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Astara on the left bank of the Caspian Sea, located in the Lenkoran lowlands of the Azerbaijani steppe, on the side of the Tareshin Mountains, is at the terminus of the Soviet Caucasus Railway, and is an extremely important border city in northern Persia. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

After the outbreak of the war, because Astara held the lowland bottleneck of the narrow Caspian Sea coast, it happened to block the mouth of the Ars River in the middle of the Tareshin Mountains, which blocked the flank security of the Ardabil line, and was an important support point for the northern section of the defense line of the Anjia Army.

According to Hitler's battle plan, the left flank of the German Caucasian cluster would move south along the lowland on the western coast of the Caspian Sea at high speed after breaking through Astara, and the main strategic intention was to capture the important towns of Port Anzali and Rasht on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, and then pass through the Alborz Mountains along the Kyzyl Uzan River valley to capture Tehran in one fell swoop and cut off the retreat route of the Anjia army near the border line.

If the gap in the Alborz defense line cannot be opened, the main force will simply attack Central Asia along the smooth Caspian coastal lowlands to achieve a strategic detour.

Not to mention that the narrowest part of the lowlands along the Caspian Sea is only one kilometer away from the high mountains and hills, as long as the Anjia Army deploys a certain number of troops in the Alborz Mountains, the German army's rear road may be cut off at any time, and the more than 10 cruisers and destroyers in the Caspian Sea Fleet of the Anjia Navy are elusive and can deal a devastating blow to the German army at any time.

However, Hitler has always liked to show his whimsical operational ideas on the map, and he has worked out a strategy with great painstaking efforts, and the specific implementation is a matter for the Wehrmacht, and he only needs to see the results, never caring whether it works or not, in short, it is a matter of the ability of the generals.

The fighting that broke out on the night of the 22nd has lasted for nearly a week now.

During this period, although the Germans tried all means, they could not even break through the outer defense line of Astara City, and with the help of the artillery positions built by the Anjia Army on Mount Tareshin and the South China Navy warships from the Caspian Sea, the Germans could not move forward.

On the morning of the 29th, the German army was annoyed and angry. A new round of offensive was launched.

Soon after dawn, the roar of huge aircraft engines resounded in the sky, and a huge flight formation composed of more than two hundred bombers and an equal number of fighters appeared in the northern sky.

The Anjia Air Force, which had already detected the movement of the enemy's aircraft group through radar, quickly dispatched all five flight squadrons stationed at military airfields around the Caspian Sea and equipped with A32 jet fighters.

Long before the expedition, the German pilots received a death order. It is necessary to completely destroy the defense line of the An Jia Army at all costs and create conditions for a general offensive on the ground. Therefore, the German bomber group recklessly lowered its flight altitude and swooped down in dense groups towards the defensive line built by the Anjia army.

By this time, several of the forts on Mount Tareshin on the left side of the battle line had been removed from their camouflage. A 75-mm anti-aircraft gun on the roof of the fortress, aimed at the eastern sky.

Major Song Bin, commander of the air defense battalion standing in front of the periscope of the headquarters, saw the enemy planes entering the firing range and shouted "hit" into the microphone, and the more than 20 75-mm anti-aircraft guns attached to the fortress roared almost simultaneously, and the adjacent fortresses also spit out a dense barrage of continuous and fierce fire, forming a dense fire network in front of the German fighters' route.

The seven or eight bombers that rushed to the front could not dodge. Half of the planes turned into brilliant fireballs in the air, and the other half of the planes were injured and turned over in the air, and the tail of the planes fell to the ground with thick smoke, and a violent explosion was heard immediately.

The bombers behind hurriedly turned around to avoid anti-aircraft fire, then turned the nose and no longer attacked the intended target, but flew directly towards the ridge on the left flank.

"Attention. Enemy planes were coming at us. Hit me hard! ”

Song Bin greeted loudly and reminded the officers and soldiers under his command. One by one, the gunners quickly turned their guns and opened fire on the approaching bombers, but four or five enemy planes could not dodge and were hit by a dense rain of bullets and blown to pieces.

At the same time, the cannons and aviation machine guns on the German bombers also began to fire wildly, and a string of bullets hit the outer wall of the fort, splashing dense sparks.

These forts are built on the top floor of semi-open anti-aircraft positions, the middle floor is a howitzer emplacement pointing east, and the lower level is a machine gun position, all of which are reinforced concrete structures.

In order to curb the offensive of the German army and block the passage of the river valley advancing westward, the Anjia army built more than ten fortresses at the eastern foot of the Tareshen Mountains in the north-south direction, and dug tunnels in the belly of the mountain to connect the various forts, which can be attacked, retreated and defended.

All the forts near and far opened fire in unison, mixed with a huge number of 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine guns and 20 mm machine guns in the middle of the anti-aircraft gun emplacement, intertwined into a terrifying barrage, the German bombers continued to be hit and volleyed in the air, but the German pilots still fearlessly piloted the bombers and launched a death charge against these forts.

As the bomber magazines opened, hundreds of bombs fell one after another, enveloping the fortresses in the flames, air waves, and sputtered shrapnel of the explosion.

"Boom-"

The bombs were so dense that a semi-covered anti-aircraft gun emplacement was hit by a falling bomb, and the gunner and loader were blown to pieces. Immediately afterwards, the ammunition warehouse of the gun emplacement, more than 20 meters to the right of Song Bin's command post, was just pierced by a 500-kilogram armor-piercing aerial bomb, which immediately set off a series of explosions, blowing the 75-mm anti-aircraft gun on the gun position to pieces, and the long barrel flew out dozens of meters away, and several officers and men who were sticking to the gun position died heroically.

The entire foothills were filled with smoke and fire.

The desperate bombing of the German army brought huge casualties to the air defense units of the Anjia Army, with stumps and broken arms everywhere, anti-aircraft guns being blown into piles of scrap metal, and the officers and men, except for those who were seriously wounded and unable to move, all stuck to their posts and constantly fired at the air.

Among them, a young soldier had his right arm sliced off by shrapnel and still had a box of shells in his left arm. Stumbling forward, he stopped in front of a 20mm gun emplacement, where one of his legs had been blown off by a bomb, but he clung to the handle and continued to shoot vengeful flames at the enemy plane until he collapsed in a pool of blood.

The bombardier vigorously removed the gunner's body, sat down and aimed his elbow at the enemy plane that was diving again. Roaring wildly, he pulled the trigger with his left hand, and the shells that were sprayed out formed a straight line, hitting an oncoming bomber. The German pilot, seeing smoke coming out of the engine, hurriedly opened the hatch and jumped out. The one-armed gunner turned the muzzle of the gun and fired at the German pilot, who was carrying an umbrella, until he had volleyed the enemy into the air.

German bombers were constantly circling, diving, strafing, and dropping bombs in a hail of bullets. In a vain attempt to raze these fortresses that were blocking the German attack, the officers and men of Anjia, who were tasked with air defense, had already put life and death aside and met the enemy with a dense rain of bullets. In just over 10 minutes, one-third of the anti-aircraft gun positions were lost, but the Germans also paid a heavy price, losing more than 80 valuable bombers in this wave of ground-air battles.

The German bombers threw all the bombs and saw that the entire mountain was surrounded by fire, and then they returned in a huff. At this time, the big battle between the fighters of the two sides in the air was still going on, and the German fighters relied on their numerical superiority to stubbornly entangle the jet fighters of the An Jiajun Army and cover the retreat of the bombers, and German fighters were constantly planted on the ground from the sky.

As the smoke gradually cleared, although the top buildings of the fortress on Tareshin Hill were scattered, the main structure was not damaged much, which made the commanders in the bunkers of the German forward positions who had been observing the results of the bombing with binoculars thunderous, but helpless. The troops could only be ordered to launch another wave of unhelpful attacks. Gagged the mouth above by casualty figures.

......

Nanhua, Xinjing. The operational command center of the General Staff Department of the Duzhu Temple.

An Yi was discussing with a group of generals and colonels from the Military Commission and the General Staff about Yin Jinan's counterattack plan in Baghdad.

In this week, the German offensive was not unfierce, and almost all fronts were attacked, but in the face of the three-dimensional defense of the Anjia army, it was extremely uncomfortable, and the attack again and again was almost impossible except for leaving a large number of corpses in front of the position.

So far, the German army has lost as many as 100,000 troops, and the continuous defeats have exhausted the German army's sharp energy, and the tragic artillery battle has led to problems with the German artillery and ammunition base, and the entire front has slowly fallen into a stalemate.

In the far north, as the Germans transferred the main force to the south, Stalin, who had suddenly reduced the pressure, slowly eased up and continued to send the newly formed troops to the Moscow battlefield, in the recent battles, due to the impact of severe cold, coupled with serious problems in the supply of the German army, the German army was completely driven out of Moscow three days ago, retreating to the mountains and hills east of Moscow, and the Soviet-German battlefield took a dramatic turn.

It was precisely because of the weakness of the German army that Yin Jinan actively mobilized his troops and assembled two tank armies and four motorized infantry armies on the Baghdad - Ramadi-Gaim line, preparing to use the partial divisions of the two motorized infantry armies to bypass Damascus from the Syrian desert to attract the frontal German troops, and then use two tank armies and two motorized infantry armies to carry out a general attack on the German front line directly in front of the Qayim defense line, and with the cooperation of the air force, destroy the enemy in front of them in one fell swoop.

Once the German Army Group A is successfully eliminated, Army Group B in northern Syria will be left alone, and then it will be able to steadily drive the German army out of the Middle East, advance the battle line to the Turkish border on the northern front, and threaten Egypt in the south to deter German and Italian North Africa.

The generals were gossiping, half in favor and half against, arguing non-stop.

Seeing that An Yi contemplated thinking without expressing his position, Yang Jie finally couldn't help but say: "This plan is still relatively risky, with two motorized infantry armies going deep into the Syrian desert, General Ji Nan values its suddenness, intending to contain the opponent through active movement warfare and find fighters from it." However, as long as the German army does its best to bite this partial division and then mobilizes superior forces to encircle and intercept it, these two armies without logistical supplies will fall into a situation of isolation and even total annihilation.

"The German commander-in-chief, Rundstedt, was very cautious in his use of troops, and he did not fail to see the loopholes in the southern desert area, and he deployed the Eleventh Army of General Zalmut and the Fourth Army of Romania in the Damascus area, in addition to the Hungarian Second Army, the Italian Eighth Army, the Third Army of Romania, and the Bulgarian First Army as mobile forces on the second front, which had an absolute superiority in troops.

"The German army group is a strategic formation...... For example, the Eleventh Army, which was the old unit of Field Marshal Manstein, the commander of the current Army Group B. It has the 11th, 30th and 54th armies, of which the 11th army consists of the 22nd, 76th, 239th Infantry Divisions and the 6th Romanian Infantry Division, as well as the 5th and 8th Romanian Cavalry Brigades; The 30th Army consisted of the 198th Infantry Division, the Romanian 8th and 14th Infantry Divisions and the 6th Cavalry Brigade; The 54th Army consisted of the 50th, 72nd, and 170th Infantry Divisions, and the headquarters of the group army also had the Romanian Cavalry Command under its jurisdiction.

"You might as well do the math, this Eleventh Army alone has ten divisions of troops that have undergone rigorous training and have made great achievements, although the number of officers and men in a single division is somewhat smaller than ours. However, the total strength of one of its armies is comparable to that of our two motorized infantry armies, plus other troops, how can this battle be fought?

"The current situation is that the enemy is facing difficulties in supplying food and ammunition for multi-front operations, but we have very sufficient supplies in stock, and ammunition and food originally intended for operations on the eastern front are being sent to the Gulf region in a steady stream. My opinion is not to attack blindly and continue to drag the enemy in front of you. The air force is then used to strike its railways and road lines, and even airdrop troops to harass the enemy's rear...... Our Jewish troops can be of greater use at this time!

"As long as this battle continues for another month or two, with the arrival of winter, the enemy's supply will definitely be in big trouble, and the enemy army may even collapse without a fight!"

Yang Jie's words made everyone's eyes shine, Hu Jialin, who was silent before, agreed, and there was a lot of discussion in the conference room, but many generals felt that the passive defense was too conservative after all, and the German army might not be willing to act according to the script we set.

Seeing that the opinions were not unanimous for a long time, An Yi finally spoke:

"Relatively speaking. Ji Nan's battle plan was more proactive, but the risk was too great, there were many unknown factors in the desert area, and there were serious problems in the logistics and material supply of the troops that went deep into the enemy's territory. As Yang Jie, deputy chief of the General Staff, said, it is the Germans who are more anxious now, and we really don't need to be too anxious. Sitting back and watching the situation change should be the best policy.

"I have one more concern. The Germans had been attacking our front before, launching only a few tentative attacks at the junction. The strength is not great, this is very abnormal, I suspect that this is the enemy's trickery, trying to focus our attention on the front of the battle line, and then gather heavy troops, and suddenly exert force, open a gap from the joint, so it is necessary to retain a strong strategic mobile force in the rear of the battle line!

"In the German three-way army, the Turkish cluster in the middle and the Caucasian cluster in the north could not be deployed at all because of the narrow terrain, and it was relatively easier for our side to defend with a favorable position. I am very worried that the Germans will transfer the troops of the other two fronts to the southern front to strengthen the strength of the two major battle clusters A and B on the southern front again, so if we blindly mobilize our troops to cross the border to attack, in addition to the possibility of being surrounded by the enemy's superior forces, the enemy can also take advantage of the emptiness of our forces caused by the attack to break through to us in other places, and then, as in the Soviet-German battlefield, wave the double pincers on the left and right flanks to create a situation of encirclement, as long as we eat the troops in our encirclement. Our entire Western Front is finished!

"Therefore, I think that it is not the time to fight desperately, and it will be safer to wait for our follow-up forces to be in place and plug the gap and then look for the flaws of the enemy army!"

"Very good!"

Deng Bin nodded again and again: "In this way, even if our army fails for a while, it will not be a war of annihilation." We can also use this time to thoroughly clean up the Japanese troops on Ceylon, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the Maldives Islands, which threaten the safety of our shipping routes, and fully ensure the safety of the sea supply routes. ”

"So be it!"

An Yi did not let everyone discuss it again, and the cadres were arbitrary: "Call Jinan, the situation is still unclear, do not launch a counterattack for the time being, and the current focus should be on stabilizing the front." It is necessary to pay close attention to the movements of the enemy's troops, beware of the enemy's tricks, and deploy more observation posts in the areas where the fortifications are built, so as not to leave any loopholes for the enemy to exploit! ”

"Yes!"

Liu Yu, the chief of operations, recorded An Yi's order, An Yi signed his name, and then the telegram was sent to West Asia.

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