Chapter 109 Gate of Moscow (Part 2)

The early morning breeze gently blew through the silent grassland and there was silence. Behind the preparatory departure position of the Soviet offensive troops, a newly arrived secret weapon artillery battalion was lined up in a line making final preparations before launching an artillery bombardment.

After witnessing this new secret weapon mounted on a ZIS-6 truck chassis, almost all Red Army soldiers were amazed by this "new artillery" that didn't even have a barrel.

Although this new secret weapon code-named "K" does not yet have any official name, Malashenko, as a future time traveler, knows very well that this new secret weapon is powerful enough to change the development process of human artillery history. The new secret weapon of the Soviet army was the BM-13 Katyusha rocket launcher that became famous in later generations.

In order to capture the city of Yelnya, the German protrusion in the Smolensk theater facing Moscow, the Soviet troops participating in the battle used all the weapons at their disposal, including The power of the Katyusha rocket launcher, which had just been put into actual use shortly after the war, had not even been experienced by the vast majority of the German army.

Following the order from the Soviet major artillery battalion commander in charge of commanding this new rocket artillery battalion, a battalion of 21 Katyusha self-propelled rocket launchers deployed in a line above the Soviet artillery position immediately began to shock. The roar of heaven.

The M-13 heavy rocket with a diameter of 132 mm dragged a long red tail flame straight into the sky from the launcher pointing diagonally towards the sky. The 16 rockets on the launch rail of a Katyusha only used In less than ten seconds, they all poured out towards the bombardment coordinates. The scene composed of 336 M-13 heavy rockets in the sky was as gorgeous as the Chinese New Year's Eve fireworks.

On the German defense line outside the city of Yelnya, the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment, one of the most elite units in the entire German Wehrmacht organization, had just finished a somewhat hasty breakfast. Many German soldiers were still holding slices of bread and half sausages in their mouths. The soldiers didn't even hear the familiar whistling sound of any incoming artillery shells. The M-13 heavy rockets reached a speed of 335 meters in one second and fell on the position like raindrops and exploded.

"Artillery attack! Ivan's artillery fire, dodge, quickly enter the anti-aircraft hole!"

The loud exclamation from the mouth of the German company commander was instantly overshadowed by the thunderous sound of Katyusha explosions that sounded one after another in less than a blink of an eye.

The German soldiers, who had long been accustomed to the Soviet army's on-time shelling every morning, did not hesitate much after the initial fright. They pushed and shoved each other with long shouts and short howls. The Great Deutschland, which was located on the first line of defense on the outside, The infantry regiment troops quickly entered the anti-cannon hole fortifications set up above the defense line to take shelter on the spot.

But this time, they did not expect that the successive huge explosions on their own positions were Katyusha rocket launchers that had just been put into actual combat by the Soviet army. The Germans who mistakenly treated them as ordinary shelling were destined to pay a heavy price.

The Katyusha rocket launcher, which swept through the first line of defense of the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment with dense coverage, quickly demonstrated its powerful destructive power. The 18-heavy rocket shell inside the warhead warhead had already far exceeded the Soviet Union in terms of explosive power alone. The 122mm caliber cannon howitzer equipped by the military artillery has a high explosive charge that is almost as powerful as the 152mm heavy howitzer.

When the Katyusha rocket launchers, which possess such impressive destructive power, swept through the German positions with a density of one rocket falling almost every ten square meters.

The infantry trenches that had withstood the Soviet army's army-level artillery bombardment for many days were suddenly submerged in the dust with flying sand and rocks. The German artillery-proof fortifications that could withstand direct hits from 122mm high-explosive shells instantly collapsed and buried the Germans alive. The ready-made graves of soldiers and the temporary machine gun bunkers made of civil structures carried the German MG34 general-purpose machine gun that had been reduced to parts and flew straight into the sky.

"Oh my God! Did these Russians drive the battleship onto land? I don't remember that Venetovsky was actually completed and launched into the water. Besides, this thing can't be driven into the Dnieper River! What kind of terrible weapon is this? !”

The officers of the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment, who felt the mountains shaking like a tsunami and the artillery bombardment, were all panic-stricken and trembling for a moment. The commander of the German Army's Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment was almost unsteady in his frontline field command post. For a time, he even mistakenly thought that he was being bombarded by a Red Navy battleship level. The intensity of bombardment and firepower output capability of this new Soviet artillery could hardly be equated with any land artillery equipment in his mind.

As the saying goes, a storm is about to come, and after all 16 M-18 heavy rockets preset on the launch rail are tilted, this Soviet Katyusha self-propelled rocket launcher battalion can be said to have arrived. It went away quickly. After the artillery firing process of less than half a minute, it immediately turned around and ran away, making it impossible for the German retaliatory artillery to find anyone to fight back.

"Finally, is it over?"

When the surviving soldiers of the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment, bathed in the oblique sweep of hellish terrifying firepower, had just driven their swaying wooden bodies out of the artillery hole with strong tinnitus, they were ready to face the imminent Soviet army. When the attack was launched.

The Soviet army, which had just finished preparing appetizers for the Germans, did not stop there. More than 300 military and division-level large-caliber heavy artillery of various types including 203, 152, and 122 mm calibers under the 16th Army, Then a truly violent artillery bombardment of the German positions was launched again with wave after wave of ferocity.

The German artillery, which had been wrangling with the Soviet artillery for several days in the repeated offensive and defensive tug-of-war, finally woke up from a dream and understood the Soviet opponent who had been engaged in a tug-of-war with their own side for several days. It is basically a new force.

This kind of news is extremely bad news for the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment, which has been holding on for several days under the fierce Soviet offensive.

"Inform the troops on the first and second defensive positions that they must block Ivan's first wave of offensive no matter what! In addition, let the reserve team be ready! These new Russians are going crazy now. posture, if we don’t prepare early, we will be the ones who are swallowed up!”

Just as Colonel Wilhelm Stockhausen, the current commander of the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment, is speaking to the chief of staff next to him with his telescope held flat, an unstoppable red storm is about to hit.