Steel Soviet Union

After learning the detailed plan from his chief of staff, Zhukov, who was instantly interested in the plan proposed by the commander of the siege column, couldn't help but chuckle.

"But I remember that the order I gave only did not prohibit the use of field artillery groups to bombard urban areas. It did not prohibit the use of small-caliber mortars accompanying their infantry. Wouldn't it be better to use lightly armed small-caliber mortars to fire smoke grenades to cover the target? "

The result was different from what Zhukov expected. The chief of staff of the front army, who was still holding the telegram in his hand, shook his head slightly again.

"This reason was also mentioned in the telegram, Comrade Commander."

"Because the floors are too high and the square area is very empty, the smoke screen effect created by the smoke bombs fired by small-caliber mortars simply cannot meet the actual expected requirements. It is difficult to raise a smoke screen wide enough to the fifth floor. height to completely block the German view."

"Only by using the division's 122 field howitzers to launch large-scale smoke coverage can basically meet the needs of isolating the sight of the German defenders in the building. However, the use of field artillery groups was explicitly prohibited in the pre-war order, so Rakutin only Hope to get your consent."

After hearing this, Zhukov, who completely understood the whole ins and outs of the whole matter, did not hesitate much and nodded lightly.

"There is no problem if you just fire artillery smoke grenades. Tell Rakutin that I allow him to use his hands and feet to shoot such things as artillery smoke grenades. However, did the name of the commander of the siege column be mentioned in the telegram? I do. I really want to know who could come up with this idea.”

Facing Zhukov's question again, Comrade Chief of Staff, who also had a fresh memory of the little major, couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"Who else could it be? Comrade Commander, it is Major Malashenko, the commander of the independent 1st Heavy Tank Breakthrough Battalion that we just seconded from the Western Front."

"Malashenko!? Well, if you think about it this way, such an innovative siege strategy is in line with his always agile and changeable tactical thinking."

With General Zhukov sighing inwardly, a telegram requesting approval quickly flew out of the Reserve Front Army Headquarters and was officially delivered to the 24th Army on the front line of the Yelnya Theater in the form of signal transmission. In the army headquarters.

After receiving permission from Zhukov, Major General Rakutin, commander of the 24th Army, finally fell to the ground. The 12 M30 122mm howitzers that had already ordered the artillery positions to be deployed immediately raised their muzzles under the operation of each artillery team.

With an effective range of up to 8 kilometers, this 122mm field artillery with excellent performance is enough to accurately deliver artillery fire into the center of Yelniya from the artillery position outside the city.

Based on the coordinates of the city center reported by Malashenko earlier through the vehicle-mounted radio, the location of the shelling was roughly determined.

The Soviet army, which possesses a complete and detailed map of the main city of Yelniya, is well aware of this historical old city of its own motherland. In addition, with the excellent performance of the M30 122mm field howitzer, it is necessary to It is not difficult to accurately send smoke bombs to the coordinate square in the center of the city.

Boom boom boom boom——

The formation of 12 M30 122mm field howitzers firing in salvo was not insignificant. The 122mm full-caliber shells that escaped from the barrel and flew straight towards the center of Yelniya City were among the Soviet artillery sequences. The official model among them is the D-462A gun-launched smoke grenade.

This type of 122mm smoke grenade has an amazing coverage area because of its large caliber and full charge. The smoke grenade that is detonated in mid-air through a custom-installed delay fuse can spread in just half a minute. It formed a spherical smoke ball with a diameter of 50 meters.

And if the bombardment target location is assisted by breeze and the humidity is suitable, the diffusion speed and coverage of the smoke will be faster and larger on this basis.

After four salvos of shelling, a total of 48 122mm full-caliber smoke grenades landed accurately on the central square of the city marked by Malashenko.

These smoke bombs, which exploded in mid-air under the action of fixed-delay fuses, took less than half a cigarette to completely block the thick smoke screen that instantly rose from the ground and blocked the German stronghold buildings and horses. Between the streets where Rashenko is located, the smoke barrier, which is more than five stories high and more than ten meters thick, is much more powerful than what Rashenko expected.

Seeing that the first step of his plan was in place, Malashenko, who knew he could not miss the opportunity, immediately picked up the communicator at hand and gave orders to all the vehicle crews of the entire siege column.

"It's now, comrades! Go forward immediately according to the existing formation and set up an offensive formation in the square! The heavy tanks are at the front, the special tanks follow closely, and the assault rocket artillery troops are at the end and prepare for bombardment immediately. Waiting After the smoke dissipates, we must demolish that German building as soon as possible!”

With an order from Malashenko, the entire siege column that originally retreated to the blind spot of the German firepower position immediately began to take action. A pile of light vehicles with "steel pipes on their heads" following the forward troops are exactly the assault rocket artillery units that Malashenko just mentioned.

As a pioneer and practitioner of rocket weapon technology, the Soviet Army was the first to install air-launched delayed rockets on fighter planes during the Battle of Nomonhan, and successfully experimented with the Japanese Kwantung Army. The Soviet Army was greatly encouraged to develop land rocket projectile weapons. The practical implementation of the plan then began to proceed more intensively.

After the Katyusha heavy vehicle-mounted rocket launcher became the new favorite of the Soviet artillery, thus greatly improving the Soviet artillery's intensive strike capability.

Realizing that rockets still have a large space for application, the Soviet engineer team worked non-stop and immediately boldly began to try to load rocket launch rails onto tank chassis with armor protection capabilities.

This allows rocket weapons that cannot appear in front-line battles due to poor defense when using a truck chassis as a launch vehicle. They can follow front-line troops in assault operations, thereby expanding the use of rocket weapons with excellent performance and powerful power. space.

The efforts of the Soviet rocket engineer team soon reaped corresponding rewards, and a front-line rocket assault tank based on the chassis of the Soviet Red Army T-60 light reconnaissance tank came into being.

Taking into account the weak structure and poor load-carrying capacity of the T-60 light reconnaissance tank with a total combat weight of just over five tons, the Soviet rocket engineer team ultimately did not choose the Katyusha rocket launcher's 132 mm heavy rocket as ammunition for the sake of safety. Instead, 82mm air-launched rockets equipped for Soviet Air Force attack aircraft and fighter jets were chosen as the new tank ammunition.