Chapter 346 Soviet-Finnish War (13)

Soon, the whole of Finland received the news of Marshal Mannerheim's death.

The Finnish military and civilians were all in grief, and the news that Marshal Mannerheim died due to overwork in resisting the Soviet invasion further strengthened their determination to fight against the Soviet invasion.

On this day, the Soviet army did not launch an attack, but assembled artillery of various calibers and launched a fierce bombardment on the Finnish positions.

The Soviet Union has always been a big artillery doctrine, and it can use thousands of artillery at any time.

The rain-like shells fell on the Finnish positions, making continuous explosions, and the whole earth was shaking, as if the sky was falling and the earth was cracking. The Finnish soldiers could only get into the anti-artillery caves and cat ear caves to avoid the Soviet artillery.

"Hey, these damn bears, they remind me of the artillery fire in the last war." The middle-aged man hiding in a cat ear cave smoked a cigarette leisurely and cursed. But he spoke authentic French. The Finnish soldier who was huddled opposite him and looked a little pale obviously didn't understand what he said and looked at him blankly.

The middle-aged man smiled at him and took out a cigarette and handed it to the young soldier. "Want one?"

Although he didn't understand what he said, the Finnish soldier guessed what he meant and shook his head. The middle-aged man continued to smoke.

Although the Soviet Union attacked Finland, it was unanimously condemned by the international community. Even US President Roosevelt accused it of "arrogantly ignoring the law." Volunteers from all over the world came to support Finland in fighting the Soviet invasion, and this Frenchman was one of them.

The fierce bombardment lasted for a whole day and night, and it didn't stop until the next morning. The whole position seemed to be blasted. Several woods before and after the defense line had been beaten bare. Only the charred wood piles were still burning there, and the ground was full of potholes.

Especially the anti-tank mine array in front of the position, it seems that there is no "surviving" anti-tank mine.

Before the Finnish army had time to count the casualties, the Soviet army launched another attack.

This time they dispatched thousands of fighters and bombers. Although Finland even took off the old Fokker fighter to intercept; even the BF109F, which was superior to the Soviet fighter in performance, shot down several times more enemy planes than them, but they were outnumbered and were finally shot down.

Fortunately, they were shot down in Finland, and as long as the pilots parachuted, they could basically survive.

After clearing Finland's air force, Soviet bombers bombed most of the airports near the border as if they were in no man's land, and even a group of bombers went to Helsinki, the capital of Finland, and bombed it wildly.

Then the Soviet ground forces attacked across the board. The vanguard of the attack on the Mannheim Line was still the 35th Light Tank Brigade, and the brigade commander Ogurtsov vowed to wash away the previous shame with blood.

But less than two kilometers away from the Finnish position, with a loud bang, a T-26 tank instantly turned into a pile of fire.

"Damn, it's an anti-tank mine again!"

Brigade Commander Ogurtsov was hesitating whether to send engineers to clear the mines first, but saw that the rest of the tanks rushed forward unscathed and did not hit mines again.

Ogurtsov couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "Full speed forward, break through the enemy's defense line!"

Behind the Finnish defense line, soldiers pushed a Pak38 50mm anti-tank gun to the firing position. This anti-tank gun was supported by Germany and has the same performance as the main gun of the current Jackal tank. It can easily penetrate 72mm vertical homogeneous steel armor at a distance of 500 meters. The front armor thickness of the T26 tanks rushing over from the opposite side is only 25mm.

"Load!"

It takes three to six people to operate a Pak38 50mm anti-tank gun. Following the squad leader's order, two loaders quickly pried open the ammunition box on the side, picked up a yellow-orange shell, and stuffed it into the barrel.

"Directly ahead, one thousand meters, T26 tank, prepare to fire!" The squad leader used a telescope to observe the Soviet army on the opposite side, measuring the distance while giving orders. "950 meters...900 meters...850 meters...800 meters, fire!!" This type of anti-tank gun has an effective range of more than two thousand meters, but in order to pursue accuracy, it is generally fired within one thousand meters.

"Boom!" The gunner pulled the gun rope hard, and the entire gun body trembled backwards involuntarily. At the front muzzle, flames gathered, and an armor-piercing shell attacked the opposite T26 tank at a speed invisible to the naked eye, hitting its front armor fiercely. The sharp bullet cut through the 25mm thick armor plate as easily as a hot knife cutting butter, and then blew up the personnel and equipment inside.

However, the distance of 800 meters was still a bit far, and thirty anti-tank guns only destroyed a dozen Soviet tanks.

Ogurtsov estimated that with such a loss, about half of the tanks would be lost when rushing to the defense line.

But just after rushing forward for less than 50 meters, another round of artillery fire came and blew up more than ten Soviet tanks. Listening to the explosions coming from the surroundings, Ogurtsov's face was very ugly. The firing rate of this enemy's anti-tank gun is too fast, right?

But it has come to this point, and it is impossible to turn around and withdraw, so you can only rush forward.

He, as the brigade commander, can't stand it, and the soldiers below are about to collapse. Continuous explosions rang around, and the Soviets watched in horror as their colleagues in front of them were beaten into burning wreckage during the charge.

Finally, some people couldn't stand it anymore and fired wildly at the anti-tank artillery position in the distance at a distance of more than 700 meters, but the fire control ability of the T26 was not very good to begin with, and the precision shooting ability was insufficient. It could only achieve a relatively high hit rate within 300 meters.

At this distance of 700 meters, there was no stable shooting ability while moving. Shooting while rushing wildly, let alone whether it could hit the target, even if it finally hit nearby, how powerful could the 45mm grenade be?

The anti-tank gunners on the Finnish position didn't care about the shells that didn't know where they fell, and they also frantically reloaded and fired again and again; pouring shells at the Soviet tanks at a rate of one round every five seconds.

The Soviets used blood and debris to pave a charging road that continued to extend to the Finnish position, and finally rushed to a distance of 400 meters, but it was already the last gasp.

It took the Soviet tanks one minute to charge from 800 meters to 400 meters. During this minute, the anti-tank guns of the Finnish positions fired 12 rounds, a total of 360 shells; even a 50% hit rate was enough to completely destroy the enemy tanks.

More than 100 tanks of the 35th Light Tank Brigade were wiped out, and the brigade commander Ogurtsov also died on the way to the charge. Not only did he fail to fulfill his wish to wash away the previous shame with blood, but he also died particularly tragically. Two armor-piercing shells penetrated his tank almost at the same time.

The Soviet infantry troops charging behind the tanks suffered. The dense rain of bullets knocked down, scattered, and shattered the Soviet army's tide-like charge formation, just like a torrent crashing into a reef, and there was nothing left after the waves burst out.

If there was anything, it was the corpses lying on the ground.