Chapter 162: Another Siege

When Malashenko felt a sharp sting in his palm and gently loosened his right hand full of loose soil, a metal fragment with a trace of residual warmth and full of traces of smoke and flames appeared in front of him.

"One, two, three, four, five, five pieces, a handful of soil has five pieces"

The metal fragments in Malashenko's hand at this moment were none other than the shrapnel debris left after the Soviet 24th Army launched a fierce bombardment of the German second defense position for an hour.

Generally speaking, the number of shrapnel debris left at the bombarded target location after an artillery bombardment can be used as a basis to roughly calculate the density of firepower when the bombardment fell.

Before crossing and coming to the current Soviet-German battlefield, Lin Jie, who was a Chinese in his previous life, had heard his scout father who had been on the battlefield and fought the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam talk about some actual combat experiences of fighting against Vietnamese monkeys in the past.

The story took place in the battle of the People's Liberation Army attacking Lang Son, Vietnam that year.

Before launching the attack, the PLA, which played the role of the attacker, conducted artillery preparations at the army level against the Vietnamese troops entrenched in the city. The density of its firepower projection was unprecedented and huge at the time.

The PLA artillery, which was inherited from the Soviet Red Army, assembled more than 300 heavy artillery pieces of various types, including 122 and 152 calibers, and the fierce artillery bombardment, which rained down like rain, continued almost all day long. The Vietnamese troops entrenched in the city were immediately shrouded in the purgatory-like artillery bombardment along with this tragic city.

When the artillery preparations were basically completed, Lin Jie's father, who was a scout, led his sharp knife platoon to attack and approached the edge of the city to explore the enemy's situation. Lin Jie's father, who felt that his feet were floating in the air as if he was stepping on a pile of glass shards, immediately bent down and reached out.

"A handful of dirt, half a handful of shells. Not to mention the people, even the cows raised by farmers were blown to pieces."

Recalling his father's words describing the scene after the bombardment, Lin Jie couldn't help but sigh as he rubbed a few pieces of shell fragments in his hand through the loose dirt between his fingers.

"You are really worthy of being the apprentice brought up by the master. The way of fighting is the same "cannonism". But this handful of dirt is half a handful of shells. Dad, the bombardment suffered by the Germans is more severe than the beating suffered by the Vietnamese monkeys."

Throwing away the few pieces of shell fragments that were still warm in his hand, he walked around the captured position that was covered with craters of various sizes like the surface of the moon.

Malashenko, who planned to resupply fuel and ammunition for his first heavy tank breakthrough battalion as soon as possible, soon saw the waving figure of Captain Karamov in the cab of the Yugas truck with the logistics support troops coming towards him.

In the headquarters of the Soviet Reserve Front, General Zhukov, the commander who had just won a phased victory in the battle outside the suburbs of Yelnya, was discussing with a group of staff and headquarters personnel beside him.

"The 24th Army commanded by Major General Lakutin is progressing smoothly. The two German infantry divisions in the northeastern offensive direction of the suburbs of Yelnya have now been defeated and fled into the city."

"The field defense positions of the two German armies have all been occupied by the 24th Army. Some of the German rear guard troops who resisted stubbornly chose to surrender after there was no hope of breaking through. Major General Lakutin is commanding his troops to count the results of the battle and count the captured materials. The counting of prisoners and the treatment of the wounded are also being carried out simultaneously."

"The losses of the 24th Army are still within the predicted and acceptable range, and the second phase of the surprise attack on the main urban area of ​​Yelnya can be launched at any time."

The simultaneous smooth progress of the two main offensive forces of the 24th and 43rd Armies undoubtedly gave Zhukov great self-confidence and encouragement.

After hearing this, Zhukov rolled up his sleeves and looked at the time on his watch. The remaining time of the whole day would not be wasted by Zhukov.

"We have just forced the Germans back into the city. It is foreseeable that they will not have much preparation time and energy to arrange the deep defense line in the city and make careful arrangements for urban warfare."

"Before the Germans gain a firm foothold in our city, we will continue to launch the second phase of the siege! Telegraph the two army headquarters to make sure they complete the roundabout meeting according to the scheduled combat plan before dusk, cut off the land connection between the German Central Army Group and the Yelnya Theater garrison, and if possible, we must try to eat up the German corps in this salient."

Zhukov, who is showing his skills on the Yelnya salient, a stage personally assigned by Stalin, has great ambitions.

Stalin's order to Zhukov was to recapture the city of Yelnya and wipe out the salient occupied by the German army facing Moscow, but Zhukov's own plan was far more ambitious than Stalin's order.

If possible, Zhukov hoped that the reserve front he personally commanded could completely wipe out the entire German corps in the Yelnya salient in one go - a total of 7 infantry divisions with a total of more than 80,000 troops.

In terms of the Soviet army's retreat in the overall strategic situation in 1941, Zhukov's current plan could be described as ambitious to put it nicely, or even as a bit overestimating one's own capabilities to put it bluntly.

After all, it is really difficult to encircle and devour an entire German field army while the German army is triumphant all the way, even in the current situation of the offensive.

But no matter what, from the perspective of future generations, Zhukov, who is crowned with the aura of the Red Army's god of war, can definitely be regarded as a famous general with a vision that matches his own ability, not the kind of person who can only brag.

Although there is little hope for this seemingly audacious and somewhat fantastic final combat goal, the chief of staff of the front did not say much after fully seeing the hot temper of Zhukov, Stalin's favorite general. After all, in the current situation of the offensive, if he says something against the wind, it may be suspected of shaking the morale of the army.

"I support your opinion and combat deployment, Comrade Commander. Previously, the siege troops of the Western Front had entered the city of Yelnya in the first phase of the battle, but they failed to achieve their combat objectives due to the tenacious resistance of the German Wehrmacht's Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment. I am worried that the German troops that we have driven into the city are likely to repeat the same trick again."