Chapter 242 Victory
There will always be unexpected dinners, there is only one chapter today, sorry!
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The German 2nd Armored Division soon collapsed, and the more than 60 tanks that entered the village were annihilated almost before they could react.
The reason why they will be wiped out so quickly, in addition to the credit of the T34, there are also anti-tank rifles that have played a role.
As mentioned before, the 4th Tank Brigade is also equipped with 30 anti-tank rifles. They are all assigned to higher floors with better sightlines, and shoot condescendingly through the windows.
Although it cannot deal with the "No. 3" and "No. 4" tanks, it is still very effective against the "No. 2", 38T and armored vehicles equipped by the German army. This will reduce a lot of interference for T34 and infantry.
Although the "No. 2" tank can't pose a threat to the T34 at close range, it is a good equipment to deal with infantry... a 20MM cannon with a rate of fire of 100 rounds per minute, plus two machine guns, and the infantry's light weapons cannot pose a threat to it.
This makes it impossible for T34 tanks to ignore them.
But with the anti-tank rifle, this does not need to be taken care of by the T34. They only need to aim the muzzle at more important targets and destroy them one by one.
The battle in the village lasted only ten minutes, and then the T34 rushed out of the village.
The German army did not retreat because Major General Ike ordered them to hold their ground and build a line of defense outside the village.
"Block them!" Major General Ike ordered: "Then indicate the position for the air force and artillery!"
Major General Ike's order may be correct, because as long as the German army can build a line of defense to confront the enemy, or it can be said to distinguish between the enemy and ourselves, then the German fighter planes and artillery fire can carry out carpet bombing in front of the line of defense.
But Major General Ike obviously underestimated the 4th Tank Brigade...
First of all, it is not easy for tanks to organize defense in the mud. Although the German tank soldiers are well-trained, they still cannot ignore the objective factor of the battlefield environment. Several tanks ventured into the mud outside the road and immediately sank into it.
Secondly, the whole battle developed too fast, and the Russian army left too little preparation time for the German army. In less than ten minutes, the T34 cleared the tanks that fell into the village, and then chased out the fleeing German army.
Again, it is the Russian tanks that go all the way forward and shoot smoke bombs all the way forward.
So, the imagination is beautiful but the reality is cruel.
Major General Ike hoped to slightly block the German attack by virtue of air superiority and artillery superiority, but in the end it turned into a melee that was unfavorable to the German army again.
And such a melee is more detrimental to the German army than the melee in the village.
The reason is that the melee in the village was too close to penetrate each other. For example, the Russian army also lost 7 tanks at that moment.
But in the battle outside the village, the T34 tank deliberately kept the distance between the enemy and ourselves at a distance of 100 meters, so it immediately developed into a situation where the T34 could destroy the German tanks, but the German tanks could not penetrate the T34.
The "No. 3" tank driven by Colonel Becker has been destroyed, but he was lucky to escape from the tank... This is mainly because the Russian army only has tanks in their eyes, and they turn a blind eye to the fleeing soldiers Close one eye.
"General!" The disheartened Colonel Becker reported to Major General Ike through the walkie-talkie: "I think we should retreat, otherwise we won't even be able to save the last tank!"
While Colonel Becker was reporting, there were explosions of German tanks and bursts of flames behind him.
Objectively speaking, it's not that Major General Ike doesn't understand this point. According to common sense, he should withdraw his troops the moment he knew he was in ambush.
A large part of the reason why Major General Ike did not do this was because he was unwilling to fail... They are the 2nd Armored Division, the 2nd Armored Division that has won victory after battle on the battlefield, and it is about to open the door to Moscow A spectacular victory was won in a moment.
Major General Ike is unwilling to do this. He hopes that a miracle will happen, at least the Germans still have air superiority.
But in the end, Major General Ike was still disappointed... The miracle did not happen, and they lost one tank every second of time.
Major General Ike gritted his teeth, he chose to accept the reality.
"Retreat!" Major General Ike ordered.
However, it seemed too late to order a retreat at this time. With the bombardment of artillery fire and rockets, there was another cry of Soviet troops from another direction... The counterattack of the 316th Infantry Division began.
In this battle, the German 2nd Armored Division suffered heavy losses, losing 113 of 150 tanks, and also captured 30 anti-tank guns and a large number of shells by the Soviet army.
This is a treasure for the Soviet army, which is short of anti-tank guns. They only need to turn the muzzle to use these anti-tank guns against German tanks.
The news reached von Bock's headquarters, but Bock took the telegram for a long time and didn't respond.
"Encountered an ambush by the enemy T34 in Volokolamsk? Where did they get the T34?!"
"The news we got from the Intelligence Bureau is that it is the Fourth Tank Brigade!" The adjutant replied.
"No, the 4th Tank Brigade is in Tver!"
"No, Your Excellency the Marshal!" said the adjutant. "Obviously they tricked us into thinking so, but in fact the 4th Tank Brigade has been hiding in civilian houses in Volokolamsk! Our soldiers saw their tanks Get out of the houses and destroy our tanks one by one!"
Bock couldn't believe what he heard, but he couldn't believe it when the facts were in front of him.
On the other hand, when the Western Front Command received the news, it was of course a different situation. The staff, communications soldiers, and guards all cheered for this victory.
General Zhukov breathed a sigh of relief, and then he said to Bulganin: "It turns out that I was right. Our counteroffensive will make Volokolamsk a dangerous bottleneck area for our counteroffensive forces. It is easy to be attacked. To the enemy attack!"
"But we have blocked the enemy's attack, Comrade Zhukov!" Bulganin replied.
"What?" Zhukov felt a little unbelievable: "The Germans will not just let it go, they will gather more troops to attack!"
"Since the 4th Tank Brigade is in Volokolamsk, we don't seem to need to worry about this!"
"That's only one brigade after all!" Zhukov protested, "and even with such a big victory they have lost tanks, and at the same time our reserves and mobile units are all in Tver, we don't have troops to reinforce them...we have to attack Tver Withdraw your troops!"
"Maybe we can take Tver before them!" Bulganin said. "Do you know what this means? The opening of the railway line from Leningrad to Moscow means that we will have more tanks." trip!"
Zhukov couldn't help being speechless, which let him know that this dangerous situation will continue.
(end of this chapter)
