USSR 1941

  Chapter 695 Cavalry

After all, cavalry in the muddy land has a unique advantage over other arms: they can not rely on roads, trained horses and warriors with excellent riding skills can march in the muddy field, so they quickly fought all the way to Prodovito yeah.

Lieutenant General Shapkin was dazzled by these small victories. He even said to the political commissar: "Look, there is no army that can compare with our cavalry. Who said that cavalry is not suitable for modern warfare? Let those nonsense guys go to **** go!"

   "What should we do next?" The political commissar asked: "Comrade Trufanov's order is to wait for the mechanized troops to arrive before launching an attack!"

  Lieutenant General Shapkin hesitated for a while, and said to the political commissar: "This is our chance to prove ourselves, Comrade Political Commissar! I think we should attack!"

  The political commissar thought for a while, then nodded in agreement with Shapkin's statement.

  The reason is that the political commissar is also a cavalryman, and he does not want the cavalry to face the fate of being dismantled, so he is as eager to prove himself on the battlefield as Shapkin, and it can even be said that this is the common wish of all cavalry.

   So Shapkin waited for two hours.

   These two hours were not because of Trufanov's order, but to wait for other troops that did not arrive and another cavalry division, the 81st Cavalry Division, to arrive north of Plodovitoye.

   When everything was almost ready, Shapkin ordered the troops to attack.

  The attack was launched under the cover of M1927 artillery.

  M1927 artillery is affectionately called "cavalry gun" by the Soviet cavalry, which means special gun for cavalry.

  It is not an exaggeration to say that, because this gun was developed in 1925 and equipped in 1927.

  At that time, the Soviet army was mainly maneuvered by horses, including artillery.

  Thus, the Soviet Union considered developing five infantry guns suitable for horse maneuvering. This is the M1927. It designed the barrel to be very short in order to reduce weight so that horses can pull it.

With the development of the war, the infantry has more and more artillery options, and the M1927 gun can not meet the anti-tank needs of the infantry... The M1927 gun can only penetrate the armor of 34MM thickness when it hits the target at a 90-degree angle within a distance of 100 meters .

  This kind of armor-piercing ability can't even deal with the Panzer II tank with an average armor thickness of 30MM in front, because it rarely has a chance to get close to the tank for 100 meters without being blown up by the opponent.

   As a result, the infantry has basically eliminated the base.

  However, the cavalry could not use the more powerful infantry artillery due to the weight of the horse maneuvering, so the M1927 became "exclusive to the cavalry".

The cavalry's attack was very fast. They shouted and steered the horse forward while raising their guns to shoot... In fact, the cavalry is really not easy, such as this tactical action. If you want to keep your balance on the fast-charging horse and shoot with both hands, It is also necessary to be accurate, and it is impossible to achieve this level without hard work, just like bending a bow and setting an arrow on horseback in the cold weapon era, and then piercing Yang with a hundred steps.

  The problem is that the battlefield is a realistic place, and it does not determine the outcome just because of whether there is training or whether it is not easy.

   These trainings and difficulties are sometimes useless or even counterproductive, just like making mistakes in the direction of the opposite direction, no matter how hard you try, you will not get anything.

Another fire support equipment for the cavalry is the Mark Mi machine gun. The Soviet cavalry will install the Mark Mi machine gun or the Goryunov heavy machine gun on the carriage in reverse. As soon as the position is turned around... the machine gun can "squeak" and spit out flames towards the target to provide cover for the charging cavalry.

Such an offensive may be effective for stragglers, but Prodovitoje is the center of defense of the Romanian army. There are complete fortifications here. There are mines, barbed wire, and roadblocks to prevent tanks from advancing. Bunkers, firepower points, and artillery in the city...

   These are all the nemesis of cavalry.

Unsurprisingly, the attack of the 61st and 81st Cavalry Divisions quickly turned into a tragedy: as a round of shells exploded among the horses, the cavalry and horses were either blown to the sky or fell off the horses by shrapnel After a while, there were fleeing war horses and corpses all over the place.

   But of course Shapkin will not stop there. The inertial thinking of Soviet commanders is that if they fail to win this battle, it is because there are not enough people charging, the speed is not fast enough, and the fight is not firm enough.

  So soon another group of cavalry charged towards the enemy's line of defense.

   This time, a few small troops actually rushed into the city, because the cavalry accidentally found a passage in the minefield.

  But charging into the city on horseback is basically courting death... The enemy is hiding in buildings and bunkers, sticking out their heads from the commanding heights and sticking out their guns, while cavalry are swaggering through the city on tall horses.

   As a result, these cavalrymen who rushed into the city could not even make a wave.

   Fortunately, after two waves of charges, Trufanov got the news that the cavalry was attacking Plodovitoye... This was observed by the Air Force reconnaissance plane.

   This is also one of the benefits of the reform of the Air Force. The command system has been streamlined, and the connection and coordination with the infantry has been enhanced in series.

  An angry Trufanov immediately contacted Shapkin, scolded him and ordered him to stop attacking immediately.

  From this point of view, Trufanov is correct. It is not possible for cavalry to attack a well-fortified city. Mechanized troops are much better than cavalry.

In the evening, the 59th Mechanized Division rushed to Prodovittoye and launched a fierce attack to prove this: various artillery and rockets blasted Prodovittoye, and then armored vehicles and tanks covered the infantry. So the Romanian army hid in the city and fought street battles with the enemy.

  The commander of the Romanian Army Group panicked.

"General Wolf!" Dumilarescu said in a panic in the telegram: "I think you'd better attack the enemy immediately, because Prodovitoje has concentrated enough enemies! We have suffered unprecedented pressure!"

  Major General Wolf frowned. He knew what this telegram meant, that is, Prodovitoye was about to lose its hold.

Major General Wolf didn't want this, but he had nothing to do, because once Prodovitoye fell, the Romanian army might collapse across the board, and his two divisions would be alone. Even if they could destroy some Russian logistics, they would soon be defeated. Overwhelmed by the endless stream of enemies.

   After thinking for a while, Major General Wolfe could only answer: "Dawn, you must persist until dawn! We will launch an attack as soon as the sky is bright!"

   "No problem!" Dumilarescu replied: "Dawn, seven o'clock in the morning!"

  Actually, in rainy weather, seven o'clock is not even dawn.

  (end of this chapter)