Someone said, "If only we could make a fire." ”

He was fighting as he spoke, and his voice sounded like he was crying. In the face of this harsh reality, everyone must do their best. A few more jokes were told, and I laughed out loud, as if I had forgotten where they were.

They set up a battalion in a shelter at a temporary Soviet Air Force airfield. Most of that airfield had already been abandoned by the Soviet Air Force, since the planes were mostly withdrawn to the rear. Some of the fighters are still here, with a layer of ice on the fuselage and it looks like they haven't been serviced for a long time. A ground crew member who stayed behind was removing the main parts of the plane and pulling them away on a large sleigh behind the tractor.

On the side of the path were some trucks half-buried in snow. On the other side of a trench, some artillery and heavy howitzers were hidden behind a large pile of snow. As we passed by this artillery position, it disappeared from view. They came to a wide trench, where several emaciated horses were digging the ground with their hooves. There were bags of hay there, and the poor horses were sniffing the hay with their wet noses, but they didn't seem to have much interest in the grass. Around these horses were the carcasses of several dead horses that had been frozen. Several soldiers in long coats were watching the horses.

Suddenly, a continuous explosion was heard, and the air was filled with the concussions of the explosion. It sounds like these shells fell about three or four hundred meters to our left.

The guide told them: "The Chinese will only fire when they attack, maybe they will attack." With a sudden explosion in a row and a shrill whistling sound like a cat's meow, the Soviet soldiers hurriedly threw away the ammunition boxes in their hands, lowered their bodies, and looked around anxiously. The air around them seemed to freeze suddenly.

The hellish voice began again, and though they knew what it was now, they were still very nervous.

"Put on your steel helmets! If the Chinese had found an artillery position here, they would have opened fire here! The sergeant shouted.

The air around them shook again, and the sound of cannon fire was everywhere. The Chinese artillery is firing non-stop, and the explosion of Chinese shells is becoming rhythmic. The sergeant major looked a little panicked, and he asked, "So where are we going?" ”

Another deafening cannon salvo interrupted their conversation, and they instinctively shrank their heads and closed their eyes. As soon as a soldier was about to speak, an explosion that was different from the Soviet artillery reached us, followed by a sharp whistling and a deafening explosion. The explosion lifted them off the ground. They staggered with a huge wave of air, followed by a rain of stones and ice that fell on them. The soldiers were lying on the ground, no one said a word, and guns and lunch boxes were thrown aside. In the midst of the chaos, a soldier threw himself on the ground and cried, "They're going to kill me!" They're going to kill me! Before he could finish speaking, the cannon of the [***] squadron opened fire again.

The sergeant major shouted, "Let's keep walking!" Can't stay here! He said as he put on his steel helmet.

Soviet soldiers mechanically picked up ammunition boxes like clockwork men. The trenches here were wide enough for four people to walk side by side, but now everyone was walking in a formation close to the trench wall.

"Everyone, let's go! Fast! The Chinese have already discovered our artillery positions! They can see this position, we are right next to this position now! This trench is leading us into the artillery fire of the Chinese. We have to go through that emergency route. ”

The Soviet soldiers had to pounce on the ground every minute. No matter how hard they tried, the heavy ammunition box in their hands still slipped to the ground from time to time, but fortunately, the grenade in the box did not explode in front of them.

Suddenly, there was a loud sound of the sky cracking nearby, and one side of the trench on the side was blown down. All this happened so quickly that the Soviet soldiers did not even have time to hide. One man was blown apart and fell to the edge of the trench where they were. The Soviet soldiers were lying dead under the trenches, and not one of them had the strength or courage to stand up.

The sergeant major shouted to them again: "Quick! Get up! We've got to get to the other side of the trench! The sergeant's face was a little distorted with fear, "If a shell falls on us, this place will immediately become a volcano!" ”

Soviet soldiers pulled ammunition boxes over the rubble in the trenches and the bodies of several soldiers killed by shells. It was a gruesome scene, with the deceased's steel helmet covering his face, his heavy winter coat wrapped around his body that had been completely distorted by the explosion, and one of the corpse's legs, perhaps two, had been blown away. Another body lay in a pile of rubble not far from him. The Chinese shell must have landed right where the two poor fellows were hiding, and they were probably waiting for the shelling to end...... When the Soviet soldiers reached the emergency passage of the trenches, the sergeant major rushed in with a single arrow, when the earth carried by the shells rained down on the trenches. Their arrival frightened the two soldiers, who were already in the trenches in white cloaks, jumping. One of them was using a trench viewing scope to reconnoiter the situation in the positions of the Chinese troops in front. Another man was crouching in the cat's ear hole and adjusting the radio. The sergeant major gasped and asked them, "Where is Area 09?" We're giving them supplies. The soldier, who was using the field observation scope, replied, "It's not too far, but you can't get there, you'll be blown up." Take your ammunition with you, don't go from there, go from our bunkers. ”

The Soviet soldiers then descended into a tomb-like structure made of planks and frozen earth. The bunker was dark, with four soldiers in white cloaks inside, one getting ready to sleep, and the others writing letters in the dim light of a candle. The height of the bunker made it impossible to stand up, and everyone inside had to move them to get through.

"Is this top sturdy?" One of the soldiers said as he pushed his finger to the top. One of the soldiers in the bunker said: "If a shell falls next to it, it will collapse." Another chimed in: "If a shell had landed on it, our comrades wouldn't have bothered to bury us." ”

The sleeping soldier was now awakened, and he yawned and said, "I thought they had sent us some women." ”

Someone chimed in: "No...... It was a bunch of children who sent it. Sergeant Major, where did you find these kids? ”

Hearing this, everyone burst out laughing.

The earth began to tremble again, but the noise here was not as intense as it had been outside.

Someone said: "These lads are some new recruits, they are escorting the military columns, and they have just crossed all of Russia to come here, so that your stomachs will not be hungry." The soldier who had just woken up replied, "What's that, we've been watching the hateful Chinese here for months, and you're still wandering around that time." I know you have quite a few pretty girls in Ukraine. Don't stay here too long, or we'll starve. ”

The earth began to shake again. A few pieces of the ceiling fell and smashed into my steel helmet.

The sergeant chief said with a worried face: "It seems that the situation here is not good!" ”

As if to deliberately increase his concerns, another man in the bunker said: "The Chinese's giant tank will soon hit here." ”

"Giant tanks for the Chinese?" The sergeant grew out of surprise.

"yes? The kind that can drive all the way to Moscow. One soldier said mockingly, prompting a burst of laughter.

"It's April Fool's Day and he's kidding." Someone saw that the commissar had an ugly face and explained with a smile.

"We have that kind of tank, it's specifically designed to deal with their tanks." The political commissar, who had not spoken, said expressionlessly.

"And when will they come? Comrade Political Commissar? Someone laughed.

"You'll see." The commissar glared at him sternly and said, and the bunker fell silent for a moment.

"We should now send the ammunition to Area 09." The sergeant chief anxiously said to the men in the bunker, "Go a little further down and you will find them over there." I think they control that place now. It's a dangerous place, and I'd rather stay here. ”

Chinese shells continued to fall sharply and regularly on Soviet positions. The soldier with the field scope returned, hunched over and puffing at his fingers. He said to another soldier: "It's your turn, I'm shaking so badly now, I'm afraid my teeth will be knocked out." The soldier he had called complained and walked out.

The sergeant major thought for a moment and asked again: "Why don't our cannons fire?" ”

The soldier replied: "You should know that we have a very limited supply of ammunition. We had to save every bullet, that is, we couldn't afford to waste a single bullet. Both infantry and artillery must save as much ammunition as possible. But we must not let Chinese know about this, so we haven't had time to teach them a lesson...... Do you understand? ”

The sergeant major suddenly realized and nodded: "I understand." ”

The shells fired by the Chinese continued to pour down from the sky, making the Soviet soldiers feel as if the end of the world was coming. They cautiously left the bunker, picked up ammunition boxes and walked along the trenches to the front. They walked in a zigzag shape, and at the end of the trench was their destination. The trenches were littered with shivering soldiers who were roasting themselves with portable heaters. Along the way, they were asked, "Did you bring the letter?" At this time, 3 Soviet fighters whizzed over their heads, and there was a brief and sparse cheer from the position.

The trenches began to get narrower and narrower. Sixty meters ahead, there was a river bank covered in high weeds and covered with snow and ice, and the place they were going was near that bank.

The soldiers walked out of the trenches and had to jump from crater to crater. They climbed into a large crater, where they saw a medic bandaging two soldiers with their teeth locked. He told them this was where we were going. They didn't have time to take a closer look at the dangerous position, and after we dropped the boxes, they turned around and went to get the remaining ammunition from the sled.

A captain in a coat jumped into the bunker, and before the soldiers could salute, he leaned on the trench goggles and looked out. A few seconds later, we heard rumbling explosions from behind, and almost at the same time, explosions on the wide expanse of ice sent up high columns of water. The sound of cannons and the sound of shells exploding mingled together. The Soviet soldiers were lying on the ground of the bunkers, and everyone looked at each other with confused and anxious eyes.

Huge blocks of ice, which looked more than half a meter thick, stood at right angles in the river, and the broken ice was swaying rhythmically with the current below. The surroundings were filled with the sound of ice cubes colliding with each other.

The commissar stared blankly at the situation in the river, and gradually noticed the red light that appeared on the opposite plain like a sunset. The Soviet captain stared intently at the increasingly strong lights from the lookout, and his face turned pale.

The sound of engines suddenly sounded in the sky, and the Soviet soldiers were all terrified, and soon the searchlight lights pierced the night sky and pointed in the direction of the plane. Immediately after, the rumbling of anti-aircraft guns rang out.

"This is the Chinese's 'April Fool's Day' offensive." The political commissar said to himself.

The commissar and the Soviet soldiers who were on the front line here did not know that the largest war in human history began with the sound of artillery on April Fool's Day.

At this moment, 500 Chinese combat planes flying into Soviet airspace from uninhabited forests and swamps at a critical altitude were approaching the intended target, and the Chinese Air Force could have dispatched more planes, but because the army was worried that the Air Force's actions would prematurely expose the entire operational intentions of the Chinese army, and that it would lose its sudden surname for attacking, the Chinese Air Force decided to draw out some highly skilled pilots and take advantage of the cover of night to fly through the above-mentioned areas that were not easy to be detected to carry out the first wave of attacks. And 25 minutes later there was a much larger attack (with 1268 aircraft). And over the airfields of the eastern military districts of the Soviet army, the Russians did not have time to evacuate the planes to the airstrips, and a large number of pilots were either learning to fly new planes in the rear or going on vacation. The sneak attack of the Chinese Air Force was thus a great success. At an altitude of 4 kilometers, Chinese planes dropped numerous 2-kilogram anti-personnel bombs (400 on each Chinese bomber and 100 on fighters). Under the blow of these bombs, which can be scattered into more than 60 large fragments and hundreds of small fragments, with a killing radius of up to 15 meters, the Soviet planes, which are densely arranged in a "perfect parade formation," suffered heavy losses, and more than 1,000 planes burned on the ground. The sudden air attack of the Chinese army caught the Soviet army by surprise, and not a single Soviet fighter in the air took off in advance to intercept the Chinese group, and the ground failed to organize effective antiaircraft artillery fire. And since many airfields simply did not have anti-aircraft guns, Soviet ground crews and pilots could only shoot Chinese planes raging in the air with rifles. At one of the military airfields, Soviet soldiers even raised the tail machine guns of the planes to shoot. At the same time, the few Red Army pilots on duty were hurrying into the planes in an attempt to force a takeoff, but were suppressed by heavy fire from Chinese fighters in the air. At the airfield near the border, an entire squadron of fighters belonging to the Siberian Special Military District of the USSR was destroyed on the ground by Chinese aircraft during a forced takeoff. The aviation units of this military district lost a total of 1,263 aircraft that day, of which the 10th Mixed Aviation Division lost all its aircraft; The 11th Division lost 188 of its 167 aircraft; The 9th Mixed Aviation Division lost 410 out of 366 aircraft, including all 542 valuable MiG-3 fighters of the Siberian Special Military District. Of the total number of aircraft lost, more than 800 were destroyed on the ground. After suffering such heavy losses, only 34 "Yak-1", 95 "Su-2" and 28 "Il-2" remained of the new aircraft of the military district. To add insult to injury, the air force of the military region was not only attacked by the air, but the airfield was even bombarded by heavy field artillery of the Chinese army because it was too close to the national border.

Only a few lucky Soviet fighters were able to take to the skies, but some did not meet the Chinese planes, and after they landed, a second wave of air strikes fell from the sky. As a result, fewer aircraft fought with the Chinese aircraft. The 66th Assault Aviation Regiment of the Red Army, deployed on the Northeast Front, was given such an opportunity. Lieutenant Lapostov, who was attached to the regiment, piloted an "Il-2" and hit a "Quick Knife" twin-engine medium bomber of the 51st Bombardment Wing of the Chinese Army, which was the first air combat result in the entire Sino-Soviet war. In the ensuing battle, 6 more Chinese planes were shot down by Soviet planes. However, when the lightning-fast "woolly rhinoceros" fighters of the 3rd Fighter Wing of the Chinese Army intervened in the battle, the situation was reversed. The outdated fighters of the Soviet army were not at all the opponents of the "Woolly Rhino" with a speed of 704 kilometers per hour and a 20-mm cannon.

The first round of air raids by the Chinese army did not meet with much resistance. In the ensuing attack, although the Soviet resistance increased, as was the case in the first air battle between the two sides, the "woolly rhino" fighters piloted by battle-hardened Chinese pilots dominated the air. The slow Soviet fighters could only take advantage of the small turning radius to lure the Chinese fighters to the firing position, and then suddenly turned around with a 180-degree turn to attack the Chinese fighters in hot pursuit.

(To be continued)