The Soviet army's attack on Mamayev Hill and the German army's attack on the cemetery started almost at the same time.
The offensive mission in the Soviet direction was carried out by the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment.
This is Golikov's brilliance.
First of all, there are not many German troops in Mamayev Heights. There are only one battalion of more than 300 people, and they are still in a state of lack of equipment and supplies... There is no doubt that the German troops must have more supplies and equipment.
The main force was invested in attacking the hospital, and the troops left behind at Mamayev Hill were temporarily "aggrieved". After all, they occupied a favorable location, and at the same time, it was night, so it was unlikely that the enemy would attack and occupy Mamayev Hill.
Therefore, this is not a matter of troop strength. A Soviet regiment already has a sufficient strength advantage over an enemy battalion.
Secondly, more important is the issue of night battle command.
If two regiments are deployed at the same time, and they are two regiments that lack communication equipment, even the commander will not know where his troops are as soon as they are released to fight, and accidental injuries will easily occur.
So Golikov simply let the 39th Guards Regiment, which had a stronger combat capability, take charge.
As soon as the Soviet army launched its offensive, it was overwhelming... As usual, they started with a firepower preparation and then a large number of infantry rushed towards the high ground.
However, such a charge still had little effect. The reason was that the Germans had laid enough barbed wire and mines on the front of the battlefield, and the Soviet 39th Regiment was not good at night fighting, so they were in a stalemate.
The fighting was more intense in the direction of the cemetery.
A battalion of German infantry advanced toward the cemetery under the cover of tanks and assault guns.
They thought they would be blocked before reaching the cemetery, but this was not the case.
Shulka is not that stupid.
Blocking the attack too early means that the German army still has the opportunity to cooperate with infantry and tanks, which will make the cemetery lose its meaning... If it has any use, it can serve as a concealment and cover.
But the assault gun can penetrate even the bunkers, and destroying the tombstones is certainly not a problem.
Therefore, Shulka released about 200 meters of the front section of the tombstone, leaving nothing but some anti-infantry mines.
The reason why this distance is "two hundred meters" is because Shulka knows that if the tank exceeds this distance in the dark, it will basically be blind... They may be able to see the target with the help of flares, or with the help of tracer bullets.
The location of the target can be known with instructions.
However, when the gunner observes the target in the tank, he observes the outside world through the periscope, and what they see is a flat, two-dimensional image.
If it's daytime, they can calculate the target's distance based on the size of surrounding buildings, trees or people's heights and adjust the parameters accordingly.
But at night, the flares only illuminate a limited area, and at the same time they flicker and dim and there are many shadows... This makes it very difficult for the gunner to measure distance.
Experienced gunners can still measure the distance by feel for targets within 200 meters, but for targets beyond 200 meters, it basically depends on luck.
The German army hesitated at the border area of the cemetery, but following Edmund's order, the infantry crossed the tank and entered the cemetery.
"Keep your formation!" Edmund ordered: "Our tanks will provide you with cover!"
What Edmund said was not empty talk, he actually did it... Tanks cannot move forward in other directions, but there is one place where they can, and that is the road in the middle.
Therefore, Edmund's attack plan was to place heavy troops on the sides closest to the road, keeping them at the same level as the tanks, so the soldiers could cover the tanks and the tanks could provide firepower for the soldiers.
The tanks rumbled forward, and the engineers in front hurriedly dragged away the bodies that had fallen on the road to clear a path for the tanks.
However, the burned-out cars were not so lucky... No one rushed to tow them, so tanks could only push them aside, including the bodies of German soldiers who were in the cars and did not have time to escape.
This is one of the reasons why there are so many soldiers "missing" on the battlefield. Their bodies will be burned beyond recognition and no one will recognize them, even their military badges.
The body could not be identified and the person on the other side could not be found, so it could only be treated as "missing".
It went smoothly at first, and the German army advanced several hundred meters without any danger.
But when a German tank ran over an anti-tank mine, the battle started...
"Hit!" Shulka ordered, igniting the grenade and throwing it toward the other side of the tombstone.
Like Shulka, other Soviet soldiers also fired grenades and threw them in the direction of the enemy.
At the same time, the shovel mortars in the hands of the Soviet troops behind also fired shells intensively.
This was a consensus reached before the battle.
Fighting in a cemetery has its own peculiarities. There are tombstones everywhere in the cemetery that cannot be penetrated by bullets. Therefore, the most effective equipment for fighting in the cemetery is not a rifle.
Because the firing range of the rifle is always blocked by tombstones, the target often just dodges through the gap, and the shooter often has no time to pull the trigger and hit the target.
The most effective ones at this time should be grenades and mortars. Their parabolic trajectories can allow them to bypass tombstones and hit a wide range of locations.
What is even more beneficial to the Soviet army is that throwing grenades will not cause the enemy to discover their position due to the sound of gunfire and fire... If a grenade falls from the sky, it may be thrown from any point in the 50-meter range ahead.
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The Soviet army, on the other hand, could roughly know the German offensive line based on the positions of German tanks on the road.
Who made the German army maintain their formation at this time and still refuse to give up infantry-tank coordination?
In other words, it was their tanks that exposed the position of the German infantry, and this was fatal.
The German soldiers were obviously not prepared for this, so they were blown up by a series of explosions and screamed.
They wanted to fight back with grenades, but they didn't know the enemy's position at all, which raised the possibility of throwing a random attack without hitting the target.
So most of the German soldiers chose to fight back with guns.
This is a normal reaction, and they also want to find the enemy's location.
But what they didn't know was that this was further worsening their situation.
As soon as the gunfire rang out, the Soviet army determined the position of the German army based on the gunfire and muzzle flash. Soon, several grenades were thrown nearby, followed by "boom" and screams.
Among them, the machine gun is the worst. As soon as its gunfire sounds, it will be immediately greeted by a barrage of grenades or mortars.
Some German soldiers seemed to know something. They chose not to shoot, and then used the cover of tombstones to approach the enemy's defense line.
This method is correct. As long as they don't make too much noise, it will be difficult to detect them even in front of the Soviet army.
However, they soon discovered that things were not that simple, because their feet had caught on the barbed wire on the ground, and there were a row of cans tied to the barbed wire.