Chapter 384 Fire Reconnaissance
Rzhev is the place where Model has been achieved in history.
The reason is not only because Model defended Rzhev when the Germans retreated and relied on it to launch a counterattack against the Soviets from the flank, but also because the Soviets launched a larger-scale counterattack against the Germans here a few months later. Moscow is less than 200 kilometers away, and it is the closest part of the German defense line to Moscow after being repelled. In principle, it only takes three hours for the German armored forces to reach Moscow.
The German army did exactly this. They assembled several armored divisions here to prepare for a surprise attack on Moscow.
Of course the Soviet army could not bear this situation, so they launched a campaign code-named "Operation Mars" to take the lead in attacking Rzhev.
But what everyone didn't expect was that the Soviet army, which had an absolute advantage in numbers, suffered more than 400,000 casualties when attacking Lezhev but could not take Lezhev.
The reason why this battle is unknown is only because the more famous Stalingrad Defense Battle took place on the other side at the same time.
This result also caused Zhukov to be criticized as a general who "wouldn't fight without an absolute superiority in strength".
Shuerka knew the importance of Lezhev, and at this time Model's defense in the direction of Lezhev was not very tight, so it was easier to capture it.
This is one of the reasons why Shulka proposed to occupy Rzhev.
The 1st Guards Tank Brigade set off in the evening.
The march was very smooth, except for a large number of Soviet troops and supplies being transported to the front line, there were almost no enemies in sight.
This is the home field advantage of the Soviet army. Although the people in some places do not have much favor for Moscow, once they realize that the Soviet Union may win, they will not hesitate to stand by the Soviet Union.
Therefore, it is almost impossible for German soldiers to hide in villages or towns or among the people. The people will report to the Soviet army immediately and even capture or kill these German soldiers spontaneously.
There is no shelter for the German army in the villages and towns, and at the same time the field is cold and there is no food, so if the German army does not want to die, they have to surrender.
This enabled the Soviet army to quickly wipe out the remnants of the enemy. On the contrary, if it was the German army, it would be different. They would always be attacked and harassed by a large number of guerrillas, and a considerable part of these guerrillas were transferred from the regular army.
The 1st Guards Tank Brigade was very noticeable on the march, because many Soviet troops had never seen their tanks.
Every now and then someone will ask: "Hey, what kind of tanks are you guys?"
At this time, the soldiers of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade will answer: "It's a British tank!"
"Are you British? Or trained in England?"
…
The soldiers were confused.
For Soviet soldiers, it is very strange or very new to use British and American tanks to fight.
The 1st Guards Tank Brigade arrived at the outskirts of Rzhev the next day.
Rzhev is about 100 kilometers away from Tver, which will take more than ten hours for "Matilda"... This is definitely a very tortured thing.
This made Shulka a little impatient, and he said to Katukov: "If we can, we should use our own tanks, especially the'T34'!"
"We will!" Katukov agrees: "I have reported it to my superiors, and it turns out that the tanks they gave us are rubbish, although we did win battles with them!"
This request is very reasonable. After all, the use of British and American tanks by the 1st Guards Tank Brigade can only be said to be an expedient measure when tanks are insufficient, or it can also be said to be a test or study of the combat effectiveness and advantages and disadvantages of these tanks. .
But no matter what, the 1st Guards Tank Brigade at this time still has to use them to fight.
Shulka, Katukov and others first met Colonel Yegorovich, the commander of the 273rd Division.
The 273rd Division is a division from Siberia. It was incorporated into the 39th Army and was responsible for attacking Rzhev in coordination with the 1st Guards Tank Brigade.
He said to Katukov as soon as he came up: "You are finally here, we need your tanks to cover us, get ready, we will attack in an hour!"
Katukov couldn't help being taken aback, and asked, "Is there nothing else?"
"Anything else you need?"
"The enemy's firepower deployment, troop strength, and other situations!"
"We can conduct a fire reconnaissance before the attack!" Yegorovich replied without thinking.
Fire reconnaissance is a tactic commonly used by the Soviet army. Its purpose is to ascertain the enemy's firepower deployment and weaknesses.
However, although it is fire reconnaissance, it is actually a tentative attack... They usually use a company or even a battalion to attack the enemy without knowing anything, even if only a few people from this company or a battalion withdraw and tell others Some information is also considered successful.
However, this approach is actually useless, because the reconnaissance of a company or a battalion only stays at the outer edge of the enemy's defense line at most, and when the main force attacks and breaks through the outer defense line, it still has no idea of its depth.
"No!" Katukov stopped Yegorovich. Katukov is a more cautious Jew. He doesn't like this kind of barbarism and brutality, and he uses the lives of soldiers to carry out this kind of meaningless "fire reconnaissance". ".
"We can contact the Air Force and ask them to give us some intelligence!" Katukov said.
Colonel Yegorovich spread his hands indifferently.
It seemed to him that doing all of this was unnecessary. Fighting a war was nothing more than commanding troops to charge forward. As for the enemy's situation... the soldiers would naturally know when they charged forward.
Shuerka believes that this is probably also one of the reasons why the Soviet army had an absolute superiority in the battle a few months later but fell under the city of Rzhev.
After a while, the information Katukov needed was sent to the headquarters by the staff.
Looking at the map and comparing the information, Katukov frowned while marking.
Shulka also saw the problem:
The area around Rzhev is a swamp, and only Rzhev is a "hard ground" nearby... Being a "hard ground" in a swamp means that it must be higher than other places, otherwise it will inevitably be covered by the swamp.
In other words, Lezhev is the only highland in this area.
The Germans deployed barbed wire, mines and troops around the highlands by using the river course and terrain trends.
It is no wonder that when the Soviet army was in the "Mars Project", hundreds of thousands of people could not take this area.
"They can only vaguely capture the trend of the trenches!" Katukov said: "But I think they will be equipped with anti-tank guns on the main roads, and there will be artillery in the depths. If you add the air force..."
Shulka knew what this meant, and it was a nightmare for slow-moving British tanks.
(end of this chapter)
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