Chapter 104 Food

At this time, there was a very strange dead silence. Perhaps the German artillery was frightened by the Soviet tanks that appeared in front of them. Uneasy stomping.

Until a T26 stopped, then turned the turret and fired at a car in front.

With a loud "boom", the shells filled in the rear compartment of the car exploded, and a bright red flame and a cloud of mushroom-like thick smoke exploded from the position of the car.

The moment the car exploded, it was torn apart and thrown into the sky, along with a dozen nearby German artillerymen.

The explosion seemed to wake up the artillerymen, and the battlefield quickly became chaotic again, with people running away, driving cars chaotically, and even trying to set up the howitzers again.

It is not surprising that this happens, they are artillery, they are always on the second line to set up artillery and fire according to the orders of their superiors, and no one has ever told them what to do when they encounter an enemy, especially tanks.

The tank "rumbled" up, left the road without haste, knocked down a few cannons blocking the line of sight and set up a formation, and then the machine guns "squeaked"...Pieces of German soldiers fell to the ground. In the bullet, it was like harvested rice, which fell neatly and regularly in rows, including the mules and horses used for transportation.

Then, the Germans left their cars and equipment and fled as the Shulka overtook the tanks to attack them... This was the first rout of the Germans, and they didn't even have time to blow up their cannons and shells.

The first battalion also seized a large number of howitzers and shells, as well as cars and some supplies. Later, there were a total of 37 intact cannons and 21 cars.

But the more important thing is actually those horses and mules... Cannons are actually not of great significance to the 9th Army, because at this time the Soviet Army used more 122MM howitzers, and the ammunition of different calibers was not universal.

This means one thing: After firing these shells, these artillery pieces will become scrap iron. No one is willing to march with such things that will become scrap iron at any time, so their fate is mostly left to follow-up Infantry, the infantry would deploy them where they were and then blow them up after all the shells had been fired, lest they fall back into German hands.

Cars are useful, of course, and you can never have too many cars for a mechanized army.

The most useful are those mules...

You must know that this is the Soviet army. They starved to death not long ago, and now they are still eating hard-to-eat bread with grass seeds and mineral powder all day long. Some people have not even tasted meat for several years. Let go of these things.

So after a while, the mules and horses lying dead on the ground were divided by them with military thorns... The thief also cut a piece, he was always very sensitive to such cheapness, and then wrapped it in a waterproof cloth and put it in a backpack, maybe because It wasn't tightly wrapped so it was bleeding down as I walked.

Leonyev asked the thief in disbelief: "Comrade Flivakov, are you going to eat that piece of meat?"

"Why not?" asked the thief.

"But..." Leonyev hesitated to speak.

"But what?" The thief laughed: "I know what you are thinking, Comrade Leonyev, we are not from Kyiv like you, you don't know what it feels like to starve to death!"

Shulka knew what they were talking about, and Leonyev felt disgusted... Although the meat was horse meat, it came from the battlefield after all, and there were dead bodies everywhere, and the thought of it turned people off, so In his opinion, let alone eating, it's fine if he didn't spit out yesterday's dinner.

But Shulka felt that the thief was right. This is a battlefield, and the battlefield should not think too much about spiritual or civilized issues. There is only one thing they have to consider, and that is survival.

so,

If the takeaways from this battle were to be summed up, it would be cars and horse meat.

However, Shulka believes that the artillery and shells are more important... This is the equipment of an artillery regiment of the German army. Although these artillery are not very useful to the Soviet army, they are an indispensable fire cover unit for the German army .

If they are not captured, the Germans will drop these shells on their heads in the next battle.

Shulka was right. In the ensuing battle, the German army lost the basis to block or block the Soviet mechanized troops due to the heavy artillery losses. Therefore, the 9th Army was even more powerful and advanced in just one day. Fifty kilometers... This is still because the road is muddy and cannot march quickly.

With the rapid breakthrough of the Soviet army, it brought the heaviest casualties of the German army: the 198th Infantry Division suffered more than 4,000 casualties. Cars, artillery, ammunition and more.

This is the difference between attack and retreat.

Just like the Soviet army was beaten all the way from Poland to Moscow by the German army, although some troops retreated from the beginning to the end, it seemed that there was not much loss, but they lost their combat effectiveness and maneuverability... The reason is that they lost the necessary equipment during the retreat. equipment.

War has always been a combination of people and equipment. They are trained to use these equipment to fight. If there is no equipment for them to charge with bayonets, their combat effectiveness will undoubtedly decline exponentially.

This was the case with the German 198th Infantry Division.

Admiral Schobert was in a bad mood after hearing the news...

At that time, he was looking down at the map in the headquarters, and the adjutant hurried in with a telegram and reported: "General, the Russians have broken through our defense line!"

Admiral Schobert gave a "huh" and asked, "The first line of defense? The Russian army is stronger than I imagined!"

"No, General!" said the adjutant, "All of them!"

"What?" Admiral Schobert raised his head in surprise, "What did you say?"

"Colonel Marcus didn't have time to report the situation to us!" The adjutant said: "The Russians broke through the first line of defense two hours ago, and then quickly broke through the second line of defense. Colonel Chris asked for reinforcements..."

Colonel Chris was the commander of the third line of defense, if even he was calling for help.

Schobert stood there for a few seconds, then shook his head helplessly and said, "Reinforcement? No, they won't have any reinforcements!"

Schobert was not joking, his main force was all on the Dnieper River, and this was the last force he could organize.

Then, the weak rear and flanks of the southern Ukraine theater were completely exposed to the guns of the Soviet army.