Chapter 885

A German Sergeant walked quickly to the position of a German 150 mm howitzer and called out to the soldiers who were wiping the guns: "the above urgent order, adjust the guns immediately, aim at area 22, fire half base coverage, now."

"Half base? Do you mean our whole artillery regiment has 24 150 mm howitzers, salvo half a base? " An artillery officer stood up from the ammunition box, went to the sergeant, took the order, checked it, and immediately turned back and yelled, "emergency command of the headquarters, half base fire, start to work! It's a good fight this time. "

With his shouts, the German artillery seemed to revive in an instant, and the quiet position was full of excitement. Some people began to adjust the parameters of the artillery according to the firing table, while others pried open the ammunition box with a crowbar and moved out the shells one by one.

The map in the artillery's hand is an accurate map that has been redrawn, on which the coordinate parameters of each block are marked with a grid. Therefore, the German artillery coverage fire is quite accurate, enough to cause great damage to the Soviet army in the attack.

The air defense camouflage net was carefully removed by the soldiers. Even now that there are few Soviet planes left, the German soldiers are required to strictly implement the air defense regulations, so as to avoid unnecessary losses in some special times. The barrel of the cannon kept shaking the handle with the soldiers, bit by bit too high, and finally pointed to the position they should be aimed at.

"Loading complete!" Next to the first gun, the loader reported loudly after he had finished loading the charge. Not far away from him, a few seconds later, the loader of the second cannon also followed. One by one, the cannons were ready for volley. One by one, the flag soldiers were ordered to lift up the flag. A total of 24 150 mm howitzers, like silent killers, were waiting for the order to launch.

"The counterattack begins!" An infantry commander on the front line, looking at his watch, yelled. Next to him, an ambush mg 42 machine gun began to roar.

"The counterattack begins!" The engine had been started, and a thick black smoke was emitted. The commander of the German tank unit buttoned the canopy on his head, and the leopard tank started to move in the ruins.

"Target! I'm starting to dive! Comet 4 begins to dive Thousands of meters above the sky, a Stuka 2 attack aircraft inside the pilot confirmed to the phone.

"Fire!" On the artillery position, after hearing the order, one by one red flag was waved down, and one by one guns roared.

"Boom! Boom! Boom The muzzle of the cannon spurted a dazzling flame, and then the thick smoke billowed out from all over the sky. It was like a dark cloud that was violently overturning, extending above the muzzle of the cannon, as if to occupy the whole sky. With the violent shaking, the huge gun body was pulled by the recoil force and quickly retreated. The whole position was dusty, and everyone couldn't help squinting.

After this noise, a 150 mm caliber shell was spinning at a high speed, flying out of the rifled gun barrel, making a beautiful arc in the sky, and flying towards the 22 zone which had been calibrated for a long time. The friction of the air made the shell surface hot.

With the constant erosion of air resistance and the gradual passing of the thrust formed by gunpowder explosion, the shell began to drop in height, began to fall, and finally hit the ground in the street full of Soviet Red Army. The fuse was activated, and the gunpowder inside was ignited and exploded. The shell completed its mission and ended its brilliant life.

Its life was very short. The countless explosive fragments formed swept the whole explosion radius in less than a second. The ground was easily cut into huge craters. The dense fragments mixed with sand and soil knocked dozens of Soviet soldiers down. For a moment, they were bloody and they didn't know which part of their body was flying everywhere, Living Soviet soldiers are subconsciously prone to the ground.

The second shell hit a corner of a building not far away. The explosion caused bricks and tiles to fly tens of meters away, and dust soared into the air. The sound of the collapse of the building made the living Soviet Army feel the horror of the end of the world. This was just the beginning, because the third and fourth shells fell one after another, and the whole area was covered by German artillery fire, The sky seemed grey.

……

"Hello? Hello? I beg your pardon? Give me more details! Be more specific! " A Soviet front-line division commander, holding a telephone, yelled angrily at a commander who was fighting with the German Army: "what makes your troops scattered? I heard the German artillery... I'm reporting to the commander. You can stand it! By any means! Hold on

When he hung up the phone, a shell hit dozens of meters away from his headquarters. The whole earth was shaking, and the dust from the ceiling fell thinly. It hit the drawings on the table, making a crackling sound. He fanned away the dust in front of him and grabbed the phone in his hand.

The German army and the front are not the same army at all. If the front German army's attack is like a warm 40 degree hot water, then the present German army is a bottle of 90% concentrated sulfuric acid. The danger of the two is not the same level at all.

"Comrade commander! My troops are under heavy German attack! Their shells rained on my head This division commander called through the phone of the military headquarters and begged his superiors with infinite grievance: "request support! Request artillery support and force support. "“ I heard the guns! It's not just the gunfire from you. I also heard the gunfire from the 2nd division. Did the German take the gunpowder? Why are you so irritable all of a sudden? " The mood of the commander does not sound very good, which seems to be a certain thing, because no matter who faces this situation, his mood will not be much better. From a few minutes on, the calls he received either requested support or reported how many casualties the troops had. The German artillery accurately landed on the top of his attacking troops, the whole counterattack plan was seriously blocked, and even some positions had been recaptured by the German army. Of course, this was not his most desperate moment. Although the Soviet commander felt that he was very desperate at this moment, the next moment, his despair became complete despair as more German troops entered the battle. A German stuka-2 bomber began to dive to destroy the exposed Soviet troops. Some Soviet troops were attacked by these vulture like German attack planes as soon as they were assembled for the following offensive tasks. Without time for the whole troops to disperse, they were destroyed to the verge of collapse by machine guns and bombs. Because the whole Stalingrad was divided into dozens of areas, the German commander could accurately determine the general location of the Soviet army in the process of determining the attack target and calculating the Soviet assembly site. This allows the German aircraft and artillery to attack the coordinates that have been set up for a long time more accurately, achieving amazing attack accuracy and density. When the German air force joined in the battle of strangling the Soviet ground forces, the Soviet Army really felt the huge advantage of their firepower over the German Army: facing the integration of air and ground, with the three-dimensional firepower of the German army covered by aircraft and artillery, the Soviet counterattack became very difficult. The problem is that it's not just a difficult time, but a counterattack from the German superior forces. On the ground, when the Soviet army had begun to rout, the German armored forces first appeared in the street battle in Stalingrad. Although these tanks did not advance rapidly, they destroyed all the Soviet tanks that appeared as assault forces. The German tanks attacked the existing positions for a short distance. Then the German grenadiers occupied the nearby buildings and ruins, and took back all the positions that the Soviet army had managed to seize. One by one, the German flag was spread to the top of the building, and the German artillery extended forward with the advance of the German army. The defeat of the Soviet army became uncontrollable. In the three directions of attack, the northward attacking troops were pushed back by the most elite SS armored division of the German army, and suffered heavy losses. Not to mention, they also lost about 400 meters of defense positions; The troops who tried to capture the railway station to the West were forced to stop only after 900 meters. Then the German counterattack arrived as scheduled. Finally, they returned to their original starting point, but lost 3000 soldiers and 16 tanks. The situation of the two elite Soviet infantry divisions who attacked North was slightly better. These units resisted the crazy attack of the German troops and finally advanced 100 meters at the cost of killing 1900 people. However, compared with before the attack, the longitudinal width of the Volga River which the Soviet army tried to expand was shortened by about 300 meters because of the subsequent fighting. A counterattack, just three hours. From 11 a.m. to 12 a.m., the German army began to fight back. Until 2 p.m., peace gradually returned on all fronts. The Soviet army lost 7000 people, but lost some blocks and positions. Nearly 1700 German soldiers were killed, including 300 Ukrainian soldiers. This loss made him give up his plan to continue the assault, and once again replaced three new Ukrainian infantry divisions on the front line. Bored but very effective, he continued to play his checkerboard game. c