Major General Ellen's heart sank to the bottom when he received Manstein's telegram, because he knew that "holding on until the last moment" also meant that there would be no reinforcements.
But Major General Ellen had no other choice. He could only pass on this order.
"Hold on until the last moment!" Major General Ellen said: "Do everything possible to delay the enemy!"
Major General Ellen said this, which meant that he understood what Manstein meant: Surovino could only be abandoned because the enemy had a navy and the Germans did not.
Although this so-called navy is nothing more than an amphibious landing ship.
But sometimes just such a small advantage can determine the outcome... The German army had no ships, and even if they improvised fishing boats, they would not be able to compete with the Soviet army's large-scale amphibious landing ships in Surovino.
More importantly, German tanks, armored vehicles, cars, etc. were unable to fight in the flooded Surovino.
Therefore, all efforts to reinforce Surovino are in vain, and will only send troops one after another into the Soviet encirclement.
Major General Ellen's orders were relayed one by one by signal flags.
Although the German soldiers of the 9th Panzergrenadier Division also knew that the situation was not good, they still carried out this order and fought to the death against the Soviet troops in the building.
This made the Soviet army a little embarrassed, because it could indeed hold back the 51st Army.
"Comrade Shulka!" Andrianka reported: "The enemy shows no signs of collapse!"
There are no signs of collapse, which means that the Soviet army must clear out one building after another before they can completely occupy Surovino... And the 51st Army must advance quickly, otherwise it is not difficult to imagine that German reinforcements or retreating troops will
A second line of defense can be built in a suitable place behind.
This situation surprised Shulka. He had thought that he would encounter resistance from the German army, but he did not expect that he would encounter such strong resistance. An enemy that should have collapsed after being flooded was now struggling to survive.
Chew inside.
Mikhailovich said while looking at the map: "Can we wait until the water level drops before attacking?"
Shulka understood what Mikhailovich meant.
The difficulty in the attack at this time was that amphibious landing craft were used.
Although the amphibious landing ship has no problem attacking the building and the attack goes smoothly, the speed of capturing the building is not fast.
Mikhailovich hoped to attack with tanks once the water level dropped.
Obviously, tanks can attack buildings much faster than amphibious landing ships and soldiers can clear them one by one. The muzzle of the cannon blasts the building, or the machine gun fires at the enemy. The armor can block all the enemy's firepower. It is really not possible.
Just hit the tank directly against the building... and all the problems will be solved.
But Shulka shook his head and rejected the idea.
"Tank attacks have their limitations!" Shulka said: "Surovino was originally a muddy area, and now it is flooded. The tanks will be stuck in it almost everywhere except along the railway, unable to maneuver!
In this case, we hope to rely on tanks to attack..."
Needless to say, what follows is most likely that the 51st Army will continue to be blocked here. The Germans may even lay anti-tank mines on the railway line or directly blow up the railway embankment after the water level drops.
, even tanks will not be able to pass by then.
In other words, Surovino must be completely occupied before the water level drops at noon.
Shulka looked at his watch, there were still two hours until noon.
"How long will it take for us to clear out the enemy?" Shulka asked.
Andrianka circled some buildings on the map, then calculated the average time to occupy the buildings, and then replied: "It will take at least five hours...and it may be more difficult toward the core area because the buildings are denser!"
Shulka knew what Andrianka meant.
The buildings are denser, which means that the German troops in several buildings can cover each other. For example, two buildings only fifty meters apart form a line of defense, because the amphibious landing ship cannot insert between the two buildings. If this is done forcibly,
You will be hit by crossfire from the two buildings.
These are just two buildings. If there are multiple buildings densely connected in a circle or stacked on top of each other with different heights, they will actually form a fire fortress.
In this case, the Soviet amphibious landing ship completely lost the advantage of attacking a building with more enemies and fewer enemies from all directions.
On the contrary, it has also formed a disadvantage of "the enemy is in the dark and we are in the light", and "the enemy is in the high place and we are in the low place".
Once such a confrontation is formed, it is almost necessary to wait for the enemy to run out of bullets before taking Surovino, which is far from being achieved in five hours.
"We can consider using artillery bombing!" Andrianka made a suggestion.
"This requires a lot of artillery shells!" Mikhailovich objected: "And the targets we want to bomb are relatively scattered and not large. It would be okay if we bombed a few buildings, but so many buildings..."
The building was flooded and only a small roof was exposed. It was not easy for the artillery to accurately hit the target, unless it used more than a dozen artillery shells or a "Katyusha" to cover a target.
So just like Mikhailovich said, it is still possible if there are only a few buildings, but all the buildings have to be blown up... The Soviet army's supplies are not yet strong enough.
After thinking for a while, Shulka asked: "Are most of the houses in Sulovkino wooden houses or brick houses?"
"Mostly a mixture of bricks and wood!" Andrianka replied: "Just like our other buildings, bricks are used to build the frame, and wood is used to build the roof and even the side walls!"
Shulka nodded and asked again: "Do we have an attack aircraft aviation division?"
"Yes, the 06th Attack Aircraft Aviation Division!" Andrianka replied: "This aviation division is all Ilyushen attack aircraft!"
"Comrade Shulka!" Mikhailovich said: "You don't want to use these attack aircraft to deal with those buildings, do you?"
"Why not?" Shulka asked.
"That won't have any effect!" Mikhailovich said: "The battlefield is full of thick smoke and water vapor, plus light rain... It is difficult for pilots to find the target, and even if they find the target, it is difficult to hit it accurately!
They are even dangerous!"
This does not mean that the IL will be shot down by the Germans. With the IL's armor, the German small arms are basically unable to pose a threat to it.
What Mikhailovich was talking about was that Il was fighting at ultra-low altitudes with low visibility, and he would accidentally hit a protruding building or something else.
But of course Shulka knew this.
He replied: "Maybe, we don't need to find the target!" (To be continued)