The German army finally collapsed after resisting for twenty minutes.
Or it can be said that Colonel Jonas realized that there was no point in continuing like this. The tanks were going up one by one and then being destroyed one by one... It was purely consuming the Russian artillery shells with their lives and blood.
Colonel Jonas even organized two counterattacks, because he believed that in this case only close combat with the enemy could avoid this passivity.
Colonel Jonas's idea may be right. The entanglement between the enemy and ourselves can muddy the water, so the German tanks can advance to within the 100-meter line before they have a chance to penetrate the Russian tanks.
The problem is that the Russian army seems to have thought of this a long time ago. They used tanks as a cover to form a line of defense. When the German army launched an attack on this steel line of defense, what they had to endure was layer upon layer of defense from mortars, machine guns and submachine guns.
There are even grenades here and there.
It was very difficult for the German army to even throw grenades under this hail of bullets.
Shulka kept pulling the trigger and firing bullets one after another. Under the bright light of the flares, the German soldiers who were charging forward were knocked to the ground one after another.
At this time, Shulka seemed to have become a senseless robot, reloading, shooting, reloading and shooting again... Then he saw the German army retreating like a tide, leaving only corpses in front of the battlefield.
"Retreat!" Colonel Jonas ordered angrily: "The 1st Infantry Battalion takes cover!"
In this context, another meaning of "cover" is "sacrifice."
Colonel Jonas can be said to be generous this time. Usually, the unit responsible for covering is up to two companies, but now he devotes a battalion at one go... Perhaps this is also because he knows that if the troops are too small, they will not be able to stop the people in front of him.
A wolf-like Russian army.
But what Colonel Jonas didn't expect was that even so, they couldn't stop him.
Several red signal flares rose into the sky, and the soldiers of the 316th Division on standby on the other side of the river rushed forward with shouts.
This is the 1077th Infantry Regiment of the 316th Division.
This infantry regiment is quite special. Most of its members are cadets from military schools. These cadets originally received one-year training at the military school and were then assigned to serve as grassroots officers in various frontline units.
However, they obviously could not wait for that moment. After the war broke out, they were urgently organized into a "Military School Mixed Cadet Group" and then sent to the battlefield.
It wasn't until the 316th was sent to Volokolamsk to reinforce the 16th Army that they had an official designation: the 1077th Infantry Regiment.
The regiment has high morale and vitality.
This is related to the overall training of the troops:
If a unit has a higher level of training, even though many of the training and tactics it receives are useless or even contrary to reality, the mental outlook and morale displayed by the entire unit are different... They know what they should do.
, the atmosphere created by the usual discussions is also more positive, and even when the superiors order a charge, they will become accustomed to charging towards the enemy naturally.
On the other hand, if the level of training is low or if everyone is a troop that goes to the battlefield after just a few days of training, they will be like headless flies scurrying around, and they will look left and right while charging, hesitating.
Once they find someone retreating, a large number of people will follow suit.
The 1077th Regiment obviously belonged to the former. They bravely crossed the defense line of the 4th Tank Brigade and rushed towards the enemy like a tide, one wave after another.
On the other hand, the 1st Infantry Battalion left behind by the Germans to serve as a cover was already beaten with heavy casualties and frightened by the 4th Tank Brigade, but now they were so charged by the Russian army...the will to defend soon collapsed, and they all took action.
Raise your hands and surrender.
The 1077th Regiment only left a small force to receive prisoners, and the main force crossed the enemy's defense lines without a moment's pause and continued to pursue the Germans.
There is a reason why the 1077th Infantry Regiment was responsible for charging and chasing the Germans instead of the 333rd Infantry Regiment.
Although the 333rd Infantry Regiment is also an infantry regiment, it is an infantry regiment of a tank brigade. They have been trained to cooperate with tanks... The coordination mentioned here is not just following the tanks and occasionally sticking their heads out to shoot a few shots.
The more important role is to provide useful information to the tank in a timely manner, guide the tank to the target, provide cover, clear obstacles for the tank, etc.
These are obviously not something ordinary infantry can do, so it is obviously inappropriate to use the 333rd Infantry Regiment to charge and chase the enemy at the front.
This is also one of the contents discussed in the previous regiment-level meeting: how to coordinate the 316th Division with the 4th Tank Brigade.
The 4th Tank Brigade waited in the rear for several minutes until the 1077th Infantry Regiment sent a "safe" signal using a signal light before they continued to advance.
The tanks rumbled past the German positions, and what they saw were tank wreckage, corpses of German soldiers, and discarded equipment all over the ground. The tracks of the tanks were soon covered with rags and minced meat, and the choking exhaust was mixed with
There was a bloody and disgusting stench...that was the result of the tanks running over the corpses.
Shulka saw several German prisoners who had raised their hands in surrender and began to vomit.
Although German soldiers have rich combat experience, this scene is not common, or in other words... they don't often see the bodies of their comrades being crushed to pieces by enemy tanks.
At this time, Shulka and the others were quite accustomed to this. The most they could do was lean on both sides of the tank's tracks to prevent the blood from splattering on them or the mud from getting caught in the shoe marks on the soles of their boots.
The hatch of the tank in front opened, and Fedosiev poked his head out of the tank, roaring and gesticulating with dancing gestures at Shulka behind him.
"What is he talking about?" Shulka asked deputy company commander Pukarev.
The tank engine was so noisy that Shulka could not hear Fedosiev's words clearly.
"He said we should fight all the way to Germany like this, comrade company commander!" Pukarev replied.
Shulka couldn't help but laugh.
The Soviet army will indeed reach Germany, but not now.
But of course, Shulka would not take Fedosiev's words seriously. He was just a joke out of confidence because the Fourth Tank Brigade had won successive brilliant victories.
In fact, many people in the 4th Tank Brigade felt this way, including the 333rd Infantry Regiment. They seemed to be accustomed to winning on the battlefield.
But Shulka knew that the situation was still serious for the Soviet army.
Because: the number of T34s in the 4th Tank Brigade is decreasing. Although the battle just now was a complete victory, three tanks were still lost.
On the other hand, the German army had much more troops than the Soviet army. Even the 5th Armored Division, which had just been defeated, was not injured. Its troops and tanks were still more than twice that of the Soviet army.