The flares rose into the air one after another. They illuminated the night sky, shone the earth, and sprinkled the light on the tanks and assault artillery of the Soviet and German armies. The cannons roared, one tighter than another. The Soviet KV-85 tanks, Su-122 assault artillery, and the German "wasp" self-propelled artillery were all firing ammunition with all their might. Dark red shells shuttled back and forth on the battlefield, and the explosions of various sound quality filled Comrade Watujing's ears.

Although he was the commander of the Tank Army, General Vatujing visited the battlefield where hundreds or thousands of tanks lined up to fight against the bombardment for the first time. However, he soon came back from this unforgettable shocking scene and began to carefully observe the battle situation ahead.

Guided by the light of the flare, he had discovered that the German army was leading the way not the Tiger tank, but the "No. 4 Assault Cannon" with a 150mm short-barrel gun. Because the assault cannon has no turret, the main gun shooting range is narrow and it is not very valuable in the battlefield of tank-gathering battles. Moreover, this weapon is vulnerable to infantry attacks.

But tonight, the situation is obviously different!

Because it was a night battle, the formations of both sides were relatively simple and the tactics were very single, which was to line up and shoot guns! Therefore, there was no problem of "No. 4 assault gun" being encircled, and in fact there was no way to encircle, because the number of tanks/strike artillery invested by the Soviet army today was far less than that of the German side.

Moreover, before the two sides were closer to hundreds of meters, the Soviets could not see clearly what tank the Germans were using to take the lead, and they could not change their formation or tactics to deal with it. So the kv-85 tanks under Vatujing were now as Hu Bei expected, all concentrated their firepower to bombard the assault guns that were approaching step by step.

However, the 85mm shell was hit on the solid frontal artillery armor of this assault gun, and it could not effectively penetrate! Most of the "No. 4 assault guns" were still approaching.

Just when Vatuting, who was watching the battle on a KV-85 tank in the back, was surprised by the sturdiness of the German "No. 4 assault gun", behind the "No. 4 assault gun", the German tiger tanks were already in place.

The 156 Tiger tanks belonging to the 501st, 502nd, 506th and 510th Heavy Armored Battalion of the National Defense Forces (there should be 176 full units, 20 of which had malfunctioned or were injured in combat) were arranged in a row with the 80 "Rhino" tank destroyers (the Tiger and Rhino mixed formation) of the 1st Destroyer of the National Defense Forces, and interlaced with the "No. 4 assault gun" in front, and the distance from the kv-85 in the first row of the Soviet tank formation is less than 500 meters.

"Tiger tank, aim at the target... open fire!"

Almost as the order to open fire was passed to each Tiger tank through the on-board radio, these Tiger tanks finally burst out with a long-depressed roar. 88mm shells poured down like raindrops and swept through the formation of Soviet KV tanks. Balls of fireballs quickly rose up in the front of the Soviet tank cluster, and more than 50 kv-85s were beaten into torches in the first round of the Tiger tanks!

Then, the second and third rounds of artillery bombardment followed one after another, and the Soviet tank cluster immediately suffered heavy losses!

Seeing this scene, General Vatujing's face turned pale, and his thick eyebrows were getting tighter and tighter. So far, how could he still not see the German intentions?

However, the initiative has fallen into the hands of the Germans, and the Red Army's tank cluster has fallen into a full passive state.

On the battlefield, all German tiger tanks stopped moving forward, lined up on the battlefield, and began to name the Soviet KV tanks with the powerful 88mm cannon.

The "Grizzly" assault guns that advanced with 85mm shells rushed forward for dozens or hundreds of meters, and they stopped moving forward until the distance between the two sides was closer to 400 meters. They were not only beaten and could not fight back. Although the 150mm short cannons that could not fire armor-piercing shells, the armor-piercing shells they fired were very powerful.

The so-called "armor piercing bomb" is energy-concentrating charge ammunition, which is a chemical energy anti-armor bomb developed based on the Monroe effect. The theoretical armor piercing efficiency is closely related to the caliber of the ammunition, and the theoretical maximum is 5 times. However, it was not reached in World War II, which is between 1 and 1.5 times. Germany's research in this regard is at an absolute leading level (the "Iron Fist" anti-tank grenade is energy-concentrating charge). Therefore, as long as the armor piercing bomb fired by the "Grizzly" 150mm cannon hits the target, it is basically a pile of scrap iron, and there is no difference between kv-85, t-34/57, and su-85.

"Release the smoke, let the tanks retreat, and the infantry prepare to charge!"

Vatujing made a decisive tactical adjustment, allowing the frustrated tank cluster to retreat slightly, and at the same time, he put in infantry equipped with "Red Iron Fist"... Of course, it was also a massive number of infantry!

Tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers were ready to set up dense formations behind the tank cluster (they were not infantrymen who protected the tanks). After receiving the order, they began to attack "Ula!Ula!".

Because it is night now, it is very beneficial for the Red Army infantry who are at a disadvantage in firepower. However, this dense formation impact that is almost shoulder to shoulder will inevitably be accompanied by huge casualties, but Vatujing doesn't care at all, because the destiny of the Soviet Union has reached a critical moment!

"Commander, the Soviets are releasing smoke!"

Lieutenant General Hubei, who was watching the battle in the rear, guessed the Soviet army's intention as soon as he saw the smoke in front of the formation, "They are going to launch an infantry charge!"

"What? Infantry Charge?" General Markensson was somewhat suspicious of his one-armed chief of staff's judgment.

"Are they going to retreat?" said Markenson. "The Soviets suffered heavy losses in KV tanks!"

"Impossible," Hubei shook his head, "The Soviets are fighting desperately. If they defeated tonight, they will inevitably be wiped out. Because we not only have overwhelming armored forces, but also overwhelming air superiority!"

France's Breguet attack aircraft and Germany's HS129 attack aircraft are two real tank killers! If the Soviet tank cluster dares to retreat during the day, they will be wiped out by planes on the road!

If Soviet tanks did not dare to run away during the day, how could they escape the German pursuit?

So now the army is wiped out by the whole army (it is just that the tanks are destroyed, and the infantry can run away some of them), so it’s better to fight.

"Let the Grizzly Bear and the Tiger stop advancing, and be on the No. 4 tank and armored grenade." Markenson thought for a while and asked again, "Can the rocket launcher be launched now?"

Hu Bei asked the staff around him and replied: "Okay, all the rocket launchers have been loaded and can be fired at any time."

"Fry a volley!" Markonson waved his hand, "and then prepare all self-propelled artillery to fire, including Grizzlies... prepare grenades and fire at any time."

When Markenson ordered the rocket launcher to bombard the KV-85 tank Vatujin had turned and started to retreat, while the tide of Red Army infantry was passing by him.

Watuking used the radio station to contact the retreating kv-85 behind him (some surviving) to find out whether the German tank cluster was chasing. At this moment, a shout from unknown people suddenly came from his ear: "Rocket Launch! The rocket Launch is here!" Then he was dragged into the tank turret by someone.

Vatujing could hide inside the KV-85 tank, but the infantry outside was beaten by a sudden rocket launcher. A 80mm caliber 48-track rocket launcher used by German armored troops was not very powerful, but it was because of its dense firepower and had little effect on the enemy's positions (but it could explode minefields). However, if the infantry was just covered, there would be heavy casualties.

The Soviet army's "infantry sea" was beaten by rocket launchers, so naturally there was no wave.

However, Vatujing did not intend to give up, and there was no way to give up. After the charges of tanks and infantry were hit one after another, he ordered the troops to move into defense and formed a line of defense with the few remaining kv-85 tanks, t-34/57, su-85, etc.

At 2 a.m. on May 16, 1943, on the plains south of the Dobrush Forest, the roar of German tank clusters advancing again.

This is the second wave of general attack launched by General Markensen and Lieutenant General Hubei! It is still the "Grizzly" assault guns leading the way, with Tiger tanks and Rhino tank destroyers following closely, and there are also many No. 4 (including F-type and H-type) following cover. A dense assault formation was formed on the plain, rushing towards the thin defense line of the Soviet army like a torrent. The tactics adopted were the same as before, lined up to fire within 500 meters!

In fact, it is just crushing with absolute strength!

In original history, if the German army could gather more than 100 Tiger and hundreds of No. 4 vehicles on a battlefield, it would definitely be a classic battle.

Now, it is just a battle-level confrontation, and 156 "Tiger Styles", more than 200 "Rhinos", more than 100 "Grizzlies", and seven or eight No. 4 tanks formed an extremely powerful sea of ​​tanks.

At 2:10 am on May 16, the spectacular scene of "queuing up to fire guns" appeared again. All Soviet tanks/strike artillery fired desperately, trying to delay the German tank cluster with firepower. Although some German vehicles were fired or the tracks were interrupted, the entire sea of ​​tanks was still steadily crushed.

At 2:15, the German Tiger tank and Rhino tank destroyer all stopped advancing, and the powerful 88mm cannon began to aim at Soviet tanks and attack artillery illuminated by flares.
Chapter completed!