Chapter 510 Airdrop

After reoccupying the west bank of Holm, Matevich was not happy at all, because after counting the losses, the Soviet army suffered more than 3,000 casualties in this battle, 37 artillery pieces and hundreds of tons of ammunition and supplies... Some of the ammunition was stored in Holm for transit.

With a nervous mind, Matevich answered the phone of General Pukayev.

"Comrade Pukayev!" Matevich reported: "I am sorry to report to you that we suffered heavy losses in a surprise attack last night!"

"I heard about it!" Pukayev replied.

"Please punish me, Comrade Pukayev!" Matevich said: "I did not complete the task you assigned to me!"

The scene in Matevich's mind was the scene when Major General Vardani committed suicide.

Matevich also thought about escaping, but he knew that he had nowhere to escape. There was only one way in front of him, that is, to face it head-on.

But the situation was much better than Matevich imagined.

"Comrade Matvich!" General Pukayev's voice came from the other end of the phone: "No one can guarantee that they will always win on the battlefield. You have done a good job. Don't take last night's failure to heart. The organization believes that you can eventually defeat the Germans and recapture Holm. Keep working hard!" Matvich couldn't help but half open his mouth and couldn't speak when he heard this. Then he breathed a sigh of relief and put down a big stone in his heart. He knew that he had escaped. Pukayev did this because he was also following the battle in Holm... The small town of Holm has become more and more prominent in the Soviet and German armies. The army group headquarters of both sides have set their sights on this small town of only a few square kilometers. Therefore, Pukayev knew the difficulties of the Holm Campaign, and also knew that Matvich performed quite well in this battle, and even reached the brink of victory several times, but the performance of the Germans was beyond everyone's expectations. "But, Comrade Matevich!" Then Pukayev changed the subject and said, "I hope you understand that Comrade Stalin never asked about the process, so you know what to do!"

"Yes!" Matevich stood up and replied, "I promise not to let Comrade Stalin and you down!"

After hanging up the phone, Matevich turned his eyes to Petrolev, and the two couldn't help hugging to celebrate.

This may be a kind of sadness for Soviet generals of this era... They are most likely to die not at the hands of the enemy, but at the hands of their own people, so they are more worried about how to deal with their own people rather than how to deal with the enemy.

The German army cheered, and no one knew who started it. The soldiers shouted in unison:

"Frick!"

"Frick!"

...

"Captain!" Colonel Slaine shook Qin Chuan's hand and gave him a warm hug, saying, "You won, again! Although I know I should get used to this, I can't do it, because you know, every victory of yours is almost a life-or-death experience for us! So, please, Captain, if possible, think of a solution earlier next time, and it's best to defeat the enemy right away, so that we will all feel relieved!"

The officers and soldiers around were amused by Colonel Slaine's words.

"It was an impressive battle, Captain!" Major General Hartmann came up and shook Qin Chuan's hand, saying, "Like I said, gold will shine wherever it goes!"

Qin Chuan certainly knew what Hartmann meant by this, but he pretended to be confused and simply replied, "Thank you, General!"

After retaking the Lovat River defense line, there was a great advantage in the German defense, because this would keep the Soviet army in a large unobstructed low-lying area and suppressed by the German army. More importantly, the Soviet army's trench filling plan could not be implemented... After the tunnels on the drop line were opened, there were more tunnel entrances on the east bank defense line. These tunnel entrances were like bunker firing holes facing the Soviet army. If the Soviet army still used bridge-building vehicles and bulldozers as before, there was no doubt that the tunnel entrances would paralyze them with rockets when they approached.

So, the only thing the Soviet army could do seemed to be to start with supplies as before: on the one hand, increase the blockade of Holm, and on the other hand, consume Holm's ammunition with repeated attacks.

Although this is very important, to be honest, it doesn't matter much to Qin Chuan and other infantrymen, because this is an issue of the Air Force.

Qin Chuan only got some relevant information from Colonel Slaine when he was talking to him:

First, the Soviets increased the distance and density of air defense. The German army knew that the Soviet army had at least three anti-aircraft artillery regiments, which were deployed in the near, middle and far sections outside Holm.

The near section is the last line of defense of the Soviet air defense, and the middle and far sections are distributed within a range of more than ten kilometers from Holm, which is exactly the distance where the glider and the transport plane are disconnected.

The Soviet army's approach is that once the roar of the air transport plane is heard in any direction, it is assumed that the German army has a glider supporting Holm in this direction, so it immediately orders the far and middle sections of the anti-aircraft firepower to maneuver to the nearest route for interception, and the near section is also ready.

This method is indeed very effective, because it actually serves as a kind of early warning.

But this effect can only play a limited role, because listening to the sound is really unreliable and it is easy to be deceived... The German Air Force only needs to send a few transport planes to a certain direction to deceive the Soviet air defense forces to rush to a certain direction with the sound, and then send real support forces to Holm in the opposite direction.

The Soviet air defense forces are ground-mobile, and their speed is very slow, especially on the snow at night, so they can never keep up with the rhythm of transport planes.

Secondly, the German Northern Army Group has almost retreated, which has freed up some fighters for the German Air Force, so it can increase the supply and firepower assistance to Holm.

This is of course good news for Holm. A significant change is that airborne supply has started again... Each airborne airdrop uses fighters and bombers to bombard the Soviet air defense positions, and then uses Heinkel HE111 bombers to drop them.

The efficiency of airdropping by bombers is obviously much higher than that by transport planes. After all, transport plane pilots are non-combat troops in principle, and their mission is generally transportation rather than airdropping, while the mission of bombers is to drop bombs and they have to drop them accurately.