Story 0078 February 1 1940
February 1, 1940 near Summa Finland
Two, three, four shells landed within yards of the barely occupied forward trenches every second. The light field guns were firing impact fused shells while the 122mm and 152mm heavy guns as well as the specialized siege mortars had delayed fuses on their shells so that they could dig out the deeply burrowing infantrymen. Every gun in a Soviet Corps was firing in concentration against a kilometer of the Finish defenses that held back the Red tide from Viiprui.
There was no counter battery fire. Finnish 152mm and 155mm long guns were available but firing just invited a cavalcade of counter-counter battery fire. The Red Air Force had hundreds of aircraft over the battlefield including dozens of spotters and observation planes who would radio in targets of opportunity to the reserve artillery battalions. This was the seventh day of the preparation. Fire strikes would last for an hour and then silence except for the screaming of the wounded and the rumbling of Soviet assault tanks moving one tree line away from the front lines, immune to anything besides bad ground and bad luck.
Tactical genius and ferocious individual ability and willingness to fight mattered little on the fortified line. Steel and explosives against flesh and concrete reduced war to a simple numbers game that gave little solace to the steady stream of wounded and dead men who were brought to the rear. This was the war the Russians would win as they had more of everything.
Two, three, four shells landed within yards of the barely occupied forward trenches every second. The light field guns were firing impact fused shells while the 122mm and 152mm heavy guns as well as the specialized siege mortars had delayed fuses on their shells so that they could dig out the deeply burrowing infantrymen. Every gun in a Soviet Corps was firing in concentration against a kilometer of the Finish defenses that held back the Red tide from Viiprui.
There was no counter battery fire. Finnish 152mm and 155mm long guns were available but firing just invited a cavalcade of counter-counter battery fire. The Red Air Force had hundreds of aircraft over the battlefield including dozens of spotters and observation planes who would radio in targets of opportunity to the reserve artillery battalions. This was the seventh day of the preparation. Fire strikes would last for an hour and then silence except for the screaming of the wounded and the rumbling of Soviet assault tanks moving one tree line away from the front lines, immune to anything besides bad ground and bad luck.
Tactical genius and ferocious individual ability and willingness to fight mattered little on the fortified line. Steel and explosives against flesh and concrete reduced war to a simple numbers game that gave little solace to the steady stream of wounded and dead men who were brought to the rear. This was the war the Russians would win as they had more of everything.