At 4:35 a.m., the first rays of sunlight shone through the clouds onto the Volga.

Major Popokarev got up as usual and washed up, and he was going to drink a bowl of millet porridge before going to inspect his troops.

Captain Popokarev was the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 109th Regiment in the Soviet fortified area, and they had been building concrete fortifications on the Beanlev sandbar before the Battle of Stalingrad.

This should be said to be a coincidence, since the fortifications they built were not directed against Stalingrad...... Originally, no one expected that there would be such a brutal and protracted war in Stalingrad.

The troops of the 109th Regiment were to build fortifications on the sandbar, originally to consolidate the defense line of the Volga, that is, the South-Eastern Front. Because it was clear that the construction of fortifications on a sandbar in the middle of the river and the deployment of artillery would serve as an outpost and provide cover for the South-Eastern Front.

In the end, unexpectedly, the fortifications of the sandbar and the air defense forces deployed in it became the main force of the South-Eastern Front to reinforce Stalingrad...... Even during the day, Soviet troops could force their way across the river under the cover of anti-aircraft fire from the sandbar. Of course, there is still a certain amount of risk to be taken here.

Popkarev was confident about his fortifications on the sandbar, because there were pillboxes every two hundred meters around the sandbar, with an underground passage in the middle as a link, and at the same time connected to the trenches between them, behind which an artillery battalion and an anti-aircraft artillery battalion were deployed, and there was plenty of ammunition.

Popkarev had reason to believe that any German army that wanted to attack the sandbanks would be blown to pieces by the machine guns of these fortifications and the artillery on the sandbanks, or sink into the Volga to feed the fish.

Therefore, Popokarev was able to maintain his routine even when Stalingrad was already in danger...... He goes to bed early and wakes up early, and sometimes he even goes for a morning run by the river, even if there are one or two shells around from time to time.

After brushing his teeth, Popokarev erected a mirror fragment on a birch tree next to him and shaved his beard in front of the mirror.

After a few moments, he faintly saw a few small dots of smoke emerging from behind him in the mirror.

Popkarev did not care at first, his first reaction was that they were planes of the Germans to blockade the Volga.

The vast majority of the targets of these aircraft were transport ships on the river, as for the anti-aircraft fire on the sandbar......

On the one hand, these fires are well hidden, and some are even mostly in reinforced concrete fortifications, which are not easy to blow up.

On the other hand, it was the Germans who knew that it didn't make much sense to blow up these anti-aircraft equipment...... The sandbar is very close to the east coast, and if you blow up one gate, you will bring another one to replenish it.

So the sandbar was so safe that Popokarev could often ignore the fighters flying in the air.

However, it soon became clear to Captain Popokarev that something was wrong, as the black dots were much slower than the German fighters he usually saw.

Captain Popokarev looked back in confusion, then hurriedly grabbed the telescope and looked into the sky, and saw ten strange planes flying towards the sandbar in the air.

Although Captain Popokarev did not know what kind of planes they were, his intuition told him that something was wrong, so he hurriedly shouted at the orderly who was helping him to wash his face: "Quick, call everyone up, get ready for battle!" ”

But it was too late to give the order, and several German fighters swooped down like a whirlwind and fired a series of bullets around, and Captain Popokarev pounced in the direction of the bullet rain, and he was able to avoid the fighters' strafing...... Popkarev was a veteran, and he knew what direction to dodge at this time to have a better chance of survival.

The orderly was not so lucky, a few bullets knocked him into a bloody man, and he fell to the ground convulsing in pain, spitting blood from his mouth.

Popkarev got up from the ground, trying to get into the bunker to warn the others, but suddenly the disgusting whistling sound of the "Stuka" bomber was heard overhead.

Then there was a "boom", and a bomb exploded near the pillbox, pushing Popkarev to the side and falling to the ground.

Popokarev was not injured, he was only stuck in the birch tree that had been blown down, so he could only watch as the strange planes flew above his head, and then he was surprised to see soldiers with guns in their hands slipping down from the planes......

These soldiers are the commandos led by Qin Chuan.

Qin Chuan divided the ten helicopters into a group of five for each two, one group in each of the four directions, and then assigned another group in the middle.

Considering that the defense of the sandbar is strong on all sides, weak in the middle...... The sandbar was surrounded by pillboxes facing the river, especially towards the west bank, that is, Stalingrad, and in the middle there were scattered anti-aircraft and artillery units.

Therefore, the ten helicopters chose to land inside the defensive ring and attack from the inside out.

This is of course correct, because if you land outside the defensive circle, you have to face the defensive front of the Soviet pillbox fortifications, then you will not have the effect of a surprise attack, and you will have to attack from the front at a glance. If from the inside, it was faced with the rear of the pillbox fortifications, which was obviously easier to break through.

In fact, it's not just a matter of being easier to break through...... The helicopter is responsible for four groups in four directions, and its task is to quickly occupy these pillbox fortifications, otherwise it will be troublesome if they react and be prepared.

As a result, these helicopters even hovered directly above the bunker fortifications, and the soldiers slid down from the ropes, and as soon as their feet hit the ground, they landed at the entrance of the bunker.

The two teams led by Qin Chuan and Kuhn were responsible for the occupation of the central part.

The central part is characterized by a large number of enemy forces but insufficient firepower...... Arranged in the middle were an anti-aircraft artillery battalion and a howitzer battalion, with a total strength of about 700 people.

Of course, this was only a conjecture made by Qin Chuan and others based on the artillery and fortifications photographed by the reconnaissance plane...... Even the Soviet soldiers in Stalingrad did not know about the deployment of troops on the sandbank, so it was difficult to get detailed information here.

But in fact, the Soviet army in the central part had more than 1,100 people, which was much higher than the speculation of Qin Chuan and others.

However, this is not a big difference, because this part of the soldiers is not even equipped with rifles...... Most of their rifles were used for emergency reinforcements to Stalingrad. And the vast majority of them are artillerymen who have never fought foot combat.

The Germans, on the other hand, were all professional infantry armed to the teeth with MP43s in their hands.