Bab 201: 201
Episode 201: Battle of Moscow (2)
October 8, 1942
Soviet defense line outside Moscow, USSR
When he received instructions from Stavka to attack the northern flank of the German army - Hort's 3rd Panzer Group - a sigh escaped Vasilevsky's lips.
This is crazy.
This is crazy.
Just in case, he sent a telegram to the Kremlin asking for confirmation as to whether the order was true.
Immediately afterwards, a direct phone call from Stalin came.
He gave the order for the offensive, and the necessary fuel will arrive soon, so make sure the offensive is successful.
As expected, the order for the offensive was Stalin's decision.
Although Vasilevsky was not close to Zhukov, he at least knew that he was not the kind of person to give such an absurd and dangerous order.
Additionally, he was probably opposed to this operation.
"Comrades. "What do your comrades think of this operation?"
In response to Vasilevsky's question, the staff only looked at each other and were not willing to open their mouths.
In the Soviet Union, where it was common for not only the person involved but the entire family to be purged for a minor slip of the tongue, it was rare for anyone to speak honestly about their opinions.
"Don't worry. There are no political officers, no NKVD, no Smersh, so please be honest. "In this situation, would you have asked this question to check loyalty?"
After Vasilevsky personally guaranteed it, only then did the staff open their mouths and express their honest opinions.
"This is a very reckless operation, Comrade Captain."
"To be honest, our troops are inferior to the Germans in every way. "You may be lucky and succeed at first, but if the Germans counterattack soon enough, you will be pushed back."
"Now our troops must pay more attention to defense than offense."
"I think the same thing. But unfortunately, Comrade Secretary General does not seem to think so."
No matter how impossible the mission was, I had no choice but to follow Stalin's instructions. Unless you want to be killed by your own troops, not by the Germans.
Vasilevsky prepared for an offensive according to Stalin's instructions, and finally sent a telegram to the General Secretary.
Preparations for an offensive are underway, and if the offensive fails, Moscow's northern defense line will be extremely dangerous.
I could have made a phone call, but I couldn't bring myself to talk directly to the Secretary.
Vasilevsky hoped that the Secretary would read the last sentence and reconsider the offensive.
But Stalin's opinions were firm and no one could change his mind.
Stalin sent a warning letter to Vasilevsky. If the offensive is not carried out as planned, it will inevitably be considered that there is a problem with his command.
In short, it meant shut up and attack.
"Shoot!"
Vasilevsky prayed to God as he watched the 152mm artillery guns firing at the same time from afar.
I hope a miracle happens and the offensive succeeds. I hope that Moscow and its people will be able to spend this winter safely this year.
"launch!"
Still, Stalin gave Vasilevsky's 3rd Shock Army the maximum possible support needed for the offensive.
Hundreds of artillery pieces, including Katyusha multiple rocket launchers, fired fire toward the German camp.
After 30 minutes of artillery fire, Vasilevsky gave the order to advance.
"For Mother Russia! charge!"
"Forward! Comrades, move forward!"
"Uraaa!!!"
***
"Soviet army counterattack? "Are you sure?"
-Yes, sir. A request for assistance has just arrived from the 32nd Infantry Division. It is said that a large-scale offensive by the Soviet army is evident. The size is estimated to be at least corps level or larger.
Hort, who was waiting to reach Moscow as soon as possible, was surprised to hear the news of the Soviet army's counterattack.
Even he, who was experienced in battle, could not have expected that the enemy, who was busy retreating, would suddenly launch a counterattack.
"Issuing a summons order immediately. "It's an emergency."
"All right!"
Hort held an emergency meeting to discuss with his staff what the enemy's intentions might be.
Although various opinions were expressed during the discussion, the Soviet military's intention was narrowed down to blocking the friendly forces' offensive north of Moscow.
It is possible that there were other intentions, but to Hort, this guess seemed the most credible.
"Damn it. You got hit. "We were so caught off guard."
The current Soviet offensive is concentrated in the direction of the 32nd Infantry Division. After all, it was the weakest part of the 3rd Armored Group's flank.
Hort clicked his tongue and blamed himself for his complacency.
"What division is closest to the 32nd Division?"
"The 25th Infantry Division is the closest, followed by the 19th Armored Division."
"Tell them to stop on their way, turn to the side, and support the 32nd Division. "If we don't hurry, the 57th Panzer Corps will be surrounded by communists."
"I understand, Your Excellency."
However, not long after Hort gave instructions, Bibo flew into the 3rd Armored Group headquarters.
"The 32nd Infantry Division has been breached!"
Before the 25th Infantry Division under Hort's instructions could come to the rescue, the 32nd Division suffered near annihilation by the Soviet Army and was allowed to break through the front line.
The division commander and staff were all killed instantly when the division headquarters was attacked by a Soviet tank.
The shocking news didn't end there.
Soon after, the 25th Infantry Division also suffered a counterattack by the Soviet army, and part of the division was surrounded and the front line was broken through.
The Soviet 3rd Shock Army, which went on the offensive, was stronger and faster than the Germans expected.
***
"Hit! "Hurry up and reload!"
"Yep!"
Oskin clenched his fists after seeing the German armored vehicle being destroyed after receiving a direct hit from an 85mm shell.
The T-34-85 under his command has so far destroyed four German armored vehicles, which was by far the best performance in the battalion.
"This guy is really a thing, isn't he?"
Oskin was very pleased with this tank he was supplied with.
It had a larger turret than the T-34-76 he had previously ridden, and was equipped with an 85mm gun that had higher penetration and longer range than the 76mm gun, which dramatically increased its firepower. It was also equipped with a radio, so there was no need to give instructions manually.
Oskin liked that the most.
Tank commanders who leaned out of the hatch to give instructions by hand were often killed or injured by shell fragments or sniper bullets, so the presence of radios was truly innovative.
-Kwaang!!
"Caution, it's an enemy anti-tank gun!"
A T-34-85 that was charging ahead suddenly stopped and the tank crews jumped out of the tank. It was hit by an anti-tank gun ambushed in front.
"Load grenades!"
"Load grenades!"
The ammunition operator repeated Oskin's command and pushed the 85mm grenade into the chamber. The closure closed with a rattling sound.
"Aim complete!"
"launch!"
The driver paused the tank before the gunner stepped on the firing pedal. This is because it was not possible to properly hit the enemy by shooting while moving.
"Hit!"
An anti-tank gun hit by an 85mm grenade exploded, scattering steel fragments in all directions.
The twisted corpses of anti-tank gunners were strewn near the anti-tank gun, which had been shattered beyond recognition.
"good. "Go forward again!"
"Are you going all the way to Berlin like this, Comrade Sergeant?"
Oskin burst out laughing at the driver's joke. The morale of the Soviet army was sky-high due to the long-awaited counterattack.
Especially for the soldiers who have only repeated boring and difficult retreats until now.
We can win too! Moscow will be defended and German fascist pigs will never be able to set foot in Moscow!
***
The 3rd Shock Army, which continued to advance without rest, regained control of several villages that had fallen into German hands.
Rather than cheering the appearance of their own troops, the residents who remained in the village were rather embarrassed.
"Look at these guys? "You can't fight the fascists who invaded your country, so why stick with them?"
"You reactionary bastards!"
"Please save me!"
They were guilty simply because they survived under the German military.
In the Soviet Union, where captured soldiers and their families were considered traitors, village residents were shot to death by their own troops simply because they were under German rule.
Selling livestock and milk to German soldiers, providing them with water from wells, and receiving bread in return for showing them directions.
These are all shameless acts of betrayal that dishonor the motherland, the Soviet Union.
Traitors do not deserve to live in a great people's society. So kill them all.
Following instructions from political officers, Red Army soldiers shot their country's civilians to death and hung some of them from trees.
The following plaque was placed on the hung body:
'I am a shameless traitor who betrayed my country's Soviet Union and Comrade Stalin.'
The fate of German prisoners of war was not so good. A lucky few were spared because they had to gather information, but most were executed on the spot when they surrendered.
This was because it was a luxury to dedicate troops to separately manage prisoners while they were busy advancing.
"What are they?"
What stood in the way of the 3rd Shock Army, which was advancing without hesitation, were soldiers with different skin colors.
Their identity is the Ethiopian Army's Gideon Corps. Coming from the distant African continent, they were foreign beings who did not fit in well with the Russian battlefield.
The Gideon Legion was Ethiopia's most elite unit made up of soldiers selected from among the Ethiopian army, but in the eyes of the German army that conquered Europe, they were nothing more than a militia.
Under orders from Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, they were provided with some German-made equipment and ammunition, but most of the soldiers wore peace helmets commonly used in tropical regions and M33 helmets left over from the Italian army.
Of course, the weapons were a mix of Italian Carcano and German carabiners.
The German army, seeing the poor appearance of the Ethiopian army, did not trust their fighting ability and left them to just clean up the rear.
Therefore, it was expected that they would never be on the front line until the end of the war.
However, the German army's seemingly solid front line was breached by an unexpected counterattack by the Soviet army, and the soldiers of Gideon's corps faced the Soviet army head-on.
For the Ethiopian soldiers who had so far focused on guarding railways and bridges, searching for partisans, and supplying supplies, the attack by the Soviet army with tanks was a nerve-wracking event.
However, they all volunteered and came to Europe to help Germany save their country.
Therefore, they did not retreat and calmly entered a combat posture against the Soviet army with their overwhelming power.
"Remember! Even if you can't do it, draw it to 100m and then shoot!"
Fortunately, they were provided with German portable anti-tank weapons, the Panzerfaust. And although there were few, there were also PaK 40s.
"Niggers are fleeting! Just push it away!"
"Victory is at hand! "Comrades!"
It did not matter to the red soldiers whether they were white-skinned German soldiers or dark-skinned Ethiopians.
They are simply enemies that must be equally overthrown and trampled upon.
When news of Ethiopia's declaration of war broke out, Pravda downplayed it, saying that the Ethiopian emperor, who was exploiting the poor people, had received bribes from Hitler and sent mercenaries.
And the newspaper published an illustration of Ethiopian soldiers carrying bows, shields, and spears riding on rafts and rowing across the sea toward Europe.
The Soviet Union was no different from other countries in its tendency to regard black people as a less evolved and inferior race.
The Soviet army thought that it could crush the army of savage natives in an instant. But when the battle began, their expectations were spectacularly wrong.
"Loaded!"
"launch!"
Anti-tank guns fired simultaneously from a distance of 600 meters. Three T-34s were destroyed and one lost track. A mortar attack soon followed.
The thin armored upper part of the tank hit by a mortar shell caught fire, and the tank crews escaped from the tank with their bodies on fire.
To make matters worse for the Soviets, the German Air Force's Hs123 squadron appeared and attacked the Soviets.
Now that the jet planes Me262 and He 290 had appeared, the biplane Hs123 seemed like an outdated aircraft that did not fit the times, but it was still produced steadily in Germany due to its performance suitable for close support and its high operation rate even in the harsh environment of the Eastern Front.
Hs123 pilots flew at low altitudes, risking the risk of being hit by enemy weapons.
The engine sound from the BMW engine mounted on the Hs123 was similar to the sound of a machine gun, giving the enemy the illusion that a strafing attack had begun. When the enemies ducked to avoid the bullets, the Hs123 dropped bombs and quickly increased altitude.
The turret of the KV-1 hit by the bomb dropped by Hs123 was shattered, and soldiers covered in burning fragments rolled to the ground.
In order to chase away these troublesome and dangerous uninvited guests, the tankers raised their main guns as high as possible, fired shells, and pointed their coaxial machine guns into the sky.
Although the anti-aircraft fire of these tanks was inaccurate, it was not completely ineffective.
One unlucky Hs123 crashed after being hit by a T-34 shell.
"Gotcha! "You damn bastard."
Oskin's gunner clenched his fist after setting the rare record of shooting down an aircraft with a tank gun.
Hs123, hit by a shell, was split in two and fell to the ground. Not long after, the remaining Hs123s also stopped fighting and turned their noses around.
It was not because he was scared after seeing his colleague suffer, but because he had used up all his ammunition.
"Stand up, you bastards! "The enemy is ahead!"
Political officers fired pistols into the air and encouraged the soldiers.
During the air raid, the soldiers who had fallen on the mud ground stood up again and advanced.
"Start shooting!"
As the Soviet army advanced, the Ethiopian army also pulled the trigger of its machine gun. The Breda M37 heavy machine gun burst into flames and three or four Soviet soldiers fell to the ground.
The T-34 ran and fired a cannonball, but because the aim was disturbed, the cannonball flew into the air.
The KV-1, which was advancing while crushing the corpses of our soldiers who had fallen under the Ethiopian army's fire, suddenly stopped and spewed out smoke. The lower part of the car was pierced by a Panzerfaust fired by an Ethiopian soldier.
The tank soldiers who opened the hatch and escaped were showered with bullets and fell into the street tank.
When the distance to enemy tanks narrowed to less than 100 meters, Ethiopian soldiers fired Panzerfausts.
There were cases where the tank was successfully destroyed by hitting it, but there were also cases where the warhead missed due to incorrect aiming or the tank's machine gun hit the tank before it could fire the Panzerfaust.
However, the Ethiopian army did not back down. When a soldier holding a Panzerfaust fell to an enemy bullet, another soldier picked up the Panzerfaust and fired instead.
"You niggers, why are you so tough? "What did they do wrong?"
Oskin was taken aback by the Ethiopian army's persistent resistance. Just now, he saw a soldier whose lower body was blown off by a tank gun attack throwing a grenade at his allies.
An Ethiopian military officer even carried out a hand-to-hand attack on a tank with a grenade.
Although his reckless attempt ended in failure after being stopped by a coaxial machine gun, it was quite a shock to Oskin, who regarded the Ethiopian army as barbaric mercenaries.
They are just mercenaries hired by the German fascists, so why do they fight so tenaciously? For what?
-This is Polona 1. Please respond to Polona 2.
"Ah, this is Polona 2."
-The orbit is damaged and is currently in a state of inoperability. I will temporarily hand over command to Polonya 2 until I can rejoin after repairs.
"reception."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
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