USSR 1941

  Chapter 709 Synergy

   Until this time, Trufanov could be said to have truly agreed with Shulka's suggestion to use tank troops as the main offensive force.

   It didn't take long for Trufanov to know that Shulka was right.

Because there is an armored grenadier division waiting for them in front of the Soviet attack. If the Soviet army uses mechanized troops as the main offensive force to attack quickly... the Soviet army equipped with only light tanks, armored vehicles and cars will hit hard If you go to a German armored division equipped with heavy tanks, it will be like kicking hard but hitting the iron plate.

  As soon as the sky brightened the next day, the rested Soviet army set off from Prodovitoye as a base.

   After seizing Prodovitoye, it provided great convenience for the advance of the Soviet army.

First of all, in terms of defense, because of the base point of Plodovittoye, the Soviet army’s logistics is much safer...Plodovittoye controls an important transportation hub of the German army. Even if the two German divisions have inserted into the rear of the Soviet army, it is a last resort retreat.

In this respect, marching and fighting is a bit like playing Go. Taking Plodovittoye is like placing a piece on the chessboard. This piece can echo the Soviet army's defense on the Don River line. Attempts to cut off the connection between Lodovitoye and the Don River will immediately be surrounded by the Soviet army and chase "Called to Death" all the way.

  The second is that Prodovitoye can become a logistics base for the Soviet army.

  Plodovitoye is a city, where there are strong warehouses of various sizes, and materials can be safely stored in these warehouses without worrying about being bombed by enemy fighter planes.

   As soon as the front line needs ammunition, it can be shipped from Prodovitoje.

   In this way, the reaction time can be improved exponentially.

   More importantly, there are several east-west roads and railways starting from Prodovitoye, among which two railways are very suitable for tank troops to advance at high speed.

At the same time, the engineering soldiers are following along to build the railway... Once the railway is repaired, the follow-up reinforcements, ammunition, supplies, and even tanks can be transported forward in batches. I don’t know how much fuel and tank running time can be saved. .

  In fact, the saving of materials is second, and the more important thing is the assembly time of tanks.

For example, the Soviet army rested for about eight hours all night in Prodovitoye, and only two tank regiments with more than 80 tanks arrived at Prodovittoye (note, at this time, due to command problems of the Soviet army) The tank regiment has a small organization, and a tank regiment has about 50 tanks).

  If the first few tank divisions are to cross the river and assemble, I am afraid it will take a few days and nights, and many of them will get stuck in the quagmire, break down and be abandoned.

   But captured Prodovittoye and repaired the railway... All the tanks only need to be assembled in Prodovittoye, and once they arrived in Prodovittoye, they were directly transported to the front line in batches by train and put into battle.

   This is also the main reason why the German army always likes to attack along the railway line when launching an offensive. It can use less fuel and fewer resources to achieve more equipment and troop input.

China also faced a similar problem in the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japan: China’s railway lines basically ran from north to south. When the Japanese army started the war, they tried to use these railways to attack from north to south. There are two halves, so the saying "China will fall in January" is used.

  Fortunately, the national army launched the "Battle of Songhu" at this time, abruptly transferred the main force of the Japanese army to Shanghai, completely changed the direction of the Japanese army's attack, and bought time for the national army to relocate China's coastal industries to the west.

  The offensive of the ground forces was carried out in a state of close coordination between the air and the ground, just as Shulka had discussed with Khrushchev before.

   At this time, the air force is still the main force.

  The reason goes without saying...the air force is the most important thing, especially the Soviet army has to march during the day.

  If the air force is defeated by the enemy, then how many tanks the Soviet army has are waiting to be bombed.

   Only when the air force wins, or in other words, a partial victory, can the Soviet tank troops advance safely and fight the enemy.

This is also the core of the German "Blitzkrieg"... The fundamental reason why the German "Blitzkrieg" was able to "flash" was not how powerful the tanks were. In fact, the German tanks were once very backward. No. 1" and "No. 2" tanks.

  The key point is to have air superiority, and then use the air superiority to destroy enemy tanks, and the German tanks quickly rush to deal with enemy infantry...so they are invincible.

  In the later stage, after the US and British forces formed air superiority over the Soviet army, the German "blitzkrieg" could not "dodge" anyway.

  So, the Group Army Command got in touch with the Air Force Command before departure.

  There is an air force major in the army headquarters, a young man named Alexei...he was sent by the air force to assist the command of the army, so as to prevent the commander of the army from completely ignorant of air combat knowledge.

This young man named Alexei is very interesting. As soon as he saw Shulka, he rushed forward to shake Shulka's hand and said: "Hello, Comrade Shulka! I am very happy to meet you here. I don't know Have you heard that there are many in the Air Force who would like you to be one of us..."

   "What? To be one of you?"

   "Yeah, be an Air Force, wonder if you'd be interested?"

   "But... I can't fly a plane at all!" Shulka said, "And I hear it takes years of training!"

   "No, no, you may only need a few months!" Alexey said: "You are so good, not to mention that we think so not to let you fly a fighter plane to fight the enemy, but to command us!"

   "Aren't you joking, Comrade Major!" Shulka said, "If I can't even fly an airplane, how can I command you to fight?"

   "You are too humble!" Alexey said: "You must know that you have promoted the reform of the Air Force and formulated a series of tactics that are still effective. Who else is more suitable than you to command us to fight?"

   After a pause, Alexei said again: "Many of us believe that if you had pushed forward the reform of the Air Force a year earlier, then this war would not have been fought like this at all, and we would not have suffered such heavy losses!"

   In some respects, Alexey was right.

  The reason why the Soviet Union completely collapsed at the beginning of the war was largely due to the fact that the air force retreated almost across the board as soon as the war started, and thousands of fighter planes were shot down or blown up at the airport by the German army within a few days.

  This put the Soviet ground forces in a comprehensive passive state, so they could only be beaten.

  (end of this chapter)