Ten days later, the German 11th Army reached the Baku Line under the leadership of Manstein.

Manstein stood on a high ground and held a telescope to look in the direction of the enemy, but from his telescope, it was not the Soviets' defensive line, but the drilling wells and oil refineries that towered over the oil fields in the distance.

After a long time, Manstein put away the binoculars and said, "Do you know what I saw?" ”

"Oilfield, Your Excellency Marshal!" The staff officer replied.

"No!" Manstein shook his head: "I saw the machines that the Soviets had stopped dismantling, as well as tanks and cars that could not be driven because there was no oil, and planes that could not be lifted into the air, and the faces of frightened Soviet soldiers!" What we're going to do......"

As he spoke, Manstein raised his head in the direction of Baku, and continued: "Just take there!" ”

After a pause, Manstein ordered: "Attack!" ”

Suddenly the cannon fired, and the battle to attack the Baku line began.

Dozens of tanks of various types of the 22nd Panzer Division, covering the troops of the 28th Chasseur Division, took the lead in attacking the Soviet lines.

The initial offensive was quite smooth, after all, the German army was in high morale, and the defensive line built by the Soviet army was a field fortification that was urgently built in these ten days, and it was difficult for such fortifications to resist the attack of the German elite troops.

Timo Werner was even very optimistic: "I think tomorrow we might be able to have a baseball game in Baku!" ”

"Baku only has oil, Vilna!" The baker replied.

"Then ......," Werner replied, "let's have a swimming competition!" ”

"Where are you swimming?" The baker asked rhetorically: "Caspian Sea?" There was a fleet of Soviets there! ”

"No!" Werner replied: "There is an oil field in Baku, I think, it must be the most expensive and attractive pool in the world!" ”

The German soldiers burst into laughter.

In contrast to the optimism of the soldiers, Eberhard was a little worried.

"Any questions?" Qin Chuan asked.

"Major!" Eberhard replied: "The Soviets will not give up Baku so easily!" ”

"Of course!" Qin Chuan replied.

"So their defense will definitely not be so simple!"

"Of course!"

"The battle won't be as smooth as we thought!"

"Of course!"

"So we ......"

"We have only one option to attack, Eberhard!" Qin Chuan said: "What else can we do? ”

Eberhard nodded weakly, and the German 11th Army had no way to retreat. In fact, from the very beginning the 11th Army had no way to retreat, unless the Soviet troops in the Caucasus were defeated and they were all driven out.

Eberhard's fears soon became a reality.

Soon after the German attack, groups of Soviet fighters appeared in the sky, which were the Fourth Air Force in the North Caucasus...... Most of these fighters are Seagull fighters, and some of them are American A20 attack aircraft.

The A20 attack aircraft, of course, was aided by the United States to the Soviet Union, and this bomber has a very strong attack power, because it is equipped with 10 aviation machine guns and can also carry 1,814 kg of bombs.

Even more important is its speed and range: 545 km/h, 1,755 km/h maximum range.

You must know that the Seagull fighter used by the Soviet Union only has a speed of 443 kilometers per hour and a maximum range of 695 kilometers. That is, the A20 attack aircraft can throw off the Seagull fighter by a large margin.

Of course, the speed of the A20 is still not comparable to that of the BF109.

As soon as the Soviet fighters appeared, they bombarded the German ground forces indiscriminately, and several German BF109s hurriedly responded to the battle, but because the difference in numbers was too large, they could not stop their attack on the ground forces...... The Germans did not dare to send too many fighters into the Caucasus.

This is mainly due to the fact that the area occupied by the Germans is not stable enough, which is one of the disadvantages of the blitzkrieg, although it can seize the fighters and launch a surprise attack before the enemy is ready, but the troops are always advancing forward, and there will be many problems in the rear.

At other times, the Germans would have followed the security forces to maintain law and order, but at this time they had to cross the Kerch Strait, and the follow-up forces could not follow up, so the situation was unsatisfactory.

As a result, the airfield was always under fire from Soviet partisans, stragglers, and howitzers and mortars.

On the other hand, it was the air battle in the Caucasus that had basically no advantage over the German army.

As mentioned before, the 3,000 to 4,000-meter-high peaks in the Caucasus stand like steel knives between Transcaucasia and North Caucasus, which makes the German BF109's high speed impossible, and worse, the Caucasus Mountains block radar signals...... Therefore, as soon as the Soviet fighters appeared, they basically went into battle immediately in front of them, and even several German airfields were attacked by Soviet fighters and suffered heavy losses.

As a result, the Germans were temporarily able to deploy only fifty fighters in the Caucasus, while the rest were on standby at the Kerch airfield.

However, it was obvious that the 50 fighters could not grasp air supremacy, and in particular, the Soviet 4th Air Force was surprisingly very flexible, and they sometimes attacked the German forward units and sometimes attacked the logistics supply, causing great trouble to the German army.

But these are not the worst, after all, the Soviet pilots are mostly inexperienced...... The Soviet Union's training of pilots can be said to be the most rudimentary, they generally only conduct ten months of flight training, and the total flight time is about 10 to 20 hours, which is considered qualified and sent to the front line to fight the enemy.

Compared with other countries, such as Japan, most of the pilots are trained for about five years, and in the later stage, because of the large casualties, the pilots with only three years of training were sent to the front line, which could basically only be used for death or for "kamikaze" suicide attacks.

As a result, Soviet fighters were not so accurate in strafing and bombing targets, especially tanks and cars in motion.

There is a saying in the German army that if you encounter a Soviet fighter on the battlefield, you can ignore its existence as long as you know how to turn the corner.

This is not an exaggeration, because under the bombardment of 50 warplanes of the Soviet army, only five German tanks were destroyed. The German BF109 even shot down ten fighters.

So the German attacking forces were almost unaffected and continued to advance.

It was the trenches that really stopped them from advancing......

Just when the German army was chasing the Soviet army all the way, a wall of fire suddenly "soared" in front, and there was no end at a glance for dozens of kilometers from north to south, and there was almost no gap in the middle.

"Fire trenches!" Looking at this scene, Qin Chuan couldn't help frowning.

This tactic, originally used by the Su-242 Mountain Division to block German armored forces, eventually appeared on the Baku Line.