Chapter 166 "Fortress"
After the Soviet siege troops applied the systematic and integrated street fighting tactics from the future tactics, the German army, which had no effective countermeasures and was seriously lacking in anti-armor technology and equipment, had to fight and retreat. The battle situation in which many main battle lines in the city were lost one after another soon pushed the front line of artillery fire to the center of Yelnya.
Compared with the temporary positions and firepower points arranged with houses and street-facing buildings on the main streets outside the city, the open squares and some iconic landmark buildings in the center of Yelnya are the core and key of the German city warfare defense stronghold.
In the previous first phase of the battle of Yelnya, the Great German Infantry Regiment, which firmly defended the entire city and paid a huge price in casualties and fought to the end with the siege Soviet army, once transformed the government building in the center of the city into a solid defense stronghold with both command and powerful firepower.
This five-story building made of bricks and stones stands out in the city of Yelnya, where the houses are generally short.
All windows facing outwards from the first to fifth floors of the building were sealed after secondary reinforcement by German engineers, leaving only basic holes and observation ports for use as firing points.
The large conference room on the top floor of the building, which was originally used to hold important meetings, was also directly cleared and emptied by the ingenious German army. The large conference room space and solid and reliable building structure made it possible to place heavy firepower.
The Great German Infantry Regiment, which was prepared for the worst and ready to fight to the death, placed 9 PAK38 50mm anti-tank guns in the conference room to block the three possible Soviet attack directions other than the salient.
The German engineers who did their best even dismantled two FLAK36 88mm anti-aircraft guns into parts, packed them in batches and transported them to the fifth-floor conference room for assembly. At the same time, the redundant and slightly useless huge artillery shield was removed and the ground was reinforced, and finally the fifth-floor conference room of the entire building was transformed into a fierce and high-ranking anti-tank gun stronghold.
Although the strong firepower support point painstakingly built by the Great German Infantry Regiment was not used in the end because the reinforcements arrived in time to repel the Soviet troops approaching the nearby blocks.
However, in view of the inevitability of the second phase of the battle in the Yelnya theater, the Great German Infantry Regiment, after mutual communication and coordination, did not take away the equipment that belonged to its own troops when it withdrew from the theater and prepared to change positions to the rear for rest, but chose to keep it to cope with the needs of the subsequent possible battle.
At present, this strong firepower stronghold painstakingly built by the Great German Infantry Regiment in the first phase of the Yelnya Battle was finally put to use as the situation continued to deteriorate and retreat for the German side. The German infantry who held on to the building of this stronghold had made the final preparations.
The Pioneer KV1 heavy tank, which was roaring and roaring along the way, crushed the two German 37mm anti-tank guns that were useless at the intersection of the block into parts without any effort.
The panicked German infantry were once again overwhelmed by the Soviets and retreated backwards one after another. Driven by the electric steering gear and the hand-cranked steering gear, the KV1 heavy tank, which was slowly turning its heavy turret, had no time to fire at the retreating German infantry. A super-high-speed shell that came from nowhere hit the KV1 heavy tank's wide turret accurately in this lightning moment.
Boom--
Swoosh--
The huge tank explosion sounded almost at the same time as the sky-breaking whistling sound that came after the supersonic armor-piercing shell hit the target. The KV1 heavy tank, which had no way to react and dodge in time, was like a bottle of Coke that was suddenly opened after being violently shaken. The explosion flames that rushed straight into the sky were accompanied by a deafening roar, and even pushed the KV1 heavy tank's heavy turret weighing 7 tons into the air more than ten meters high.
The powerful force of the explosion of the first ammunition rack in the turret and the ammunition rack on the chassis directly tore the KV1 heavy tank into pieces.
This sudden death storm swept everything around with shrapnel and tank armor fragments. More than a dozen Soviet soldiers who followed behind the KV1 heavy tank and had no time to dodge were instantly swept into human sieves. The broken limbs, arms and legs, various human organ fragments and even a whole head were directly splashed on other Soviet tanks and infantry around, which was shocking.
The huge and strong explosion sound was accompanied by the soaring flames and the turret flying into the air. Even Malashenko, who was in the center of the siege column and was responsible for commanding the battle, could see it clearly in his tank commander's periscope.
It was able to kill the KV1 heavy tank with a single shot from the 90mm thick curved gun shield and the 75mm thick outer edge of the turret front armor, and the first ammunition rack inside the turret exploded, blowing the entire 47-ton steel behemoth into pieces. Such a powerful anti-armor power was obviously only one in the German equipment sequence in 1941.
"Frontline troops report the situation! Find the enemy's firing position, immediately!"
The loud roar of the order echoed throughout the battalion-level vehicle communication channel. Not long after, another KV1 heavy tank at the forefront of the siege column responded to Malashenko.
"Comrade Battalion Commander, the Germans have deployed a heavy anti-tank gun in a building on the square in the two o'clock direction. It should be their 88 gun! It is still about 500 meters away from that building. The entire square It’s very empty, what should we do?”
Before the voice of the report from the vehicle-mounted radio had finished, another 88 mm armor-piercing projectile roaring at high speed followed closely at this moment.
call out--
Ding-ding——
Although the 88 gun in the hands of the German army had strong anti-armor power that could defy everything in 1941, the ever-changing battlefield did not give the 88 gun the best aiming angle under all circumstances.
Sensing the presence of German heavy anti-armor firepower, he immediately started to switch to reverse gear and reverse the vehicle. The 88mm armor-piercing round that hit the moving target unfortunately created a spark on the side of the KV1 heavy tank turret and jumped directly. The bullet flies away.
With the whistling of artillery shells echoing in his ears, Malashenko immediately realized that the battle could no longer be delayed. If he continued to hesitate like this, he would only become a target of anti-tank firepower from the German stronghold and be passively beaten.
"Keep the current formation and retreat immediately. The Germans' anti-tank firepower cannot cover the entire block! Retreat to their blind spot, quickly!"