Major Gavrilov frowned in the temporary headquarters.
As he imagined, the war did not go smoothly.
The superiors underestimated the enemy. They thought that if the 9th Army could break through the German 6th Army's breakout, it would be able to break through the German defense line in front of them. After all, there was only one German regiment in front of them.
But it turns out that the battlefield is often not a simple comparison of forces. The German regiment guarded a traffic artery: this was a crossroads, the intersection of several roads, with a high ground on both sides. The German army seized the high ground and deployed artillery on it.
There was a long passage only a few hundred meters wide in the middle of the condescending suppression on the high ground. This made it impossible for the Soviet troops to deploy their forces, and they could only push up one regiment at a time.
In fact, this cannot simply be said to be underestimating the enemy. It should be said that the Soviet army is not yet familiar with the "blitzkrieg" tactics. After all, it has only been trained for a few days and this is the first time it has been put into actual combat.
"Comrade Major!" At this time, the signal soldier handed the phone to Major Gavrilov and said: "Comrade Vavilic!"
Colonel Vavilic is the commander of the 131st Motorized Division. He was a regiment commander not long ago. He was promoted to division commander because the original division commander made mistakes during the battle and was dismissed.
At this time, there were many situations like this in the Soviet troops, especially when the initial battle was not going well. Countless commanders were dismissed or even shot because of poor combat performance. Even Pavlov was not immune.
"What's going on?" Colonel Vavilic asked on the phone: "Comrade Gavrilov, I hope you can understand the situation we are facing... Romanian troops are gathering on our right wing, and Italian mechanized troops are approaching from the left wing.
We are approaching, and if we are blocked by the Germans in front of us, we will be surrounded by them and have a hard fight!"
"I understand, Comrade Vavilich!" Major Gavrilov replied: "But we were poorly prepared and the attack was too hasty. We should at least wait for the artillery to catch up and suppress the enemy's artillery!"
"The enemy has only one regiment, and they don't have tanks yet!" Colonel Vavilic said: "Our artillery will come up, but what you need more is courage, understand? The courage to attack the enemy!"
This is a common problem among Soviet commanders. They always simply attribute the failure of the battle to the lack of bravery of the soldiers... This is a good excuse, which can not only cover up their incompetence but also find an excuse for their failed command.
If they win a battle, they feel complacent: Look, this is the battle I commanded.
If they lost the battle, they spread their hands: This is not a question of command, as long as they fight bravely they can win... Are they brave enough? Obviously not, because some of them escaped alive!
"Break through the enemy's defense line within half an hour, do you understand?" Colonel Vavilic ordered: "Otherwise, you will go up in person!"
Gavrilov reluctantly responded "Yes", and then turned his attention to Political Commissar Fomin standing next to him.
Political Commissar Fuming shook his head and cursed: "This is an idiot. Their command only has one word, and that is 'brave'! Maybe we can let him try it himself!"
Major Gavrilov shook his head and replied: "Although he is a fool, one thing is right. The situation is very urgent. The enemy is outflanking us from both sides. If we do not quickly defeat the Germans standing in front of us, the consequences will be disastrous."
…”
This is the key to "blitzkrieg".
The most taboo thing about "Blitzkrieg" is to be entangled by the enemy and get into a hard fight. If it happens like this, it will not be "Blitzkrieg".
There will definitely be some traffic arteries that the troops must pass through, such as bridges, traffic hubs, etc.
The German method is to use the Brandenburg detachment to penetrate into the enemy's interior, or to use paratroopers to airborne to seize these key points, and then the armored forces can pass through smoothly.
At this time, the Soviet army obviously did not have these resources, so they could only attack by force.
It would be no problem if the Soviet army had the same "Poseidon III" and "Poseidon IV" tanks as well as infantry tanks, infantry artillery, and air-ground coordination capabilities like the German army.
But...the newly formed 9th Army obviously failed to reach this level.
"Maybe!" Political Commissar Fuming pointed at the map and said, "We can only find a way to capture the highlands on both sides first..."
Major Gavrilov shook his head: "The Germans have deployed a company of condescending defenses on both sides of the highlands, which are integrated with the ground defense lines. We cannot seize these two highlands in a short time unless we can break through.
The defense line in front of us attacks from behind the high ground!"
This leads to a paradox: to break through the defense line, you must capture the high ground on both sides, and to capture the high ground on both sides, you must break through the defense line...
Just when Major Gavrilov and Political Commissar Fomin didn't know what to do, a communications soldier came into the headquarters and reported: "Comrade Major, there is a soldier who has just withdrawn from the battlefield. He said he is from the third company."
Second Lieutenant Davydov asked him to contact you! I have important information to report to you!"
Major Gavrilov was a little confused. What kind of intelligence report could he have after coming off the battlefield?
What political commissar Fuming thought was that...the soldier might just use this excuse to cover up the fact that he was a deserter.
But with the mentality of "I would rather believe what he has than what he doesn't", Major Gavrilov still let him in.
"Comrade Major, Comrade Political Commissar!" A soldier covered in mud and blood walked into the headquarters, and then stood up and reported: "I am the communications soldier of the third company, Vitenka. The company commander ordered me to report to you. The third company is lurking.
In the anti-tank trench more than two hundred meters in front of the enemy's front line..."
"Latent? You mean lurking?" Major Gavrilov's eyes widened: "A whole company?"
"Yes!" the signal soldier replied: "There are seven more tanks!" (Note: The signal soldier did not know that one tank was lost!)
"Great!" Major Gavrilov exclaimed in surprise and joy: "This way we can break into the enemy's defense line before the enemy's artillery is ready!"
"Yes!" Political Commissar Fuming agreed: "As long as we concentrate our artillery fire on the enemy's defense lines to suppress their anti-tank guns!"
As he spoke, Political Commissar Fuming asked the signal soldier: "Is this what Comrade Davydov planned?"
"Yes, Comrade Political Commissar!" the signal soldier replied: "But this is Comrade Shulka's plan..."
"Shulka!" Major Gavrilov laughed: "I should have known it was him. Who else but him could make the enemy hard to guard against!"
Political Commissar Fomin looked at Major Gavrilov with strange eyes and asked: "Comrade Major, you actually sent Shulka to the battlefield?!"
"Don't look at me like that, Comrade Political Commissar!" Major Gavrilov replied awkwardly: "If we can't break through the defense line, we will go to the battlefield!"