong industrial strength had made some improvements.
The missile has been loaded into the launcher, and the soldier aims at the target and pulls the trigger. Suddenly, flames spurt out from the nozzle, the missile pops out of the tail fin, hits the target at high altitude, and the carriage is instantly shattered.
Schultz was shocked.
"The target carriage was about sixty meters away from the man, and the target was completely shattered. If the target was an enemy tank, and we used armor-piercing bullets, wouldn't the enemy tank be directly destroyed?" Schulz was impressed by this amazing performance.
, he saw that each of the newly arrived troops had several such weapons in each infantry company, and also stored a lot of special grenades that looked like rockets. The projectiles were loaded with such rocket-propelled grenades, and the troops
The firepower has been greatly improved.
Compared to him, Swager was more rational. Until he saw such a performance, he couldn't help asking Nicklaus: "If such a weapon attacks our tanks, what will be the result?"
"Of course it was destroyed!" Nicklaus said truthfully, "If this new weapon uses armor-piercing projectiles, its penetration depth will be 100 millimeters. And our tanks, the Panzer III, have only 57 millimeters of frontal armor, and the Soviets' T34 has a frontal armor of only 57 millimeters.
In the end, the armor was only 6o millimeters. In other words, our own spears were enough to easily pierce their shields, and we could also pierce our own." (To be continued.) 8