When the Luftwaffe beat the Soviet Air Force, the German Army also ended the long wait.

At 3:15 a.m., on a front stretching for thousands of kilometers from the Baltic coast in the north to the Carpathian Mountains in the south, the German Army's 10,000-millimeter artillery fired at the same time, from 81-millimeter mortars to 280-millimeter railway guns, and the fire from the muzzles of the guns lit up the night sky.

Countless shells dragged tracer across the Bug River, over the San River, over the dense jungle, and towards the territory of the Soviet Union.

In the rumbling of artillery, the Soviet border was reduced to a sea of fire, and billowing smoke rose from the flames of the explosion, obscuring the crescent moon and the starry sky like dark clouds, as well as the vision of Rommel's telescope.

In the 470-kilometer-long theater of operations of Army Group Center on the long Soviet-German border, the Bialystok area was a salient of the Soviet-German border, with Soviet territory jutting out into the German border.

The Second Panzer Army under the command of Rommel was located in the southern part of the salient and, together with the Fourth Army under the command of Field Marshal Kruger, formed the Southern Route Army of the pincer offensive.

After Rommel took office, in his usual style of action, he actively studied the terrain, familiarized himself with the troops, and prepared for the upcoming Soviet-German war.

He and the 2nd Panzer Army had two major problems in front of them, the first was the Brest Fortress on the other side of the Bug River, and the second was the Brest Fortress on the other side of the Bug River.

After consulting with his three army commanders, Rommel adopted the battle plan that Guderian had drawn up before he left office.

With the 24th Panzer Corps in the south of the fortress and the 47th Panzer Corps in the north of the fortress, two armies forced their way across the Bug River and bypassed the Brest Fortress. Leave the task of storming the fortress to the infantry of the Fourth Army.

The observation post where Rommel was located was to the north of the Brest Fortress. The theater of operations of the 47th Panzer Corps. Pratt Forest.

There were no bridges over the Bug River in this area for troops, and this was the intended crossing point for the 47th Panzer Corps and the 46th Panzer Corps of the Army Group Reserve.

Unable to rest assured of the fighting here, Rommel arrived here early with a radio communication vehicle and four staff officers to personally watch the 47th Panzer Corps' river-crossing operation.

In the Platte Forest, Rommel heard the roar of the engines as the Luftwaffe planes flew overhead, followed by the whistling of shells.

Listening to the familiar sound of gunfire, Rommel stared at the eastern sky, anxiously awaiting the dawn.

It's been a long wait. Forty-five minutes passed quickly.

At four o'clock, the dawn shone on the earth, and he saw with his own eyes that the commandos of the 18th Panzer Division jumped out of the forest and set up machine guns and mortars on the west bank of the Bug River, while more commandos carried rubber boats and assault boats, and they rushed madly towards the river bank with a swift pace.

Rubber boats and assault boats were thrown into the river, splashing and causing countless ripples on the water.

The commandos leaped vigorously into the assault boats and rubber boats, and the soldiers on either side of the boat rowed their oars to the opposite shore. The machine gunners mounted their machine guns on the bow of the boat, and the clippers shot like sharp arrows across the Bug River.

Heavy artillery fire had already awakened the Soviet border guards on the opposite bank. They had already received a first-class combat readiness order from the Supreme High Command.

As soon as the fire of German artillery began, they rushed out of their bedrooms and rushed to their positions by the river, and the communicators began to send battle reports to the command in the rear.

Bullets flew in strings from the opposite bank, white columns of water splashed on the rushing river, and rubber boats and assault boats were also thumped.

"Day by day"

With a series of strange whistling sounds, mortar-shells fell one after another on the east bank of the Bug River, and violent shock waves and flying shrapnel flew off the Soviet machine-gun positions.

The MG34 and MG42 machine guns were not far behind, countless bullets flew to the opposite bank, and the land on the Soviet positions sneered, and the Soviet soldiers were suppressed on the shore and did not dare to raise their heads.

Suppressing the Soviet fire on the opposite bank, the commandos rowed violently, quickly crossed the river, which was only more than 70 meters wide, and rushed to the sand on the shore.

Jumping out of the boat, the commandos, armed with submachine guns and semi-automatic rifles, rushed to the Soviet positions on the shore.

The muzzle of the MP40 submachine gun swept over the Soviet trenches, and the Soviet troops hiding inside were beaten to the flesh and blood, and more Soviet border guards saw that the situation was not good, and had already fled to the rear, and the German commandos followed closely behind to pursue, expanding the range of the bridgehead, and striving for greater safety space for the follow-up troops to cross the river.

In less than half an hour, the two battalion-sized assault teams of the 18th Armored Division had all crossed the river and began to build positions on the east bank of the Bug River.

Behind them, the sappers crossed the river one after another with bridge-building equipment in accordance with the battle plan.

As soon as they jumped off the boat, they began to build the pontoon bridge, and their colleagues on the west bank of the river had already done the same work.

Through the telescope, Rommel clearly saw the figures of the German soldiers running and fighting on the opposite bank, and then saw two green flares, knowing that the task of building a bridgehead had made initial progress.

Glancing up over the forest, two FI-282 Hummingbird helicopters flew over his head towards the east bank of the river.

Soon, Rommel received reports from helicopters that enemy armored vehicles were approaching the bridgehead.

Rommel did not feel the slightest pressure from the report from the helicopter, not to mention armored vehicles, even if the tanks of the Soviets arrived, the commandos on the other side would educate the Soviets with iron fists and tank killers, not to mention that these big guys in front of them were about to cross the river.

Rommel's big guy was the powerful E-40 tank, and as the main attacking force, Rommel was assigned to one of the only three heavy battalions in Germany, the 502nd Heavy Armored Battalion.

The 502nd Heavy Armored Battalion was sent to the Platte Forest area, where there were no bridges to use, because of the power of a new type of equipment on the E-40 tank.

The total combat weight of the E-40 tank reached 45 tons, which exceeded the maximum load capacity of 36 tons for most road bridges in Europe.

Rubber gaskets were installed in all hatch seams of the body, and the turret was turned by an expanded rubber tube seal.

The interior is equipped with a drainage system, an underwater ventilation and breathing system, and a separate sealing device in the engine compartment.

With these diving equipment, the E-40 tank can stay underwater for up to two hours and reach a maximum depth of 4.5 meters.

On the power compartment at the tail of forty-five E-40 tanks, a three-meter-long snorkel has been stretched to its maximum length.

They stopped at the shore and led the way down the bank and entered the river at a pre-selected diving spot.

The tank had a white mammoth sprayed on the front armor, and three white numbers 213 painted on the right side of the turret.

On the turret of this tank, numbered 213, the commander Alto . Sergeant Kalius carefully turned around and waved to his comrades behind him, then slammed the hatch shut.

Under the watchful eye of his colleagues, first the tracks and load wheels, then the entire chassis and turret, Sergeant Kalius and his car slowly sank into the water.

In less than a minute, the huge body of Tank 213 disappeared into the river, leaving only a half-meter-high section of steel pipe for ventilation.

Tank No. 213, the other tanks of the 2nd Company of the 502nd Heavy Armored Battalion also drove into the Bug River with the company commander, Captain Schiller.

Rommel's telescope swept over the steel pipes on the surface of the river, watching them move slowly across the river.

He pursed his lips tightly and prayed in his heart that nothing would happen to him.

Thanks to the meticulous design of the German engineers and the superb production skills of the German technical workers, Rommel soon saw the tank led by Rommel arrive on the other side of the Bug River, like a crocodile rushing out of the river and rushing into the sand on the bank with a wet body.

The turret hatch was lifted, and Sergeant Kalius got out of the turret, jumped onto the aft power compartment to remove the towering snorkel, and then got into the tank again, leaving half of his body exposed, and directed the tank out of the sand and into the bushes on the riverbank, followed by thirteen other tanks.

The tanks of the 2nd Company crossed the river safely, which greatly boosted the morale of the German soldiers on both sides of the Bug River.

The 3rd Company of the 502nd Heavy Armored Battalion followed closely after the dive across the river and joined up with the 2nd Company.

The appearance of the 502 heavy armored battalion surprised everyone.

Seeing the appearance of the E-40 tank, the German soldiers on the east bank of the Bug River were pleasantly surprised, while the Soviet soldiers were completely the opposite, full of horror.

Knowing that German infantry had crossed the river, a company of armored vehicles of the Soviet border guards rushed to the river bank as reinforcements, hoping to take advantage of the fact that the Germans did not gain a foothold on the river bank, and drove the Germans back to the opposite bank in one fell swoop, and wiped out the German bridgehead in one fell swoop.

The company, consisting of ten BA-20 armored vehicles and six BT-5 fast tanks, was exposed to the sight of German helicopters as soon as they appeared in the wilderness.

By the time they had climbed over the undulating fields and approached the bridgehead of the 18th Panzer Division, what awaited them was the black hole of the 88mm gun on the E-40 tank.

With only one salvo, most of the armored vehicles and tanks of the Soviet reconnaissance company were wiped out, fourteen tanks and armored vehicles were set on fire, and the two BA-20 armored vehicles at the back fled in a hurry, ending the counterattack that had not yet begun.

Almost at the same time, the 17th Panzer Division, adjacent to the 18th Panzer Division, also crossed the Bug River without incident, supported by the headquarters of the 502nd Heavy Armoured Battalion and a company.

At 9 and 10 o'clock in the morning, at the crossing of the 18th and 17th Panzer Divisions, the sappers erected two pontoon bridges one after another, and the tanks of the two Panzer Divisions roared across the pontoon bridges, crossed the bridgehead on the other side of the river, and launched an attack on the depth of the Soviet territory.

Seeing the army on the other side of the river go away, Rommel returned to his armored communications vehicle and received the telegram from the communications staff.

To the south of the Brest Fortress, the 24th Panzer Corps has also succeeded in capturing bridges over the Bug River and is now marching into the heart of the Soviet Union as planned, aiming at Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

Returning the telegram to the communications staff, Rommel quickly gave the order.

"Get in the car, let's cross the river." (To be continued......)