When the ground forces of the Soviet Red Army, despite the resistance of the Romanian border guards, frantically strengthened the Prut River.

In the sky, a group of 40 MiG-3 fighters and 80 PE-2 bombers, with the help of the dark light as a cover, quietly crossed the northeastern border of Romania and flew towards Bucharest, the capital of Romania.

When flying over the border line, the pilots at an altitude of 4,000 meters lowered their heads, and could clearly see the electric light on the ground, which was a masterpiece of collective fire from the artillery group.

During the half-hour flight, the sky was getting brighter and brighter, and the field of vision reached a satisfactory level.

Leaving the Romanian capital close at hand, the fleet flew north of Bucharest.

Located 56 kilometers north of the Romanian capital Bucharest, Ploiesti is known in Europe for having the longest and largest oil fields.

With a width of 9.65 kilometers and chimneys, 12 independent refineries with an annual production capacity of more than six million tons are located in the 9.65-kilometre-wide area, making it the most important oil importer for Germany and Italy on the European continent.

The purpose of the Soviet aircraft group was precisely to destroy this oil field and weaken the war potential of the Axis powers.

Before the group of planes flew over the oil field, a terrible air defense siren sounded over the oil field, and the radar station built with the aid of Germany had already discovered this ill-intentioned group of planes.

The anti-aircraft gunners of the 2nd German Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment ran to their respective posts, and the muzzles of 36 88-mm anti-aircraft guns and 72 quadruple Bofors 40-mm anti-aircraft guns were pointed at the sky, and the anti-aircraft gunners held their breath and waited quietly for the appearance of enemy aircraft.

In the southern part of the field, at Mitchell Airport on the northwestern outskirts of Bucharest, 36 ME-109 fighter jets took off urgently, followed by 19 IAR-80 fighters of the Romanian Air Force.

The pilots of the MiG-3 fighters quickly turned the nose of the aircraft and rushed to the defenders of the oil fields, and more than seventy fighters chased, rolled, and bit each other in the sky.

When the Soviet fighter pilots who participated in the actual combat for the first time were in full swing with the enemy planes, they did not know that they had fallen into the trap of the Derot coalition forces.

The fighters of the Luftwaffe and the Romanian Air Force had a numerical superiority, and there was a consensus long before the battle.

ME-109 fighters were responsible for diverting the fighters escorted by the Soviet troops. IAR-80 fighters were responsible for attacking bomber groups.

Seeing that the enemy had fallen into a trap and was led away by German fighters, Romanian fighter pilots flew the fighters and pounced like eagles on the "flock of pigeons" from the Soviet Union.

Take advantage of high speed and altitude. Romanian fighters swooped down from behind the Soviet group, raining down 7.92mm machinegun bullets on the PE-2 bombers.

The Soviet fleet was also not willing to wait for death to come, and returned fire on enemy aircraft with rear-seat machine guns.

In the group of planes in the melee of the three countries, from time to time, there was the sound of aluminum barrels being knocked by hammers, and then they fell to the ground with black smoke dragged by bullet holes.

Some fighter planes were directly knocked out of the cockpit by bullets. The pilot's blood from the headshot stained the canopy, and the body crashed to the ground along with the uncontrolled fighter plane, turning into a pile of wreckage.

Under the strike of Romanian Air Force fighters, only fifty-four of the eighty PE-2 bombers flew over the oil fields, and most of the rest were wounded.

The 88-mm anti-aircraft guns opened fire, and the high-explosive shells burst into the sky with countless black-gray smoke in the sky.

In the face of dense artillery fire on the ground, despite the pursuit of enemy planes behind them, the Soviet bomber pilots still stubbornly launched a dive and pounced on the refinery.

During the dive, three of the fifty-four bombers were shot down by ground artillery fire. The remaining fifty-one successfully dropped the 50-kilogram and 250-kilogram bombs they carried, and then frantically circled over the refinery, flying at an altitude of thirty meters, or even twenty meters, and strafing the refinery equipment and anti-aircraft artillery positions with self-defense machine guns.

Flames and black smoke appeared in the refinery, then rose with the wind and spread over the refinery.

When the Soviet fleet left, only fifty-two of the one hundred and twenty planes flew back, and most of them were wounded.

More than 50 percent of the Soviet fleet suffered only minor damage to the oil fields, and only one of the 12 refineries suffered serious damage. Three of the remaining 11 oil mills were slightly damaged and could be restarted with minor repairs, while the other eight were unscathed.

Just as the workers, firefighters and soldiers in the oilfield area participated in the firefighting, the piercing sirens sounded again. Traces of the second attack wave of the Soviet Air Force have already appeared on the display of the radar station near the airfield.

When the battle to defend the Ploiesti oil field was in full swing, on the eastern outskirts of Iasi, an important town in northeastern Romania, Major General Vitek, commander of the 170th Infantry Division of the 11th Army, was in his division headquarters, anxiously waiting for information from the forward troops.

He was awakened in his sleep by the explosion of shells, and when he rushed into the division headquarters while fastening his clothes, all four telephones at the division headquarters were ringing.

The first phone to be picked up by a staff officer came from his immediate boss. The phone of the commander of the 30 Army.

The commander ordered him to keep a close watch on enemy movements in the direction of the railway bridge, to ensure the safety of the city of Iasi, and if possible, to send troops to recapture the bridge.

Major General Victor put down the phone and immediately sent a reconnaissance battalion of his division to reconnoiter along the railway to the railway bridge.

Less than ten minutes later, the reconnaissance battalion sent a telegram that along the way they had encountered the remnants of the Romanian border guards who had been withdrawn from the front.

The railway bridge had been lost, and the Soviets' tank units had crossed the river and were heading for the city of Iasi.

The reconnaissance battalion withdrew so quickly that it was difficult for Major General Vitek to accept.

He almost thought that as soon as he put down the phone, the commander of the reconnaissance battalion rushed into his division headquarters.

"There were tanks of the Soviets everywhere, at least a hundred T-34 tanks. There are also very fast light tanks, the models that we do not recognize. The light tanks followed after our ass. ”

Without much explanation from him, Major General Victor had already heard gunfire from the front line.

Opposite the positions of the 391st Infantry Regiment, which were deployed along both sides of the railway line, three BT-7 tanks were abandoned on the positions in black smoke, and seven bodies lay next to them.

The repulsion of the reconnaissance units of the Soviet troops was only the beginning of the real battle.

Soon, the soldiers of the 391st Infantry Regiment felt a slight tremor coming from the ground, and as the ground shook more and more violently, they also heard the sound of squeaking metal rubbing.

German soldiers were all too familiar with the sound, and they were already familiar with it during confrontation exercises with the German Army's proud armored forces.

It is clear that there is a large cluster of tanks approaching their line of defense.

Less than two minutes after the tanks with their square, turrets shaped like public toilets on the streets of Berlin appeared in the eyes of the soldiers of the 391st Infantry Regiment, Vitek heard an impatient shout from the phone: "There are more than 20 mobile public toilets opposite us, we need PAK40, we need 88 guns." ”

The mobile toilet is the German Army's nickname for the KV2 tank, as it resembles a mobile public toilet.

Too late to teach the reconnaissance battalion why the KV-2 had not been spotted in advance, Vitek immediately sent reinforcements.

There were only 391 PAK38 fifty-mm anti-tank guns in the 12 Infantry Regiment, which simply could not withstand the onslaught of more than two dozen KV-2 heavy tanks.

The Soviet tank cluster was getting closer and closer, so close that it was almost impossible to see the Soviet infantry following behind.

The PAK38 anti-tank gun was the first to fire, but only a few dented bullet marks were smashed into the KV-2's massive body and gun shield.

Mortars-shells rained down from the sky one after another, falling into the charging Soviet infantry group, bringing a bloody storm.

The Soviet infantry in the blood and flesh suddenly fell, and the survivors also lay on the ground to avoid the shelling.

The tiny mortar shells clanged against the thick armor of the KV-2, posing no threat to the members inside, and the KV-2 tank group continued to move calmly towards the position of the 391st Infantry Regiment.

As they charged, the tankmen did not notice that they were getting farther and farther away from the infantry behind them.

From time to time, KV-2s stopped their bodies, turned their guns and opened fire on exposed anti-tank gun positions and fire points, 152-mm grenades set off waves of air and fire on the positions of the 391st Infantry Regiment, and dirt, weapon parts and stumps and severed arms flew into the sky.

While revealing their might, three KV-2s were paralyzed in place by anti-tank shells that damaged their running gear one after another, but they still turned their turrets and fired at the German positions.

The German infantry, armed only with small arms in their hands, could only watch as the KV-2 approached the position.

The moment the first KV-2 tank ran over the German trench, fire flashed in the trench on its right, and an iron-fisted anti-tank rocket hit the right side of its turret, and the metal jet instantly melted into a finger-thick hole in it.

One of the infantrymen even crouched directly in the trench, glued the magnetic rebound grenade to the bottom armor of the tank, and then rolled to the side with his heel.

In the explosion, dust flew everywhere, and the tank was paralyzed by inertia through the trench, and black smoke rose from the engine compartment at the rear of the vehicle.

Stuffing anti-tank mines under the KV-2's tracks, bombarding the sides with an iron fist, or gluing magnetic tank grenades to the engine compartment and belly, the infantry of the 391st Regiment entertained the KV-2 tanks in every possible way.

None of the KV-391 that drove to the position of the 2nd regiment missed the net, and all of them were destroyed.

The battlefield was littered with tank wreckage and billowing black smoke.

The five rear KV-2 tanks tried to escape, but were blocked by a strong wind falling from the sky.

105-mm shells and 150-mm shells covered the battlefield, mercilessly shrapnel tore apart the Soviet infantry, and two KV-2s in reverse were also damaged and hung on the spot.

There were several crisp shelling sounds from the rear of the "Tom Tom" 391 position, and the KV-2 in the reversing car seemed to have been knocked with a war hammer, and after shaking for a while, it stopped.

The seemingly indestructible front armor had rounded bullet holes.

88 guns fired.

The 88 guns, which arrived in time, knocked out the last three KV-2s, and the surviving tank crews were also trembling and were reached by the German infantry and fell next to their tanks.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the surviving Soviet infantry retreated like a tide. (To be continued.) )