Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Chapter 651: The German-Soviet War (8)

Pavlov was shocked when he received Stalin's order to withdraw his troops immediately. He did not dare to hesitate and ordered all frontline troops to withdraw.

But after a while, he was told that the frontline troops could not be contacted by radio.

"How could this happen?!" He didn't know that it was the German radio interference that cut off the connection between the headquarters and the front line. However, since the radio contact could not be reached, the only option was to send out communications troops. But this time it was a full-line attack, with a front line of hundreds of kilometers. Even if all the communications troops from the headquarters were sent out, it would be impossible to contact all the frontline troops in a short time. Especially now that it was late at night, the communication efficiency would be greatly reduced.

"What should we do?" The political commissar advised Pavlov, looking at Pavlov who was pacing back and forth like an ant on a hot pot. "Comrade Commander, it is better to send out the communications troops quickly and withdraw the troops that can be contacted first."

"That's all we can do." Pavlov, who had already lost his mind, dispatched all the communications troops in the headquarters.

At this time, the strongholds on the German first line of defense that the Soviet army had not conquered suddenly rang out with thunderous cannon fire. Rocket launchers, howitzers, and mortars were fired, and countless shells smashed into the Soviet troops near the position, causing them to howl like ghosts and flee in all directions.

The German soldiers in the stronghold came out in full force, and after a brief exchange of fire, they recaptured the positions occupied by the Soviet troops, dividing the Soviet troops inside and outside the defense line.

In this dark night, the German army did not fire flares, but they were not affected by the night at all. As if they had night vision, they avoided obstacles on the ground with great dexterity and accurately hit Soviet soldiers in the distance.

The Soviet soldiers would never have dreamed that the German army was equipped with night vision devices on a large scale. This is not an era. To be precise, it is not an era. Germany in the original time and space developed the first set of military infrared night vision devices as early as 1936. But the prototype night vision devices at that time were huge and prone to various malfunctions. Since the physical indicators were not consistent with the expectations of the German military leaders, all plans for night vision devices were ultimately shelved.

Until 1944, the once arrogant German tank force faced the huge air superiority of the Allies and could only hide at night and day. The top German military leaders thought of this forgotten weapon again.

Naturally, if something that had been put aside for seven or eight years was brought out for emergency use, it would not be able to turn things around; these night vision devices were issued to tank troops for use in September 1944, but they have never been used on a large scale due to technical and other reasons.

However, it shines in infantry individual weapons. The STG44 is equipped with the famous vampire individual infrared night vision device, which undoubtedly brings great convenience to infantry, snipers, and even machine gunners. It is said that a German soldier once used an STG44 assault rifle equipped with a vampire to kill half a platoon of British soldiers in ten minutes.

But for such a new piece of equipment that can bring great battlefield advantages to the German army on the battlefield, the top brass of the German army still don't pay much attention to it. The delivered night vision device was hidden in a mine. It is said that the general of the German General Staff said: "We don't need this kind of thing, our soldiers will win this war with fair chivalry." It was simply shocking. People can't laugh or cry.

Fortunately, Yannick kicked these pedantic old stubborns out of the army early.

However, it is said to be a large-scale equipment, but it cannot be used by one person. Only three or four people in a squad are equipped with it, such as the squad leader, machine gunner, and assault rifleman. The rest still have to fight in the dark.

In order to reduce the weight of soldiers, the infrared transmitter and infrared viewfinder are separated. Soldiers only need to wear the infrared viewfinder, while the infrared transmitter is an airship floating in the sky.

The airship made great contributions to Germany in World War I, performing many reconnaissance missions and air raids. The famous World War I airship was the "Zeppelin" airship, which once raided East Anglia from an altitude of 1,500 meters, killing and injuring many people.

In view of the powerful combat effectiveness of airships, Germany built a total of 113 military airships in the first 10 years. However, in the later stages of World War I, airships finally met their opponents: fighter planes carrying machine guns, and many airships were shot down one after another. Later, airships were also withdrawn from combat missions and put into the transportation industry.

It was not until the Hindenburg crash in 1937 that people began to no longer trust airships, and this once-popular giant gradually withdrew from the war stage.

However, during World War II, airships became a unique weapon for Americans. The K-class airship is one of the typical masterpieces. During the war, the United States built a total of more than 150 airships, which were used to carry out anti-submarine and reconnaissance operations and played a considerable role. It was not until 1959 that the last airship of the US military was retired.

As for why the United States builds so many airships, it is because the United States has quite abundant helium resources.

Initially, the Hindenburg was designed to use helium, a safe inert gas, to provide buoyancy. However, at that time, helium was quite precious (even in later generations), and it could only be produced in large quantities in distilleries of the large petroleum industry. At that time, only the United States in the world had this production capability.

In order to control the export of helium, the U.S. government also promulgated the "Helium Control Act" in 1927 to control it. Zeppelin initially tried to persuade the Americans to grant them an export license, but was rejected. There is no way, if you don't let us use it, then we have to find a substitute - hydrogen.

As we all know, the safety of hydrogen is completely different from that of helium. This is also the direct cause of the Hindenburg disaster.

Today's German industry has been able to mass-produce helium, and has also built many small and medium-sized airships for military use. For example, these airships painted black are now equipped with countless infrared headlights, floating over the battlefield, illuminating the ground "transparently".

"Thud! Thud!" A German soldier wearing night vision goggles was swinging the MG3 machine gun in his hand sideways, shooting out dense bullets and knocking down the Soviet soldiers coming towards him like a flood of breasts.

Phew~bang!

After being beaten in confusion for a long time, the Soviet army finally recovered and fired several illumination bombs into the sky. In an instant, the entire battlefield was illuminated in white.

"Damn it!" Several soldiers wearing night vision goggles hurriedly covered the night vision goggles. The variable image tube and low light tube in the night vision goggles are the "heart" of the infrared night vision goggles. If the external light is too strong, it may Burn out the photocathode. Although later generations of night vision devices have strong light protection, they are not yet advanced to that level.

Sensing that the German firepower had suddenly weakened, the Soviet troops shouted "Ula" and rushed towards the German position. But before they could take a few steps, there was a whooshing sound in the sky, and countless rockets fell on the crowd, exploding. The Soviet soldiers fell on their backs.

This made the Soviet army quite passive. If they fired flares, they would be guiding the Germans to their targets. Without flares, they could only be beaten passively in this dark night. Just when they were unable to advance or retreat, the communications troops from the headquarters finally arrived and conveyed the order to withdraw.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like