A group of German soldiers used the cover of tanks to advance into the Soviet position.
This time they were not in a hurry to rush up and engage in close combat with the Soviets. They relied on the remains of the tanks to suppress the Soviets with artillery fire while building fortifications on both sides... This fortification was first a single-soldier bunker, and then additional single-soldier bunkers were added to each other.
Connected to form a trench.
It can also be seen from this that the German army is preparing to attack steadily, that is, first building a defense line, and then launching an charge based on the defense line and tank wreckage.
At that time, the quality of the German army was better than that of the Soviet army, and they were condescending and occupied a geographical advantage. Under such circumstances, there was no reason why the charge would be lost to the enemy.
This is indeed the case.
But Shulka will not sit still and wait for failure.
When the Germans built fortifications and prepared to charge, Shulka ordered the Soviet soldiers to withdraw from the communication trenches to the second line of defense, and by the way, they laid a minefield and barbed wire behind them.
This gave the German commander Lieutenant Colonel Edmund the feeling of punching hard but hitting cotton.
What's worse is that between the first line of defense and the second line of defense, a distance of about two hundred meters is once again open...
"We can continue to send assault guns up!" Lieutenant Colonel Ball said: "After all, we have succeeded. I mean, we have successfully occupied a line of defense. This proves that the enemy has no way to deal with our tactics!"
Lieutenant Colonel Ball's idea is very simple. If the enemy has no way to deal with this tactic, that is to say, if he can occupy one line of defense, he can occupy the other line of defense.
So it won't be long before the Russian army will be driven out of Mamayev by the German army.
"Maybe you are right, Lieutenant Colonel Ball!" Lieutenant Colonel Edmond said: "But it is getting dark. If we want to do this, we must move faster!"
Lieutenant Colonel Ball wasted no time and immediately ordered the troops to go into battle.
But attacking the second line of defense is much more difficult than imagined.
The reason is that the assault gun must pass through criss-crossing trenches. Since these trenches are built on reverse slopes, the side facing the hilltop position is particularly high, which means there is a large gap between the two sides of the trench.
This caused some trouble for the tanks to cross the trenches. In addition, the soil of the trenches was relatively loose. Some tanks were smashed down as if they fell from a cliff... The tank crew inside were bruised and swollen.
, some tanks turned over completely while crossing the trench, like an overturned turtle, unable to move.
The other side of the problem is landmines.
German engineers had to clear the roadblocks and clear a path for the tanks despite Soviet bullets and artillery shells.
There is no such problem when attacking the first line of defense. The reason is that the open space has been cleared of mines, roadblocks, etc. by both the enemy and ourselves repeatedly.
Then, after nearly an hour of tossing, the Germans only had two assault guns approaching the second line of defense, and these two assault guns were far from enough to provide cover for the Germans.
At this moment, in the helplessness of Edmond and Lieutenant Colonel Ball, the sky gradually darkened.
Lieutenant Colonel Edmond issued an order to the frontline commander: "Organize defense! If we can hold your line of defense until dawn, victory will belong to us. Do you understand?"
"Understood, sir!" Major Klein replied.
Major Klein is the commander of the 29th Assault Artillery Battalion.
The German army usually uses tank troops to command infantry in battles because they believe that tanks should always be the main force in battles.
This battle is obviously not like this, because the purpose of the assault guns driving up seems to be just to set up a bunker.
Major Klein was a little dissatisfied. He didn't want to see his men driving up assault guns to die... Some of them were even veterans with rich combat experience, especially the pilots.
However, Major Klein understood that he could not change anything, because the facts proved that this tactic was correct, and it successfully occupied the enemy's line of defense.
After thinking about it, Major Klein ordered the adjutant: "Organize the defense, we will make the deaths of those assault guns and soldiers worthwhile!"
"Yes, Major!"
The German defense was so familiar that it was almost programmed.
Programmatic has its advantages and disadvantages.
The advantage is that every soldier knows what to do, and they will even consciously make up for their flaws.
For example, they know how to lay mines and barbed wire in front of the position, know where to strengthen firepower or add an extra hidden sentry.
The disadvantage is that this programmed rule is easily mastered by the enemy.
In order to be able to hold the defensive line, Major Klein also did some things besides programming.
"Clean up the tank wreckage in these locations!" Major Klein drew a few circles on the map.
"But Major!" the adjutant said in confusion: "They have been blown up and it is impossible to repair them!"
"I have no intention of repairing them!" Major Klein replied: "But we can clean out the corpses and burned machine guns inside, and install a new machine gun..."
The adjutant couldn't help but said "Oh" when he heard this, so the wreckage was used as a bunker.
This is indeed a good method, because most of the tank wreckage is behind the defense line, which means that it is usually out of the enemy's rocket launcher range.
On the other hand, the enemy thought it was just a tank wreckage, so they would not consider these firepower points when charging.
And these firepower points are even facing the enemy's charge from a high position. As long as they cooperate with a few flares, they can suddenly attack a large number of enemies.
After deploying these, Major Klein believed that this was foolproof, and the Germans only needed to wait until dawn the next day and completely occupy Mamayev Hill.
What Major Klein didn't expect was that his arrangements didn't work from beginning to end.
If it worked, it was when dealing with the Russian army's feint attack.
On the other side of Shulka, Mikhailovich came to the headquarters after dark and met with Colonel Pavelkov.
"I won't say anything else!" Pavelkov said: "Although you fought bravely, and you were braver than I expected. But you still lost your position!"
"No, Colonel!" Shulka replied: "The last line of defense is still in our hands, which means we have not lost our position!"
"What difference does it make?" Colonel Pavelkov asked rhetorically: "The Germans' defenses are very tight and condescending. It is almost impossible for us to take the position back from them, even if it is night!"
"There is a difference, Colonel!" Shurka pointed to the second line of defense on the map and said, "The second line of defense is arc-shaped. The two wings are on the mountainside. We can attack from the two wings and go around the enemy's front slope.