Chapter 373: bridgehead

Chapter 373 Bridgehead

After breakfast, Shulka and his subordinates wrapped themselves in a marching blanket and nestled in a corner to rest for a while.

Although bursts of chill continued to infiltrate from the surroundings, Shuerka soon fell asleep... The intense fighting all day without rest made Shuerka fall asleep at any time.

But Shulka was awakened within a few minutes of sleep.

is the whistling sound of the plane, and it can be heard from the sound that there are a lot of them.

Then suddenly there were fierce gunshots and various screams, and there was a mess overhead, but because Shulka and others were indoors, they couldn't see what was happening in the air.

"This is the Germans' counterattack!" The instructor said: "It seems that they have dispatched a lot of planes, and it seems that they want to regain the air supremacy!"

"Take back the supremacy of the air?" Shulka felt a little strange when he heard this.

When the Soviet and German armies were engaged in fierce street fighting in Tver, air supremacy was of little significance.

Both the enemy and us are in buildings, and even fighting on the streets, it is difficult for aircraft to play a role.

On the other hand, due to the poor equipment of the German airfield, its aircraft took a long time to prepare for taking off in extremely cold weather.

Why did the German army do this?

They are obviously not aimless.

The next second, Shulka thought of the reason, and he grabbed the phone and called the headquarters without saying a word.

"Comrade Colonel!" Shulka said: "We must pay attention to the direction of the river!"

"River course?" Katukov was a little surprised.

"Yes, the river!" Shulka said: "This is the reason why the Germans want to seize the air supremacy!"

Katukov immediately understood after hearing the words.

This is indeed a way. There is nothing on the river, which can prevent the German army from fighting street battles with the Soviet army. At the same time, the width of the river is still ranging from 300 to 500 meters. Bazooka with a range of meters.

"They want to attack from the river?" The instructor looked at Shulka suspiciously: "That used to be our attack route!"

"Yes!" Shulka replied: "But it doesn't mean the enemy can't use it!"

Whoever has air supremacy can attack from the direction of the river. Now, air supremacy is clearly in the hands of the prepared Luftwaffe.

"What do they want?" Pukarev asked.

"Take the Tver Bridge!" Shulka replied: "Then surround us in this residential area, so they can repair the railway and resume transportation!"

"They're delusional!" said the instructor.

But in fact, Shulka thought the German army could do it.

The reason is that the river course is an open land, and the German army with air supremacy obviously has the initiative in the open land.

Although the German army could not enter the residential area to fight the Soviet army because they were afraid of the rocket launcher, they could prevent the Soviet army from getting out... Soviet tanks would be exposed to the enemy's sight as soon as they walked out of the residential area, so the aircraft, PAK40 anti-tank guns I will keep saying hello.

So, one came out and destroyed one, and the bazooka in the hands of the Soviet army hadn't even reached the range.

It can be said that until now, the German army has really found a correct tactic to deal with rocket launchers.

Of course, this is not a good thing for the Soviet army.

After a few minutes, Katukov called Shulka.

"You are right!" Katukov said: "They launched an attack from the river, leaving a force behind, and the main reinforcement is the Tver Bridge!"

"Yes!" Shuerka responded, and gave the order for reinforcements.

If the Soviet army didn't have a rocket launcher in their hands, I'm afraid it would collapse due to insufficient troops at this time.

The reason is that their forces are too scattered, the number of tanks is small and their movements are very slow. It is difficult for infantry to block the attack of German tanks and infantry, even in street fighting.

But there are rocket launchers, and only a few platoons equipped with rocket launchers can block the enemy and fill up the gap in the defense line, and the main force will be transferred to the bridgehead position.

The battle had already begun when Shulka rushed to the bridgehead with his troops.

Guarding the bridgehead position is a tank company plus an infantry company, a total of eleven tanks, mostly Valentine and M3 medium.

It was originally judged that there is little chance of tank warfare in the bridgehead position. These two tanks can handle it, especially the M3 medium. Its 75MM gun can well block the roads and railways on both sides of the Tver Bridge... Although its The field of fire is small, but railways and roads are fixed targets, and the M3 medium can completely deal with it.

The problem is at this time that the German army has seized the air supremacy and the bridgehead position is exposed to the wilderness. German fighter planes swooped down to bomb them frantically.

The five "Valentine" tanks were not spared because of their slow speed, and even two were blown up because they skidded in place and failed to move because of their track problems.

Three of the other six M3 medium tanks were also blown up, and only three of them hid in the residential area due to their speed... Some places for hiding tanks were set up in the residential area in advance. Enemy pilots can't spot them, and even some streets that require maneuvering do so.

Shuerka's troops were reinforced to the bridgehead along such streets.

As soon as the front foot reached the German artillery fire, it flooded up overwhelmingly. They attacked the buildings near the bridgehead positions on both sides of the river. The purpose was obviously to destroy these places where the Soviet army could hide and reduce the pressure on the German army to attack.

The artillery fire lasted for a full twenty minutes.

It seems that the German army prepared not only fighter planes last night, but also artillery shells.

Because artillery preparations of this scale are rare for the German army at this time.

What Shulka didn't know was that Kubiler used all the artillery shells transported to the Fourth Tank Army... Of course Hopner would not object, because the transportation line was already cut off and even a single shell could not be transported. That being the case, what's the difference between using it for Kubil to open up transportation lines? The latter was at least a hope for the Fourth Tank Army.

Twenty minutes later, when Shulka raised his head from the trench, he found that the surrounding buildings had become piles of ruins, and even the buildings that hadn't been blown down had become ruins.

The communicator handed the phone to Shulka. It was Katukov.

"The Germans are already rushing to repair the railway!" Katukov said: "The bridgehead is very important. If it is lost... they may be able to resume transportation in an hour, and our efforts will be in vain!"

Shulka understood what Katukov meant. At this moment, there might be a backlog of ammunition and supplies in Tver, and even trains were waiting.

As long as the railway is connected, these supplies will rush to the Fourth Tank Army in the north of Moscow like a flood that burst a bank, so the Fourth Tank Army can hold on for a while.

In other words, the lever for moving the entire battle is the bridgehead in front of you.

(end of this chapter)