Mechanized troops marching at night in a war zone are very vulnerable to ambushes, and only a 50mm anti-tank gun hidden on the side of the road can cause great losses. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Info Therefore, all mechanized armies around the world will avoid falling into such dangers.

However, Lieutenant General Vlasov decided to let his 37th Army set off at night and march towards Otwartsk, which was more than twenty kilometers away. Because in the past two or three days, the activities of the Luftwaffe have become more and more arrogant. If the mechanized troops had marched in a swaggering manner during the day, they would have been hit by Stuka dive bombers and another unknown twin-engine attack aircraft, compared to the losses caused by air strikes. The risks of a night march were relatively small.

However, Vlasov had also taken into account the danger of marching at night, and he had made arrangements accordingly.

"There are still two kilometers to go to the next junction, and one of our infantry battalions has already taken control there, so there will be no danger. In addition, about 1 kilometer away on each of our sides, an infantry on foot was marching in, so our flanks were safe. Rokossovsky sat in a gas 61 off-road sedan and drank a confiscated spiatus of vodka (a Polish spirit) while chatting with Yakov, the head of artillery.

"But the Germans will not give Warsaw to us lightly." Although Yakov was not a military expert, he could see that Germany intended to put the Red Army under Warsaw. Since it was done on purpose, then Warsaw was not so easy to take.

"But the Red Army will still liberate Warsaw, we have absolute superiority in troops, and we are fighting on a single front, we can concentrate our forces, and the Germans are fighting on two fronts." Rokossovsky took a sip of vodka and seemed in a very good mood.

After a few days of war, he also tried the depth of the Germans, and naturally knew that the German army's combat effectiveness was far superior to that of the Soviet Red Army, and it would be difficult to liberate all of Europe by relying on the strength of the Red Army alone. But the problem of taking Warsaw and Lviv is not big, it is nothing more than the sacrifice of a little more comrades. Even if three times more people died than Germany, as long as Warsaw and Lviv were taken, the situation would turn out to be very favorable for the USSR.

He estimated that after the Soviet Red Army took Warsaw and Lviv, the war would be as protracted as in the previous war. However, the Soviet Bolshevik Party was not a weak tsarist government, and it was not afraid of protracted war. Moreover, Britain and the United States would also come to the aid of the Soviet Union, so victory was expected.

Even if it was not a complete victory, it would force Germany to abandon Poland and seek peace. In this way, Poland would become a country led by the Bolshevik Party, and he Rokossovsky would be a loyal Polish Bolshevik fighter......

"Air raids! Air raid! Brake quickly! Lights out! ”

Rokossovsky was pondering whether he had a chance to become a great Polish proletarian revolutionary when an alarm suddenly came to mind. Then the cars on the highway that were moving slowly stopped moving one after another, turned off their lights, and stopped moving.

Almost at the same time, the roar of a huge airplane motor was heard from the sky!

It turned out that the Soviet convoy along the road was moving with the lights on - the road on the east bank of the Vistula was sabotaged by the Poles, the road was potholed, and many mines were laid. In the process of clearing mines, Soviet sappers caused some damage, causing extremely poor road conditions, and it is estimated that there will be many car accidents if the lights are turned off. And even if the lights go out, it does not mean that the planes in the sky cannot find their targets, because there are still SS Polish volunteers and Polish partisans in the vicinity of the road. They only need to use mortars to fire flares and flares to make the German planes in the sky find their targets.

So Vlasov simply let the troops move forward with the lights on, and at the same time let the vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns be ready to fire at any time.

In addition, night and day are not the same after all. During the day, aircraft such as the JU87 dive bomber 7 and the HS-129 attack aircraft can be dispatched at low altitudes, but at night they are difficult to sortie.

So it was only DO-217 medium bombers that flew in tonight to bomb them, and they first dropped a string of flares in order to locate the Soviet convoy. And when these flares come down, they will naturally startle the snake. Yakov and Rokossovsky, who had long been trained in long-distance running, got out of the gas 61 car very quickly, ran wildly to a big pit dug by someone on the side of the road, and jumped down together, there was still a little muddy water in it, but neither of them cared, just lay in it and waited for the bombing to end.

At this time, in addition to the 12 DO-217s that came to drop bombs and leaflets, there was also an FW-189 armed reconnaissance plane, and then the light of the flares and support was lit up with the on-board camera for a while, and then they left for Warsaw.

……

"The goal is Otvodsk and ...... Legionovo? ”

At the headquarters of the German 6th Army in Warsaw, photographs taken by the FW-189 had been developed and sent to Moder. The photographs show not only the scenes illuminated by the flares and the bombing, but also the scenes of the Soviet troops marching with the lights on before the arrival of the bomber group.

Chief of Staff Attu. Major General Schmidt said: "The convoy is no less than 20 kilometers, and it is estimated that when the front car arrives, the car at the back may not depart. ”

"At least ...... each way 3 mechanized corps of the USSR! Modell estimated with his eyes closed. That's 6 mechanized corps...... It is estimated that there are still 3-4 infantry corps on the Warsaw Forest front. That's the most it is, and if it were more, it wouldn't be possible in a few days. ”

Moder's analysis is based on the capacity of the road west of Warsaw. At present, the main road and railway from Brest to Warsaw have not yet been opened. Therefore, it is unlikely that the Soviets will be able to move more than 10 corps to the vicinity of Warsaw in 7-8 days.

"Their goal should be to outflank our rear." Schmidt analyzed.

"No," Moder shook his head, "to build a bridgehead for the river crossing." ”

"A bridgehead requires 3 armies?"

Moder smiled: "How can it be enough to outflank us and use 6 armies?" The Soviets would not have been unaware of how powerful our German armored forces were. ”

"This is also true, the combat effectiveness of the Soviet mechanized army is definitely not as good as our armored divisions, and 6 mechanized corps can fight up to 4 armored divisions." Schmidt pondered, "But once the Soviets set up bridgeheads in Otwersk and Legionovo, they will be able to use more forces to outflank us next." ”

Schmidt suggested: "Commander, should we send the 5th SS Division and the Heavy Panzer Battalion to deal with the Soviets crossing the river?" ”

"Of course," Moder nodded, "let the 5th SS Division, 5 heavily armored battalions, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Smoke Launcher Regiments form a battle group, under the command of Admiral Steinner, to deal with the Soviets' Northern Route Army." ”

Admiral Steiner was General Waffen-SS, now the commander of the 5th SS "Viking" Division, and a general served as the commander of the "Viking" Division, which also showed the weight of this division in the Wehrmacht and the SS.

"What about South Road?" Schmidt asked, "Who will resist on the south road?" ”

"Leave it all down the southern road," said Moder, "and open the gates to welcome the Russians from the south to Warsaw!" ”

……

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble......

At 10:30 p.m., the bombs of Nazi Germany fell on the heads of the people of Moscow on time. At the same time, the thousands of anti-aircraft guns deployed throughout the city of Moscow were fired, giving the proletariat of the city an incomparable sense of security.

But Stalin, who worked in a basement in the Kremlin, knew that his anti-aircraft guns were a complete waste of shells, and that they could not be shot down by a single plane. Because these incoming German planes were all at an altitude of 10,000 meters, most of the anti-aircraft guns could not reach them at all, and the few 130mm anti-aircraft guns that could be reached did not seem to be accurate, and they did not shoot down a single one for seven or eight days.

But Stalin also did not lash out at the director of the Red Air Force and the commander of the Moscow Air Defense Forces, because every night there were more than a dozen German planes, and in addition to dropping a few tons of leaflets that no one believed in (unless Stalin was defeated, the Russians would support Stalin no matter what they said), it was twenty or thirty tons of bombs, which did not cause much casualties at all.

And what really distressed Stalin was the continuous bombing of the Batumi oil refinery and the Baku oil fields by the Germans. The most important refineries and oil fields in the USSR are now suffering considerable losses, the Batumi refinery has largely ceased production, and the oil fields are in a better situation, also reducing production by about 30%.

However, the Germans suffered equally heavy losses from their own large fields in Kirkuk and Khuzestan. According to the analysis of the photos taken by the bombers, the two fields will have to reduce production by at least 70%.

Of course, the cost of bombing the two major oil fields of Kirkuk and Khuzestan is also staggering. The USSR and the USA organized a total of 3 major bombings, and the cumulative total number of aircraft lost exceeded 900 aircraft! Among them, the Soviet Union's two long-range bombing aviation divisions suffered a loss rate of 65%, losing more than 300 Per-8, Ye-2 and MiG-5.

Thus, the bombardment of Kirkuk and Khuzestan was carried out only 3 times, and there was no longer the strength to carry out the 4th.

Moreover, the great superiority shown by Germany in the air defense battles at the Kirkuk and Khuzestan oil fields also frightened the US and British leaders, and they also used this as a reason to reject the Soviet Union's request to continue bombing these two large oil fields -- more than 700 B-17 and P51 planes and more than 5,000 crew members were lost in three major bombings, and even the powerful US imperialists could not stand it! (To be continued.) )