Chapter 483 Bombing

Half an hour later, more intense bombings followed.

From the sound, it can be heard that the Soviet long-range artillery has arrived. Under the guidance of the ski soldiers, they fired a large number of shells into the town of Holm.

These shells brought devastating damage, and then several Soviet fighters and bombers also joined the bombing and strafing. Although most of the Germans were hiding in buildings or hiding in trenches, they could not see the target at all, but they still bombed the bottom indiscriminately.

Every house and even every piece of ruins were repeatedly attacked. Sometimes you can hear the unique whistling sound of a few "Katyusha" rockets in the shells, and the explosions of various shells and bombs shook the whole town of Holm.

Major General Hartmann had the deepest experience of this scene.

He hid in the church on the east side... Major General Hartmann was a smart man. He certainly knew that compared with his police force and those stragglers, the east side where the First Infantry Regiment was stationed was the safest. The east side should be the safest church. After all, it is a kind of faith thing. He believed that the Soviets would not easily bombard it, which is one of the reasons why they concentrated the wounded in the church.

But unexpectedly, the Soviets did not miss it.

A shell hit the wall of the church and exploded violently. The whole church shook and a large piece of dust fell from the top. The chandelier swayed overhead and made a "ding ding ding dang dang" sound, as if it was about to fall.

The wounded lost control in an instant... This is understandable. The wounded were deeply tortured by the injury and were extremely fragile. At this time, they could not bear the threat.

However, there was another extreme performance, that is, lying still no matter how chaotic the outside world was, as if the world had nothing to do with him.

But more wounded still made loud noises and caused extreme chaos. So there were groans, shouts and various weird noises everywhere, mixed with complaints about the explosion and angry curses from time to time.

Another shell fell from the sky, and the wall near the door began to collapse. Dozens of wounded were trapped in the ruins. The dust brought up by the collapse covered everything. The wounded coughed and their throats were constantly choked, making waves of vomiting-like sounds.

Those who couldn't move tried to crawl over those who were more seriously injured. There was a panic, and everyone's face was full of fear, desperate to escape, as if this would make them safer. There were horrible pictures everywhere. Some people staggered, crawled or walked, and some people tried their best to squeeze into a place they thought was safer.

However, in this hell-like massacre, where is the safe place? The shells whistled and rained down around, like the god of death raising his scythe again and again...

Finally, the bombing was over, and Major General Hartmann crawled out from under the table in a mess, and saw a mess.

"Quick!" Major General Hartmann shouted at the panicked soldiers: "Dig them all out!"

While the soldiers were busy, Major General Hartmann cursed again: "You idiots, what can we do with so few people? Go and call those damn Soviets!"

"Yes, General!"

So soon a group of Soviets were conscripted by Major General Hartmann... This is how the suffering of the Soviet people began. Those who were conscripted and served by the German army would be regarded as traitors when the Soviets attacked.

However, the Soviets did not launch an attack.

If there was an attack, it was two tentative attacks. After being repelled by the German army's random gunfire, they built a defense line one kilometer away...The purpose of their attack was to find the location of the German defense line.

"What are they doing?" Kuhn asked, "Why aren't they attacking?"

"What?" Gerhard asked in surprise, "Weren't they attacking just now?"

"That can only be considered a test, Lieutenant Colonel!" Qin Chuan said, "You will soon know what a real attack is!"

Qin Chuan knew what the Soviets were doing, just as he had said to Colonel Slaine before... The Soviets' target was not the First Infantry Regiment, nor Gerhard's scattered soldiers, nor Holm.

The Soviets' goal was to cut off the retreat of the German Northern Army Group.

From this purpose, they could not stop because of the town of Holm, so the smart way was to leave a few troops to surround Holm, and then the main force continued to advance.

As for Holm, it was not a threat to the Soviet army at all...it was just a small town, and it was only a matter of time to capture it.

Qin Chuan guessed correctly that the Soviet 3rd Assault Army had a total of 4 divisions, 7 independent snow infantry battalions, and a total of 51,500 people.

Commander General Maxim Alexeevich Pukayev ordered the 33rd Infantry Division to encircle Holm, and the other troops crossed Holm and continued to advance westwards towards Velikiye Luki.

General Pukayev ordered the commander of the 33rd Infantry Division, Major General Vardani: "I'll give you a week to occupy Holm!"

"Yes, General!" Major General Vardani answered confidently.

In Major General Vardani's view, there were only 5,000 German troops trapped in Holm... The Soviets could easily grasp the situation of the German troops in Holm because there were insiders planted by the Soviet army.

This was the preparation made by the Soviet army during the Battle of Moscow. Holm was a major transportation route and there was a German airport before that, so it has always been a logistics base and transfer base for the German army.

In order to understand the supply situation of the German army, the Soviet army must of course set up an inside line in Holm.

With a division of more than 10,000 people attacking the remnants of the German army of 5,000 people, and having an absolute advantage in supply and equipment, Major General Vardani thought it was not a difficult task.

So Major General Vardani placed three regiments in three directions of Holm: the 164th Regiment in the north, the 73rd Regiment in the west, and the 82nd Regiment in the south.

Only the east was left empty, because he knew that the east was the strongest side of the German defense. Doing so can not only avoid the enemy's sharp edge but also give the enemy a little fantasy of breaking through to achieve the purpose of disintegrating its morale and will.

Finally, Major General Vardani transferred the 170th Tank Battalion.

This tank battalion has 25 tanks, of which 13 are T34.

Major General Vardani believed that... with these tanks, he would be able to break into the town and wipe out all the enemies inside in just one night.