The construction of the Brest Fortress began in 1830 on the basis of the old city of Brest, which was initially built as a temporary fortification, and in 1833-1842 it was converted into a permanent fortification.

The fortress is located on four small islands divided by the tributaries and channels of the Mukhavets and Bug rivers, and consists of the central fortress and three fortresses: Terespil Fortress, Volyn Fortress and Kobrin Fortress, each of which is surrounded by rivers and connected by bridges.

Moats and tributaries of the river surround the Brest fortress, which is dotted with machine-gun bunkers and sniper positions.

On the outside of the central fortress, a ring of fortified barracks of about two kilometers thick and containing about 500 turrets could provide 12,000 men with the necessary food and ammunition.

In the center of the central fortress stands the famous Basilica of St. Nicholas, which began in 1856 and took 23 years to complete, and is not only the tallest building in the central fortress, but also an exceptionally strong fire support point.

During the Polish campaign, this ancient fortress fell to the Germans, and later Germany handed it over to the Soviet Union in accordance with the border line drawn by the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact.

Based on the information about the fortress and the aerial photographs taken by the Air Force, Rommel and his staff made a sand table, and after a detailed study, they made a bold decision.

June 22, the launch day of the Barbarossa Project. In the face of the ancient Brest Fortress, the Second Panzer Army led by Rommel did not choose to attack, but bypassed the north and south ends of the fortress and went straight to the hinterland of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet defenders did not abandon the protection of the fortress and took the initiative to attack, but wisely chose to retreat inside the fortress and take advantage of the strong protective ability of the fortress. Turn the fortress into a nail in the logistics corridor of the Second Panzer Army.

The task of pulling out this nail fell to the head of the 12th Infantry Corps.

In order to deal with the strong fortifications of the fortress, the 12th Army was supported by two battalions of 150-mm howitzers, six battalions of 210-mm howitzers, two battalions of assault guns and two battalions of 105-mm cannons, in addition to the three infantry divisions of the 31st, 34th and 45th.

On the first day of the outbreak of the war, when the troops of the 2nd Panzer Army forced their way across the Bug River. The powerful artillery fire of the 12th Infantry Corps tilted the shells into the fortress as much as possible, and shells of various calibers fell into the fortress like meteor showers, and the earth trembled, and from the air to the ground, every corner of the Brest Fortress was filled with flames and smoke.

After five minutes of heavy shelling, the shells fell 100 meters forward as planned.

With a continuous "thunder", in the woods, in the grass. In the low-lying area by the river, the agile figures of the infantry of the 12th Infantry Corps jumped up and rushed towards the Bug River.

Rubber boats and assault boats were thrown into the river, and the infantrymen jumped onto the boats, using the cover of fog and smoke, sliding their oars and ghostly across the river to the other side of the river.

The infantrymen quickly jumped out of the boat. Cross the sloping banks of the river and take cover in the tall grass. The whole process went smoothly like a military exercise.

The battle continued until noon, along the grass, the gardens, the broken gates that were shelled by shells, and in any case all the roads that could be found, three battalions of the 135th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division attacked the fortress from the west, southwest, and due south of the fortress.

The 130 battalion of the 3 Infantry Regiment also took advantage of the field outside the fortress. From the south of the fortress, detour back to the east of the fortress and flank it.

After storming the interior of the fortress, the soldiers of the 130th and 135th regiments were taken aback, after the purgatory-like artillery bombardment, they thought that the defenders inside the fortress were in ashes along with the fortress, and who knew that after the outbreak of close combat. They found that the main structure of the fortress was almost intact, except for the countless craters of different shades on the outside, as if a giant had been scratched a little skin.

Instead, the defenders inside the fortress were awakened by the heavy shelling, hurriedly ended their dreams, and took up arms and threw themselves into the fierce defense of the fortress.

The attacking and defending sides soon became entangled, and in order to avoid accidental damage, the German artillery units outside the fortress stopped the massive shelling, and two assault artillery battalions rushed into the city to provide fire support for the infantry.

75-mm and 105-mm grenades destroyed the firing points of the Soviet outlying positions one by one, and rubble was scattered and dust covered the battlefield.

The defenders of the fortress consisted of only seven infantry battalions, a reconnaissance battalion, two artillery battalions and part of the engineering and border troops, with a total strength of about 10,000 men. The 45th Infantry Division of the attacking side had a full strength of 17,000 men, not including the artillery units that supported the operation.

Taking advantage of the superiority in numbers and firepower, by the end of the first day of fighting, the 45 Infantry Division had already cut off the ground connection between the central fortress and the outer Terespil fortresses, Volyn fortresses, and Kobrin fortresses.

However, the real battle had just begun, and the defenders were not discouraged or confused by the surroundment.

Soviet snipers and machine gunners hid behind thick brick walls or in more sturdy armoured turrets, mercilessly shooting at exposed Germans, and even counter-charged at night.

On the first day of the engagement alone, 45 officers of the 22 Infantry Division were killed, including two battalion commanders, and up to three hundred non-commissioned officers and enlisted men.

During the next day's battle, the German soldiers, who had divided and surrounded the enemy, suddenly made a startling discovery, enemy bullets came from all directions.

The Brest Fortress covers an area of about five square kilometers, and the open space between the central fortress and the three fortresses is completely within the range of the defenders in the fortress, and the German army, which originally divided and surrounded the enemy army, will not only be flanked by fire from the central fortress and nearby fortresses, but also tend to be counter-surrounded.

In the face of the brick walls of the central fortress and fortress, which are up to two meters thickest at the highest point, the No. 3 assault gun has also lost its previous power, and can only rely on its steel body to act as a shield to shield the infantry from bullets.

After receiving the heavy casualties on the first day and learning of the plight of the defenders in the fortress, the commander of the 12th Army, Infantry General Schroeder, decisively ordered the infantry to immediately withdraw from the fortress and let the artillery serve as the main force in the battle.

On the night of the second day of the battle, the battalions of the 45th Infantry Division withdrew from the battlefield under the cover of night, but after counting, one company of troops was still nailed by Soviet fire between the central fortress and the Kobrin fortress. It is impossible to withdraw from the battlefield.

The third day of the battle soon came, and to the west of the Brest fortress, there was an additional lieutenant general in the headquarters of General Schroeder's infantry.

After saluting each other, Chen Dao said apologetically: "I'm sorry, General Schroeder, I'm late." ”

"General Rosen. There is no need for you to apologize, your troops are scheduled to join the battle today, excuse me, what time will your troops be able to fire the first volley. ”

"The 833 heavy mortar battalion can fire at any time, Mr. Gustav will be a little later, two o'clock in the afternoon to complete the preparation, he is too big, the preparation time is directly proportional to his size, I hope you can understand."

"In that case. What are you waiting for? Show the Russians what you are capable of, and remember, don't accidentally injure our soldiers trapped in the fortress. Admiral Schroeder said.

Twenty minutes later, Chen Dao's VW82 barrel truck rushed into an artillery position on the west bank of the Bug River, nearly three kilometers from the Brest Battle.

From a distance, Chen Dao saw six behemoths parked on the position, each of which was more than one story high and more than ten meters long. A long string of huge load-bearing wheels underneath.

The six big guys are Rheinmetall's "Karl" super-large caliber self-propelled howitzers, which have a 600 mm caliber cannon and can fire new light concrete-piercing shells. Can also fire old-fashioned heavy projectiles.

The "Karl" used a heavy concrete-piercing projectile with a length of 2.511 meters weighing 2.17 tons and containing 280 kg of high explosives. The maximum firing range is 4320 meters.

The new concrete-piercing projectile was just put into service in 1942, with a length of 1.991 meters, a weight of 1.7 tons, a 200-kilogram high-explosive charge, a maximum range of 6,640 meters, and a vertical drop of the warhead at the end of the flight. It can penetrate a concrete layer up to 2.5m thick and then explode under the action of a delayed fuse.

Each "Karl" mortar is equipped with a gun squad of 19 people, including 1 commander, 18 gunners, and 1 co-driver for the chassis.

Every two "Karl" self-propelled mortars were formed into a company. The six guns were formed into three companies, which in turn formed the 833 Heavy Mortar Battalion.

The artillery had been in development since March 1935 and was originally intended to be used against the French Maginot Line, but it was used on a large scale against the Spanish fortress of Gibraltar.

During the assault on the fortress of Gibraltar, Karl made an indelible impression on Chen Dao when he fired a salvo of self-propelled mortars and a huge group of railway guns.

As an advocate of Germany's "artilleryism", in order to satisfy his inner pursuit of violent aesthetics, Chen Dao did not hesitate to pull these six big guys into his pocket, carried the more ferocious "Gustav" 800-mm cannon, and personally led these two deadly weapons into the Soviet-German battlefield.

Six self-propelled mortars, each with its own number and nickname, walked up to the No. 1 gun, nicknamed "Adam", Chen Dao saw the gunners reloading "Adam" with shells.

"Karl" itself can only carry two shells, one in the breech and one in the rear crane.

Compared to the huge size of the Karl gun, the reloading process was relatively easy.

"Karl" is reloading, ammunition feeding and other links have hydraulic mechanical assistance, usually with the No. 4 ammunition transport vehicle to lift the warhead weighing 2 tons to the tail of the gun, and then use a special push rod to push the bomb into the chamber, and finally stuff the propellant.

However, after the loading was completed, seeing the hard work of the gunners, the first thought in Chen Dao's mind was, hard-forced, really hard-forced, and each of these gunners should be given a labor medal.

I don't know if it was an omission in the design, or it was intentional, but the pitch of the barrel of the Karl gun actually required the gunner to rely on the "fully manual" crank to achieve it like an ordinary field artillery.

Turning the crank of a 105-mm or 150-mm howitzer in intense field conditions is already very hard - forced, let alone super cannons. Under such a strong load of work intensity, even if the gunner does his best, it will take 4~6 minutes for each pitching action of the gun body.

However, what is even more painful is that after each fire, the big guys have to return the barrel to a horizontal position before they can reload again.

A lot of time was spent on turning the crank, and the engineers at Rheinmetall were so frustrated.

Looking at the sweaty posture of the gunners when they shook the handles, Chen Dao thought very intimately that after the end of the war, these gunners would retire and go home, and they would be able to train a "unicorn arm", which could be regarded as a valuable legacy for them in their military career.

In the first salvo, the artillery battalion used heavy shells, since the distance from the Brest fortress was less than three kilometers.

"Gun Adam is ready and ready to fire."

"Gun No. 2 Eve is ready, ready to fire."

"Gun No. 3 Dore is ready, ready to fire."

The shouts of the six artillery squad leaders sounded one after another, and Chen Dao's spirits were greatly lifted.

Recruiting the commander of the artillery battalion, Colonel Reinhardt, Chen Dao said: "From now on, the timer will be fired, and fire will be fired in five minutes." ”

After speaking, Chen Dao turned around and ran to a FI-282 Hummingbird helicopter parked behind him, and quickly got into the backseat of the fuselage, and the plane rose from the ground and flew straight towards the Brest Fortress.

Crossing the woods in front of the artillery positions, over large meadows and farmland, the three-kilometer distance disappeared in an instant, and the helicopter hovered over the west bank of the Bug River, Chen Dao clearly saw thousands of German soldiers hiding around the fortress, and saw two other FI-282 helicopters hovering over the fortress.

In the southwest of the fortress, on the top of the Terespil fortress, a large area of green smoke covered it, and Chen Dao knew that it was the signal agreed by the 45th Infantry Division, and the 833rd Heavy Mortar Battalion would give priority to attacking the fortress closest to them.

With the hands on his watch ticking and the five-minute countdown with less than twenty seconds left, Chen Dao hurriedly clenched the telescope on his chest, waiting for the final moment to come.

The roar of the salvo of the six Karl mortar cannons was so loud that even when heard from three kilometers away, it was still full of shocking power, and Chen Dao's body couldn't help but shake with the sound of fire.

The 2.17-ton shell was so large that Chen Dao did not use a telescope and could still clearly see a series of black dots falling from the sky, drilling into the top of the Terespil fortress at an almost vertical angle.

"Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven"

From the moment the cannonball fell, Chen Dao silently began the countdown.

Like a volcano that suddenly erupted, the top of the Terespil fortress suddenly spewed gray smoke hundreds of meters high.

The entire fortress was like a giant, sneezing six times in a row, and the shock caused by the "sneezing" made the entire fortress shake, and the huge explosion almost condensed into an invisible wall and crashed into the bodies of every soldier participating in the nearby battlefield, making them lose the function of speaking for a moment.

With an earth-shattering explosion, the huge stones and countless tiny bricks that made up the fortress were thrown into the air.

After the smoke cleared, Chen Dao saw that the Terespil fortress had been reduced to a pile of ruins under the blasting of a giant bomb, and the corpses of Soviet soldiers were strewn in the middle.

Countless German infantry rushed to the fortress with a shout, flames erupted from the jets, submachine guns fired wildly, grenades flew everywhere, and the crisp firing of pistols rang out.

Passing over countless corpses of Soviet soldiers, German soldiers rushed into the fortress, and Chen Dao took in the entire battle from the air.

Unable to see the end of the battle inside the fortress, Chen Dao also lost the interest of staying on the battlefield.

"Fly east, fly farther, let's go see Gustav." Chen Dao said to the pilot. (To be continued......)