Chapter 163 Soviet Flame

For the siege operation that is about to begin, the situation mentioned by the front chief of staff is undoubtedly one of the problems that Zhukov must face and consider.

In the previous first phase of the battle in the Yelnya theater, the Western Front, which was responsible for the main attack, undoubtedly had a stronger offensive energy than the reserve front commanded by Zhukov.

But even so, the siege troops under the Western Front, which had been fighting in the city for nearly two weeks, still failed to successfully capture the city firmly held by the Germans.

The elite German troops, including the SS Imperial Division and the Wehrmacht's Great German Infantry Regiment, fought to the death and fought to the death, causing great casualties to the Soviet army as the attacking party in the street fighting.

The ubiquitous German anti-tank artillery firepower could be deployed in almost any corner of a street building or even in the wreckage of a tank. The roaming German machine gun teams that fired a burst of bullets and changed positions were even more difficult and erratic than moles. The siege operations for nearly two weeks only allowed the Soviet siege troops to gain enough land to bury the dead soldiers.

Thinking of the major setbacks and losses suffered by the Western Front siege troops in the first phase of the battle, Zhukov, who had expected to face such a situation again and had made preparations in advance, immediately responded with a resolute look and opened his mouth to answer.

"There is no doubt that the Germans have no reason not to use the trick that has been successful once for the second time. Your inference is correct."

"But this time our Red Army is more fully prepared than last time. The new equipment and new secret weapons urgently transferred here will play a great role in the upcoming urban warfare."

"With the help of these new equipment, we have made sufficient preparations before the war. There is no reason for us not to win this battle. This is an inevitable result!"

Zhukov, who has commanded large-scale battles such as the Battle of Nomonhan, is very good at pre-war preparations and mobilizing people's hearts, but even so, he still cannot completely eliminate the deep worries in the chief of staff's heart.

"But using these powerful new weapons on our own land and our own cities may even hurt our own Soviet people."

Before he finished speaking, he couldn't help but shake his head slowly, and the chief of staff with his eyes slightly closed looked extremely difficult and painful.

"Comrade Commander, no matter whether we win or lose in this battle on our own land, the biggest losses are ultimately our own motherland and people."

After hearing the profound words from the chief of staff, Zhukov could not help but remain silent for a moment. After a moment, he raised his head again, but his eyes flashed with an extremely resolute and deep look.

"One day, our Red Army will return everything we have suffered today to these fascist invaders, return the suffering of war to their land and their people, and use the blood of their own soldiers to wash and pay off this sin."

The order telegram sent by the reserve front headquarters was quickly conveyed to the headquarters of the two main offensive army groups and received in place.

The Soviet army, which regrouped and prepared again in a very short time, soon began the siege.

Some city residents were still trapped in the city without evacuating in time, which prevented the Soviet field artillery group from launching a large-scale artillery attack on the main city of Yelnya. The First Heavy Tank Breakthrough Battalion led by Malashenko, which served as the assault spearhead, once again rushed to the forefront of the entire Red Army.

In order to avoid the embarrassing situation that a large number of tanks could not be deployed in the narrow streets and could not exert their full combat power as in the last siege.

After careful consideration, Malashenko finally split the three main heavy tank companies under his entire First Heavy Tank Breakthrough Battalion into 9 siege assault teams with equal numbers of troops, and cooperated with the siege infantry to launch siege operations from multiple main roads in the city at the same time.

Not long after the first team, led by Malashenko himself, slowly drove into the main road of the city with the Red Army infantry behind them in a coordinated posture, they soon encountered the crazy and stubborn resistance of the German city defense troops.

Almost simultaneously, multiple dazzling green machine gun fires burst out from the small buildings and shops on both sides of the street. The ricochets and stray bullets splashed everywhere because they hit the tall and sturdy body of the KV1 heavy tank. The stray bullets, which were much more harmful than bullets directly shot into the human body, immediately hit the accompanying Red Army infantry, leaving them with broken limbs and wailing.

"Stop No. 103 and No. 104, and the entire column stops advancing! OT130s move forward to the attack position and immediately clear the buildings along the street, quickly!"

Accompanied by an order from Malashenko, four small and familiar Soviet light tanks slowly moved forward from the center of the entire siege column, and soon came behind the KV1 heavy tank, which was like a giant in comparison and could completely conceal itself, and began to turn the turrets towards the German firepower points on both sides of the street that were still spewing flames.

Although it has a similar outline and appearance to the T26 light tank, the OT-130 special tank, whose internal weapon system has been completely updated, is a completely new equipment.

The main weapon it is equipped with is no longer the 45mm tank gun, but a pressurized liquid spray gun that has been specially modified to spray fierce flames to completely clear all the infantry stationed in the enemy fortifications!

The special fuel supply tank connected to the fuel supply pipe of the liquid spray gun and installed on the lower left side of the turret has a huge capacity of 400 liters of liquid volume unit, which allows this small steel monster that can spray fierce flames to a distance of more than 50 meters to maintain 40 combat firings without refueling.

In the Battle of Nomonhan, the OT-130 special tank, which was put into actual combat to test its performance as the latest secret weapon of the Soviet Army at that time, had already shined at that time.

Those Japanese Kwantung Army who hid in machine gun bunkers and bunkers while shouting "Long live the Emperor" were poisoned by the so-called Bushido spirit and fought to the death.

Faced with these brainless idiots who were like stones in the toilet—stinky, hard, and unwilling to surrender, the Soviet army, too lazy to talk nonsense with them, directly deployed the OT-130 special tanks modified on the basis of the T26 light tanks, and burned all the Japanese Kwantung Army hiding in favorable terrain and fighting to the death with fierce flames full of Soviet enthusiasm into charcoal.

After this battle, rumors that the Soviet tank troops had "steel monsters that could spit fire" spread quietly in the Japanese Kwantung Army.

The Japanese Kwantung Army, which was still at a primitive stage in terms of armored forces, was surprised that the Soviet tanks could actually spit fire. Many Kwantung Army soldiers who came from poor families and had low education levels in rural Japan even linked the OT-130 special tanks with Japanese monsters and ghosts. Even after the end of the Nomonhan Campaign, many terrible rumors were still circulating privately.