The battle ended without warning, and the Soviet tank units retreated without armor, leaving the wreckage of hundreds of tanks on the battlefield.

The whole battlefield seemed very quiet, as if there had never been a battle. Although a dozen minutes ago, a fierce tank battle broke out here.

The Soviets launched a powerful local counterattack, then left behind the wreckage of almost 170 tanks and began a long retreat.

This may be the largest tank battle ever fought in the border area, with at least 500 tanks on both sides engaged in a fierce battle over a small area.

Smoke was still rising from the ridge in the distance, and more recently there were various tank wreckage. Some of the turrets have been blown off, and some have been abandoned there with a malfunction.

Karjus took off his headphones, climbed out of the hatch, went around the front of the tank, and looked where the shell had just hit.

The outer layer of steel was pierced, leaving a not-so-deep mark on the main armor. There is also a shallow pit in the turret......

It's an exhausting battle, and it's a rebirthing battle. Karjus liked the feeling of being reborn, and he stood on the tank in silence, in a quiet daze.

A Leopard tank rumbled by, the hatch on the turret was lifted, and the commander of the 1st Company poked his head out with a smile and asked, "How many tanks have you killed?" ”

"8 tanks, said the gun commander. They retreated really too fast, otherwise maybe we could have fought more. Karjus looked up and reported to his company commander on his success.

The first time he participated in the battle, he achieved the result of destroying 8 enemy tanks, which can be said to be a very good record.

The company commander nodded with satisfaction, and praised him: "You are worthy of the genius named by the Führer, and your record can be said to be the best in our company." ”

Carjus liked the title, he liked the adjective genius, and the word was preceded by a Führer's embellishment, which made him feel refreshed all over his body.

After all, Caljus is still an 18-year-old child. He is not so calm yet, and he is not the warrior who has been tempered by the cruel battlefield.

"Pack it up, we have to clean up the battlefield with friendly forces, check the total number of destroyed enemy tanks, and summarize the various problems that have arisen in this operation." The company commander mentioned the results of this battle, and the smile on his face was even worse.

Just now, his 1 company destroyed almost 45 Soviet tanks of various models on the front.

This figure is almost three times the number of tanks owned by his company. In addition to the most 8 tanks destroyed by Karjus, the least one tank also destroyed 1 enemy tank.

Moreover, the newly formed 505th Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion, in the course of its first engagement with the enemy, destroyed 80 enemy tanks, twice the number of its own tanks.

With such a large number of destructions, and not a single tank has been lost, it can be said that this operation was very perfect, and the first victory of the unit was simply impeccable.

The Leopard tank, which was built using the design concepts of later generations, also showed terrifying combat effectiveness in the outbreak of war.

The German elite tank crew, using their own equipment advantages, easily defeated their opponents and won the war.

"The 88 mm cannon is so easy to use that it is easy to penetrate the opposing tank." The gunner, praising his cannon, said to Karyus as he stepped out of the turret.

"I saw that every time our shells fired, they could be destroyed as long as they hit the target." Karjus nodded in agreement.

The gun commander looked a little embarrassed, shrugged his shoulders before explaining: "The opposing tanks are constantly advancing, which interferes with my aiming. ”

In the battle, he used 11 shells and destroyed eight Soviet tanks, including two heavily armored KV-1 tanks.

"You've played well." Glancing at the same young gunner, Karjus comforted: "I'm not blaming you for not hitting the target, the real battlefield is much more complicated than the situation we encountered during training. ”

He wasn't just saying comfort, he was just feeling. The Soviet tanks on the battlefield attacked desperately, which put considerable pressure on the German tank crews.

There was even a time when Karjus was already thinking about the feasibility of a retreat. Because the other party is too close to him.

Of course, in the end, he withstood the pressure and held out until the air force arrived without giving the order to retreat.

You know, at that time, the nearest Soviet tank was less than 300 meters away from the German tank.

In actual combat, the enemy's tank is constantly moving, and the accuracy of attacking the opponent will naturally decrease at this time.

In the era of World War II, there were no crosswind sensors and ballistic computers, and everything could only be judged by the experience of the shooter.

Without sophisticated auxiliary equipment, a stationary attack on a stationary attack may not be able to hit every shot, let alone hit a target in motion.

The position of the Karyus tank is the best position directly in the direction of the opponent's attack, and the effect of the enemy's tank movement is much smaller for him.

The tank crew, which fired ten shells and only hit two Soviet tanks, was obviously out of position, so it was so much worse.

"I know probably not now, but if we have the chance, we've got to celebrate today." Karyus said to his gun commander with a smile.

"I can tell you're complimenting me, Commander!" The gunner nodded, smiled and said to Karyus: "Long live the Führer!" ”

"Long live the Führer!" Karyus nodded, then looked at the smoking Soviet tanks in the distance.

……

In the Air Force Headquarters, all the officers were busy, and this was probably the largest aircraft take-off and landing command in the world to date, and everyone was very busy.

In a limited period of time, Germany commanded more than 7,000 sorties of various aircraft to take off from hundreds of field airfields behind the defense line of hundreds of kilometers.

This achievement was almost equivalent to allowing all the German planes that could fly on the Eastern Front to fly once.

The entire airspace was chaotic, with attacking planes and landing planes moving back and forth at different altitudes, densely obscuring the sky and the sun.

There are so many targets to attack that the air commanders don't know exactly where to attack.

What does the situation look like? Even the dozens of telephones used by the army to liaise with the air force are always on the phone, and it is still impossible to mark all the areas that need to be attacked on the map.

If the Air Force commander assigns a mission a little slower, more important tasks will take its place.

And if the air force pilots had taken the initiative and attacked when they saw Soviet troops on the ground, they would have quickly run out of ammunition.

What is even more exaggerated is that under the attack of thousands of aircraft, the defeated forces of the USSR have no tendency to decrease at all.

Hordes of retreating Soviet troops could be seen everywhere on the ground, tanks and cars burning on the roads, and discarded weapons and equipment could be seen everywhere on the ground.

Mosin Nagant rifles were thrown everywhere, as well as a large number of Soviet-made light machine guns and horse-drawn carriages.

Compared with the army logistics units that Germany had always wanted, the Soviet Union's logistics troops were even more backward in equipment, and almost two-thirds of their supplies were transported by horse-drawn carriages.

This is the Soviet Union in 1941, not the torrent of steel under the Iron Curtain that makes people shudder when they mention it in later generations. The current Soviet units are not mechanized, and there is still a long way to go.

At this moment, a large number of Soviet Red Army troops were still traditional light infantry, and many times had to rely on horse-drawn carts and livestock to provide supplies for their troops.

Although the number of 5 million troops is shocking, the fighting quality of this army is very poor because of the Great Purge.

Of course, the unflattering road conditions in the Soviet Union were also one of the important reasons for the delay in the popularization of mechanization in the Soviet Union.

The presence of millions of Soviet Red Army troops made Field Marshal Brauchitsch, commander-in-chief of the German army, and Field Marshal Keitel, chief of staff of the Supreme High Command, very uneasy, and they feared that this was a ruse by the Soviet Union to lure Germany into advancing into the depths.

As a result, they ordered more than 40 reconnaissance planes of the Air Force and the Army directly under them to take off and reconnoiter non-stop, and finally determined that the rout of the Soviet troops was real.

On the morning of March 21, the day after the battle, Rundstedt's Army Group Center entered the territory of the Soviet Union, like a steel knife, splitting the Soviet attacking forces from the middle.

Then, just now, when the German forces crossed the Soviet-occupied area of Poland and entered the territory of Belarus, one of the most resolute and powerful Soviet counterattacks broke out.

Unfortunately, this counterattack was thwarted by the 1st Panzer Division and the 505th Battalion, as well as the combined air force, and the Germans entered the vicinity of Brest, threatening this important transport hub.

Not only are there large quantities of military supplies stored, but also large quantities of diesel and gasoline for the front line.

The Germans were already attacking there, and the surrounding Soviet troops, who were still busy retreating back at this time, simply did not care about this important supply base.

As the commander of Army Group Center, Marshal Rundstedt's next target was Brest directly in front of him.

As long as he captured there, his troops could continue to move forward, cutting the formation of the Soviet front-line troops into two completely independent pieces in one fell swoop.