Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Chapter 346 Soviet-Finnish War (13)

Soon, Marshal Mannerheim's obituary was received throughout Finland.

Both the Finnish military and civilians were grieved, and the news that Marshal Mannerheim died of overwork while resisting Soviet aggression strengthened their determination to fight against Soviet aggression.

On this day, the Soviet army did not launch an attack. Instead, they assembled artillery of various calibers and launched a fierce bombardment towards the Finnish positions.

The Soviet Union has always been an artillery doctrine, and can use thousands of cannons at every turn.

Raindrops of artillery shells fell on the Finnish army's position, making continuous explosions. The whole earth was shaking, as if the sky was falling apart. Finnish soldiers could only get into the anti-gun holes and cat-ear holes to avoid Soviet shelling.

"Hey, these damn furry bears remind me of the artillery fire during the last war." The middle-aged man hiding in a cat-ear hole was smoking a cigarette leisurely and cursed. However, what he spoke was authentic French. The pale-faced Finnish soldier huddled opposite him obviously didn't understand what he was saying and looked at him blankly.

The middle-aged man smiled at him, took out a stick and handed it to the young soldier. "Have one?"

Although he didn't understand what he said, the Finnish soldier guessed what he meant, shook his head, and the middle-aged man continued to smoke.

Although the Soviet Union claimed that it was "for the security of Leningrad" when it attacked Finland, it was unanimously condemned by the international community. Even US President Roosevelt accused it of "arrogant disregard for the law." Volunteers from all over the world came to support Finland in fighting the Soviet aggression, and this Frenchman was one of them.

The fierce bombardment lasted for a whole day and night, and did not stop until early the next morning. The entire position seemed to have been pricked. Several woods in front and behind the defense line had been beaten bare. Only the charred wooden piles were still burning there, and the ground was full of craters and bullet holes.

Especially in the anti-tank minefield in front of the position, it seemed that no "surviving" anti-tank mine could be found.

Before the Finnish army could count its casualties, the Soviet army launched another attack.

This time they dispatched thousands of fighter jets and bombers, although Finland even used old-fashioned Fokker fighter jets to intercept them; even the BF109F, whose performance was much higher than that of Soviet fighter jets, shot down several times as many enemy planes as theirs. But they were outnumbered, and in the end they were all shot down.

Fortunately, they were shot down in Finland. As long as the pilots parachuted, they could basically survive.

After clearing Finland's air power, Soviet bombers arrogantly bombed most of the airports near the border as if they were in uninhabited territory. Some bombers even went to Helsinki, the capital of Finland, to bomb wildly.

Then the Soviet ground forces attacked across the board. The vanguard of the attack on the Mannheim defense line was still the 35th Light Tank Brigade, led by the brigade commander Ogurtsov, who vowed to wash away the shame.

But less than two kilometers away from the Finnish position, there was a loud bang and a T-26 tank instantly turned into a ball of fire.

"Damn it, another anti-tank mine!"

Brigadier Ogurtsov was hesitating whether to send engineers to clear mines first, but saw that the other tanks rushed forward unscathed and no more mines were struck.

Ogurtsov couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief. "Go forward at full speed and break through the enemy's defenses!"

Behind the Finnish defense line, soldiers pushed one Pak38 50mm anti-tank gun to the firing position. This anti-tank gun was supported by Germany and has the same performance as the main gun of the current Jackal tank. It can easily penetrate 72mm vertical homogeneous steel armor at a distance of 500 meters. The thickness of the front armor of the T26 tanks rushing over from the opposite side is only 25mm.

"Load!"

It takes three to six people to operate a Pak38 50mm anti-tank gun. Following the squad leader's order, two loaders quickly pried open the ammunition box on the side, picked up a yellow-orange shell, and stuffed it into the barrel.

"Directly ahead, one thousand meters away, T26 tanks, prepare to fire!" The squad leader used a telescope to observe the Soviet troops on the opposite side, measuring the distance while giving orders. "950 meters...900 meters...850 meters...800 meters, fire!!" This kind of anti-tank gun has an effective range of more than two thousand meters, but in order to pursue accuracy, it usually fires within one thousand meters. .

"Boom!" The gunner pulled the gun rope hard, and the entire gun body trembled backwards involuntarily. The gun muzzle in front was filled with fire, and an armor-piercing projectile hit the T26 tank on the opposite side at a speed invisible to the naked eye. Impacted on its frontal armor. The sharp warhead easily cut through the 25mm thick armor plate like a hot knife cutting through butter, and then exploded the personnel and equipment inside to pieces.

However, the distance of 800 meters was still a bit far, and thirty anti-tank guns destroyed only a dozen Soviet tanks.

Ogurtsov estimated that with this level of loss, about half of the tanks that rushed to the defense line would be lost.

But just after rushing forward less than 50 meters, another round of artillery fire hit, destroying more than ten Soviet tanks. Listening to the explosions coming from around him, Ogurtsov looked very ugly. Is the rate of fire of this enemy's anti-tank gun too fast?

But now that we've reached this point, we can't turn around and retreat, we can only rush forward.

As a brigade commander, he couldn't stand it, and the soldiers below almost collapsed. Continuous explosions rang out all around, and the Soviets watched in horror as their colleagues in front were beaten into burning wrecks during the charge.

Finally, some people couldn't stand it anymore and fired wildly at the anti-tank artillery position in the distance at a distance of more than 700 meters. However, the T26's fire control ability was not very good in the first place, and its precise shooting ability was insufficient. It could only achieve comparison within 300 meters. High hit rate.

At this distance of 700 meters, there is no stable shooting ability while traveling. Shooting while rushing, let alone whether it can hit, even if it finally hits nearby, how powerful can the 45mm grenade be?

The anti-tank gunners on the Finnish army's position ignored the shells that landed in nowhere, and loaded and fired crazily, pouring shells at the Soviet tanks at a rate of one every five seconds.

The Soviets paved a charge path with blood and debris that continued to extend towards the Finnish army's position. They finally reached a distance of 400 meters, but they were at the end of their efforts.

It took the Soviet tanks one minute to rush from a distance of 800 meters to a distance of 400 meters. In this minute, the anti-tank guns in the Finnish army's position fired 12 rounds, a total of 360 rounds; even if the hit rate is 50% It is also enough to completely wipe out the opponent's tanks.

More than a hundred tanks of the 35th Light Tank Brigade were wiped out, and the brigade commander Ogurtsov also died on the way to the charge. Not only did he fail to fulfill his wish of bloodbath, but his death was particularly tragic. Two armor-piercing bullets were fired almost at the same time. penetrated his tank.

The Soviet infantry troops charging behind the tanks suffered a disaster. The dense rain of bullets knocked down, scattered, and shattered the Soviet charging formation like a tidal wave. It was like a torrent hitting a rock, and after a wave of waves burst out, Nothing left.

If anything, it was the bodies lying on the ground.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like