Chapter 45: Sword Clash (Part 1)

"These Soviets are doomed, Alfred. Inform Diesel immediately and let them prepare to launch a counterattack according to the planned plan. It's time to make these Soviets pay a price for taking the initiative to attack us."

The counterattack plan against the Soviets that Division Commander Dietrich was talking about at this moment had actually been completed by the Wehrmacht commander of the 1st Armored Group as early as when the defensive positions of the 1st Armored Group under the entire German Army Group South had just been deployed. The formulation of the subordinate General Kleist has been completed.

The German army, which has always believed that offense is the best defense, naturally would not be passive and only show weakness in defense when faced with the Soviet army's partial counterattack and obstruction.

According to the decisions and campaign deployment made by General Kleist in the pre-war meeting, if the defensive forces deployed by the German army on the front-line positions withstood the first wave of Soviet charges, they would have absolute air supremacy over the battlefield. The entire German First Armored Group will take the opportunity to launch the most fierce and fierce armored group-scale counterattack.

By then, those Soviet troops that had just experienced a failed attack in front of the impregnable German defensive positions and had not yet had time to reorganize the next round of offensive forces would surely be defeated by the three-dimensional air-ground counterattack that the German First Armored Group had prepared. Directly defeated.

The absolute battlefield air supremacy that has always been firmly in the hands of one's own side gave General Kleist, commander of the German 1st Armored Group, who had been in battle for a long time, reason to make this seemingly extremely confident counterattack deployment.

The traditional old-style trench shooting battles during World War I had been completely shattered by the German army's fierce air-ground integrated blitzkrieg in countless previous battles against Europe. "Whoever controls the air will win." The modern war truth of "Half Victory" has already begun to emerge under the German army's cutting-edge blitzkrieg offensive during the current World War II period.

Although Dietrich, who had long been shown as the right-hand man and close confidant of the Führer Hitler, and Hitler himself, sincerely looked down on the Juncker aristocratic senior officers of the Wehrmacht who had abandoned Kaiser Wilhelm II during World War I. It is believed that it was the shameless betrayal of these cold-blooded aristocratic officers that caused the final result of Germany's "defeat before death" in World War I.

But for this General Kleist, regardless of his origin or military career, he can almost be classified as outside the Junkers noble officer corps.

Dietrich, who also climbed from an ordinary soldier in World War I to his current position step by step through his own efforts and opportunities, has a certain sense of recognition for his direct superior. in.

"All the evolutions and progress of the war situation so far are almost exactly what General Kleist had expected earlier. If the chattering guys around the head of state who only drink red wine and play with aristocratic young ladies all day long can also have this With the ability to predict the situation of the battle, it should be much easier to deal with these Ivans who have their heads full of vodka. "

While lamenting softly, he also knew that in his own capacity he should not interfere and was not qualified to lecture on the problems of the think tank around the head of state. Dietrich, who was very tired of the inaction and talk of some idle guys, finally chose He turned over the page and revealed it, and once again sealed the words in his heart that he should never have said under any circumstances without mentioning them.

On the front line, after receiving the counterattack order from the rear division headquarters, the officers and soldiers of the SS Guardsmen Division immediately took action. The tank troops that had been deployed on both sides of the town of Brod, waiting for opportunities, immediately launched their attack. The roaring engines rolled towards the Soviet troops not far from their own positions that had suffered heavy casualties from bombings by the Luftwaffe.

On the open grassland field of vision, I quickly discovered the German tank troops that were rolling up the dust and moving towards us quickly. The Soviet Union had been bombed and suffered heavy losses under the continuous air attacks of the German Air Force for more than ten minutes. However, the 20th Tank Division of the Army still did not lose the courage to fight the enemy with swords. Even after turning the muzzle, it changed the direction of the attack and rushed straight towards the rolling incoming German colleagues.

Looking up at the hellish battlefield filled with gunpowder smoke and churning with death and blood, two torrents of steel representing different faiths and countries faced the oncoming opponent without flinching at all. The final battle between the strong and the weak finally collided with each other in the fierce friction of sparks at this moment.

"Okay, driver, stop! Fighting position, gunner ready!"

"Load armor-piercing bullets, aim at the leading T34 tanks of the Ivans, 1,000 meters away, release!"

boom--

The German tank crew is equipped with a complete five-man configuration of three people in the turret and two people in the vehicle. With its good crew communication and coordination and the excellent human-machine design of the German tank itself, it is responsible for leading the entire vehicle command. The fighting commander gave a loud order and then fired first at the Soviet tank groups that were less than a kilometer away from his own side.

Before the vertical and horizontal two-way gun stabilizer installed on the tank's main gun was actually used in actual combat, the World War II-era tank that completely placed the main gun in the turret to create a simple rigid combination between the two was basically a set of guns. A mobile anti-tank gun with a steel shell for protection.

It is simply impossible to expect the World War II tanks of this period to be able to carry out precise mobile shooting in high-speed cross-country like modern main battle tanks.

In order to fire and fire in time to stop the Soviet tanks on the opposite side before they completely rushed into their own armored columns, these German armored units under the SS Guardsmen Division were forced to stop after entering the effective range. Come and fire at the Soviet tank troops that are still rushing over at full speed.

On the other hand, the Soviet tank force, which also does not have future technological auxiliary equipment such as a main gun two-way stabilizer, is also unable to carry out precise fire in high-speed mobile cross-country.

Compared with the Soviet armored forces, which were lagging behind the Germans in terms of precision machinery technology, in order to ensure that their slightly less accurate sighting equipment could guide the main gun to accurately hit the opponent.

The heroic Soviet tank crews were forced to do so and did not stop and shoot at a distance of a thousand meters like their opponent's German armored forces. Instead, they fired at the German troops with full throttle as they had practiced in previous exercises. The tanks continued to close the distance and rushed away.