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

Chapter 138 | Stalin...Veronica's Hammer!
In fact, the intelligence obtained by the Budapest garrison from the prisoners was not detailed.

Shang Ke originally thought his anxiety was just due to being too cautious, but he never expected it to become a reality so quickly.

After days of careful preparation, Ivanos's army, having regrouped, launched another large-scale offensive.

What is puzzling and worrying is that Ivanlus's army seems to be attacking without prioritizing any particular force or feint, but rather launching a full-scale attack from north to south!

The fierce battle lasted from sunrise until the sun was high in the sky.

At 12:30 pm, Shang Ke, who was in the basement of the middle school teaching building, looked at the 1:2000 large-scale map in front of him while drinking a mushy potato and tomato soup from an aluminum lunchbox.

Suddenly, two violent tremors and loud noises came in succession, and the three colored pencils on the table rolled several centimeters.

Huh? What the heck?

Shang Ke immediately became alert, put down the aluminum lunchbox he hadn't finished drinking from, and held his breath.

Half a minute later, the same noise was heard again.

He exchanged a glance with Captain Zeno beside him, then immediately pointed to the map and ordered, "This sound seems to be coming from the direction of Chomeri Avenue. Call immediately to verify the situation!"

Captain Zeno is the intelligence officer and adjutant of the military police regiment. He wears round glasses and always works slowly and methodically.

"Understood, it's probably the A5 and A6 areas. The defending unit is the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Infantry Regiment, which is connected to wired communications."

When the call was made, the person who answered was clearly still shaken and stammered for a long time before explaining the situation.

The dire situation was quickly confirmed—Ivanros's army deployed a large-caliber heavy artillery piece that was rarely seen before.

The enemy only launched four rounds of artillery fire before the two buildings were essentially collapsed, demonstrating the terrifying power of the bombardment.

There, Captain Henrik's reinforced infantry company suffered heavy casualties, followed by a mass enemy charge. The two sides are still locked in fierce fighting, and the situation is extremely chaotic.

"The Ivanros' offensive has not stopped, but they seem to be concentrating their firepower on the key defensive junctions, trying to break through these barricade sections. It seems they are still focused." Captain Zeno picked up a red pencil and drew a red arrow on the map.

Upon learning of this situation, Shang Ke-dun sensed something was wrong.

“At least in this direction, the enemy’s intentions are clear. They want to break through deep into the territory along Chomeri Avenue, which has half a kilometer of open ground.” He ordered without hesitation, “Royal Guard, prepare for battle, move to reserve positions near Lantos Stadium, and check the situation with neighboring units.”

Captain Zeno adjusted his glasses and repeated the order to confirm it.

During this time, terrifying loud noises continued to come one after another.

Shang Ke had been a member of the artillery school in his previous life, and he guessed that this was very likely a symbolic weapon, almost certainly.

"This time they're really serious." He stared intently at the map.

The loud bang was caused by the 203mm B-4 heavy howitzer—a behemoth weighing 15.8 tons. This artillery uses a special double recoil mechanism to withstand the huge recoil when firing. The barrel is 25 calibers long and has 64 right-hand rifling grooves.

The F-620 high-explosive shell fired by the B-4 howitzer weighs 98.8 kg and is loaded with a full 19 kg of explosives, while the vanadium-chromium alloy concrete-breaking shell can penetrate about one meter of reinforced concrete.

Historically, this type of artillery was usually paired with a tractor chassis, making it highly recognizable.

However, things are slightly different now. Ivan Ross's military industry has developed a separate gun carriage for it, characterized by two huge steel wheels. In actual combat, it was towed by an imported British Scammer 'Pioneer' heavy truck.

【Picture】

Tukhachevsky launched a full-scale offensive to suppress the defenders' movements, while simultaneously hoping to open several breaches to advance deeper into the territory, ideally isolating and isolating certain blocks and fortified strongholds to prevent them from forming a unified force. As Shang had predicted, a large contingent of Ivanros's troops was fiercely attacking the positions north of the Chomeri Avenue.

With the powerful support of heavy artillery, two Imperial Russian infantry battalions took turns launching continuous assaults, completely tearing apart the Hungarian positions here.

Then, Davydov's assault group began to advance rapidly into the interior.

The assault groups were temporary formations of assault troops organized by Tukhachevsky's 10th Army, specifically for attacking fortified positions or making breakthroughs. The 36th Infantry Corps, responsible for the urban offensive, created numerous assault groups.

These attack groups vary in size, but are generally divided into three parts:

The first part consists of an offensive force composed of several elite infantry platoons. Although small in number, they are heavily equipped with submachine guns and grenades and are responsible for being the first to break into the building.

The second part is the consolidation unit, consisting of three or four infantry companies, responsible for surrounding the target, establishing positions, mopping up the remaining enemy forces, and blocking enemy reinforcements.

The third part consists of one or two engineer platoons and some tanks, responsible for providing fire support and using flamethrowers or explosives when necessary.

It can be said that Tukhachevsky's military talent is worthy of historical evaluation. He quickly realized the bloody lesson of the previous days and swiftly adopted new coordinated tactics.

This innovative tactic for overcoming difficulties is undoubtedly correct and the optimal solution.

However, this poses a significant challenge to the military's capabilities, requiring both soldiers and officers to be highly experienced and well-trained.

Unfortunately, the Ivanros army in the Hunnic direction was inferior to the army in the Varland direction in terms of both equipment and quality, so mastering a completely new tactic was no easy task.

In addition, offensive tactics for the other regular units, besides the assault groups, have also been optimized.

The Imperial Russian soldiers clumsily tried out their brilliant commander's on-the-spot ideas, charging forward with fierce shouts.

The attacking troops were divided into squads and arranged in columns, with three or four squads on the left and two or three squads on the right, staggered to protect the infantry and artillery in the middle, while the tanks followed far behind.

After advancing into the neighborhood, the Imperial Russian infantry stormed into the houses on both sides, engaging in a brutal house-to-house and alley-to-alley battle with the Hunnic defenders.

The infantry gun crews and a small number of infantrymen concealed themselves on both sides of the street to avoid mortar fire and to protect the tanks from attacks by Hungarian infantry.

During this period, the tanks were responsible for accurately bombarding the firing positions of the buildings at the intersection with direct fire.

Learning from the painful lessons of the past two days, the Imperial Russian tank crews piled more than a dozen sandbags on the tank hull and turret, so that the Hungarian anti-tank rifles could not penetrate the thin tank armor...

After a brief rest, on the Chomaili Avenue, hundreds of enemy troops from Davikov's battle group, under the cover of tanks, began to advance deeper into the area along the road.

The Hungarian army had set up a diagonal position here to prevent the enemy from advancing further and to buy time, and it has now proven effective.

The two machine gun emplacements on the far left of the oblique position opened fire first, taking down the first few men, and the Imperial Russian soldiers all took cover.

The tanks behind immediately stopped and opened fire on the exposed targets.

This seems like a futile attempt to stop a chariot.

"They've been drawn to that side, now it's our turn, prepare to fire."

Four anti-tank gun emplacements were concealed on the right side of the oblique cutting position. They were not only well camouflaged, but also staffed with two first-class soldiers.

Unbeknownst to the Imperial Russian soldiers, four Skoda 37mm anti-tank guns were quietly aimed at the last T-35 heavy tank.

(End of this chapter)