As the commander of the Panzergrenadier Battalion of the 104th "Polish Governor's Guard" of the SS Heavy Armored Brigade, Major Joachim Piper and his subordinates rode in "Wolf" infantry fighting vehicles and followed the heavy armored battalion in battle formation.

Wherever the E-50 "Tiger" heavy tank passed, everyone who saw these battlefield monsters, whether it was a soldier of Vlasov's 1st Army or a captured Soviet prisoner of war, all showed frightened eyes.

Soon, however, the expressions of the two groups of people were seriously polarized.

The faces of the soldiers of the 1st Army quickly changed to tanks of their own, and the expressions of "honor".

The faces of the POWs were filled with awe and frustration.

As he rubbed shoulders with the group of prisoners of war moving backwards, Major Piper enjoyed the frightened stares of the crowd on the side of the road.

However, the arrival of a wave of uninvited guests has caused Major Piper to fall into anger.

"The Black Death is coming, three o'clock, three o'clock."

The sound of air defense warning came over the radio and immediately caught the attention of Major Piper.

Turning his head to look at the sky to the right, Major Piper soon saw four planes advancing at a low altitude.

Looking at the course of the enemy aircraft, it should fly over its own troops.

The gunners maneuvered, the turret turned to the direction of three o'clock, and the barrel of the 20-mm L70 "Erlikon" high-level dual-purpose gun was raised high, pointing at the flying Soviet fighters.

"The Russians' Il-2 is really everywhere." Major Piper sighed.

A string of high-explosive shells flew into the sky towards the Il-2, the turret was filled with the pungent smell of gunsmoke, and the shells fell to the floor of the chariot, making a clanging sound, and Major Piper's adrenaline was instantly raised to the highest level, and he was completely integrated into the combat state.

In the "Wolf" infantry fighting vehicle queue, the 40-mm "Bofors" anti-aircraft gun was not far behind on the "Dongfeng" self-propelled anti-aircraft gun attached to the brigade's air defense battalion, and puffs of black smoke were spewed out from the muzzle.

The 20-mm and 40-mm anti-aircraft guns weaved a dense net of fire and headed head-on for the incoming Il-2 group.

Before the two Il-2 attack planes could fly over the heavily armored brigade, they were caught head-on by a fire net.

Anti-aircraft shells hit the hard fuselage armor, and the fire flew everywhere, chiseling countless bullet holes, and the two planes plunged headlong into the ground and shattered.

Two dexterous ME-109 fighters suddenly rushed down from a high altitude and condescendingly rushed towards the two remaining Il-2 attack aircraft.

In the face of the strafing of the two Il-2 rear-seat machine guns, the two ME-109s spilled 20mm cannons and 7.92mm machine gun bullets at the enemy aircraft, and the shells fell on the fuselage of one of the Il-2 attack aircraft, extending from the tail to the cockpit, and the pilot's blood sprayed red the canopy, and the Il-2 lost control and swept over the Piper battle group, heading straight into the Donets River to the north.

The last remaining Il-2 attack aircraft flew over the battlefield, firing four 82-millimeter rockets and then dropping a 500-kilogram aerial bomb.

The rockets set off a bloody storm of rain among the infantry groups on the ground, and aerial bombs rained down one after another, engulfing everything around them with black-red flames and smoke.

The ground shook, the sand and rocks flew, and the flesh and blood were torn apart, and then they were carried out by the shock wave and sprinkled on the battlefield.

The right side of the hull of an E-50 Tiger tank was paralyzed by the explosion of an aerial bomb.

After the Il-2 finished dropping the bomb, it increased its altitude and wanted to get out of the battlefield, but it was chased by an anti-aircraft shell, and the erected tail first had a few more bullet holes, and then broke off.

The fighter plane, which had lost its tail, lost its level sailing, swayed from ascent to fall, and rushed straight to the ground······

At the end of a short but fiery anti-aircraft battle, the SS 104th "Polish Governor's Guard" Heavy Armored Brigade was not slowed down, entered the battlefield along the breach opened by Vlasov's 1st Army in the positions of the Soviet 4th Infantry Division, and continued to advance deep into the Soviet lines, which were full of infantry advancing east on foot.

Passing by two villages where the battle was taking place, the heavily armored brigade finally passed through the 1st Army infantry group and caught up with the reconnaissance battalion that was at the forefront of the army.

The offensive was about to begin, and through the contact of the ground guidance units of the Air Force attached to the heavy armored brigade, the bombers and ground attack planes that were suppressing the second defensive zone of the Soviet army were separated from the battlefield one after another.

Instead of the bombers were the self-propelled artillery battalions of the heavily armored brigade, with 12 "Wild Bee" self-propelled howitzers, 4 "Donkey" self-propelled rocket launchers and 6 "Scorpion" self-propelled cannons, which opened fire one after another, raining shells on the positions of the 176th Infantry Division of the Soviet Army south of the road.

The positions of the 176th Infantry Division were not so much defensive as departures.

In the original plan of the 12th Army, once the 4th Infantry Division in front could not support it, the 176th Infantry Division would set out from this position to support the 4th Infantry Division, which was far less intense than the main defensive position where the 4th Infantry Division was located in front.

There were no minefields or barbed wire, only a few continuous trenches and machine-gun pillboxes scattered in the fields on the north side of the road, or in front of the villages on the south side of the road.

The 14 Great Lynx light tanks of the reconnaissance battalion drove to the side of the road to monitor the movements of the Soviet infantry on the north side of the road, and all the artillery fire of the artillery battalion fell on the unnamed village on the south side of the road, about three or four kilometers away from the road.

Black smoke rose from the village and floated over it, and the infantrymen in tawny and green camouflage uniforms, supported by heavy tanks, stepped across the meadows and waded through a stream outside the village, charging into the village with a single charge, followed by fierce street fighting.

After covering the storming of the village by the infantry of Vlasov's 1st Army, the heavily armored battalion then turned its target to the Soviet positions on the southern side of the road outside the village, exposed in the field.

The artillery battalion followed suit and after 15 minutes of artillery preparation, the heavily armored battalion rushed to the front, followed closely by Major Piper's panzergrenadier battalion.

One after another, 105-mm high-explosive shells flew out and accurately smashed into the firepower points of the Soviet troops who dared to open fire and resist.

On the wolf infantry fighting vehicle, the 20-mm "Erlikon" anti-aircraft gun flattened the barrel, and the sharp shells swept across the Soviet trenches, hitting the ground and mud, and the Soviet infantry could only hide in the trenches and did not dare to show their heads.

81-mm shells fell from the sky and fell deep into the Soviet positions.

The combination of direct aim fire and curved fire made the Soviet infantry unable to move.

Taking advantage of the great opportunity of the Soviet positions being suppressed by fire, the panzergrenadiers in front and the infantry of Vlasov's 1st Army in the rear rushed into the Soviet trenches, and then began a battle for the trenches.

Major Piper's chariot did not join the battle for the trenches, but soon fell back into another battle that had been imposed on his head.

"Damn the Black Death, they're here again." Major Piper shouted as he stared at the sky to the southeast.

The 20-mm anti-aircraft guns turned to the sky again, weaving a net of fire with the 40-mm anti-aircraft guns to defend the heads of the troops.

For two hours in a row, with the pursuit of German fighters, Soviet bombers and fighters rushed to the ground one after another, either three or four, or one or two, frantically rushing to the ground, ignoring the obstruction of anti-aircraft fire, and attacking with the spirit of moths to fire.

From the sky to the ground, the sound of anti-aircraft artillery firing, the noise of aircraft engines, the sound of aerial bombs and rockets exploding mingled and wrapped around everyone.

"My unit has turned into an anti-aircraft battalion, and we will change to anti-aircraft gunners in the future."

Major Piper frowned and stared at the sky, vigilantly searching for more danger to fall from the sky.

Some of the tanks of the heavily armored battalion drove onto the road under the cover of anti-aircraft artillery fire, forming a diagonal line to support the infantry on the north side of the road.

Shortly before eight o'clock in the evening, Major Piper received an order from the brigade headquarters.

The enemy's position on the south side of the road had been breached, and the Panzergrenadier Battalion sent a company of soldiers, accompanied by a reconnaissance company and a company of E-50 Tiger tanks, to conduct fire reconnaissance through the enemy positions.

After sending a company to carry out the task of the brigade headquarters, Major Piper watched the sky get darker and darker, and then assigned positions to his subordinate companies to prepare for the night.

At eight o'clock, night shrouded the sky, and starlight fell on the earth.

The fighting on the ground gradually subsided, and only sporadic gunfire rang out, and the light of fire pierced the night from time to time.

In Artyomovsk, Chen Dao and General Kleist stared at the map on the wall.

"After a day of fighting, the 1st Army under Vlasov's 1st Army and the 5th Hungarian Infantry Corps on the right flank made progress, and the troops in charge of the main attack, with the support of the heavily armored brigades, had even penetrated the enemy's second defensive zone in some sections, and could completely penetrate the enemy's line early tomorrow morning and go straight to Voroshilovgrad. If all goes well, we should be able to take at least one ferry crossing tomorrow. Could we speed up this process by sending follow-up forces to reinforce the assault force of rapid clusters? ”

Faced with Chen Dao's question, General Kleist's gaze turned on the map, then nodded and said: "I think it's okay, order, let the Greater German Panzergrenadier Division attack, assemble and set off tonight, and enter the battlefield from the breakthrough opened by the heavy armored brigade of the "Polish Doge's Guard".

After dawn tomorrow, the two armies will move together to break through the enemy's second defensive zone as soon as possible, and try to seize the two bridges on the Donets River north of Voroshilovgrad tomorrow. ”

Also, let General Vlasov send his reserves, enter the battlefield at night, and tomorrow wait for the Great German Division to tear the width of the breach, and then fully expand the results of the battle, and try to assist the Hungarian troops on the right flank to achieve a breakthrough. ”

When Chen Dao and General Kleist were dispatching troops, on the outskirts of Voroshilovgrad, at the headquarters of the 12th Soviet Army, Major General Grechko was destined to spend a sleepless night.

"Yes, yes, Comrade Commander, the enemy attacked in advance, our troops suffered heavy losses, the positions of the 4th Infantry Division and the 176th Infantry Division were broken through. What······ You are right, the troops of the traitors, of course, are not combat-ready, they alone will not be able to break through our positions, but there are Germans behind them. Didn't you see, for a whole day, the sky was full of German planes, ah? We also had a lot of planes, but there were not as many Germans as there were, and our troops could not move at all, let alone go to reinforce the front.

The headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division called and said that the enemy on the opposite side was at least five times the number of infantry and more than ten times the number of tanks, and he had no tanks in his hands at all. That's why I asked the Front Command to send as many air forces as possible to assist, without air supremacy, we would have a problem even marching. Well, since you have decided to send more air forces to seize air supremacy tomorrow, I will have the 21st Tank Army assemble overnight tonight, and together with a part of the 23rd Tank Army, march at night, attack at dawn, and tomorrow I will definitely recapture the lost positions and drive the Germans back. Tonight, I ask the front command to make sure that the air force unit is dispatched at a good time. ”

After reaching an agreement with the command of the Southern Front, Major General Grechko put down the phone and let out a long breath from his mouth.

On June 15, the great traitor Vlasov actually launched an attack on his own initiative, three days earlier than his scheduled attack time, and he was caught by surprise, and both defensive zones were breached.

Fortunately, the General Secretary decided to teach Vlasov a lesson and sent two tank corps, otherwise the five infantry divisions in his hands would have been passively beaten in the trenches in the face of the enemy's tank units, and there would be no strength to fight back at all.

Tonight, as long as it is past tonight, let me finish gathering my troops, and the good days of that traitor in Vlasov will come to an end.

Major General Grechko thought angrily.