Before the two poor German soldiers had time to shout out, the Soviet soldiers rushed forward in a swarm, covered their mouths, and pricked them into a hornet's nest with military thorns.
Of course Shulka would not pay attention to such trivial matters at this time.
He got up from the ground, looked ahead, and then ordered: "Act as planned!"
"Yes!" Several company commanders responded and led their troops to advance in different directions.
It is obviously inappropriate to use the battalion as a combat unit at this time, because the German artillery fire is relatively scattered, and the combined force will not be efficient and will also give the enemy more time to react.
Therefore, we must fight as a company or even a platoon.
However, it was a bit difficult for the Soviet army to fight as a platoon unit, because they lacked communication equipment. If a platoon was sent out to fight in the dark, it would be difficult to retrieve it, and of course it would be impossible to command.
Shulka personally commanded the third company.
The Third Company is Shurka's old unit and has many old subordinates who are more comfortable to command, so Shurka is always used to being with them.
The plan was simple, just follow the sound of German artillery and attack.
All the attention of the German army was focused on the main force of the Soviet army that was attacking frontally. Their infantry was also fighting fiercely with the Soviet army in the trenches in front. They did not notice that a Soviet army had already moved in behind them and broke into them.
artillery positions.
The sound of artillery was getting closer and closer, and Shulka could even hear the voice of the German artillery commander shouting out the metadata.
The German artillery bunker was made very secretive. They dug a hole in the ground to hide the entire gun body, and then propped up a white canvas on top, revealing only a white-painted gun barrel...
If it weren't for the sound of the cannons and the light from the muzzles, it wouldn't have been easy for Shulka and others to find them, let alone the reconnaissance planes in the sky.
"Hit!" Following Shulka's order, several Soviet soldiers who had reached the bunker immediately stood up and rushed forward, and then launched a shuttle towards the German troops in the bunker.
Several nimble German soldiers realized something was wrong and tried to run away, but were quickly knocked to the ground by a burst of bullets from the "Poposa".
Then there were gunshots and occasional grenade explosions.
But these grenades should have been set off by the German army... Before the war, Shulka ordered the Soviet army to try not to use grenades.
On the one hand, the Soviet army was prepared and unprepared, and at the same time it was infantry versus artillery, so it could easily destroy the enemy.
On the other hand, grenades are likely to cause the shells to explode, causing unnecessary losses and casualties.
More importantly, howitzers are so important in Rzhev. If they can be captured, especially if they have a considerable number of shells, then a ten-kilometer radius will be under their control.
So it was a considerable asset to the Soviet army...and this asset was not just the artillery itself.
In fact, the German howitzers did not mean much to the Soviet army. As mentioned before, the Soviet army's standard m30 howitzer had a range 1.5 kilometers farther than the German howitzer and was more powerful.
More importantly, it can actually buy considerable time for the troops.
The captured German artillery and artillery shells can be put into use immediately, providing cover for the Soviet army and even supporting the nine Soviet divisions surrounded in Sychovka... Sychovka is only a dozen kilometers away from Rzhev
, that is to say, the German armored units surrounding the Soviet army were even under the guns of Rzhev.
The German army soon fell into chaos.
This is not to say that the quality of the German army is not good, but that the German army originally relied on artillery fire from the rear to suppress the Soviet tank troops attacking from the front. At this time, once the artillery units in the rear were attacked, the situation quickly deteriorated sharply.
There were even some Soviet troops who, after capturing the German artillery, immediately adjusted their muzzles to hit the German defense line one after another... This was unplanned. It was purely because there was a unit in the 1st Infantry Battalion.
They were artillerymen who followed from the Brest Fortress. Of course they would be tempted to capture the artillery pieces and put them to use immediately.
Model on the other side did not realize that Rzhev was in danger.
At this time, he took the fw189 reconnaissance plane and flew to Wolf's Lair... The fw189 reconnaissance plane had a good field of vision and was usually used by the German army as a small aircraft to calibrate artillery firepower.
Model flew to the Wolf's Lair urgently because he knew that reinforcements from Berlin had arrived at this time, and Hitler seemed not to want to hand over this reinforcement to him but to hand it over for attack.
Yes, Model was sure of this. Their head of state did not give up attacking Moscow even under such circumstances.
This is obviously a mistake, and Model wants to correct it.
Therefore, as soon as he walked into Hitler's headquarters, he said bluntly: "Your Majesty the Führer, I need reinforcements, otherwise we will not be able to stop the Russian attack!"
"What's wrong? My general!" Hitler replied: "I think you have done a good job so far... Not only did you defend our defense line, you even surrounded the enemies who broke into the defense line! This also proves that I
You are right, as long as we boldly launch a counterattack, the enemy will undoubtedly be defeated by us!"
"But, Your Majesty the Head of State!" Model replied: "The good situation on the front line is only on the surface. The 9th Army only has 67% of its troops, and a considerable number of them are still injured. In addition, our tanks and anti-tank guns are also injured.
Insufficient, which leaves us helpless against the surrounded Russians... We should have eaten them long ago and stabilized the entire defense line. But now, our frontline troops are seriously insufficient!"
Hitler was silent for a moment, then replied: "Okay, my general! I can give you a panzer division..."
"No, Your Excellency the Führer!" Model interrupted Hitler: "I need all four divisions!"
The reinforcements were composed of the 5th Armored Division, the 11th Armored Division, part of the 10th Armored Division, and part of the Imperial Division. They were quite powerful forces.
Model's request was not just to supplement the 9th Army to win the battle. The subtext was to tell Hitler: Give up attacking Moscow. That is unrealistic. What we need to do is to hold the line of defense to ensure that our troops do not collapse.
Hitler understood what Model said.
He hesitated for a while...if it had been before, he wouldn't have hesitated at all.
But now, after he replaced each general, a general finally appeared who could turn the tide.
Hitler was worried that if he did this again, no one would be able to support the frontline command.
So his tone was surprisingly less tough than before: "I think you can consider it, my general, the current situation is equally severe for the Russians!"
At this time, the staff officer walked into the headquarters. He said to Model in panic: "Your Excellency, general, there is an emergency on the front line. Rzhev was attacked by the enemy!"