"This proves that you are right, Comrade Shulka!" Katukov said to Shulka: "Capturing Rzhev will obviously be of great help to us in rescuing the besieged troops!"
This is one of the reasons why Rzhev has become a battleground for military strategists. As long as the artillery is placed above it... targets within ten kilometers can only be discovered and destroyed.
The problem is that Rzhev is in the hands of the German army at this time, and it is also connected by railways. They can use railways to transport artillery, shells or other supplies.
Therefore, Soviet tanks may be bombed as long as they enter a range of ten kilometers, let alone attack the hard ground of Rzhev.
"It seems we can only attack at night!" Lieutenant Colonel Gavrilov said.
Attacking at night can give you the advantage of avoiding enemy artillery fire as much as possible, and also give the Germans possible air superiority.
But this does not seem to be a good idea, because tanks also do not have the ability to fight at night, and tanks at night are targets for German anti-tank guns hidden in the snow.
"Can our artillery fire suppress the German artillery fire?" Katukov turned his attention to Colonel Yegorovich.
Colonel Yegorovich shook his head and replied: "No, Comrade Katukov! The enemy is condescending and hidden in artillery bunkers, while our artillery is exposed in the open snow with nothing to cover. Therefore, although our artillery fire
It has a longer range than the enemy, but is always suppressed by them!"
"Where's Katyusha?" Zahakavich asked.
The "Katyusha" may be an artifact for suppressing enemy artillery, because it can fire a large number of artillery shells and evacuate in a short period of time.
but……
"We have bombed several times with the Katyusha!" Colonel Yegorovich replied: "But we are not sure whether we blew up something. We only know that the enemy's artillery is still firing, and it accurately blew up our artillery.
destroy!"
Needless to say, the bombing effect of the "Katyusha" is not very good.
The "Katyusha" is actually more suitable for bombing densely arranged targets, such as groups of infantry, tanks, etc. If the German army disperses its artillery, the "Katyusha" will be unable to do anything unless the Soviet army has too much ammunition.
Destroy an enemy artillery piece with dozens of rockets.
Not to mention the air force. At this time, the Rzhev area had become the main defense target of the German army, and the German air force had concentrated here to seize air supremacy with the Soviet army.
Then the headquarters fell into silence.
After a while, Lieutenant Colonel Zahakavich said: "Perhaps, we should return to the original plan, which is to tear open the enemy's defense line and rescue the besieged troops. What I mean is to capture Lejeux.
Husband, it’s not at all simpler than that!”
"But attacking Rzhev is feasible for our tanks, Comrade Zahakavich!" Lieutenant Colonel Gavrilov stood firmly on Shulka's side.
"But it doesn't seem feasible now!" Zahakavich replied: "The enemy's artillery fire blocked the surrounding ten kilometers, and it took us an hour to drive the tanks to Rzhev...that is, the enemy can use it in one hour.
They used their time to shoot our tanks as targets. Their artillery observers used high-power telescopes to hide at high places to observe us, and then told the artillery our position. The artillery then knocked out our tanks one after another! We were the targets.
, a target without the ability to fight back, Comrade Gavrilov!"
"It's useless to say this, isn't it?" Colonel Yegorovich said: "We should fight a war and try to attack the enemy when there are tanks, instead of staying here and worrying about this and that, maybe the enemy is not there
It’s as scary as we imagined!”
Although what Colonel Yegorovich said is a bit reckless, it seems to be right. After all, war is like this. It will not stop and wait for you just because you have not thought of a suitable attack method... The nine besieged divisions are without supplies.
The bottom is struggling to support.
More importantly, Colonel Yegorovich's suggestion suited the Soviet officers' appetite, and Katukov also hoped to see the defense situation in Rzhev.
So an attack was quickly organized.
It was launched after dark... No matter how arrogant Katukov was, he would not be willing to expose his tanks to enemy artillery fire and aircraft during the day.
The daytime in the Soviet Union is very short, only more than seven hours before and after, so it is just a matter of waiting a little longer.
The attackers were the 2nd Tank Battalion and the 2nd Infantry Battalion, plus two infantry battalions commanded by Colonel Yegorovich.
The tank battalion is divided into three parts in company units. One part covers an infantry battalion attacking the left wing of Rzhev, one part attacks the right wing, and the remaining part serves as a reserve ready to support at any time.
Katukov called Shulka, and under the cover of the guards, the two sneaked to the front line and hid in the snow to observe the troops' attack with binoculars.
"Look at that!" Katukov pointed in a direction and said: "Maybe your idea is right, we should attack Rzhev, but this is not an easy place to attack. It may be beyond our capabilities.
!”
Looking in the direction indicated by Katukov, Shulka saw a cliff tens of meters high in front of him, which formed a natural barrier for Rzhev. Moving his eyes further to the side, there was a cliff more than two meters high.
A high steep wall, and then all the way uphill.
Shurka originally thought that this steep wall was an anti-tank trench dug by the German army. Later he learned that it was actually a river. The river was constantly eroding and formed a natural anti-tank trench more than two meters high that tanks could not pass. Moreover, because this area was relatively dense
It is moist and becomes very hard when frozen. Even artillery fire cannot destroy this natural "anti-tank trench".
This allowed the Soviet tanks to attack only along the two main roads, which must be the main direction of the German defense.
At this moment, the battle started with several rising flares.
The German artillery fire was not violent, usually only three or five rounds fired rapidly, and occasionally a few more rounds would be fired when the target was a tank.
Shulka's heart skipped a beat when he saw such artillery fire.
Because this also means that these artillery fires are grouped and targeted... If it is to block the fire without moving, it means that the artillery fire is fired according to the pre-adjusted target, and the artillery fire is in rows and rows.
Most of the Soviet artillery, which lacked communication equipment and coordination capabilities, had this style of play.
The German army sometimes did this, but not now.
In other words, the German artillerymen stationed in Rzhev are a group of experienced veterans. They can perfectly achieve artillery defense by "hitting where they point" through the coordination of artillery observers and artillerymen.