Chapter 351 Bridgehead Position

After breakfast, Shulka and his subordinates wrapped themselves in a marching blanket and nestled in a corner to rest for a while.

Although bursts of chill continued to infiltrate from the surroundings, Shuerka soon fell asleep... The intense fighting all day without rest made Shuerka fall asleep anytime.

But within a few minutes of sleep, Shulka woke up with a start.

It was the whistling sound of airplanes, and it could be heard that there were a lot of them.

Then suddenly there were fierce gunshots and various screams, and there was a mess overhead, but because Shulka and others were indoors, they couldn't see what was happening in the air.

"This is the counterattack of the Germans!" The instructor said: "It seems that they have dispatched a lot of planes, and they seem to want to regain the air supremacy!"

"Take back the air supremacy?" Shulka felt a little strange when he heard this.

At a time when the Soviet and German armies were engaged in fierce street fighting in Tver, air supremacy meant little.

Both the enemy and the enemy are inside buildings, and even fighting on the streets, it is difficult for aircraft to function.

On the other hand, due to the poor equipment of the German military airport, its aircraft took a long time to prepare for taking off in extremely cold weather.

Why did the German army do this?

They are clearly not aimless.

The next second, Shulka thought of the reason, and he grabbed the phone and called the headquarters without saying a word.

"Comrade Colonel!" Shulka said: "We must pay attention to the direction of the river!"

"River?" Katukov was a little surprised.

"Yes, the river!" Shulka said, "That's why the Germans want to seize the air supremacy!"

Hearing this, Katukov immediately understood.

This is indeed a way. There is nothing on the river, which can prevent the German army from fighting street battles with the Soviet army. At the same time, the width of the river is still ranging from 300 to 500 meters. Bazooka with a range of meters.

"They want to attack from the river?" The instructor looked at Shulka suspiciously: "That used to be our attack route!"

"Yes!" Shulka replied: "But it doesn't mean the enemy can't use it!"

Whoever has air supremacy can attack from the direction of the river,

Now, air supremacy is clearly in the hands of the prepared Luftwaffe.

"What do they want?" Pukarev asked.

"Take the Tver Bridge!" Shulka replied, "and surround us in this residential area, so they can repair the railway and resume transportation!"

"They're delusional!" said the instructor.

But in fact, Shulka believed that the Germans could do it.

The reason is that the area along the river course is open land, and the German army with air supremacy obviously has the initiative in the open land.

Although the German army could not enter the residential area to fight the Soviet army because of fear of the rocket launcher, they could prevent the Soviet army from getting out... As long as the Soviet army tanks walked out of the residential area, they would be exposed to the enemy's sight, so the aircraft, PAK40 anti-tank Pao will keep saying hello.

So, one came out and destroyed one, and the bazooka in the hands of the Soviet army hadn't even reached the range.

It can be said that until now, the German army has really found a correct tactic to deal with rocket launchers.

Of course, this is not a good thing for the Soviet army.

A few minutes later, Katukov called Shulka.

"You are right!" said Katukov. "They attacked from the river, leaving behind a force to reinforce the Tver Bridge!"

"Yes!" Shulka responded, and gave the order for reinforcements.

If the Soviet army didn't have a rocket launcher in their hands, I'm afraid it would collapse due to insufficient troops at this time.

The reason is that their forces are too scattered, the number of tanks is small and their movements are very slow. It is difficult for infantry to block the attack of German tanks and infantry, even in street fighting.

But with rocket launchers, only a few platoons equipped with rocket launchers can block the enemy and fill up the gap in the defense line, and the main force will be transferred to the bridgehead position.

The battle had already begun when Shulka arrived at the bridgehead with his troops.

A tank company and an infantry company were stationed at the bridgehead, with a total of eleven tanks, mostly Valentine and M3 medium.

It was originally judged that there is little chance of tank battles in the bridgehead position. These two tanks can handle it, especially the M3 medium. Its 75MM gun can block the roads and railways on both sides of the Tver Bridge very well... Although it The shooting range of the M3 is very small, but the railways and roads are fixed targets, and the M3 medium can completely deal with it.

The problem is at this time that the German army has seized the air supremacy and the bridgehead position is exposed to the wilderness. German fighter planes swooped down to bomb them frantically.

None of the five "Valentine" tanks survived because of their slow speed, and even two were blown up because they skidded in place and failed to move because of their track problems.

Three of the other six M3 medium tanks were also blown up, and only three of them hid in the residential area due to their speed... Some places for hiding tanks were set up in the residential area in advance. They cannot be spotted by enemy pilots in the air, and even some street-level maneuvers do.

It was along such streets that Shulka's troops were reinforced to the bridgehead.

As soon as the front foot reached the German artillery fire, it rushed up overwhelmingly. The buildings near the bridgehead positions on both sides of the river they attacked were obviously aimed at destroying these places where the Soviet army could hide and reducing the pressure on the German army to attack.

The artillery fire lasted for a full twenty minutes.

It seems that the preparations of the German army last night were not only fighter planes, but also artillery shells.

Because artillery preparations of this scale are rare for the German army at this time.

What Shulka didn't know was that Kubiler used all the shells transported to the Fourth Tank Army... Of course, Hopner would not object, because the transportation line was cut off and even a single shell could not be transported. , if this is the case, what is the difference between using it for Kubil to open up the transportation line? The latter was at least a hope for the Fourth Tank Army.

Twenty minutes later, when Shulka raised his head from the trench, he found that the surrounding buildings had turned into piles of ruins, and even the buildings that had not been blown down had become broken walls.

The communicator handed the phone to Shulka. It was Katukov.

"The Germans are already rushing to repair the railway!" Katukov said: "The bridgehead is very important. If it is lost... they may be able to resume transportation in an hour, and our efforts will be in vain!"

Shulka understood the meaning of Katukov's words. At this time, there might be a backlog of ammunition and supplies in Tver, and even trains were waiting.

As long as the railway is connected, these supplies will rush to the Fourth Tank Army north of Moscow like a flood that burst a levee, so the Fourth Tank Army can hold out for a while.

In other words, the lever for moving the entire battle is the bridgehead in front of you.