Chapter 380 Walter’s plan

"The summary of the battle situation mentioned in the telegram cannot be regarded as useless nonsense. The fifty Russian tanks should at least be real. There may be slight differences in the tank models. Those infantrymen regarded the Russian T34 as KV1 reports not once or twice anymore.”

With such a conclusion in mind, Lieutenant Colonel Walter remained silent. After throwing the telegraph newspaper in his hand into the storage box next to his seat, he immediately picked up another palm-sized notepad.

This small notebook records all the contents of Lieutenant Colonel Walter, including daily meetings and summary of tactical ideas. The map of the Istria theater of war that he had just completed earlier and drawn by himself is also included. Inside.

The battlefield contour map and position deployment notes drawn with only a few pencil marks looked extremely scrawled. In the words of gunner Weidelin, except for Lieutenant Colonel Walter himself, even the German Chief of Staff could not understand this damn thing. But fortunately, Lieutenant Colonel Walter at this moment has not forgotten the specific meaning of the traces of his own handwriting in front of him.

"What would I do if I were the commander of the Russian armored force? Pressing forward directly might be the best choice. After all, the anti-tank guns in the hands of those infantrymen are not worth mentioning at all. There is a numerical advantage of fifty. You don’t have to worry about the inability to succeed due to battle losses. Besides, the Russians should be crazy about taking back Istria now, right?”

He gently rotated the pencil tip in his hand and quickly sketched a few strokes on the scribbled notes before closing it immediately.

As for what tactics the opponent he is about to use to attack his own defensive positions, he already has a fairly clear and reliable judgment. Lieutenant Colonel Walter, who has been accustomed to taking one step at a time and looking at three steps since graduating from the Armored Forces Academy, already has a basically finalized plan for the next step in the response tactics that the armored regiment he leads will adopt.

He gently raised his right arm and put his right index finger on the sound button on his Adam's apple. Lieutenant Colonel Walter, who connected the communication channel of the entire armored regiment, then gave a decisive order in a calm and unquestionable tone.

"Heinrich, take your battalion to outflank the right wing and keep distance from us. After the battle begins, directly attack the flanks of the Russian armored forces. For now, ignore the attacking infantry who only have light weapons in their hands. Your task is not to destroy how many vehicles. Russian tanks, but to prevent them from concentrating their main force in fighting on two fronts at the same time, do you understand?”

It is often difficult to launch a traditional frontal attack against the Soviet tank troops with extremely thick frontal armor defense. After many battles with the Soviet tank troops, the German armored troops gradually changed their strategies and began to use more and more detours in which troops were divided into two groups. Outflanking tactics.

The main reason why the two-pronged tactics were used to outflank was because the Soviet tank troops, which were fighting on both sides at the same time, could only keep one side of their strongest tank frontal armor facing the enemy.

In this way, the two German armored units that split into two groups can look after each other and support the attack. The German armored units of Group A can take the opportunity to attack and turn their frontal armor toward the Germans of Group B, thus exposing the side armor of the vehicle. The weak Soviet tank destroyed the Soviet tank in one fell swoop from the weakest side armor part.

In the same way, the German tanks of Cluster B in mutual cross-fire support can also provide fire support to the German tanks of Cluster A. A Soviet tank with its frontal armor facing the German armored troops of Cluster A will inevitably expose its weak side armor to the other tanks. The German troops of Group B acted separately in one direction, thus creating battlefield conditions favorable to the German troops and eventually destroyed them.

This set of roundabout and outflanking tactics summed up by the German armored forces based on actual frontline combat experience can be said to have been tried and tested. It perfectly avoided the embarrassing dilemma of the Soviet tanks' frontal armor defense being almost invincible in a very clever way.

The side armor parts of Soviet tanks, which are also very fragile, are always exposed to at least 50% of the direct fire coverage of German tanks. This is the so-called concept of forcing Soviet tank troops to fight on two fronts at the same time.

But there are prerequisites for successfully achieving such tactics on the battlefield.

First of all, the number of tanks of the German armored forces using this outflanking strategy must be no less than the number of Soviet tanks it faces. At least the number of both sides must be equal to have a half chance of winning. Otherwise, even the most advanced tactics will not be able to save the German armored troops who are at a double disadvantage in both quantity and quality.

Any seemingly artistic and luxurious battlefield tactical arrangement is based on the battlefield comparison situation where the strength gap between the two sides is not huge.

Just like the Middle Eastern guerrillas of later generations who have mastered advanced and sophisticated guerrilla tactics will never be able to overthrow the US imperialist army. The vastly different strength gap to a certain extent cannot be made up by tactical skills. The inherited truth that a clever woman cannot make a meal without straw also applies to cruel battlefields.

In addition, poor communication between Soviet tanks was also one of the important reasons why the German outflanking tactics often succeeded.

The Soviet tank crews, who used signal flags, messengers, and shouting as means of inter-vehicle communication, often immediately became confused once they were caught in a two-line combat situation where they were outflanked by German armored forces.

The random fights that each fought on its own seemed to be normal and normal. Some Soviet tanks were so confused that they didn't know which direction to face the enemy with the front armor of the tank. It seemed that the battlefield was full of German troops from all directions. The armor-piercing bullets fired were the truest reflection of the inner thoughts of these chaotic Soviet tank soldiers.

Under such circumstances, it was too late even for the commander of the Soviet tank unit to realize what tactics the Germans were using. On the battlefield where bullets are flying everywhere, communication between the crew members is already very difficult with loud shouts. In this case, who would care to see where you are risking your life and desperately waving the signal flag in your hand? Order given.

Lieutenant Colonel Walter, who was quite confident about this mature tactic that had been tried and tested and defeated many Soviet tank units, but was a little self-righteous, did not know about the situation.

The Soviet tank force opponent he was about to face was not the Soviet tank force that had poor communication in the past and was prone to chaos. The elite Guards heavy tank regiment, which was also equipped with wireless communication radios for inter-vehicle communication, had already deployed. Dakou just waited for these German armored soldiers to arrive.