Chapter 651: German-Soviet War (8)

Pavlov was shocked when he received Stalin's order to withdraw troops immediately. He dared not neglect it and ordered all the frontline troops to withdraw.

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

"How could this happen?!" He didn't know that the German radio interference had cut off the connection between the headquarters and the frontline. But since the radio could not contact, he could only send out signal soldiers. But this time it was an all-out attack, and the battle line was hundreds of kilometers long. Even if all the signal soldiers of 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, and the communication efficiency would be greatly reduced.

"What should I do?" Looking at Pavlov, who was anxiously pacing back and forth like an ant on a hot pot, the political commissar advised. "Comrade Commander, send out signal soldiers quickly and withdraw the troops that can be contacted first."

"That's the only way." Pavlov, who had long been at a loss, sent out all the signal soldiers of the headquarters.

At this time, the sound of thunderous artillery suddenly rang out from the strongholds on the first line of defense of the German army that the Soviet army had failed to capture. Rocket launchers, howitzers, and mortars fired at the same time, and countless shells hit the Soviet troops near the positions, making them scream and flee in all directions.

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

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

Soviet soldiers would never dream that the German army would be equipped with night vision goggles on a large scale. This is a cross-era, to be precise, it is not a cross-era. Germany in the original time and space developed the first military infrared night vision device as early as 1936, but the prototype night vision device at that time was huge and very prone to various failures. Because the physical indicators were inconsistent with the expectations of the German high-level officials, all plans for night vision devices were finally shelved.

Until 1944, the once invincible German tank troops faced the huge air superiority of the Allies and could only hide during the day and move at night. The German high-ranking officials remembered this forgotten weapon again.

It is natural that taking out something that has been shelved for seven or eight years to save the situation cannot turn the tide; these night vision devices were issued to the tank troops for use in September 1944, but they have never been used on a large scale due to technical reasons.

However, it shines on 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 the STG44 assault rifle equipped with a Vampire to kill half a platoon of British soldiers in just over ten minutes.

But even such a new equipment that can bring great battlefield advantages to the German army on the battlefield, the German high-ranking officials still don't care much. The delivered night vision devices were 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's really ridiculous.

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

However, although it is large-scale equipment, it is not possible to have one for each person. Only three or four people in a squad, such as the squad leader, machine gunner, and assault rifleman, are equipped. The rest of the people still have to fight in the dark.

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

The airship made great contributions to Germany in the First World War and performed reconnaissance and air raid missions many times. The famous airship in World War I was the "Zeppelin" airship, which once attacked East England from an altitude of 1,500 meters, killing and injuring many people.

In view of the powerful combat effect of the airship, Germany built a total of 113 military airships in the first 10 years. However, in the late period 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 withdrawn from combat missions and put into the transportation industry.

It was not until the "Hindenburg air crash" in 1937 that people began to lose trust in airships, and this once popular behemoth gradually withdrew from the war stage.

But during World War II, airships became the Americans' unique weapon, and the K-class airship was one of the typical masterpieces. During the war, the United States built a total of more than 150 airships to perform anti-submarine and reconnaissance operations, which played a significant role. It was not until 1959 that the last airship of the US military was retired.

As for why the United States built so many airships, it was because the United States had abundant helium resources.

As early as the beginning, the design of the Hindenburg was to use safe inert gas helium to provide buoyancy. However, at that time, helium was very precious (even in later generations), and it could only be produced in large-scale distilleries of the oil industry, and at that time, only the United States had the production capacity.

In order to control the export of helium, the US government also specially promulgated the "Helium Control Act" in 1927 to control it. Zeppelin Company initially tried to persuade the Americans to give them a break and agree to their export license, but was rejected. There is no way, if you don't let us use it, we have to find a substitute - hydrogen.

As we all know, the safety of hydrogen is far 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, firing dense bullets and knocking down the Soviet soldiers who were 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 image change 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.