Chapter 689 Synergy

Only then did Trufanov really agree with Shulka's proposal to use tank troops as the main offensive force.

It didn't take long for Trufanov to know that Shulka was right.

Because there is an armored grenadier division waiting for them in front of the Soviet attack. If the Soviet army uses mechanized troops as the main offensive force to attack quickly... the Soviet army equipped with only light tanks, armored vehicles and cars will be severely attacked Hitting a German armored division with heavy tanks is like kicking hard and hitting a steel plate.

At dawn the next day, the rested Soviet army set off from Prodovitoye as a base.

The capture of Prodovitoye provided great convenience for the advance of the Soviet army.

First of all, in terms of defense, because of the base point of Prodovittoye, the Soviet army’s logistics is much safer... Prodovittoye controls an important transportation hub for the German army. Even if the two German divisions have inserted into the rear of the Soviet army Had to retreat.

In this respect, marching and fighting is a bit like playing Go. Taking Plodovittoye is like placing a piece on the chessboard. This piece can echo the Soviet army's defense on the Don River line. Attempts to cut off the connection between Lodovitoye and the Don River will immediately be surrounded by the Soviet army and chase "Called to Death" all the way.

The second is that Prodovitoye can become a logistics base for the Soviet army.

Prodovitoje is a city, where there are strong warehouses of various sizes, and materials can be safely stored in these warehouses without worrying about being bombed by enemy fighter planes.

As soon as the front line needs ammunition, it can be shipped from Plodovitoje.

This increases the reaction time exponentially.

More importantly, there are several east-west roads and railways starting from Plodovitoye, among which two railways are very suitable for tank troops to advance at high speed.

At the same time, the engineering soldiers will follow along to build the railway... Once the railway is repaired, the follow-up reinforcements, ammunition, supplies, and even tanks can be transported forward in batches. I don’t know how much fuel and the operation of the tanks can be saved. time.

In fact, the saving of materials is second, and the more important thing is the assembly time of the tanks.

For example, the Soviet army rested for about eight hours all night in Prodovitoye, and only two tank regiments with more than 80 tanks arrived at Prodovittoye (note, at this time, due to command problems of the Soviet army) The tank regiment has a small organization, and a tank regiment has about 50 tanks).

If the first few tank divisions are to cross the river and assemble, I am afraid that it will take several days and nights, and many of them will get stuck in the quagmire, break down and be abandoned.

But the capture of Prodovittoye and the repair of the railway... All the tanks only need to assemble in Prodovittoye, and once they arrive in Prodovittoye, they will be directly transported to the front in batches by train and put into battle.

This is also the main reason why the German army always likes to attack along the railway line when launching an offensive. It can use less fuel and fewer resources to achieve more equipment and troops.

China also faced a similar problem in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War: China’s railway lines basically run north-south. When the Japanese army started the war, they tried to use these railways to attack from north to south... If so, it is estimated that China can be divided from north to south in a month Into two halves, so the saying "China's death in January" is used.

Fortunately, the national army launched the "Battle of Songhu" at this time, abruptly transferred the main force of the Japanese army to Shanghai, completely changed the direction of the Japanese army's attack, and bought time for the national army to relocate China's coastal industries to the west.

The offensive of the ground forces was carried out in a state of close coordination between the air and the ground, just as Shulka had discussed with Khrushchev before.

At this time, the air force is still the main force.

Needless to say the reason... the air force is the most important thing, especially the Soviet army has to march during the day.

If the air force is defeated by the enemy, then how many tanks the Soviet army has are waiting to be bombed.

Only when the air force wins, or in other words, a partial victory, can the Soviet tank troops advance safely and fight the enemy.

This is also the core of the German "Blitzkrieg"... The fundamental reason why the German "Blitzkrieg" was able to "flash" is not how powerful the tanks are. In fact, the German tanks were very backward at one time. One" and "Two" tanks.

The point is to have air superiority, and then use the air superiority to destroy the enemy tanks, while the German tanks quickly rush to deal with the enemy infantry... so they are invincible.

In the later stage, after the US and British forces formed air superiority over the Soviet army, the German "blitzkrieg" could not "flash".

Therefore, the Group Army Command got in touch with the Air Force Command before departure.

There is an air force major in the army headquarters, a young man named Alexei...he was sent by the air force to assist the command of the army, so as to prevent the commander of the army from completely ignorant of air combat knowledge and command blindly.

This young man named Alexei is very interesting. As soon as he saw Shulka, he rushed forward to shake Shulka's hand and said, "Hello, Comrade Shulka! It's a pleasure to meet you here, I don't know Have you heard that there are many in the Air Force who would like you to be one of us..."

"What? To be one of you?"

"Yes, becoming an Air Force, I wonder if you are interested?"

"But...I can't fly a plane at all!" Shulka said, "And I've heard it takes years of training!"

"No, no, you may only need a few months!" Alexey said: "You are so good, what's more, we don't want you to fly a fighter plane to fight the enemy, but to command us!"

"Aren't you joking, Comrade Major!" Shulka said, "If I can't even fly an airplane, how can I command you to fight?"

"You are too modest!" Alexey said: "You must know that you have promoted the reform of the Air Force and formulated a series of tactics that are still effective. Who else is more suitable than you to command us to fight?"

After a pause, Alexei said again: "Many of us believe that if you had pushed forward the reform of the Air Force a year earlier, then this war would not have been fought like this at all, and we would not have suffered such heavy losses!"

In some respects, Alexey was right.

A large part of the reason why the Soviet Union collapsed at the beginning of the war was that the air force retreated almost across the board, and thousands of fighter planes were shot down or blown up at the airport by the Germans within a few days.

This put the Soviet ground forces in a complete passive state, so they could only be beaten.