The battle in Kirov began from Krasnoye. The two sides carried out fierce offensive and defensive attacks in this small town more than 20 kilometers south of Kirov. As the Soviet army retreated in an orderly manner, by July 22
, the city of Kirov was surrounded on three sides by the Far Eastern Army commanded by Egorov, and the entire front line moved ten kilometers away from the suburbs of the city. On this day, the Far Eastern Army Air Force dropped more than 3,000 bombs on Kirov City, causing
Thousands of Soviet soldiers were killed.
The city of Kirov was riddled with bullets and a sea of fire. A large number of residents were relocated, but many young and middle-aged people stayed to support the Soviet army. Overall, the Far Eastern Army had an absolute advantage in artillery, tanks and aircraft, and the only way the Soviet army could
What he relied on was his familiarity with the city's fortifications.
On July 23, after aviation and artillery fire preparations, the Far East Army launched the first wave of strong attacks on Kirov City. A strategic group composed of three infantry divisions and two tank divisions served as the main attack due south.
Mission. By noon, the Far Eastern Army advanced the front to the southern suburbs of Kirov, and large-scale street fighting broke out.
At the same time, another assault corps of the Far Eastern Army, composed of two motorized infantry divisions and a tank division, fought from west to east, occupied the Kirov West Railway Station, and threatened the Kirov urban area.
The Soviet Southern Front Headquarters was originally located south of the city center. On the 23rd, as the entire city was under heavy artillery fire from the Far Eastern Army, several shelters were damaged and more than ten people in the headquarters were destroyed.
There were casualties, and the artillery fire of the Far Eastern Army often interrupted wired telephone communications. Despite the best efforts of the communication personnel, the communication between the headquarters and the units was inevitably interrupted.
Tyulenev, who served as the commander-in-chief of the southern front, had no choice but to move his headquarters to the front tunnel on the west bank of the Chipcha River. It was commanded by the corps command posts of the two corps under his command and the divisions of the four divisions responsible for peripheral defense.
They are all within a kilometer, and any urgent orders can be delivered by sending out communications troops.
That night, after receiving the counterattack order sent by Zhukov via radio, Tyulenev organized troops to attack and made certain progress in certain areas. However, after dawn the next day, the Far East Army invested a large amount of air power to deal with the Soviet army attacking on the ground.
He was pressed to the ground and unable to lift his head.
At one o'clock at noon, the Far East Army dispatched a large number of tanks and infantry to attack the Soviet army's battle formation. The two sides formed a tug-of-war, with each having its own victory or defeat.
On July 25, Yegorov, who was worried about the war situation in Siberia, invested five more infantry divisions, 300 tanks and more than 700 aircraft into Kirov City, from the northwest, west, southwest and southwest of the city.
Attacks were launched from four directions in the south, and 1,100 artillery pieces were concentrated to bombard the central and southern areas of Kirov City, preparing to split the Soviet defenses and eat them one by one.
The battle unfolded throughout the city of Kirov. In the afternoon of that day, two Far Eastern Army divisions and one tank division, fighting from west to east, conducted an assault along the railway line that ran across the city. Miraculously, they reached the Chipcha River and cut it off for the first time.
It established the connection between the Southern Front Combat Group and other Soviet units in the city center.
Tyulenev quickly organized troops to counterattack, but in the face of the Far Eastern Army's superior artillery fire, it seemed a little powerless. After the Far Eastern Army occupied several buildings next to the river bank, it began to use light and heavy machine guns to shoot at the surface and banks of the Chipcha River, trying its best to obstruct it.
The Soviet reinforcements reached the west bank through the river. However, the Soviet army raised heavy smoke on the right bank of the Chipcha River, completely covering the river bank and the river surface. Speedboats and ferries continued to move forward under the cover of anti-aircraft artillery.
Driving on the river.
The commander of the Far Eastern Army's front-line troops did not know at this time that they were actually less than 500 meters away from the Soviet southern front headquarters. If the commander was smart enough, he could mobilize troops at any time and quickly capture the command center of the southern front cluster.
Defeat, the worst
It was also possible to seize the southern crossing of the Chipcha River and truly cut off the connection between the Soviet army and its main force in the encirclement. Unfortunately, the frontline commanders of the Far East Army did not have this awareness. After the attack was successful, they were at a loss as to what to do. They simply consolidated the defensive positions and tried to stabilize the situation.
Stay on the front line.
In this case, Zhukov ordered the northern front troops to deploy two divisions to cooperate with the southern front troops to launch a counterattack. Tyulenev also used the only T35 heavy tank regiment he had in hand to attack, and at the same time used the reserve force in his hand.
A division was sent out to attack from the north and south and carry out a forceful breakthrough.
The T35 has a total weight of fifty tons and a crew of 11. Its main weapons are one M27/32 76.2mm tank gun, two 45mm guns, and one 7.62mmdt machine gun. The maximum armor thickness is 50mm. It has tenacious resistance to ordinary anti-tank weapons.
Resistance. The Soviet army launched a crazy attack under the cover of the almost invulnerable T35 tanks. The Far Eastern Army's unsteady front quickly collapsed and had to retreat four kilometers to the west.
Yegorov quickly detected the Soviet army's combat intentions from the Soviet army's changes, once again sent more troops to the center line, and used 88mm anti-aircraft guns to deal with the Soviet army's T35 tanks.
As the clumsy T35s exploded and burned, the Soviet army quickly retreated. Then the Far Eastern Army once again reached the west bank of the Chipcha River, cutting off the connection between the two Soviet armies in the encirclement and its main force for the second time.
However, although the troops were divided and surrounded, the Soviet army performed very tenaciously. They made full use of their familiarity with the city and streets to ruthlessly attack the Far East Army. In the following days, the battle for the city continued day and night.
, the streets and squares in the city have become the main battlefields for fighting.
The Soviet army held on to every building, causing huge casualties to the Far East Army.
The geographical location of Kirov City is too important. If it is not captured, it will be impossible to attack westward. Therefore, Yegorov can only continue to send more troops, assemble a large number of tanks, infantry and aircraft, and launch all-round attacks from the ground to the air.
attack.
The Kirov garrison fighting on the streets of the city was supported by Soviet artillery on the right bank of the Chipcha River. Twelve Soviet artillery regiments and six mortar regiments were assembled on the right bank, as well as a total of eight Soviet home defense air forces.
The anti-aircraft artillery unit of the regiment and the Soviet artillery defeated the strategic reserves of the Far Eastern Army several times and extended artillery fire to the most dangerous direction of the Far Eastern Army's attack.
At the same time, the river defense fleet transferred from the Volga River used its powerful artillery to provide strong firepower support to the troops fighting on the left bank of the river, and launched continuous artillery bombardments against the Far Eastern Army rushing towards Kirov City.
In the battle around Kirov City, the Soviet army also used its reserve air force for the first time.
After a short period of sudden research and development by aircraft designers such as Mikoyan, Yakov and Lavochkin, the Soviet army abandoned the backward I-15 and I-16 fighter jets and replaced them with the MiG-1, Yak-1 and Lago-1.
1These three fighter jets were hastily launched after undergoing simple wind tunnel testing.
Before the war, the Soviet army had stockpiled more than 1,300 brand-new fighter planes. This time, they were all deployed on the Kirov battlefield and had a great battle with the Far East Army Air Force. Although the Soviet fighter planes continued to have problems and disintegrated in the air from time to time.
Or it may spontaneously ignite and explode. However, compared with the I-15 and I-16, because these three fighters all adopt more powerful liquid-cooled engines and their weapons and equipment have also been upgraded, they pose a great threat to the Far East Army's air force.
In the short air battle of 78 days, the Far East Army lost 421 fighter planes. Although the Soviet Air Force lost 783 aircraft, almost twice as many as the other side, due to the Soviet Union's strong industrial
At the same time, the Reserve Air Force has a rich reserve of pilots under the leadership of Zhukov, and new pilots are constantly being added to replace the losses. However, the Far East Army's experienced pilots are losing one by one, and the production capacity lags behind the other side. Therefore, the air forces of both sides are
Strength began to gradually become balanced.
In order to strengthen the strength of the Soviet army in the encirclement, Zhukov mobilized a steady stream of reserve troops and used the night to launch a forced crossing from the east bank of the Chipcha River to supplement the losses of Kirov's defenders.
The Far Eastern Army aviation and long-range artillery dropped a large number of bombs and artillery shells into the river. Under the soaring flames, many half-sunken and half-floating barges were burning. On the banks of the Kirov City, large trees soaked in oil spit out tongues of flames.
, illuminate the ground hundreds of meters away
Fang. The burning barges and the burning trees became the reference objects of the Far Eastern Army's artillery. As long as the Soviet speedboats approached the river bank, they would immediately be violently bombarded. However, the Soviets had no fear and remained
Keep moving forward.
No, as soon as more than a dozen speedboats passed through the center of the river, they were immediately attacked by fierce fire. Artillery shells and mortar shells exploded around the speedboats from time to time, setting off huge water columns. The water in the Chipcha River seemed to be boiling. One ship after another
The speedboat dodged left and right and drove forward tenaciously. As it got closer and closer to the river bank, the artillery fire became more and more intensive. Tracer bullets kept hitting the speedboat, and rifles and light and heavy machine guns opened fire almost simultaneously.
The speedboat slowed down and began to turn around. A large number of Soviet troops jumped into the water, quickly waded through the shallow water, landed and entered the battle. The battle was very fierce, and scenes of hand-to-hand combat could be seen from time to time. As more and more troops landed,
The Far Eastern Army was driven out of the coastal area, and the Soviet army occupied a landing site of nearly two square kilometers.
The Far Eastern Army was unwilling to suffer defeat and once again mobilized two divisions to strengthen the attack. The Soviet reinforcements were immediately attacked before they had time to familiarize themselves with the environment and build fortifications. The Far Eastern Army aviation troops kept dropping bombs on the urban area of Kirov, seemingly trying to
Blow everything on the street to the ground.
On July 29, the battle entered a fierce stage. The Far Eastern Army continued to attack the Soviet army in an attempt to occupy the center of Kirov City. The Soviet flank troops took active actions and carried out frontal and flank counterattacks. After a day
In the fierce fighting, although all Soviet positions were defended, their strength was restrained in the city center.
After that, the battle in the city center was still fierce. The attacks of the Far East Army were repelled again and again, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. Since the Soviet army could get support from the east bank of the Chipcha River at any time, it not only defended strongly, but also often launched counterattacks, and the entire battlefield fell into a stalemate.
state.
During the desperate struggle between the Far Eastern Army and the Soviet Army in Kirov City, under Zhukov's skillful command, the Far Eastern Army's advantages were unable to be used and could only waste their strength in the city attack. Zhukov surrounded the entire Kirov City and made
sky
Cai's arrangement relied on the Chipcha River to deal with the Far Eastern Army, using softness to overcome strength, gradually consuming the Far Eastern Army's vigor. At the same time, Zhukov gathered forces in the rear. As soon as the Far Eastern Army's offensive showed signs of fatigue, he immediately launched a counterattack.
The balance of war was unknowingly tilted towards the Soviet army!