The Brest Fortress, a steel barrier in front of the Germans, withstood thousands of shells in the first 10 minutes of the war. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

With regard to this big nail blocking the advance of Army Group Center, the German General Staff carefully considered and reconnoitred the Brest Fortress when drawing up the Barbarossa battle plan: according to Hitler's idea, the troops of the German invasion of the Soviet Union would be divided into three army groups, of which Army Group Center was tasked with crossing the Bug River, occupying Minsk, and pointing directly at Moscow.

In considering the direction of the main attack of Army Group Center, the German General Staff was not without scruples about the Brest Fortress, because Army Group Center was equipped with Guderian's second armored group, so the dense forests north of Brest were obviously not suitable for the rapid advance of tanks, and the Pratt swamp area in the south of Brest, which was not visible at a glance, could not be considered, and only the choke point of Brest was a favorable position for the breakthrough of the tank column.

After detailed reconnaissance by the Luftwaffe, the Germans discovered that after more than a year of construction of the fortress, the Soviet army already had a rapid transportation network that threatened the transportation arteries outside the fortress, and even more importantly, it could pose a threat to the Warsaw-Moscow railway and the Brest railway station, which were only a few kilometers north of the fortress! Therefore, the Germans could only use infantry units equipped with heavy firepower to encircle and destroy the Soviet troops defending the fortress, while the armored forces advanced in a roundabout way from the north of the fortress.

The German General Staff entrusted the capture of the Brest Fortress to the 45th Infantry Division, which was formerly the 4th Division of the Austrian Army, which was renamed the 45th Infantry Division by the Germans after the merger of Germany and Austria. In the Polish Campaign of 1939, the 45th Infantry Division, which was attached to the Southern Front cluster under the command of Field Marshal Leinster of the German Army, marched 400 kilometers on foot in 13 days in hot weather, advancing an average of 30 kilometers per day, and only 158 people were killed in the entire campaign, which left a deep impression on the German General Staff!

In the 1940 French Campaign, the 45th Division forcibly crossed the Marne River in France and was the first to enter Paris, making great achievements. In the summer of 1941, this unit was assigned to the 12th Army of the German 2nd Panzer Group, and on the first day of Barbarossa, the 45th Infantry Division was given the task of quickly taking the Brest Fortress.

In order to allow the 45th Division to occupy the fortress smoothly and quickly, the German General Staff formulated a powerful fire support plan, equipped the 45th Infantry Division with 12 artillery detachments, and also sent 9 hexabolite artillery detachments from the 4th Chemical Special Regiment, in addition, the German army also used several huge 600 mm "Karl" mortars, shells weighing several tons are powerful weapons specially designed to destroy the fortifications of the fortifications, and the Luftwaffe will also provide the necessary air fire support for the battle to attack the fortress; The 34th and 31st Infantry Divisions of the 12th Army were to carry out auxiliary attacks from the flanks of the fortress, and the 2nd Panzer Group under the command of Guderian was ordered to provide all necessary combat support for the 45th Infantry Division.

The German top brass believed that there were only 7,000 to 8,000 Red Army garrisons in the entire fortified area, and the number of heavy equipment they had was not too much, which could be clearly calculated in many aerial reconnaissance and early firefights. Just five minutes after the first round of shelling was launched, the commandos of the German 45th Division, which had long been hidden by the river, launched an operation to force the crossing of the Bug River, and it was at this moment that the Germans realized how bad their intelligence work was - the first wave of German grenadiers in rubber boats were subjected to overwhelming machine gun fire in the middle of the river, and the originally calm Bug River became a man-eating monster - the Maxim machine gunners hiding in the bunker by the river were waiting for the Germans to cross the river!

Under the cover of the construction of the Ming Fort on the shore, the engineers spent more than half a year to build two "underground Great Walls" within a range of more than ten kilometers on both sides of the Buge River, and the most classic is that the construction of the Ming Fort used the prisoner construction team that Lin Jun did not look down on, which completely blinded the German reconnaissance agency.

The border guards guarding the river bank usually lived and ate in the fortress, and when they left their posts or changed guards, they had to go through long tunnels to get out of the fortress, although there were also several exits on the east side of the riverbank, and the Germans on the opposite side could not see them - they were only used by the defenders on rainy days.

The German anti-tank guns hidden on the west side of the river bank basically sent the Mingbao that could be seen on the ground into the sky within 5 minutes, and the defenders of the fortress also used these few minutes to make all preparations - the soldiers on duty who had been sticking to the machine guns did not blindly expose their positions, but waited for the ground posts to report that the Germans had begun to cross the river, and then opened the concealed armored door, and in the roar and smoke of gunpowder, the Maxim machine guns fired wildly exerted their due great lethality, harvesting life like harvesting wheat, A long shot can break a dozen German soldiers on a rubber boat into sacks!

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Terespol Gate, at the forefront of the Brest Fortress, the officer on duty today is the young Soviet Lieutenant Kizhevatov of the 17th Red Banner Brest State Border Garrison Corps. At the moment of the beginning of the overwhelming shelling, he loudly ordered the troops to be ready for battle.

Just behind the brick wall above the city gates, Lieutenant Kirzhevatov was looking at the bridge through the observation window of the command room reinforced with 30-mm armor plates.

"Fortress Command phone!" The attendant handed the phone to the lieutenant.

"I'm Zarilov, blow up the bridge!"

The sound of a huge shell explosion made Kizhevatov ask twice more before he could hear the commander's words, "Understand, blow up the bridge!" ”

He took out the key from his jacket pocket, opened the armor box in the command room, and unscrewed the piezoelectric switch—a dull loud bang was heard, and the entire Terespil fortress felt the ground tremble, and the bridge in front of him collapsed.

Before the Germans had time to enter the stone bridge, which was more than a hundred years old, the German sappers who were waiting for the end of the shelling to launch a strong attack were dumbfounded, they did not expect that the Soviets could actually load explosives under the bridge under their noses!

The bridge had collapsed, but only for a short distance near the east bank, and the broken structures had not completely sunk into the river—the Bug River was not deep here, and the German infantry would have been able to come through.

"The Germans' tanks!"

"Top anti-aircraft guns, take out the tanks! Fast! "Shout at the intercom tube Kizhevatov!

Without the commander's order, the 37-mm anti-aircraft gun in the bunker above the lieutenant's head was already in position, and the No. 1 anti-aircraft gun had already aimed its muzzle at the German tank that appeared near the bridgehead on the riverbank.

The Terespol Gate garrison had already prepared: the magazines of ordinary anti-aircraft guns were full of high-explosive shells, but two of the shells in the 5-round magazine of the single-barreled Type 1939 37-mm anti-aircraft gun on the spot were armor-piercing!

The frontal armor of Tank No. 3, which had just rushed to the bank of the river, might have been able to block the armor-piercing shells of the 37mm anti-aircraft guns, but from this point of view it was not much stronger than a galvanized tin can!

The shell easily pierced through the armor, causing the internal ammunition to explode - the entire turret was flipped aside!

"Die!" The height and direction machine were adjusted, and a shell smashed on the tank behind it, igniting a large fireball - Litsev seized the timing just right, the wreckage of the two destroyed tanks just blocked the bridge passage, and the German tanks and artillery did not want to get close until they were cleared!

In the darkness, you can see the flashes on the opposite riverbank, it is the German mortar firing, after a simple calculation, Litsev and the second gun on the side adjust the angle of fire, "High explosive shells!" ”

Firing seven magazines in a row, the anti-aircraft shooters seemed to be able to hear the screams of the Germans in the deafening explosions and firing - of course, this was only a psychological trick, but the mortar position that had been exposed could imagine the scene there with their toes after receiving such a "rain of shells".

"Well done! Comrades! Hold the gates, the Germans don't want to pass through here, let them taste our awesomeness! ”

The whole fortress exploded everywhere, the German shells whistled and hit the masonry walls of the fortress, rubble flew and there was fire everywhere. But the fortress was not blindly beaten - geographically the defenders and comrades-in-arms had an absolute advantage, all the commanding heights were on their side, and the observation posts of the fortress were the fastest to report to the fortress artillery positions within visual range of the opposite bank.

The Brest Fortress was not just a "building fortress", it also had two large ring garrisons, and most of the artillerymen were in the woods in the middle area.

"Take me as a reference, azimuth 030, 0.5 dense position to the left, distance 2580 meters, three shots, test shot!" The shelling observation post, located in the tall tower of the central fortress, gave the order to the battalion of 152-mm howitzers, 500 meters to the rear to the north.

Yesterday the fortress received information that the Germans might have deployed heavy mortar positions 2.5 kilometers away, and after the attack had just begun, the central fortress had been hit by a powerful heavy shell, and everyone in the tower could feel the enemy trembling, and the observers who were closely watching the situation to the west could see a huge flash from that suspicious position a moment before the explosion.

Now the command does not want to use 380-mm super-heavy mortars, and the 152-mm howitzer is the best choice, which is powerful enough and can meet the requirements of close-range shelling.

Through the artillery mirror, you can clearly see the explosion 2.6 kilometers away, "The distance is increased by 40, to the left 0.5 dense position, the whole battalion shoots three rapid fires!" ”

A few seconds later, the 36 152-mm howitzers of the artillery battalion roared, and the shells flew overwhelmingly towards the target, and the observers saw an earth-shattering explosion - presumably right on the target, detonating the shells of the German heavy mortars.

After three volleys, the observer knew that the German heavy artillery position should have been destroyed, "Azimuth 035, distance 8000, five rapid fire from the whole battalion!" ”

There were constant flashes of shelling, and it was a huge German artillery position, which could be seen clearly from a high place, and there was no need for test firing at all.

In an artillery battle, the Red Army had enough of an advantage, and this would be 3 kilometers to the north, dozens of monsters that the defenders had never seen before appeared in the Bug River!

"Platoon commander, what's that?!" Young Sasha saw a few tin cans floating on the surface of the river, and they were still smoking.

"That's the snorkel pontoon, the secret weapon of the Germans, the underwater tank!" Platoon commander Ivan Ke had heard about this at the battalion headquarters meeting, "The bazooka team is going outside and letting the Germans taste our secret weapon!" ”

Sasha was the main shooter of the bazooka launch team, carrying a 40mm bazooka and drilling out of the rear exit with his assistant.

The grove on the riverbank was a good cover for Sasha's figure, lying on the ground and staring at the riverbank. The long rockets had been stuffed into the launch port, and his assistant Wittoft was lying on his side, with a spare rocket in one hand and an assault rifle by his side.

There was a rumbling sound, and a steel monster climbed up from the water, and the muzzle of the black hole pointed to the sky - alas, the German tank guns had no chance to roar, "Distance 50!" ”

Sasha pressed the launch button, and with a dull loud thud, the rocket flew out of the canister, his ears buzzed, and the long rocket opened its wings, and the cruise engine was ignited at a distance of 7 meters. That is, in an instant, the rocket accurately hit the front armor of the German underwater tank, and the red-hot metal stream penetrated the armor plate in a few thousandths of a second.

Wittoft quickly reloaded with the main shooter, and saw two figures emerge from the already lying tank. Grab the assault rifle on the side, and two point shots will leave the German tank crew lying on Russian soil forever!

Moving a few meters to the left, the second German tank came up again, and like its companion, the RPG-7 easily turned it into an iron coffin! At this time, rockets continued to appear on the river bank to cross the night sky, explosions occurred one after another, and other rocket launcher groups were also fighting.

Dense machine-gun bullets flew from across the river, and the Germans had already noticed something unusual here, "Withdraw, reserve positions!" "Once the bazooka launch group is discovered by the enemy's machine guns, it is an idiot to remain in place. (To be continued.) )