Chapter 1748: Hard to Defend Against Hidden Stabs

"Comrade Deputy Commander, the Germans are retreating! They are starting to retreat!"

"I saw it! All crews, move forward, rush up and bite the Germans, we can't let them just..."

Woo——

"Damn the shelling! All"

Boom——

Before Lavrinenko could finish the words on his lips, the German cannon shells that whistled straight from the distant horizon had already hit the ground firmly and roared.

This sudden shelling was indeed without any signs. Lavrinenko didn't even understand for a moment why the Germans, who had such powerful field artillery in their hands, retreated so hastily. Wouldn't it be better to take the opportunity to rush up and tear open their own formation and fight in close combat after a wave of bombing?

But now the violent explosions that continued to sound outside the car would no longer leave Lavrinenko more time to think. Under the enemy's large-caliber artillery barrage, staying even for one more second is a suicidal act, even if you are driving a heavy tank with strong armor and powerful guns.

As long as the caliber of the artillery is large enough, the powerful projectile warhead charge will not matter whether you are an armored target or a soft target, whether it is the top of a heavy tank or a flesh and blood body, all of them will be blown to pieces equally.

The German field artillery unit will bombard us in the same way as our own field artillery cluster bombarded the German tanks before.

If a shot hits the top of the head, the death of IS6 and IS4 will not be any different from that of the King Tiger in any essential way.

The violent movement caused by the explosion of the 122mm projectile ammunition rack on the back of the head of our heavy tank is probably much more exciting than the 88-gun shells on the head of the German King Tiger.

Not to mention that the tanks were not fighting in a pure cluster, and there were a large number of infantrymen accompanying the battle. Lavrinenko didn't even dare to think about the terrible casualties suffered by the accompanying infantrymen outside at this moment.

"Retreat! Retreat quickly, all the crews and infantrymen retreat! Get out of the Germans' barrage! Quick!"

According to the standard of encountering such a sudden artillery attack, Lavrinenko's reaction speed was indeed fast enough and fully qualified. He fulfilled his responsibilities as a battlefield commander and remained calm in the face of danger.

The Red Army crews and infantrymen who were suddenly tricked by the Germans immediately began to retreat. Fortunately, the Germans' field artillery did not seem to be too many, and their firepower was far less "mighty" than the Red Army's field artillery cluster.

Judging from the continuous falling of the shells, although the explosions were not small, the number of these guns was estimated to be at most 30 or 40, which was probably the size of an artillery battalion or half an artillery regiment?

Maybe, anyway, the situation is so urgent that it is hard to say. Who has time to think about this when the situation is urgent? Nothing is more important than retreating quickly. Lavrinenko, who has already cursed the Germans for dozens of times in his heart, now only hopes that the losses suffered by his side can be as small as possible.

In addition, it feels like being beaten but unable to fight back, which is really frustrating.

Lavrinenko commanded the troops to retreat quickly, which is inevitably related to the relatively good mobility of the Stalin series of heavy tanks. Even a huge and bulky tank like IS4 is only less mobile than IS6.

If compared with the German Tiger King, the mobility of IS4 is undoubtedly still superior.

Another potential factor is that the German field artillery did not seem to have much intention to fight, and there was no movement after a short dozen rounds of firing.

Lavrinenko, who has some knowledge of artillery due to his own interests, analyzed the Germans' maximum firepower density and the duration of the bombardment, and estimated that each German gun may have fired less than 20 shots before stopping and taking a break.

This may be because the German artillery really has no intention of fighting and only wants to force its own side to retreat, but if you think about it from another angle, is this also caused by insufficient German artillery reserves, or the inability to maintain high-intensity continuous firing due to the supply of artillery?

Regardless of the reason, Lavrinenko felt that there must be something wrong with the German artillery.

It's okay not to use it to assist the attack but to cover the retreat, but the bombardment was so stingy that it stopped in less than ten minutes. It would be strange to say that there is no problem at all, but he just can't figure out the truth for the time being.

"These bastard fascists actually tricked us! Damn bastards!"

Lavrinenko, who led the troops to retreat to a safe distance, was holding a telescope and observing the battlefield situation, which was still hot. The commander of the 3rd Tank Regiment, who had just got off the car, was cursing and complaining beside him.

"What are the casualties of your regiment? Have you roughly counted them?"

What Lavrinenko cares about most at the moment is the casualties of the troops. If the casualties are too large, it will be difficult to explain to Malashenko, but that's the second thing. If the casualties are really so large that they affect the next attack and thus affect the entire combat plan, that would be the most maddening and terrible thing.

"The loss is not big. According to preliminary statistics, about 6 IS6s and 9 T-43s were left on the battlefield and did not come back. Half of the crews of these vehicles were withdrawn, and the remaining half were..."

The third regiment commander stopped talking at this point and did not continue. Lavrinenko certainly understood what it meant that the tanks were left on the battlefield and the people had not yet withdrawn. The current situation was described as dangerous.

"We lack artillery and cannot destroy the German artillery positions, comrade deputy division commander. We should call for aviation support immediately and let them eliminate the Germans' broken guns and clear the obstacles for us. We can still crush these fascist bandits. The troops still have the strength to do so!"

The third regiment commander, whose losses were not too great, was full of fighting spirit and wanted to fight again, but Lavrinenko was obviously still considering other issues.

"It's not enough to just consider the loss of tanks. We brought few infantrymen, and we were suddenly hit by this. If the infantry casualties are too great, we will not be able to continue the attack. What can tanks do? Will the German infantrymen line up and wait for you to crush them? Wait until the infantry casualties are roughly counted before deciding on the situation."

""

The third regiment commander was speechless after being reasoned with by Lavrinenko, and he knew that he was just angry and impulsive, and just now he was thinking about rushing up for revenge and pleasure.

Just when the third regiment commander was about to say something to Lavrinenko, a staff officer from the regiment suddenly ran up and saluted to report.

"Comrade deputy division commander, comrade division commander is waiting for you online, and asks you to answer the radio immediately."