USSR 1941

Shulka was right, because while Shulka was discussing with Major Gavrilov and others in the headquarters, the battle on the front line had already started.

It was two tank divisions that went into the attack... The tank division had more tanks, and of course it should be the main attack task.

This is also the reason why Shulka and others got a short rest time.

Commanding the battle was Major General Toliczka, the commander of the 9th Army. The reason why he was so eager to launch an attack was due to two points:

The first is that the situation does not allow Major General Tolicka to delay.

The news that the Soviet Ninth Army had arrived in Odessa spread to the city of Odessa... This is good news, and at the same time Petrov finally believed that the support army that Moscow said was true.

Because the telegram sent from Moscow said: "The 9th Mechanized Army has arrived in Odessa, and will soon launch an attack on the outer defense line. Please cooperate with the 9th Army's attack!"

Nobody would lie like that because it's easy to see through.

"Already arrived in Odessa", "the attack will be launched soon" ... Liars will not use these words, because you only need to wait a few hours to hear the sound of attacking guns to know the truth.

But things often have its two sides. When the reinforcements arrive, it means that the German army must end the battle in the city as soon as possible.

That is to say, the German army and the Romanian army stepped up their offensive against Odessa, and they even took the risk of sending bombers to bomb Odessa... The bombers threw gasoline barrels and bombs into Odessa, and in an instant, the whole Odessa fell into hell In the flames, the Romanian and German coalition forces launched a fierce attack on the Soviet army like a tide.

Petrov's telegram to Moscow was: "The reinforcements had better move faster, otherwise they will have to collect the corpses for us!"

Moscow conveyed this sentence to Major General Tolicka verbatim.

Major General Toliczka may not need to care about the issue of "corpse collection". He does not know Petrov, although they both graduated from the Frunze Military Academy.

The problem is that if Odessa is completely occupied by the enemy, its defense line will be further consolidated and it will be more difficult to attack... This is related to the vital interests of the 9th Army and even Major General Tolicka.

Second, and more importantly, the earlier the attack gives the enemy less time to prepare.

This is of course, especially the German defense line is still the Odessa defense line taken from the Soviet army.

Obviously, when the Romanians attacked the line of defense, they also had to use a series of artillery fire or blow up the bunkers one by one.

So when the Odessa defense line fell into the hands of the Romanians, it was already dilapidated. Before that, the Romanians didn't even think they should repair these fortifications...until they got Rundstedt to deploy the main force between the two defense lines two days ago The command.

two days.

The Romanian army needed to dig trenches that were almost blown out, lay mines in front of the positions, pull up barbed wire, repair bunkers, arrange firepower, and even dig anti-tank trenches, etc. Obviously, there was not enough time for preparation.

So obviously, the earlier the attack, the easier it is to attack.

So Major General Toliczka did not hesitate, and immediately organized two tank divisions to launch a fierce attack on the Odessa defense line.

At least one thing Major General Toliczka has learned: use a roller to modify a tank to clear mines.

In fact, two tanks had learned this before, especially the 20th Tank Division.

The 20th Tank Division is the main force of the 9th Army. It is advancing along the railway from Kyiv to Odessa and walking ahead... The two tank divisions are advancing along the railway one after the other.

The reason is that for tanks, the road condition of the railway will undoubtedly be much better than that of the road... The railway has a solid roadbed and even sleepers. Even in this heavy rain, the tank will not be stuck in the mud and unable to move.

But one thing is the same, that is, the Germans will also lay mines on the railway.

Useful tactics on the battlefield will spread quickly, and one of them is the modification of the mine clearance tank by the roller.

It is said that Major General Toliczka sighed when he learned of this method: "It's unbelievable... so many of us, so many staff officers, have been fighting for many years, but we never thought of this simple and practical method! In the end, he was discovered by this sergeant!"

Major General Toliczka was a little annoyed. Although he had already agreed with Shulka, he still couldn't suppress a little jealousy in his heart... a major general of the mechanized army who commands tens of thousands of people is jealous of a sergeant? !

Then naturally, this minesweeper tank was used to attack the Odessa defense line:

Dozens of tanks driving in front were equipped with rollers, and dozens of tanks behind were ready to be replaced at any time. They pushed forward slowly in the rain, and then heard the sound of landmines exploding in front of them.

If this was in the past, the Soviet army would use artillery shells to blow up a safe passage forward.

But now... there is no need to waste so many shells at all, all the problems are solved by rolling the roller forward, and even the barbed wire can be rolled to the ground one by one. (Note: If the tank runs directly over the barbed wire, it will often get stuck in the track, making it difficult or even impossible to move)

Then the infantry moved forward under the cover of the tanks.

At this time, the following infantry behind the tank armor played a considerable role.

It is very difficult for tanks to fight in such poor sight conditions.

From an outsider's point of view, the tank looks like it's just driving forward and firing at the target, but only when you're actually hiding in the tank can you know... its field of vision is completely different from the open state of the outside world.

Tank crews rely on narrow observation holes or periscopes to observe. Things that can be easily done by the outside world, such as estimating the distance of the target, for tank crews who were not equipped with rangefinders during World War II, they can only rely on guesswork... People have a wide field of vision It can locate the target according to the surrounding scenery and the two eyes, and then make a large estimate. Observing in the tank will greatly weaken this perception.

In addition, the narrow field of view inside the tank makes it difficult to detect and find its natural enemy in time... anti-tank guns.

Therefore, there is a popular saying among tank gunners: "ranging depends on guessing, firing depends on feeling", of course, survival is also dependent on luck.

But it’s different if there are following infantry who keep in touch with the tank crew at the later moment...following infantry can report their range to the tank crew at any time.

"The bunker directly ahead, 270 meters!"

"Machine gun fort at two o'clock, 300 meters away!"

...

This data is obviously very important to the tank crew, because it is used by the gunner to find the target and shoot.

More importantly, they can report the position of the enemy's anti-tank guns to the tank crew in the first time.