I'm taking a day off today because I feel a little uncomfortable. There are only two updates left! I'll continue with five updates tomorrow!
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Air supremacy has always been a big problem for the Soviet army.
The reason why the Soviet army suffered a crushing defeat in the early stages of the war was due to insufficient preparation, improper tactics, and insufficient quality of soldiers. A large part of the reason was the lack of air superiority.
Because they had no air superiority, the Soviet army was always unable to grasp the direction of the German attack or even the retreat of its own troops... A considerable part of the intelligence in this era relied on aerial reconnaissance, especially the Soviet army, which had insufficient communication equipment.
Because there was no air superiority, the Soviet army's hastily organized counterattack intentions were always discovered and prepared by the German army first.
Also because of the lack of air supremacy, the Soviet ground forces were always easily disintegrated by the German army when they had a strength advantage in battle... For example, the German army used more than a hundred tanks to defeat the Soviet army's cluster attack of thousands of tanks. If
Without air superiority, it is simply a fantasy.
"Do we have anti-aircraft units?" Major Zahakavich asked.
"No, Major!" Major General Panfinov replied: "We are fighting on the front line, and it is difficult for the air defense troops to play their role!"
Anti-aircraft forces usually require reaction time, which is determined by the range of the air defense forces and the speed of German fighter planes... If German fighter planes target the Soviet front line, such as tanks deployed on the front line, they often fly suddenly from German-controlled areas.
Appear and attack, then complete the bombing and quickly leave within a few minutes.
At this time, even if the anti-aircraft firepower is fully opened or even the enemy plane is shot down, nothing can be changed...the tank has been blown up by the enemy plane.
"Do we have an air force?" Major Gavrilov asked.
"Of course!" Major General Panfilov replied helplessly: "But they are mainly used to protect the security of Moscow!"
This is also one of the reasons why the Red Square military parade can go smoothly...The Soviet army concentrated its air power over downtown Moscow.
According to statistics, the Western Front dispatched a total of 4,451 sorties in October, of which only 325 were to directly provide cover for frontline troops.
If the entire defense line is divided these 325 times, the air support each unit can receive will be pitiful.
And this air support is obviously unable to provide air cover for the 4th Tank Brigade.
"Why don't we continue to hide ourselves?" Shulka asked. "I mean hide the tanks and fight!"
Zahakavich shook his head and said: "Our defense line is more than ten kilometers wide in front, and we only have 33 tanks... If the tanks are hidden for combat, although it is possible to avoid enemy aircraft, where are they hiding?
Okay? Will the enemy definitely attack from here?"
Then Shulka understood.
It may not be difficult to hide tanks in the snow. What is difficult is the "offensive superiority theory" mentioned before... The German breakthrough may not necessarily appear where the T34 is hidden. If the T34 is dispersed, it will be more than ten kilometers away.
On average, there are only 2 to 3 T34s per kilometer, which is far lower than the normal anti-tank density.
(Note: Generally, an anti-tank density of 20 units per kilometer is required)
After thinking about it, Shulka said: "Maybe we have the right to choose!"
"What right to choose?" Major General Panfinov didn't understand what Shulka meant.
"Where did the Germans attack most fiercely?" Shulka asked without answering.
"The location of Paskovo!" Major General Panfinov replied: "That area is the junction of the defense lines of the 1073rd and 1075th regiments!"
The junction is always the focus of the enemy's attack. The reason is that the troops here are commanded by two different units. They often have poor coordination or delayed mobilization, and unclear intelligence... For example, in extreme cases, the 1075th Regiment defending this area
The soldiers of the 1073rd Regiment had suffered heavy casualties, but the soldiers of the 1073rd Regiment had suffered only minor casualties. Therefore, after reporting the incident, the commander of the 1073rd Regiment would often think that the fighting here was not intense. At this time, if the 1075th Regiment did not have enough troop support, there would be a firepower gap.
Then Major General Panfinov searched for a while on the map, then pointed to a point and said: "It's right here!"
"Then..." Shulka said: "Place us here! We need to arrange a gap here and hide the tanks around this gap..."
Several people in the headquarters couldn't help but said "Oh" and immediately understood what Shurka meant.
But it is easier said than done.
This is mainly because it is daytime, and the tanks drive to the front line and hide and ambush at predetermined "gaps" while not being discovered by the enemy. This is a troublesome task.
The solution is to build a snow road, just like the two-meter-high snow walls piled up on both sides of the road, and use the snow road as a cover for the tanks.
The snow layer at this time was already one meter thick. The snow was dug down and piled up to a height of one meter next to it, forming a snow wall of about two meters.
But in fact, this still cannot block the tank. The height of the T34 tank is 2.74 meters, and the higher part is almost a turret.
Of course, the Soviet army could choose to continue to raise the snow wall, but in fact this is not realistic.
First of all, if you dig further down, you will find frozen soil. Compared with the soft snow layer, frozen soil is two different things. It is very difficult to dig and the amount of work is too large.
Secondly, if you don't dig down, you have to continue to pile up the snow wall... This is unrealistic. A snow wall two meters above the horizon can easily attract the attention of the Germans, and it will be exposed by just firing a few artillery shells.
The solution is to wrap the tank turret and even the gun barrel with white cloth, and then launch a counterattack against the enemy. At this time, the tank will deploy into a latent position.
This was a counterattack launched by the 333rd Regiment.
As Major General Panfinov said, there is a forest about one kilometer in front of the defense line, which was used by the German army as a gathering point.
Shurka had reason to believe that there were German observers in that forest who were staring at the Soviet positions and paying attention to the movements of the Soviet troops. If they had not been interfered with, the deployment of tanks would have been difficult to escape their eyes.
So the counterattack began quickly.
A rocket launcher company poured dozens of rockets into the forest in a short period of time, and more than a dozen howitzers also roared.
But that's not the point... The mortars fired smoke grenades in front of the position and even into the forest, and soon the entire battlefield was shrouded in smoke.
A battalion of the 333rd Regiment immediately charged towards the German army.
But of course, it was just loud thunder and small raindrops. They mostly lay on the ground shouting and shooting randomly.
This caused the German army to quickly call for artillery fire to block the open space between the defense lines of the two armies. The German light and heavy machine guns also fired randomly into the smoke, so there was smoke and smoke in front of the position, as well as the "rumbling" sound of artillery.
and intensive gunfire.
At this moment, the T34 tank entered the tank bunker along the dug snow wall.