On this day, the 131st Division pursued the German army for fifty kilometers.
This is not to say that the Soviet army likes to chase the German army. The quality of the German 198th Infantry Division is very good and the will to fight is very tenacious. It is defeated every time.
If possible, the Soviet army would rather bypass this opponent.
The problem is that this German infantry division is quite arrogant. They dare to divide into several parts and guard the main transportation routes with one division against the Soviet army, one corps, or even two corps.
However, from an overall strategic perspective, this is correct. It does not make much sense to concentrate troops in one place, because there is often only one favorable terrain that needs to be defended. If it is broken through, it is a breakthrough.
On the other hand, the German defense was somewhat like the "roller" defense used by Shulka in front of Kiev, that is, it was divided into several lines to defend and then retreated layer by layer.
Obviously, as long as the German 198th Infantry Division blocked or even delayed the Soviet advance, the defeated Romanian 1st Armored Division in the west would have time to regroup, and at the same time, the Italian Expeditionary Force in the east would arrive two days later, so
This will completely block the Soviet army in the Uman area.
The problem is that the German army has too few troops, and the first line of defense is quickly broken through by the Soviet army... "Roller-style" defense is often the most important line of defense, because whether the first line of defense achieves its established goals directly determines whether the second line of defense will succeed.
Whether the defense line has enough time to prepare, then the third line of defense may not be ready, and the entire defensive rhythm will collapse as a result.
This is how the next battle unfolded.
Perhaps knowing that they were short of troops, the German defense lines were separated by 7 kilometers.
Later, Shulka learned that the 7-kilometer distance was not only to enhance the connection between the two lines of defense, but also because of the range of German artillery.
At this time, the artillery equipment of the German army was mainly the 105mm le.fh18 howitzer. This howitzer had a range of 10 kilometers.
If the two lines of defense are 7 kilometers apart, the German army can arrange artillery positions behind the second line of defense to provide artillery assistance to the first line of defense... The Germans did indeed do this, so the Soviet army was attacking the first line of defense.
Only then will you encounter such great resistance.
But after the collapse of the German first line of defense, these artillery basically lost their effectiveness.
These artillerymen had originally planned to set up several artillery blockades, but due to the retreat of the German army, they were unable to fire on these blockades.
The Soviet army followed the German deserters and advanced.
At this time, the role of the Soviet mechanized division was reflected. As soon as the car drove forward, troops and equipment were transported forward in batches... Although the road conditions were poor and the German army blew up the road during their retreat, the car eventually
Still faster than walking.
When we were in the car, the actor asked out of curiosity: "Why didn't they lay mines? That's what we did when we retreated!"
"They are so frightened that they don't have time to lay mines!" the thief replied.
The soldiers all laughed, but this answer was not satisfactory, because everyone knew in their hearts that the Germans were not so chaotic.
"They believe they can stop us!" Shulka replied as he poured out the water from the hand pot to rinse the mud on his hands.
"Yes!" the veteran replied: "Because this is their logistics supply line. Their own tanks, cars, etc. have to pass through here. If they think they can stop us, there is no need to lay too many mines!"
What Shulka said is actually not entirely correct.
Another reason why the German army did not lay mines was that the German army was on the offensive side, and the attack went very smoothly, so landmines were not very necessary... What the attacking side needed more was bullets, artillery shells, and gasoline. Landmines were mainly used for defense.
In addition, heavy rains in recent days have worsened the transportation situation, so landmines have been backlogged in the rear and not transported to the front line.
Of course, one of the reasons was that the Germans believed they could stop the Soviets. If they had known that they would be in this predicament, how could they have found a batch of landmines to block the Soviet pursuit.
If this was the case, the Soviet army would be in trouble. They would have to clear mines while advancing, or roll over mines at the expense of tanks. Whichever option was chosen would give the Germans more time to prepare.
But now, the Soviet forwards almost stepped on the corpses of the Germans and broke into the second line of defense. By the time Shulka and others arrived, the battle was over.
The first battalion passed these combat units and continued to push forward... The core of "blitzkrieg" is the word "fast". The forward force is blocked and consumes a certain amount of kinetic energy. The follow-up troops should continue to push forward like waves.
As a result, this push hit the jackpot, and the battalion plunged into the German artillery.
At that time, the German artillery units were making an emergency retreat. They obviously did not expect this to happen. The two lines of defense that were originally estimated to be able to block the enemy for at least two days were broken through within two hours.
This caused the German artillery troops to be in chaos, and they hurriedly collected the artillery and moved the artillery shells.
As mentioned before, transportation vehicles such as cars are generally given priority to armored units. Even the artillery units assigned to infantry, even the German army, use animal power for transportation. Of course, an emergency retreat will encounter various troubles:
First of all, you need to remove the gun mantlet... This is not necessary. You don't need to do this before entering the rainy season.
But now, the total weight of the German 105mm howitzer is 1525 kilograms. If it is equipped with a gun shield and goes on the road in the rain, it will almost inevitably get stuck in a mud puddle.
The second step is to load and unload ammunition or tow artillery.
This was not a difficult task in the first place. The German artillery had practiced it frequently, and they were able to complete this series of actions in an orderly manner in the shortest possible time, even though it was pouring with rain.
The problem is that the training ground is different from the real battlefield: mules and horses are easily frightened on the battlefield. When a cannonball comes from a distance, these animals will run around and cannot be pulled back.
So there were shouting, exclaiming, urging...the whole artillery position was as chaotic as a vegetable market.
Some people who were transported by car wanted to go ahead, but their way was blocked by a horse-drawn carriage that was stuck in the middle of the road due to running around.
"Push this damn carriage away!" the driver stuck his head out of the cab and shouted.
"You saw, we are doing this!" the soldier driving the carriage replied loudly.
"Why don't you unload everything from the car?" The driver yelled, "Let us go first!"
"I thought it might be quicker if you got out of the car and helped!"
…
But they soon discovered that they didn't need to worry about this problem, because a burst of machine gunfire rang out from behind, followed by several gunshots, and several tanks drove out from the rain-covered road.