USSR 1941

  Chapter 58 Defense

The Germans usually fight day and night, because they emphasize fast, lightning-fast speed. Only by breaking through, advancing, breaking through and advancing day and night can they always keep the enemy in a state of being prepared and unprepared. .

   But they do so on the premise that the enemy is easily defeated without preparation.

Otherwise, like the current "Stalin Line of Defense", the Soviet army has countless permanent fortifications and machine gun positions here, and there are still some preparations. If you still emphasize speed and break through at night at this time, it will be the same as death What a difference.

  So the Germans had to wait until dawn.

  It is only at dawn that the German aircraft and tanks can play a better role... At this time, the aircraft and tanks basically have no night combat capability.

  The commander of this German army is Admiral von Kleist. He arrived at the front line at three o'clock in the morning. After an hour's rest, he immediately entered the intense preparations for the attack.

   This is Admiral Kleist's style. He has always believed that in addition to artillery and defense, armored forces are more important than speed.

   It is also by virtue of this that Kleist can lead his 1st Armored Army to break through the French Maginot Line and surround a large number of Allied forces in Dunkirk. Now he appeared again in front of the "Stalin Line".

   Admiral Kleist thought everything was under his control.

  However, when he observed the Soviet front line with a high-powered telescope at dawn that day, he was a little surprised...he couldn't see the Soviet defense line.

   Admiral Kleist doesn't like accidents, because he knows that on the battlefield accidents are often accompanied by another accident.

  So, at this moment, he hesitated for a while, and after putting down the binoculars, he asked the adjutant: "What's going on? The information we got is that there are many bunkers here!"

  The adjutant hurriedly took out the map, spread it out in front of himself and the general, and said with a puzzled face, "Yes, General, there should be a bunker here!"

  The Germans have made full preparations for this war, and of course they will not let go of the reconnaissance of the "Stalin Line of Defense".

   But... the "Stalinist Line" disappeared before their eyes, at least in this section.

   After thinking about it, Admiral Kleist decided that he had nothing to worry about, because if these bunkers existed, his troops were capable of destroying them and moving forward. If it's not there, it means a faster push.

  So Admiral Kleist ordered: "Attack according to plan!"

  The whistling sound of the artillery shells sounded soon, and they passed over Admiral Kleist's head from the air and then went straight to the front of the Soviet defense line...there was a field fortification laid by the Soviets.

  The artillery shells accurately landed on the road where the tanks were expected to pass before the fortifications. While making loud noises, they also threw barbed wire, roadblocks, mines, etc. into the air.

  After 20 minutes of continuous bombing, the artillery fire extended to the east, and then the tanks sprayed with black crosses came out of their hiding places one after another, forming a battle formation and leading the German soldiers forward. Aircraft catch up from the rear, jump over the tank group and rush ahead to carry out precision bombing of valuable targets.

On the other hand, Shulka, who was hiding in the bunker, was not as comfortable as Kleist. What he felt were waves of vibrations from the ground, and even shells directly blasted on the bunker, like ringing a bell. "Buzzing" sound... The bunker is hollow, and although a direct hit by a shell cannot penetrate it, the huge impact force and vibration during the explosion will produce a disgusting echo inside.

The electric light hanging on the top of the bunker for lighting also wobbled, turning on and off, like an old man lingering on his last breath, and then completely extinguished after a violent vibration, only a sound came from the gap in the wooden boards at the perforation. A little bit of light, along with the light came in with dust and gunpowder smoke.

  Finally, the sound of the artillery gradually weakened.

   Shulka got up from the ground and rubbed his abdomen... The echo and vibration made his stomach a little sick, but it was obviously much better than being exposed and unprotected before.

   "Comrade squad leader!" The veteran shouted: "What should we do?"

  At this time, Shulka realized that he was in command... If it was outside, then it would never be the squad leader's turn to command, and the platoon would be used as a combat unit casually.

   But fighting in the bunker is different. A bunker can only accommodate about one squad of soldiers, which gives the squad leader the opportunity to command, although Shulka doesn't want this opportunity.

  From this point of view, Shulka is not qualified as the squad leader, because he doesn't know how to give orders when necessary.

  The question asked by the veteran actually reminded Shulka, which means... At this time, he has fully agreed with Shulka's leadership.

   "Get ready for battle!" Shulka ordered loudly.

  The soldiers responded and took their positions.

   "Listen to my order and fire again!" Shulka ran to the center of the bunker and looked out through the periscope while talking.

This periscope is very ingeniously designed. Its other end is located on the top of the bunker, where there is a concrete wall like a chimney for protection, so that the outer window will not be hit by shells, bullets or other things... It should be said to reduce being hit. The probability of being damaged, if a bullet or shrapnel happens to be shot through the lookout hole, it cannot avoid being damaged.

   There was a cloud of smoke and dust, and Shulka couldn't see anything. He even wondered if there was too much dust covering the window.

But soon he discovered that this was not the case, because a huge monster had appeared in the smoke... The black gun barrel, the towering car body, the rattling and rolling tracks, this scene frightened Shulka habitually. Shrink your head.

  The next second, Shulka realized that it was seen in the periscope, and he was still hiding in the bunker.

  Sneaking a peek around, fortunately...the soldiers were observing the battlefield through the cracks in the perforated boards, and didn't notice him.

  Otherwise, he will be embarrassed this time, and maybe he will come up with such an ugly nickname again.

   Looking at the periscope again, he saw the infantry behind the tank.

   The Germans apparently did not notice any abnormalities. This can be seen from the fact that the German infantry leaned out from behind the tanks and advanced one by one. There were even several tank commanders who opened the hatches and leaned out half of their bodies to observe.

  This is exactly what Shulka wanted, allowing the Germans to break into the Soviet bunkers unsuspectingly, and they thought these bunkers were just wooden houses.

   The problem is...the two tanks coming in the opposite direction happen to have their frontal armor pointing at the anti-tank guns.

  The 37MM anti-tank gun is unable to penetrate the frontal armor of the "No. 3" tank.