At dawn, the situation on the battlefield in Neimenchi was clearly visible to the soldiers of the "Xiaodi" artillery position, and from the forefront of the heavy artillery observation post, it could be seen that the main attacking force had already reached the outskirts of the city. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoAnd in the northwest of the city, a tank battle is taking place: in an area of less than 50 square kilometers, there are hundreds of tanks on both sides!

The Germans were supporting Nemenchine from the northwest corner, the only quick option after the Nereis channel had been completely blocked an hour earlier!

However, the Germans in the arc encirclement still had 30,000 troops, and could receive artillery support from the south bank of the river, not some mud ornament - just before dawn, an SS panzer regiment, supported by infantry, launched a counter-assault on the flank of the frontal Red Army, trying to flank the advancing Soviet troops with the supporting troops, and the battle temporarily entered a stalemate.

When the sky was bright enough to see the ground situation clearly from the air, a dense crowd of planes appeared in the sky - the air force of the Belarusian direction and the air force of the North-Western Front, which was supporting the first echelon, arrived.

Lin Jun observed the air situation through a high-powered telescope, and he couldn't see the front-line situation of the battlefield here, and Vatujing didn't plan to move the headquarters to Xiaodi now, so he could only look at the planes that appeared in the extreme distance. However, Fekochinov's command was already in the "small ground", and just 5 minutes earlier, Comrade the division commander reported that the 144th Infantry Division, as an interception force, withstood the counterattack of the Germans in the Vilnius direction with the direct support of two tank battalions and an anti-tank medium self-propelled artillery regiment.

"The Germans don't have any advantage in the south, so they don't know what the German military is doing at the top."

Lin Jun said to himself a little - if the battle could be ended within 72 hours, it would not have much impact on Lithuania as a whole; If time runs out, the battle is likely to get bigger and bigger!

Domino effect.

Major General Pronin is now at the forward headquarters of the 144th Division, and he has not yet used all the reserves - a division under his command has to withstand an attack from one direction, and it is not yet time to use all his strength: these 72 hours have not been easy!

"Comrade Commander-in-Chief, my 144th Division is fighting fiercely! In front of me there is at least one German mechanized division plus 100 tanks No. 4! We can withstand it, the lads have already set up the anti-tank guns, and the Germans don't think about going a step forward before 16 o'clock in the afternoon! ”

Amid the cacophony of artillery, the command Rivatutin heard the firm and forceful report of Major General Proning - the infantry units had enough tank and anti-tank fire replenishment, and with the air cover promised by the deputy commander-in-chief, the two SS Panzer Divisions Pronin was confident that they would last eight hours! Not to mention that he can get direct fire support at any time, which is almost equivalent to a heavy artillery division, and he is always on call, and Comrade Major General is full of confidence in being a "supporting role" this time.

"It's not 16 o'clock today, I want you to hold out at least until 16 o'clock tomorrow! I have a tank battalion and a mechanized infantry regiment for you, just 5 km from your flank. ”

"Yes, Comrade Admiral."

Vatukin had a bit of a desire to knock on Pronin's head; The joint meeting was in vain -- at 16 o'clock this afternoon, I thought that the first division was all "iron soldiers" who could not be killed?!

"Pronin is a little lacking in initiative, but as a commander of the blocking force, even if he fills in himself, he will complete the task."

Lin Jun said to Vatujing: Proning is a little cautious, but it is reliable.

Vatutin did not like commanders like Pronin, he valued commanders who were accustomed to quickly interspersing and seizing any fleeting fighter plane, because he himself was an expert in tank warfare. But this time it's really not possible to do without Proning, this "dirty work" really has to be such an "old-school" commander.

Report every day, as long as the conditions allow - at least you will not make mistakes, and you will be steady.

The 144th Division, supported by tanks and self-propelled guns, occupied the road to Vilnius from the flanks after the launch of the general offensive, and the soldiers, having defeated the stubborn resistance of at least one German infantry regiment, immediately formed positions.

This does not seem to be in line with the Red Army's habit of mechanized warfare, but it is only 30 kilometers away from Vilnius, and mechanized operations cannot be fought on the outskirts of Vilnius.

At the forefront, while the fighters of the first line of infantry defense were still digging foxholes, a significant number of German tanks appeared in the direction of Vilnius in the far distance of the horizon!

On the flanks of the infantry, the reinforced tank battalion retreated into the woods, not planning to rush up and fight the German tanks with a "tank bayonet": behind a few pitifully small mounds around the boys, 12 ZIS-3 76-mm cannons of the division's anti-tank fighter battalion were building positions.

The boys of the anti-tank fighter battalion love this cannon that weighs only 1.15 tons, not to mention the American jeep that was only rationed to them at the beginning of this year to use to pull the gun. Dragged directly behind the infantry, all 6 people were stuffed into the jeep, dragging the cannon and running the same! (Not surprisingly, 10 people have seen an American Jeep race with a small 1-ton trailer in tow!) ）

The American jeep doesn't seem to have any concept of overloading, and after a small change, four people can still stuff a few shells under their feet, and run faster than the original mules and horses. The result is that now when the boys are wielding sledgehammers, the ammunition truck of the destroyer battalion is still a kilometer away!

However, this jeep is not yet "standard", and it is supposed to be rationed to the Jeep in Dodge to be "seated", but the Red Army artillery is also considered "conditional, unconditional!" The standard trolley pulls the cannon.

Except for the 5th and 6th gunners, who were supposed to be in the tractor, the others were supposed to stay in the ammunition truck (which also served as a personnel carrier), but now the situation was reversed in such a combat situation - gunners 5 and 6, who were in charge of preparing the shells, were on the ammunition truck!

It will take a few minutes for the ammunition truck to arrive, but within a few minutes the artilleryman's sledgehammer will be able to secure the cannon.

Open the big frame, dig through the frozen ground, put down the hoe, and with a few strokes of the big hammer, the huge steel pin used for fixing will be firmly smashed into the soil.

A ZIS-3 cannon with 2 tanks and 5 bunkers destroyed on an artillery shield is fixed next to the infantrymen, in the middle of the two infantry platoons! There is a gentle slope about 50 centimeters high and more than 30 meters long, and it looks like a ridge under the snow, and the artillerymen account for half of it.

"Comrades infantry, we're here, we'll plug your ears later!"

A large corporal with a sledgehammer shouted at the infantry more than 10 meters away.

"Philip (don't be surprised, the Slavs have names for that, too. Don't talk nonsense, bring all the shells over! The sergeant who spoke was observing with his goggles.

"Yes, Gunner."

"Ivan. Don't fire yet, put it at 1600 meters. ”

"Keep an eye on it, Bukanov." Deputy Gun Commander Ivan stared at the gun scope, fine-tuning the angle.

The sound of loading was heard, "Armor-piercing bullets, reloaded." "The loader (second gunner) is reloaded, and it is the first gunner who speaks (opening and closing the bolt, checking and reporting the recoil).

The artillerymen did not want to die, and pulled the artillery to the front line; The infantry comrades on the side consciously vacated their positions, and no one was too close to it -- about one-third of the soldiers of the 144th Division had participated in the Northern War, and they were very sophisticated, so it was better to stay away from this life-urging ghost, otherwise they would have been "mistakenly injured" by German shells before they had used their assault rifles to defeat the Germans, and it would be too worthless!

Desperately dig foxholes, lest shrapnel cut off their heads: as soon as they fire, the shells of German tanks will "focus on" those anti-tank cannons around them.

As soon as the ammunition truck arrived, the gunners unloaded half of the shells from above, and the Germans' high-explosive shells arrived first!

"It's not accurate, the Germans who can kill our shells haven't been built yet!" Sergeant Bukanov looked serious and lowered his body, but his mouth didn't care at all.

"1,800 meters, speed twenty."

"Jumping up and down, can't hit us."

The Germans were not having a good time either, there were constant shells exploding between German tanks and half-track transporters, and it was howitzers shelling from a distance.

Finally, the artillery commander Bukanov shouted "1650 meters!" ”

Now it's up to the deputy gunner.

With a loud bang, the cannon jumped slightly, and the fire flashed in a blue-white smoke from the muzzle, and the armor-piercing projectile flew rapidly towards the target at a speed that was not visible to the naked eye.

"It's near! Ten meters! ”

Just as Bukanov shouted out the impact point, the second armor-piercing shell was loaded, and the cannon roared again!

"Hit! Kill one! ”

There was no time to celebrate, Ivan fine-tuned the sight, and 7 seconds later the third armor-piercing shot ejected, and a German tank 1,600 meters away rushed forward two meters to the nest - the track was broken!

The Germans were not given a chance, and a few seconds later another armor-piercing bullet hit, and smoke came out of the target! The German tankmen haven't even drilled out of the tank yet! The gunners were skillfully coordinated, and the rate of fire of the cannon designed by Comrade Grabin was even more amazing, as long as the ammunition was sufficient, the gunners had no problem firing a sustained rate of fire of fifteen rounds per minute in ten minutes!

Burst faster! Accurate shooting certainly didn't reach that terrifying rate of fire, but it was enough for the Germans!

The accuracy of several nearby artillery crews was obviously not comparable to Bukanov and others, and several artillery crews simply used high-explosive shells, and the boys fired with their lives!

At this time, a huge roar of aircraft sounded in the air, and like a director making a movie, the Soviet Union and the Luftwaffe arrived over the theater of operations almost at the same time.

The Luftwaffe mixed formations, they were to bomb the Red Army units and provide support to their own units below, and the Soviet Air Force was organized for the same purpose. While Bukanov's artillery crew was firing incessantly in the face of explosions, hundreds of combat planes crashed headlong into each other from an altitude of 5,000 meters above their heads to an ultra-low altitude close to the ground!

"Lilia, one o'clock direction, German bombers! Keep up! ”

There was a bit of noise in the earbuds, and the captain of a two-plane lager formation raised his hand to the wingman pilot next to him, worried that she wouldn't hear.

The plane was depicted with a red star and a conspicuous lily, and Lilia Litwiak signaled to the captain Solomartin: she understood.

"Damn it! How did those Red Devils get here! ”

The German pilots had already seen what kind of fighters were coming: a large group of colors, led by the famous "Red Devil" on the Belarusian front!

The "Circus of the Sky" has arrived!

Now Kozhdub is driving the division commander's plane, staring at the German aircraft group and diving at high speed!

(May the great motherland always be prosperous and strong!) (To be continued.) )