Chapter 653 Heavy Thunderstorm 41

Brutal fighting soon took place at the position of Brandt, an anti-war activist. Anti-tank guns, Panzerfaust grenade launchers, cluster grenades, MG42 machine guns, MKb-42 automatic carbines, and of course Mauser 98 rifles and Flak30 20mm anti-aircraft guns that could fire horizontally, all weapons that could be used were put into the blocking battle against the Soviet Red Army tank infantry cluster by German soldiers.

Brandt also threw anti-war into the clouds. Now it was not the German army that was attacking Moscow, but the Soviet Red Army that was attacking Warsaw! If Warsaw could not be saved, then the next decisive battle would probably be the Battle of Berlin! As a German and a social democrat, he did not want to see the Soviet red flag flying on the roof of the Reichstag in Berlin.

However, the strength of the two sides was very different. Even though Brandt and his comrades fought bloody battles and repelled several waves of the Red Army's charge, they still could not stop the Soviet T-34 tanks and infantry from breaking through their first and second trenches.

Pavlov, a world revolutionary fighter, also rushed into the second trench of the German army. His large rotary machine gun (DP-27 light machine gun) had been lost. The weapon in his hand was replaced with a Mosin-Nagant rifle with a bayonet, and he shouted "Ura" while charging desperately.

He had been killing red-eyed for a long time. In the previous waves of charge, the Germans had given huge casualties to the attacking Soviet soldiers with their powerful and accurate firepower. Watching his comrades fall one after another on the way to victory, Pavlov has now thrown all the things such as joining the party and liberating all mankind behind his mind, and his mind is full of killing Germans, killing more Germans!

The bloody close combat has already started in the trenches, and the Germans' MKb-42 automatic carbines and Mauser 98 rifles are also equipped with bayonets. However, the Germans' bayonet skills have never been very good, and now many soldiers have replaced the MKb-42 automatic carbines that are not long enough, so they are even less of a match for the Russians with long rifles.

"Retreat! Retreat now!" Brandt, who had just killed a Russian soldier holding a rifle and trying to fight with a bayonet with a short burst of fire, finally heard the "words" he wanted to hear the most. He turned his head and looked over. He saw the loud-voiced Sergeant Adolf Miller shouting and waving, calling on his men to quickly move to the reserve position in the rear.

Brandt breathed a sigh of relief, put the MKb-42 automatic carbine on his shoulder, and ran to the place where the horizontal trench and the vertical communication trench on the left were connected. Just when he passed by Sergeant Miller, he was grabbed by the collar by the other party: "Killer, cover the rear with me!"

"Why me?" Brandt complained in his heart, but he didn't dare to escape. He could only wait until the rest of the brothers in the platoon retreated, and then he picked up the MKb-42 automatic carbine and alternately shot with Sergeant Miller to cover the retreat.

Like trenches, communication trenches were dug in a winding way to prevent direct hits from shells. Many single or double shooting positions were built along the way, so Miller and Brandt could run for a while and then turn around to fire a few long bursts.

After running for a while, they were close to the reserve position. The German soldiers who had just retreated had set up MG-42 machine guns. With a burst of machine gun shooting that sounded like tearing linen, the Soviet Red Army did not dare to pursue them. Then the cheers of "Ura! Ura!" resounded in the position they had just captured.

The reserve position was about 1,000 meters behind the reinforced concrete anti-artillery bunker where Brandt and his men hid from Soviet artillery fire. Not far to the west were the buildings in the urban area of ​​Warsaw. Because the reinforced concrete anti-artillery bunker had been lost, this reserve position was actually impossible to hold for a long time. This was just a position to protect the artillery of the 111th Division and a heavy tank platoon (with 5 Tiger tanks).

When Brandt arrived here, at the artillery position of the 111th Division behind the trench, some artillerymen were busy using half-track vehicles and trucks to pull away 150mm and 105mm howitzers. Several huge Tiger tanks also started their engines and roared to turn around, obviously also to withdraw to Warsaw.

It seems that the "Warsaw Forest Defense Line" is going to be abandoned!

Brandt suddenly felt like he had survived a disaster, and then he thought: The 111th Division has fought hard for so many days, and there should be a period of rest after withdrawing to Warsaw, right? Maybe they will drive directly back to Germany, so that they can temporarily stay away from this damn battlefield...

...

"Great! The 205th Division has taken down the Warsaw Forest. Great job."

Standing near a ferry on the Vistula River, Rokossovsky held the telegram he had just received and laughed to Yakov Djugashvili beside him and said, "We have finally turned the tables."

"Is the Warsaw Forest important?" Djugashvili asked.

He is a senior artillery officer. In a normal army, he should be a senior artillery lieutenant colonel or colonel. Naturally, he should know how critical the gains and losses of the Warsaw Forest are.

However, the current Soviet Red Army has not completely walked out of the shadow of the Great Purge, so there is a situation where a lieutenant like Djugashvili is the artillery chief of the mechanized army. Moreover, Djugashvili is actually an engineer who builds cars. He has only studied military for one year. Apart from knowing a little professional knowledge of artillery, he knows nothing else. And officers like him are everywhere in the current Soviet Red Army.

"Of course, the Warsaw Forest is very important." Rokossovsky shrugged and said, "Warsaw is a city built on a large plain, and there are few strategic points that can be used for defense. The Warsaw Forest is one, and it has been carefully managed by the Poles. Another strategic point that can be defended is the Vistula River, which has now been broken through by us."

The 9th Mechanized Army broke through the Vistula River in the Otwock area between June 9th and 10th, and today the 205th Division broke through the Warsaw Forest again. It can be said that Warsaw has now become a city with no strategic points to defend, and there are more than 1 million offensive troops coming in three directions. No matter how you look at it, it is all in the pocket of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army!

"But they still have an armored cluster..." Djugashvili looked at the T-34 and KV-1/KV-2 tanks of the 9th Mechanized Army crossing the river on a pontoon bridge. Some of the tanks were towing a gun and an ammunition truck, which looked a bit awkward.

"We won't have any problems," Rokossovsky said with a confident smile, "because the 9th Mechanized Army will not give the Germans an opportunity to take advantage of it. Our current task is to advance along the Vistula River and establish a front line, push the front line to the south of Warsaw, and then cover the infantry to attack the city."

With the lessons learned from the Battle of Legionovo-Wolomin, Pavlov certainly would not make the same mistake again and let the armored forces advance recklessly. And there is a great god in the 9th Mechanized Army who must not make any mistakes!

So the 9th Mechanized Army's route of advance has been carefully studied-they will advance along the Vistula River, and once they encounter German armored forces, they can immediately set up a battle formation with their backs to the Vistula River. On the other side of the Vistula River, there will be an infantry army carrying artillery advancing in parallel, so that the artillery group can be deployed at any time to support the 9th Mechanized Army with firepower.

And behind the 9th Mechanized Army, there is the 14th Mechanized Army to escort it. If the Germans dare to attack the 9th Mechanized Army, the 14th Mechanized Army will form a group with the 9th Mechanized Army.

In addition, the air cover and reconnaissance were also very good. Not only were there a large number of Yak-1 and MiG-3 aircraft providing cover over the 9th Mechanized Army, but there were also many P51 aircraft piloted by American pilots hovering over Comrade Djugashvili, which definitely allowed Comrade Djugashvili to eat a portion of Russian fried rice with peace of mind.

"The Russians are advancing very slowly on the southern front, as if they were fighting a trench war... but they are impeccable!"

In the Warsaw Castle, Model was facing a huge map in his new headquarters and was a little confused.

According to the reconnaissance of the Air Force and the Polish Cavalry of the SS, the Soviet army on the southern front was advancing very carefully, almost step by step, not like an armored assault in the mechanized warfare era, but more like a trench war.

The Soviet southern group's unexpected advancement method inadvertently disrupted Model's deployment of a short assault - he had originally planned to launch an attack on the Soviet army in the south with the 5th SS "Viking" Division, the Hungarian mechanized army and five heavy armored battalions, striving to win another victory like the Battle of Legionovo-Wolomin. However, judging from the current situation, this idea cannot be realized.

"Commander, perhaps the Soviets just want to fight a head-on offensive and defensive battle with us in Warsaw." Major General Artur Schmidt, Chief of Staff of the 6th Army, said, "The Soviets have far more troops than us. Even if the exchange ratio is 3 to 1, Warsaw may be taken away by them." Model shook his head and said, "The Soviets can't take Warsaw away... The Battle of Warsaw will be the beginning of the Soviet Union's demise!" He paused, "And the key to our defense of Warsaw is that Warsaw cannot be surrounded by the Soviets. Since the Soviets have no signs of encircling from the south for the time being, we should focus on the north." "Or Legionovo?" Artur Schmidt asked. "Yes, it's still there!" Model nodded, "The Vistula River turns northwest there. As long as we can repel the Soviet Army's northern army again in Legionovo, their encirclement of Warsaw will not be realized. As long as Warsaw is not surrounded, the 6th Army will continue to receive reinforcements, and then we can consume the Soviet Army at an exchange ratio of 3 to 1 to 5 to 1."