What Colonel Katukov meant was that the Soviet army only occupied Volokolamsk and did not expand its results outside. As a result, there were many German scouts lurking nearby observing the Soviet defense line.
If the Soviet army kept its main force, especially its tank troops, it would be difficult to hide it from the German scouts.
But it's actually not difficult to do this.
The first is to clear out all the Soviet civilians in Volokolamsk.
In fact, this was a consistent practice of the Soviet army. Whenever the Soviet army withdrew from a certain area, they would move all the people to Moscow. Food, clothing, etc. were taken away if they could, and burned if they could not be taken away.
Needless to say why we did this, it was also the so-called "strengthening the wall and clearing the field", leaving nothing behind for the Germans to exploit.
As a result, a very strange phenomenon appeared on the Soviet-German battlefield: the first thing the German troops did when they occupied a certain area was to put out fires, hoping to salvage something that could be used from the fires.
The reason why there are still people in Volokolamsk is because it was suddenly occupied by the German 10th Armored Division, and the people had no time to evacuate.
At this time, it was normal for the Fourth Tank Brigade to reoccupy the place and evacuate the people. Besides, the villagers had been frightened after the previous battles, and they all cooperated with the relocation.
So within a few hours, several villages in Volokolamsk quickly became an empty city, with only Soviet troops active in them.
A slight difference from before is that the house did not burn down.
When it gets dark, tanks drive from Volokolamsk to the north in groups. Some of them even turn on their headlights, and you can vaguely see the tanks in front of them marching in neat formation along the road.
t34.
But of course, these are not real. To be precise, only some of them are real. Most of them are T34s disguised as barrel trucks.
A few months ago on the African battlefield, Rommel used this method to deceive the British, making them believe that the German army had a large number of tanks entering Africa. This scared the British to the point where they clearly had the advantage but turned around and ran away. As a result, Rommel used the absolute weakness to
The troops pursued and killed them all the way to Egypt.
Now, Shulka was just treating the other person with his own medicine, and used the same method on the Germans.
In fact, the 4th Tank Brigade never left Volokolamsk, and the T34 was hidden in people's houses.
The doorway of a house is usually not wide enough, and sometimes it is even high enough... The height of the t34 is 2.74, and usually the floor height of the house is not that high.
But this is not a problem. The engineers dismantled the door in a few times, and then removed some of the ceiling. After the tank backed in, the removed door was replaced. Only close observation can tell that it has been removed.
Traces of... The reason why the tank needs to be moved backwards is to allow the tank to prepare for battle more quickly. Once the battle order is received, they only need to increase the accelerator and rush out from inside.
These were arranged under the cover of darkness, and the infantry accompanying the tanks were also assigned to the same room as the tanks.
Shulka and his men were arranged in a two-story building.
In fact, this cannot be considered a two-story house. Many houses in Soviet villages have pointed roofs. The upper part of the pointed roof is a triangular beam. Once the tank is pushed down, the infantry can only squeeze under the triangular beam. There is only a wooden
There were ladders for soldiers to go up and down, and in many places they could not even straighten their waists.
But this is much better than being outside in the wind and rain. What makes people feel particularly amazing is that once the top hatch of the tank is opened... right at the beam, you can enter and exit the tank cabin directly from the second floor.
The tank cabin is warmer than the outside. After all, the space is narrow and there is thick armor, so the soldiers hope to squeeze into the tank.
The tank soldiers have long been tired of staying in that kind of confined space, so they are happy to change places with the soldiers... In fact, Shulka thinks that the tanks prefer to communicate with other soldiers. After all, they often
Being locked in a tank and fighting the enemy, especially without a radio, it felt like fighting alone.
"I heard that the tank phone call was your suggestion?" Second Lieutenant Fedosiev was the commander of Tank No. 239. He jumped out of the cabin and walked straight to Shulka.
"Yes!" Shulka took the bottle handed over by Fedosiev, then raised his head and took a few sips.
As mentioned before, tank crews have double vodka rations, so they usually don't have to worry about running out of alcohol.
However, there was vodka rationing during the battle, which made Shulka a little puzzled... Especially the tank soldiers, weren't they worried that they were too drunk to fight or did something wrong?
In fact, this is indeed the case.
For example, in another unit that also had rations, Shulka ordered his troops to charge the enemy while waving a pistol after hearing that a battalion commander had drunk too much.
The result can be imagined. Without the cooperation of other troops, a battalion of troops charged towards the enemy's defense line... This was not enough to give the enemy a gap in their teeth.
But no one could punish the battalion commander because he himself died on the battlefield.
But on the other hand, Shulka felt that having vodka was also a good thing, because it allowed the soldiers to anesthetize themselves to overcome the cold, and more importantly, they were less afraid of the battlefield.
"This is a great invention, Comrade Shulka!" Fedosiev said: "It makes us realize that we are not fighting alone! I mean, we can finally know what the infantry around us is doing, or
What you want us to do is to let us know when we need help..."
"Of course!" Shulka replied: "That's what tank phones are for!"
The Soviet army has given the phone on the tank a very vivid name... "Tank Phone".
"So we all need to thank you!" Fedosiev laughed and said, "I mean all the tank crews, you must not know that we often talk about you!"
"Talking about me?" Shulka pretended to be surprised.
But in fact, this is not a secret, because in addition to the "tank phone" invention, Shulka also invented the "self-rescue tree", which is a blessing to every tank soldier.
Of course, Shulka couldn't answer "I know", which would make the whole story ridiculous.
"Yes!" Fedosiev nodded: "We are thinking about how many tanks you have helped, I mean... we believe that many tank soldiers survived because of you!"
"Actually, you don't have to thank me!" Shulka replied: "We are all here for victory!"
"Yes, for victory!" Fedosiev took another bottle and touched it with Shulka, then raised his head and drank it all.
Shulka turned his attention to Uncle Alek, thinking that Fedosiev would definitely become a close friend with Uncle Alek.