Beside a grove of trees near the road, six armoured communications vehicles and two field tents formed a very simple temporary command center, which could be found everywhere on all fronts of the German armored troops, and within an hour the staff officers would follow the troops forward again, a speed that bewildered the adversary.

At noon on 14 June, the 37-year-old Rommel stood in such a makeshift headquarters with great ambition, and on the sandy road not far away, tanks, armored vehicles, and trucks full of soldiers drove east one after another, and every few minutes in the sky a group of ten or twenty planes could be seen flying low at low altitude.

As the fighters deployed by the Russian army on the southern front were exhausted in the previous more than a week of fighting, at this time the Luftwaffe fighters even hung aerial bombs for ground support, and the dive bombers were even more unscrupulous and roared down from the sky again and again, I have to admit that these guys who look a little stupid have unparalleled power and deterrence when attacking ground targets, and there were more than 1,000 Russian soldiers who defended a small town and blocked the attack of the German ground forces, But it only took one squadron of Vulture II for a round of bombardment, and the Russians surrendered.

"General, a telegram has been sent from the 1st Advance Armored Battalion, they have broken through to the eastern outskirts of Chisinau!

There are no new reports from the 2nd Advance Armored Battalion for the time being, and it is expected to continue to move eastward on the northern outskirts of Chisinau! ”

A captain, not much younger than Rommel, came with a telegram to report, and Rommel gave a decisive instruction without even glancing at the map:

"Excellent! Tell Major Sander to stop advancing and defend on the spot when he sees the Dubosaray Bridge! In addition, send a report to Lieutenant Colonel Rog of the Northern Assault Group to ask his regiment to rush to Transnistria as soon as possible, and Lieutenant Colonel Schchemit of the Southern Assault Group, his regiment must meet with Major Sander within 1 hour, we must lock the retreat of the Russian troops in the city of Chisinau, this is our first big fish! ”

"Yes!"

Soon. The communications officer turned back again.

"General, General Marcus sent a telegram that his division has broken through the first line of defense of the Russian army in Chisinau with the assistance of the 51st Colonial Division in Africa!"

"Hmmm! Those Africans are really brave and good characters! Your Majesty is so wise, use the Poles as cannon fodder, and our native army and the African colonial army as the main force, so that even if we fight continuously, our losses will not be too great! ”

This time Rommel walked back to the map spread out on a makeshift table made of several empty ammunition boxes, and circled between the lines and circles for half a minute, "Send a report to General Marcus."

So that he doesn't have to wait for our flanks and friendly troops to come up, and directly launch an attack on the second line of defense of the Russian army! Call the commander of the 48th Air Force Wing and ask them to send at least 5 squadrons of Vulture II to assist us in our attack! ”

"Yes!" The communications officer moved away quickly.

Listening to the sometimes dense and sometimes sparse rumbling of artillery in the distance, Rommel couldn't help but feel a little itchy, he glanced back at the busy staff officers and shouted: "Adjutant! ”

In the blink of an eye, a second lieutenant officer who looked to be in his early 20s trotted all the way in front of him, "Here! ”

"Gather my direct armored battalion, I'm going to the front line! As for the command......"

Rommel looked around the map and pointed to a small blue dot. "Move to Saku Village for the time being!"

"Yes!"

Just ten minutes later. Rommel's immediate forces – 5 Medium III Assault Tanks, 4 IV Tanks, 6 Type 1926 assault guns, 3 Type 1925 infantry fighting vehicles, 7 Type 1920 infantry fighting vehicles, 19 half-track armoured personnel carriers and an entire motorized infantry company were ready to go next to the headquarters.

Given that Operation Barbarossa began in the summer, and that German tanks and armoured vehicles were still painted in yellow-green camouflage, which was the most common during the German-American war, the tankers were all dressed in black uniforms. Most of the armored and motorized soldiers wore the three-color field camouflage uniforms of the army units that began to be equipped in the middle and late stages of the German-American War.

Before leaving, Rommel did not choose to continue to sit on his armored communication vehicle, but moved quickly to board a Type IV tank, which is currently the safest of the German Army's active weapons - although the 65mm frontal armor is not really that invulnerable, but both the US and Russian armies lack effective weapons that can penetrate such thick armor at long distances, and most of the time, the combat operations of the IV tank are protected by infantry fighting vehicles and armored vehicles at close range, The advantages of technology and tactics made it rare for this tank, known as the Royal Knights of Germania, to be completely destroyed on the battlefield.

The commander of the IV tank then ceded the upper part of the turret to Rommel, along with the headset and throat communicator, and then retracted into the tank to act as a machine gunner or communicator. After skillfully taking the captain's position, Rommel glanced at the armored vehicle behind him. Turn your head, raise your right arm high, and then slowly lay flat forward, "Forward!" ”

"Forward!"

In a forest meadow with the sound of explosions, a group of German infantrymen bowed over, armed with Mauser rifles, GG semi-automatic rifles and MP26 submachine guns, were closely following behind a Type 1925 infantry fighting vehicle, a new generation of infantry fighting vehicles based on the Type 1920 infantry fighting vehicle still using 20mm guns as the main weapon, but the new twin 20mm guns greatly exceeded their predecessors in terms of rate of fire, range and fire intensity. Thanks to the replacement of the engine with more horsepower and the strengthening of armor defenses, the weight of this combat vehicle increased to 18 tons, and the on-road and off-road speed remained at 30/16 km/h. And a 7.92 mm machine gun was added to the front.

A shell suddenly fell and exploded less than 5 meters away from the infantry fighting vehicle, and two German infantrymen were immediately shot and fell, but as far as the eye could see, the corpses scattered on the grass were still mostly in earth-yellow uniforms, and hundreds of corpses around the winding trenches near the bushes were still in various postures when they died, and the Russian-made Maxim, American-made Lewis and even German-made Firebird light machine guns were helplessly hanging on the machine gun positions made of sandbags.

At this time, a Pi tank, which was traveling more than 10 meters in front, stopped, and after adjusting its muzzle slightly, it fired a shot in the direction where the Russian shells were flying and blinked. A Russian artillery emplacement, located between two large trees and covered with a large number of branches and leaves, was bombarded into the sky.

After finishing the shooting, the IV continued to move forward smoothly, and in a farther place, with the sound of Galagala breaking, trees were ruthlessly pushed down by the German steel beasts, and on the Russian position about 2 kilometers in front of the woods, many Russian soldiers were running back from the trenches in panic, some even empty-handed.

Two minutes later. While the German tanks were still firing their guns, a flock of eagles roared over the woods, and then fired at the Russian positions. In just ten minutes, a large number of round, black bombs fell on the heads of the Russians one after another, and the last vestiges of the morale of the defenders finally collapsed.

"Don't stop, keep going!"

On a Type IV tank, a blonde major in a black tank uniform greeted his soldiers loudly, and a large river loomed a short distance east of the position. It only took half a minute for the eagles to fly over the river called Transnistria, and they could see the Dubosaray railway bridge, which had already been blown into three pieces by the German air raids.

The Dniester River originates in the Eastern Carpaliver Mountains. It flows southeast and eventually into the Black Sea. With a total length of more than 1,300 km, the river in Moldova flows in narrow valleys with calm currents but deep valleys. Wading through the water is almost impossible, and it is necessary to cross by boat and bridge.

With several bridges over the Dniester River being blown up by the Luftwaffe in one day, more than 100,000 Russian officers and soldiers stationed in Chisinau and the Moldovan section of the Sokolov Line had no choice but to force the Transnistrian River and retreat to the Black Sea, but after the war began, the relatively weak Russian Black Sea Fleet had retreated into the Sea of Azov to avoid the battle, and retreating to the Black Sea would only make the exhausted Russian army face the powerful German-Turkish fleet.

The Luftwaffe warhawks roared past again, clearing a Russian artillery position across the river with bombs and bullets, so that the German advance armoured unit reached the west side of the bridge without encountering strong resistance from the woods.

It was the blonde major, who ordered loudly after his tank had stopped not far from the bridge:

"The 1st Tank Company, scattered on the spot to find their own warning and defensive positions! 2 company of tanks. Go to the little village in front of you, clear it up and hide it! Armored 3 company, clean up the bridgehead! Armored chains, enter the positions west of the bridgehead and prepare for defense! Communications officer, send a message to the military department, we have successfully arrived at the Dubosaare bridge! ”

After the troops had gone their separate ways, the major picked up a telescope and took a look, and about 6 or 7 kilometers upstream of the river, a blown pontoon bridge could be seen, and some Russian soldiers appeared to be trying to repair the pontoon bridge. Downstream, you can only see the empty river stretching as far as the eye can see, and there are a dozen or so small wooden boats under the bridgehead on the east side of the bombed-out bridge.

"Car number 4! See a boat on the other side of the river? The Major pressed the throat communicator, "Kill them!" ”

A deleted tank, which had just been heading towards the bridge, quickly stopped, its turret slowly turning, its muzzle quickly aimed at the end of the bridge, and the barrel pitch angle was lowered below the level.

With a bang, Tank IV burst into flames, and a 75-mm high-explosive howitzer shell flew out in an instant, and a little more than a second later, a pair of broken wood and mud were lifted under the piers on the opposite bank.

"Very well, kill every boat that can float!"

The blonde major said and tapped on the turret of his tank, "Forward!" Go behind that broken wall! ”

After a burst of smoke from the tail exhaust vent, the tank slowly started, and the broken wall pointed out by the major seemed to be a small brick and wood blockhouse originally used by the Russian army to defend the bridgehead, and there was a huge crater on the right, which should have been left by the aerial bombs of the Vulture II, and there were several corpses of Russian soldiers faintly under the broken bricks and mud.

Shortly after his tank stopped, the major received a piece of information from the Air Force Support Unit: a large number of Russian troops were rushing towards this side!

"Get ready for battle, enemy infantry is moving here!"

The major calmly gave the battle order, since it is an armored interspersed operation, so it is not surprising that there are fewer enemies in the battle, although the number may be very large, but the strong firepower, defense and mobile power of the armored forces give them a unique ability to penetrate and penetrate the combat in large columns - in contrast, although the airborne troops can penetrate farther places, they do not have the ability to attack independently or high-intensity defensive operations.

The infantry fighting in armored vehicles and motorcycles had already prepared for defense in the bridgehead positions of the Russian army, leaving only one driver and two mortar operators on the half-track armored vehicles to stay in a later place, and the No. III and IV tanks scattered on the positions and the assault guns hidden in various obstacles also raised their muzzles one by one, and the infantry fighting vehicles, known as "infantry killers", were ready to use their two machine guns to ruthlessly strafe the enemy infantry who dared to expose themselves in the wilderness.

"The 2nd Tank Company waited for my order before firing! Others, wait for the enemy to get close to a distance of 1000 meters before shooting! Ceasefire when the enemy retreats, understand? ”

After giving orders to his troops, the major adjusted the communication frequency to the one used by the air cover troops, "Eagle 9, Eagle 9, are you still there?" Wait until we open fire before you start a low-altitude strafing shot! Wait for us to fire! ”

When everything was deployed, the major focused on observing the situation ahead with a telescope, the figure of the Russian army became clearer and clearer, the first to bear the brunt was a few trucks full of soldiers, and there were many cavalry with spears next to them, and then there were large groups of infantry, the scene was not too chaotic, but there was no heavy artillery in sight, which made the major feel a lot more at ease.

As the distance from themselves to the bridgehead gradually narrowed, the Russian army finally discovered that the bridgehead position had changed hands, and the bridge was blown into three pieces. After this, the vanguard of the Russian army slowed down the pace of advance, the riflemen jumped out of the trucks, leaving behind light and heavy machine guns and machine gunners, and the cavalry also gathered in the fields on both sides of the road, it seemed that the officers were deploying tactics for their cavalry, and after a while, the chaotic queue revealed a fairly acceptable attack formation.

The major waited calmly, waiting for the opposing cavalry and trucks to start accelerating, for the opposing infantry to start trotting in a skirmish formation, waiting for the other side to get close enough. He gently put his finger on the throat communicator, waited, waited, and shouted, "Fire!" ”

This loud voice could hardly be heard by the German officers and soldiers who were waiting silently without the use of communicators, and in an instant, all kinds of firearms were firing at the Russian troops in front of the position. At a distance of 1,000 meters, the lethality of tank guns, machine guns, and light and heavy machine guns made it impossible for the Russian cavalry to advance even 20 meters! The first time German tanks and assault guns opened fire, they hung up the trucks at the front of the Russian army, and they either burned helplessly, or they were turned upside down, and some of the wheels were blown off......

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the German fighters that had been hovering in the air also rushed down, and most of the fighters and dive bombers had already finished dropping their bombs, and they used machine guns and machine guns to strafe ground targets over and over again.