Frunze was worthy of being one of the best military strategists in the Soviet Union. After arriving in Serov, he immediately made targeted adjustments to Serov's defense.
Since the beginning of the war, the Chinese tanks and aircraft have beaten the Soviet Red Army so hard that they are almost helpless. On the one hand, these new weapons are indeed powerful, and the Red Army's combat effectiveness and training level are not high. On the other hand, the Red Army's tactics still follow the old tactics on the European battlefield, both in terms of offense and defense. It was impossible to organize effective resistance in a ground and air attack.
After obtaining some information about the Chinese armored forces and air force, Frunze, who had retreated all the way from the Far East, had been considering how to fight such an opponent. Based on his offensive characteristics against tanks and aircraft, combined with his original tactics, Frunze racked his brains and finally came up with a preliminary set of defensive tactics against new weapons such as tanks and aircraft, and made substantial adjustments to the defense of the Serov area.
The advantage of tanks is their superior movement and assault performance. In addition, tank guns and machine guns provide assault cover for infantry. In infantry coordinated operations, they can often tear apart the opponent's front line, detour, encircle, and annihilate. As for the aircraft, its main function is to attack the enemy from the air, using aerial bombs, machine gun fire and other methods to cooperate with ground troops, knocking out important positions of the enemy's positions with great damage and destroying and suppressing the enemy's artillery and other heavy weapons, so that It cannot organize an effective confrontation.
To this end, the defense adjustments made by Frunze mainly targeted tanks and aircraft. He ordered anti-tank trenches to be dug in front of various positions to destroy the mobility of tanks on the plains. In front of the position, the troops were not as full as those on the European battlefield. Instead, it is divided into companies and platoons as basic combat units, and the trenches connected everywhere are used to conduct mobile defensive battles.
In addition, when setting up positions, it is not only necessary to dig anti-gun holes, but also to take into account bunkers for bombing and strafing by Chinese aircraft, in order to reduce casualties. As for the large forces, Frunze withdrew them all to the rear and relied on reinforced air defense buildings throughout the city to hide them. Once the position needs support, the reinforcements can be quickly sent to the forefront through the channels connecting the trenches and directly enter combat status.
As for heavy weapons, especially artillery, Frunze canceled the original artillery regulations and instead broke the cannon into parts, concealed them and set them up separately in the rear. In addition, various parameters are prepared in advance at various front-line positions to ensure that artillery fire can be used to support and strike at the critical moment as quickly as possible
Although these measures taken by Frunze have never been verified, even he himself does not know how effective they will be once a fight begins. But in fact, Frunze's response was correct. Although his changes to the Red Army's defensive tactics still had many immature aspects, these responses did bring trouble to the attacking Chinese regiment.
April 16th. On the third day after Frunze arrived in Serov, the Battle of Serov, which attracted worldwide attention, finally started. At eight o'clock in the morning on the 16th, the air force of the Chinese Communist Regiment took off from Tyumen Airport. At about nine o'clock, overwhelming bombers and fighter jets began to carry out hellish bombings on Serov. The Red Army's ground attack lasted for more than an hour, when the bombing had just begun. The artillery of the ground troops began to roar at the same time, and for a while the Serov Red Army position was completely covered by a brilliant artillery fire.
The bombing and artillery preparations are not completely over yet. Bai Chongxi's armored troops cooperated with the infantry division and began to attack. From the perspective of the Chinese side, Serov's defenders could not last long in such a scene. It was just like the few battles since the beginning of the war. Serov's fall would probably only take a few days.
But when the battle started, when the troops from both sides formally came into contact, Bai Chongxi quickly received battlefield news from the forward commander. The Chinese Regiment, which had been attacking smoothly, actually encountered stubborn resistance under Serov City. Many anti-tank trenches were dug in front and back, making it impossible for the armored troops to arrange themselves into battle formations and advance quickly. In addition, it stands to reason that through the indiscriminate bombing by the air force and artillery, the Red Army's defense forces have suffered a heavy blow, and it is almost impossible to organize effective resistance. However, the response of the Red Army greatly surprised the Chinese commanders. After bombing and fierce artillery fire on the position, when the Chinese National Defense Forces rushed to an area 50 meters away from the front of the position, one after another Red Army soldiers appeared, with rifles, Machine guns and even several field cannons suddenly fired, and a large number of Chinese soldiers rushing at the front fell down.
"how so?"
When he received the battle report on casualties from the front line, Bai Chongxi couldn't help but was stunned and quickly asked: "Where are our armored forces? Why don't the tanks go up to cover the infantry?"
"These old men are so abominable. They look normal from the front. Only when the tanks drove to the front did they realize that they had actually dug dense trenches on the ground. Especially the trenches 300 meters away from Lao Maozi's position were too wide. Although we can climb over, our tanks cannotIt was impossible to drive through. When the infantry rushed to the position, we discovered that Lao Maozi actually had artillery support. In addition, our tanks could not get close, so we could only temporarily use it as a fixed fort support. We were accidentally caught by the field battle that suddenly appeared. The artillery hit several vehicles "
"What!" Bai Chongxi's eyes suddenly widened, he grabbed the staff officer and asked: "There are artillery in the opponent's position? How many of our tanks have been destroyed?"
"Master's seatMaster's seat" The young staff officer was frightened and nodded, but he was still clever and quickly explained: "Don't worry, Master, the opponent's cannons are not many, that is, one We were just careless at first, but now Commander Tan in front has directed the tanks to attack the cannon position, overwhelming the enemy so that they can no longer lift their heads"
Bai Chongxi had a strange look on his face. He let go of the staff officer and immediately ordered: "Call the front line immediately and ask all tanks and soldiers to withdraw immediately!"
"Division seat?" After hearing this order, the staff officer was a little confused. The battle had just begun. Why did Bai Chongxi have to withdraw his troops? Although we encountered some trouble in front of the enemy's position, it's not like this, right? According to the current situation, it will only cost some casualties at most. With the fixed artillery support of tanks and excellent infantry, it should not be difficult to win the position.
While the staff officer was stunned, the anxious Bai Chongxi kicked him over: "Damn you! Did you hear my order? Go quickly! If it's too late, I'll kill you!"
Bai Chongxi's rage frightened the staff officer, who turned pale, got up from the ground and ran out without saying a word.
"Jiansheng, do you think Lao Maozi's artillery is still there and will probably launch an artillery bombardment on our attacking troops?"
At this moment, Zhang Zhizhong asked thoughtfully on the side, and Bai Chongxi nodded solemnly: "I don't know how the opponent retained the artillery, but since the soldiers on the opponent's position can still organize fire resistance, and also If field artillery is used, then it is very likely that the opponent's artillery will not suffer any losses, that is, the heavy firepower weapons will still exist. If we suddenly take advantage of the opportunity of our troops and armored forces to gather in front of the position"
Zhang Zhizhong¡¯s expression changed drastically. He completely understood what Bai Chongxi meant and also made a judgment on this possibility.
"I'll go to the front and get all the troops to withdraw as soon as possible."
"Wenbai, you"
"Needless to say, our first regiment and the first infantry regiment are going to attack. It's too late to notify the infantry division to convey the order. I have a high military rank, so it would be faster to go directly."
"Well, please pay attention to safety and be careful in everything."
"Don't worry!" Zhang Zhizhong put on his helmet and turned around, leaving the command post and hurried to the front line. Bai Chongxi was not idle either. He quickly walked to the phone, picked up the phone, and called the infantry division.
About ten minutes later, a burst of fierce artillery fire suddenly sounded from behind the Serov position. The artillery of the Soviet Red Army began to fire at preset positions from behind various bunkers. When he heard the sound of the Red Army's artillery fire, Bai Chongxi immediately asked his own artillery fire to suppress it. After hanging up the phone, he hurried to the observation port and stared at the front line where the artillery fire was pouring with his binoculars.