"Russians...... The Austrian ...... "Captain Fritz sat in the cockpit in front of his familiar "Sky X" attack aircraft, looking at the dense crowd on the ground and muttering alone. Although he was famous during the Turkish Civil War and was the most experienced and decorated pilot of the East Prussian Air Force, he and his old partner, Lieutenant Niko, formed the most tacit pair of attack aircraft in the Air Force, but he was only 28 years old. With his curly brown hair and handsome and young face, especially the Iron Cross of the First Class on his chest, thousands of girls regard him as the Prince Charming in their hearts.

Niko didn't notice what the so-called angelic guy in front of him was muttering, and in order to make it easier to use the twin machine guns in the passenger seat, he leaned half of his body out of the cabin, sat on the edge of the cabin with his butt, and hooked his feet tightly on the seat below, which also made his vision wider, and even if he accidentally fell, the bulging parachute on his back could save his life. In the sky above and below, he was surrounded by a huge fleet of more than 200 planes of various types, and the planes around him floated up and down like boats on the sea because of the air currents, making people feel that the space here had been filled, and it was difficult for even a small bird to get in.

The scene on the ground was no less than that in the air, and two curving lines drew a strip in the center of the battlefield that was 4-5 kilometers wide and difficult to visually profuse, like a dry riverbed, the west bank of which was dark blue and gray, and the east bank was black and white. Clouds of white smoke rose from behind the ranks of soldiers on either side, and then turned into bright sparks with gray petals in the opposite clearing or near the crowd.

From the air, it is difficult to tell whether the dark blue side is strong, or the black and white side has the advantage, neither side has any intention of building a trench, and the two huge waves are accumulating strength, ready for an earth-shattering collision.

Fritz lazily took out a flare gun, you must know that the Russian people are relatively poor, and there are very few planes used for combat, which directly leads to the fact that the German army has few chances to shoot down Russian planes, so the East Prussian Air Force is on ground attack missions most of the time, in this case the pilot's personal results are difficult to discern, so these pilots do not have many opportunities for promotion after the war, so as long as Fritz participates in the flight mission, the signal gun with the handle of the mahogany gun is always in his hands.

"1 for attack, 2 for waiting, 3 for retreat, what if I launch 4?" Fritz muttered that after staying on the Eastern Front for a long time, he always felt an inexplicable emptiness, and the sky here was far less lively than on the Western Front. When the Russian army attacked the airport in Warsaw one day before, because they saw more than a dozen dilapidated Russian reconnaissance planes parked on the ground, the pilots were even reluctant to destroy them on the ground, and after blowing up other facilities at the airport, they still circled over the airport, hoping that the Russian planes would bravely take off, but unfortunately the result made them very disappointed, and the Russian pilots seemed to have fled. In the end, the German pilots had no choice but to tearfully drop their bombs on the poor Russian planes.

A red flare rose from the sky into the air, and the neat formation of the German aircraft soon dispersed, and the pilots began to search for their respective targets. Their mission was clear, and their nagging commander had already explained it several times before taking off - bomb and strafe the Russian artillery positions and places where the crowd was concentrated, and try not to hurt the Austro-Hungarian allies!

Fritz lowered the nose of his plane and began to accelerate towards the ground, which cannot be called a dive, because the wooden-skinned body of the German aircraft is not yet able to withstand the huge centrifugal force when pulled up after the dive.

A large group of Russian cavalry appeared in Fritz's field of vision, and the horses had become agitated by the noise of the planes.

"Niko!" As soon as Fritz shouted, Niko pulled the bomb lever with understanding, and four black bombs fell from more than 200 meters in the air, almost silently to the ground. Not only did the Russian cavalry turn on their backs, but the cavalry ranks were also in disarray. Two strings of machine-gun bullets rained down from the sky, sweeping the other Russians off their horses.

Fritz pulled up the plane contentedly, while Niko operated his machine gun as he tried to pour as many bullets as possible into the Russians. Thick clouds of smoke and flames were everywhere on the Russian positions, soldiers scattered to avoid the attacks of the planes, some horses pulling ammunition trucks lost control and ran desperately, and the Russian artillery positions also became a mess.

For the Poles, they didn't know whether to watch the million-strong encounter on the plains or to avoid it, but they were feasted on by the German planes; For the Austrian commander-in-chief, Grand Duke Friedrich, although his troops were ready to meet the enemy, his troops were a little scattered in the rapid pursuit, and he needed longer than the Russian army to complete the combat deployment, fortunately, the German aircraft played a good role in slowing down the combat deployment of the Russian army; For the commander of the Russian army, General Ivanov, the appearance of the Austro-Hungarian army surprised him and his soldiers, his only advantage was that his 3rd and 4th armies were very compact, all he had to do was to calm the army as soon as possible, and then quickly spread out the marching column, and now the appearance of German planes not only made his soldiers confused, but he also began to worry about whether the German ground troops would also join the battle.

That's often the case, and what you worry about is more likely to come true than you expected. By this time, the vanguard of the German armored forces had already reached the rear of the Russian army.

"Quick! I need fuel! Lieutenant Timo got out of the tank turret and shouted to the truck carrying fuel behind him to come and refuel. After more than 70 miles of rapid marching, his body was almost jolting and falling apart, "Let's take advantage of the time to check their respective tanks, and don't break down when you rush into the Russian position for a while!" ”

The tankmen moved their almost stiff joints and muscles, and then took out their tools to quickly overhaul the tank's engine and transmission.

"Wow!" Timo's hand bounced off the steel plate that covered the engine like an electric shock, "It's hot!" ”

Looking at the expressions of the others, Timo knew that the situation of their tanks was not much better. After such a long march, the tanks themselves were far more tired than the crews inside, and the 4 tanks of their battalion broke down on the road, but fortunately, 1 of them caught up after emergency repairs, so that he still had 9 tanks in his hand to fight, and the remaining 3 tanks were probably still lying motionless on the side of a certain section of the road behind.

The armoured units looked to be in a better situation, and after they had refueled, they began to form offensive columns, ready to move on.

"Lieutenant, your number!" A captain officer ran over from another group of tanks with a piece of paper full of stuff.

"Sir, 101st Battalion of the 2nd Tank Regiment! We have 3 tanks that broke down, and the remaining 9 are perfectly ready to take part in the battle! The engine was a little hot, but I think it would last a few hours! Timo jumped out of the tank and walked over with the buttons of his black tank suit, while the officer pointed with a pencil to the lines of the paper.

"101 Battalion of the 2nd Tank Regiment, that's right! Your battalion is responsible for clearing the way for the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 102nd Army in battle! They are still on their way and will assemble 3 kilometres north of here in one hour. Lieutenant, let your men hurry up and recuperate, before the battle must meet with the 102 Infantry Regiment! The officer swiped his pencil on the paper, and after saluting, hurried to another group of tanks.

"Guys, hurry up and prepare! Wait a minute, we're going to fight alongside our infantry brothers from the Third Army! Timo turned back and shouted at the busy soldiers on the tank. With a big war imminent, temporary deployment is more rapid and effective through this seemingly primitive way of issuing orders.

After about three quarters of an hour, all the tanks were ready, and they kicked up a puff of dust before speeding north.

"Oh! My God! Lieutenant Timo, did you have 1 company of tanks that fell into the ditch? A loud voice from a rough mine was heard not far away, so that the other commanders sitting on the turret could hear it clearly. The commander of the 1st Battalion, Jaap, followed with 12 brand-new Stone II tanks and headed north in parallel with Timo's troops.

"0% non-combat loss rate!" Timo looked stupidly at the smug Lieutenant Yaap, who was known for his almost brutal strictness, and he demanded that his subordinates must ensure that every tank part was maintained in a shiny manner, and it seemed that the effect was indeed very good. After marching at this distance, the average failure rate of tank units is generally about 20%, Timo's 2nd Battalion is 25%, which is not much different from the average failure rate, and Yaap's zero failure rate is really a bit exaggerated.

"Lieutenant Yap, which unit are you ordered to fight with?"

"The 101st Regiment of the 3rd Army, the Guards Regiment of His Royal Highness the Prince!" Lieutenant Yaap was even more proud.

"Is His Royal Highness's Guards also going to fight?" Timo was a little puzzled, after Brigadier General Oli left for Turkey, the Third Army has been under the direct command of the Prince, and that army is also regarded as the Prince's Guard, and the 101st Regiment is the Guards of the Guards, becoming the most desirable unit for the soldiers in the Legion.

"I heard that all the troops will be in battle this time!"

As they chatted in shouting voices as they arrived at the assembly site, where the grey infantry was already waiting, Jaap greeted him and continued with his tank. Before Timo's tank could stabilize, an infantry major riding a tall horse greeted him, "Major Inge, 102nd Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Army, I'm glad to have your cooperation!" ”

"Hello sir! Lieutenant Timo, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 101st Tank Regiment, was ordered to lead his troops to cooperate with your regiment in the battle! Of the 12 tanks in the battalion, 3 of them broke down on the road, and there were 9 tanks! Timo jumped out of the turret, his big strong hands clasped together.

After a brief greeting, Major Inge returned to his unit to continue the arrangement, while Timo quietly glanced at the 101st Regiment not far away, where the army looked neat and vigorous. The blue flag of the Prince of East Prussia stands out, embroidered with a golden shield with a long sword, which is divided into four compartments, namely helmets, cannons, eagles and dolphins, symbolizing the perfect attack and defense of land, sea and air.

Not far from the front of the 3rd Infantry Corps, a large pile of engines made a dizzying noise, where the two mechanized divisions of the Panzer Army were assembled. Motorcycles are a seemingly simple tool that has a much lower failure rate than tanks, less than 100 of the more than 4,000 motorcycles break down, and even if they fail, they can be repaired in a lot of time, so they are affectionately called "gentle mules" by German soldiers.

Corporal Stefan, whose hair was disheveled by the wind, was fiddling with his "Firebird" machine gun, an air-cooled light machine gun with a rate of fire comparable to that of a heavy machine gun, but the barrel was prone to heat up was its biggest drawback, so Stefan carefully checked the two replaceable barrels he carried with him, he had always thought that winter was the best season to use this weapon, because cold wind and heavy snow were good coolants.

As a machine gunner on a motorcycle, Stefan usually saves a lot of the fatigue of walking, but it is not a pleasant thing to bump for half a day on a motorcycle, and it is even more depressing if you encounter bad weather. The previous battle with the Russian army in East Prussia left a very deep impression on Stefan and his companions, the Russian cavalry in the Matsu Lake area that fell one after another and fell faster than the leaves, the siege and interception of the Russian soldiers in front of the Inster Gap and the later Battle of Compinan, all proved that motorcycles and machine guns are weapons with strong attack and movement, but their defense is also particularly weak and weak, and even the opponent's rifle bullets cannot resist, As a result, the battle loss rate of motorcycles in mechanized infantry divisions was much higher than that of tank and armored vehicle units.

"Good luck, corporal!"

Stefan looked up, his partner was smiling and outstretching his right hand, the young motorcyclist was hanging his windshield glasses around his neck, and the long Mauser rifle was slung diagonally on his back.

"The same goes for you!" Stefan gave each other a hard high-five, and maybe it wasn't long before they separated yin and yang, or maybe they went to heaven together to report.

When the sun moved to a place where it was already visible in the west without looking up, a red flare rose from the ground. Captain Fritz and other pilots, who had already poured all the bombs and bullets, Lieutenant Timo and the other 187 tankmen on the starting tanks, Major Inger and his 1,250 soldiers, Stefan and 9,522 motorcyclists, Chentian, Olg, Hoffmann, Panzer Corps and other German officers and men of the 3rd Infantry Corps who were about to enter the battle, each silently drew a cross on his chest and prayed for good luck to favor the brave......