The Soviet 9th Army fought all night long... In fact, it cannot be said to be a "fight", but should be described as a "pursuit", because the Romanian army failed to organize a decent resistance along the way.
This is actually not their fault. Objectively speaking, the Romanian army is pretty good among the servant armies. Apart from Finland, it belongs to the Romanian army.
The problem is that they are insufficiently equipped and have no deep-seated hatred against the Soviet army... It is understandable that the Finnish army fought bravely. The Soviet Union had just invaded Finland not long ago. The hatred between the country and the family prompted them to actively participate in the war against the Soviet Union, so they cannot even be said to be...
The "servant army" can be regarded as Germany's true ally.
As for the Romanian army, their feud is precisely with their comrades rather than their enemies... Hungary and Bulgaria, who are both German servants.
It is for this reason that Germany never dared to arrange these armies on the same battlefield, let alone coordinate them.
So what else could be asked of the Romanian army?
But the battlefield is a battlefield, and there is no reason to argue.
The 9th Army penetrated the weak points between the two lines of defense of the Romanian Army and caused heavy losses to the Romanian Army... They lost almost all their artillery and supplies, and the headquarters were also occupied by the Soviet Army one after another. What Major General?
Lieutenant generals and senior generals of various military ranks were captured and killed one after another.
But there is one that is special.
It was just when it was getting dark, and Shulka and others were still pushing forward behind the tank.
If there was any trustworthy tank in the Soviet Union at this time, it would be the T26. Although it had thin armor and poor defense, its key point was that its firepower was quite good and its failure rate was low. This allowed the infantry to at least have a usable tank.
For example, in an occasion like this, without T26's coordinated operations, it would be hard for Shulka to believe that there would be such a result.
I don’t know whether it was because he was in the excitement of victory or for some other reason, but the tank in front of Shulka drove for ten hours without the driver complaining of fatigue.
The sun slowly rose from the east, and the surrounding world gradually became clearer. The ground was full of equipment and clothing discarded by the Romanian army... bullets, firearms, overturned cars on the roadside, and several ammunition boxes fell out and broke.
, bullets and artillery shells were scattered all over the ground, and there were even clothes and underwear hanging on the tree branches.
It can be seen from the ashes under the clothes that the Romanians seemed to want to dry them out.
From this we can also see their panic when escaping.
"There's a situation!" At this time, the long-legged man walking in the front shouted: "Germans, two o'clock position!"
The soldiers who were about to fall asleep immediately woke up as if being pricked by needles. The infantry raised their rifles and hid behind the tanks. The tank soldiers immediately passed the message to the tanks. The two tanks stopped, turned their muzzles, and then
Just two shells passed by.
"Don't shoot, don't shoot!" Shulka heard shouts from the other side, in unfamiliar Russian: "We surrender!"
This situation has become accustomed to Shulka and others, because similar things have been repeated all night.
But this time there was something different. When Shulka and a few soldiers leaned out with rifles in hand, they found two barrel trucks parked in front of them, German-style barrel trucks.
This is not surprising. German barrel trucks can be seen everywhere on the battlefield, even if this is the battlefield of the Romanian army.
The difference was that those who got out of the car and surrendered were two colonels, German colonels, and these two colonels seemed to be followers because the back seat door of the barrel truck was open.
German chief officers have a habit. They prefer to sit in the passenger seat, although in theory this position is more dangerous.
But this seems to be normal, because the front passenger seat has a good view and can understand the situation or danger at the first time... The commanders all want to know the situation as soon as possible. This can be said to be an occupational disease or subconscious.
Of course, these are not what Shulka needs to worry about.
At this time, Shulka was thinking, if colonels are all followers, what is the rank of the chief officer?
Major general?
Lieutenant General?
To everyone's surprise, the person in the barrel truck was a general.
Shurka was shocked when he saw a German general lying on the passenger seat.
"Who is he?" Shulka asked in English.
The German colonel, who was looking nervously at Shulka and his party with his hands raised, was stunned for a moment, and then answered in English: "He is General Schobert, Eugen Ritter von Schobert!"
"Schaubert? Xiaobert, commander of the 11th Army?" Shulka found this answer unbelievable.
"Yes!" The German colonel nodded, his voice trembling: "Our barrel truck triggered a mine, General Schobert..."
There is no need to say more about what happened next, because Shulka saw it all.
The Soviet soldiers cheered in unison. After all, it was not common for them to encounter a German general, even though they did not capture or kill him.
Shulka's mood was a little complicated.
This is not because he is a general. Shulka knows that the battlefield does not care about your military rank. Both generals and sergeants must bear risks, but the danger for generals will be less.
Shulka just felt that fate was playing tricks on people... Historically, this Schobert died because his plane accidentally landed in a minefield laid by the Soviet army. Unexpectedly, he died because of a minefield in a different way.
What's even more ironic is that these landmines were probably laid indiscriminately by Romanian soldiers to fend off the pursuing Soviet troops in the rear.
If General Schobert were still alive at this time, I'm afraid he would have to curse these stupid Romanians again.
But now he obviously can't do that.
Then Shulka thought that this might not be a good thing for the Soviet army, because the person who succeeded Schobert as the commander of the 11th Army was the famous German general... Manstein.
After several actors took Schobert's body out of the barrel truck and placed it on the roadside, Shulka ordered: "Keep moving!"
The group of people followed the tank and continued to advance into the morning fog.
In this battle, the Soviet 9th Army not only successfully rescued Odessa, but also defeated the Romanian 4th Army, annihilating 81,000 Romanian people, of which more than 30,000 were captured.
There are also a large number of artillery, ammunition, cars, etc., but because the Romanian army's equipment is backward, it seems that only cars can be used.
Regrettably, there were still tens of thousands of people who passed through the Gulf of Dniester. Most of them broke through the Soviet encirclement and fled back... The Soviet army was short of troops. After the main force broke into the middle zone, there was not much force to complete the encirclement.
But this is not important, because by now, the Soviet 9th Army has completed the encirclement of the German Army Group South in the general direction, that is, from Kiev to Odessa.