"Rocket artillery! Hide! ”

I don't know who suddenly shouted, Gustav, who was standing next to a half-track armored command vehicle. Major Schwarzenegger reacted quickly, quickly threw himself to the ground, rolled again, moved his body to the tracks of the half-track, and covered his head with both hands. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 At this moment, a shrill "boom" and a violent roar followed, and Schwarzenegger, who was lying next to the half-track, felt a hot storm pass by on his back.

He knew that a Soviet rocket had just exploded near him. If he hadn't collapsed beside a sturdy half-track in time, he would have gone to God by now.

Soviet rocket artillery bombardment came and went as fast as it came. After a loud bang that was loud enough to make one think it was the end of the world, the battlefield was suddenly filled with choking smoke and hot air.

Major Schwarzenegger, who had seen many rocket volleys on the battlefield in Warsaw, ignored the buzzing sound in his ears and pushed the ground with both hands, and the whole person got up from the grass.

When he looked around, the first thing that caught his eye was six huge "Rhinoceros" tank destroyers, all of which were intact. Because the "Rhinoceros" of this time and space has a top armor baffle, although it is only 10mm thick, it is enough to defend against the fragmentation of rockets. Unless the vehicle is overturned by a direct hit or a rocket explodes at a very close distance, it will not cause much damage.

Then he saw that the 19 Type 4H tanks covered in camouflage nets spread out on both wings were also unharmed. His battle group originally consisted of 22 Type 4H vehicles, but now there are 3 vehicles under repair, and only 19 vehicles can be operated. If you count the 6 "Rhino" coolie guns that are all in good condition, the intact rate of the main combat vehicle is close to 90%. Such a high equipment integrity rate, on the one hand, shows that Germany's No. 4 series of tanks are mature in technology and pass the quality test; On the other hand, it also shows that the intensity of the fighting in these days is extremely low -- this shows that the Soviet Red Army deliberately put the German troops near Minsk.

Maybe the real battle is just beginning!

"Check your equipment and get ready for battle!" Major Schwarzenegger immediately shouted, knowing that the shelling would be followed by an attack by tanks and infantry.

But at this moment, the mournful whimper of the hand-cranked air defense siren rang out!

Although the Soviet Red Air Force lost most of its air supremacy, they did not disappear. In fact, the Soviets replenished their fighter pilots much faster than their opponents -- after all, the Soviets had been paying great attention to building up their air reserves for many years, and they had enough fuel for their flying, politically reliable Soviet citizens to learn to fly airplanes.

In order to save fuel, the number of reserve pilots trained by the German side was far less than that of the Soviet Union. Moreover, the overly serious and rigorous nature has made the training of air force and naval aviation pilots relatively slow. So now the Luftwaffe and naval aviation are still at a disadvantage in terms of quantity compared to the Soviet Union, but they have an overwhelming advantage in quality.

Major Schwarzenegger held up his binoculars to see a group of low-flying dark green fighters, trying to identify them as Il-2 attack aircraft or other fighters. At this moment, someone next to him suddenly cheered loudly. Schwarzenegger turned his head and saw 12 planes in light green paint coming from the north. They looked light and muscular, flying fast at low altitudes, and in the blink of an eye they were passing over the positions of the Schwarzenegger battle group.

Gustav. Schwarzenegger recognized at a glance that these aircraft were Fokker Zeros, a fighter that had been very reliable from the outbreak of war to cover the German ground forces in the air.

Any experienced officer and soldier of the German Army knew that as long as the Fokker Zero appeared at low altitude, enemy attack aircraft and bombers had little chance of dropping bombs on their heads.

Amid the cheers of the SS soldiers, I saw that the 12 Fokker Zeros were divided into six twin aircraft and rushed towards the Soviet convoy, and took the lead in making a "da-da-da" cannon sound. The Soviet planes that had been flying in formation seemed to be stunned by this sudden attack, and two more fighters that seemed to be Il-2 dragged their heads down with thick smoke. I don't know if it was deliberate or by chance, one of the two Soviet planes actually rushed towards the position of the Schwarzenegger cluster, and in the blink of an eye, it fell next to a 38t self-propelled anti-aircraft gun that was firing, and exploded with a bang. Immediately, this anti-aircraft gun remodeled from the obsolete 38T tank chassis was drowned in the sea of fire.

"Another Bolshevik madman!" Gustav. Schwarzenegger knew that the impact was mostly deliberate, and he had seen it a lot on the battlefield in Warsaw. The Bolshevik air force had quite a few fighters who were willing to sacrifice their lives for the ideals of GCISM.

"Prepare for battle!" Schwarzenegger no longer paid attention to the battle in the sky, he knew that the Fokker Zero was very reliable at low altitudes, even the American P51 was no match for it. And at medium and high altitudes, there must be an FW-190 ambush now. The sky above the battlefield today must belong to the Luftwaffe!

"Rhino cannon, fire at 2000 meters!" Major Schwarzenegger continued to give the order, "Fire at 1000 meters on the 4th!" ”

The "Rhino" tank destroyer is equipped with the same artillery as the Tiger tank, and when using high-speed armor-piercing shells (tungsten alloy cores), it can penetrate 110mm homogeneous steel plates placed at a 30-degree angle at a distance of 2,000 meters. Theoretically, it is possible to penetrate the frontal armor of the current T-34 and KV-1! Moreover, the hit rate of this gun is extremely high, a well-trained crew can hit 80% at a distance of 2000 meters (hit rate in training), so for the "Rhino", 2000 meters is a suitable firing distance.

The power of the 75-mm L/48 tank gun used in the No. 4H model is much worse, and the opponent's T-34 is not a big problem at a distance of 1000 meters with high-speed armor-piercing shells, but it is a bit difficult to hit KV tanks.

When the order was given, Major Schwarzenegger was also sweating in his palms, he commanded only a reinforced battalion-level battle group, and all that could be used was 19 No. 4 and 6 "Rhinos".

The fierce battle is staged as scheduled! The first wave rushed up with a cluster of dozens of T-34/57s and bulky KV-1 tanks, followed by countless infantry.

Because the Schwarzenegger cluster was on the right flank of the six German armored battle groups, it was the first to be attacked by the Soviet troops under the command of Vatutin. Although only one tank brigade, two cavalry brigades and a rocket artillery battalion of the Soviet assault 1st Army were rushed to the battlefield now, and they were bombed several times by the French Breguet planes on the way, the vehicle was less than 60% intact. But still much more powerful than the Schwarzenegger cluster!

And Lieutenant General Vatutin also knew that the follow-up troops of the Germans were coming in a steady stream, and the counterattack had to be short and powerful. Therefore, in the first wave of the attack, he threw half of his tanks and succeeded in 3,000 dismounted cavalry.

Watching the Soviets' tanks and soldiers approaching step by step, Major Schwarzenegger was also a little nervous. Just looking at the scale of the first wave of Soviet attacks, he knew that this could well be the beginning of a great battle.

There should be a lot of tanks and Soviet soldiers in the back, right? Gustav. Major Schwarzenegger suddenly felt an inexplicable sadness: I am afraid that such an engagement will continue for a long time...... Or even many years.

Having fought hard with the Soviet army in Warsaw, he knew very well that the Soviet Red Army was not an enemy that could be easily defeated!

"Boom! Rumble! Boom ......"

At this moment, the 88mm guns of 6 Rhino anti-tank destroyers began to roar, and the collision of the tank sea of the Soviet and German armies had already begun!

……

"Sir, the vanguard of the 5th SS Panzer Division and the vanguard of the Soviet tank cluster exchanged fire, and the fight was very fierce." The commander of Army Group North, Tiperskich, reported the information he had just received to Manstein.

"The vanguard is fighting very fiercely?"

"Yes, it seems that the Soviet army is very determined to fight back." "As long as we can win a landslide victory in this tank cluster battle, the capture of Minsk is not impossible," Tiperski said. ”

"It can't be captured," Manstein shook his head, "and all kinds of intelligence show that the Soviet army is preparing for a long-term hold on to Minsk." Even if they were defeated in tank engagements, they still had enough strength to retreat to Minsk. After all, the area of engagement is very close to Minsk, and the defeated Soviet army will soon be able to run into the city of Minsk. ”

Because of the experience of the battles of Warsaw and Lviv, now both sides know the truth that fortified cities are difficult to overcome. Therefore, Manstein believed that the probability of the Soviet army abandoning the fortified city of Minsk was almost zero.

"But I don't want Minsk either, what's so good about Minsk? It's just a medium-sized industrial city, and it's not worth the hundreds of thousands to hundreds of thousands of casualties. ”

Storming the city was an unsolvable problem during World War II, even with the B-4 demolition cannon, a strong attack was a dead and wounded. So in the "Blue Plan" there were almost no plans for storming cities, and for large cities heavily defended by the Red Army, the means of siege were basically adopted, and the defenders were forced to surrender with hunger.

So in the plan that Manstein is now executing, the first thing to seek is a field battle outside Minsk. After defeating the Soviet tank group, if the Soviets refused to abandon Minsk, then the German Army Group North would take the means of encirclement, besiege the Minsk defenders, and at the same time cut off the main lines of communication between the defenders of Warsaw and Brest and the rear. (To be continued.) )