Chapter 826: Kovo Plain

When Colonel Slaine conveyed to Qin Chuan that "the Soviets attacked the supply line of the 48th Armored Corps", Qin Chuan knew that the Soviets had been fooled again.

Although the plain area is suitable for tank troops to fight, if both sides are tank troops, whoever enters this area first will suffer losses.

The reason is simple. Tanks entering this area will inevitably suffer considerable losses due to exposure to enemy firepower.

This is also one of the reasons why the Soviet and German armies are confronting each other on both sides of the Kovo Plain.

However, if the Soviet army is much stronger than the German army, or the Soviet army thinks that their strength is much stronger than the German army, just like now... The German army has only more than 100 tanks left, while the Soviet army has more than 400 tanks, then the Soviet army will not care about this loss.

The Soviet army can rush across the Kovo Plain to defeat the enemy in front of it, and then drive the German army out of the defense line along the German offensive route, and then outflank the rear of the German SS 2nd Panzer Army... Then the Soviet army can achieve a complete victory.

Even the "elephant" ("Tiger" tank) that the Soviet army could not resist would not be a problem... If the transportation supply line of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps was cut off, they would soon face the desperate situation of no fuel and no shells. No matter how thick the armor of the "elephant" was or how strong its firepower was, it would not be able to play its role.

Unfortunately, all of this was just an illusion, a beautiful blueprint that Qin Chuan drew for the Soviet commander.

In fact, from the beginning... Qin Chuan made the Soviet army mistakenly believe that the 48th Armored Division was a soft persimmon that was easy to squeeze, making them think that they would definitely win on this side, but there were no reserve troops or defensive measures.

"Armored troops, move forward!" Colonel Olbrich ordered on the walkie-talkie.

He personally boarded a "Panzer IV" tank to command this battle, not only because it was a decisive battle, but also because he needed to command the tank troops on the spot to coordinate with the ME63.

One tank after another started up, and then "clack clack" rolled forward on the thick snow. The team opened a several-kilometer-wide offensive front from west to east, and drove towards the Kovo Plain.

This was another point that the Soviet army missed. In fact, the main force of the German armored forces had never left. It was only an infantry division that encircled the Soviet army from the right wing, that is, the Svka Highway. They used canvas, wood blocks, etc. to "make" a batch of fake tanks to move forward.

The real tanks were actually south of the Kovo Plain.

The tanks moved at a speed of five kilometers per hour. From time to time, a few fighter planes flew overhead towards the Soviet army. The walkie-talkie kept receiving instructions and intelligence from the command center:

"Keep moving forward!"

"The Soviets are four kilometers ahead, heading towards us!"

"We have air superiority!"

...

This was the only time since the war began that the 48th Armored Corps received full cooperation from the German Air Force... Before that, they were hovering over the 2nd SS Armored Corps.

Obviously, this time the situation is special.

Because everyone knows that the 48th Armored Corps will have a head-on confrontation with the enemy tank troops, and without air superiority, it will obviously suffer a great loss.

A few minutes later, the tank troops arrived at the destination, the Kovo Plain.

The tanks stopped at the border of the plain and prepared for battle... This is the defensive position carefully selected by Colonel Olbrich.

The defensive position of the tank is different from that of the infantry.

Infantry usually chooses high ground, and the reason is needless to say, standing high and seeing far, and it is easier to hide.

But tanks tend to die faster in high places... A guy as big as a tank stands on the high ground like a target waiting for the enemy's artillery and tanks to fire shells at it.

What's more serious is that because the firing range of the tank gun has a certain range, especially the angle of shooting downward is very small, and the high ground is often uneven, which makes it impossible for the tank to aim at the target and shoot on the high ground.

Therefore, a good tank position should be as flat and wide as here, so that it is convenient for tanks to shoot and maneuver. At the same time, most of the targets on the opposite side should be within the range of the tanks. If there is a blind spot, there should be one or more arrangements that can suppress the blind spot, such as manually digging several combat slopes.

However, the problem of blind spots does not exist here, because the Kovo Plain in front of us is empty, the whole world is white, and only the small bushes and highlands covered by snow two kilometers away on the opposite side block the sight of the German soldiers.

The surroundings are very quiet, only the mountain wind is whistling over the plain, and from time to time, a few tornado-like snowflakes are rolled up on the plain and dance wildly in front of the German army, as if they are laughing at these soldiers shivering in the cold wind, and as if they are trying to escape from them.

Finally, a faint "rumbling" sound of the motor came from the opposite side, and then it got closer and louder, and the snow on the branches was shaken down "swooshing".

Then, amid the sound of trees cracking, a T34 tank appeared in front of the German soldiers, followed by another, and another... Soon, the opposite side was full of Soviet tanks, and the red flags flying on the tanks and the red five-pointed stars on the turrets looked particularly obvious in the snow.

Eberhard, who was next to Qin Chuan, put down his telescope and said, "The Soviets don't know how to hide themselves!"

"This is a good thing for us!" Qin Chuan said, "especially the ME63 operator!"

"Of course!" Eberhard said.

Before he finished speaking, there was a whistling sound of dense artillery shells in the sky, and then rows of artillery shells exploded at the German positions.

The battle started instantly, and the German artillery immediately suppressed the Soviet artillery. While the air force dropped bombs and strafed the Soviet artillery, it also sent some fighters to dive and strafed the Soviet tank group.

These fighters were HS-129 ground attack aircraft, newly invented equipment by the German army, mainly developed to deal with the Soviet large-scale tanks... It was equipped with a 30MM caliber cannon, which could attack the weak armor on the top of the Soviet tank from the air and destroy it, so it was called the "tank can opener".

However, as the armor of Soviet tanks became thicker and thicker, the caliber of the artillery they carried became larger and larger, and finally they even moved the 75MM anti-tank gun up.

The "tank can opener" lived up to its reputation. As soon as it dived down, several T34 tanks immediately emitted black smoke and caught fire under their firepower, and some even exploded on the spot.

Therefore, under the threat of this ground attack aircraft, the Soviet tanks immediately launched an offensive.

Instantly, the entire Kovo Plain was filled with Soviet T34s.