Chapter 399

In the face of starikov's censure, I was unusually calm. When he finished venting his anger, I gave him a polite smile and said: "Comrade General, you are right. Tanks without infantry cover will definitely become the targets of German anti tank guns and anti tank men in attack..."

Starikov listened to me, snorted and said angrily, "since you know, why do you want our tank soldiers to die?"

Meletskov was used to my ingenuity. He didn't show any surprise. He just nodded at me and motioned me to go on.

Encouraged by meletskov, I was more confident and had a stronger smile on my face. I said with confidence: "Comrade commander of the group army, the reason why I proposed to let the tank troops attack the Highlands is that these kV heavy tanks are indestructible. Although they are slow, the German's 50 mm Pak 38 anti tank gun, It's of no use to these giants. "

"Comrade major," a strange voice suddenly rang out behind me. I turned around and saw a middle-aged Colonel standing behind me. He asked solemnly, "I don't know who has no military common sense so that you have the wrong idea that the German anti tank artillery can't damage our tanks. You know, in the past three days of fighting, our group army has retreated hundreds of T-26 and T-34 tanks by anti tank artillery alone. " After that, he stepped forward and reported to meletskov, "Hello, comrade commander of the front army. The chief of staff of the eighth group army, Col. gorovchner, reports to you and is at your command. "

Meletzkov stood up, reached out his hand to the colonel, and asked with concern, "Col. golovchner, I have been at the headquarters for so long, and I haven't seen you. I was just about to ask general starikov about your whereabouts when you showed up. I said, "where did you come from?"

The Colonel replied, "Comrade report commander, I just came back from the offensive position on the south side of the highland. At present, the troops are resting. When the time is right, we will launch another attack. "

Meletskov asked with great interest, "chief of staff golovchner, how is the mood of the army?"

When the chief of staff heard the greetings from the commander of the front army, he shrugged his shoulders and replied, "what's more, the commanders and fighters are full of fighting enthusiasm. Although we have been frustrated in launching several attacks on the Highlands, the commanders and fighters are in high spirits at the thought that they will soon be able to join the comrades of Leningrad's front army and break the siege of the city by the bandits. As long as they are ordered by their superiors, they will be able to fight new battles at any time. "

While they were talking, I noticed that Col. gorovchner's boots were covered with mud, and the back of his uniform was wet. I knew that he had just returned from the position.

Meletskov said a word to the chief of staff, then turned his eyes to me and asked strangely, "Rita, why did you stop and go on. We're all waiting to hear from you. "

Because I had meletskov's support, the Colonel around me said nothing more. Instead, he went to starikov's side and bent down to report something to him in a low voice. As soon as he said a few words, starikov interrupted him and said, "Comrade chief of staff, we'll talk about these things later. Please sit down and listen to major oshanina."

Col. gorovchner didn't know where I came from, and the two commanders spoke for me. But in this case, he was not easy to ask, so he had to sit next to starikov with questions.

After everyone was seated, I coughed gently, cleared my throat, and began to talk about the brilliant achievements of kV heavy tank: "comrades, when I was working in the Western Front Army, I saw the performance of kV heavy tank in the battlefield mentioned in our army's war report and captured German intelligence.

On the second day after the outbreak of the war, a fierce battle broke out between our kV tanks and German tanks in Lithuania. At that time, the 2nd tank division, which had kV tanks, was ordered to follow the 12th mechanized army to the direction of the dobisa River to block the German army which was advancing along the main road of chilkit chavilia street.

The 2nd tank division encountered the 6th armored division of the advancing German 2nd Armored group on the avenue of chevalia. The division commander, major general Solia rynchin, ordered the troops to launch on the spot. 80 BT fast tanks in battle formation, supported by 20 kV tanks and T-34 tanks, launched a fierce attack on the German armored forces. After a fierce battle, most of the German tanks were destroyed, and the rest had to withdraw from the battlefield.

In order to get rid of the remaining tanks, the German army used artillery to attack our tanks. A 150 mm German howitzer hit a kV Tank of our army at a distance of 100 meters, and our tank stopped immediately. Just when the German artillery was overjoyed and ready to aim at another tank of our army, the bullet hit kV Tank started again, flattened the howitzer in front of the stunned German artillery and continued to attack.

After the end of the battle, the division counted the results. In this street battle, the 2nd tank division destroyed 40 German tanks, crushed and destroyed 40 German guns of 37mm and 105mm.

There is another more interesting phenomenon in our army's war report: the vast majority of kV tanks do not carry shells at all. The reason why they attack is that they specially crush German artillery because of the advantage of thick armor and not easy to be destroyed. "

At this point, although the faces of the commanders sitting at the table all showed surprise, Col. golovchner interrupted me without hesitation. He shrunk his mouth and said unconvinced: "Comrade major, I know general solyananchin, the commander of the 2nd tank division. He is a commander with rich combat experience, It is not difficult for him to use hundreds of tanks to attack German tanks in the process of moving and win. After a kV Tank was shot, it also destroyed the German artillery. It doesn't mean anything

After listening to what he said, meletskov said with a smile, "don't worry, Colonel golovchner. Listen patiently to major oshanina's speech. The highlights are still to come. You go on The last sentence is to me.

Seeing that everyone was all ears, I continued: "the 2nd tank division left the battlefield before noon, in order to join the 12th mechanized army fighting in northern rasyania. As the division almost used up all its ammunition and fuel in the morning's battle, many old tanks also broke down one after another. In order to redistribute spare ammunition and fuel and carry out maintenance, general solyananchin ordered his troops to march up the dobisa River to find a relatively safe environment. Shortly after they left, the German 6th armored division occupied lasyania and quickly built two bridgeheads on the dobisa river. One is the northern bridgehead in ludville, and the other is in the far lower reaches of the dobisa river. Each of them is defended by an armored battalion equipped with light tanks.

General Kuznetsov, the commander of the northwest front army at that time, immediately ordered the troops to take back the city when he knew that lasyania had been lost. In order to break these bridgeheads, the 2nd tank division prepared to fight back. In order to cut off the link between the German army in rasyania and the German army by the river, division commander Solia rynchin dispatched a well armed Kv2 tank and an infantry unit to attack.

On the afternoon of June 23, the armored battalion of the northern bridgehead insisted that our army would launch an attack from behind them, so it allocated part of the anti tank guns of the 41st tank destroyer battalion and the 105mm howitzer of the 76th artillery battalion to defend its south side. At this time, Kv2 and the infantry unit stepped in, cut off the contact between the battalion and the main force, and isolated it on the side of the bridgehead.

In the early morning of June 24, German rescue forces set out from the city of lasyania, trying to join the bridgehead separated by our tanks. The Kv2 tank first destroyed 12 German trucks, which blocked the way to the two bridgeheads. At the same time, the main force of the 2nd tank division was engaged in a bloody battle with the German forces in the northern bridgehead. After receiving the report of the first victory of the Kv2 tank, the 2nd tank division's morale rose sharply and the offensive further strengthened. The German 6th armored division immediately called the friendly ace 1st Armored Division to carry out side attack on the Kv2 tanks blocking the road.

On the afternoon of the 24th, the 1st Armored Division sent six brand-new 50 mm Pak 38 anti tank guns and selected gunners to move forward to Kv2, set up a position at a distance of 550 meters, and fired fiercely. The German army fired seven shots, with a 100% hit rate and zero damage. Kv2 then destroyed all six guns.

The German Army decided to use larger guns. An 88mm gun from the 298th anti-aircraft artillery battalion in the suburb of rasyania was carefully camouflaged and towed by a tractor to approach Kv2. In order not to be found by our army's tanks, the Germans hid behind the wreckage of the truck and slowly moved forward, but the Kv2 tankers used their intuition to follow them all the time. When it was close to 900 meters, the German artillery stopped and began to lay positions. At this time, the Kv2 tank, which was already ready to go, opened fire decisively and destroyed the German artillery and tractor successively. Nearby German troops rushed up to try to drag the wounded soldiers to safety, but they were knocked down one by one by machine guns on Kv2 tanks.

On the night of the 24th, a German contingent of the 57th armored Engineering Battalion crawled forward in the darkness and blasted the Kv2 car body with double the usual amount of explosives. As a result, after the violent explosion, our Kv2 tanks were not destroyed. The tankers machine gun fired fiercely at the enemy. The German army was unable to raise its head and had to climb back along the original road. When our army tankers stopped shooting, a German engineer quietly climbed over to confirm the explosion effect and found that although the explosive broke the track, it had no effect on the armor. Before leaving, the engineer blasted the 152 mm artillery of the Kv2 tank with a small explosive package, but the same effect was very little.

At the same time that the 6th German armored division was turned around by a Kv2, there was a large-scale tank battle between the 1st German armored division, the 12th Soviet mechanized army and the 2nd tank division, who came back to reinforce from the East. As the elite of the German army, the 1st Armored Division is equipped with better tanks No. 3 and No. 4, but it is also unable to shake the armor of kV tanks. A soldier of the 1st Armored Regiment of the division described as follows: "on June 24, we encountered terrible Kv1 and Kv2 tanks on the road leading to Leningrad. We even started shooting from 800 meters, but we didn't respond. Until 50 meters away, our shells were still flying. The kV Tank didn't look at us at all and drove past us to attack the infantry. As a result, we have to turn around and catch up! It's not until 30 meters away that we can use pzgr40 tungsten core armor piercing bullets to break some of them from the back! "

Although our commanders and fighters were very brave, our tank division was mostly old BT tanks and T26 tanks, and the German Sixth Armored Division was also equipped with artillery and tanks to attack each other in the Highlands, so our army was defeated in the evening of June 24.

I learned from the captured German intelligence that a total of 29 Kv1 and Kv2 tanks of our army were destroyed, but most of them were trapped in soft and wet areas and other technical reasons. One of them was hit by more than 70 guns without consistent wear! The 37mm anti tank guns of the 37th tank destroyer battalion of the 113th Panzer projectile regiment of the German army were completely destroyed. "

Hearing this, general starikov couldn't help interrupting and asked, "major oshanina, what happened to this brilliant Kv2 tank?"

I sighed and went on with some regret: "because our army failed in the battle with the German army, we had to withdraw from the battlefield. As a result, the German Sixth armored division sent a tank platoon from the bridgehead to the intersection where the lonely Kv2 was stationed and hid in the bush. At this time, on the other side of the crossroads, the German army transported another 88mm anti-aircraft gun from the city of lasyania. In order to distract our tank soldiers, the German tanks kept firing at it from the back. The 88mm gun in the front took the opportunity to enter the position and hit the Kv2 tank for six consecutive times. Our tanks did not burn after the smoke had cleared. The German tank soldiers thought our tanks had been destroyed and jumped down to confirm the results. However, to their dismay, only two of the six 88mm shells broke through Kv2's armor. In addition, they confirmed seven shallow pits, all of which were left by 50mm shells, while none of the 37mm shells left any pits. Just as the German army finished the inspection and was ready to board Kv2, the tank turret began to rotate! The German tank soldiers had to run with the turret to avoid being shot by our army's machine gun. Finally, the canopy of Kv2 turret without ammunition was pried open by German engineers, and the tank soldiers in the car were killed by grenades thrown by the enemy. "

After I told the story in the post from the military forum of later generations, all the people were silent. I don't know whether they felt sorry for the failure of our army or for the sacrifice of the tankers.

After a long time, meletskov asked, "what do you think after listening to major oshanina?"

Starikov looked left and right, then hesitated and said, "senior general, if what major oshanina said is true, then the plan she just proposed to use kV tanks to open the way and cover the infantry to attack the Highlands is still feasible in my opinion." At this point, he turned around and asked golovchner, "what do you think? Comrade chief of staff. "

Golovchner thought about it and said with some worry: "at present, our kV tanks have no ammunition. Even if they rush to the German position and can crush those guns, they are still helpless for those solid fortifications."

When he heard that the chief of staff of the group army was worried about the lack of ammunition for the tanks, meletzkov laughed. He raised his voice and said to golovchner, "Comrade Colonel, you don't have to worry about the lack of ammunition for the tanks. We have solved this problem in the discussion just now."

"The ammunition of kV tank is solved?" Gorovchner asked starikov incredulously, "Comrade commander, is this true?"

Starikov nodded hard and said with certainty, "yes, comrade chief of staff. Before you came back, major oshanina had proposed to use the heavy howitzer shells destroyed by the Germans on our kV tanks. "

"Can you give the howitzer shells to the tank?"

"I've called the commander of the tank brigade to confirm. He said the shells of the two are common."

After listening to starikov's words, golovchner suddenly stood up and said with some excitement, "great, comrade commander, since the ammunition problem of the tank has been solved, we can launch a new attack on the Highlands soon."

Meletskov asked with a smile, "Comrade Colonel, I'd like to hear about your plans."

Golovchner straightened up and said with confidence: "Comrade General, I plan to let the tank troops attack first. When the tank goes through the minefield and opens the passage for the infantry, the infantry will attack again. At this time, the tanks stopped at the front and destroyed the German solid fire points one by one with artillery fire to cover the infantry attack on the highlands

After listening to him, meletskov said half jokingly to him, "Comrade Colonel, are you not afraid that our tanks are parked in the front and are being targeted by German anti tank guns and anti tank men?"

Golovchner laughed a few times with embarrassment, then straightened up again and asked meletskov seriously, "Comrade General, will you allow me to command this attack at the front?"

Meletzkov glanced at starikov. Seeing that the latter nodded slightly, he rushed to golovchner with a smile and said, "go, Colonel. Your commander and I will stay in the headquarters and wait for the news of your victory. "

Gorovchner replied loudly, "please rest assured, comrade commander, that I will complete the task." With that, after saluting, he walked out of the headquarters with great strides.