In a barn west of the town of Primorsiki, Major Joachim Piper, commander of the Panzergrenadier Battalion of the Heavy Armoured Brigade of the "Polish Governor-General", had his battalion headquarters located.

Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow at the latest, will be the first battle in which he has participated since assuming the post of battalion commander, and he must let his subordinate company commanders and colleagues in the brigade know that his position as battalion commander parachuted in was really earned from bloody battles on the front line, and not because he was an adjutant at the side of His Excellency the Governor.

Out of an abundance of caution, Major Piper had gone to the front to inspect the terrain, and according to his previous combat experience, the Tiger tanks of the infantry and heavy armored battalions, the first units to enter the battle, would take at least one day and one night, or even two days and two nights, to open a breach of sufficient width in the enemy's position, supported by artillery, aviation, and engineers.

After the breakthrough is opened, the rest of the heavy armored brigade, including the No. 4 tank battalion, the panzergrenadier battalion reconnaissance company, and all other units, will rush in from the breach, and the Tiger heavy armored battalion will also return to formation.

The whole brigade quickly launched an attack on the depth of the Russian position, hitting the Kerch Strait in one go, not giving the Russian army time to rebuild the defensive line.

Judging from the map, starting from the town of Primorsiki, it is only a little more than 50 kilometers to reach the Kerch Strait, and if the march is carried out with a combat belt, it will take at most two days to reach the target.

However, a sudden order overturned Major Piper's judgment.

The sun had just climbed into the middle of the sky, and Major Piper was about to find a place to close his eyes and recuperate, when Hans, a communications soldier, suddenly ran up to him.

"Major, the brigade headquarters called, and the troops immediately moved out and acted according to the original plan."

Major Piper's gaze froze instantly, and it was only half a day's work that the breakthrough in the front line was opened? It's unbelievably fast.

Is it because the enemy's combat effectiveness is too weak, or is it because the combat effectiveness of the front-line troops is too strong?

It must be that the combat effectiveness of the friendly forces on the front line is too strong, and such a solid defensive position has achieved a breakthrough in only half a day, and the speed is faster than common sense.

Without having time to think about it, the order was immediately communicated to the whole battalion, and the Panzergrenadier Battalion and the reconnaissance company of the brigade headquarters set off first, followed by the Fourth Tank Battalion and a Panzergrenadier Battalion reinforced from the Panzer Division of the Reichsmarshal Panzer Division, and the brigade headquarters and artillery units at the end, a long steel dragon drove mightily on the road from Feodosia to Kerch.

Feodosia is located west of Primorsiki, and from there the road runs east through Primorsiki to Kerch City, the easternmost part of the Kerch Peninsula, and is one of the best roads on the Kerch Peninsula.

As they passed through the Russian positions, the reconnaissance company passed first, with the Piper battalion following closely behind, and the regrouped Tiger heavy armored battalion joined the march.

On the right side of the turret of the Wolf infantry fighting vehicle numbered 101, Major Piper was exposed to the right side of the turret.

A brief look at him revealed an anomaly in the battlefield.

Craters of various sizes indicate that there was once a large-scale battle here.

However, there were no corpses, no wounded, no prisoners, and no smell of blood, which showed that there had been no fighting.

There is only one conclusion, there is no enemy here, and the previous ferocious attacks of the front-line troops hit the air.

No wonder it took only one morning for the friendly forces to open a breach, and it turned out that they did not encounter the enemy.

Since the enemy is not here, then where exactly did they go? Where is the enemy's new line of defense?

With doubts in mind, Major Piper's wolf infantry fighting vehicle had just driven less than five kilometers before it stopped.

By radio, Major Piper connected to the car of the commander of the reconnaissance company ahead.

The reconnaissance company commander replied that there were mines on the road and in the fields on both sides, and that the troops needed engineering support.

Major Piper asked his men to park their armored vehicles on the right side of the road in turn, giving way to the sappers in the rear.

Soon, four armored vehicles of the SD KFZ 251 type drove past the left side of the convoy, and about twenty minutes later, the convoy restarted.

Passing through the minefield, Major Piper saw a Bobcat light tank parked on the right side of the road.

The left track of the light tank was broken, and a blanketed corpse lay on the side of the road, and an armored soldier with a white bandage on his head and two comrades stood on the side of the road watching the convoy pass by with a dejected expression.

"Poor fellow, you came across a lewd mine." Major Piper observed a moment of silence for the crew who had unfortunately been struck by a mine.

The infantry fighting vehicle drove past the Bobcat tank and had to stop after less than twenty minutes.

After some radio contact, the convoy again encountered a mine on the road.

Fortunately, the previous sappers stayed in the reconnaissance company after demining, and this time they could directly get out of the car to clear the mines, and there was no need to summon them again.

While waiting, a No. 4 minesweeper tank drove past the left side of the road and joined the reconnaissance company on the march.

With this minesweeper tank, mines should not be a problem, although the minesweeper tank travels slower, but it is better than constantly hitting mines.

Major Piper's judgment was so accurate that the convoy drove for an hour and a half before coming to a halt with the minesweeper tank opening the way.

After questioning, Major Piper learned that the troops were in greater trouble than mines, and in front of them was the only river on the Kerch Peninsula, the Samori.

Unfortunately, when the Russians withdrew, they blew up the bridge over the river.

In this case, we can only look at the efficiency of the sapper brothers.

Fortunately, the Samori River was not wide, and it took the sappers less than an hour and a half to build a bridge that allowed the troops to pass.

Crossing the only river, the rest of the journey of the heavily armored brigade can be described as unimpeded.

It was not until after seven o'clock in the evening that Major Piper's infantry fighting vehicles stopped advancing again.

The news from the reconnaissance company lifted his spirits, and the Russian positions were found in front of him, and there were people on the positions.

Having finally caught you, Major Piper hurriedly pulled out a map to determine his location, but then had to ask his troops to find a station.

Because, it's dark!

In the early morning of the 21st, Major Piper got up early and rushed to the front to check the movement of the Russian positions with the reconnaissance company.

Barbed wire, anti-tank trenches, crisscrossed trenches, large and small firing points, all that a position should have.

The most important thing is that this time the enemy will not run away, because behind them is the city of Kerch, the easternmost point of the Kerch Peninsula.

After a morning of reconnaissance, the reconnaissance company obtained valuable information.

The Russians built a final line of defense at the easternmost point of the Kerch Peninsula, stretching from Lake Chokrazik in the north to Lake Tobezik in the south, about 14 kilometers behind which was the city of Kerch.

The two lakes are adjacent to the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, respectively, and the ground forces cannot make a detour and can only attack head-on.

Driven by a strong fighting spirit, Major Piper spent the day actively planning an attack on the Russian positions, but in the evening, an order from the brigade headquarters put out half of the fire in his heart.

The position was handed over to the 1st Division of the Honorable Jews, which arrived later, and the troops would be ready for the Sevastopol fortress at five o'clock tomorrow morning.

It's a demoralizing thing to do!

With a sense of helplessness that he could not fight, Major Piper could only convey the order that the troops should be deployed at five o'clock tomorrow morning.

Major Piper did not know that the top boss of his top boss, the commander of the XII Army, General Heinrich, was even more depressed than him.

The reason for his helplessness came from his subordinate, the "Your Excellency Brother-in-law" whose status was nominally lower than his.

On the night of the 20th, after Major Piper and the reconnaissance company found a new line of defense for the Russians, Admiral Heinrich quickly decided to reformulate the plan to conquer the last line of defense of the Russians in one fell swoop, and informed Chen Dao's fleet that he hoped to be supported by naval artillery at that time.

When the telegram was delivered to Chen Dao, Chen Dao and his subordinates were leisurely reminiscing about the eventful years at the dining table.

Chen Dao held the coffee in his left hand, and the index finger of his right hand tapped lightly on the table.

"This time last year, we should have been preparing for a showdown with the Russians. At this time the year before, that Winston Churchill suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and the British surrendered. What are we doing at this time the year before last? In Norway or France? Or on the way from Norway to France? ”

"It should be almost to France, and the French of the Maginot Line are almost finished." Major Bach said.

Remembering that after breaking through the Ardennes Pass and the Maas River, Guderian's troops did not move west into the English Channel, but went south to outflank the Maginot Line, and this change in the direction of advance was, first, to eliminate hundreds of thousands of French troops on the Maginot Line; the second was to put the German Army Group C, which was blocked by the Maginot Line, into France; Thirdly, and most importantly, the re-formed front, in contrast to the original plan, was to seduce the British expeditionary force away from the coast, rather than to push it towards the coast, laying the groundwork for the final battle of annihilation, so that the Dunkirk retreat did not take place.

The well-known prediction of "defeating France in eight weeks" at home and abroad has made him the leading young military strategist in the German military circles.

Chen Dao recalled his battle for fame, and sighed for a while.

Putting down the coffee cup, Chen Dao picked up his knife and fork and was about to continue eating, when he saw a naval captain walk into the dining room and hand him a telegram.

"The Russians ran and rebuilt the defensive line near Kerch in the northeastern corner of the Kerch Peninsula."

Chen Dao put down his knife and fork and stopped eating, quickly returned to the map room, and found Kerch City in the northeast corner of the Kerch Peninsula.

The Russians had built a new line of defense between the two lakes, and after picking up a ruler and compass and working on the map for a while, Chen Dao found that the southernmost point of the Russian line was fifteen kilometers away from the Black Sea.

It is impossible for a warship to stick to the coast, at least at a distance of several kilometers from the coast, so that at least 200 mm or more naval guns will be able to hit the enemy's position, and it is only the southernmost point.

As for the Kerch Strait, to the east of the enemy's position, it is less than 20 kilometers wide at its widest point, and there are shoals in it, so there is not much room for warships to detour, and if they run aground in the shallows, or run into mines, they will have a lot of fun.

I don't know if the Russian troops on the Taman Peninsula and the Kerch Peninsula have shore defense artillery, how big the caliber is, and what the degree of threat to warships is.

To be on the safe side, warships must not venture into the strait to shell enemy troops on the shore.

Seeing Kerch on the map, clinging to the coast, a place name that had just popped into his mind resurfaced.

Dunkirk! Kerch!

They are all by the sea, and they are all separated by a strait and a wide rear·····

Could it be that the Russians are not simply retreating, but fleeing?

Well, there is such a possibility.

Damn, I underestimated the intelligence of the Russians, no, overestimated the courage of the Russians.

Thinking that the Russian troops of a front army were about to escape, Chen Dao instantly became anxious.

Thinking about it, Chen Dao suddenly remembered Stalin.

Stalin, nicknamed Iron Man (a man with an iron will), if he was put under too much pressure and his troops were in danger of being annihilated, all his troops would flee, and even if the attack was successful, they would only be able to catch 350,000 rearguard troops at most, and the large army would still flee from the sea.

If the pressure on him had been a little less, he would have left a bridgehead on the Kerch Peninsula as a base for a future counteroffensive on the Crimean Peninsula.

It seems that he can make a fuss about his psychology.

After making up his mind, Chen Dao said to Major Bach beside him: "I plan to send a telegram to Admiral Heinrich, because the sea conditions in the Kerch Strait are complicated, and the combined fleet cannot continue to cooperate with him in launching an attack on the Crimean Front." I suggested that the Combined Fleet go to Sevastopol and cooperate with him in the capture of the fortress. Also, I suggested that the troops should not launch any attack on the enemy entrenched in the vicinity of Kerch, and that it would be enough to surround them, and as for the reason, I would meet with him and talk to him after the capture of the Sevastopol fortress. ”

After sending the telegram, Chen Dao gave another order.

The fleet turned and went to the fortress of Sevastopol.