Canteen System Assistance Notes

The half-track light vehicles, using their mounted small-caliber machine guns, opened fire continuously, covering their infantry charge, quickly suppressing several of the Soviet army's remaining firepower points. Meanwhile, the German troops to the south once again launched firepower that surpassed their previous level, forcing the Soviet soldiers back step by step, forcing them to retreat into the village that had become rubble.

Where did these Germans get so many motor vehicles?

Rurik had no idea that the German 227th Division, nominally an infantry unit, had a special relationship with the German "green car modification king" Becker, nor did he know that the strange cars he had seen in the Seventh and Fifth Workers' Villages were "extraneous vehicles" that this division had obtained through connections in the rear.

He only knew that his flank had been breached and his anti-tank firepower was on the verge of exhaustion. He had to plug the breach immediately!

However, before Rurik could even react and realize he had already dispatched his guard battalion, Commissar Titalenko's urgent warning came over his radio—without even bothering to use the proper radio call sign. "Rurik! Get down!"

Rurik suddenly felt that he could not hear anything.

A strong sense of dizziness enveloped everyone in the underground command center, and dust and dirt fell like a blizzard. Under the close range of 150 shells, a large hole was blown in Rurik's house, but the cellar originally used to store potatoes was surprisingly strong and did not collapse.

Is it that your own house is still intact and looks out of place?

Was it the German radio reconnaissance unit that discovered their position?

Or did the Germans simply see the antenna sticking out of the chimney and decide to fire a shot at themselves?

Forget it... The most important thing right now is not to find the cause, but to find a strategy.

Rurik struggled to his feet, groping on the wooden table with his hands. He pushed away Tirelenko, the orderly and cook who was trying to throw him to the ground, and grabbed a telephone.

The line of defense had been breached, and the Germans were either retreating beyond their own lines or attacking positions within the village - it all depended on whether the enemy commander was truly anxious to retreat, or whether the pursuing friendly forces were pressing hard enough.

What should I do? The guard battalion has been dispatched. Now, apart from the staff, signalmen, and clerks, there are only about one or two combat-capable squads left with me. Going there seems useless. The SU-160s are almost out of ammunition. Where are the T-43 tanks? How much ammunition do they have left?

A more sensible approach might be to use the wreckage of the buildings in the village, shrink the troops and strengthen the defense, use street fighting to delay the German army to defeat them, and start to use the speed of retreat on the road - okay, let's do it.

Amidst the throbbing tinnitus and dizziness, Rurik was surprised to find his mind still sharp and clear. The sounds around him were slowly returning. He clutched the phone tightly, his ear pressed firmly to the receiver, ready to issue an order once he confirmed that the Gem Peak relay station or the landline was still functioning.

If none of this works... Rurik looked at the submachine guns on the ground and the staff officers who were slowly getting up, and he decided to give the orders himself.

...hiss, hiss, hiss—Big Marlin, this is the albatross, whether you can still reply or not, if you can hear... come to your aid...

"Repeat, whether you can respond or not, if you can hear me, please fire the 'anchor' flare immediately. We will come to support you immediately..." Please fire the 'anchor' flare immediately."

The "anchor point" represents the Fifth Workers' New Village, and its presence here signifies a signal flare combination of one red and two green. This signal flare combination represents... your reinforcements from Leningrad.

It's reinforcements from Leningrad!!

"Comrades! Right up ahead! The heroes of Tuji are holding off the Germans for us!"

"They need our support! The Nazis are killing them. How can we wait any longer?"

"No! No! The Nazis want to turn our city into hell, so we will crawl out of hell and send them to real hell!"

A group of strange-looking tanks rolled in from the west of the battlefield. Among them were square-headed KV20 tanks with 85mm guns and KV1-100 tanks with 100mm guns. There were various T28 tanks with round turrets equipped with 85mm, 76mm and 57mm guns, and strange assault guns equipped with 130mm naval guns. Without exception, their bodies were equipped with a large number of soldiers, and these thin-faced soldiers were all equipped with nK-40 "Red October" submachine guns, with expressions of incomparable determination.

"Tank riders, forward!"

"Hurrah!"

In the gently rolling snowfields, swamps and woods, the half-set sunset casts a fiery golden glow.

It reflects the long shadows of tanks and soldiers, and in the blue sky of the east

On the screen, one red and two green flares are like stars illuminating the way ahead, narrating the epic and legend that belong only to heroes.

At the end of the field of vision, the "Lorraine" self-propelled artillery hit by the 130mm artillery looked like a blooming dahlia.

Chapter 758: Holding Up the Road to Victory

“Where can I sleep? I want to get some sleep.”

When the 48th Independent Tank Battalion of the Leningrad Front and the 29th Infantry Division of the Volkhov Front, which came to reinforce, re-sealed the gap and rushed into the Fifth Workers' New Village, Rurik, who was pulled out of the potato cellar, rubbed his eyes and said tiredly.

Then, he lay down on the ground covered with bricks and rubble and fell asleep. However, this somewhat willful request did not cause anyone to complain. The soldiers who came to help dug out a piece of wood from the rubble, put a few bricks under it, and carried the heroic division commander up to him, allowing him to enjoy a long-awaited sleep.

这时候，组装自库存SMK坦克底盘零件和130毫米海军舰炮的SU-100-2突击炮从村庄中央轰隆隆地驶过，天空中挂满了RS-132和FAB-506的TK-3战斗轰炸机和护航的雅克3战斗机吼叫着，共同朝着逃窜的德军追击而去。

After the gap in the fifth village was re-blocked, the German 227th Infantry Division and 170th Infantry Division, which had not yet evacuated, were trapped.

A naval artillery observation group, armed with Baofeng Radio, patrolled the encirclement in tanks and directed Leningrad's limited 90 naval guns to bombard the still-defending German forces. Under the observation group's guidance, the Red Navy, with its incredibly accurate naval guns, up to 406/356mm, destroyed numerous German artillery positions. Ultimately, in conjunction with the Second Assault Army, pressing in from the opposite direction, the remaining German forces were completely annihilated or captured.

Only the 412th and 401st Regimental Headquarters of the German 227th Infantry Division and a small number of remnants escaped in modified strange vehicles during the brief period when Rurik's flank was penetrated.

Rurik felt a bit guilty about this, but Political Commissar Titalenko, who later reported the battle situation to him, repeatedly advised him not to take it too seriously - facing such a strong enemy, it was already very good to be able to fight like this, and they still exceeded the task assigned by the army.

"How is the battle going now? How far have our comrades advanced?"

After losing over 2000 men, the 256th Infantry Division lost its ability to continue fighting. Comrade Rurik, after nearly a day of sleep, woke up dazedly in the car. They had been sent by the Army Group Headquarters to the recently captured Schlüsselburg, temporarily responsible for cleaning up the battlefield, maintaining public order, stationing defenses, and assisting in construction.

First he was dragged away for a thorough physical examination, and then after being busy for several days, Rurik finally had some free time. He found his political commissar and asked about the situation of the entire battle.

"Now..." The political commissar tried to wave his bandaged hand, but the pain made him grimace. Finally, he called Chief of Staff Comrade Kovov Matveyev over and explained the progress of the battle to him by looking at the map.

Different from the original time and space, due to the joint efforts of the 256th Division and the 46th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment, the two key nodes of the Seventh Workers' New Village and the Fifth Workers' New Village were broken through by the Soviet army in a very short time after the start of the battle. Afterwards, the tenacious defense of the Fifth Workers' New Village became the "chess point" that revitalized the entire battle.

Thanks to the presence of Rurik and the 256th Division, the Leningrad Front on the west side of the battlefield had a safe flank and successfully achieved a roundabout encirclement of the First and Second Kirov towns. In this area, the German 96th Infantry Division, which was defending against the Soviet army's river crossing attack, had its rear cut off, was surrounded on three sides and defeated by the Soviet army. Only a few remnants completed the retreat before the Soviet 45th Guards Infantry Division rushed across the Neva River and blocked the last gap.

After that, the Leningrad Front followed the German army and began to advance deep into the German territory along the Moika River.

On the eastern flank of the battlefield, the Eighth Army, which had been struggling to advance in the original time and space, finally managed to repel the German defenses after receiving reinforcements from its reserves, pushing the front line forward to the area around the Chornaya River. Meanwhile, with the Second Assault Army in the north freed up, and taking advantage of the German forces being drawn into the Fifth Workers' Village, its southward-moving tanks passed through the Seventh Workers' Village, previously captured by Rurik, and attacked southward from the eastern flank of the battlefield, threatening the German flanks facing the Eighth Army.

To prevent themselves from being caught in a Soviet pincer attack, the German army, which was fighting the Eighth Army, had to retreat and reduce its strength. The Soviet army took the opportunity to advance and approached the outskirts of the German-occupied town of Mikhailovsky.

As a result, the German defense node in front of Rurik, the Siniavino Plateau, suddenly became an isolated salient, no longer able to obtain cover from both flanks. Even as the Soviet troops advanced, the

The German 18th Army Headquarters and the logistics transfer point "Mga" were both seriously threatened by the Soviet army.

The Leningrad Front and the Second Assault Army, which met at the Fifth Workers' Village, launched an attack on the Siniavino Plateau in a flanking and roundabout manner.

Because only one Tiger tank of the 502nd Heavy Armored Battalion was left after being destroyed by Rurik and Kolobanov, in the original time and space, the Tiger tanks were in a dominant position, and the scene of "shooting down more than 30 Soviet tanks in 10 minutes, causing the entire offensive to collapse" never happened again.

In addition, the Soviet army was already threatening the German army on both wings. The German army stationed in Sinyavino was not very motivated to fight. When facing the attacks of SU-160, T-43, SU-100y tanks and even the firepower of naval guns, they did not put up much resistance. Instead, they chose to take advantage of the opportunity to

Retreat in the night.

The Soviet army finally succeeded in planting the red flag on the top of the plateau, which was less than 100 meters above sea level.

"Now, the Leningrad Front in the west has broken through Mustovolo and is attacking Kerkovovo; in the east, the Eighth Army and part of the Second Army have captured the town of First Estonia and are attacking the town of Mikhailovsky.

Progress was slow, however; the troops on the central line had crossed the Siniavino Plateau and were moving south, mopping up German forces along the way. They were expected to move along the road to the town of First Estonia to help the slow-moving Eighth Army advance on Mikhailovsky.

town.

Chief of Staff Kovov Matveyev explained the situation in a loud and confident voice.

"Next, our left and right wing forces should encircle the Germans' last stronghold north of the Muga River, Muga, and eliminate the German 18th Army Headquarters!"

"I'm afraid the Germans won't choose to hold out."

Rurik stroked his chin and stomped on a rat that had scurried into the room. One of the 256th Division's missions at Schlüsselburg was to control rat infestations. He analyzed, "If we defend M'ga, it would mean the Germans would have to sustain at least three to five infantry divisions in continuous combat under the threat of our artillery fire. This would be a futile and meaningless battle. It would be better to be decisive and abandon M'ga and deploy defenses along the M'ga River. This way, we could hold a longer line with fewer troops."

Rurik pointed to the railway line east of Mga: "Our troops crossed the Mga River on the west side, but the German army can rely on the railway to build a defense line in larger towns, just like they did in the Fifth Workers' New Village, and then use artillery to block the adjacent areas..."

"In short, we probably won't be able to defeat them in the short term. We need to gather our strength again."

"What a shame, Comrade Kapovich! I thought we'd be able to quickly recapture all the railway lines from Mga eastward," Kovov Matveyev said regretfully, shaking his head. "Now we can only wait for the Victory Road to be completed."

—――――――—

Ah, yes, the road to victory, the road to victory of this heroic city.

Rurik "handed" the mouse to the two cats that rushed in, and then walked out of his command room with everyone.

On the fierce Soviet-German battlefield, a division-level unit would not have long rest periods—even in such brief moments of relaxation, Rurik could sense the tense pace of the race against time. On the Neva River west of Schlüsselburg, Rurik saw a large number of workers busy back and forth on the ice. A large amount of machinery, wood, and steel stretched out from the frozen river bank toward the center like a steel worm.

This emergency railway, known as the "Road to Victory," would cross the frozen Neva River and connect with the German army's existing, hastily constructed war zone railway. Once the Soviet army finally captured or took over the city of Mga, freight trains loaded with precious supplies would overcome numerous obstacles and deliver the long-delayed supplies into the city.

Even now, when the railway is not completed, a large number of sleds, trucks, and even human-powered sleds are still transporting precious supplies to the suffering people of Leningrad. In the vast area about 20 kilometers south of Schlüsselburg, there are no longer any organized German troops, and they no longer need to transport supplies under artillery fire.

"Comrade Division Commander, Comrade Political Commissar, this is the order of the group army."

The messenger ran over panting, and after a simple salute, he conveyed the order of the 2nd Assault Army: In order to celebrate the fact that the blockade of Leningrad was actually broken, the Leningrad City Committee decided to invite representatives of the troops that made great contributions in the battle to enter the city to participate in the celebration, and the 256th Division was among the invited ones.

Hearing this, everyone laughed with relief: Apparently, with the passage now secure, the supply situation in Leningrad had greatly improved. This must be a good thing.

“If we want to go, we can take some supplies that we don’t need for the time being.

"Those canned red bean paste treats, for example, are sure to be popular with children," suggested Political Commissar Leonid Fyodorovich Titalenko. "And vitamin candies. The two young Khitan men who came to the division headquarters to repair the relay station brought a lot of these lime-flavored candies. When they heard that the people of Leningrad were drinking pine needle tea, they left a large box for me and asked me to deliver it to the city."

"And there's tusanka and canned sardines. Eating meat gives people strength." Chief of Staff Kovov Matveyev also said, "It's a pity that Commander Kolobanov drove his tanks south to fight, and he took away all the German pork sausages we captured."

"Who's going to stay and look after the house then?"

After discussing what "souvenirs" to bring to the people in the city, the division commander, Comrade Rurik, suddenly raised a soul-searching question, "There has to be someone in the division headquarters." "Let me do it," said Political Commissar Titalenko.

"Let me do it," Chief of Staff Kovov also said. "Forget it, I'm the division commander, so I'll stay."

"I'm sorry to interrupt your discussion, Comrade Commander." The signalman who had been standing by raised his hand and said, "I'm sorry, you can't attend the celebration.

"The second order, the front's order: You must report back to the front headquarters within eight hours." The signalman pulled out another telegram from under the previous one. "Comrade Zhukov wants to see you." "Ah?"

At this time, Comrade Rurik Kapovich Kotlinsky, who did not know that he was about to receive an Order of Alexander Nevsky and an Order of Lenin, and that his destiny was about to change, made a confused sound.

Chapter 759: Learning to Attack in the Planetary Suite

(Inventory Action)

Operation Spark ultimately achieved results far beyond history.

Although the scale of Operation Spark was strictly limited by Marshal Zhukov in both the original and altered timeframes to accommodate Operation Polaris, due to some "unhistorical" factors, even under these strict restrictions, the Volkhov and Leningrad Fronts in this timeframe still managed to establish a roughly 20-kilometer safety zone, effectively breaking the German siege of Leningrad (Oranianbaum and Kronstadt remained under siege), and destroying and capturing the Germans' latest Tiger heavy tanks.

On January 28, 1943, in this world line, with the completion of the Neva River Bridge, the first train carrying nearly a thousand tons of butter, flour, jam and other supplies as well as 520 cats passed through Mga, Siniavino and Schlüsselburg and safely entered the city of Leningrad by rail.

The train was not hit by any shelling and traveled safely and without incident to its destination, where it was warmly welcomed by the people of Leningrad.

Although Operation Polaris on the other side ultimately failed to achieve any results, and the Soviet army, unable to break through the German lines, was forced to hastily end the battle, it ended in a whimper. However, the successful relief of Leningrad was still the most exciting news on the entire northern front.

However, on the southern battlefield, the ratio of good to bad things may not be so optimistic.

The massive Planetary Suite R campaign actually covers all or part of the historical operations on Uranus, Saturn, and other planets. It is a massive operation involving more than two million people and coordinated by multiple fronts.

In the original time and space, the Soviet Union at the end of 1942 had no ability to launch such a campaign, nor did it have the ability to organize such a large-scale battle. However, in this time and space, China, which had received a large amount of Soviet industry and personnel transfers, provided support to the Soviet Union, giving it the material basis to launch this campaign and even accelerating the Soviet Union's learning from the war.

However, the Soviet army at this time was still not the powerful red force it had been during the "Ten Assaults" - they might have learned to organize defense across the vast width of the battlefield, but they still needed time to learn to attack. The first half of "Planet Suite" was very good.

The Stalingrad and Don Fronts, advancing north and south from the Stalingrad battlefield, successfully surrounded 27 German soldiers and Frederick Wilhelm Paulus, trapping them in a narrow area around Stalingrad. At the beginning, Paulus still had considerable strength in his hands and had enough troops to cooperate with Manstein's rescue operation, but the shortage of fuel restricted his actions.

This prevented him from deploying armored forces to assist Manstein in breaking through the Soviet encirclement.

Chisel out a gap.

After repeated attacks on the Soviet lines yielded little success, Manstein became increasingly reluctant to rescue him. Finally, Hitler sent a telegram to Paulus, stating: "The most important thing you should do now is to hold on and hold your ground, to hold on in the heart of the Communists until victory."

Paulus had no choice but to do as he was told.

Manstein seized the opportunity to severely damage the Soviets' failed second pincer attack. The isolated Southwestern Front, advancing from north to south, exposed its vulnerable flanks and was effectively counterattacked by Manstein's tanks. Nearly 4 men were killed and a significant amount of equipment was captured. Forced to abandon the offensive, the Southwestern Front retreated to the Voronezh Front's flank, adopting a defensive posture and regrouping.

At this point, Paulus still had access to airdrops and supplies from the Luftwaffe at the airport, but soon, with the Soviet offensive, the German airfields could no longer operate safely. He repeatedly sent telegrams to headquarters, requesting the outer German forces to launch another offensive and cooperate with his breakout, but apart from the order to "hold on firmly, there will be a way," he received nothing.

Oh, except for a letter of appointment and a marshal's cane.

In the freezing wind of Stalingrad, Paulus sighed to the sky and finally chose to surrender on January 28, 1943. Army Group B, which was short of food and clothing and had almost run out of ammunition and fuel, was finally unable to fight anymore. All the German troops in the encirclement had to raise their hands and became prisoners.

However, operations on other fronts were not so smooth.

Due to the tyranny of terrain, distance, and logistics, the Soviet Southern and North Caucasian Fronts were unable to cross the entire Kuban Steppe, let alone complete their mission of "joining forces at Rostov with a second pincer attack." After the Southwestern Front's offensive was halted by Manstein at great cost, the idea of ​​trapping the entire German Army Group A in the North Caucasus became a pipe dream, unable to be transformed from a mere paper plan into reality.

The Soviets could only allow German Army Group A to withdraw through the remaining routes, and watched as Manstein implemented a scorched-earth policy in the occupied territories and slowly retreated. Aside from some German forces annihilated in direct combat and those trapped on the Taman Peninsula, Army Group A was largely able to withdraw smoothly and rebuild its defenses in the rear.

On the Voronezh Front, the situation was even worse.

The Voronezh Front took the lead in launching an offensive on the Ostrogozhsk-Rosos line, and the powerful armored mixed forces surrounded the Hungarian army in a pincer attack.

The German 24th Army and the Italian 8th Army dug a huge hole in the German defense line.

Subsequently, the Soviet army launched another offensive, encircling the remaining German and Hungarian vassal army divisions in the Kastornoye area, totaling about 12 divisions.

And then...then the encirclement broke.

Even with the assistance of the Bryansk Front, the Voronezh Front simply could not maintain two such large encirclements with Nazi forces almost as many as the Paulus Group!

Although Lieutenant General Vatutin, commander of the Voronezh Front, attempted to deploy more armored forces to encircle and penetrate the Hungarian, German, and Italian forces in the encirclement, speeding up the elimination of the encircled German forces, the Germans deployed the SS Leibstandarte and the Reich reserve, which had been pre-deployed to Warsaw. The second encirclement, which was unable to be quickly annihilated, was breached by the Germans' repeated attacks. A large number of German and Hungarian vassal troops abandoned their heavy equipment and, with the help of the SS troops, quickly slipped away.

Only the Nazi units in the first encirclement were destroyed by the Soviet army - among them, the Italian 8th Army surrendered, the Hungarian 2nd Army was completely destroyed except for two infantry divisions that were not in the encirclement, and only a small number of troops of the German 24th Army slipped through the gaps in the Soviet defense line.

The Voronezh Front did not fail to pursue, but it seemed to be afflicted by the strange "Kharkov Curse": in the Oskil River estuary area west of Oboyan and Kharkov and south of Izyum, the Soviets' subsequent offensive was too reckless and was met with ambushes, pincer attacks, and stubborn resistance from the Germans. After suffering losses in both men and equipment, the exhausted Voronezh Front was forced to halt its offensive and slowly withdraw to its own territory to consolidate its defenses.

By the end of February 1943, the ambitious Operation Planetary Suite had become an anticlimactic operation.

Although the Soviet attack produced results that were enough to make the Allied Powers jealous, the large-scale attack almost consumed the Soviet army's logistical supplies stockpiled on the southern front to a dangerous level and caused a considerable amount of losses, making it impossible for the Soviet army to attack again in the short term and achieve its previously envisioned strategic goals.