Chapter 593 Kerch Line of Defense

At 6:30 pm, Manstein decided to launch an attack.

In fact, Manstein didn't need to be so anxious... The Kerch Peninsula is located in the northern hemisphere. In May and June, the sunshine time is particularly long, and it usually takes about 7:30 to 8 pm to get dark. (Note: The latitude of the Kerch Peninsula is similar to that of Beijing. The light conditions can refer to the dark time in Beijing in May and June)

In other words, the German army actually has time to make some more preparations.

But Manstein has obviously lost his patience, or it can be said that Manstein lacks confidence.

"We can't guarantee that we can successfully break through the enemy's defense line in one attack!" Manstein said: "In addition, I need to leave some time to attack Kerch City, so now is the time!"

Qin Chuan can understand Manstein's mentality. He shoulders the fate of the entire 11th Army, so he must be careful.

What's more, the engineers have now converted six paving tanks and strung enough logs to pave five passages.

"Captain!" Manstein asked Qin Chuan: "In this case, you won't object to me letting the First Infantry carry out the offensive mission!"

"Of course not, General!" Qin Chuan replied.

This is not only because Qin Chuan couldn't refuse, but also because Qin Chuan was confident in this battle... If you know you can win and you can easily win, why not do it?

Of course, Manstein didn't think so. He thought: If the paving tanks don't work, then the First Infantry Regiment may also win the battle with its amazing firepower and combat effectiveness. Simply put, it is to give this battle a double insurance.

What Manstein didn't expect was that the ease of this battle was almost beyond everyone's imagination, so that the 11th Army, especially its main force, the 22nd Armored Division, had some complaints about it... Because they thought that the First Infantry Regiment didn't make much effort in the entire battle, but it was the First Infantry Regiment that finally won the fruits of victory.

These are all later stories.

The attack plan of the First Infantry Regiment was: the first batch of the First Battalion followed the paving tanks and advanced to about 300 meters to cooperate with the tanks to suppress the Soviet firepower, and then the Second Battalion followed closely and launched a charge towards the Soviet defense line. The Third Battalion served as a reinforcement force to attack Kerch City.

The 28th Jager Division also launched an attack at the same time as the First Infantry Regiment.

Of course, the 28th Jager Division was not the main force of the attack, they only supported and delayed the Soviet army in other directions.

After being prepared, Manstein ordered into the walkie-talkie: "Fire!"

"Boom" was a burst of dense artillery sound.

The bombing target was divided into two parts, one part bombed the Soviet defense line, but most of them were mortars.

The main force was aimed at the Soviet artillery positions detected before, and this bombing was guided by aerial reconnaissance aircraft, so after a round of artillery fire, the Soviet artillery was basically silenced.

After ten minutes of bombing, with Manstein's order, the troops launched an attack.

There were gunshots and artillery roars. The German soldiers of the 28th Jaeger Division pressed towards the Soviet defense line from all directions without the cover of tanks.

Of course, they did not charge, but leaped towards the Soviet army in a scattered formation to attract the Soviet army's attention and firepower.

Then, the paving tanks in front of the First Infantry Regiment began to move forward.

It was modified from the "Three" tank. The engine "rumbled" and slowly moved forward. At the same time, a string of logs was uploaded on the conveyor belt and laid in front of the tank's tracks... This allowed the tank to move smoothly in the muddy ground.

"Forward!" Colonel Slaine ordered: "Follow the tanks!"

The soldiers of the First Infantry Regiment followed one by one with their MP43s in their hands.

Qin Chuan was of course one of them, but he was still holding a sniper rifle... For troops generally equipped with MP43, the sniper's task was even heavier, because long-distance targets were beyond the range of MP43, and they could only be suppressed by machine guns and snipers.

However, there seemed to be no such worries in this battle, because they were all advancing behind the tanks.

The Soviet army did not expect the Germans to drive tanks up, of course, because of the mud in front of the position.

Therefore, almost all the equipment in the Soviet defense line was aimed at infantry. If there was anything that could deal with tanks, it was the tanks deployed in the defense line, but these tanks were either blown up by German bombers or the remaining ones were light tanks, which could not threaten the German "Type 3" tanks at all.

Lieutenant General Yefimovich, commander of the 46th Soviet Army, immediately called the headquarters: "Comrade Kozlov, German tanks are coming up, request reinforcements, request reinforcements!"

"German tanks?" Kozlov asked in confusion: "How can their tanks come up?"

"They pave the road with wood..."

"Comrade Yefimovich!" Mekhlis impatiently snatched the phone from Kozlov and said: "Won't you fire at their engineers when the Germans pave the road? Won't you counterattack them? Will you let the enemy pave the road in front of you!"

"No, Comrade Mekhlis!" Lieutenant General Yefimovich wanted to explain but didn't know how to explain. After a while, he had to say: "You should come here and see, they are paving the road with tanks!"

Mekhlis looked at Kozlov when he heard this. The two climbed onto the roof half-believingly and raised their binoculars to look down. Sure enough, they saw several tanks paving the road while moving forward.

Although the tanks were not advancing very fast, they paved the road wherever they went, and they were about to reach the Soviet trenches.

"What is that?" Mehlis asked in panic.

"I don't know!" Kozlov answered helplessly: "I only know that the Germans are going to break through our last line of defense!"

Three hundred meters away from the Soviet army, the first battalion was divided into two parts: one part continued to follow the tanks to pave the road, and the other part launched fire suppression on the Soviet army in the gaps between the tanks.

The distance of 300 meters was carefully considered.

First of all, the range of the MP43 in the hands of the German army is 350 meters, and the distance of 300 is completely within their range.

Secondly, Qin Chuan knew that the Soviet army was equipped with a light mortar similar to the German 50MM mortar... The army of this era generally equipped with light mortars, which made it play the same role as the Japanese grenade launcher on the battlefield.

This light mortar of the Soviet army is 37MM caliber and has a range of 300 meters.

In other words, the German army was 300 meters away, which was exactly the maximum range of this mortar, so they could suppress the Soviet army with relative ease.

At the same time, the second infantry battalion followed from behind under the cover of another group of tanks.