In the darkness of the night, Romanian Navy Colonel Bernard sailed on the Don River with three destroyers and four shallow-water gunboats, the dry period of the Don River in autumn and winter, but for the destroyers and shallow gunboats, such a depth was sufficient, according to the operational requirements, these warships were traced up through the mouth of the Don River in the Azov Sea in the early hours of November 12, counting the first troops to enter into action - earlier than the two German Panzer Divisions.

At this time, the main forces of the German Black Sea Fleet continued to besiege a Russian port in the direction of the Caucasus, and fought happily with the remnants of the Red Army Black Sea Fleet, while the Luftwaffe cooperated with their actions, desperately making the illusion of an imminent landing, and the entire Azov direction was calm, which successfully attracted the attention of the Red Army Air Force and Navy, and did not cast any sight on the Azov Sea area, and not a single plane came to reconnoiter throughout the morning, and when the afternoon was close to evening, the light snow began to fall, This meant reduced visibility and limited flight reconnaissance, and Bernard and all the Romanian naval officers were overjoyed, speeding up their progress and slowly moving upstream at a speed of 16 knots, while preparing their opposing firepower for contingencies. According to the plan, they will arrive at the key area at 8 o'clock this evening, where the 62nd and 64th armies of the Red Army are preparing to cross the river, and if they are not careful, they will be discovered, and the Soviets and Germans have been fighting and killed for several days around the river crossing and counter-crossing, and the Red Army, despite all its great efforts, has not been able to cross the river, and even the pontoon bridge has not been erected.

Getting closer and closer to the critical waters, listening to the sound of gunfire in the distance. Both Bernard and the Romanian Navy were in their throats, and although the Russians had no combat strength worth mentioning in the Don, it would not be good if they were discovered and provoked by a concentrated attack. The superiority of the warships was not worth relying on in this case, but the combat orders had to be carried out, not to mention the presence of German military observers and liaison officers on all the warships, and the prospect that the Germans might not deliver those few French warships to the Navy because of their own disadvantage in warfare could hardly bear the wrath of the high-level - the marshal was firmly eyeing the old battleships that were obsolete.

During the voyage, the snow had begun to cover the landscape on both sides, but he could still distinguish the traces left by the two sides in the previous days around the pontoon bridge and the battle for the ferry: destroyed pontoon facilities, destroyed artillery and heavy equipment, and a large number of corpses soaked on the river. He looked closely, and it was basically Russians, and the corpses on the shore had been cleaned up. I looked at the river water that had been soaked and swollen. As the warship moved along with the waves, and the red water was faintly seen, everyone felt their scalps tingle - maybe there would be a good harvest of fish in the Don next year, but I don't know if anyone would dare to eat it.

Perhaps Lady Luck heard the prayers of the crowd. Perhaps it is also known that it is not wise to be exposed to the shore. Standing on deck, Bernard saw only the guns of both sides flying in the sky, striking a line of fire towards the target, and not a single shell aimed at the river.

"Hurry up, drive quickly......" he crossed as he nervously urged the ships to follow.

By one o'clock in the morning, all the attacking forces had moved into their assigned positions. There was no massive shelling, not even the usual green flares. 160,000 German troops marched in silence to kick off the Battle of the Meander. Snowflakes had fallen in the night sky, the temperature had dropped to minus 7 degrees, and the tank tracks had run over the frozen ground, but there had not yet been a large amount of snow, and the ground was not muddy, which was a very favorable environment for an armored attack.

Almost at the same time, under the cover of night, the Red Army's 24th Army on the pontoon bridge at the bend of the Don River was advancing across the river in an orderly manner, according to the adjustment of the deployment of troops in the past two days and the requirements of the front army, the Red Army's 21st Army was ready to launch a large-scale attack on the German army in front of it with the support of follow-up troops, and after clearly receiving the support troops and combat orders, Chistyakov, who was originally a little anxious, finally stopped being entangled, and confidently and boldly let the main force of the 21st Army press forward and cooperate with the 27th Army. Even the three divisions that remained in the Don River began to advance, and according to the predetermined plan, the 24th Army would take over the rear defense after dawn, and he could attack with all his strength to solve his worries.

At 2 o'clock in the morning, when the human body felt the most sleepy, Yeroshenko, a Red Army soldier on duty, shrank and stomped his feet in his sentry post, hoping to warm himself up with such a level of activity. Suddenly there was a slight motor sound from a distance, and then the sound became louder and louder, which he said was strange, because he had not heard that there were troops to be moved during the night, and he pushed Joseph next to him, who was snoring evenly and could not wake up. Yeroshenko was a recruit who had only been drafted into the army this summer, and before that, he had worked on collective farms, and he was guilty of a moderate stomach ulcer, which was unfit for service under the conscription regulations, but the Red Army, which had suffered massive troop losses after Barbarossa, could no longer care about this, and he was hastily trained and stuffed into the army like a duck, and this young man who knew nothing about military life was frightened, but fortunately Uncle Joseph took good care of him. However, Joseph, a veteran soldier, is all good, but he can't stand it - he loves to drink too much, and he should be on duty together, but now the drunk Joseph sleeps like a dead pig, he doesn't even have anyone to talk to, and he can't report it yet, once the company commander knows about the situation, he is afraid that he will shoot Joseph if he doesn't say a word.

This had happened more than once, and the last time it was even more troublesome, when a drunken Joseph first wept before drinking - because he hadn't drunk a sip of vodka for two years, and then he was drunk and had convulsions, only to find out afterwards that there was something wrong with Joseph's wine. Yeroshenko, who had been ill all the time, was very sensitive and instinctively scared about this, but Joseph, who woke up later, told him in a nonchalant tone: "What is this? I saw a platoon all die because they drank a certain brand of antifreeze. ”

"Antifreeze?" Yeroshenko's mouth opened wide and he was incomprehensible about this, "That thing can be drunk?" ”

"Contains alcohol, you can drink it, I drank a few sips when I was in a panic, but don't drink too much, that thing will be dizzy after drinking, and if you drink too much, you will die, and those unlucky people just drank too much."

"What did you do in the end?"

"What can you say?" Joseph was silent for a long time before squeezing out a few words, "The Ministry of Internal Affairs investigated the case, and the body was also seen, and the final conclusion was that the bad elements poisoned it, and a logistics officer was shot for this matter." ”

"This is really, really ......" Yeroshenko felt that he couldn't say a word, and finally lowered his voice and said, "Isn't the Ministry of Internal Affairs wronging good people by doing this?" ”

"Wronged?" Joseph said in a mocking tone, "What kind of wrongs is this? At least this guy lost his antifreeze...... My younger brother was called wronged, and after only a few jokes about Comrade Stalin, he was branded a counter-revolutionary and sent to a concentration camp. ”

"Concentration camps?" Yeroshenko was surprised and asked, "Isn't that something that only the Germans have?" ”

"Didn't you learn it from us?" Joseph sighed heavily when he said this, "We are nothing, the Gulag is hell on earth......

Somehow, at this moment like today, Yeroshenko remembered the evaluation of "hell on earth" again, and he couldn't wake up Joseph, who had fallen asleep, so he could only continue to stare alone in a daze, and when he got to it, he realized that it was actually a tank.

He said to himself: "Didn't you say that you were going to attack tomorrow, why would the tanks come back?" ”

He was puzzled and finally decided not to think about these meaningless questions, but the world left him with little time to think, he did not notice that the tanks on the opposite side were all painted with iron crosses, and soon the machine guns and artillery destroyed the posts, and poor Yeroshenko, together with the sleeping Joseph, was bombarded with mortars.

At 2:15 a.m., the telephone rang abruptly at the headquarters of the 21st Army, followed by an angry report from the staff officer on duty: "Our sentinels found that the Germans were making a massive sortie, and the 173rd Division on the left flank and the 108th Division on the right flank were all reported to have exchanged fire with the enemy's tank troops, and the troops were caught off guard and are currently retreating to resist." ”

"Where are the positions of these two divisions?" Chistyakov asked subconsciously.

The operational staff immediately informed the latest position.

"What?" A cold sweat broke out all of a sudden, and when he checked the map with the help of the lantern, he found that this was already the middle of the front troops.

"Where did the enemy come from?" He was furious and rebuked again and again, "There are obviously other troops blocking them in front of them, why would the enemy appear in this position?" If it was a massive enemy attack, why didn't I hear a heavy shelling? ”

"This ......" combat staff officers all said it was difficult to answer this question.

Buchin hurried over, and the first thing he asked was: "Does Comrade Karpov have any complaints?" ”

"No, everything is normal there, and he can attack tomorrow as requested."

Distraught by the news, Chistyakov said: "Order the troops to destroy the infiltrated German tanks, and at the same time advance the attack of the main forces to 5 o'clock in mid-5 o'clock, disrupting the enemy's disposition......"

"Yes!" The staff officers rushed to issue orders...... (To be continued.) )