Founded in 1749, Rostov-on-Don is located on the right bank of the estuary of the lower reaches of the Don River, 46 kilometers southwest of Taganrog Bay of the Sea of Azov, and is the economic, transportation, scientific and cultural center of the North Caucasus region of the Soviet Union, as well as the economic and cultural exchange center of the entire southern region.

At noon on June 21, about 50 kilometers northeast of Rostov-on-Don, in the city of Shahti, a major transportation town, billowing black smoke rose from the city, swaying with the breeze into the sky, connecting the heavens and the earth.

South of Shakhti, on the road to Rostov-on-Don, a long armored convoy drove out of the city and along the road to the southwest.

Colonel Nicholas Weiss, commander of the 1st Panzer Regiment of the 1st "Imperial Eagle" Panzer Division of the German Army, (played by the reader "Knight Dragon"), rode in his command version of the E-40 "Panther" tank numbered R01, sandwiched between the ranks of the Panzer Regiment, and traveled south to the last barrier in Rostov-on-Don, the city of Novocherkassk, northeast of the city.

The 1st "Imperial Eagle" Panzer Division, the 13th Panzer Division, the 16th Panzergrenadier Division, and the 1st Heavy Panzer Brigade, as the vanguard of the 1st Panzer Army, entered the battlefield almost intact from the gap opened by the Soviet Twelfth Army, and marched south, blitzkriegizing the Southern Front in a roundabout way to outflank the defense line of the Mius River in the south with a scythe.

After five days of fighting, the 1st Panzer Division and friendly forces drove 200 kilometers straight into the city, successively conquering Donetsk, Kadonsk-Shakhtinsky and Shakhti, drawing a terrifying arc to the east of the Southern Front and reaching Rostov-on-Don.

Behind them, the rest of the Hungarian 2nd Army and the 1st Panzer Army followed closely, intending to completely cut off the Soviet escape path to the east.

From time to time, Colonel Weiss looked ahead, and could see a large puff of black smoke rising in the direction of the road convoy, and at a glance, it seemed as if the entire horizon was burning.

The 1st Panzer Division was slowed down by the defenders inside Shakhti, allowing the 13th Panzer Division on the right flank to take the lead and launch an assault on the city of Novocherkassk.

Capture this small city, and there will no longer be any obstacles to the northeast direction of Rostov.

Along the way, you will pass through four small cities, which are full of traces of battle, corpses, broken buildings, and bomb craters.

In the last town north of Novocherkassk, Colonel Ves, like his allies in front, did not continue south towards Novocherkassk in battle, but turned east from the junction in the town and followed the road all the way east, heading straight for the Aksai River, a tributary of the Don River.

The march was about twenty kilometers long, and at a bridge south of a small town called Basaskaya, Colonel Weiss and his troops crossed the Aksai River and continued their march south along a country dirt road.

The vanguard had already swept the Soviet troops along the way, and the troops were marching smoothly, and Colonel Weiss and his men marched less than ten kilometers south, plunging headlong into a boulevard.

Passing through the boulevard with beautiful scenery and the singing of birds, a large river that flows quietly appears before Colonel Weiss's eyes.

Asking the driver to drive the tank down the road and hide in the woods on the side of the road, Colonel Weiss jumped out of the tank and found the commander of the reconnaissance battalion, Major Meyer, in the shade.

When the two met, Major Meyer had just stepped out of a helicopter.

As the commander of the reconnaissance battalion, Major Meyer personally flew into the sky on a helicopter borrowed from the artillerymen to inspect the terrain and prepare for the next battle of the forced crossing of the Don River.

Major Meyer took a sketch he had sketched on a helicopter and explained the terrain to Colonel Weiss.

Opposite the 1st Panzer Division was a small town called Bagaevskaya, which was separated from the 1st Panzer Division across the Don River, with no bridges in between, only a ferry used by the locals.

The Don is not a creek, the average depth of the water is nine meters, it is impossible for armored vehicles to wade across the river, and the river width of four to five hundred meters can only be passed by boats.

Major Meyer pointed to the upper right corner of the sketch sketched in pencil and said, "Our opportunity is here, this triangular oasis in the middle of the river cuts the surface of the Don River into two parts, north and south. The northern part of the oasis is more than 200 meters wide, and the south is less than 100 meters wide.

The oasis is covered with lush vegetation. It blocked our view, as well as the view of the Russians on the other side. Let's occupy this oasis in the middle of the river first, use it to block the enemy's view, and let the sappers build a bridge first. There was a road in the oasis, and after we climbed the oasis, we went to the northeast of the oasis to build a second bridge, which connected the oasis to the wilderness north of the town. Our tanks arrived across the river from the wilderness to the north before launching an assault on Bagaevskaya. ”

Colonel Weiss nodded repeatedly: "Your plan is very good, this can avoid the most heavily defended town of the Russians, and this oasis in the middle of the river is very large, with many trees on it, which can provide us with enough cover." I'll contact the troops behind me right away, and I'll follow your plan. ”

A series of orders were conveyed, and the air defense units were the first to arrive and set up anti-aircraft positions on the north bank of the Don River to protect the security of the troops overhead.

This was followed by the reinforcement of the special forces of the 1st Armored Division, the "Granite" brigade from the 101st Special Air Service Regiment.

When the first units of the "Granite" brigade arrived over the battlefield, the black smoke from the explosion of 150-mm rocket artillery had not yet dissipated on the opposite bank of the river, where Colonel Weiss had planned to build a pontoon bridge, and in the north of the oasis in the middle of the river.

One after another, 81-mm mortar shells flew out of the north bank of the Don River and landed in the northern part of the oasis in the middle of the river, raising patches of yellow dust.

The Panzergrenadiers carried the rubber boats and rushed out of the previously hidden woods, through the sandy beaches by the river, until they reached the river, threw the rubber boats to the surface of the river, and then jumped on the rubber boats and rowed hard towards the oasis in the middle of the river on the opposite side.

Seeing that the offensive had already begun, the helicopter unit of the "Granite" brigade did not hesitate, and in the blink of an eye, it swept over the surface of the Don River, which was more than 200 meters wide, and flew above the oasis in the middle of the river.

From the sky, the Soviet soldiers hidden in the woods in the northern part of the Green State were exposed.

Armed FI-382 Black Hawk helicopters swept across the battlefield, Gatling guns and R4M rockets fired wildly, reaping the lives of enemies on the ground.

Where the rockets landed, the Soviet infantry was hit by a flurry of shrapnel, and bloodied corpses were strewn all over the jungle.

Taking advantage of the precious opportunity of helicopter gunships and ground artillery fire to suppress the enemy, other helicopters flew over the open grass in the northeastern corner of the oasis and landed in an open area where there was no enemy garrison.

Only about five minutes later, the second group of helicopters flew over the oasis and headed straight for the northeast corner, which was controlled by the "Granite" brigade.

Two airlifts, a company of soldiers were transported to the oasis to build a landing ground in the northeast corner of the oasis.

By this time, the rubber boats on the river had successfully crossed the river, rushed up the gentle slope to the north of the oasis, tracked the retreating Soviet infantry, and launched an attack into the depths of the oasis.

The troops that landed in the northeastern part of the oasis, along the road used by the locals, launched an attack on the landing site in time.

Under the flanking of the two forces, the surviving Soviet troops on the oasis were defeated faster, and the battle quickly spread to the south side of the oasis.

Seeing the north side of the oasis, where the battle for their landing site was over, the German sappers broke out of the shelter and began to erect pontoon bridges.

Colonel Weiss hid behind a poplar tree by the river on the north bank, silently cheering the sappers while looking up at the sky from time to time to watch the helicopters cruising in the sky.

Because of the obstruction of the oasis, the Soviet infantry on the other side of the Don River had no way to attack the sappers, and there were only two ways to block the sappers' movements, one was to send bombers to bomb, and the other was to use artillery to carry out shelling.

The artillery observation post on the helicopter is the best weapon to suppress the enemy's artillery.

As long as the enemy artillery dares to fire continuously, it will definitely be detected by the people on the helicopter, and then countered.

However, contrary to Colonel Weiss's expectations, it was the Russian air force that attacked the 1st Panzer Division first.

Six Il-2 attack planes first flew from the upper Don River at an altitude of about two thousand meters above the ground and swept over Colonel Weiss.

As if they saw the sappers working on the surface of the Don River, or were summoned by the Soviet infantry on the ground, the six Il-2 attack planes finally confirmed the target, turned the nose, flew back from the direction of the lower Don River, and flew straight to the pontoon bridge on the river.

When the six planes flew over Colonel Weiss's head, they successfully attracted the attention of Colonel Weiss, and when he saw the six Il-2s turning around, Colonel Weiss smiled contemptuously: "You really dare to come, you are as stupid as the French." ”

Colonel Weiss had fought in the French campaign and had also taken part in the forced crossing of the Maas.

In order to prevent the French from destroying the pontoon bridge over the river with bombers, the first thing the German troops did when they arrived on the banks of the Maas River was to set up anti-aircraft positions and at the same time contact the fighter units of the Luftwaffe to assist in the defense.

At that time, the Anglo-French forces seemed to have studied the German script, and really sent a large number of bombers to bomb the German sappers on the river, and as a result, they crashed headlong into the fire net set up by the German air defense forces.

In the first round of air raids, more than 40 British and French planes were shot down. Sixty percent of the more than 500 planes sent by the British and French forces were shot down in one day.

This time the battle was very similar to the situation when the Maas River was forcibly crossed, and the first thing Colonel Weiss did when he arrived at the Don River was to set up anti-aircraft positions.

In addition to the 10 "Whirlwind" self-propelled anti-aircraft guns from the 1st Armored Regiment's own air defense company, the air defense battalion also sent a "Dongfeng" self-propelled anti-aircraft gun company. At the same time, Colonel Weiss also contacted the SS 21st Tactical Aviation Division, which was directly under the 1st Panzer Army, and asked them to send fighters to cover it.

Six Il-2 attack planes quickly lowered their altitude and rushed to the pontoon bridge under construction on the river, which immediately attracted the great attention of the air defense troops along the river.

The 40-mm anti-aircraft gun was the first to fire, and the shells burst into clouds of black smoke in the sky.

Ignoring the ground anti-aircraft fire, the Il-2 attack aircraft continued to pull down and swooped straight to the pontoon.

Directly north of the pontoon bridge, in the woods on the left and right flanks, suddenly there was a loud sound of artillery, and on the "Whirlwind" self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, the six barrels of the 20-mm Gatling anti-aircraft guns rotated at high speed, and the armor-piercing shells rained into the sky, flying under the belly and wings of the Il-2 attack plane in the front, and immediately covered with honeycomb-shaped bullet holes.

In the blink of an eye, in the wilderness on the south bank of the Don River, another Il-2 attack plane dragged black smoke and fell into the wheat field, following the footsteps of its comrades, all the way to hell.

The four subsequent Il-2 attack planes, untouched by the sacrifice of their comrades, rushed straight into the river with anti-aircraft fire from the ground, two were destroyed by anti-aircraft guns, and two of them did not even have a chance to exchange fire with anti-aircraft guns, and were shot down by ME-109 fighters from high altitudes.

In one afternoon, the pontoon bridge under construction was attacked by four waves of 18 bombers, but only 18 results were achieved by the German anti-aircraft artillery and fighter units.

Towards four o'clock in the afternoon, the German sappers let out a cheer as the convoy left its sheltered position on the north bank of the Don River, crossed the beach and drove onto the pontoon bridge.

Crossing the nearly 300-meter-wide Don River, the first vehicles to land on the island made an emergency left turn and drove onto a road carved out by the locals on the oasis, and drove about a kilometer northeast along this road to the northeast corner of the oasis.

In the northeastern corner of the oasis, soldiers of the 101st Special Air Service Regiment lurked in the woods, keeping a close eye on movements on the other side of the river.

The sappers jumped out of the armored car and, armed with chainsaws, sawed five or six trees between the road and the Don River, opening a passage.

The Panzergrenadiers attacked again, crossing the river only sixty or seventy meters wide in assault boats, and reached the opposite bank safely.

Trucks and armoured vehicles brought in the bridging equipment, and the sappers began the second round of bridging work.

At the beginning of the decisive battle, Colonel Weiss, informed of the start of the second bridge-building work, hurriedly called the artillery regiment of the 1st Panzer Division to launch an artillery attack on the town of Bagaevskaya across the river.

Dense 105 mm and 150 mm shells fell on the northwest corner of the town, creating the illusion that the Germans were about to attack the northwest corner of the town.

After about an hour of hard work, the pontoon bridge connecting the northeastern corner of the oasis to the left bank of the Don River was safely completed.

Panzergrenadiers on the oasis swarmed across the pontoon bridges and quickly took control of the farms on the other side of the river.

The E-40 "Panther" tank drove out of its concealed position, ran over the beach, crossed the pontoon bridge, turned northeast along the road in the oasis in the river, crossed the second pontoon bridge and reached the left bank of the Don River.

When Colonel Weiss received a report from the 1st Battalion that a company of E-40 tanks had successfully reached the opposite bank and was about to break out of the farm on the other side of the Don River, he immediately coordinated with the artillery regiment and turned the artillery fire to the northeast corner of the town.

Half an hour later, when Colonel Weiss crossed the oasis in the middle of the river in the R01 command tank and reached the other side of the Don River, the town of Bagaevskaya was already under heavy fire.

The battle had spread into the interior of the town, and Colonel Weiss breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the black smoke rise from the town.

The defenders of this town did not have tanks and were not able to recruit reinforcements from the tank forces in time, which was a great misfortune for them.

Colonel Viss recalled the map hidden in his mind, starting from Bagaevskaya, about fifty kilometers west of the city of Batest, on the north bank of the Don River, across the river from the city of Batester, was Rostov.

Thousands of enemies are currently being withdrawn to the south bank of the Don River through the cities of Rostov and Bartest, and it is still unknown how many enemies the 1st Panzer Division will be able to block the north bank of the Don River.

。 m.