Shurka led his men to build fortifications on the position.
After the victory in the tank ambush battle, Volokolamsk was definitely unable to stay. The German army obviously would not let go of those houses in those villages... whether it was for revenge or to avoid being used by the Russian army again.
Therefore, the 4th Tank Brigade immediately withdrew from the area west of Volokolamsk.
As expected, German artillery fire and bombers appeared in the sky above it, blowing up civilian houses one after another.
The German "Stuka" bombers used a tactic. They would combine several, usually six, bombers to form a squadron. Then the squadron would circle around a bombing target in the sky, and then one would follow closely.
One dive bombed the target.
This is a bit like Shulka's formation of a team between tanks and anti-tank guns to modify the trajectory of the projectile to improve the hit rate.
Therefore, when the German army was determined to blow up a target, it was usually difficult for them to survive.
The same was true for the houses in the village, and the Germans also dropped gasoline... At this time, the Germans rarely dropped gasoline on the battlefield. On the one hand, the bombing effect was not very good, and on the other hand, the Germans' own gasoline was all used up.
not enough.
From this we can also see how much the German army hated this failure or, in other words, the Russian Fourth Tank Brigade.
Soon, the village was filled with smoke and flames, but the 4th Tank Brigade was no longer there.
At this time, the commander of the 4th Tank Brigade was Major Zahakavich, commander of the 4th Tank Regiment (Colonel Katukov was still in Tver).
There is no doubt about this. Perhaps Major Gavrilov has more combat experience and command experience in comparison, but after all, the Fourth Tank Brigade is a tank force mainly composed of tanks. In this regard, Zahakavi
Major Qi is obviously better.
However, Colonel Katukov ordered: "We must fully listen to Major Gavrilov's opinions!"
In fact, there is another hidden meaning in this sentence: "Fully listen to Comrade Shulka's opinions."
Because everyone knows that Major Gavrilov can "fully listen to Shulka's opinions."
For example, now, the 4th Tank Brigade is not deployed on the front line, but retreats to the defense line and hides.
They continued to adopt the "mobile defense" strategy, but the "mobile defense" narrowed the scope and was limited to the defense line around Volokolamsk.
This seems to be a very normal tactical shift, but it is not easy to implement in the Soviet army.
The reason is that it looks like an "escape" and even technically violates Order 270.
Therefore, Major Zahakavich hesitated.
As a result, Major Gavrilov made a very firm suggestion: "We should retreat immediately, and I will be responsible for any problems!"
Political Commissar Fomin also made a similar guarantee, so Major Zahakavich dared to withdraw his troops to the second line.
Therefore, although Order No. 270 had a positive effect, that is, it caused some soldiers who originally planned to escape with a sense of luck to give up the idea, it also had some negative effects.
For example, it will affect the commander's command and flexible use of tactics, and another example will force some people to simply surrender to the German army.
It can even be said that some Soviet officers and soldiers will become German spies, which is indirectly related to Order No. 270... If captured, they will be labeled as traitors. After being released, as long as the German army casually reveals some information, they will die, so they can only
He was willing to be used by the German army and even hoped that the German army would win in the end.
Of course, Shulka didn't need to think about this. He concentrated on dealing with the fortifications in front of him.
There are many ways to hide a tank, such as driving into a house as before, setting up a tent outside the tank, or even covering it with a layer of canvas and pouring some mud on it to camouflage it.
But the best way is to dig a tank bunker for the tank, that is, dig a hole for the tank to drive in, exposing only the turret or not even the turret... The most ideal tank bunker is to have two layers inside the bunker. Take a step back.
The turrets are not exposed. The turrets appear when moving forward and the body is level, so you can shoot immediately.
Such a bunker can make it difficult to destroy a tank even if it is discovered by the enemy: it is difficult for aircraft to find its exact location, and artillery shells must directly hit the bunker otherwise it will be difficult to cause damage to the tank.
Shulka is building such a bunker.
The difficulty is that water will seep all around, and a drainage ditch must be built and the bottom tamped with logs, stones, etc. Otherwise, the water will flood the tank or the tank will get stuck inside and cannot get out, which is not a good thing.
At this time, the instructor walked to the bunker and called Shulka out.
"As a company commander, you don't have to do this!" The instructor raised his head towards the muddy water on Shulka's body, and then handed him a dry towel.
Shulka took the dry towel and wiped his face and hands. After shivering, he couldn't help but rub his frozen hands... Doing these things in the cold October was indeed not a good experience.
"This is a means, understand?" Shulka answered as he walked towards the fire.
Compared with the German army, another advantage of the Soviet army is that it dares to light fires on the front line.
The reason was that there were too many civilians building fortifications on the Soviet front line, and it was almost impossible for them to survive without making fire.
But I soon discovered an advantage... having more fires would not expose the target but would become a cover, because the Germans could not tell which fires belonged to the people and which belonged to the troops, and there were so many that the Germans could not bomb them one by one.
So I could only let it go.
"Mean?" the instructor asked.
"Yes, means!" Shulka sat down in front of the fire, and then put his almost frozen hands on the flames to bake. He wanted to bake these almost unconscious hands.
"Only in this way will they not feel distant from you!" Shulka said: "Just imagine, if I am not shivering with cold like them right now, how many people will be willing to charge when they are asked to charge during the war?
obey my orders?"
The instructor couldn't help but nodded, and then said to the orderly: "Go and prepare an engineering shovel for me!"
Shulka looked at the instructor in confusion.
The instructor raised his eyebrows and said, "If you don't shiver with the cold like them, how many people are willing to believe what I say?"
Shulka couldn't help but laugh. The instructor learned very quickly.
"You win again!" the instructor said.
"Yes!" Shulka said, then took off his boots and put his feet in front of the fire. Immediately, an unpleasant smell wafted in the air.
The instructor frowned and covered his nose and said: "But there is one thing you didn't expect. They don't plan to withdraw the troops attacking Tver!"