The German 5th Armored Battalion was transferred to the Molyol fortification area more than half an hour later.
The commander, Major Muller, was a little confused about this order. His armored battalion had already broken through the Soviet first line of defense in the south. It should have continued to pursue the victory, but on the way forward, it was dragged back and deployed here.
Deploy and prepare for attack.
This is rare in the German army, which always values speed.
However, after seeing the terrain here, Major Muller somewhat understood the reason why Admiral Kleist did this. There is a road and railway passing not far to the north of this fortification area, and there is a swamp to the north, and ten kilometers to the south.
There will be another road a few miles away... In other words, the Soviets in this fortified area will directly threaten the German army's supply speed.
"Major!" the adjutant pointed at the map and said to Major Mueller: "The Russians on the front are very cunning. They disguised the bunker as a wooden house..."
"It won't do anything!" said Major Muller.
"Yes, I believe this!" the adjutant replied: "But not long ago, the attack of our two battalions failed!"
"Yes, I saw it!" Of course what Mueller saw was not the battle, but the corpses and tank wreckage on the battlefield.
"They used anti-tank guns to attack the side armor of our tanks!" the adjutant said: "As you can see, we suffered heavy losses!"
"This kind of thing will never happen again!" Major Muller said confidently: "My assault gun will teach them a lesson!"
The adjutant nodded: "I will let the 5th Artillery Regiment and the 3rd Armored Battalion cooperate with your attack!"
So, after a burst of fierce artillery fire, the Fifth Armor, equipped with seven "No. 3" assault guns and thirty tanks, "rumbled" up with the infantry.
Major Muller's tactics are very simple. Use the "Assault Gun No. 3" to protect the two wings as usual...the two wings are more likely to be attacked by the enemy's side fire. The tank in the middle is facing the enemy. As long as it does not turn easily, the theory
Don't worry about the enemy's side fire.
This tactic was very effective, and it repeatedly broke through the Soviet defense line when the "Assault Gun No. 3" was not equipped with much equipment.
Major Muller believed that the bunkers in front of him were no different... they were just camouflaged with some wooden boards, and these wooden camouflages had been blown to pieces. The Germans already knew which wooden houses were real and which ones
is fake.
"Look!" Major Muller said to his men on the walkie-talkie in the tank: "Ivan is trying to use these wooden houses to deceive us. I don't think you will be fooled!"
The laughter of his subordinates came from the earphones:
"Yes, Major! Those that will collapse are wooden houses, and those that expose cement blocks are bunkers!"
"We can also hit it with a tank!"
…
Then there was laughter again.
But they soon discovered that the problem was not that simple.
Because while they were talking, holes were drilled into the wooden house, densely packed, large and small...
"Damn it!" Someone became nervous: "Their bunkers are full of weapons!"
"No, Jonas! There's no way a bunker can be equipped with so many weapons!"
"Some of the perforations are fake!"
"We can't find the real perforation!"
…
The Germans guessed right. There were indeed many fake perforations. It was also very simple to do. You only needed to saw a hole the size of the perforations in the board and then paint the cement black... It was so camouflaged.
Of course, such a rough perforation cannot deceive people at close range, but it is fatal to German tank soldiers who are looking out from a distance and inside the tank with a periscope, especially at this time, the battlefield is still full of thick smoke from burning wood.
You must know that the German army's tactics for attacking bunkers are to use tanks or assault guns to suppress the firepower of the perforations and then let engineers touch and blast them.
But now, the chaos in front of them is full of perforations, which makes the tanks and assault guns simply don't know which one to suppress...
"Fire!" Major Muller ordered: "Regardless of whether it's true or false, fire freely!"
This order may be correct. This is a bit like a wooden house. You can tell if it is real or fake by bombing it with cannonballs.
So the tanks "boom" and blasted fiercely at the group of bunkers ahead.
Only then did they discover the problem. Even with the quality of the German tank soldiers, it was difficult to ensure that the artillery shells could accurately hit the perforations and distinguish the authenticity from the fake ones.
Seeing this, Major Muller couldn't help but frown. If the enemy's bunker firepower could not be effectively suppressed, the infantry charge would undoubtedly be in danger.
What Major Muller didn't know was that Major Gavrilov also encountered difficulties on the other side.
This was the best time for the Soviet army to implement artillery coverage, but when Major Gavrilov made a request to the headquarters, he was rejected.
"What's going on?" Political Commissar Fuming asked.
"They say there are not enough shells!" said Major Gavrilov.
"Insufficient artillery shells?" Political Commissar Fuming looked puzzled: "Not long after the battle started, they said there were not enough artillery shells?"
"Yes!" Major Gavrilov said: "What the staff said is that the fighting in other directions is fierce, and they must give priority to providing artillery support in other directions!"
"But here... have you told them about the situation here?"
"Of course, Comrade Political Commissar!"
Political Commissar Fuming looked at the dilemma of the German armored forces in front of the bunker in disbelief. It only took one round of artillery fire to cause heavy losses to the German armored battalion, but the command headquarters easily let this opportunity pass.
At this time, Political Commissar Fomin and Major Gavrilov did not think much about it, thinking that the battle situation was indeed as the command said, and that they could not provide artillery support to the 333rd Regiment because it was more needed in other directions.
But the real situation is that Colonel Ovich is unwilling to see the 333rd Regiment win again, because it will not only be of no benefit to him, but may even put him in danger.
At this time, the battlefield has changed again. The German army has sent engineers to jump over the tanks and advance toward the bunkers...
This has the nature of fire reconnaissance: if bombing with artillery shells doesn't work, then let the engineers go up. The real perforations will shoot out bullets, but the fake ones will not.
"We have to rely on ourselves!" After saying that, Major Gavrilov ordered the signal soldier: "Prepare to fight, smoke bombs!"
"Yes, smoke bomb!"
Smoke grenades were fired with mortars from the second line of defense, and soon a thick smoke billowed around the surrounding tanks.
Major Muller said to himself: "What are they going to do? Interfere with our line of sight?"
As we all know, smoke grenades are a double-edged sword. When the distance between the enemy and ourselves is so close, it will interfere with the enemy's line of sight and also interfere with your own line of sight. This is even worse for immobile bunkers.
But at this moment, violent machine gun fire suddenly came from behind, and Major Muller understood that they had been ambushed by the Soviets again.