.“ The Argentines are up, everyone prepare! ”

With the reminder of the black officer, the entire position was filled with the sound of gunbolts. Unfortunately, the Mauser Company did not develop a suitable replacement for the manual rifle as the War Department had hoped, and while the Browning Company made some good progress in its research, their new rifle became more and more like an automatic weapon for fire support rather than a semi-automatic weapon that was widespread in the hands of every soldier.

As a result, the more than 1 million soldiers of the German Army had no choice but to continue to use the Mauser 1898 type, which was finalized and put into production in 1898, and these soldiers of the German East African colonial army were no exception. On this hillside facing Argentina, they spent a week to build a defensive position about 1,500 meters long, and the position pattern has not changed much compared with the big war five years ago - minefields, barbed wire, trenches, because the soil here is a little hard, the trenches are only dug 1 and a half meters deep, every 20 meters or so on the trench line is a machine gun bunker made of sandbags and mud, more than 70 machine guns constitute the main body of the defensive line fire, of course, more than 500 rifles are not vegetarian, And there were 24 more mortars on the back of the hillside.

Finally, the blue and white flag went from telescope distance to a distance discernible to the naked eye, and soldiers in pale blue uniforms adorned the dry mountains after autumn with the comforting colors. An Argentine reconnaissance plane was tirelessly circling overhead, as if it was cheering up their ground troops, and as if it was preparing to watch a war drama. Although the buzzing sound was somewhat disgusting, it was a spectator, and the Germans did not intend to spend a lot of bullets to shoot it down.

By the time the Argentine vanguard advanced to the mountainside, the black soldiers could already hear their shouts, some arrogant, some frivolous, the East Africans could not understand Spanish,16 and the eyes under the steel helmets were full of indifference and murderous intent, and killing was not their life. But fighting can buy them freedom.

The long line was silent, although the dense gunfire had already sounded on several hills in the distance. Most of the black soldiers did not go to school, but they learned to obey orders and wait patiently through rigorous training.

With the order of the black battalion commander, 24 mortar shells burst out, and before the vast majority of the Argentine soldiers could react, they rushed headlong into their attacking ranks, and the sound of explosions was incessant.

After five rounds in succession, the Argentine attack stopped halfway up the mountain.

Then. The Argentine reconnaissance plane lowered itself to an altitude of 100 meters and circled over the head of the Argentine Army, as if to tell the Argentine soldiers below: Hey! Guys, they only have 1 battalion, you're a whole regiment!

After adjusting the firing elements, the German mortars fired three rounds farther away, and most of the Argentine soldiers fell to the ground, and this time most of their shells kicked up a pile of dust, but the Argentine soldiers did not want to get up again.

The last time the Argentines were involved in a war was in Paraguay more than 40 years ago, and it was the Brazilians who contributed the most. The long period of peace has worn down the will of the Argentines. The boys may have unrivalled football skills, but they have no interest in fighting, and there are less than 40,000 troops in Argentina in normal times. The only temporary conscripts were reservists who underwent a few weeks of military training each year, half Brazilian and half British, and in recent years the Army as a whole has not even acquired any decent new equipment.

Perhaps it is out of concern about their own military situation that Argentina and other countries have actively formed military alliances in order to overwhelm the Chileans, who have the advantage in training and equipment, by virtue of their numerical superiority.

For the 1655 soldiers of the 1655th Regiment of the 23rd Argentine Army, it was worse to meet German troops on this slope at an altitude of less than 30 meters than to meet the Chileans, at least the density of machine guns on the Chileans was not as "perverted" as the German Army.

To the bitter laughter of the African soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Division of the German Overseas Colonial Army, the Argentines on the slope seemed to be asleep, and they had been lying on their stomachs on the dry and cold ground until the Argentine troops below brought in artillery. Half an hour later. Two Argentine cannons fired, judging by the falling shells, it was a 120-mm heavy howitzer, the power was not great, the error was not small, the first two guns almost fell on the heads of the Argentine soldiers, and the last few shots were closer to the German positions. At this time, with the exception of a few soldiers at the observation posts, most of the African soldiers retreated to the bottom of the trenches and prayed that no shells would fall on their heads.

The slow shelling took another half an hour. Two Argentine guns easily dropped more than 30 shells at the Germans without encountering resistance, and although the rate of fire was not flattering, it managed to smash many large craters around the German positions. After the cannon stopped, the Argentine officers on the hillside roared like wolves, and as the blue and white flags waved back and forth, the fighting spirit of the soldiers finally recovered somewhat, and they did not care about patting the dirt off their bodies, and they roared to the top of the mountain again.

Although the enemy in front of them was not much stronger than the sheep, this was the first time that the troops had fought in formation, and the black soldiers still tensed their faces one by one, and the fingers on the trigger could neither be used nor too hard, and their eyes were a little tired from staring at the crosshairs.

At this moment, after a snap, a red flare rose into the air, and when the Argentines looked up at it, the German soldiers opened fire! In an instant, the burst of gunfire was so dense that it was difficult to breathe, and the front of the German trenches was even more dusty, and the dark red bright spots like fireflies flew down the hillside in droves, and the closer they got to the top of the hill, the more the Argentines who were standing, the more the Argentines fell, and in the first three minutes, the German fire was raging one-sidedly, and the only few Makqin Argentines had seemed to be so alone.

It seemed that even the German commander could not stand such a scene, and after only three minutes of shooting, he ordered to stop firing. At this time, the Argentine plane had long since disappeared, and the hillside was in shambles, with corpses everywhere, bright red flowers blooming from the blue on the ground, and the blue standing had long since retreated to the foot of the mountain.

For the next two hours, the African soldiers rested, ate, and then untied their hands, smoked cigarettes, and some even took the opportunity to take a nap. For a whole morning, the long German defense zone was impregnable. None of the Argentine soldiers were able to rush within 20 meters of the German positions, making it hard to believe that the attack was 50,000 Argentine troops and the actual defense of only 8,000 German soldiers.

For the German technical team, which was responsible for learning about the actual combat situation of various new equipment, the useful information they received this morning was that the Firebird 1917 rarely jammed when defending its position, and all kinds of new artillery were all in order.

It was almost time for afternoon tea when the Argentine army launched its second offensive of the day, starting the ground with 16 biplane Argentine planes, which are said to be the only possession of the Argentine army. During the first air raid of the Argentine Air Forces, 10 bombs fell near several positions of the German army. Six bombs fell into no-man's land, causing a small fire, and the plane's strafing was unsuccessful, and two American-made Curtiss Cs were shot down by German machine guns. A total of 3 Germans were killed and 9 wounded, and the Chilean flying team assigned to the Germans did not take to the air to intercept them during the entire bombing process, because they were equipped with DD reconnaissance/bombers in the sky that were not very combat-capable.

After the bombardment, the Argentines learned from the experience of the morning, and they concentrated all their artillery to bombard the German positions 309 and 337, and on the other hand, they gathered more than 7,000 soldiers to focus on the 309 heights and attack the breakthroughs, while the other German positions did not come under much pressure. The Argentine's point-and-point feint attack also gave a painless feeling. After discerning the intentions of the Argentines. Brigadier General Leto Fockbell transferred two artillery battalions to reinforce the heights, and the Argentines once again showed their weakness under heavy fire from German positions and the ensuing artillery fire. With less than 1,000 casualties, they retreated in panic.

The daytime fighting was somewhat disappointing, and the Argentine Army's poor performance soon became a laughing stock on the Chilean side. Under these circumstances, the German officers and soldiers were not satisfied with such an easy defensive battle, and a bold plan had already been brewed in the mind of Brigadier General Leto Fockberg. After consulting the German High Command, that evening Leto Faucebel led his Black Lightning Regiment to begin one of his shocking operations.

That night, more than 5,600 African soldiers set out from their positions, silently passing between the Argentine corpses left by the Argentines during the day, and then marched along the pre-mapped mountain road to the Argentine army camp. The most surprising thing was that Brigadier General Leto Fokber Bell also brought two 150-mm howitzers from the divisional artillery battalion. The two guns were dismantled with parts such as shields, and the only remaining barrels, bolts and gun carriages were dismantled, and each gun was carried by 30 soldiers. As undetected as possible, Leto-Fokbel's unit arrived at the foot of a hill from the Argentine army camp at 1 a.m., and with 20 hand-to-hand combat soldiers, they quietly killed the Argentine post on the hill, and then set up 2 howitzers here, and Leto and Fokbel prepared a total of 50 shells for them.

2 a.m. Leto Faucebel estimated that his other three troops had also arrived at the intended location, so he ordered his 1,500 soldiers to sneak up on the road very close to the Argentine camp. At 2:15 a.m., he gave the order to open fire.

The silent night was suddenly awakened by the sound of cannons, the rumbling of which echoed through the mountains, making it impossible to figure out how many cannons were firing. One shell after another fell into the Argentine camp, one of which hit an ammunition depot in the camp impartially, and in an instant a huge fire ball rose to an altitude of more than 200 meters, and the huge mushroom cloud in the night sky was magnificent. In the succession of explosions, the Argentine camp was in chaos, frightened horses fled in all directions, disheveled soldiers were busy dodging the shelling, and thousands of people rushed to the camp gates, only to be greeted by merciless bullets.

At 3 o'clock in the morning, the German artillery bombardment ended, and by this time the four raiding forces in charge of outflanking had already attacked, and the main camp of the Argentine army was fiercely attacked from three sides, and in the panic they could not organize a decent resistance, and many of the panicked soldiers became trophies of the German machine gunners in vain.

Although the German machine gunners had already carried two bases of ammunition, the fierce fighting depleted their ammunition before the end of the battle, after which they rushed after the riflemen with bayonets in their arms. In the brutal hand-to-hand combat, the black soldiers' night-black skin, snow-white teeth and eyes terrified the Argentine soldiers like ghosts, and the skilled East African soldiers did not let the Argentine youth take advantage of anything.

Before dawn, Leto Faucebel signaled to his soldiers to retreat, after all, the Argentines still had a considerable advantage in the remaining numbers in such a near-massacre battle, and most of the African soldiers had run out of ammunition and most of their physical strength.

At 5 o'clock in the morning, the German units participating in the raid withdrew from the battle in an orderly manner, except for the captured middle and senior officers, the prisoners and booty were not wanted, and the units quickly withdrew to their own defensive positions, so that the Argentines who planned to save a little face with a numerical advantage after dawn had nowhere to vent, and their only gain was the two German howitzers with only skeletons and a bunch of shell shells.

The Argentine camp of more than 50,000 people was turned upside down by the German night attack troops, which numbered only one-tenth of their own, the Argentines lost two major generals, the deputy commander of the army group, Ocacadoz, was seriously wounded and died in the German artillery bombardment, and General Neritrege of the General Staff was unfortunately captured. In addition, the Argentines lost 11 officers and 47 lieutenants in the battle, and the casualties among non-commissioned officers and soldiers were even heavier, with 17,000 dead and seriously wounded, and others were wounded to a greater or lesser extent. The next day, the Argentine army withdrew 30 kilometers back from the camp and canceled the original plan of attack. In the days that followed, Argentines were busy disposing of corpses and treating the wounded, and the roads leading to the rear were crowded with wagons transporting the bodies and wounded, and the whole country was in mourning.

In this battle, the Germans lost only 230 soldiers.

A week later, Leto Fockebell received his due reward – the Blue Marquez Medal, and the President of Chile personally pinned the Chilean Hero Medal to his chest and praised him as a talented commander who single-handedly defeated the Argentines. Of course, Leto Faulkbell also became a name that Argentines still cursed many years later. After this night attack on the border, Leto Faulkbel did not stop there, and after being reinforced by four infantry regiments of the German Continental Army, he decided to lead his troops to take the initiative and began the world-shocking operation to Buenos Aires!