Chapter 311 Surrounded
Tanks drove into the pocket array set up by the Russian army one by one.
Of course, what the German army saw was not like this. What they saw was that their tanks successfully broke through the enemy's defense line under the cover of T34, and there was a wilderness in front of them where tanks were allowed to gallop.
Just as Major General Funk ordered, the German infantry followed closely from behind, using their weapons to wipe out the remaining enemy infantry in trenches and bomb craters.
What surprised the German soldiers was that the resistance they encountered this time seemed to be much weaker than before. For example, they didn’t see many Molotov cocktails. It will not do much damage to the tank, but the German infantry should pay attention to avoid it.
But this does not seem surprising, because this is the main force of the 7th Armored Division, not to mention that there are several T34s ahead, and those Ivans obviously did not expect to face their own tanks.
Therefore, Colonel Aiden, the head of the 25th Armored Regiment, ordered loudly in the walkie-talkie: "Keep in formation and keep up with the T34 in front!"
At this time, Colonel Aiden seemed to have a little understanding of how the Russian tank troops fought. The few tanks without communication equipment could almost be said to be units other than the offensive troops... They did not consider the "No. 3" behind them at all. ", "No. 4" tank has been thrown by them for a long distance.
(Note: The tracks of T34 are nearly 50 cm wide, which is 38 cm wider than that of "No. 3" and 40 cm of "No. 4". Therefore, although T34 is heavier than "No. 3" and "No. 4", it has poor off-road and passability better)
But this doesn't seem to matter much, Colonel Eden thought to himself, because the battle is now over, and the rest is the question of where the Russians can stop the 7th Armored Division.
However, at this moment, a "T34" stopped with a loud "boom" and smoke came out.
"Anti-tank gun!" Colonel Eden shouted: "Two hundred meters, one o'clock!"
Colonel Aiden saw a puff of smoke rising from that position.
Immediately, three tanks stopped, and then adjusted their muzzles to aim at the position, and then "boomed" a few grenade shots.
Then they realized how stupid they were. The camouflage was blown off after the fire of the grenade... It was not an anti-tank gun at all, but a tank turret, and it was also a T34 tank turret.
They actually used grenades to shoot at the enemy T34 tanks!
"Tank, that's a tank!" Colonel Eden shouted: "Enemy T34, change to armor-piercing shells, and shoot at close range! Command Captain Daniel..."
Captain Daniel is the company commander who commanded and captured the T34. Colonel Aiden hopes that they can go up and destroy the target.
But as soon as Colonel Eden shouted out, he realized that he could not command, because Captain Daniel in T34 could not hear his orders at all.
However, Colonel Aiden was relieved that Captain Daniel spontaneously led the T34 towards the target.
This is one of the reasons why Colonel Eden put a captain and company commander in command of the five tanks...Daniel knows what to do in times of danger.
Then, the results left Colonel Eden dumbfounded.
Just hearing a burst of "booming" cannons, the T34s led by Captain Daniel were destroyed one after another.
Colonel Eden thought the enemy was in the front, but when he saw an armor-piercing round entering the T34 armor from the side and punching a hole in it, he realized that his troops had fallen into an enemy's carefully laid ambush.
"General!" Colonel Aiden immediately reported to Major General Funk: "This is a trap, we are surrounded by the enemy..."
"How many tanks do they have?" Major General Funk asked.
"I don't know!" Major Aiden replied while nervously observing the outside with the periscope: "They are camouflaged in the same color as the snow, and we can hardly find them!"
"Rush up!" Major General Funke ordered: "I will let the Air Force support you!"
Major General Funke did exactly that and asked the Air Force to support the tank regiment.
But the Air Force's answer disappointed Major General Funke.
"We saw no enemy tanks!" Air Force replied: "We only saw our tanks being destroyed one by one!"
"Find the enemy tanks and destroy them!" Major General Funk ordered involuntarily: "You can search in the direction where our tanks are firing!"
This seems to be a good idea, the ground tanks are easier to find the target, but it is very difficult to operate, because the ground is full of tank wreckage, flames and black smoke, and even the snowflakes floating in the sky will become obstacles to the pilot. One of the factors of line of sight.
However, the Soviet tanks were painted white, and even the tanks were covered with snow and only a turret was exposed in the tank bunker... This made the German bombers turn around in the sky but couldn't start, occasionally dropping a few bombs Bombs are also aimless.
The 25th Armored Regiment on the ground is suffering a catastrophe.
Colonel Aiden, who was in it, had the deepest experience. He didn't even find a few targets, or even if he found the target, he was outside the attack range... German tanks can only enter the effective attack range when they enter 100 meters. This is the 25th armor One of the reasons why the regiment fell into complete passivity.
Afterwards, the surviving Colonel Aiden said with lingering fear: "I don't know how to command this battle in history. Advance, outflank, and retreat... It seems that all we can do is stay in place and watch Our own tanks were destroyed one after another!"
"Retreat!" Then Colonel Aiden finally couldn't hold on anymore, and he ordered loudly: "Retreat! Repeat the order and withdraw from the battlefield immediately!"
Then all the tanks began to turn around, and turned back along the way they came at the fastest speed.
Of course, tanks were constantly destroyed along the way, even when crossing the defense line... Some tanks were deployed at the mouth of the pocket, and the German tanks were already within range of them when they entered, but they did not fire.
In the end, only thirteen of the more than fifty tanks managed to escape back, and several of them returned with injuries.
This is mainly due to the fact that T34 tanks can't pursue... To do so you have to get out of the tank cover, which exposes itself to enemy bombers.
On the other hand, the quality of the Soviet tank gunners is not very good... The tanks of the 4th Tank Brigade lost too much. After a few battles, almost all the tanks were replaced. Only a few tanks were veterans left over from the original training. Most of the rest are recruits who came in as reinforcements.
However, even so, the lessons of this battle for the German army are profound enough.
(end of this chapter)
