After breakfast, Shulka and his men wrapped themselves in military blankets and rested in a corner for a while.
Although waves of coldness continued to seep in from the surroundings, Shulka quickly fell asleep... The intense battle throughout the day without rest allowed Shulka to fall asleep at any time.
But Shulka was woken up after only a few minutes of sleep.
It's the roar of airplanes, and you can tell from the sound that there are a lot of them.
Then suddenly there was fierce gunfire and various screams, and there was a mess above the head. However, because Shulka and others were indoors, they could not see what was happening in the air.
"This is a counterattack by the Germans!" the instructor said: "It seems that they have dispatched many aircraft and they seem to be trying to regain air supremacy!"
"Regain air supremacy?" Shulka felt a little strange when he heard this.
When the Soviet and German armies were engaged in fierce street fighting in Tver, air superiority did not mean much.
Both the enemy and ourselves are inside the building. Even if we are fighting on the streets, it is difficult for the aircraft to be effective.
On the other hand, due to the poor equipment of German airports, it took a long time for its aircraft to prepare for takeoff in extremely cold weather.
Why did the German army do this?
They obviously weren't aiming for nothing.
The next second Shurka thought of the reason, he picked up the phone and called the headquarters without saying a word.
"Comrade Colonel!" Shulka said: "We must pay attention to the direction of the river!"
"River?" This surprised Katukov.
"Yes, the river!" Shulka said: "This is the reason why the Germans want to seize air supremacy!"
Katukov immediately understood after hearing this.
This is indeed a way. There is nothing on the river, which can enable the German army to avoid street fighting with the Soviet army. At the same time, the width of the river is still ranging from 300 to 500 meters. The German armored troops only need to master the distance and can avoid only a hundred meters.
Meter range rocket launcher.
"They want to attack from the river?" The instructor looked at Shulka doubtfully: "That used to be our attack route!"
"Yes!" Shulka replied: "But it doesn't mean that the enemy can't use it!"
Whoever has air superiority can attack from the direction of the river. Now, air superiority is clearly in the hands of the prepared Luftwaffe.
"What do they want to do?" Pukarev asked.
"Take the Tver Bridge!" Shulka replied: "Then surround us in this residential area so they can repair the railway and resume transportation!"
"They are delusional!" said the instructor.
But in fact, Shulka believed that the German army could do it.
The reason is that the river area is an open area, and the German army, which has air superiority, obviously has the initiative in the open area.
Although the Germans were unable to enter residential areas to fight the Soviets because they were afraid of rocket launchers, they could prevent the Soviets from getting out... As soon as the Soviet tanks walked out of the residential areas, they would be exposed to the enemy's sight, so aircraft, pak40 anti-tank
Pao will keep saying hello.
So, one came out and destroyed the other, but the rocket launcher in the Soviet army's hands had not even reached the range.
It can be said that it is not until now that the German army has truly found a correct tactic to deal with rocket launchers.
Of course, this is not a good thing for the Soviet army.
A few minutes later, Katukov called Shulka.
"You are right!" Katukov said: "They launched an attack from the river, leaving a force behind to mainly reinforce the Tverskaya Bridge!"
"Yes!" Shulka responded and issued an order for reinforcements.
If the Soviet army did not have rocket launchers, they would probably collapse due to lack of troops.
The reason is that their forces are too scattered, there are not many tanks and they move very slowly. It is difficult for the infantry to block the attack of German tanks and infantry, even in street fighting.
But with rocket launchers, only a few platoons equipped with rocket launchers can block the enemy and fill the gap in the defense line, while the main force is transferred to the bridgehead position.
When Shulka arrived at the bridgehead with his troops, the battle had already begun.
Stationed at the bridgehead was a tank company and an infantry company, a total of eleven tanks, mostly Valentine and M3 medium-sized tanks.
It was originally judged that there was little chance of a tank battle in the bridgehead position. These two tanks could handle it, especially the M3 medium. Its 75mm gun could very well block the roads and railways on both sides of the Tver Bridge... Although it
The range of fire is very small, but railways and roads are fixed targets, and the medium-sized M3 can completely deal with them.
The problem was that the Germans had already seized air supremacy and the bridgeheads were exposed in the wilderness. German fighter planes swooped down one after another to carry out crazy bombing on them.
None of the five "Valentin" tanks survived because they were too slow, and two of them even skidded in place and were unable to move due to problems with their tracks and were blown up.
Three of the other six medium-sized M3s were also blown up, and only three of them hid in the residential area with their speed... There were some places for hiding tanks in the residential area in advance. In fact, they used canvas to hold up a space.
Enemy pilots in the air cannot detect them, even on some streets that require maneuverability.
It was along such streets that Shulka's troops reinforced their bridgehead positions.
As soon as the front foot arrived, the German artillery fire poured in overwhelmingly. They attacked the buildings near the bridgehead positions on both sides of the river. The purpose was obviously to destroy these places where the Soviet troops could hide and reduce the pressure of the German offensive.
The artillery fire lasted for twenty minutes.
It seems that the German army prepared not only fighter planes but also artillery shells last night.
Because for the German army at this time, artillery preparations of this scale were rare.
What Shulka didn't know was that Kubil was using all the artillery shells shipped to the Fourth Tank Army... Of course Hoppner would not object, because the transportation line was already cut off and not a single artillery shell could be transported.
, in this case, what difference does it make if Kubil is used to open up transportation lines? The latter is at least a hope for the Fourth Tank Army.
Twenty minutes later, when Shulka raised his head from the trench, he found that the surrounding buildings had been turned into piles of ruins, and even the buildings that had not been blown down had become broken walls.
The signal soldier handed the phone to Shulka. It was Katukov calling.
"The Germans are already rushing to repair the railway!" Katukov said: "The bridgehead is crucial. If it is lost... they may be able to resume transportation after an hour, and our efforts will be in vain!"
Shulka understood the meaning of Katukov's words. At this time, there was probably a lot of ammunition supplies backlogged in Tver, and there were even trains on standby.
As long as the railway is connected, these supplies will flow to the Fourth Tank Army north of Moscow like a flood that bursts a dike, so the Fourth Tank Army can hold on for a while.
In other words, the lever that moves the entire battle is the bridgehead in front of us.