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Chapter 2029: Evacuated in embarrassment

December 30, 1942, the 23rd day of the winter month of the Chinese lunar calendar, as far as the Yellow Book is concerned, this day can be described as inappropriate, but it was on this day that the general attack on the southern flank of the Anjia Army was launched. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info--net.

At six o'clock in the morning, the battlefield of the confrontation on the Euphrates River was silent, the dawn of dawn illuminated the earth, and a thin mist drifted low in the sky, and everything was so harmonious and natural.

"Boom-"

The silence was broken by more than 500 150-mm and more than 1,100-mm cannons, which fired at the same time, sending heavy projectiles into the air.

The muzzle velocity of the two heavy cannons, which the General Logistics Department named the "Crossbow II Type", exceeded 900 meters, and when the high-speed grenade flew for more than 20 seconds, it accurately hit the camp behind the three lines of German defense.

The two caliber high-explosive bombs, weighing 38.5 kg and 25 kg respectively, bloomed one after another at the moment of contact with the ground, blasting everything within a radius of nearly 100 meters into dust and throwing them into the air.

The wind of the dense falling shells exploded, mixed with a large number of broken cloth, wood, stones, bricks and tiles, splattered rapidly in all directions, carrying scorching steel fragments and sharp stones, torturing all subjects, and the German officers and soldiers who were still sleeping in the camp and in the bunkers, fortifications and trenches in front of them were torn to pieces in an instant.

The pilots of the GI fighters, hovering at low altitude and acting as artillery guides, constantly transmitted the movements of the Germans to the rear. From their vantage point, they could clearly see the corpses on the ground that had been strangled to pieces by shells being thrown in all directions, and even the occasional horror that the hideous heads kept when they flew into the sky as they woke up from their sleep, but unfortunately they had no time to flee when they realized that the situation was not good.

The gunners of the eight ** heavy cannon brigades, all of whom were enthusiastic at this time, continued to fire according to the coordinates conveyed by the artillery command, striving to fire as many shells as possible in the shortest possible time and inflict huge casualties on the German army.

Amid the sharp roar of long-range heavy artillery, more than 4,000 howitzers and mortars of various calibers from the four ** howitzer brigades of the front army, as well as artillery units at all levels of the group army and divisions, also began to play their strongest sounds, and at the same time, the B2 and B3 bomber groups that rushed to participate in the battle also threw their own 500 kg or even 1,000 kg aerial bombs onto the German positions.

Densely packed artillery shells and aerial bombs smashed huge craters on the German front, and soil, broken wood, steel fragments, or rotten bricks and tiles fell like raindrops after being blown into the sky, and were blown away by the air wave stirred up by the next shell before they could touch the ground. (--net.)

At the first moment of the artillery attack by the Anjia army, behind the German defensive line, those German artillery officers and men who had escaped by luck did not think of escaping, but rushed into the nearest semi-covered gun emplacements and artillery forts, preparing to return fire.

To a certain extent, the Germans can be regarded as the teachers of the artillery unit of the Anjia Army, not only because most of the teachers in the early days of the artillery major of the Syrian Non-commissioned Officer School were Germans, but also because almost all of the large-caliber artillery casting technology of the Anjia Army came from Germany.

Despite their impatience, the German artillery still opened the tail of the gun in an orderly manner, quickly loaded the shells, locked the bolts, and observed the distance and firing angle of the artillery positions of the Anjia Army in front. The German artillery, which has a long tradition and has been baptized by many years of war, was ready after only four minutes and thirty seconds of shelling.

With the huge recoil force generated when the shells were fired, the artillery bodies of various calibers suddenly retreated, and the shells flew out of the chambers one after another, staggering with the shells fired by the artillery of the Anjia Army in the air.

At the artillery position of the 25th Division of the Ninth Group Army of the Anjia Army, eight kilometers to the east, the officers and men of the 95th Artillery Regiment were desperately firing cannon, howitzer, and mortar shells, and they could not hear the screaming sound of the incoming shells at all.

While the energetic gunners of the An Jiajun were concentrating on firing and carrying shells and medicine packs, several explosions suddenly sounded around them without warning. The first shells of the Germans fell very close to the position of the 95th Artillery Regiment, and since it was the first round of school fire, only a few shells fell.

But only after two or three seconds, the barrage instantly widened, and the shells that fell later became closer and closer, and the density became larger and larger, and a 128 mm caliber grenade hit the position of the third company of the mortar battalion of the 95th Artillery Regiment, blowing up a 120 mm caliber heavy mortar into the sky, and the sputtered fragments instantly detonated the ammunition piled up nearby, and the explosion of the ammunition pile made the entire mortar company shrouded in a sea of fire.

Although this was only a very pitiful achievement of the Germans, who were ordered to withdraw a third of their troops overnight on the southern flank, compared to the much weaker artillery units of the Anjia Army, it at least indicated that the German artillery was not completely defenseless.

The moment the German artillery opened fire, the GI fighters hovering in the air immediately focused on them, although the banks of the Euphrates River were still filled with morning fog at this time, and the whole land was shrouded in dense gunsmoke, but this could not hide the huge muzzle flames produced by the German artillery when firing, as well as the fog clouds stirred by the muzzle shock wave. --Net.

After receiving the specific directions transmitted by the pilots of the GI fighters who were reconnaissance planes through the radio, the officers and men of the ** Heavy Cannon Brigade immediately operated the "Breaking Crossbow II" 150-mm and 120-mm heavy guns with a range of more than 25 kilometers, and quickly set up the shooting range.

As the cannon rope was pulled suddenly, huge shells erupted and flew towards the German artillery positions, and the German firing points were dud one by one under the heavy artillery of the Anjia army.

The shelling lasted for half an hour, and the violent explosion, with a temperature of thousands of degrees and countless steel fragments, wantonly destroyed the German defenses.

During the flight, the bombs rubbed violently against the air and let out a terrible scream, enveloping the sky in the border fortified area.

"Divisional command? I'm Colonel Orbe, our regiment is under heavy shelling, request for reinforcements......"

In a dusty underground bunker, a dusty German colonel in his early forties was screaming anxiously into the phone, but it was silent, not even a single murmur.

The colonel yelled a few times without reply, and finally came to his senses, knowing that the telephone line had been blown up by the shelling, he couldn't help but drop the phone in frustration, turned his head to the communications staff officer, and said: "Send someone to check the line quickly, and we must restore contact with the division headquarters as soon as possible." ”

"Yes!"

The communications staff officer took the order with two soldiers.

Colonel Olbe shook his head and came to the periscope on the east side of the bunker, when suddenly the ground shook violently, and one of them stumbled to the ground.

It turned out that a heavy artillery shell of 150 mm caliber fell above the bunker and exploded, and as the fireball rose and the air wave swept through, half of the bunker was blown up, and in the anti-artillery holes of the bunkers one after another, more than a dozen officers and soldiers of the guards rushed out in a panic and helped up the regiment commander on the ground.

Colonel Orbe wiped his face, shook off the dust on his clothes, turned around, and saw that the two staff officers on the other side of the bunker were buried by collapsed planks and steel bars, and hurriedly instructed the guards to quickly rescue them.

Two or three minutes later, the officers and men of the guards brushed aside the masonry and mud and sand on the upper floor, and were surprised to find that the two staff officers lying below could no longer be saved, one of them had his neck smashed alive by the collapsed cement slab, and the other had been pierced through the chest by steel bars, and blood was "gurgling" and the ground was full of blood.

"Bastard!"

Colonel Orbe, who has always been gentle and elegant, cursed rarely, looked at the terrible scene in the headquarters, took out the pistol at his waist, rushed out of the bunker, waved his hand to the trench in front, and said loudly: "The enemy is about to attack, we must hold our positions and wait until reinforcements arrive......"

"Boom-"

A bombshell exploded more than ten meters away without warning, dense shrapnel flew over, and hot blood immediately sprinkled on the officers and soldiers of the guard platoon who rushed out of the bunker with his regimental commander - Colonel Orbe's upper body was almost sieveed by shrapnel, his head was cut in half, his brain spurted out, and he ran down half of his cheeks, his neck, chest and abdomen were pierced in many places, and a severed arm fell to the ground, and his lower body, which had lost his vitality, fell into the trench with a bang.

"Colonel!"

"Captain!"

Just when more than a dozen officers and soldiers of the guard platoon rushed forward and cried out in grief, another shell fell, falling directly in the middle of the pile, instantly devouring all lives.

At this time, in front of the German front, dense tanks, self-propelled artillery vehicles, armored fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers covered the rapid approach of the infantry to the German battle line.

"Kill!"

A quarter of an hour later, the two sides engaged in short-handed combat, shouting and killing one after another, and in the face of the Anjia army, which was coordinated by the infantry and the army advancing layer by layer, the German officers and soldiers finally could not resist and retreated back like a tide.

The second front broke through within half an hour, but when the attacking troops attacked the third line of defense, the Germans dispatched reserves and launched counter-attacks many times, and the fighting lasted until two o'clock in the afternoon, when news came from the front: The Second Tank Army of the Anjia Army and four ** tank brigades in the south of the northern flank, with the cooperation of the Airborne Second Army and the Third Army, broke through the defense line on the north bank of the Euphrates River operated by the Germans in one fell swoop, and successively took the two important towns of Weinanai and Deir ez-Zor.

Among them, the Germans, who were busy retreating, made a fatal mistake by not expecting to blow up the Euphrates River and several bridges on the central island, causing the Anjia army on the north bank to drive straight in, completely cutting off the German retreat to the northwest along the railroad and road.

The propaganda vehicles, which accompanied the attack of tanks and armored fighting vehicles, quickly informed the German army of the news in German through loudspeakers, and the morale of the German troops quickly fell to the bottom, and finally the whole line retreated after a melee.

At half past two in the afternoon, the 16th Tank Division and the 19th Armored Infantry Division of the Fourth Tank Army of the Anjia Army, under the leadership of Lieutenant General Qi Xiuping, entered the city of Abu Kemal, 12 kilometers behind the battle line.

......

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the city of Mayaden, more than 80 kilometers from the border fortified area.

In the former enemy headquarters of Army Group A of the German Middle East Army, most of the staff officers were busy cleaning and burning classified documents, while others were responsible for removing maps from the walls, and others were dismantling the sand tables and carrying them to the trucks outside. The communications corps retrieved the telephone lines and packed the radio stations into boxes...... Everyone seemed so busy, and there was a thick layer of confetti on the floor.

Field Marshal Lister clasped his hands in front of his chest and silently watched everything in front of him, his eyes full of sorrow.

The chief of staff, Major General Heim, walked up to Lister and whispered: "Commander, the car is ready, let's go!" ”

Listry nodded, and when he walked to the door, he suddenly stopped and asked, "Have you sent someone to blow up all the crossings on the Euphrates and the Mayadin dam?" ”

Major General Heim pointed outside and said, "Listen, this continuous explosion is our officers and soldiers blasting the ferry and bridge...... As for the Mayadin dam, it will be blown up half an hour after we evacuate, and the rushing river will block the pace of the Anjia army's high-speed march and buy enough time for our evacuation. ”

Lister relieved himself and walked out of the headquarters and walked towards the armored command vehicle parked outside the headquarters.

The order to retreat had been issued to all the divisions an hour earlier, and since the retreat routes to the north and northwest had been cut off by the Anjia army, some of the more than 200,000 German troops who had not had time to retreat had already been annihilated in the fortified areas of the border, and the rest would retreat from the west through the long desert Gobi region to Palmyra, and then by rail and road, to Oms and Damascus.

Before getting into the car, Marshal Lister turned his head to look at the Euphrates River in the east, and muttered: "I went on the road without any preparation, I don't know how many emperors will be able to get out of danger safely......"

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