Chapter 698: Encirclement-Collision Begins
The 9th Mechanized Army of the Soviet Red Army was an elite force that had fought in the Battle of Warsaw, and was very experienced in being bombed. So when swarms of German and French fighter planes flew over, at the site where the military's motorized anti-tank artillery regiment was originally assembled, the trucks that had been lined up to launch and the ZIS-2 they were towing could no longer be seen. 57mm anti-tank guns and 85mm anti-aircraft guns - these trucks have dispersed into the nearby woods according to pre-determined routes, and even the wheel marks on the ground have been covered up with branches and sand. Even if German and French pilots have sharp eyes, it would be difficult to find them!
Dzhugashvili and Makarenko also have their own bunkers, located in a forest next to an open space, but they cannot squat in a pit, otherwise a bomb will kill them both. What was arranged for Dzhugashvili was a bulletproof pit that was dug to a depth of more than two meters and the walls of the pit were reinforced with wooden strips. There was muddy water that covered the bottom of the pit in some places.
However, Dzhugashvili is not a spoiled second generation. In fact, most of his generation's successors to GC-ism are quite able to endure hardships. In addition to Dzhugashvili, there are also many sons of the older generation of proletarian revolutionaries who have participated in the struggle for the liberation of mankind - in fact, fighting for the liberation of mankind has been the ideal of their generation since they were young. As long as their ideals last, they will be GC-style supermen made of special materials.
Dzhugashvili found a seat out of the mud and water and sat down. Staying in the same pit with him were some officers and soldiers of the 9th Motorized Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment, most of whom were communist fighters who had experienced the test of life and death in Warsaw. So when groups of enemy planes flew over, everyone looked up at the sky as if nothing had happened, and almost no one had an expression of fear on their faces.
The ones sent to bombard the anti-tank artillery regiment assembly area where Dzhugashvili was located were more than a dozen single-wing, twin-engine attack aircraft. Dzhugashvili recognized them at a glance as French Breguet aircraft. The bomb load of this fat, catfish-like aircraft is not large. It seems to be only four or five hundred kilograms - in fact, it is not that much. The attack method of this Breguet Br.703 attack aircraft is to use a cannon. 47mm cannon hits tanks. However, this cannon is installed in a detachable pod. After removing the pod, the aircraft can carry six 50kg bombs, two less than its base model Breguet Br.690.
However, in just a few minutes, more than a dozen Br.703 attack aircraft dropped several tons of bombs on the woods where the 9th Motorized Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment was hiding. The black bombs exploded one after another and instantly turned into huge fireballs, swallowing up all the trees, vehicles and artillery within the reach of the power. However, because the pilots could not see the hidden trucks and cannons and could only drop bombs based on some clues on the ground and information obtained from previous aerial reconnaissance, the bombing effect was not ideal.
Among the sounds of dense explosions of bombs, there were also the sounds of 37mm anti-aircraft guns and DShk anti-aircraft machine guns firing from time to time. This is the anti-aircraft firepower of the anti-aircraft company belonging to the 9th Motorized Anti-tank Artillery Regiment. Near the bomb shelter where Dzhugashvili stayed, there was a 37mm anti-aircraft gun position camouflaged with a large number of branches near the edge of the woods. Several single-barreled anti-aircraft guns were firing into the air at a rate of dozens of rounds per minute. Further away, several DShk machine guns were also firing continuously. Although nothing was shot down, it still interfered with the bombing of French aircraft. The pilots on these French planes were not as desperate as the Germans. Seeing that the anti-aircraft firepower on the ground was quite scary, they pulled the plane higher, and the accuracy of the bomb delivery became even worse.
However, a situation that worried Dzhugashvili still occurred. From the appearance of the French aircraft until the end of the air raid, not a single Soviet fighter jet was seen in the sky. Until these French Breguet aircraft raised their altitude and returned. A group of silver-grey P51 fighter jets appeared in the southern sky, swooping from high altitude towards the returning Breguet Br.703. However, the French were not unprepared. A large number of them were hovering in the nearby airspace. The fighter jets responsible for covering the bombers (the D.550, a derivative of the D.520) immediately flew over to block the P51. Against the sun, Dzhugashvili squinted his eyes and observed for a while, and found to his dismay that the P51s driven by American internationalist fighters could not defeat the unknown enemy aircraft. In the blink of an eye, two aircraft were shot down, while the opponent's loss was only one.
This is mainly because the low-altitude P51 aided by the United States was exhausted in the Polish campaign, and there was no time to replenish it. Now all the high-altitude P51s sent out are used by the opponent's Ju288 (the same large series of aircraft during World War II all had specialized low-altitude P51s). The engines used and the aerodynamic shape of the aircraft are different), and the French D.550 is a low-altitude model based on the D.520 series developed by the Fokker Zero (actually this aircraft is based on the Fokker Zero) Type 0 is an imaginary enemy). Therefore, it can completely overwhelm the high-altitude P51 in low-altitude combat. As for the Soviet Union's Yak-1, it is no match.
Just as the French and German planes left, the 9th Motorized Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment received an order to deploy to the "Red May" reserve position. Zhugashvili knew that it was an anti-tank artillery position located behind the main position of the 9th Mechanized Army's second line of defense. The 9th Motorized Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment was going there to deploy defenses, which meant that the 9th Mechanized Army's first line of defense near Rakov had been or would be broken by the enemy.
….
The steel tracks rolled over the bodies of the sacrificed GCist fighters and the red flags covered with gunpowder, and continued to rumble forward.
Gustav Schwarzenegger sat in a half-track armored command vehicle, following a huge "Rhino" tank destroyer through the broken position that had just been captured by the German army. The position was changed after a fierce battle. The Soviet army had deployed quite powerful anti-tank firepower here, and also used a rather tricky tactic - ambushing T-34/76 tanks and KV-1 tanks behind high piles of earth, with only a camouflaged turret exposed. When the Tiger tanks approached them within 100 meters, they suddenly opened fire with 76.2mm guns! If the 102mm nickel-chromium-manganese-molybdenum rolled steel plates at a 45-degree angle on the front of the Tiger tanks were not strong enough, the 501st Battalion would have suffered heavy casualties this time.
But even though the Tiger tanks were strong enough, the tracks of 8 vehicles were destroyed. Now there are only 30 Tiger tanks that can be driven (2 of them broke down by themselves). However, the "Rhino" tank destroyer following the Tiger tanks was intact. They were the heroes who had just broken through the Soviet positions. The Tiger tanks were playing the role of a target of hatred, attracting Soviet tanks and anti-tank guns to fire one after another, while the "Rhino" fired with 88mm guns behind the Tigers to "call out names".
In a short while, most of the exposed Soviet firepower points and tanks were smashed to pieces, and the remaining targets were all eliminated by the Tiger tanks and the Type 4F tanks accompanying the Tigers (their short-barreled 75mm guns were used to fire high-explosive shells at infantry and anti-tank gun positions).
When passing through the Soviet positions that had just been captured, Gustav Schwarzenegger saw the results of the "Rhino" guns. Several T-34/76 and KV-1 tanks with their turrets removed, their once huge and majestic bodies have now become a pile of twisted and deformed steel. Sometimes you can see the bodies of several Soviet tank soldiers lying around them. They should have climbed out of the tanks that were hit and were killed by the grenadiers following the tank group with Mbk-42 automatic carbines or mortars.
The rumbling sound of artillery sounded again at this time. This was the German artillery group bombarding an open area behind the Soviet army's first line of defense. It was the only way to the Soviet army's second line of defense, and there would probably be mines buried there.
When the German tank group rumbled through the Soviet army's first line of defense and completed the reorganization, the rear artillery group also began to extend the shooting, and the two coincided and connected very tacitly.
At this time, Yakov Zhugashvili and the Soviet Army's 9th Motorized Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment had also arrived at the preset position. Just after the lighter ZIS-2 57mm gun was placed in place, the German artillery shells fell. Yakov, who had long been accustomed to the "lightning and thunder" on the battlefield, jumped into a crater very quickly. He held his head and waited until the Germans' brief bombardment ended before he stretched his neck to look at the place where the vehicles had gathered.
Fortunately, most of the trucks loaded with ammunition were still there. Only 7 Ford trucks towing KS-12 85mm anti-aircraft guns (American aid materials) were blown to pieces by German shells, and all 7 85mm anti-aircraft guns were blown to the ground. However, the remaining 7 85mm guns were still intact (2 were lost in the previous bombing), and some gun crew members had already rushed out of the shelters or craters, hurriedly unloading the guns from the vehicles and pushing them to the designated positions - these guys looked a little flustered, and they couldn't be compared with the soldiers using the ZIS-2 anti-tank guns. Because these anti-aircraft artillery soldiers were transferred from the cities in the rear, it was the first time to fight tanks on the front line.
However, under the supervision of officers and political cadres, the 7 powerful 85mm guns were still deployed. At this moment, the roar of the huge motor suddenly came from behind Yakov.
He turned his head and saw the T-34/57 tanks that he was very familiar with. They were lined up in a loose formation, followed closely by combat infantry, and were coming in an endless stream along a simple road dotted with bullet holes.