Chapter 2036: heavy artillery

  Chapter 2036 Heavy Artillery

After finishing the call with Rokossovsky, Sokov said to Malyshev: "Comrade Chief of Armored Forces, Comrade General just told me that he will allocate two tank brigades to us as soon as possible, and you will be able to command them by then." There are more troops."

   Hearing what Sokov said, Colonel Malyshev showed a pleasant expression on his face. After all, there is no commander who would dislike as many troops as he commanded.

   "Comrade Armored Corps Director." Sidolin asked from the side: "If there is anything that needs our assistance, just ask."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Malyshev seemed to have been waiting for Sidolin to say this, he interjected: "I hope that I can be equipped with a maintenance unit to repair those tanks that have been damaged on the battlefield. "

"Repair the damaged tank?" Hearing what Malyshev said, Sidolin asked with some surprise: "Comrade Armored Forces Director, it is not a big problem to equip you with a repair station. The key is that you have enough spare parts to repair it." Those tanks that were destroyed on the battlefield?"

Hearing what Sidolin said, Malyshev became a little anxious: "Comrade Chief of Staff, not everyone on the front line understands that broken tanks are not waste or **** in the war...It is impossible for all tanks to be destroyed...it is There are thousands of parts...in the worst case, two tanks can be repaired out of three."

   Not to mention Sidolin, even Sokov believes that those tanks that were destroyed on the battlefield have basically no repair value except for returning them to the furnace. Maybe rebuilding a new one will not take as long as repairing. But hearing what Malyshev said at this moment, he couldn't help overturning his previous cognition. He asked in surprise: "Comrade armored officer, can those tanks that were destroyed on the battlefield really be repaired?"

"That's for sure, Comrade Commander." Malyshev gave Sokov an affirmative answer, and then said bluntly: "Many senior commanders don't understand many things because they are not tank soldiers. Seeing those tanks that were destroyed on the battlefield, they either turned a blind eye and allowed the wreckage to be exposed to the sun and rain, rusted and rotted on the battlefield; or they directly ordered the maintenance workers to pick up the wreckage of these tanks and return them to the furnace, without thinking about repairing them at all. things, resulting in a lot of waste.”

   Hearing what Malyshev said, Sokov couldn't help blushing, feeling that what the other party said seemed to be talking about himself. Every time he saw those destroyed tanks on the battlefield, he chose to turn a blind eye and wait for new tanks to be sent from the rear. He never considered repairing the scrapped tanks and putting them back into the battlefield.

  In order to resolve the embarrassment, Sokov deliberately changed the subject: "Comrade Armored Forces Chief, you once fought side by side with Lieutenant General Lukin. What impressed you?"

  Sokov's words made Malyshev fall into deep thought. After a long time, he said: "Comrade commander, if you talk about the things that impress me, it is that the enemy occupied the southern part of Smolensk, and our thousands of wounded and medical personnel did not evacuate in time. It all fell into the hands of the Germans."

Seeing the grief and indignation on Malyshev's face, Ponejielin realized the seriousness of the problem, and quickly asked tentatively: "Comrade Colonel, what happened to the wounded and medical personnel captured by the Germans? "

"Dead, all dead." Malyshev said through gritted teeth: "The Germans drove them to the banks of the Dnieper River, shot them with machine guns, killed them all on the banks of the Dnieper River, and then killed all of them." Their bodies were thrown into the river, and their blood stained the river red."

  Although Sokov had heard about the massacre of Soviet prisoners of war by the German army, it was the first time he had heard of the killing of thousands of people at a time. He gritted his molars and asked, "Which part of the enemy attacked Smolensk at that time? We must demand this blood debt from them."

"At that time, the troops attacking Smolensk were the Germans' 3rd Armored Group and 9th Army, as well as several divisions of the 2nd Armored Group." Malyshev said to Sokov: "The massacre is one of these troops. a dry one."

   "Comrade Armored Forces Director," Sidolin said, "This is a blood debt owed by the Germans. We will pay them back sooner or later, and avenge those comrades who died."

"Commanders, commanders," Sokov said to everyone, "judging from the current situation, our next offensive target is the city of Brest, which is more than 120 kilometers away, and this city is the capital of Brest Oblast. .With the city taken, we will soon enter Poland."

Hearing what Sokov said, Sidolin suddenly became excited: "Comrade Commander, I think taking the city of Brest is just a trivial matter with the current morale of our army. If we set off today, the best The day after tomorrow evening, the city will be liberated."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, don't underestimate the enemy." Seeing that Sidolin was getting carried away, Sokov reminded him: "Brest is indeed an easy target, but three kilometers west of it Outside, there is the famous Brest Fortress, and it is not an easy task to capture this fortress."

  Sokov's words sounded a wake-up call to everyone. It might not be a big problem to seize the city, but it is a thorny problem to seize the fortress three kilometers west of the city. Long before the troops entered the territory of Belarus, in order to seize a fortress occupied by the German army, they paid a full price of more than 20,000 people before barely occupying that fortress.

  Although none of the commanders present participated in the operation to capture the fort, they saw the record about the capture of the fort according to the memorandum from the 48th Army Headquarters. After reading the records at that time, everyone secretly prayed in their hearts that they must not let themselves encounter the action of attacking the fortress, which would be a thankless task. After a battle, the number of casualties is a headache, but the results are very effective. After all, such a strong fortress does not need too many troops to defend, and it can block the large troops on the attacking side.

   But what is unexpected is that after going around for a long time, the 48th Army actually encountered a fortress that needed to be attacked, and this fortress was stronger and the defense system was more complete.

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov told Sidolin in order to reduce the casualties of the troops when they captured the fortress: "Immediately send a reconnaissance team to the Brest Fortress to carry out reconnaissance. Be sure to find out the enemy's deployment of troops in the fortress. .”

"Okay, Comrade Commander." Sidolin also thinks so, since attacking the fortress will be an extremely tragic battle, then send people to carry out reconnaissance in advance to find out the enemy's troop deployment and firepower distribution, so as to reduce troops Casualties during the attack: "I asked the Reconnaissance Office to send a reconnaissance team as soon as possible to find out the enemy's deployment and firepower in the Brest Fortress."

"Comrade Commander," Ponedelin reminded Sokov, "If you want to capture the fortress, you need heavy artillery. And the artillery that our army is equipped with now has a maximum caliber of only 122 mm. I'm afraid it can't even blast the walls of the fortress." open, let alone destroy the enemy's fortifications."

   "So, we need to ask our superiors for help and let them provide us with heavy artillery to deal with the German fortress."

Ponegelin said: "Our army has a B-4 1931-style 203mm howitzer. This is the largest caliber heavy artillery that our army has ever used. It is very effective against heavy concrete-reinforced bunkers. Used in the battle of Kharkov."

"Comrade Deputy Commander," Sokov said to Ponedelin, "I don't think even the Front Army Command has any heavy artillery of this caliber. I'm afraid we can only ask the Commander-in-Chief of Artillery in Moscow to prepare a few for us." , used to deal with the solid German fortifications."

Not long after Colonel Malyshev left the headquarters, Sokov received a phone call from Zhukov: "Misha, I heard that your troops fought well. Not only did you capture Minsk, but you also captured Baranovich. It's amazing."

  Sokov chuckled twice, and said modestly: "Comrade Marshal, we were just lucky and didn't encounter any particularly strong enemies, that's why we fought so smoothly."

"Misha, although your troops have been fighting well, you can't be complacent." Zhukov worried that Sokov would underestimate the enemy, and specially reminded him: "The city of Brest and Brest are standing in your way." Special fortresses, if you want to capture them, I am afraid you will have to pay a considerable price."

Sokov was thinking about how to contact Voronov, the artillery commander in Moscow. Hearing what Zhukov said at this moment, he suddenly had an idea in his heart. Instead of running into a wall by himself, it would be better to invite Zhukov to come forward. ,

  Thinking of this, he cautiously said to Zhukov: "Comrade Marshal, do you know General Voronov?"

   "General Voronov?!" Zhukov repeated the name and asked tentatively, "Misha, are you asking about the artillery commander, General Voronov?"

   "Yes, Comrade Marshal, that's him."

   "Of course I know him, and I'm still an old friend." Zhukov asked curiously, "Misha, what do you ask him for?"

"That's right, Comrade Marshal." Since Sokov wanted Zhukov to come forward to help him solve the problem, he had to make it clear to the other party, otherwise he might be rejected: "We are about to launch an attack on the Brest Fortress, you I also know that to capture a fortress city, you first need to use heavy artillery to destroy the opponent's outer fortifications. However, the artillery we currently have has a maximum caliber of only 122 mm, and it is impossible to penetrate those reinforced concrete fortifications that are one or two meters thick."

  Hearing what Sokov said, Zhukov immediately understood the other party's intentions, and asked back: "Misha, do you want me to say hello to General Voronov and ask him to provide you with heavy artillery?"

"That's right, that's what it means." Seeing that Zhukov had guessed his intentions, Sokov didn't say otherwise, but said bluntly: "I hope he can provide us with some larger caliber artillery to deal with the Germans. fortifications."

  Zhukov felt that what Sokov said was very reasonable. To capture a strong fortress like the Brest Fortress, it is obviously impossible without special artillery to destroy those strong fortifications. He thought for a while, and then said: "Misha, don't worry, I will contact General Voronov immediately and tell him what you mean."

   "Thank you! Comrade Marshal, thank you so much!"

   "You're welcome." Zhukov asked casually, "I wonder what caliber of artillery you need?"

   "Of course, the bigger the better." Sokov said: "The best is a 203mm, or even a 305mm gun..."

   "What, what did you say?" Zhukov heard this and interrupted Sokov: "305mm artillery, does our army have such a large-caliber artillery?"

"Yes, Comrade Marshal." Sokov had seen the Soviet army use artillery of this caliber to bombard the Reichstag in Berlin in later documentaries. Building, but still caused some casualties to the defending German army.

"I remember that the navy has 305mm naval guns, but the army is not equipped with such large-caliber artillery." Zhukov said: "I vaguely remember that when defending Sevastopol, our army once appeared to remove the naval guns. It is placed on the shore for coastal defense artillery. But the Brest Fortress is far away from the sea, where can I get you such a large-caliber heavy artillery?"

   "Comrade Marshal, you have misunderstood." Seeing that Zhukov's understanding had deviated, Sokov quickly explained to him: "As far as I know, our army is indeed equipped with 305mm artillery now."

   "New, Misha, I understand." Zhukov said on the phone: "I will contact General Voronov as soon as possible and ask him to provide you with the heavy artillery needed to attack the fortress."

   After Zhukov finished the call with Sokov, he immediately called back to the Weapons and Equipment Department in Moscow. As far as he knows, General Voronov, known as the "God of Artillery War", is now working here.

   "Hello, Marshal Zhukov." Hearing that Zhukov called to find him, Voronov dared not neglect him, and quickly asked respectfully, "I wonder if you called me. Is there anything important?"

"That's right, General Voronov." Zhukov did not go around in circles, but said truthfully: "The troops of the 48th Army are preparing to attack the Brest Fortress, but the artillery they have now has the largest caliber It’s only 152mm. Such a cannon can’t destroy the solid fortifications in the fort.”

   "Comrade Marshal," Voronov asked politely, "What caliber of artillery do they want? As long as we have it, even if it is a 203mm heavy artillery, we can provide them."

   "Do you have 305mm guns?"

   "Comrade Marshal, who did you hear that we have 305mm artillery?" Voronov asked back in surprise: "You know. We currently only have 12 artillery pieces of this caliber."

Knowing that the Armament Department really had such a large-caliber heavy artillery, Zhukov couldn't help but tentatively asked: "General Voronov, I didn't expect you to have such a large-caliber artillery. I don't understand why you only made 12 doors?"

"How should I put it, Comrade Marshal." Voronov said with some hesitation: "The Бр-18 305mm howitzer is the most powerful artillery in our army. The shell weighs 330 kilograms and can shoot at 60 Penetrating concrete with a thickness of 2-2.5 meters at an angle of 2-2.5 meters, a 305mm high-explosive bomb can form a crater with a diameter of 5.5-8 meters and a depth of 2-2.5 meters. The weight is 35 tons, and the marching weight is 54 tons. It is disassembled into three parts during transportation, the gun barrel, the upper part of the gun mount and the lower part of the gun mount.

   After listening to Voronov, Zhukov finally understood that this kind of artillery was too bulky and too slow to deploy on the battlefield, so it could not be popularized by the entire army, so only 12 pieces were produced and then completely discontinued.

  (end of this chapter)