Chapter 533 Castle (10)

At 4:35 in the morning of May 25, 1943, in the headquarters in Smolensk, Hoffman confidently issued the order to officially launch the "Castle" campaign. This was of course symbolic. Before that, detailed orders had already been conveyed to the commanders of each unit carrying out the mission.

It was a sunny day, and the front-line airports ushered in the most crowded and busy moments. Amid the deafening roar, the bombers took off first and then waited for the escort fighters to set off together. In order to increase the intensity of the attack, the Bf-219 and Fw-190A, which had become the backbone fighters on the Eastern Front, were all hung with bombs.

At 5:17, with the light of dawn, the first batch of air force units dropped bombs around the target. Those carefully arranged anti-tank positions, permanent or semi-permanent fortifications, places with antennas that looked like headquarters, artillery positions, especially anti-aircraft artillery positions, were all hit in a comprehensive manner, and the top priority was all the field airports deployed by the enemy within 200 kilometers of Tambov.

In order to achieve a good offensive effect, the air strike mainly used two types of bombers, Ju-188 and He-218. The former mainly dropped incendiary bombs, and the latter mainly dropped 250 kg bombs. The once popular and dominant Stuka was almost no longer seen, and was replaced by the light swan He-218. The newly commissioned Ju-188 also had better performance than the original Ju-88.

With the guarantee of Middle East oil, the German army finally had the luxury of using incendiary bomb tactics. They had a better destructive effect on soft targets, and could use their arson characteristics to cause secondary casualties. More importantly, the flames and smoke after burning could also indicate the direction for subsequent artillery fire, which was a double-edged sword.

Although the Red Army's ground air defense firepower tried its best to fight back, it was still useless. Except for a few unlucky aircraft shot down by ground air defense firepower, most of the positions that were prepared to be destroyed according to recent aerial photography were all hit. The poor Red Army Air Force 15th Group Army did not have enough aircraft, and under the fierce air raids of the German army, nearly 200 aircraft were destroyed in the airport and warehouse.

At 5:30, the German army began to bombard the enemy positions with large-caliber artillery fire, which covered the entire sky with dust and smoke. Although the sky was getting brighter, it seemed to be getting darker. Only the continuous flashes that pierced the sky and the rumbling roars made people realize that they were on the battlefield. The fierce firepower that exploded simultaneously in the air and on the ground almost melted the Red Army's position in the steel storm.

To ensure the suddenness of the offensive, Model made many adjustments and feints: First, he insisted on setting up the headquarters in Smolensk - the telegraph signals in the headquarters could not be concealed, and they would definitely be very dense, but placing it west of Moscow instead of near Voronezh played an obvious confusing role; second, he let Weichs' Eastern Army Group launch the offensive, and the combat order issued to them was May 27. Except for a very small number of people, all the troops of the Eastern Army Group thought it was a real order - there were plans, supplies, schedules, and combat area allocations. The only thing they didn't know was that they would be given a supplementary order of "plan postponement" later on May 26. Model believed that the spies lurking here would find ways to send out the "intelligence"; third, he kept the Voronezh direction on hold, and did not execute any actions that might cause misunderstanding or alertness - including mine clearance and pre-war surveys.

In order to block the attack of the German armored group, the Red Army buried a large number of anti-tank mines in the front-line positions, with different densities. Once the German tanks mistakenly entered the minefield and were trapped, they could carry out precise strikes with the anti-tank positions. Therefore, in previous battles, engineers were usually sent to clear mines in advance to open a passage for the attacking troops as much as possible and reduce tank losses. This kind of mine clearance operation is difficult to be completely concealed. The Red Army on the opposite side would often check the mine laying situation and judge the direction of the German attack.

But this time Model decided to force his way in with his equipment and not to clear mines before the war. His confidence came from the hundreds of mine clearance vehicles. The German military industry has been thinking about using machines to clear mines to improve efficiency. At first, they created Goliath-this small miniature tank box carries high explosives-explosives. Once it touches a mine, it will explode, causing all mines within 50 meters to be detonated.

The suicide weapon Goliath was originally controlled by wire and electric motors, but because the control technology was really troublesome, it was later changed to a gasoline engine. Although the whole thing looked quite fun and was not expensive, costing only about 1,000 marks each, which could provide soldiers with some entertainment in their spare time, Hoffman thought its efficiency was too low and its speed was too slow, so he demanded the development of better equipment. The military industry department then vigorously improved the Sdkfz301BIVa/b heavy remote-controlled blasting vehicle - Graben Wolf. Although the mine clearance efficiency of this thing was several times higher than that of Goliath, it was still very troublesome - because it still relied on the placement of explosives to detonate mines.

Finally, Hoffman issued a clear order. In view of the poor effectiveness of the demolition vehicles, the front line sent demining vehicles modified from service tanks to the combat engineers - vehicles modified from captured T-34s with poor performance. Inspired by the talent of "universal transformation", the T-34 with the turret removed was transformed into a rumbling demining vehicle. There are usually 2-3 mine-sweeping rollers in front of the vehicle body that slowly advance forward. A steel clapper similar to a boom will be erected in the middle where the turret was originally placed. Under the control of engineers, it continuously slaps the ground on both sides of the tank to detonate various mines. . A demining vehicle can usually carve out a path of 8-10 meters around, and its demining speed is twice that of Goliath, at least 12 kilometers per hour.

When the rollers in front are almost destroyed, these tanks will directly use the car body to go against the mines until the two tracks are completely blown up and unable to move. Then the engineers can abandon the vehicle and prepare to retreat. If the T-34 dedicated demining vehicle is not enough, those captured Shermans that have been converted into service tanks will continue to rush forward and continue their great work of demining with their bodies.

In addition to the T-34 enjoying this honor, those captured tanks, such as the M3 tank known as the Six Brothers Coffin, the Stuart tank captured from the Soviet army, and the BT\T-26 and other light tanks have all tried After modification, I finally found that the T-34 is the best - it has strong carrying capacity, good maneuverability, acceptable fault levels, and its defense is not bad, even if it encounters anti-tank mines. It would cause danger to the crew, and at most it would mean they could not move. Sherman's performance was also not bad, but how could their seizures be as large as the T-34?

In order to quickly open the attack channel, Model arranged a total of 200 mine-clearing tanks for the front line, and told the combat engineers below not to worry about these things. They would not explode if they hit the mines. As long as they can control the battlefield, they can clean up the battlefield. And it can be reused after recycling and repair.

Such a spectacular demining method is simply unheard of. Looking at the line of minesweepers rumbling forward, Colonel Fritz Beck, the commander of the 6th Tank Regiment of the 3rd Armored Division, observing from a distance, couldn't help but sigh: "I didn't expect it. We are so wealthy now that we actually use tanks to clear mines..."

"Yeah, what's even more unimaginable is that instead of building tanks or anti-tank destroyers, we actually build infantry fighting vehicles. Hey, are you really dreaming?" said the 1st Battalion Commander Ao beside him. Major To-Zolenkov was also deeply moved.

After the Assault tank destroyer equipped with an 88mm gun was successfully developed and put into mass production, the production of the Stalker tank destroyer modified with the 38T chassis was gradually stopped. In addition to continuing to use this chassis to transform it into a Cricket self-propelled artillery, the military industry department also Construction of the Rhino infantry fighting vehicle began with direct intervention.

This is a draft drawn by Hoffman based on the BMP infantry fighting vehicle. When it became reality, certain changes were made to adapt to the 38T chassis. The modified infantry fighting vehicle is 4.9 meters long, 2.2 meters wide, and weighs about 11 tons. With the improvement With a 140-horsepower engine, the maximum speed can reach 45 kilometers/hour. A standard infantry fighting vehicle can accommodate 10 people (2+8). There are 8 fully armed soldiers in the crew compartment, 4 people on each side, riding back to back. , there are 4 hatches on the top of the crew compartment, and 4 perforations on each side of the vehicle body. Personnel can enter and exit through the double doors at the rear of the vehicle, and can be quickly deployed when encountering an enemy situation.

According to the application idea, this tank will be assigned to the Panzergrenadier Regiment in the Armored Division, exactly one per squad. Although the number of personnel is 2 less than the standard 12, it is much more powerful than half-track infantry transport vehicles such as Sdk251 or 250. Not only is it a full-track design, it has better off-road performance, but its firepower has been greatly improved. Except for one 7.92 In addition to the mmMG42 general-purpose machine gun, it is also equipped with a 20mm machine gun. On some vehicles clearly designated as fire support squads (1 vehicle per row), the 20mm machine gun was replaced by a 75mm recoilless rifle - fixed on the vehicle while traveling. body and can be easily removed once in position.

The weapons carried by the infantry are not spared. The newly modified 10-man squad is a combination of 4 STG43s and 6 G43s. Compared with the previous K98 rifles, the firepower is no different. However, due to lack of time and production capacity, the number of new infantry fighting vehicles is not large, and only more than 600 vehicles have been completed. Only the 3rd Armored Division, the first batch of ace units to complete reorganization, has this honor, and even then it is only 2 Each grenadier regiment is equipped with an infantry fighting vehicle battalion, and the other battalions are still equipped with 12-man squads of Sdk251.

In order to facilitate the distinction, the strange name of armored assault grenadier was abruptly changed into the armored grenadier sequence - they will be the first batch of infantry to cooperate with the armored battalion into battle.

"Sir, the minefield has been cleared!"

Colonel Baker nodded, pointed at the intercom and gave the order: "Assault of the entire regiment!"