Chapter 690: German-Soviet War (34)
"Ura!"
With a thunderous shout, the dense Soviet soldiers rushed to a small hill that the German army had occupied not long ago.
On the temporary position on the hill, the German battalion commander looked at the Soviet soldiers who seemed to be injected with chicken blood and rushed over shouting the slogan Ura, showing a look of contempt. "Tsk tsk, the tactical thinking of these Soviet commanders is still stuck in the last war."
In fact, as early as the Russo-Turkish War, people found that dense charges were outdated, but in World War I, the tactics of various countries were to dig very deep, very deep, very deep trenches and then lay barbed wire. This thing will greatly hinder the speed of the attackers and cause greater casualties. The muzzles of the defending field artillery are always aimed at the "no man's land", which forces the attackers to adopt the human wave tactics (fewer people can't rush through).
In World War II, except for the Soviet and Japanese armies, almost no country played this human wave tactic on a large scale.
Of course, their human wave tactics were not mindless and blindly charged. The Japanese army's charge was very methodical, and the formation was neither too concentrated nor too dispersed. Each squad of thirteen or fourteen soldiers was divided into four combat groups, with three rifle groups arranged in a diagonal line in front to cover the machine gun group in the rear. In this way, the shooting vision of each group was not blocked, and crossfire could be formed to cooperate with each other.
The Japanese military drill manual also had detailed requirements for the tactical specifications of individual soldiers. In the first half of the charge, the Japanese army required soldiers to stand up straight, so that the attack speed was faster and it was also conducive to maintaining military appearance and morale. When approaching the enemy's position two or three hundred meters, soldiers were required to bend their waists and knees as much as possible and use various favorable terrains for cover. After crossing the last two hundred meters, the hand-to-hand combat that the Japanese army was best at began. However, the Japanese attack was very dependent on artillery support. The long live charge was only effective when there was sufficient artillery support, otherwise it would become a suicide charge.
The Soviet army began to develop various new weapons in the early 1930s and tried to motorize some troops. Under the influence of a group of outstanding generals represented by Tukhachevsky, the Soviet Army's concept was very advanced, and it was even able to accept new weapons such as submachine guns, which were considered "useless" at the time, and required each combat unit to equip them.
The Soviet Army's "great depth" combat theory is a complete and powerful combat system. However, due to the occurrence of the anti-counterrevolutionary movement, the quality of the officer group declined rapidly, and the Soviet Army's vigorous development period was interrupted. The "great depth" became increasingly rigid, and the large-scale combat concept established in the early stage was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. However, the level of the hastily promoted officers is limited, and most of them are not suitable for commanding large-scale combat. Many officers' thoughts are even still in the First World War, and they will only let the infantry charge at the enemy's positions.
However, such a mindless charge was not the original intention of the Soviet Army's charge tactics; the serious infantry charge tactics have actually undergone a long period of development and improvement. As early as the Tsarist era, the Russian army stipulated that when the infantry launched an attack, the distance between the soldiers should be about one step, and they should attack the opponent in a dense formation; the distance between the combat units should be 300-400 steps. During the Soviet period, this tactic was strengthened, and the distance between the soldiers was stipulated to be about 5 steps. According to different situations, a wide variety of combat formations were formulated to disperse the enemy's firepower and flexibly, quickly and fiercely attack the opponent's defense line.
It can be seen that the authentic Soviet infantry charge tactics and the "brainless charge" are two completely different things. After the Soviet army survived the defeat in the early stage of the war, they not only adapted to the intensity of the war and the German tactics, but also came up with a way to crack the German attack. The calm Soviet army is undoubtedly very terrible. They have brought the power of the infantry charge tactics to the extreme.
In the battle to liberate Ukraine, many German troops, who were originally on high alert, collapsed at the touch of a button. Why did the German soldiers with extremely high combat qualities become so vulnerable? Some prisoners of war once said that when they were observing the Soviet attack in the fortifications, they only saw a row of soldiers charging towards them at first; a moment later, the thin line of human figures quickly thickened, and soon, the end of the field of vision was full of Soviet soldiers. These Soviets shouted slogans and rushed over like a tide, and the shouts and footsteps were deafening, "It was like a million Soviets rushing at the same time." The German soldiers had long lost their desire to fight after witnessing this scene. A large number of soldiers simply gave up resistance, and many even collapsed on the spot. The German army was defeated.
At this time, the Soviet army was obviously still in the stage of "mindless charge".
The deputy battalion commander nodded in agreement. "There is not even a tank, and there is no artillery preparation. Isn't this just to die?" Are these soldiers alive to prevent their superiors from getting promoted and getting rich?
"Are our secret weapons ready?"
"We've been ready for a long time."
"The distance is about the same, let them fire."
The so-called secret weapon is a 160mm self-propelled mortar that combines the chassis of the Jackal tank and the barrel of the V3 cannon. The mortar is naturally not a new weapon, but its shells are special, which are special anti-infantry cluster bombs.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Five mortars roared.
Large mortars are difficult to insert ammunition from the muzzle due to the long barrel length. Therefore, they will also use the breech loading method like ordinary artillery. When loading shells, lay the gun body flat, open the barrel, load the shells, and then adjust the shooting angle. Then pull the gun rope to fire the primer of the shell. The disadvantage is that the firing rate is slow, and only 2-3 shots can be fired per minute on average. The advantage is that the caliber is large and the power is also great.
The shells fired did not explode on the ground like ordinary mortar shells. When the shells reached their highest point, the shells split into two pieces, throwing out countless small balls, like flowers scattered by fairies.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
These bomblets exploded one after another two or three meters above the ground. Each shell could carry 50 bomblets, and the scattered fragments swept the Soviet soldiers below like a storm.
Groups of Soviet soldiers fell down in an instant, screaming one after another. Before the remaining people could recover from this terrible attack, dense gunfire sounded on the German positions, and a large area was swept down in an instant.
Just when the Soviet soldiers were hesitant about whether to advance or retreat, the second wave of shells came again.
The Soviet army finally retreated, but the German army did not have extra troops to counterattack. At this time, they needed to organize ammunition and strengthen their positions.
But at this moment, someone behind the Soviet army shouted hysterically with a loudspeaker. "The great leader Comrade Stalin requires every soldier to march forward bravely and not retreat! According to Order No. 270, retreating and hesitating are all treason! We will shoot if you retreat again!"