novelonline Chapter 1831 The Cruelty of Urban Street Fighting (Please give me a monthly ticket!!! Please subscri
Chapter 1831 The Cruelty of Urban Street Fighting (Please give me a monthly ticket!!! Please subscri
Chapter 1831 The Cruelty of Urban Street Fighting (Please give me a monthly ticket!!! Please subscribe!! Please recommend!!!)
Urban attack and defense warfare is like this. Once the enemy takes root in the urban area, the gap will only get bigger and bigger, unless... the defending side is prepared to pay huge casualties and fight with the enemy on every piece of land and every building in the city, only then will it be possible to drive the enemy out of the city.
The most typical of these is the Battle of Stalingrad! Stalingrad's pre-war population was 40. It was home to an important river port and many important war and civilian industries. Because the city was named after Soviet leader Stalin, Hitler was particularly fond of capturing the city as a personal blow to the Soviet leader. Stalin also attached great importance to controlling the city to prevent Hitler from seizing the city named after him. Although Stalingrad had great military significance, the psychological importance of the city to both leaders elevated it to a significant level, even surpassing the capital of Moscow. Both armies were willing to pay a price to own it, and it went beyond military value and fully into the realm of obsession.
Initially, the Germans made great progress in conquering the city. The Nazis attacked the city and its defenders with planes, tanks, artillery, mortars, and other heavy weapons. By early September 1942, the Germans were still making progress, but the pace of the advance had slowed significantly. Due to the indiscriminate bombing, the city and its buildings were reduced to a huge pile of rubble. The Russians took advantage of the destroyed buildings and began to adopt defensive tactics; ironically, these buildings gave them an advantage.
However, by November, the relentless German offensive had driven the Soviets nearly to the Volga River. Here, both sides suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties, and the barbarity of both sides on this line had exceeded all limits of human behavior. In the battle, right and wrong, morality and honor no longer existed. The battle actually devolved into a savage fight for survival. In the 11 Hollywood film Enemies at the Gates, a German and Russian sniper dueled. Snipers had become one of the most feared opponents for both sides. Because of their ability to shoot at long distances, soldiers never felt they were safe and were often shot in places where they thought they were safe.
One particularly skilled Russian sniper, Anatoly Chechev, said of his first experience: "I felt terrible. I killed a man."
But after a while, and learning how German troops had killed many of his compatriots, Chechov said in an interview during the battle: "I began to fire at them mercilessly. I had become a barbarian, I killed them, I hated them."
As Michael Jones describes in an excellent book, on September 1942, 9, the Soviets had survived a German onslaught. The Germans had almost reached the Volga River, only 14 yards from their objective. The Russians were on the verge of defeat. Because the Luftwaffe had air superiority, any reinforcements or supplies along the Volga during the day would have been suicidal. But the commander of the Soviet 200th Division believed that the Soviet defenders near the river would not be able to hold out until dusk; so he ordered his troops to cross the river anyway, trusting that the two sides were separated by the river.
General Alexander Roditsev led his troops on a barge and headed for the other side of the river. According to eyewitness accounts, the boat was hit by a German bomb before it reached the other side, killing most of the people on board, but miraculously, he himself survived. Most of the people on the boat were not so lucky. Several eyewitnesses described the scene.
Alexander Albert, one of the few Soviet defenders still on one side of the river, described the scene as the Thirteenth Division came ashore. "We were lying on the ground. Everything was on fire," he said. "The ships were being bombed and shelled. I saw a big barge full of soldiers, their coats, grenades, shovels, ammunition and machine guns - it sank right before my eyes."
Another eyewitness described a similarly horrific scene: "There was a flash of fire, then black smoke enveloped the ferry, an explosion was heard, and then, a scream ... The ship was moving, there was an explosion and fire on the upper deck, and the force of the explosion shook the Volga. When it was over - the smoke had cleared - there was nothing, just waves on the ferry. This scene froze our blood."
As Michael Jones points out, the Red Army should not have been able to hold the line. He writes: "The Germans had seized the high ground on the river embankment and had overwhelming firepower to bring down the advancing Russians. It seemed impossible that they would succeed - but they did." In fierce fighting, General Roditsev's men recaptured a key building from the Germans and secured a safe crossing of the river.
German survivor Helmut Waltz described the dehumanizing effect that the house-to-house fighting in Stalingrad had on him. Waltz was facing a Russian building when he came face to face with an enemy soldier. He raised his weapon to fire, he said, but suddenly, "I saw little stars in my eyes. I touched my face with my left hand, and a spurt of blood came out, and teeth flew out of my mouth."
"It's all over now," he thought, hoping the Russian soldiers would finish him off, but one of his comrades came to his aid and "smashed the head of the Russian who hit me. Even though he was wearing a helmet. I can still hear the tearing sound today."
But Waltz's fear for the day wasn't over yet. As his friend bandaged his wound, Waltz looked up and tried to warn his friend: Another Russian fighter was behind him. But it was too late. Gunfire rang out, and his comrade's helmet "went through the air, and then I looked at him, and I saw how he had been shot in the head, how his head had split open. "That was the first time I saw a brain. In the middle was water. No blood, just water. He was looking at me when he died, and he was just standing on the dirt with his wounds."
Scenes like the 1000th Guards Division and the Volz were repeated times during the six months of the Battle of Stalingrad. In my twenty-one years of military service, I have participated in many high-intensity battles and in counter-guerrilla warfare. However, I admit unequivocally that I cannot understand, or even imagine, what the real hell was like during the Battle of Stalingrad. It is terrifying how callous and cruel they can become when deprived of their humanity.
The highlight of urban attack and defense warfare is its cruelty. You must be determined to exchange your life for a building that seems ordinary in the past. Even if it is just a public toilet, you have to sacrifice more people than a public toilet can accommodate to capture it.
If one side cannot accept such cruelty, it is equivalent to losing the battle. And this also includes civilian casualties!
The Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in World War II. Judging from the number of casualties alone, the battle was also the bloodiest battle in modern history. The casualties on both sides are estimated to be over two million. The number of people involved in this battle was also greater than any other battle in history. It was also famous for the casualties caused by both sides ignoring the distinction between military and civilians.
On September 1942, 9, the German army broke into the city from the north and launched a fierce street battle with the Soviet 14nd Army. The two sides fought repeatedly for every street, building and house. Stalingrad became a rubble field, and 62% of the residential areas in the city were destroyed. In the city full of rubble and ruins, the Soviet 80nd Army resisted tenaciously, and fierce gun battles broke out in every street, every building, and every factory in the city. The number of casualties of the German army that entered the city continued to increase. Although the German army frequently bombed the east bank of the Volga River, the Soviet Red Army still received continuous supplies and support from there. The average survival time of the Red Army soldiers who had just rushed to the city did not exceed 62 hours, and the average survival time of officers was only about three days.
A total of one million people died in this battle, including Soviets, Romanians, Hungarians, and Germans. The German Sixth Army had 26 soldiers, 9 of whom were surrounded, and only 1 returned to Germany alive after the war. At the most intense stage of the battle, both sides deployed more than two million troops, 5 tanks, more than aircraft, and artillery and mortars.
In September and October 1942, the Soviet Army only had five infantry divisions crossing the river to reinforce, while the German Army deployed no less than 9 infantry divisions and 10 armored brigades. The casualties of its front-line divisions often reached %, with only to people left in a company. The number of troops deployed by the German Army in Stalingrad increased from the initial divisions to divisions.
From July to November 1942, the German army lost a total of 7 officers and soldiers, more than 11 tanks, more than artillery pieces and more than aircraft.
This war was cruel, almost a victory built with blood. Although the result of the Battle of Stalingrad was good, its process was bloody and terrible. Any war is not a matter of a few generals planning and strategizing, it must be built by living lives. Under the leadership of Hitler, Nazi Germany successively conquered several smaller countries, but facing the vast Soviet Union, the German attack showed difficulty. The German attack on Stalingrad can be compared to Japan's attack on Nanjing. Their massacres of the people were inhumane. The fall of Stalingrad, however, was not the end of the battle, but the beginning of another tragic counterattack. Faced with the loss of many defensive areas, the Soviet Army still did not give up the last chance of resistance. They still fought against each building and street in the city. This is the famous street fighting. The city was burned into ruins by the war, and the Soviet army was hiding from the enemy's artillery fire in these ruins and fighting bravely. Thanks to the strong resistance of Commander Chuikov, the war, which was very important to both Stalin and Hitler, was finally won.
Of course, the Little Overlord does not have so many people to sacrifice. If a million people sacrificed in one city... the entire Little Overlord would fall apart on its own without the Egyptian army continuing to attack... Please, their total population has just exceeded 10 million. Even if the population structure is healthy, the death of a million young and middle-aged people will directly cause the society to lack an entire generation. By then, only the elderly, women and children will be left in the entire society, and the adult men will basically be dead.
This is where the Little Overlord hits his Achilles' heel: the population is too small!
And to be honest, this nation is particularly cruel to others, but not to their own people... They are born lacking a kind of faith. Perhaps they are too good at doing business, which leads to a strong sense of gain and loss. They have to weigh everything, but they can't be so shrewd about some things, especially when it comes to collective interests.
So after the Egyptian army's follow-up troops began to enter the city, the Little Overlord was unable to hold on.
Let’s not talk about the Egyptian army’s situation for now, but as of now, those Egyptian troops, who are so powerful, really don’t care about sacrifice.
This is a holy city!
The importance of the holy city is self-evident to every Muslim.
These soldiers who have been caught up in the fanatic atmosphere don't care about sacrifice at all, and they even think that dying in the holy city is an honor. Now the entire Egyptian army is in a frenzy, and countless young people are shouting in the streets and alleys, asking the people to support the front line. This fanatical atmosphere will not last long, but the problem is that in a short period of time, it is enough to make the people of the whole country subconsciously ignore many things.
For example, food prices are becoming increasingly expensive, the government has stopped subsidizing bread (it really can’t subsidize it anymore because it has no money), domestic inflation is high, and imports and exports are restricted.
These difficulties have been suppressed in the current situation of rapid progress.
No one would say a bad word about the government. It was a bit like the early days of the Falklands War. Even though the situation in Argentina was already very bad, all the contradictions disappeared automatically and consciously under the national carnival.
Faced with such an Egyptian army, the little bully saw no need for sacrifice.
I don't have that kind of determination.
So they soon turned to the United States again, hoping that the United States could personally intervene to mediate... Of course, they didn't want to start a war.
They hope to use diplomatic means to get a better result.
What they originally thought was that they could admit defeat in the war, but Egypt had to return to its position before the war started, and there were a bunch of additional conditions... The Americans didn't even take this to negotiate with Egypt... There was no way anyone would agree to such idiotic conditions.
The United States helped to refuse. If they wanted to negotiate, they had to be realistic. It would be better for Egypt to surrender directly. It would be just a verbal surrender without any sacrifice.
Well, the little overlords really think so. They really hope that the United States will negotiate according to this. It would be best if the talks between Egypt and the United States broke down and directly drag the United States into the water.
But it's obviously useless. There's no other way. The little overlord can only grind down little by little. In short, he just wants to take advantage and doesn't want to pay.
Then the fighting started directly in the Holy City!
A large number of Egyptian troops entered the city directly and began to attack in all directions from the occupied area!
(End of this chapter)