Chapter 19: A Tricky Battle

During the two days of waiting in Stuttgart, Lynn obtained a large amount of intelligence information that greatly helped the next operation, not only that, but also the "foreshadowing" of his night combat troops sent during the Second Battle of the Upper Rhine Valley also echoed at this time, and a number of night combat detachments lurking in southern Germany with the help of the Resistance group came to hear the news, and their experience, skills and equipment added to the power of Lynn's sharp arrows.

On April 27, 1949, the 41st day after Lynn led his troops back to Germany, and the 19th day after the Imperial Army occupied the Danish island of Zealand, the Soviet army launched the Fifth Upper Rhine Valley Offensive with great perseverance. This time, the total number of troops they invested reached a new high, and the combat force of nearly 500,000 people was saturated with such a small area as the Upper Rhine Valley, and the number and proportion of heavy equipment also continued to increase, especially the roads and bridges in the eastern mountainous areas were restored to traffic, and the strength of the attacking troops on the eastern route finally made a breakthrough compared with the previous four battles. With the world's attention, there is no doubt about the determination and urgency of the Soviet top brass to remove this thorn in the side in one fell swoop.

As soon as the battle began, Lynn did not rush to harass the airfield in the rear of the Soviet army, but ordered the reconnaissance personnel to stay near the airport to observe and count the daily take-off and landing of Soviet fighters, and used maps and charts to reflect this information for comparison. Two days later, Lynn and his officers made a new discovery about the deployment of Soviet aviation around Stuttgart: long-range heavy bombers were frequently dispatched during the offensive, and the arrival of a large number of transport planes and the presence of paratroopers indicated the Soviets' intention to launch an airborne operation.

Judging by the size and order of the build-up of these transport planes and paratroopers, Lynn believed that this was by no means the result of a change of tactics by the Soviet command, but a consideration to paralyze the opponent. They were well aware that a considerable part of the Germans regarded the "free forces" as their saviors, and therefore willingly provided information for them, that it was difficult to keep secret the deployment and movement of Soviet troops in Germany, and that once the adversary sensed that the Soviet troops were preparing for an airborne landing, they would inevitably make corresponding operational preparations in the Upper Rhine Valley, and vice versa.

Such painstaking calculations showed that the Soviet top brass attached great importance to the offensive, and Lynn used a secret telegram to inform Manstein command of the situation and adjusted the plan for the raid on the airfield accordingly.

In the dark of night, more than 60 night soldiers were divided into seven combat detachments, and the 200-strong troops of the Imperial soldiers and the soldiers of the Freedom Regiment formed three assault groups and a reserve. Despite the fact that his specialty, night raids, were always invincible, Lynn felt the pressure as never before when the operation was launched—he and his troops were not just outnumbered and outnumbered, but against the airborne troops, who were also known for their elite. According to the reconnaissance personnel's inference, there were more than 200 transport planes and gliders and at least 6,000 Soviet airborne troops assembled at three target airfields separated by more than 10 or 20 kilometers

Accustomed to adventure, Lynn embarked on another adventure with firm conviction and his "shrunken" miniature command soon arrived at the small village of "Vrzot", located between the three target airfields and the city of Stuttgart, where he established his temporary command center and battlefield fulcrum. Before the men and horses reached the outskirts of the airport, the operation went smoothly like a rehearsed show countless times, with six of the seven night combat detachments being used to break through the airfield's perimeter defenses and the remaining one leading the underground resistance to attack the Soviet-controlled Stuttgart railway station. …,

Near the time of the attack, Lynn climbed onto the roof of the farmhouse and looked into the distance. The night is cool, the air is filled with the smell of moist earth, if not for endless fighting and killing, what a good spring night to sleep in?

At 11:30 p.m., green flares were raised in four directions, gunshots and explosions erupted, and the firelight lit up the night sky one after another. With the help of underground resisters, Lynn's soldiers had laid up covert communication telephone lines, which were essential for a multi-target night raid. The assault team stormed Yarrow Airport, quickly occupied and destroyed part of the hangar and aircraft, attacked the camping area of the Soviet paratroopers with machine guns and mortars, and was fiercely counterattacked by the Soviet troops; The assault team attacked Manbello Airport, raided the control tower of the airport, destroyed communication facilities, and attacked transport planes parked on the apron and hangar, and was counterattacked by the Soviet Airborne Forces; The assault team fought fiercely with the defenders of CapitaLand, detonating munitions and fuel depots, destroying a number of Soviet aircraft, and a large number of Soviet paratroopers engaged in a counterattack...... These battle reports were immediately transmitted to Lynn's battlefield command center, and their evolution was exactly as expected: like stabbing a hornet's nest with a wooden stick.

Now that the hornets had been dispatched, it was definitely the best idea to stand still and be stabbed, so Lynn ordered the main forces of the commandos to retreat as planned, leaving only one night combat detachment at each airfield waiting for an opportunity to destroy.

At this time, news came from the direction of Stuttgart: the stubborn resistance of the Soviet garrison made the progress of the attack on the railway station very difficult, the limited strength of the night combat detachment and the resistance personnel lacking guns and ammunition were difficult to achieve the set goal in a short time, and the warehouse for storing military supplies was still controlled by the Soviet army, the combat commander suggested that the second option be activated, only the railway tracks and dispatch facilities of the railway station were destroyed, and the night combat detachment and most of the resistance personnel turned to attack the police station. Prisons are relatively easy targets to get hold of, and can also be replenished with some weapons.

Avoiding the enemy's edge is sometimes a wise combat strategy, weighing the pros and cons, Lynn vetoed the proposal of the combat commander, after all, the resistance group has spent a lot of energy on the goal of the railway station in the early stage, and it is not easy to confirm the deployment of the Soviet garrison here and the approximate inventory situation, there are not many guns and ammunition temporarily stored here, but the spare maintenance parts of aircraft and vehicles have a non-negligible maintenance role in the front-line operations of the Soviet army, as long as the teeth occupy the railway station, The resisters could use the surveyed and planned building terrain to resist the Soviet counterattack for a longer period of time.

Less than an hour before the battle began, Lynn decisively threw his only reserve into the battle to capture the Stuttgart railway station, while the troops that had raided the three airfields withdrew from the airfields and retreated to the village of Vlzot. This hillside village has good defensive terrain, and more than 200 members of the resistance were transported here a few hours before the start of the battle to carry out civil engineering work, and after a few hours of hard work, a simple defensive line with the help of buildings and mountains has been formed, although it cannot withstand the frontal onslaught of the regular Soviet troops, and it is more than enough to deal with the hurried Soviet paratroopers.

At about 2 o'clock in the morning, Stuttgart finally received good news, the Free Corps and the Resistance had seized most of the railway station from the Soviets at the cost of hundreds of casualties, the guns captured from the Soviet garrison and the ordnance and ammunition in the warehouses were enough to equip a combat battalion, and the field artillery and anti-aircraft artillery shells that could not be directly converted into combat effectiveness were used to destroy the railway facilities - a loud rumble shook the whole city of Stuttgart. Under the light of the explosion, the commandos who had retreated from the three airfields in front also arrived in Vrzot, and Lynn deployed only one platoon of troops and the resistance personnel who built the fortifications to the village defense line, and the main force was ambushed in the mountains and forests on both flanks at night. The angry hornets soon followed, and the commanders of the Soviet paratroopers thought that such a battle was a good time to warm up the soldiers before the battle, and instead of waiting for reinforcements, they quickly organized an attack on the village of Vrzot. …,

At the beginning of the battle, the Soviet paratroopers did not invest much force, Lynn deliberately made the soldiers show weakness, several machine guns were intermittent, assault rifles and submachine guns did not shoot violently, but the Mauser rifles in the hands of the resistance crackled cheerfully, and the Soviet paratroopers approached the edge of the village before being repelled by a more fierce grenade defense. After this attack, more than 1,000 Soviet paratroopers pursued from the three airfields, relying on their own strength, launched two more attacks on the village of Verzot, both of which were defeated at the last moment. As more and more paratroopers arrived, and a small armored unit rushed to support, the largest offensive began. At night, when the defenders could not discern the number of enemies with the naked eye, the flames of the explosion could see the dense steel helmets of Soviet-made paratroopers, and several tanks and armored fighting vehicles also took the lead, and it seemed easy to swallow the small villages defended by the weak enemy. sit

Sitting in the temporary headquarters, Lynn calmly dispatched his troops, and the battle group using anti-tank rocket launchers did not fire at the Soviet combat vehicles until a distance of fifty meters, and the seven M042s burst out with ferocious firepower, and the mortars that had been hiding their strength also opened fire. In the face of this unimaginable defensive firepower, the Soviet commander was difficult to ride, and Lynn did not give him time to hesitate at all, the troops ambushed on both flanks quickly made a roundabout assault with the cover of night, they swept the mortar positions of the Soviet paratroopers, strafed the Soviet paratroopers from the flanks and rear with dense machine gun lakes, and took advantage of the chaos to lay some mines on the retreat of the Soviet troops. It was difficult to distinguish the strength of the opponent in the dark night, and the opponent's surprise attack was so rapid, the Soviet paratroopers were stunned for a while, not only did the offensive collapse instantly, but they were constantly attacked on the way to retreat, so that the corpses were all over the field and the army could not be defeated.