Even so, Major Gavrilov still worked meticulously with the second-line troops to build the fortifications.
The 333rd Regiment was ordered to build a defensive line along the railway.
The railway can be said to be the Soviet Army's Achilles' heel.
On the one hand, this is because a large amount of strategic materials and soldiers of the Soviet army need to be transported to the front line by railway. This prevents the Soviet army from blowing up the railway or laying mines, roadblocks, etc.
On the other hand, the railway has a relatively solid roadbed. It is not like the road, which is full of mud, where cars and tanks can get stuck and become unable to move.
So it became the main object of contention between the enemy and ourselves.
The order from superiors to the 333rd Regiment was to build two lines of defense with an anti-tank firepower density of 20 units per kilometer in front of the railway.
The anti-tank firepower mentioned here refers to not only anti-tank guns, but also more than twenty KV1 and T28 tanks that cannot be used in frontline operations due to high failure rates.
This tank force is also mixed, with members from various units, including the Fifth Tank Division, the 21st Mechanized Corps, etc.
Before the arrival of the 333rd Regiment, they were not even organized together, but were fighting independently in piles here and there... The organization of the Soviet army has always been relatively chaotic, and to a certain extent, quite a few of them
They all belong to the optimist side, which means they usually don't get nervous until the enemy is in front of them.
As Shulka saw, some tank soldiers were still gathering on the rear armor of the tank and playing cards under their ponchos.
Another word to describe this is "nervous".
Major Gavrilov immediately organized them into a unit and used the designation of one of the units: the 3rd Tank Battalion.
Of course, more than twenty tanks are not enough for a tank battalion, but it will be better to command with a battalion organization, because the first company has KV1 tanks, the second company has T28 tanks, and the third company has seven T26 tanks.
"What's the condition of these tanks?" Major Gavrilov asked the tank battalion commander, Captain Akimchik.
"Major!" Captain Akimchik laughed: "If their condition would be better, then we wouldn't stay here!"
Major Gavrilov was a little helpless, which meant that most of these tanks could only be used as turrets.
"Don't worry too much, Major!" the captain comforted Major Gavrilov: "The enemy advances 5 kilometers per day on average, which means it will take them at least five days to reach here!"
What the captain said may be right, because judging from the battle situation on the front line, it is indeed the case. The Soviet army built anti-tank trenches one after another in the front and laid out anti-tank guns and tanks, which made the attacking German army strong.
.
Among them, the Soviet Army also invested in T34 tanks...of course the 1940 model T34/76, which was quite excellent in terms of armor, firepower and maneuverability.
This even caused a "T34 crisis" among the German army, that is, all types of tanks owned by the German army were unable to penetrate the T34 head-on, which even caused a certain amount of panic in the German army.
It is said that Hitler couldn't help but became furious when he learned this. He roared to Canaris, the director of his military intelligence agency: "It has become increasingly clear that we not only underestimated the huge economic power and transportation power of the Soviet Union, but most importantly, we also underestimated
We thought the Russians only had 200 divisions, but now they have identified 360 divisions. We thought the Russian tanks were vulnerable, but they have high-quality weapons that none of our tanks can match.
Performance tank! All..."
The problem was that there were not many T34s equipped by the Soviet army at this time, and there were also shortcomings such as radio communication and the turret space was too small to accommodate only two people, so the gunner must also serve as the commander.
In fact, the most important thing is that the Soviet army's tactics in using tanks were wrong, so they were still losing ground on the battlefield.
However, it turns out that offense and defense on the battlefield cannot be estimated by the average attack speed like Captain Akimchik did, especially for the German army who was good at interspersing and encircling.
It was the night of the second day. Shulka and his men were resting in a tent after a long day of work... The tents on the front line were really unflattering, because there was rain and mud everywhere, and there were people crawling in from nowhere.
Bugs and even poisonous snakes.
As the weather gets colder, these snakes like to hide in warmer boots or even under quilts, and then when you tuck your feet into your boots in the morning it will give you a nasty bite... One of Shulka's recruits
This situation occurs.
He screamed in fright when he was bitten, but soon he laughed: "I can go back! I can leave this ghost place!"
This is because he knows that kind of snake, which is venomous but not fatal.
"Keep your voice down!" Shulka reminded him: "Otherwise others will think you were bitten on purpose!"
"Yes, Comrade Company Commander!" The recruit immediately shut his mouth.
Before he left, the instructor also gave him some ideological work: "You are not allowed to talk nonsense when you go back, do you understand?"
"Understood, comrade instructor!"
Shulka knew what the instructor was worried about. He was worried that the news that the 333rd Regiment was on the second line instead of the front line would be detrimental to their publicity.
But in fact, the instructor's worries were completely unnecessary, because soon Tula became a real front line and a must-win for the German army.
"K hearts!"
"A pair of plum blossoms!"
…
This time Shulka also joined the card game, using the standard playing cards that Leonev brought.
This guy is a little annoyed. He has to make everyone wash their hands, otherwise he won't take out the cards even if Shulka orders him.
But this seems to be right, otherwise the cards would be full of mud after a few hits and it would be over.
The bet was Maheyan, and Shulka was not used to the way the Soviets called it... They called the cards from the front to the back. For example, the Chinese called the K of Spades, and they called the K of Spades.
This made Shulka a little unaccustomed to it, so he was punished several times for playing wrong cards, and his Maheyan was about to be lost.
Others were very excited, and even cheered every time Shulka lost, as if they had won a battle... They were happy to see Shulka make a fool of himself. As the veterans said, the limelight on the battlefield was lost.
Shulka has robbed everyone, so the casino can't just make a profit!
When he thought of this, Shulka wanted to get up and beat them up... They all forgot that he also saved their lives by showing off on the battlefield.
This time, Shulka had another bad deck of cards in his hand. The onlookers cheered and waited to see Shulka's joke. At this time, the actor who was watching outside ran in.
"Comrade Company Commander, there seems to be a situation!"
Shulka secretly thought that this guy had enlightened and knew how to save him in this difficult time... But Shulka soon realized that this was not the case.
Because there were noisy footsteps and shouts outside.