The Rise of the Third Reich

Lieutenant Political Deputy Battalion Commander Vasily Georgievich Klochkov Tiev is now curled up with his eyes closed, squatting in the cold and damp muddy water, letting the bullets whistle in his ears. The future hero of the Soviet Union had no choice but to resign himself to his fate and let the master in the shadows decide whether to let German bullets or bombs take away his life.

As a loyal communist fighter, what scares Captain Tiev the most is not death, but watching helplessly the armies of imperialism and Belarusian gangsters approaching step by step towards the heart of the great Soviet motherland.

Now that Leningrad, the second capital of the motherland, has fallen, and Moscow is behind him, he feels that he and the communist warriors of Panfilov's division have no way to retreat.

Time passed slowly in torment, the roar of the aircraft motor, the roar of the guns, and the explosions that overwhelmed all other sounds, kept singing in Captain Tiev's ears over and over again. I don’t know how long it took, but all these dizzying sounds finally subsided, and human voices resounded in the trenches - shouts and screams!

Captain Tiev knew that he was intact and was obviously not injured in the air strike just now. He opened his eyes and saw another hellish scene with heavy casualties: the remains of martyrs and wailing wounded could be seen everywhere in the trenches, and the blood had dyed the coffee-colored muddy water into dark brown or dark red.

However, Tiev did not show any panic or discomfort. He was not a newbie on the battlefield (nor was he a Kazakh). Before joining the 8th Guards Infantry Division, he had fought with the Germans in many places, and he had long been accustomed to scenes of heavy casualties.

It can be said that the casualties caused by German aircraft this time were nothing in Tiev's battlefield experience.

But he also knows that the battle has just begun!

"Comrades!" Tiev stood up from the muddy water and shouted loudly, "Get ready to fight! The enemy is coming, and we must defeat them, because although Russia is big, we have no way to retreat, and Moscow is behind us! Behind it is Moscow!”

Although the 8th Guards Infantry Division is still more than 270 kilometers away from the border of Moscow Oblast, everyone knows that the current battle is to defend Moscow! The great capital that defends the Soviet fatherland.

If Moscow falls, the Soviet Union may really be destroyed!

Following the shouts of Captain Tiev, two infantry companies of the 1075th Infantry Regiment, an anti-tank destroyer platoon (with three ZIS-3 76mm cannons) and two tanks of the 28th Guards Tank Destroyer Brigade dispatched The "Diev Battle Group" composed of SU-57 tank destroyers immediately started running quickly like a war machine at full power.

Under the urging of military officers and political workers, many Kazakh soldiers, who had been huddled in the trenches full of mud and water for almost an hour and were tortured by the seemingly endless bombings and machine gun and cannon fire, picked up various items one after another. Various weapons - Mosin-Nagant rifle, Bobosha submachine gun, DP large turntable light machine gun, M1910 heavy machine gun, Red Fist anti-tank grenade launcher, bazooka rocket launcher, PTRS and PTRD anti-tank rifles There were all kinds of grenades, ******--walking along the same muddy traffic trenches towards the forward positions.

Three ZIS-3 76mm cannons have been hidden in a forest behind the forward position, quietly waiting for the prey to approach... They must be very close, so that the spool-type high-speed armor-piercing projectiles used by the ZIS-3 76mm cannon can exert their power.

This armor-piercing bullet with a carbide core and soft shell can penetrate a 92mm homogeneous steel plate at a right angle at a distance of 500 meters, and can penetrate a 102mm homogeneous steel plate at a right angle at a "suicide distance" of 100 meters. In theory, it can The "shrinking tiger" (Tiger H type) that threatened the Germans.

However, in actual use, the ZIS-3 76mm cannon is basically a "disposable" weapon and is easily destroyed by the powerful German artillery fire. Therefore, the loss exchange rate is very unsatisfactory, and 3 gun groups may not be able to be replaced with 1 vehicle. German tanks.

Therefore, the anti-tank firepower that Tiev can really rely on, in addition to the individual anti-tank weapons in the hands of the infantry (a bad anti-tank gun is usually not as useful as a Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade launcher), is the two SU- 57 anti-tank destroyer. During the German air raid just now, they were carefully hiding in an inconspicuous forest, and their bodies were covered with camouflage.

Now, while the German planes were flying away, the motors of these two precious SU-57 tank destroyers also began to roar, and their tracks rolled over the muddy land towards the preset positions ahead. There they would set up an ambush and await the approach of German tanks and armored vehicles.

Tiev himself also went to the front line in person. At this time, German tanks and assault artillery had already appeared in the sight of the Soviet front line.

Of course it is not the terrifying Tiger tank and E-50 tank. These two tanks also have another unexposed "Cheetah" tank destroyer (equipped with a 105mmL/68 gun). They are all equipment used for tank battles. No Used to attack Soviet positions.

So what Tiev and his comrades saw now were only armored clusters composed of "Grizzly" assault guns and No. 4H tanks, as well as infantry led by the armored cluster. It may be due to the muddy roads that a large number of personnel and equipment are stuck in the mud, so the offensive troops currently invested by the German army do not seem to be very many, only about twenty tanks/assault guns and three to four hundred infantry. These people and vehicles are still far away and moving very slowly. It seems that it will take a while before the battle can begin.

Just when Tiev relaxed a little, the German artillery placed somewhere opened fire.

"Boom!"

The powerful shock wave caused by the shells that landed on the Soviet position and exploded swept over him. Tiev only lowered his head slightly, instead of shrinking back to the bottom of the trench like those Kazakh recruits who had not been on the battlefield much - now this This level of shelling was nothing compared to the shelling Tiev had encountered on the Polish front and the Smolensk front.

When Tiev heard the sound of shells exploding, he knew it was the German 150mm cannon firing, probably the "Bumblebee" 150mm self-propelled artillery. Considering the current road conditions, the only thing that can be driven up immediately is this kind of tracked self-propelled artillery.

The target of the German artillery bombardment was not the Soviet trenches, but the muddy ground in front of the trenches. The purpose was to detonate the mines there to clear the way for tanks/assault artillery. However, Diev's men did not lay mines in the mud in front of the position, because the mud season also had a huge impact on the Soviet logistics. Diev's battle group did not receive enough anti-tank mines, so they could only be used at the most critical times.

When the German self-propelled artillery stopped firing, although they saw the German tanks approaching the Soviet front line, many Soviet engineers bravely rushed out of the trenches and risked their lives to plant anti-tank mines.

At the same time, there were many Red Army warriors holding "Red Iron Fist" rocket launchers, crawling from the trenches to the pre-dug foxholes dozens of meters ahead. There they will risk their lives to attack German tanks!

Cooperating with them are anti-tank rifles up to 2 meters long. There are two main types of Soviet anti-tank rifles, PTRD and PTRS. Because they are very similar, they are called "brother guns". They are both 14.5mm in caliber and use non-streamlined tungsten core armor-piercing bullets, which can penetrate a 40mm homogeneous steel plate at a right angle at a distance of 300 meters. Using them to deal with the frontal armor of Type 4 H tanks and "Grizzly" assault guns is definitely not possible. As for hitting periscopes and observation holes, they are basically impossible to hit.

However, this gun can be used to break the tracks. After breaking the tracks, the German tanks and assault guns will be unable to move. At this time, the suicide squads ambushing in the foxholes ahead will rush out and risk their lives to use the "Red Iron Fist" to deal with the unable to move. german tank. In addition, the two SU-57s and the three ZIS-3s in ambush can also take the opportunity to shoot at their sides.

In short, the Soviet infantry, which has been baptized by the long war, is no longer without the strength to fight back when facing the powerful German armored forces.

The German tanks also knew that the enemy they faced was not that easy to deal with, so they did not rush forward with their heads covered, but stopped suddenly 600 meters away from the Soviet front line. Because most Soviet anti-tank firepower suffers from insufficient accuracy, the threat to German tanks/assault artillery at a distance of 600 meters is not very great.

Subsequently, all the "Grizzly" assault guns began to roar, ejecting 150mm caliber ammunition onto the Soviet position. The No. 4 H tank pointed its muzzle far ahead, and filled the barrel with an armor-piercing shelling shell, waiting for the ambushing Soviet tank or tank destroyer to open fire and expose the target - as long as the distance did not exceed 800 meters, This discarding sabot armor-piercing projectile can even defeat the Soviet JS-2 heavy tank with one shot!

However, the German commander soon discovered that the Soviet position in front seemed to be unmanned and was just being beaten without any artillery fire.

However, the equally experienced German army did not launch another group of tanks and assault guns. Instead, the infantry armed with Mkb-42 automatic carbines launched a charge.

At the same time, some German mortar groups and machine gun groups followed the movement of tanks/assault artillery, and now they are all set up to cover the attacking infantry with machine gun bullets and mortar shells.

The outpost battle of the Moscow Defense Battle began in this way between two infantrymen of very good quality!