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In the early morning of 30 December, the German army in Zalmut, located in the eastern region of the Syrian desert, received the order of Marshal Rundstedt to withdraw westward. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

From ancient times to the present, retreat has been a nerve-wracking thing, and the slightest carelessness can turn into a rout, which in the current situation of crossing the Syrian desert with a depth of more than 300 kilometers from east to west, and the companies and soldiers who have fallen behind will only die in vain in the absence of food and drinking water.

The Zalmut cluster is under the jurisdiction of the German Eleventh Army, the Thirtieth Army, the Fifty-fourth Army, the Romanian Cavalry Corps, the Thirty-ninth Motorized Army, and the Fifty-seventh Motorized ArmyThe situation is very bad.

In a personal telephone call from Marshal Rundstedt to Zalmut, he was informed that the first, second and fourth armoured groups were all trapped on the west bank of the Tigris River and their whereabouts were unknown, and that the third armoured group must be preserved as a matter of priority.

In all respects, Zalmut ordered to give priority to the fuel consumption of the 39th Motorized Army and the 57th Motorized Army. Schmidt and Adolf. The two armored corps generals of Conzen took the lead in leading their troops to evacuate, and the rest of the Romanian cavalry corps, the thirtieth army and the eleventh army were evacuated in turn, and the fifty-fourth army was responsible for the rear of the palace and blocked the pursuit of the ** team.

As soon as dawn broke that day, the reconnaissance planes of the Anjia Army's routine patrol discovered the movements of the German troops and immediately reported this abnormal situation to the theater command.

Under the condition that all units of the Air Force were shouldering important missions, Yang Jiuxiao ordered the five flying groups of the 11th Air Division, deployed in the southern area of the Euphrates, to bomb and pursue this part of the enemy with all their might, and at the same time demanded that the officers and men of the 17th Group Army and all tank brigades directly under it carry forward the spirit of continuous combat and launch a tailgating attack on the German army, destroying as much as they could.

As a result, the vast Syrian desert has become a pasture where you chase after me in the flames of war, the scattered German troops are running on the ground lifelessly, and the sky is full of fighters, bombers, attack planes and helicopter gunships of the Anjia army, which make the German army cry wolf and suffer unspeakably.

In the easternmost part of the battlefield, the 17th Group Army of the Anjia Army, which had been continuously replenished with Category B troops a week earlier, had reached full strength, and at this time, after receiving an order to counterattack, immediately pounced on the German troops who were fighting and retreating while fighting under the cover of tank troops.

"Porphyry—"

Dense general-purpose machine gun fire rang out continuously, and the air was filled with a strong smell of gunsmoke.

The 50th and 170th Infantry Divisions of the 54th Army and the four SS Corps behind the German army fought and retreated, relying on geographical terrain to constantly build fortifications and defenses, and immediately evacuated after resisting for a period of time. Fighting from morning to noon, the battlefield has shifted to Syrian territory.

With the continuous expansion of the front to the north and south flanks, there was no way to concentrate on the use of tanks, the desert was too vast, and due to the frequent winds in winter, the sand dunes were constantly changing under the strong winds, and they were often separated by several small hills within four or five hundred meters in a straight line, and they could not see each other, which brought great convenience to the German defense.

The Germans constantly used these hillocks to launch some counter-assaults, which made the attacking troops of the Anjia Army not dare to intersperse too quickly, so as to avoid being surrounded by the Germans and ambushed.

The offensive mode of the infantry of the Anjia Army was almost textbook-like, with officers and men wearing khaki desert camouflage uniforms, and in the long yellow sand, hundreds of small detachments in squad and platoon units formed a large battle group, and they carried automatic rifles and advanced layer by layer between the sand dunes and the Gobi.

Although the troops were well equipped, the Anjia Army did not use the Japanese favorite suicidal charge, which made it impossible for the Germans to rely fully on improvised positions for point-and-shoot and strafing.

The usual practice of the Anjia army detachment was to hide behind the sand dunes of the confrontation at the first time when the attack was blocked, calling in tank and artillery support, and for a fire support point, they could vent dozens or even hundreds of shells until the entire German position was blown to pieces.

I have to admit that this method of warfare is very effective, the shrapnel, flames and wind are amazingly powerful, the trenches built in the sea of sand are very unreliable, often a few artillery shots down and then collapse with a bang, the German officers and soldiers hiding in it either stick there until they are buried in the yellow sand, or can only choose to retreat, looking for the next position to continue the battle.

Behind a pile of sand in the south, at the bottom of a trench that had just been dug out, more than 20 German officers and soldiers were hidden, and they listened to the rumbling sound of artillery in the distance, constantly gasping.

Seeing the dry lips of the officers and soldiers, Lieutenant Merk slowly untied the kettle he had received from the dead Chinese soldier from his waist, raised his head and took a sip before handing the kettle to the brothers beside him, and then passing it on in turn. In the battle along the border line at 11 a.m., Merk led a company of German troops to ambush a detachment of Anjia troops in a ring of sand dunes, and at the cost of more than 30 men, completely annihilated a 15-strong detachment of the opposing side, and slipped away before reinforcements arrived.

However, at this moment, there was not a hint of joy on the faces of every officer and soldier, and in the continuous flight, they were like poor prey, constantly attacked from heaven and earth, and only a few of the troops of a company were left so far, and they knew very well that with the ammunition running out, if they did not surrender, the fate that awaited them would be death.

Sergeant Texke, who was leaning against the wall of the bunker at the north end, took the kettle for the last time, and after drinking, he licked his lips, showing an expression of enjoyment, but his mouth complained:

"I don't know what I'm thinking, originally we had a good relationship with Chinese, we had to fight, these are good, stealing chickens doesn't make rice, I heard that several fronts have failed, and millions of people have been buried in this place where birds don't......"

Sergeant Ortsch, who had participated in the arduous battles of Leningrad and Moscow, said with a wry smile:

"yes, it's the stupidest decision I've seen since September '38...... In the winter of two years ago, when the imperial **** team was in trouble, the Chinese sent cotton clothes and food in time, so that we could calmly retreat from Moscow, organize a strong defensive line, turn the crisis into safety, and operate continuously for more than a year, which led to this year's consecutive victories!

"But now that we have angered the sleeping lion in the east, the Emperor ** team has encountered unprecedented trouble in West Asia, I don't know who will come to rescue us? Is it up to God? ”

At this, Sergeant Orteshi shook his head.

Lieutenant Merk took back the kettle and stopped the complaints of his subordinates: "We are soldiers, and it is our duty to obey orders, and the choice of strategic direction is not something we can decide, we just need to fight the battle well......

"Boom-"

Without warning, a cannonball landed at the bottom of the northern end of the bunker, and as the flames rose, eleven German soldiers, including Sergeant Texker, were reduced to minced flesh, blood and severed limbs scattered everywhere in the bunker.

At the southern end of the zigzag trench, Lieutenant Merk, who had witnessed his subordinates suffering heavy losses, was stunned, and the communications soldier next to him quietly poked his head out to see what was going on, but his head in a steel helmet suddenly burst without warning, and Merk's brains and blood were splattered all over his body.

"There's a sniper on the other side, and this voice......"

Merk's face changed dramatically, and he was about to lean against the wall of the bunker to listen, when Sergeant Orteshi crawled over from the bend of the bunker, pointed to the east, and said: "I hear the roar of the engines, at least two tanks are coming towards us......"

Merk nodded with relief, and his brows suddenly furrowed: "We originally only had two bazookas left, and now that Texke has no hope, how can we repel the attack of the opponent's tanks?" ”

Orteshi hesitated, but before deciding between life and death, he still stubbornly said: "Company commander, we have run out of ammunition and food, it is better to surrender...... The Chinese treat prisoners preferentially, and I heard that there are still many Germans working there! ”

Merk was furious and was about to scold, when he suddenly saw that all the soldiers around him had heart-warming looks on their faces, and immediately closed his mouth, thought about it and ordered the remaining twelve soldiers to check the ammunition, and found that all the personnel together only had one rocket, four grenades, less than five rifle bullets per person, and the M42 machine gun ammunition had been exhausted, and even an ordinary battle could not last.

Lieutenant Merk told the soldiers to turn in all the grenades and said, "At this point, I will allow you to surrender, but I will not surrender......"

Soldiers, you look at me, I look at you, and in the end, there was a strong desire to survive** stood up, Sergeant Ortesch motioned to the two soldiers to look at his company commander, and then picked up a white handkerchief with his rifle and shook it, this time slowly stood up, and soon German came from a distance, and the officer of the Anjia Army who commanded the attack asked all the Germans to lay down their arms and raise their hands to come out of the bunker and surrender.

The twelve officers and men walked out in turn, and after about two or three minutes, presumably to ask about the situation, there was another shout from the east, demanding that the company commander Merk go out and surrender.

Merk was unmoved, silently closed his eyes, and after a few more minutes, the other party seemed to know his intentions and no longer persuaded him to surrender, and the sound of a dense series of grenades crossing the air sounded, and six mortar shells fell into the sand pit in a row, and after the violent explosion, the sand pit was in shambles.

More than ten seconds later, the smoke around the sand pit was still filled, and then the "creaking" sound of leather boots stepping on the sand sounded, and the sound of breathing became closer and closer, Merk, who was lying at the bottom of the sand pit and kept gushing blood all over his body, stared wide, hugged the four grenades and the only rocket tightly in front of his chest, and used his last strength to pull down the fuse of the grenade.

The violent explosion blew Lieutenant Merk to pieces, and seriously injured the two Anjia Army scouts who were close to the trench to check the movement.

Lieutenant Colonel Wang Jianmin, commander of the 211th Regiment of the 49th Division of the 17th Group Army, happened to arrive here at this time, and after instructing the two wounded to be carried onto the battlefield ambulance, after listening to the report of his subordinates, he shook his head and sighed, and then asked to mark it well, and then turn back to bury the corpses of these German soldiers - although for the An Jiajun, the resistance of the Germans brought meaningless losses, but from the standpoint of the German army, this is a show of loyalty and bravery, and such soldiers must be given enough respect.

......

"Boom-"

A B3 bomber almost grazed the ground and flew over the heads of the Germans, followed by a series of huge explosions, and then an irresistible force that killed the commander of the 14th Panzer Division, Friedrich. Lieutenant General Qu En threw it heavily on the windshield in front of him.

At this moment, Lieutenant General Qu En felt that his chest and ear drums were about to burst.

The sound of the explosion made the sky crack and the earth cracked, giving Lieutenant General Qu En, who had been brutally tested on the Soviet-German battlefield, a sense of the coming of the end of the world, and the entire convoy was immediately surrounded by a burst of shrapnel, flying sand, boxes, steel helmets, and broken rain of lunch boxes.

The jeep in which Lieutenant General Qu En was riding crashed headlong into a truck in front of him that suddenly stopped suddenly, and the front of the car was immediately deformed, and the windshield that was hit by the lieutenant general sitting in the passenger seat shattered instantly, making Qu En, who was in close contact with the glass, his face covered with blood.

The orderly sitting in the back seat hurriedly jumped out of the car and opened the front door, Qu En covered his head and jumped to the ground, subconsciously looking in the direction where the explosion sounded. I saw that the truck that was following closely behind the jeep almost hit the rear of the jeep, and behind the car, several trucks had rolled over on their sides, and the wheels were still turning. And farther away, it was a cloud of smoke and fire.

In the sky, silver-gray warplanes circled and let out a terrible roar, and the soldiers scattered to the sand piles around the road.

Almost at the same time as jumping to the ground to observe the surroundings, the orderly had already pulled Lieutenant General Qu En and rolled into the sand a few meters away, and then several division staff officers ran out of a command car behind, and after coming to the division commander, they hugged him and jumped into a sand pit that the soldiers had just dug.

A major pointed to two black dots in the air and shouted "anti-aircraft machine guns!" Organize anti-aircraft fire", shouted and hunched over to the bunker on the other side of the convoy, organizing an MG42 heavy machine gun group to shoot into the air.

The German soldiers, who had just jumped out of the truck, raised their guns and aimed them in the sky.

Qu En was very angry when he saw this chaotic scene, but there was still no way to communicate with him, and the role he could play as a division commander was really limited.

Around the convoy, there were panicked soldiers everywhere, a hovering low-flying fighter plane, suddenly pounced, terrible flames flashed under the wings, some soldiers fell to the ground like cutting wheat, as the fighter plane pulled up in height, another bomber roared overhead, and then heard a huge explosion, several denser piles of people suddenly filled with gunsmoke, flesh and blood flying.

Lieutenant General Qu En clenched his fists and watched all this with concern.

The sound of machine guns became more and more intense, and the anti-aircraft fire points constructed by general-purpose machine guns sprayed flaming tongues of fire furiously, but the enemy fighters seemed to have strengthened their armor and sparked, but nothing happened, and they continued to rise, dive, strafe, and drop bombs.

"Boom—"

A huge mushroom cloud suddenly jumped up from the horizon, followed by violent explosions, and I saw that forty or fifty meters to the east, a truck full of ammunition was hit by a bomb dropped by a Chinese plane, and an explosion and martyrdom immediately occurred. The violent explosion blew up several trucks in front of and behind them, and the sand was surrounded by the wreckage of the trucks that had fallen from the explosion, and those trucks were now piles of scrap metal emitting flames and acrid black smoke.

"General, look!"

A staff officer handed Qu En a pair of binoculars, and Qu En looked in the direction of the staff officer's finger, only to see that 1,500 meters to the west, two Leopard tanks were desperately fleeing westward, but a huge plane overhead was circling the ground, and a dense rain of bullets shot out from the bottom of the plane.

The weak top armor of the two Leopard tanks, which received successive blows, caught fire and exploded, quickly stopped, and it did not take long to turn into burning coffins.

Lieutenant General Qu En's heart was heavy: "That's a gunboat Chinese converted from a transport plane...... It's over, if we keep bombing like this, I'm afraid our famous 14th Panzer Division will be removed! ”

The surrounding staff officers did not know how to comfort them, since dawn, the troops have been bombed, marching down intermittently, unable to even move five kilometers in an hour, and in the desert, there is no shelter, can only be passively bombed, when will this kind of suffering be the end!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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