There was a cheer in the Soviet camp, which was shouted by the infantry of the 316th Division on both wings.
The German army was furious and used artillery to launch a fierce bombardment of possible pocket positions.
But it was really useful. Two T34s were hit by enemy artillery fire and destroyed, and another one had its cover collapsed and completely buried in the snow... The tank crew was fine, and they were rescued quickly. The snow buried them.
The exhaust pipe quickly turned into water, and then poured into the engine, paralyzing it and unable to move.
Major General Funk reported to Holt tremblingly.
"General!" Funk said: "Our attack failed!"
This surprised Holt.
"Failure? Did I hear you right?" Holt said, "What else can they do to stop you?"
"Tanks, General!" Funk replied: "I think it's the 4th Tank Brigade!"
"Are you sure?" Holt asked.
"No, I'm not sure!" Funk said: "But they are all T34s, at least dozens of them. Let's break into their ambush!"
"Ambush circle?"
"Yes, they placed the tanks in tank bunkers!" Funk explained: "Our air force couldn't even detect them, and we suffered heavy losses!"
Holt did not respond to this. He knew that it was meaningless and unfair to blame his general after losing the battle.
It is meaningless because it will not have any effect, let alone turn defeat into victory, or even worse.
Calling it unfair is because even if you are commanding from the front line, you are likely to make the same decision and fall into the enemy's trap.
After a moment of silence, Holt hung up the phone. After looking at the map for a while, he immediately made a call to the headquarters of the 14th Motorized Infantry Division.
"Attack immediately, the enemy's 1075th Regiment right wing!"
"Yes, the sooner the better!"
So the battle in the other direction soon started. Artillery shells poured in pieces towards the 1075th Regiment's position. The German Air Force also turned to that direction, while the battlefield in the direction of the 333rd Regiment became quiet.
Shulka secretly thought something was wrong. The German army's reaction and speed were completely beyond his expectation.
The German army's tactics were very clever.
There is only one Soviet Fourth Tank Brigade, and it is definitely ambushing on the left flank of the 1075th Regiment. Although the Germans just suffered a big loss here, at least the position of the Fourth Tank Brigade is confirmed.
In addition, the Germans knew that the Fourth Tank Brigade did not have many tanks, so they determined that other directions were safe.
As a result, the 4th Tank Brigade could only watch the German army attack in other directions without reinforcements... Reinforcements would probably mean exposure. At this time, the German Air Force reconnaissance planes were probably already staring at this area, even if it was snowy.
Walls can no longer hide T34.
Sure enough, soon the order came down: "The first battalion reinforces Dubosekovo!"
Dubosekovo is the right wing of the 1075th Regiment.
"Are the tanks going to join us as reinforcements?" Shulka asked.
"No!" Venyakov replied: "Only us!"
There is no need to explain the reason. The tank can only stay in place, and any movement may be blown up by incoming enemy planes.
Since they knew that their deployment would be blown up, of course no one would be stupid enough to insist on doing so.
But this also means...the first battalion has to face the enemy's attack without tanks.
Dubosekovo is the junction of the defense area of the 3rd Cavalry Corps and the defense area of the 1075th Regiment.
Obviously, this junction is more complicated than the junction between the two regiments, because it even involves the command of another army, which also involves the issue of artillery coordination... For example, the 1075th Regiment launched a counterattack, and the 3rd Regiment launched a counterattack.
However, the army provided artillery fire to the front line and did not stop the firing. In this way, the artillery shells hit their own heads.
When the first battalion arrived here, the battle had been going on for more than half an hour.
This happened to be a gap in the German attack, so the troops entered the position smoothly.
There were dead bodies lying everywhere in the trenches, both German and Soviet. It was obvious that the Germans had rushed into the trenches and started hand-to-hand combat with the Soviets.
"Who is in command here?" Venyakov asked loudly.
A second lieutenant with a dark face stood up: "Comrade Lieutenant, I am in command!"
"How many of you are there?" Venyakov asked.
"73 more!"
"What kind of anti-tank equipment is there?" Venyakov asked again.
"Anti-tank guns, grenades..."
Venyakov's face darkened as soon as he heard the beginning.
When reporting equipment, the equipment is usually ranked from the most powerful to the least powerful, but now the anti-tank gun is actually ranked first!
Just as he was talking, the whistle of artillery shells sounded overhead.
As soon as Shulka buried his head in the trench, artillery shells exploded "rumblingly" around him, and the mud and snow kicked up by the shells surged toward Shulka's head like waves.
Ten minutes of preparation for artillery fire. Before the sound of artillery stopped, the tank followed the artillery fire and moved forward with "rumbling".
This is a German tactic... when the artillery fire extends in depth, the tanks follow closely behind.
This is simple to say, but it requires close coordination between artillery and tank troops, because if there is any mistake, such as inaccurate artillery fire or too fast tank speed, it may cause artillery fire to accidentally damage one's own tank.
The advantage is that it may penetrate the enemy's position before the enemy reacts to the artillery fire.
That's the case this time.
"Get ready to fight!" Shulka shouted.
But amid the sound of the cannons, even he couldn't hear the shout.
However, when the soldiers saw that Shulka had already set up a gun on the trench, they also set up their rifles and machine guns on the trench one by one.
There are more than 20 tanks, seven or eight of which are "Type III" tanks, and the rest are "Type II" and "35t" tanks.
After all, this is a motorized division, and they are more equipped with light tanks.
"Anti-tank rifles!" Under Venyakov's order, more than a dozen anti-tank rifles were set up in the trenches.
But it seems unwise to put anti-tank rifles in the trenches so early.
One shortcoming of the anti-tank rifle is that the gun mount is too high, and because the gun body is more than two meters long, it looks like a cannon when placed in front of the trench, and will be observed by the enemy from a long distance.
As a result, machine gun bullets quickly poured in and knocked down several anti-tank riflemen on the trench.
However, there seems to be no way to do this, because the enemy tank that followed the artillery fire is only more than 300 meters away from the Soviet defense line... The distance of more than 300 meters may only take a minute for the fast 35t tank.
"Mortar!" Captain Venyakov shouted.
The soldiers immediately fired mortar shells at the enemy positions.
The mortars provided good cover for the anti-tank guns, and there were even a few smoke grenades, but of course they could not stop the tank's advance.