This time in the counterattack, it was the Soviet aircraft that were tenacious. During the battle, the target of the Soviet aircraft was not fighting, but the Chinese tanks on the ground. Although the Chinese fighter jets responsible for cruising were very diligent in pursuing and killing, they were ultimately unable to stop some opponents who would crash into tanks on the ground even if the aircraft smoked.
In this battle, the Tenth Mechanized Corps lost more than half of its tanks, and Zhukov lost all his last remaining air force. But such a sacrifice was worth it in the eyes of the Soviet army. The Tenth Mechanized Corps of the Chinese National Defense Force had to stop and wait for subsequent reinforcements and supplements.
As the commander of the 10th Mechanized Corps, Bai Chongxi did not shirk responsibility. Instead, he emphasized in his report that he was insufficiently prepared for air strikes, resulting in excessive losses to the troops, and requested punishment.
¡°The most profound impression on the Chinese officers and soldiers in this battle was the pilots who were not afraid of death. One after another, the planes in the sky risked being chased by Mustang fighters, constantly swooping and attacking, and constantly crashing into the ground with black smoke, which even caused a considerable psychological shadow on some officers and soldiers.
After three days of fierce fighting, Bai Chongxi did not continue to advance not because he was afraid, but because Liu Mingzhao called and asked him to suspend the advance and wait for the infantry reinforcements behind him to come up.
Fine snowflakes fell from the sky and slowly turned into heavy snow. The harsh winter that the Soviet army had been waiting for finally came. When the ice on the Ob River was enough for tanks weighing dozens of tons to drive over, the fighter jet Gao Sheng had been waiting for arrived.
In Novosibirsk, the Soviet army held on tenaciously for 25 days. This was the result Chuikov expected. But he doesn't know. This is the result of Gao Sheng's deliberate indulgence, especially in the past week, when the Wehrmacht's offensive has often become less determined.
The heavy snowfall lasted all day and night. The frozen soil beneath the foot-deep snow was extremely hard. Chuikov received a telegram from Moscow at his headquarters in Omsk, requiring him to launch a powerful counterattack in half a month to eliminate the Chinese imperialist bandits that were besieging Novosibirsk.
Chuikov is still very confident about this counterattack. On the vast land of Siberia, the long logistics line of the Chinese imperialist bandits has become extremely fragile. Especially when winter comes, the logistical pressure is even greater. In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of local troops operating behind the enemy's rear, frequently attacking the logistics line. Chuikov judged that the number of Chinese imperialist troops in Novosibirsk would not exceed 500,000. At this time, Chuikov had more than one million troops available, including two mechanized armies hidden in Kuibyshev.
Chinese imperialism has yet to cross the Ob River and has yet to conquer Novosibirsk. Chuikov's judgment was that the troops were insufficient. It should be related to the large-scale battles taking place in Central Asia.
After receiving the report from Moscow, Chuikov held a military meeting to discuss the relevant arrangements for the counterattack. This meeting lasted all day and all night. When the meeting ended, it was already early morning. When he walked out of the smoky conference room and looked at the first ray of dawn on the horizon, Chuikov was in a good mood. Just as he was about to have a good sleep, there were some very uncomfortable sounds coming from dawn.
Cuikov stopped and looked around. As the voice became clearer and clearer, his expression changed. He reached out and took the telescope from the staff officer's hand, and ran to a building without caring about the danger. What appeared in the telescope was a dense group of bombers, as well as a large number of escort fighter groups. "Quickly, contact Kuibyshev and find out about the situation there."
Five minutes later, Chuikov, who did not wait for the news, waited until the bomb fell to the ground. All that fell from the sky were big guys weighing 500 kilograms each. Omsk, which had never been hit by large-scale air raids, ushered in its first large-scale air raid since the war started. One hundred B-17s flew under one hundred Mustangs. -Under the cover of B-type fighter jets, bomb all significant targets in Omsk.
In comparison, the scale of the attack on Kuibyshev was larger. Five hundred B-17s, in the words of the Air Force, wiped this small town off the map. The two secret camps of the Soviet mechanized army deployed in the woods outside Kuibyshev, as well as the headquarters in the city, were heavily bombed. Especially the camp in the woods outside the city that it thought was well hidden was heavily protected by napalm bombs from three hundred B-17s. Many targets were attacked by air on this day, and almost all the gathering places for counterattack forces were attacked by the Chinese Air Force. This was something Chuikov never expected, as if the Chinese knew about his military deployment.
Yes, Gao Sheng did know Chuikov's military deployment. I can't say he knew everything, but he knew at least 80% of it. Even when Chuikov was killed, he didn't expect that the Soviet army's latest password was already in the enemy's hands.
In Central Asia, Liu Mingzhao did not use the cracked code to use troops in a targeted manner, not because he did not want to destroy the enemy, but because President Fang Da¡¯s strategic requirements must have driven Zhukov into West Asia.
?Almost at the same time as the large-scale air attack began, the Wehrmacht, with 3,500 tanks as the leader, crossed the Ob River and headed towards Kuibyshev as quickly as possible. Gao Sheng's goal is very clear, which is to encircle and annihilate the counterattack force that Chuikov thought he had deployed without knowing it. Although the cold winter is the enemy of the National Defense Forces, it also provides hard ground, laying the foundation for the rapid march of mechanized troops. As for the logistical supplies of the mechanized troops, there is no need to worry at all. Air Force bombers are constantly dropping parachutes, fuel, food, and wine to keep out the cold.
After crossing the Ob River, a mechanized army of 60,000 people advanced rapidly at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour. The well-prepared wheeled equipment relied on the anti-skid chain as a killer. Although it could not reach high speed when marching on the frozen surface, it was very stable. forward. Then tens of thousands of infantrymen, using sleds as marching tools, resolutely followed the mechanized troops. The 400,000-strong army advanced 150 kilometers in just one day. After dark, two rows of burning fires appeared every fifty meters on both sides of the marching road. The stench of burning diesel permeated both sides of the long marching team.
It was not until the early morning that the assaulting armored group encountered an organized blockade. The reason for this situation is that firstly, the mechanized troops advanced too fast, and secondly, no air raids were heard during the entire day. From Omsk to Novosibirsk, all valuable targets were not missed. The gathering points along the Siberian Railway, such as Chulym and Kargat, were raided by the air force more than three or four times. At dawn, a small town appeared in the sight of Liu Mianyue's telescope, who personally led the assault. Balabinsk, a small town less than ten kilometers away from Kuibyshev, was located along the Siberian Railway.
At this time, Liu Mianyue could be sure that he was about to cut off the retreat of the twenty Soviet infantry divisions deployed in Kargat and Churem. The premise was that he could eliminate Kuibyshev's Soviet troops as soon as possible. The army is heavily concentrated.
Liu Mianyue did not rush to launch an attack, but asked the troops to stop advancing, take a rest, expand their formation, and call for the air force. Due to road problems, Liu Mianyue did not have a cannon. In addition to tank guns, he only had various types of mortars and rocket launchers. What surprised Liu Mianyue was that he did not wait for reinforcements from the air force, but first received artillery shells from the Soviet army. Fortunately, the troops had already deployed, and the Soviet army's sparse shelling did not have much impact.
But the tank that rushed out later frightened Liu Mianyue. Vast numbers of Soviet tanks rushed forward on the snowy ground, picking up snowflakes. Now he only has one tank brigade and one mechanized infantry brigade, and the nearest other tank units are still ten kilometers away.
We had no choice but to go up there. The mechanized infantry brigade seizes the time to build a position. Don¡¯t expect to dig out the frozen soil. We can only use snow to pile up bunkers. The engineers shoveled hard and pounded them tightly. The tank troops rushed forward regardless. Two regiments of more than 400 tanks, no less than ten, launched an active attack against the endless Soviet army.
Liu Mianyue simply stood next to the command vehicle and shouted loudly in clear words: "My vanguard has been actively attacked by no less than one Soviet mechanized army. Please reinforce quickly. Please reinforce quickly." At this time, Liu Mieyue knew very well in his heart that he could not take a step back. Even a step back would affect the entire process of the assault. Once the Soviet army formed an effective defense system, it was likely that the Soviet army would be behind this place before the main force could catch up. pincer attack.
"Quick! Fly at full speed!" Liu Xuan, captain of the 10th Air Force Air Wing, shouted loudly into the radio.
"Speed, what we need now is speed, move forward at full speed." Sima Li, commander of the Sixth Mechanized Corps, was roaring. Half an hour later, the 17th Tank Brigade arrived on the battlefield. Without waiting for orders, they waited for fierce artillery fire and plunged into the battlefield where more than a thousand tanks were mixed together. The largest battle between pure tanks in history took place in the wild less than thirty kilometers away from Kuibyshev.
Ten minutes later, the 18th Tank Brigade, which was ordered to circle behind Kuibyshev, encountered an active attack by a Soviet tank regiment and an anti-tank artillery regiment less than ten kilometers away.
The assault troops rushed to the battlefield intermittently, but Liu Mianyue immediately jumped into the battle one by one, without even a short rest. One hundred fighter planes of the Air Force arrived belatedly an hour and a half after the battle began. Looking at the tank battle on the ground, they could only look for the Soviet artillery positions and subsequent troops to vent their anger.
Historically known as the "Third Phase Encirclement and Encirclement War" of the Siberian Campaign, the battle started from the early morning of December 2 to 4:30 pm on December 5. The assault group defeated the main Soviet army deployed in the Kuibyshev area. . Previously, the troops deployed by Chuikov for counterattack were cut off. The Soviet army, including Novosibirsk, totaling about 500,000 people, fell into the encirclement of the Chinese army. The Sixth Mechanized Army, which created a miracle, with the cooperation of the Air Force and the assistance of the sleigh march of ten infantry divisions??, successfully completed a classic roundabout battle. At the same time, the main force of the Wehrmacht, which launched the front offensive, successfully broke through the Soviet defense line. With the cooperation of the two mechanized corps and fifty infantry divisions, the Soviet army continued to divide and encircle it. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature. The novels will be better and updated faster!