In the early morning of May 1st, International Labor Day. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The assault guns with 150mm short-barreled cannons that Comrade Solzhenitsyn encountered yesterday during the day are now rumbling past Major Schwarzenegger to a collective farm where the Soviets are stationed in front of them, which are approaching to bombard Soviet positions.

This assault gun was called "Grizzly Bear" and was also a derivative of the No. 4 tank. A fixed gun bay that could not be rotated was mounted directly on the territory of Tank 4, and a 150mm caliber /12 howitzer was also installed.

Moreover, the armor of the gun compartment and the frontal hull of this "Grizzly" assault gun is very thick, the front of the gun compartment is 100mm thick, and there is a 40-degree inclination, and the defensive capability is equivalent to a steel plate placed at a right angle of 130mm. The steel plate on the front of the body is 80mm thick, divided into two parts, the upper part has an inclination angle of more than 70 degrees, which belongs to the "non-penetrable" part; The lower part has an inclination of 12 degrees, and the defense capability is the weakest, but in actual combat, additional armor that can resist armor-piercing shells is often installed, and the actual protection capacity (equivalent to vertical steel plates) is also more than 90mm.

In addition, the armor on both sides of the Grizzly assault gun's hull is not very thick, but it is equipped with skirt armor that can protect against armor-piercing shells, including anti-tank rockets/grenades such as Iron Fist. In real combat, as long as there is the cover of tank No. 4 and grenadiers, it is extremely difficult to destroy.

And the short-barreled 150mm gun of this "Grizzly" assault gun is far more powerful than the 75mm gun of the No. 3 assault gun when dealing with enemy positions.

Therefore, in the German Panzer Division and Panzergrenadier Division, which did not need to use the No. 3 assault gun to fight against tanks, the Grizzly assault gun has completely replaced the No. 3 assault gun and has become the standard equipment of the assault gun battalion and assault gun company (attached to the Panzergrenadier Regiment).

By the way, for half a year from last autumn to now, the Wehrmacht Army focused on the construction of Panzergrenadier Divisions, in addition to artillery (mainly units equipped with towed artillery and rocket artillery).

After six months of reinforcement, the number of Panzergrenadier divisions of the German army has now increased to 22, of which 15 are Wehrmacht numbers and 7 are SS numbers.

And each Panzergrenadier division received a sufficient amount of mechanized equipment. It includes 1 tank battalion (66 Type 4H tanks), 1 tank destroyer battalion (45 Rhino tank destroyers equipped with 71x 88mm guns), 1 assault gun battalion plus 3 assault gun companies (a total of 36 Grizzly assault guns), 2 self-propelled artillery battalions (18 105mm Wasp self-propelled guns and 150mm Vespa self-propelled guns, 18 each), 1 tracked self-propelled rocket artillery battalion, and large units equipped with half-track vehicles and wheeled armored vehicles.

The armored combat power of such an Panzergrenadier Division is probably much stronger than that of a German Panzer Division in the same period in history!

It is precisely because these Panzergrenadier Divisions are so strong in combat that in the "Purple Plan", they have completely replaced the Panzer Divisions as sharp knives for breakthroughs.

As for the prestigious German Panzer Divisions, there are now 22 (only one more than last year), but each Panzer Division can now usually bring a heavy armoured battalion equipped with 44 (full) Tiger tanks.

The number of heavily armored battalions has increased several times over the past six months to 36, and the total number of Tiger heavy tanks equipped (number of establishments) has reached 1,584. However, these "Tiger" heavy tanks are not the "Tiger" E tanks that were equipped at the beginning, but the "Tiger" G tanks that have been appropriately reduced in terms of protection.

Without additional armor such as skirts, the total combat weight of this "Tiger" G tank was only 48 tons, which was almost on par with the "Panther" tank -- the "Tiger" tank of this time and space has now gradually matured. According to the improvement plan, the total combat weight of the "Tiger" will be further reduced to less than 45 tons in the future, and the "Tiger" tank is expected to replace the old No. 4 tank and become the main combat vehicle of the German armored forces.

"Attention the 5th SS Destroyer Tank Battalion, follow the 5th SS Assault Gun Battalion into position."

The voice of a division staff officer who was "directing traffic" came from the radio station, and now that the "grizzly bears" were in place, it was the turn of the "rhinoceros" to follow up -- with the help of the "grizzly bears," the "rhinoceros" was not as hard as last year. Most of the errands for bombarding positions were covered by the "Grizzlies", and the "Rhinos" followed up to escort the Soviet tanks that risked their lives to counterattack, or bombarded the reinforced concrete fortifications that the short-barreled artillery of the "Grizzlies" could not reach.

"Brothers, I'm Major Schwarzenegger, I order, all the vehicles start! Advance! ”

By the time Major Schwarzenegger gave orders to all the vehicles over the radio, it was almost noon on May 1, 1943.

The headquarters of the German 1st Panzer Army, which broke through the Soviet defense line on the Pripyat River in the area of Moritzi-Yelisky near the root of the southern front of the Belarusian salient, under the leadership of the 5th SS Panzer Division, advanced smoothly and advanced more than 70 kilometers east in less than 20 hours, approaching the Dnieper.

In the area at the root of the northern front of the Belorussian salient, the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division, the vanguard of the German 4th Panzer Army, also broke through the Velykaya River in the Velizh Annex, and also captured the city of Velizh, which had been abandoned by the Soviet 4th Infantry Corps, around 10 a.m. on May 1.

However, the progress that followed was not as smooth as on the southern front, because Smolensk was 100 kilometers southeast of Velyzh, and the Soviet resistance in this area was bound to be stubborn.

Therefore, the German troops that broke through the Velykaya River in the Demidov area, more than 70 kilometers from Smolensk, again encountered the stubborn resistance of the 3rd Army of the Red Army, and the battle was extremely fierce.

Commander of the 3rd Army of the Red Army Ilya. Major General Oktyabrysky had already arrived in the city of Demidov with the headquarters of the army group, which was located in the collective farm of "Red May Day" in the north of the city, occupying a large area of very neatly built and sturdy bungalows. Antennas disguised as trees were erected on the roofs, telephone lines were quickly laid, the ticks of receiving and receiving telegrams and the ringing of telephones rang, and staff officers hurriedly carried all kinds of orders and messages. From time to time, there will be bursts of rolling thunder, which is the artillery of both sides bombarding each other!

Due to the retreat of the front of the 3rd Army of the Red Army by 30-40 km, the German heavy artillery clusters could not move up for the time being. Therefore, the artillery group of the 3rd Army of the Red Army temporarily had room to play, and was no longer pressed and beaten by the Germans.

However, the situation is still very unfavorable, because most of the sky now belongs to the Germans! The movement and operations of the Soviet troops during the day were severely restricted, even with the cover of Yak-1 aircraft and P-51 fighters, the artillery group of the Red Army had to be transferred in time, otherwise it would be bombed!

At noon on May 1, Herman, who had become a squadron leader and wore a blue Max medal around his neck (which meant at least 25 shot down). Lieutenant Graf is leading his squadron of 16 FW-190A-9 fighters through the skies over the western Kalinin region of the Soviet Union.

Soaring in blue skies above 5,000 meters, Herman. Lieutenant Graf feels that he is the king of the sky, the god who rules everything! Any enemy who takes his own squadron is doomed.

This feeling is not unreasonable, since in June last year at the then wingman Erich. After Hartmann (who now has more than 70 victories) shot down a Soviet fighter, Graf found the feeling of an ace pilot and has been out of control ever since, and now has shot down more than 60 enemy planes, making him a true killer in the air.

And after replacing the landline with an FW-190A-9, Lieutenant Graff felt better. The performance of this aircraft is simply so good that it can fight against the sky, not only at medium and high altitudes it can press the P51 (most of these P51s are two types of A and B, not the most advanced), but also at low altitudes, it can also use the overwhelming advantage in speed and firepower to hang the Yak-1 fighter.

It can be said that with the FW-190A-9, the Fokker Zero D can be retired - in fact, in the Luftwaffe/Naval Aviation internal competition, the FW-190A-9 equipped with a 2,400 hp BMW 801F engine can easily defeat the Fokker Zero D with a "one-hit-and-go" tactic even at low altitudes.

The engine of this plane is good, and it is really more important than anything else!

"Lieutenant, 10 o'clock ahead, at an altitude of 5500 meters, there are unidentified enemy aircraft, it seems to be the P51 of the Soviets."

At this moment, Lieutenant Graf's headset heard the report of the Polish pilot Ensign Zumbach who was leading the way.

"Great, someone is coming to die again!" Lieutenant Graf smiled and immediately gave the order, "Now, four-finger formation, immediately pull up...... We flew over to those P51s. ”

"Okay, Lieutenant!"

"Let's go knock them all down!"

"God defends Germany!"

There was a burst of cheers from inside the headphones, and the morale of these German air force fighters was extremely high, because they had an absolute advantage. If the Soviet Red Army still had the strength to resist on land, they had reached the point where they had no strength to fight back in the air. Although on the Eastern Front, although the Soviet Air Force still had a numerical advantage, the huge gap in quality swallowed up their numerical superiority, putting the Red Air Force in an extremely disadvantageous position. (To be continued.) )