On the evening of May 25, the afterglow of the setting sun spread over the battlefield.

In the fiery red sun, Captain Gustav Schwarzenegger, the commander of the first battalion and the first company of the German Blackwater Special Reconnaissance Group, lay in a huge bomb crater, having eaten his last dinner before the war, and the heat emitted by the hot food spread from his stomach all over his body, making him feel warm all over his body.

Captain Schwarzenegger's crater was almost the southernmost point of the battlefield, and when he stuck his head out of the crater and looked south, his line of sight was less than twenty meters away from the southernmost cliff of the Crimean Peninsula, and below the cliff was the turbulent waters of the Black Sea.

On the way here, Captain Schwarzenegger saw mottled craters everywhere and an increasing density of corpses on the ground.

The corpses of Italians in green uniforms, Soviet infantrymen in yellow-green uniforms, and Soviet Navy in black uniforms.

Many corpses were torn apart by bullets, human organs of various colors appeared in his sight from time to time, and the air was filled with a smell of blood.

Fortunately, Captain Schwarzenegger was a veteran and had long been accustomed to the bloody scenes on the battlefield, otherwise he would have been as pale and vomited as a few new recruits in the company, which made the Italian paratroopers around him laugh.

A company commanded by Captain Schwarzenegger was assigned to the 186th Paratrooper Regiment of the Italian 185th Lightning Paratrooper Division, which, like the San Marco Marine Brigade, was one of the few elite units in the Italian army.

The two forces fought side by side, and the St. Mark's Marine Brigade was responsible for completing the first wave of sea landings, seizing the landing grounds.

The 185th Lightning Paratrooper Division, as the second wave of the landing force, arrived on the battlefield by sea and helicopter transport.

Last night, it was the timely arrival of the Lightning Paratrooper Division that helped the troops of the St. Mark's Marine Brigade to hold their positions and make the night attack of the Soviet army fall short.

After a day's rest, the paratroopers from Italy regrouped their lines and, as originally planned, prepared for the next attack.

Captain Schwarzenegger and a company of men were assigned to the 186th Parachute Regiment to protect the artillery observation posts sent ashore by the combined German-Italian fleet operating with the troops, as well as to find valuable targets and orient bombers on aircraft carriers.

When the sun sank into the horizon, Captain Schwarzenegger crept up to the east side of the crater and poked his head out to see what was going on in the east.

The first thing that caught his eye was a square clearing about 1,500 to 2,000 meters long and wide, with only sparse weeds tinting the yellow ground green, and no other buildings or tall shrubs or trees.

The clearing looked like a training ground, except that the originally flat ground of the training ground was littered with large and small craters, countless corpses scattered among them, and some black smoke tank wreckage.

Further east of the training ground, you can see a lot of houses and a large area of green, and through the telescope, the houses that can be seen in the line of sight have suffered varying degrees of damage.

The view was obscured by the houses and plants, and Captain Schwarzenegger was unable to see the scene further away.

Arriving on the battlefield today and launching an attack early tomorrow morning was a bit rushed, and neither the Italian paratroopers nor Captain Schwarzenegger and his men had enough time to familiarize themselves with the battlefield.

There was just no way, although the beach-grabbing landing from Cape Kerson was successful, and it could be supported by aviation and naval guns, but the tanks could not be transported, and the Italian paratroopers still felt a lot of pressure in the face of the positions that would eventually be occupied by the infantry, and the Soviet soldiers in the positions who were waiting to be destroyed.

The biggest advantage of the paratroopers is the landing behind the Soviet army, the Soviet army's positions are all arranged facing the east, and in the face of the lack of usable fortifications for the landing force from behind, they can only rely on terrain and surface buildings to make positions.

If the landing Axis forces had taken too long to prepare, giving the Soviets time to build positions, the infantry-only landing force would have paid an even more painful price for a successful attack.

After all, more than 20 years ago, on the Western Front, the famous trench warfare bleed the infantry on both sides of the war, and in order to break through the enemy's positions, new weapons such as tanks and poison gas were born.

After observing the terrain for a while, Captain Schwarzenegger retracted his head and lay on the slope of the crater, his hands tightly kneading each other.

I hope that the Russians on the opposite side will not be able to build any decent fortifications overnight, and I also wish the lovely Italian paratroopers a smooth attack, and the Italian macaroni made in their field kitchen is still delicious, and Captain Schwarzenegger and his subordinates are full of praise after eating it.

The night flew by in his sleep, and at 3 o'clock in the morning on 26 May, when Captain Schwarzenegger was woken up from his sleep by the heralds, he saw four more heavily armed Italian soldiers in the crater.

"I'm sorry, Captain, to disturb your rest." Seeing Captain Schwarzenegger wake up from his sleep, said one of the corporals at the head of the four.

Captain Schwarzenegger was a native of the Eastern Province (Austria) of Germany, a region bordering Italy, and because he often met Italians as a child, the captain learned Italian, which was one of the important reasons why he was sent to assist the Italians in their wars.

Captain Schwarzenegger asked in Italian: "Is it time to attack?" Corporal. ”

The corporal nodded.

"Yes, Mr. Captain."

"Good luck to you!" Captain Schwarzenegger sent his best wishes from the bottom of his heart.

In the tension and anxiety brought by the pre-war, half an hour flew by, and at 3:30 sharp, a strange whistling sound suddenly sounded in the sky.

"Rumbling······ Long ······" A few sparse explosions came from outside the crater.

Captain Schwarzenegger, who was lying on the edge of the crater and peeping at the enemy's movements, clearly saw several black smoke rising from the complex opposite the training ground.

After about three minutes, no shells fell, and just as Captain Schwarzenegger wondered if there was something wrong with the artillery behind him, a gust of wind fell from the sky and landed on the opposite complex.

All the buildings were instantly enveloped in black smoke, tree branches were cut off by shrapnel, and houses were shattered into strangely shaped rubble, which flew into the sky with the air waves.

Heavy shelling was carried out round after round, completely drowning the opposite complex in a rain of fire.

After five minutes of shelling, Captain Schwarzenegger heard a terrible whistle.

Hearing the whistle, the four Italian paratroopers who were lying in the crater jumped up, rushed out of the crater, and ran towards the open training ground.

Soon, the originally empty training ground was filled with charging Italian soldiers, and Captain Schwarzenegger saw that these paratroopers were using the craters and tank wreckage as cover to run and stop, and soon approached the opposite complex, and then invariably looked for cover, or lay on the ground to avoid being hit by his own artillery fire.

Soon, under the guidance of the artillery regiment's observation post, the artillery fire extended to the east, and the paratroopers who had been lying on the ground charged again, and rushed into the complex still enveloped in gunsmoke.

"They rushed in, they did a very good job of tactical maneuvers, they looked really well trained." Captain Schwarzenegger said excitedly.

About twenty minutes later, Schwarzenegger received a notification from the regimental headquarters of the 186 Parachute Regiment that the troops' offensive was going well and that he and the artillery observation posts could advance.

It went so well, it went so well!

Captain Schwarzenegger rejoiced as he led his men to cover the advance of the artillery observation posts.

The group first bypassed bomb craters, passed through the training ground, and then walked through unrecognizable buildings, all the way.

To Captain Schwarzenegger's surprise, the walk had been going all morning, and it was not until nearly two o'clock in the afternoon that he had to stop.

After walking about five kilometers all the way, these Russians ran really fast, judging by the dense gunfire in front, the Russian line was in front.

Looking at the dense complex of buildings in front of him, as well as the bushes dotted between buildings, Captain Schwarzenegger not only felt a tingling in his scalp.

This is a posture for street fighting, and the Russians, whose brains are not stupid, actually knew to take the initiative to retreat and introduce the Axis troops into the complex.

The soldiers of both sides were in a mixed battle in the complex, and in order to avoid accidental injury, the naval guns of the fleet on the sea did not dare to open fire at all, and we were really in big trouble.