Chapter 75: The Red Scourge
Yakov Sverdlov could hardly believe what he had witnessed after his soldiers returned to him battered and bloody from their failed assault against the Russo-German fortifications
outside the city of Tsaritsyn.
His plan to use the fog as cover to conceal his advance so that his troops would have a fighting chance against the enemy artillery and machine guns had been seen through. Only after advancing a mere hundred meters had the enemy began to open fire upon the Red Army.
Though they made it to the Russo-German trench line and valiantly fought in close quarters combat, it was his men who suffered most previously. With more than half of what remained of his army being either wounded or killed in action during the attempted assault.
Meanwhile, the Russo-German army suffered at most one tenth of the casualties which the Red Army had sustained. If even that... It was becoming clear that there was no hope of victory here in Tsaritsyn. The enemy had encircled them and blockaded the city.
In doing so, they prevented supplies and reinforcements from entering Tsaritsyn. Meanwhile, the artillery barrage had begun again after the Red Army's assault had concluded. With even now shells falling nearby, and shrapnel flying through the air.
Yakov didn't realize it, but his forehead was bleeding after a piece of shrapnel had grazed him. He did not realize this until a medic ran up to him and immediately began to treat his wound. He was in shock after having witnessed his army cut to pieces by the enemy.
How was this even a war? Saint Petersburg had been a complete and total disaster for the Red Army who laid siege to it. The moment the Germans entered the fray and brought with them machine guns it was almost like a cheat code had been unlocked.
The former leader and founder of the Red Army along with 80,000 of his men lie dead at Saint Petersburg, with Trotsky being shot in the streets like a stray dog, meanwhile his corpse was left to be torn apart by the hounds of the Black Hundreds militias.
At first Yakov had thought that the overwhelming numbers of his troops here at Tsaritsyn would allow him to easily repel the enemy. But as far back as the first day of the Siege, everything had gone horribly wrong for him, and continued to do so.
Not only were the majority of his siege guns destroyed, but his supplies kept dwindling due to repeated sabotage, which occurred every night. By the time he was finally able to gain favorable conditions for a siege, half of his army was already dead, or so grievously wounded they were incapable of performing the operation.
Because of this, he charged an enemy army that was equal in number, and superior in terms of firepower, resulting in a devastating result. It was a surprise that he was left with roughly half of his forces. But then again, they were repelled by the Russo-German army within trenches after only five to ten minutes.