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Volume 3 Far East Story Chapter 682 (2) Ukraine¡¯s morale has been greatly reduced

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    The former enemy commander-in-chief of the German-Ukrainian forces, Hermann von Francois, was in a very bad mood. Just before evening, he had just finished counting the losses suffered in the afternoon air raid. Five airports suffered varying degrees of damage, and eight anti-aircraft artillery battalions had  Five were completely destroyed, with losses in personnel and artillery. The remaining three anti-aircraft artillery battalions defending Kharkov reacted fastest to stop firing and move positions. Although they suffered casualties, they still retained their strength.

    What is puzzling is that the prime targets of the coalition air strikes were the German ground anti-aircraft firepower and the fortified defense lines of the German ground artillery positions of the Ukrainian 1st and 2nd Divisions. The airport runway buildings and the city did not suffer many aerial bomb attacks. In fact,  Throughout the afternoon, especially in the evening, the German-Ukrainian forces were waiting with bated breath, braving air attacks while preparing for a large-scale ground attack by the coalition.  Fastest update, all text typed by hand

    As a result, after the coalition air strikes ceased, the ground was calm. The coalition ground troops across the border 30 kilometers northeast of Kharkiv stood still and had no intention of launching an attack. Hermann von Francois immediately held a meeting at his headquarters.  An emergency military meeting was held.

    In 1918, the normal organization of a German infantry division was an infantry division with three infantry regiments, a motorized anti-aircraft artillery company, an artillery regiment, a reconnaissance battalion, a communications battalion, a supply column and a supplementary barracks.  An infantry regiment has 3 battalions, and each battalion has 4 infantry companies, a motorized platoon and a heavy machine gun company.  Read the latest chapter

    An infantry company has 3 platoons. The first platoon has 2 infantry squads, 2 light machine gun squads, and a grenade/mortar squad, with a total of 45 people. The 2nd platoon has no mortar squad, with 36 people.  The establishment of the 3rd platoon is the same as the 1st platoon, also with 45 people.

    Such a German infantry company in 1918 also had 126 combatants, including about 140 people in the company headquarters squad, about 560 infantrymen in a battalion, about 600 people in the battalion platoon, and motorized vehicles.  Platoons and heavy machine gun companies (which govern three 2-gun heavy machine gun platoons), the strength of a battalion is more than 700, the number of combat soldiers of an infantry regiment is more than 2,100, and the total strength of combat soldiers of an infantry division is about 12,600.  about.

    Since Hermann von Francois, as the former enemy commander of the German-Ukrainian Allied Forces, actually commanded three German reserve infantry divisions of his own 29th Infantry Corps and two German reserve infantry divisions of the 31st Infantry Corps, plus  4 National Army German Artillery Infantry Divisions of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Army, and 2 Kharkov Volunteer Divisions.

    At this time in 1918, the artillery regiment of a reserve infantry division of the German Army had three field artillery battalions, each with 12 105mm howitzers. Each battalion had three 4-gun artillery batteries, plus one medium artillery battalion.  There are 12 150mm howitzers, and the battalion has three 4-gun artillery batteries.  The infantry division of the Ukrainian National Army replaced the 105mm howitzers with 75mm field guns, and the medium artillery battalion was equipped with 105mm howitzers.

    The focus of the northern defense line of Kharkiv lies in the first line of trench defense positions near the border. According to von Francois's combat plan, the 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions of the Ukrainian National Army are responsible for guarding the trench defense line on the border.  The road defense line is ten kilometers wide from east to west and 2.5 kilometers deep. The flank defense line along the right bank of the North Donets River is ten kilometers long and 2.5 kilometers deep.

    The two artillery regiments of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Infantry Divisions organized artillery positions 2 kilometers south of the junction of the positions. In addition, the two artillery regiments of the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Infantry Divisions were strengthened.  With this arrangement, although the German-Ukrainian forces on the Kharkov front only used two infantry divisions, their artillery consisted of 4 artillery regiments, totaling 144 75mm field guns and 48 105mm howitzers. These 192  Artillery is the anchor for the two divisions of the Ukrainian National Army to defend the front-line positions.

    According to the intelligence previously collected by the German-Ukrainian Allied Forces, within the Volga Federation, the number of artillery of the Japanese Third Division was far inferior to our own. At most, a Japanese division only had one Japanese field heavy artillery wing with 24 150-caliber heavy howitzers.  In addition, there is an artillery regiment with 36 75mm caliber field guns and 18 75mm mountain guns.

    In this way, the German-Ukrainian Allied Forces concentrated 4 artillery regiments with a total of 192 cannons on the central artillery position behind the trench fortification position. As for the machine guns, each battalion on the first line position had a 6-gun heavy machine gun company.  The two divisions have a total of 18 infantry battalions, with 108 mg08 heavy machine guns. In addition, each infantry company of the Ukrainian National Army has two squad light machine guns, and there are as many as 144 light machine guns on the front line!

    In addition, a 20mm anti-aircraft gun battalion has been specially strengthened on Ukraine's front-line positions. A total of 24 20mm-caliber anti-aircraft guns are responsible for position air defense and dealing with enemy armored targets. In Von Francois's view, as long as one's own firepower supports the position  The trench defense line north of Kharkov was simply impregnable without being destroyed by the enemy!

    The total strength of the Ukrainian National Army guarding the two lines of defense north of Kharkov is 4 German infantry divisions plus 2 volunteer divisions, with a total strength of more than 75,000 people. Although the first line only has 2 infantry divisions and 1 volunteer division  division, plus the center of 4 artillery regimentsThe front-line strength of the army group exceeded 48,000. Facing the more than 40,000 offensive troops assembled by the Allied Powers, the defending side exceeded the other side in both strength and artillery fire, not to mention the trenches and fortifications that the Germans helped to repair.

    The self-confidence of Hermann von Fran?ois, the former enemy commander of the German-Ukrainian coalition forces, suffered the first blow when Hermann Wilhelm Goering's 1st Fighter Wing collapsed in the sky, and then the coalition forces were overwhelming.  The large-scale air raid made his heart sink to the bottom. With the loss of air superiority, the poorly prepared ground anti-aircraft artillery troops suffered heavy casualties in the fight with the coalition's large aircraft group. If von Francois had not made the decisive decision to order the remaining anti-aircraft artillery,  All battalions stopped firing in the air and went into hiding. It is estimated that the eight anti-aircraft artillery battalions on the Kharkov front line will be exhausted on July 29!

    The capture of three Chinese coalition pilots did not improve Hermann von Francois's mood. Five field airports suffered varying degrees of damage, and five of the eight anti-aircraft artillery battalions completely lost their combat effectiveness.  , the coalition air force spared the airport runway and focused on attacking hangars, fuel depots and air defense positions.

    However, outside the five field airports, the originally very important targets such as Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Lugansk, as well as urban buildings, train stations, railways, roads, and bridges, actually had no targets at all.  Encountering an air raid by the coalition air force, the Ukrainian people were frightened and suddenly discovered that the German-Ukrainian garrison camp was the unlucky one to be bombed. Almost all important buildings in the city escaped damage. Of course, some unlucky Ukrainian people were killed in the air raid.  They also suffered a lot of casualties, but they were much smaller than the casualties of the German-Ukrainian army.

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