At the end of August 1942, Kiev, a historic city of more than 1,500 years on the banks of the Dnieper River, was once again surrounded by war. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Under the darkness of the night, a blood-red light shrouded the sky over the city of Kiev.

Under the reflection of the blood light, gray-white smoke billowed up, accompanied by the flames of the burning city and soared into the sky.

The sound of anti-aircraft artillery fire, the explosion of aerial bombs, the screeching sirens of fire trucks and anti-aircraft sirens echoed over the city.

Dozens of columns of searchlight pierced through the smoke, piercing the darkness and creating oval-shaped spots of light in the night.

On the spot, from time to time, one by one, even flocks of "big birds" flashed.

Flocks of "big birds" in the belly, dropping aerial bombs like drops.

In the suburbs and urban areas of the city, countless electric lights flew out, and tracer bombs flew towards the German bombers in the face of aerial bombs, flying straight to an altitude of several thousand meters.

On the northern outskirts of Kyiv, looking at the city of Kyiv, which was shrouded in the flames of purgatory, Student said: "This is a city that has been sentenced to death. ”

At the front of the position, farther away from Student, Lieutenant Rabin, of the 1st Division of Honorable Jews, leaned against the foxhole and muttered: "It's terrible, no one can survive this terrible bombardment." ”

Next to him, Private Abraham, who shared a foxhole with him, said: "Fortunately, we are not residents of this city, and when the air force kills everyone in the city, we can just rush up and take over the city." ”

"We're not taking over the city, we're taking over the cemetery." Said Lieutenant Rabin.

After a few seconds of being in a daze, Lieutenant Rabin continued: "And piles of dead bodies. ”

In fact, as Lieutenant Rabin said, on the first day of the Luftwaffe bombing of the city alone, more than 20,000 soldiers and civilians were killed and wounded in Kyiv, most of them civilians.

For three nights, Lieutenant Rabin and his comrades fell asleep watching a movie about the burning city.

During the day, their eyes turn to the southwest for another thrilling live-action movie.

In the sky over Kyiv, the German army invested medium bombers mainly HE-111 and JU-88, which bombed in large formations and covered targets in a carpet manner, with the aim of destroying the roads of Kyiv City, creating panic, and blocking the connection between the inner and outer fortified areas of the city.

In the fortified area to the west of Kyiv, a combination of covering and precision bombing was adopted to blast a road in the fortified area.

During the day, fighters from the 4th Air Force and the 1st Aviation Division of the Naval Aviation, hovering over the city of Kiev, suppressed the actions of the Soviet Air Force.

The Sixth Army, which attacked the fortified area head-on, mobilized 10 divisional artillery regiments, two artillery regiments belonging to the group army, and two artillery regiments of the group army, with artillery calibers ranging from the smallest 105 mm howitzers to 240 mm K3 plus howitzers, and more than 600 cannons, pouring hundreds of tons of shells on the Soviet troops.

Under the command of artillery school firing aircraft and FI-282 helicopters, the German artillery adopted the means of slicing and concentrating fire on targeted killing.

Under the combined artillery bombardment of the German army's precision, intensity, and ferocity, the originally tall and steep anti-climbing cliffs collapsed one by one, and the broken earth and stones slid to the ground, piling up into a slope that could be climbed by the infantry.

The staggered wooden stakes were staggered, and the barbed wire that was wound around them was torn and twisted into twisted shapes.

The anti-tank trenches were also taken care of, and at the predetermined breach of the German army, sections were collapsed and could be used by tanks with a little handling by the sappers.

When the artillery bombarded the Soviet positions, the sappers controlled the Goliath remote-controlled bombs and went deep into the minefield to clean up the minefield that had already been unsightly under the shelling.

The Goliath remote-controlled bomb carried 60 kilograms of explosives, and in every suicide attack, it was destroyed by swarms of landmines, including barbed wire and wooden stakes that were close to the explosion point.

In addition to the engineers, the scouts of the various infantry divisions, covering ground guides from the Air Force and Naval Aviation, approached the forward positions and guided the JU-87 and JU-88 dive bombers with their usual green smoke bombs to carry out targeted removal of exposed reinforced concrete fortifications.

Depending on the size of the reinforced concrete fortifications, the bomb weight of the dive bomber soared from 250 kg of bombs to 1,000 kg, 1,800 kg, and finally to the Luftwaffe's ultimate weapon, the SC-2500 bomb, which was rarely used in peacetime.

Every explosion of a 2,500-kilogram bomb could provoke an exclamation among the German troops watching the battle.

"The blue fat man is really good, it can knock down a mountain."

It was customary for the Luftwaffe to paint aerial bombs weighing more than a thousand kilograms because of their overly rounded shape, and in order to increase their concealment capabilities, they were painted with sky blue camouflage, hence the nickname of the SC-2500 aerial bomb "Blue Fat Man".

In addition to the Blue Fat SC-2500, a rocket-powered ground-piercing bomb with a rocket engine in the tail also made its debut, which was used against hidden facilities hidden underground.

At night, the sappers would be bold enough to drive the land Stuka to the front line and use 280 and 320 mm rockets to shoot hit-and-run coverage shots at targets within a two-kilometer range.

When the sappers ravaged the Soviet troops in the fortified area with rockets, a group of soldiers in camouflage uniforms on the periphery of the position used the cover of night to sneak into the chaotic Soviet positions, looking for those hidden bunkers, and making final preparations for the final general attack.

After four days of artillery preparation, Paulus finally gave the order for a general attack when he realized that the mud on the ground had disappeared and that the ground was not solid enough to hinder tank combat.

With the highway connecting Zhytomyr to Kiev as the axis, the E-40 tanks of the Polish Governor's Guard as the spearhead of the attack, and the Grizzly assault guns and armored vehicles following behind, the assault team rushed to the Soviet positions.

Seeing the general offensive of the German army, those pillboxes and firepower points that were hidden in the shadows and existed like fish in the net finally couldn't help but be lonely, and took the initiative to open fire and pour ammunition on the German army.

However, after four days of devastating bombing, the Soviet army's defense system was already in tatters, and the firepower network was also incomplete, unable to cover the entire battlefield.

Exposed fire points were killed by 88 guns and 150mm howitzers from Grizzlies, and large sturdy pillboxes were followed by assault troops, who were targeted by the nearby Air Force ground guidance team, which summoned dive bombers for final clearance.

Sappers also roam the battlefield with fire-breathing tanks or flamethrowers on their backs, turning bunkers into incinerators.

The infantry, like flowing water, followed the blind spot of the Soviet army's fire network, outflanking the flank and rear of the Soviet army.

After more than seven hours of fighting, the Sixth Army penetrated the Soviet fortified area at the predetermined breakthrough section.

Paulus sent two infantry divisions to attack the remnants of the Soviet forces on either side of the breach, and then gave orders to Generals Student and Scheer.

"According to the predetermined plan, a general attack on the city will be launched early tomorrow morning, and the battle will be resolved within 48 hours." (To be continued.) )