Traces of One Thousand and Twenty Three Cannons

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"What are we bombarding? God bless, is Moscow going to be turned into ruins like Stalingrad?" A soldier in charge of hoisting shells sat on the ammunition box boredly and complained to his colleagues. Although the weather wasn't that hot yet, he had already taken off his upper body with only a vest left.

Another soldier was also sweating profusely. After all, it was not easy to load the 210mm howitzer equipped by the German army with shells. They had to use specially prepared shell pliers to load a shell in groups of four. This is a very dull and boring job. To put it bluntly, it has the same nature as a laborer who moves bricks in the streets and alleys. But comparatively speaking, the place where they are located is very safe, so even this kind of work is a sought-after job in the army.

In fact, to be frank, Germany has not reached the forefront of the world in artillery design, on the contrary they are still very backward. At least in the field of large-caliber artillery design, Germany has stagnated for too many years, so that most of their experience comes from World War I design.

But this is a weapon after all. When the performance of other weapons is good enough, the poor performance of one or a small number of weapons will be covered up, and there is no problem at all in making do with it. So when Krupp started producing artillery with a caliber of 210, it was not too entangled because of range or other performance indicators.

They were just ordered to produce as many large-caliber artillery as possible in as little time as possible to make up for the embarrassing situation of the lack of heavy artillery firepower on the German front. Because more and more tough battles have begun to break out on the entire Eastern Front, in comparison, the German army is not very suitable for such difficult battles.

Most German generals have not even fully understood what the Soviet Union's war attitude of fighting for every inch of land is for. They couldn't even imagine what it was for after they had turned their hometown into a scorched earth and still insisted on fighting until the last moment.

In their previous experience, there are a lot of examples, which prove that surrendering when they can’t fight is the best choice-Paris has basically never experienced war, and it is still one of the most important cities in Europe. One, people didn’t suffer, and their way of life didn’t change much because of the war. The same city also has Leningrad, which was renamed St. Petersburg... There are many opposite examples, such as London, which is still being rebuilt, and renamed St. Rudolph Stalingrad.

"You may not have heard that a buddy of mine is directly under the 712th Artillery Infantry Battalion. He told me that there is a huge artillery position a few kilometers away. The shells there are so big that they need to be loaded with a crane. It keeps firing in the direction of Moscow!" Another artilleryman sitting in another ammunition box said while fanning himself with his hands.

Hearing the news, the other soldiers showed shocked expressions on their faces. They couldn't believe that their country had assembled such a huge artillery force on the front: "My God... and An artillery position? Just here, I heard that there are more than 40 210-caliber heavy artillery, right?"

exactly,

On the front of Moscow on the Eastern Front, the German Wehrmacht assembled 53 210mm heavy artillery from the direction of Stalingrad, 6 240mm heavy artillery from France, and 30 280mm 280mm heavy artillery—nearly 90 Large caliber artillery.

So the shell disaster in Moscow came like this. The German army used its long-range artillery from time to time to bombard the city of Moscow from time to time. There was a rotten smell.

Two days have passed since the German bombing and shelling of the Moscow military parade that day. In the past two days, the German army poured a total of 890 large-caliber artillery shells with a caliber of 210 or more into the city of Moscow. These shells exploded in the streets, destroying building after building.

"Get up! Reload 5 more shells! Come on! Let us carry out this round of shelling!" A German artillery commander stood in the distance and ordered loudly. He waved his arms vigorously so that everyone could see his gesture.

So everyone stood up from their positions, and some of them used iron rods to pry open the wooden ammunition box that was still sitting under their buttocks just now, and a shell was presented in front of everyone's eyes.

The four of them set up the cannonball with cannonball clamps, chanted slogans and sent the cannonball to the position of the cannon not far in front, and pushed it into the barrel of the cannon with concerted efforts. It was exciting to think about how soon the shell would be fired and land on the heads of the Soviets, and the explosion would be powerful enough to destroy an entire building.

A few minutes later, a new round of shelling started again. Everyone covered their ears and squinted at these Krupp guns, which were slightly backward in design and could not catch up with American cannons in range. The company's heavy artillery was shaken by the powerful recoil to raise dust. They felt the deafening sound and watched the flames and smoke from the muzzle. The last time the German army poured ammunition on a city on such a large scale was the First World War.

Several photos were spread out and placed on the desk of Marshal Rundstedt's combat command. Compared with the dark basement, this temporarily requisitioned house has bright glass windows, exquisite chandeliers and a whole cabinet of red wine and vodka. It is said that this is a country house of a senior Soviet official. When the German army occupied it, there were still two maids cleaning it.

By the time Rundstedt's army headquarters requisitioned the place, those two good-looking maids had already been "used" by many German troops, so Rundstedt could only use guards to continue cleaning here, precisely because In this way, it looks a little messier than when it was just occupied.

"Your Excellency Marshal! This is an aerial photo taken during the last reconnaissance before the bombing. Because of the height problem, here, here, and here, these streets are blurred..." The staff of the Air Force pointed A few blurred places on the aerial photos, and then pointed to a map of Moscow on the table: "However, we can still find some corresponding locations according to the map."

Rundstedt nodded, took a magnifying glass, compared the photos a few times, and then said in agreement: "This altitude is already the lowest altitude that a reconnaissance plane can descend, although the military aerial camera we bought may have It’s the best in the world, but it still needs to improve the accuracy a bit.”

As a front-line general in command of the German army, Lundstedt is also a veteran on the battlefield. He often compares the aerial photos in his hand and analyzes the intelligence inside. This has been the case for a long time, even if he is not an air force commander, he can tell the height of the shooting by looking at the photo, and he can almost guess the type of reconnaissance plane used.

There was a sense of superiority that one could guess the year with a sip of fine wine. The Air Force staff officer beside him smiled and nodded, agreeing with the marshal's speculation: "This is a photo we took at a low altitude the day before. These can be found a few blocks away.”

Then he pulled out a few clear partial photos that he had just obtained from the back and took them at a lower altitude this morning, pointed to the unrecognizable places on them, and said to Marshal Rundstedt: "Our shelling destroyed these The block, judging from the photos, is probably the building before the bombing, and it has completely disappeared now."

"In the photo, half of the spiers of the Kremlin have disappeared, some have collapsed, and some have been broken directly..." Analyzing from a professional point of view, the staff officers of the Air Force commented on Lundsch one by one. Tate introduced those photos, the German army has confirmed the record.

"So, these huge craters are caused by 280mm railway guns, right?" Rundstedt picked up one of the photos and asked the Air Force staff officer next to him: "They are bigger than other The craters should be large and concentrated..."

"Yes, Marshal!" The Air Force staff officer nodded, then picked up several other photos of the same type and put them together, and then pointed to the upper, middle and lower rows of photos for comparison: "The top is the bombing of the Air Force." The traces, the middle ones are the craters of the 210mm and 240mm caliber guns, and the bottom ones are left by the 280mm train guns.”

"What the head of state means is to carry out another air force bombing to completely destroy Moscow's defense system." Rundstedt pointed to a few relatively intact blocks on the map, and then ordered the air force staff officer beside him: "Inventory There are quite a lot of reserves of napalm incendiary bombs, use them in these few blocks and try to see the effect."

The officer was taken aback for a moment, then nodded, stood at attention and replied, "Yes, Your Excellency the Marshal! I will start preparing for the bombing when I get back. Then I will take my leave, Marshal! Long live the head of state, Acador Rudolf !"

"Long live the head of state, Akado? Rudolf!" Rundstedt returned a military salute, and then turned his gaze to the battle zone map hanging on the wall, where, in the northern part of Moscow, the e-group army had already firmly occupied the position; and on the front of Moscow, the a group army and the f group army were like the top of Mount Tai, pressing in front of the Soviet army-now, as long as Guderian's g group army reaches the designated position, then Moscow will fall into the German army The huge encirclement circle of several main group armies was captured.