Chapter 134 Canning
There was loud gunfire, and the Soviet army rushed into the Romanian army like tigers entering a flock of sheep, hacking and killing.
The Romanian army collapsed at the moment the Soviet army launched a charge...Although some of them fled before this, a considerable part of them stood still and fought with the German engineers.
However, when they saw the Soviet army coming across the tanks like a tide, they could no longer suppress the fear in their hearts and turned around and ran away.
In this way, the battle became easier. All the Soviet army had to do was to follow behind them and stab their bayonets into their backs again and again.
Smart Romanian soldiers will kneel on the ground early and raise their hands.
The problem with the Romanian army is that its equipment is poor on the one hand, and on the other hand, it does not have much will to fight.
The poor equipment is mainly caused by not having its own military industry.
Not having your own military industry means that the weapons and equipment are not tailor-made for your own army, so there will always be problems of one kind or another.
For example, the tanks equipped by Romania are from the Czech Republic and France.
For example, there are two calibers of rifles: VZ24 rifle and Manlicher 1895 rifle, the former is 7.92MM caliber, and the latter is 8MM caliber.
Another example is the howitzers from the Czech Republic, France, Germany...
Equipped with weapons made by all countries, the result is that the equipment is chaotic and difficult to supply. It is common for ammunition to be wrongly distributed when fighting on the front line.
There are also shortcomings in anti-tank equipment. When Germany and the Soviet Union eliminated 37MM anti-tank guns, the Roman army was still using 25MM anti-tank guns.
More importantly...the Romanian army doesn't seem to have a great reason to fight.
Romania was not invaded, and the people were not massacred. They attacked the Soviet Union with Germany only because Hitler promised to give them the land west of the Dnieper River that they are attacking now.
Upon hearing this promise, Prime Minister Antonescu jumped up from his seat happily and swore to Hitler: "I will support you from the first day, and if you want to fight the Slavs, you can always rely on Romania! "
It seemed normal for Antonescu to make this choice at the time, because the German army had swept across the entire European continent, and even France, which claims to have the world's strongest army, only resisted the attack of its tanks for more than a month.
So, this is a battle to stand on the side of the strong and get a share of the pie. They are naturally unwilling to pay too many casualties.
Historically, after the 4th Army attacked Odessa and suffered heavy casualties, domestic voices calling for the withdrawal of the army have never subsided.
(Note: The battle in Odessa is usually seen on the Internet as a proof that the Romanian army is not a weak army, but after a deeper understanding of this battle, it will be found that the Romanian army fought with a group army several times the strength of the Soviet army, resulting in 8 casualties More than 10,000 people, this is still when the Soviet Air Force was basically disabled, and the 4th Luo Army was even retreated a few kilometers by the Soviet counterattack)
The battle lasted for more than five hours.
Or it shouldn't be called a battle, because the Soviet army is taking advantage of the retreat of the Romanian army to accelerate its march.
"This is a good opportunity!" Shulka reported to Major Gavrilov: "Comrade Major, the Romanians are fleeing along this road, if we chase after them..."
"That means they can't lay mines!"
"Yes!" said Shulka, "It will save us a lot of trouble!"
"That's right!" Major Gavrilov replied, and then gave the order to pursue without hesitation.
What is surprising is that there are even many Romanian troops on the highway who are completely unprepared for the pursuit of the Soviet army... They are Romanian troops who have entered the retreat procedure before. Due to reasons such as lagging behind in communication and the radio was not turned on during the march, they have not received it. to the news.
That is to say, the rear minefield has been broken through and the Soviet army has overwhelmed the border, but they are still marching on the road at a leisurely pace, occasionally complaining about the **** weather and the bad road.
It wasn't until there was a burst of gunfire from behind that they realized that something was wrong...but it was too late.
What the 9th Army of the Soviet Union got was the captives and equipment on the road.
But these are of little significance to the Soviet army. They care more about the bread and cans carried by the Romanian logistics force.
Romania is an agricultural country, and there is a relatively rich economy supported by an oil economy. Their bread is not comparable to the black bread of the Soviet Union, especially canned beef... This is the reason why the pursuit of the Soviet army finally stopped.
The pursuit lasted for more than five hours into the night. The Soviet army was still chasing after the Romanian army, and a few light tanks were driving ahead...the kind that hadn't been modified.
Then a row of cars and carriages appeared under the headlights of the tanks.
The Soviet Army knew how to deal with this situation.
Infantry will go up to take away the carriage and drive away the car. If there are any that can't be pulled or driven away... This is very common, they get stuck in the mud and can't move.
At this point the tank will drive up and push them to the side of the road, so that the troops can pursue them as fast as possible.
There was a problem with this push: as soon as the carriage turned over, cylindrical iron boxes rolled out of the covered canvas.
"What is this?" Long Legs curiously picked up an iron box and asked.
"Be careful, it might be a land mine!" said the actor.
This guess is reasonable, because the Germans have been laying mines all the time, and it looks a bit like a mine, so Long Legs hurriedly put it back.
The veteran walked up calmly, picked one up, then stuck it up with a military thorn, and then lifted the lid... A plump and juicy can of beef with red and black colors appeared under the light.
"It's canned food!"
"Canned Beef!"
…
This was a mess, and the soldiers behind rushed up to fight for it, and then they quickly discovered that the supplies in the dozens of trucks ahead were all bread and canned food, as well as honey, jam, and the like.
According to imagination, this should be the logistics force for the German army to transport supplies. After they learned that the Soviet army was catching up, they dropped the supplies and ran away.
They certainly didn't think about how wise their approach was, because the Soviet soldiers scrambling for these supplies blocked the road. In the end, Major Gavrilov even fired shots into the sky to stop the chaos.
From this point of view, the Soviet Ninth Army cannot be called an elite soldier.
However... How can hungry soldiers resist the temptation of these foods? Especially those that are still the best beef.
If the Germans knew this, they shouldn't have used land mines to stop the Soviet advance, they should have used Vodga.
(end of this chapter)