It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 137 | Who is smarter?
"Boom boom boom—boom—"

Explosions and flashes of light echoed everywhere!

Ruins and rubble are everywhere!

Fires are happening one after another!

There were hundreds, even thousands, of corpses!

Hundreds of thousands of Ivanros and Romanian troops surrounded Budapest on three sides, and thousands of mortars, howitzers and cannons of different calibers bombarded targets day and night.

Air raids were commonplace, and every time a bomber formation visited Budapest, in addition to aerial bombs, they would always throw in leaflets urging surrender.

Firefighters and civilian volunteers fought on the front lines with fearless spirit, sometimes extinguishing raging fires and sometimes digging through rubble to rescue people.

Red Cross personnel also remained at their posts, working hard to collect bodies and register and identify victims whose deaths varied in severity.

The flames of war have completely transformed Budapest.

"call out--"

A Fiat twin-engine bomber crashed into the ground, trailing black smoke, and burst into flames.

A duel in the sky has come to an end.

Upon seeing this, the citizens of Budapest below erupted in cheers.

However, some people couldn't laugh.

On the top floor of Building No. 1 at the Sixth Middle School, Shang Ke put down his binoculars and clicked his tongue while leaning on the railing.

The air battle situation has actually been deteriorating.

On the surface, the Royal Hunnic Air Force and the Grand Federal Volunteer Air Force fought bravely and were not at a disadvantage, but this was only temporary.

As time went on, aircraft were continuously lost, and the number of usable aircraft dwindled.

By November 11, the Royal Hungarian Air Force, which had been equipped with hundreds of fighter planes before the war, had only 127 operational aircraft left, with another 34 in urgent need of repair; the Volunteer Air Force had also lost nearly half of its fighter planes.

The Hungarian Royal Air Force stated that this situation was unsustainable and that a direct confrontation was temporarily impossible; they could only wait for an opportunity to harass the enemy.

Since the main battlefield was the decisive factor, Ivanros deployed only one-sixth of his air force to deal with the Huns.

But this was enough to defeat Hurricane in a war of attrition, because the Ivanos Empire had an annual aircraft production of seven or eight thousand, and a relatively large reserve of pilots.

You've shot down fewer planes than I've built! How do you expect to beat me?
Furthermore, just two days earlier, the Italians had also intervened in the war between Ivanos and the Huns.

The Italian army volunteered to send a wing of fighter planes and a wing of bombers to participate in the war, which made the already serious air war situation even worse.

The consequences of losing air superiority are severe, with the most direct negative impact being that communication between the East Coast city and the outside world will become more difficult.

Whether it's replenishing troops or transporting supplies, crossing the river is always necessary. If the enemy's air force can operate with impunity, then our own supplies can only be transported at night.

If we elevate the discussion from the local to the overall level, the deployment of the Hunnic army becomes more complicated, its movements are more easily exposed, and its overall combat effectiveness will inevitably be compromised.

"Hey!"

Shank handed the binoculars to someone and went down the stairs to the first floor.

He said to the officers present, "According to our previous estimates, as long as the enemy doesn't gain air superiority, we can hold out for twice as long without any problem. But now..." After discussing for a few minutes, the city defense command called, finally bringing one of the few good things that had happened in the past few days.

The lieutenant who answered the phone excitedly told Shank, "Colonel, we have great news! The weapons that were supposed to be supporting us have arrived in Buda!"

"Is that so?" The latter smiled reluctantly and instructed, "Try to transport it over after dark."

Because of the strength of the city defense system established under Shang's guidance, the Hunnic upper class gradually regained their confidence in defending Budapest and no longer hesitated to invest resources as before.

As a result, more and more soldiers and supplies are being concentrated here.

Last night, the weapons of the two Portuguese Tuaan light infantry brigades aboard the Merinamur were transported by train to the west bank of the Danube. Submachine guns and automatic rifles were among those transferred to reinforce the garrison.

As for the remaining bolt-action rifles, the Hungarian army decided to use them to arm the two newly formed two-regiment simplified divisions.

The sun sets and night falls.

A convoy of dozens of trucks formed a long line, slowly crossing the Széchenyi Chain Bridge.

Lights control was extremely strict; all trucks were driven with their lights off and at very slow speeds, and drivers had to follow the instructions of the military police on both sides.

Two days ago, a convoy violated the blackout regulations while crossing the Margaret Bridge and was subsequently attacked by Imperial Russian bombers at night. More than half of the thirty tons of supplies were lost. Shang ordered the execution of the violators.

After such a painful lesson, no one dared to take chances anymore.

After a busy night, the weapons and equipment allocated to the 'Hunyatti' military police regiment were quickly distributed.

The military police received a total of 150 MP18 submachine guns and 80 FN Browning automatic rifles, which on average meant that each company received an additional twenty automatic weapons.

The Royal Guard was not assigned any weapons, but they were already equipped with many ZK-383 submachine guns and ZH-29 semi-automatic rifles, and had also acquired a batch of Winchester shotguns, so their light weapons firepower was not bad.

Realizing that grenades were being consumed rapidly during urban warfare, the Hurricane Ministry of Defense tried every means to gather as many grenades as possible. In addition to its own 36M grenades, it also pressured the Valland side through the channels of the Great Unified Federation and obtained tens of thousands of M24 stick grenades and M39 egg grenades, as well as 70 FMW35 flamethrowers.

【Picture】

Although the wooden-handled grenade has a unique design, as an offensive grenade, its use is relatively limited and it is inconvenient to carry. You could carry two or three oval grenades if you carried just one wooden-handled grenade.

The Walland borders Hurghazi, and the Dide border guards handed over most of the stockpiled grenades from eleven ammunition depots.

This is nothing to them; the monthly production of these things is easily one or two million.

Through tireless efforts, the Hunnic logistics forces replenished the Budapest garrison with more than 200,000 grenades of various types, and also sent a batch of flamethrowers.

We are sparing no effort to prepare for the storm, but what about the enemy?

Shank was deeply uneasy about the confusing situation, because according to radio interception and intercepted communications, Ivanros's army seemed to have been reinforced with more siege equipment.

The prisoners' testimonies corroborated this, as a reconnaissance patrol, during a nighttime infiltration operation, captured a Russian lieutenant and a sergeant.

The former admitted that the army group headquarters was preparing a large-scale offensive and that General Tukhachevsky had found a way to besiege the city; the latter clamored that Budapest would soon be reduced to ashes and disappear from the face of the earth.

Shang Ke muttered to himself, "I wonder who's smarter, Tu Tu or Xiao Cui..."

Chuikov successfully commanded the defense of Stalingrad, but as for Tukhachevsky... let's see how he improves after suffering heavy losses.

(End of this chapter)