Chapter 1013 Father, We Have Tried Our Best 7

"Mahaus, 11 o'clock! Do you see that big guy? It should be a Stalin tank, shoot it with a pointed bullet!"

Ribbentrop, who saw the Soviet tank through the night vision telescope, did not dare to be careless at all, and quickly gave his gunner Mahaus Schultz the order to open fire.

He felt that the turret of his tank turned gently with his order, and the cannon in front of the turret pointed to a battlefield in front of him with flashes and huge hazy shadows.

But through the night market telescope, Sergeant Mahaus Schultz could still clearly see his prey, a tank with a huge turret, which should be the Soviet Stalin 2.

"Filling completed!"

A pointed tungsten core armor-piercing bullet has been loaded into the gun barrel. Sergeant Schultz did not shoot with a coaxial machine gun first as he did in daytime combat (this is to assist aiming), because the tracer bullets fired by the coaxial machine gun would expose the position of the E-50A tank.

"Boom!" Captain Ribbentrop, who was half outside the turret, felt his tank vibrate violently. He knew that the tank's main gun was firing shells, and he quickly looked up at the 11 o'clock direction.

Before the sound of the cannon shooting completely disappeared, a huge fireball ignited in the darkness, and the fireball rolled forward for a short distance, and then it became motionless like a beast shot by a hunting rifle.

Ribbentrop looked through his night market telescope again and found that it was a JS-2 tank that was hit.

At this time, fireballs of similar size had suddenly appeared on the battlefield one after another. Most of the tanks that were hit were JS-2 and T-34/85 tanks, and the ones that fired were E-50As lurking in the darkness.

All E-50As did not use coaxial machine guns to assist in aiming, but they still shot very accurately. After the first round of shooting by 20 tanks, 11 of the 18 JS-2 and T-34/85 tanks in the front were turned into a pile of burning and twisted metal.

However, the other Soviet tanks did not seem to react and continued to attack.

"A T-34 at 10 o'clock!" Captain Ribbentrop quickly found another target, "Hard core armor-piercing shells! Load! Quick, quick, quick!"

"Boom!" The E-50A tank he was riding fired again, but this time the shell slightly deviated from the target and did not hit the T-34/85. Before Captain Ribbentrop could order another round of firing, the sound of artillery came from his left and right sides. Two 88mm armor-piercing shells broke through the air, and in an instant one of them hit the unlucky T-34/85, turning this more than 30-ton tank into a burning fire.

"Good job!" Ribbentrop shouted, "Keep fighting, kill them all!"

Before he finished speaking, dozens of flares suddenly rose in the sky, all flying in the direction of his company, and in a blink of an eye, the 20 E-50A tanks hidden in the dark were exposed to a pale light.

The Ribbentrop company, which had exposed its target, immediately became a magnet for Soviet tanks. At least hundreds of JS-2 and T-34/85 rumbled up under the cover of countless infantry.

"Brothers, don't worry about the infantry and T-34 for now, concentrate your firepower to kill the Stalin tanks!" Captain Ribbentrop immediately made a decision to concentrate his firepower to kill the Soviet JS-2 tanks, which were the big guys that could really threaten the E-50A. After they were shot down, the remaining T-34/85 were just a small dish on the plate of the E-50A tank.

As for the Soviet infantry that was surging like a tide, let the nearby paratroopers and the artillery behind deal with it first - because the Soviet army only wanted to break through quickly tonight, and had no intention or time to remove the countless German strongholds scattered on the front line, and these strongholds were the eyes of the rear artillery, which could guide the artillery to shoot accurately and drown the Soviet army with a sea of ​​fire!

...

On the same night, the tank night battle on the Rod Snow front had reached its climax.

Flares rose into the air one after another, illuminating the night sky, the battlefield, the Soviet tanks and infantry that were engaged in the attack, and also illuminated the German defense line.

Similar to the situation on the Osheikino front, the Soviet army was also ambushed by the German E-50A tanks equipped with night vision equipment on the Rod Snow front. The powerful 88mm gun plus the night vision equipment that can be regarded as "black technology" gave the attacking Soviet tanks a blow.

However, the Soviets were well prepared. Countless flares were fired into the sky by mortars, and soon most of the E-50A tanks showed their original forms. The Germans also fired flares to illuminate the attacking Soviet army.

The battle between the two sides soon turned into a traditional night battle. Under the flares, cannons roared, machine guns roared, and the sound of killing shook the sky. Dark red shells shuttled back and forth on the battlefield, and explosions of various sound qualities filled people's ears.

When Major Schwarzenegger led his heavy tank destroyer battalion to the front line, the Soviet army's new round of offensive had just started.

Although the Soviets suffered heavy losses in the last round of offensive, this tank battle can be said to be the last roar of the Soviets!

It's no time to care about casualties!

So Admiral Katukov, who was good at fighting smart battles, still deployed a large number of tanks and infantry to launch a strong attack. In addition to the big JS-2 and T-34/85, there were many small guys in the attacking queue, BT-7 tanks and SU-57 tank destroyers. Although these small guys could not hit the solid front armor of the E-50A, they could be used to deal with the German armored vehicles and infantry.

In particular, the ZIS-2 57mm gun installed on the SU-57 tank destroyer was very accurate and could accurately hit various armored vehicles that cooperated with the E-50A at a distance of 1,500 meters. Sometimes they would go around the flank of the German front under the cover of the BT-7 tank and try to use the ZIS-2 gun to hit the side armor of the E-50. Although it paid a considerable price, it still achieved some results and destroyed several E-50As.

And this almost suicidal sneak attack also played another role, which was to disperse the firepower of the E-50A tank. The E-50A tanks, which were not too many in number, now had to attack the T-34 and JS-2 that were flooding in from the front, and also had to allocate some forces to deal with the SU-57 and BT-7 that were constantly attacking from the side. Suddenly, they were a little overwhelmed.

Major General Marx, the commander of the German 1st Armored Division, who was responsible for guarding the Rodsnow-Osheikino line, saw that the front line was somewhat shaken, so he had to put several heavy tank destroyer battalions originally prepared for the counterattack on May 7 into the battlefield in advance.

The "Cheetah" tank destroyer, which was huge in size and had a 105mm caliber cannon, quickly stabilized the front line after it was put into the battlefield. Major General Marx put these "Cheetahs" into the front, and at the same time drew out some E-50As to strengthen the defense on both wings, blocking the Soviet army's almost crazy attack. On the battlefield around Rodsnow, the Soviet army suffered more than 10,000 casualties and more than 200 tanks in the fierce battle of about 10 hours from the night of May 6 to the early morning of May 7! Because the battlefield was completely controlled by the German army after dawn on May 7, all the tanks lost by the Soviet army were actually "lost" and there was no possibility of repair.

In Osheikino, the Soviet offensive also suffered a setback. The five offensives they launched were all defeated. After a night of hard fighting, the front of the German front was full of burning steel wreckage and the bodies of Soviet soldiers. The Soviet losses here were no less than those in Rodshno.

On the southern front of the battlefield, the Soviet army, which was a little confused by the German artillery attack, did not react until around 1 a.m. on May 7 and reorganized the offensive. However, after all, they lost the initiative and could not form an effective joint force with the Soviet army on the northern front. After launching two rounds of offensives hastily, the sky gradually brightened, and the Soviet Southern Front Group Command had to order a halt to the offensive.

However, these two rounds of offensives also cost the Soviets more than 20,000 casualties (killed or seriously injured), missing, and more than 200 tanks lost.

After a night of hard fighting, the Soviet high-ranking officers who were truly knowledgeable had already understood that the idea of ​​annihilating the German armored group that had penetrated into the northern part of Moscow Oblast was probably impossible to achieve.

The combat effectiveness of the German armored group was simply unshakable by the Soviet Red Army! But no one, including Zhukov and Pavlov, dared to suggest to Stalin to stop the offensive. Moreover, they didn't know what to do now?

Now there are nearly 3 million Soviet Red Army troops gathered on the ground in Moscow Oblast and Kalinin Oblast (in fact, there are not so many anymore), and most of the mechanized equipment of the Soviet Red Army is also concentrated. If the counterattack in the northern part of Moscow Oblast is lost, then these 3 million troops will soon be divided into two large pieces... and Moscow will be surrounded!

But the war has been fought until now. In addition to biting the bullet and carrying out this unwinnable counterattack, what else can the Soviet Red Army do? Abandon Moscow and escape? Or gather all the troops into Moscow to defend it?

Let alone whether they can escape, whether they can gather the troops into Moscow. Even if they can do it, what can they do? Losing Moscow and being besieged by 3 million troops in Moscow are equally fatal to the Soviet Union.

Because if the troops are concentrated to defend Moscow, the west of the Ural Mountains will soon become the territory of the Russian Empire. By then, how long can Moscow, an isolated city, be defended?

And giving up Moscow to guarantee the troops... Without Leningrad and Moscow, people's hearts will be scattered. Without people's hearts, how can the troops be saved?

The Soviet Union's red country has now reached the most dangerous moment!