Chapter 645 How Dare They?

Malachenko, who had a face-to-face conversation with Zhukov, knew very well that all the ammunition needed by all the counterattack troops had been delivered in succession on the evening of September 4, the day before. According to Zhukov's way of doing things, Malachenko did not believe that Zhukov would tamper with the supply of ammunition. This kind of thing was simply outrageous.

Malachenko estimated that the scene of Iushkin seeing a whole box of shells being loaded onto the car should be that the shells were unloaded from the car and placed in order to deal with the inspection or go through the process, and they would show someone a desperate posture of not leaving the front line until all the shells were used up.

Once the inspection was over or the attack was about to begin, all the shells were immediately loaded onto the car to prepare for the escape.

Malachenko could guess that the battle of Stalingrad was like this, and some front-line commanders would definitely be discouraged and pessimistic about the future. This was a normal and reasonable situation in Malachenko's view.

But the most unexpected thing is that when the war is imminent, he is busy fighting on the front line, but there is such a cowardly guy behind him who is planning to run away in advance. Such a thing would be unpleasant for anyone, including Malashenko who is very angry at the moment.

"Coward, coward! Such a guy commands an artillery regiment, why doesn't he go to Siberia to participate in labor reform!?"

Malashenko, who was almost angry and his forehead was smoking, started to curse loudly in his car without any scruples. Iushkin, who had been silent all the time, seemed unusually calm at this moment, and even persuaded Malashenko.

"There are people like this everywhere, comrade commander. I heard last year that those artillery units that are always in a relatively safe place in the rear always use the excuse of insufficient ammunition to get away when they encounter danger and want to retreat. But there are only a few such people. Many comrades are still determined to fight. Just ignore it."

Malashenko, who was holding a cigarette in his hand and yelling a few times, gradually began to calm down. After all, yelling and yelling can't solve the problem and it's useless. Malashenko, whose anger gradually calmed down, swore that after this battle, he must report this kind of bug to Comrade Lao Zhu in his real name, but the premise is that he can really survive this battle and live until then.

The short episode did not last too long. Malashenko, who was chatting with Iushkin in the car, soon waited for the arrival of the last moment.

When the hour hand pointed to the number 5 accurately, the Soviet artillery group deployed behind the offensive position reported the time on time and began to thunder at the German army who was still asleep on the opposite position.

The thunderous artillery bombardment was unstoppable. Although this counterattack was a local counterattack to achieve tactical goals at the beginning, Zhukov, who was in charge of commanding this operation, did his best to mobilize all the artillery firepower he could mobilize, just to make a decisive breakthrough at the key breakthrough point in the shortest time.

The artillery regiments of the Soviet infantry divisions participating in the counterattack gathered all the heavy artillery, and the 122 guns and 152 guns fired a volley of fire on the artillery positions.

The BM-13 Katyusha rocket launchers, which had suffered heavy losses in the previous battle and were already few in number, were also put into preparation for this artillery attack in the form of a whole battalion.

Most of the German soldiers who were still asleep early in the morning were awakened by the loud noise and sat up. The Soviet heavy artillery cluster barrage hit them directly on the top of their heads. The simple German offensive starting position that was deployed in a state was shrouded in a sea of ​​fire within less than half a minute after the gunfire.

At the forward offensive starting position of the Soviet 24th Army, Malashenko, who was rarely seen with army-level artillery firepower, was leaning out of the turret to enjoy the beautiful scenery in front of him.

The deafening gun body and the explosion of the German position were so beautiful that Malashenko, who leaned out of the turret to enjoy the scene in front of him, could even feel an inexplicable boiling of blood.

The unparalleled sense of conquest and strong visual impact brought by large-caliber artillery are indeed incomparable. Even people like Malashenko who do not worship "caliber is truth" can be deeply attracted by the scene in front of them. The scene of heavy artillery clusters hitting the enemy's forehead and destroying everything can best stimulate the violent gene buried deep in men's hearts.

"Poor Germans were blown to pieces before they even had time to put on their pants, comrade tank commander. I guess those Germans are so rampant that they didn't even dig anti-artillery holes. They will suffer this time."

Ivushkin said a sentence casually based on his previous combat experience, but he didn't expect it to hit the mark. At this moment, the German soldiers whose foreheads were blown open at the starting position of the attack were indeed miserable and howling, and they couldn't even find a place to hide.

The continuous surging advance for many days gradually made the German army paralyzed and careless. The time the German vanguard troops, who were advancing almost every day, stayed in a fixed place was calculated by hours.

Under such circumstances, many German vanguard troops even gave up digging anti-artillery holes at the starting positions of the attack in order to save trouble.

With the average position changing every few hours, it would obviously be unrealistic to dig bomb-proof holes every time we arrived at a new place, and it would be very tiring if we didn't tire people to death. Moreover, from the perspective of the increasingly arrogant German army, how could the remaining Soviet troops, which were almost wiped out, still have the courage to launch a large-scale counterattack? It would be nice not to shiver in their bombed-out city.

Such thoughts not only existed among the German front-line troops with high morale, but even Paulus, the commander of the Sixth Army who was in command at the headquarters, also believed so with optimism.

boom--

A loud bang on the door suddenly woke up Paulus from his sleep. Last night, he and the chief of staff, Major General Schmidt, discussed the battle plan until one o'clock in the middle of the night. Paulus, who was very sleepy, had just laid down. Less than four hours later, I was woken up completely and violently.

"General Paulus, it's bad! The Russians are attacking! The position is now a sea of ​​fire, and the headquarters' phones are almost buzzing!"

The staff officer on duty who opened the door stood at the door of the room and yelled at Paulus who had just sat up from the bed. Paulus, whose eyes were bloodshot, sat on the edge of the bed and blinked with his eyes half open. His jaw was a little dazed for a moment, and only he could hear the subconscious murmurs that came out of his mouth.

"How dare? How dare they? Are these damn Ivans crazy!?"