Chapter 159: Booming Gunfire
Zhukov, who heard a hint of his chief of staff defending Major General Lakutin, the commander of the 24th Army, with an even more unhappy look on his face, immediately responded with this reminder.
"I will dismiss the artillery chief if the artillery accidentally hits our own troops! But you tell Lakutin that if he cannot complete the task I assigned to him according to the scheduled combat plan, then I have the ability and courage to dismiss him! This is the order of the front headquarters, and I need him to execute it! It must be completed!"
The chief of staff, who saw with his own eyes that the temper of this former Red Army Chief of Staff from Moscow was as hot as that of a front-line fighter, was even more convinced of the rumor that Zhukov dared to quarrel with Stalin in the Kremlin office, and then nodded to Zhukov in response without saying anything more.
"I understand, comrade commander, I will convey your order to the 24th Army Headquarters."
Soon, after receiving the order telegram from the front headquarters, which was full of Zhukov's irritable atmosphere, Major General Lakutin, who was the commander of the 24th Army, naturally did not dare to be negligent.
Zhukov was Stalin's favorite general, and it was known to everyone in the entire Red Army, just like Comrade Stalin liked to use a pipe to relieve boredom.
Although there are more or less rumors in the army at present that Zhukov fell out of favor after a big quarrel, and was demoted to the front-line troops and demoted to the commander of the front by the furious Stalin.
But regardless of whether these rumors from the mouth of someone with ulterior motives are true, Lakutin, who only holds the rank of major general and serves as the commander of the army, asks himself that he is still a small and almost negligible existence in front of General Zhukov, who was the chief of staff of the entire Red Army not long ago.
Facing Zhukov's steel-like order, Major General Lakutin, whose breathing became slightly heavier, quickly issued an order filled with the smell of death and gun smoke.
"Order the artillery units of the army group and the front-line divisions to immediately extend the barrage firepower to the German second line of defense! Use all the artillery of various calibers that can fire! I just want the Germans to be bombed into a wasteland of defense positions, regardless of the process!"
As the order of Major General Lakutin, the commander of the army group, was issued, two fully organized 203mm B-4 heavy howitzer battalions under the 24th Army Group immediately began to load projectiles, and together with the four Katyusha vehicle-mounted rocket launcher battalions and artillery units of various divisions under the direct command of the army group, they once again began to vent their anger on the German second line of defense.
The two German infantry divisions, who had just gained a foothold on the second reserve defense position and had not had time to catch their breath, were once again subjected to the crazy artillery baptism of the most powerful field artillery group on the planet.
The 203mm high-explosive shells that rained down like rain only needed one shot to create a huge crater the size of a pond on the German field defense position.
The Katyusha rocket artillery barrage that swept in with an overwhelming momentum was even worse than the coldest ice and snow storm in Northern Europe.
Countless German position defense forces were directly blown down and buried alive in the dirt piles. Even the German infantry who were lucky enough to escape the disaster without being directly hit by the artillery holes were still not much better. The symptoms of bleeding from all seven orifices and deafness in both ears were already the best results at the moment. Such a fierce artillery attack was something that the German army, which had conquered the whole of Europe, had never encountered before.
Bathed in the terrifying bombardment that seemed to shake the whole world, pacing back and forth in their field command post, the commanders of the two German infantry divisions had to pin all their hopes on the 2nd Air Wing under the German Central Army Group, but worse news came one after another in the fierce bombardment of the Soviet field artillery without any intention of stopping.
"The supporting air force was intercepted by the Soviet air force over the city of Yelnya, and the action was blocked. Can't provide air support before the air supremacy is completely guaranteed? Damn bastard, I knew that this bragging Hermann Meyer was as unreliable as always, and now we are abandoned by the air force again!"
Although the Imperial Marshal Goering, who was shot while lying far away in Berlin, was directly covered by the German infantry division commander in anger. But at present, Marshal Kesselring, who is the commander of the 2nd Air Wing of the German Air Force and responsible for providing air support for the entire Central Army Group, is really powerless in the face of the situation on the front line.
Due to Hitler's rough intervention in the front-line war and the strategic offensive direction, the 2nd Air Wing under Marshal Kesselring, which was originally planned to be used in the central offensive direction, now had to accompany the ground forces of the Central Army Group to the south to support the war in the Ukrainian theater, and was responsible for providing the main air support for the Kiev Battle that had already started.
As a result, Marshal Kesselring, who had more than 1,600 combat aircraft of various types and the strongest strength, had to face the embarrassing situation of fighting on two fronts for a while, and provide air support for two large-scale battles on the central and southern lines at the same time, which obviously greatly exceeded the maximum combat load of the 2nd Air Wing.
In order to ensure the early resolution of the Kiev Battle, Marshal Kesselring, who transferred all the main forces of the 2nd Air Wing to the south, was obviously overwhelmed.
The air force that can be used in the direction of the Yelnya theater at the moment is pitifully small compared to the total strength of the 2nd Air Wing. If you want to seize air supremacy from the Soviet Air Force supported by the Moscow Fighter Aviation Corps with such a small amount of air power, it is really not as difficult as it was when Operation Barbarossa was just launched.
The unreliable result of their own air support forced the German artillery, which was like a younger brother in front of the Soviet field artillery group, to bite the bullet and launch an artillery counterattack against the Soviet army in an attempt to reverse the situation.
But even this last hope given by the commander of the German infantry division as a life-saving straw soon turned into a bubble in the rumbling sound of the Soviet artillery.
Compared with the Soviet field artillery group, the German artillery, which was not at the same level in terms of quantity and overall strength, soon paid the price for its reckless actions.
The Soviet artillery, annoyed by the German counterattack, quickly withdrew some of its artillery fire to launch a retaliatory counterattack. The Soviet field artillery group, whose range was far greater than that of the German artillery, could bring the German artillery into the effective attack range under any circumstances.
The German artillery, which was still jumping happily a moment ago, soon completely stopped under the dense barrage of the Soviet artillery 122, 152, and 203 heavy artillery clusters.