USSR 1941

  Chapter 686 error

  The Soviet army made a mistake. They caused a two-hour difference in attack time due to command problems.

  An elite unit of the German army arrived in the direction of Prodovitoye in time during the two-hour gap, and even Paulus urgently mobilized an aviation regiment to go for reinforcements.

  Although the weather at this time is not suitable for the plane to take off for combat, the German pilots took the risk to take off and prepare for battle.

  Compared to the experienced and skilled pilots of the German army, the vast majority of Soviet pilots dare not take off in this weather.

  Of course Shulka didn't know this at this time, he was still waiting for the development of the battle amidst the "rumbling" gunfire.

  Finally, the cannons stopped.

  Shuerka couldn’t hear anything because of the “buzzing” sound in his ears, his hands and feet were numb, and his whole body’s skeleton was about to fall apart, as if he just got off after sitting on an old-fashioned tractor without shock absorbers for more than ten hours.

   Then there were a few more flares, and there was a burst of shouts and motor sounds ahead.

   Needless to say, the naval infantry on the front line began to cross the river.

Shulka raised his binoculars and poked his head out to look out. It was gray outside, and it was hard to tell whether it was fog or gunpowder smoke. Only occasionally a few shells exploded and a bright flame burst out to penetrate it for Shulka to see. A battalion of naval infantry charging.

   As planned, the Naval Infantry Battalion attacked aboard amphibious landing craft.

  Amphibious landing craft can be said to be an artifact on this terrain.

Because in terms of weight, it is less than half of the car... Soviet car models are very monotonous, mainly Gas and Guise, and these cars are basically universal, pulling people, pulling guns, transporting, and even refitting" Katyusha rocket launchers use them.

  This makes the Soviet army rarely suitable for light vehicles traveling in mud, even though quite a few areas of the Soviet Union will fall into mud or even swamps in summer.

The amphibious landing vehicle can be regarded as a light vehicle. Its tires and engine are directly taken from the car engine and tires, and then some weight such as the cab is saved. The heavy machine gun was changed to a turntable machine gun...

   Compared with the crane machine gun, the turntable machine gun has the advantage of light weight, and its firepower is not much weaker than that of the heavy machine gun. More importantly, it can be quickly removed from the amphibious landing ship and put into battle, so it is very popular among Soviet soldiers.

  This allowed the amphibious landing ship to smoothly carry the naval infantry towards the Don River at high speed.

When Shulka rushed up, he realized that it was not just because of the lightness of the amphibious landing ship. The naval infantry battalion had made some preparations before the charge. They sprinkled gravel, sand, etc. on the road to be charged to strengthen its friction.

   I have to say that the soldiers of the Navy Infantry Battalion deserve to be a unit with faster education and better quality. They know what to do before the battle.

  Because of low visibility, Shulka did not see the launch of the amphibious landing ship. He only saw jets of water rising from the river to the sky, and gunshots were heard endlessly.

   Obviously, the Romanian army was also prepared, and they marked their artillery elements on the Don River.

  So, even if they can't see the enemy at this moment, they can still use artillery fire to stop and kill the Soviet army.

It can be felt that the battle was fierce, because the winner has not been decided in the past 20 minutes... This has proved that the estimates of Trufanov and others were wrong, and the Romanian army is not as miserable as they thought One hit, at least not for the Soviet Army in this environment.

   Even among them, Shulka heard that the naval infantry battalion was repelled once.

  Information obtained from Andrian Kana.

   "We may have to wait longer!" Andrianka said: "The intelligence just received from the superior, the naval infantry battalion is organizing another attack!"

   "What's the matter?" Shulka asked.

   "It is said to be a problem with the terrain on the opposite bank!" Andrianka replied: "The opposite bank was bombarded with too many craters, even on the river bank. Many amphibious landing ships could not land normally!"

   So Shulka understands.

  If the river bank is naturally formed, there will usually be a gentle transition, which is suitable for amphibious landing craft from water to land.

  The problem is that the Soviet artillery preparation is a non-target carpet bombing, so the river bank, that is, near the waterline, will be bombed out of craters.

  These craters are lethal to amphibious landing craft.

  First of all, the crater is underwater, and it is impossible to find the crater below from the surface.

  The second is that the amphibious landing ship has not fully landed at this time, that is, half of it is still buoyant in the water, so the whole ship is in a semi-suspension state.

   At this time, the wheels slipped easily due to insufficient pressure when sinking into the pit, so the amphibious landing craft could not move.

   Fortunately, this situation is not unsolvable, because the amphibious landing ship has successfully reached the other side of the river and ran aground, so the soldiers of the Naval Infantry Battalion immediately jumped into the river and waded to attack.

  Every time we attack, it is because of this unexpected situation that we lose.

The soldiers who attacked the Naval Infantry Battalion for the second time were prepared. They installed several sandbags on the amphibious landing ship... These sandbags can increase the weight of the amphibious landing ship and increase the friction of the wheels on the one hand. On the other hand, these sandbags can also be used to fill the crater.

  So the second charge went very smoothly. Amphibious landing ships rushed up to the river bank and then carried soldiers like wolves and tigers directly into the depths of the Romanian soldiers' defense line and wrestled with them.

   Once the battle has reached this point, the overall situation is settled.

  Amphibious landing ships rushing into the depth of the enemy's defense line means bringing internal pressure to the enemy, so their firepower blockade of the river surface will decrease in series.

  So, it won't be long before more and more Soviet troops will land, and more and more amphibious landing ships will break into the depth of the defense line, and the river bank defense line composed of Romanian soldiers will soon collapse.

   This was completely out of the accident of the commander of the Romanian Fourth Army Dumillerescu. He thought that the Romanian river bank defense line could last at least a few hours and wait for the German reinforcements to unload their equipment and rush to the river bank.

   Unexpectedly, before the German reinforcements had finished unloading their equipment, there would be an emergency telegram saying that the river bank had fallen.

   "It's only half an hour before and after!" Dumillescu couldn't help being furious: "You have bunkers, barbed wire, the Don River defense line, and even artillery coordination, but you only guarded for half an hour?!"

   "General!" The front-line commander reported in shock: "The enemy has amphibious landing ships, a lot of amphibious landing ships! The Don River defense line is almost non-existent in front of them, because they can directly rush into our defense line from the other side of the river!"

  (end of this chapter)