Rzhev is the place that made Model successful in history.
The reason is not only because Model held Rzhev when the German army retreated and relied on it to launch a counterattack against the Soviet army from the flanks, but also because a few months later the Soviet army launched a larger-scale counterattack against the German army here... Rzhev
Less than 200 kilometers away from Moscow, it is the closest part to Moscow in the German defense line after being pushed back. In principle, it only takes three hours for the German armored forces to reach Moscow.
This is exactly what the German army did. They assembled several armored divisions here to prepare for a surprise attack on Moscow.
Of course, the Soviet army could not stand this situation, so it launched a campaign code-named "Operation Mars" to take the lead in attacking Rzhev.
But what everyone did not expect was that the Soviet army, which had an absolute numerical advantage, suffered more than 400,000 casualties when attacking Rzhev but was unable to capture Rzhev.
The reason why this battle is unknown is simply because the more famous Battle of Stalingrad took place on the other side.
This result also led to Zhukov being criticized as a general who "will not fight without an absolute superiority in troops."
Shurka knew the importance of Rzhev, and at this time Model's defense in the direction of Rzhev was not very tight, so it was easier to capture it.
This was one of the reasons why Shulka suggested occupying Rzhev.
That evening the 1st Guards Tank Brigade set off.
The march went very smoothly, with almost no enemy visible except for the large number of Soviet troops and supplies being transported to the front line.
This is the home field advantage of the Soviet army. Although people in some places do not have much favorable impressions of Moscow, once they realize that the Soviet Union may win, they will side with the Soviet Union without hesitation.
Therefore, it was almost impossible for German soldiers to hide in villages and towns or among the people. The people would report to the Soviet army as soon as possible and even spontaneously capture or kill these German soldiers.
There was no place for the German troops in the villages and towns, and at the same time, it was low temperature and there was no food in the wild, so the German troops had no choice but to surrender if they did not want to die.
This allowed the Soviet army to quickly eliminate the remaining enemies. On the other hand, it was different if it was the German army. They would always be attacked and harassed by a large number of guerrillas, and a considerable part of these guerrillas were transferred from the regular army.
The 1st Guards Tank Brigade attracted much attention on the march because many Soviet troops had never seen their tanks.
From time to time someone will ask: "Hey, what kind of tanks are these?"
At this time, the soldiers of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade will answer: "It's a British tank!"
"Are you British? Or trained in England?"
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The soldiers looked confused.
For Soviet soldiers, using British and American tanks in combat was a strange or novel thing.
The 1st Guards Tank Brigade arrived at the outskirts of Rzhev the next day.
Rzhev is about 100 kilometers away from Tver, which takes more than ten hours for "Matilda"... This is definitely a very tortured thing.
This made Shulka a little impatient. He said to Katukov: "If possible, we should use our own tanks, especially the 'T34'!"
"We will!" Katukov fully agreed: "I have reported it to my superiors. It turns out that the tanks they gave us are just garbage, although we did win the battle with them!"
This request is very reasonable. After all, the 1st Guards Tank Brigade uses British and American tanks. It can only be said to be a stopgap measure when there are insufficient tanks, or it can also be said to be a test or study of the combat effectiveness, advantages and disadvantages of these tanks.
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But no matter what, the 1st Guards Tank Brigade at this time still has to use them to fight.
The first person Shulka, Katukov and others met was Colonel Yegorovich, commander of the 243rd Division.
The 273rd Division is a division from Siberia. It is incorporated into the 39th Army and is responsible for cooperating with the 1st Guards Tank Brigade to attack Rzhev.
As soon as he came up, he said to Katukov: "You are finally here. We need your tank cover. Get ready. We will attack in an hour!"
Katukov couldn't help but be stunned and asked: "Is there nothing else?"
"Do you need anything else?"
"The enemy's firepower deployment, troop strength, and other conditions!"
"We can conduct a fire reconnaissance before attacking!" Yegorovich replied without thinking.
Fire reconnaissance is a tactic commonly used by the Soviet army. Its purpose is to detect the enemy's fire deployment and weaknesses.
However, although it is a fire reconnaissance, it is actually a tentative attack... They usually use a company or even a battalion to attack the enemy without knowing anything. Even this company or battalion only has a few people to withdraw and then tell them
Some information from others is also considered successful.
However, this approach is actually useless, because the reconnaissance of a company or a battalion can only stay on the outer perimeter of the enemy's defense line at most. When the main force attacks and breaks through the outer defense line, it still has no idea of its depth.
"No!" Katukov stopped Yegorovich. Katukov was a more cautious Jew. He didn't like this kind of barbarism, roughness, and using the lives of soldiers to carry out this meaningless "fire reconnaissance."
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"We can contact the air force and ask them to give us some intelligence!" Katukov said.
Colonel Yegorovich spread his hands indifferently.
It seemed to him that doing all of this was unnecessary. Fighting was nothing more than commanding the troops to rush forward. As for what the enemy's situation was like... the soldiers would naturally know it when they rushed forward.
Shurka believed that this was probably one of the reasons why the Soviet army had an absolute military advantage in the battle a few months later but was defeated at the gates of Rzhev.
After a while, the information Katukov needed was sent to the headquarters by the staff officer.
Looking at the map and comparing it with the information, Katukov frowned while marking it.
Shulka also saw the problem:
The area around Rzhev is a swamp, and only Rzhev is a "hard ground" nearby... Being a "hard ground" in a swamp means that it must be higher than other places, otherwise it will inevitably be covered by the swamp.
In other words, Rzhev is the only highland in this area.
The Germans took advantage of river channels and terrain trends to deploy barbed wire fences, mines and troops around the highlands.
It’s no wonder that during the “Mars Project”, hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops were unable to capture this area.
"They can only vaguely capture the trend of the trenches!" Katukov said: "But I think they will also have anti-tank guns on the main roads and artillery in depth. If they add the air force..."
Shulka knew what this meant, it was a nightmare for the slow-moving British tanks.