Two hours later the Soviet army was on the march again.
Soon there were landmines on the road again. It was obvious that the German or Romanian army had regained consciousness and continued to lay mines.
Although they knew that mine laying would not have much effect, when "time is victory", they could delay it even a little bit.
This idea is indeed correct, because the tank will indeed move slower when pushing a roller, and it cannot march without any scruples. Several modified tanks must be used to roll it over in front, and anti-tank mines must be replaced from time to time when they encounter anti-tank mines.
one time.
At noon the next day, the leading troops of the 9th Army finally arrived at the outskirts of Odessa, which is about 40 kilometers away from Odessa.
Everyone thought they would encounter enemies here, especially some soldiers who were familiar with the terrain in this area.
One of them was Cossack, who worked here for two years before joining the army.
"There is a Transnistria River in the west!" The Cossack shined his flashlight on the bottom of the carriage, where there was a piece of thick cardboard. He drew a map on the cardboard with a military thorn and said: "This Transnistrian River passes through Ao.
To the west of Dessa, a 40-kilometer-long bay is formed. To be precise, it is not formed by the Dniester River, but by sea water pouring into the low-lying inland. We call it Transnistria.
The bay or the Drowning Valley of Transnistria!”
"He is like a barrier on the west side of Odessa!" Shulka said.
"Yes!" said the Cossack, "but this means that supplies coming from Romania must go around this bay, which is where we are now!"
"But there are no enemies here!"
"We can cut off their supply lines just by occupying the top of this bay!"
"The Germans can't give up their supply lines!"
"Yes!" Shulka agreed: "I think... they will choose to go by sea, that is, across the Dniester Gulf!"
The Cossacks nodded in agreement, although this would be much more troublesome than taking the land route, because they would have to reach the west coast of the bay to unload the goods, then load them onto ships, cross the bay, and then unload the goods again and transport them in all directions by car.
But the Germans can indeed do this.
Of course, the soldiers' spontaneous discussions are not of great significance. They just want to know what difficulties they will face in the future.
Soon, Shulka knew that his guess was right.
For soon after the cars were brought to a halt and orders were given to prepare for battle.
At the same time, a communications soldier riding a tricycle parked his car nearby and shouted to Shulka from a distance: "Comrade Shulka, Major Gavrilov wants you to go to the headquarters!
"
"Where is the headquarters?" Shulka asked.
"Get in the car, Comrade Shulka!" The signal soldier raised his head towards the empty seat next to him and said, "This was taken from the Germans. I hope you don't mind!"
"No, of course not!" Shulka said and stepped up. After sitting down, he added: "I'm just worried about whether others will think of me as German!"
The communications soldier laughed: "Don't worry, Comrade Shulka, even if they don't know me, they will know you!"
As soon as he stepped on the accelerator, the three wheels roared and drove towards the rear.
The headquarters is located in a residential house two miles away from the front line, leaning against the mountain and facing north.
This location was chosen very professionally, because the enemy's main force was in Odessa in the south, so most of the artillery shells were fired from the south. Choosing a residential building in the south against the mountain meant that it was a blind spot for the enemy's artillery fire.
"Shulka!" Seeing Shulka walking in, Major Gavrilov waved him forward.
Political Commissar Fuming stopped Shulka halfway. He shook hands with Shulka and said: "Comrade Shulka, your performance has been reported to me by Comrade Major. You have done a good job, I can even say...
Our troops were able to get here smoothly and achieve such a great victory largely because of your suggestions. Thank you and thank you for your contribution to the motherland!"
"This is what it should be, Comrade Political Commissar!" Shulka stepped forward and replied.
Political Commissar Fomin nodded, and then invited Shulka to walk to Major Gavrilov's map.
"The military situation is urgent, so I won't count your merits like a political commissar!" Major Gavrilov made a joke that was not very funny.
"Of course!" Shulka and the political commissar responded with a cooperative smile.
"The enemy deployed their main force between the two lines of defense!" Major Gavrilov said: "They took the initiative to abandon the perimeter and used Odessa's outer line of defense to defend, which was originally our line of defense!"
"Are they transporting supplies through the Dniester Gulf?" Shulka asked.
"Yes!" Major Gavrilov spread his hands and said, "It seems you already have an understanding of the situation!"
"I don't know much!" Shulka replied, and then looked at the map on the table.
Shulka was telling the truth. The Cossack's sketches and dictation were just a vague idea, which slowly became clear after seeing the map.
Geographically, Odessa has unique advantages.
Not only does it have the Transnistrian Gulf as a barrier on the west side, but there is also Lake Tiligur on the east side, which is also long and tens of kilometers long.
In other words, Odessa is actually surrounded by water on three sides: the bay to the west, the Black Sea to the south, and the lake to the east.
Odessa's outer defense line connects the bay to the west and the lake to the east, forming a closed defense line with no gaps in just 80 kilometers.
There are even several "W" shaped lakes and swamps in these 80 kilometers, which is obviously very beneficial to the defenders.
Only then did Shulka understand why it took the Romanian army 73 days to attack this place, and in the end it was not the Romanian army that captured it, but the Soviet army withdrew on its own initiative.
"It is not suitable for mechanized troops to attack!" Major Gavrilov said: "At the same time, it is not suitable for large troops to deploy! It seems that we can only attack from the west side of the defense line!"
This is clear from the map. A large area on the east side is blocked by lakes and swamps like several long snakes. If you attack from the east side, you must swim between these lakes and swamps, and finally pass through several lakes.
through a narrow passage and then enter Odessa.
These narrow passages only require a few machine guns and a few artillery pieces to block them.
"Our advantage is..." Gavrilov said: "The Romanians lack anti-tank equipment. They are equipped with 25mm anti-tank guns. This anti-tank gun cannot penetrate the T26 armor at a distance of 300 meters!
"
300 meters... This advantage is actually not obvious, because it is a rainy day with poor visibility, and the Soviet tank gunner cannot see the enemy 300 meters away.