“…… It had been 34 years and 9 months since I entered West Point and became an active duty soldier in March 1935, during which time I had fought in World War I as an intelligence officer, but it wasn't until I was besieged in Medina that I really understood the brutal side of war! It was really, really brutal that for the next 10 years, every night when I closed my eyes, I would see countless young soldiers, American, British, and Indian soldiers, lying in pools of blood. Some of them were killed by shells, some by bullets, some by grenades, and some by hand-to-hand combat, and death happened all the time, starting on March 30 and continuing for a full thirty days, what a nightmare thirty days, they were on the offensive, and they were attacking, and they were coming up in waves, and then they were repulsed by our men, and then a new wave of offensives, without pause, as if it would continue until the end of the world......" - the above is an excerpt from Lieutenant General Stilwell's memoirs, " The Wrong War.

"Boom! Rumble! Boom ......"

The dust from the shells rained down on the trenches with rubble and shrapnel. Most of the officers and men of the British and American Allied forces had never experienced any fighting, and most of them could be said to be on the battlefield for the first time, so this intensity could only be regarded as ordinary artillery bombardment, which seemed to them as if the sky was falling. All huddled in hastily dug trenches, enduring the shelling of the Indians, the exhaustion of constant fighting, and the fear of death!

The Indian Red Army's offensive method can be said to have greatly exceeded the expectations of the British and American allied generals, and they did not "combine work and rest" to fight and stop. Rather, they attacked day and night, regardless of casualties, at any cost. The intensity of each attack was insignificant on the Soviet-German or Sino-Soviet battlefields. There was no massive shelling, no roar of dive bombers, no assault of hundreds of tanks. There were just repeated shelling and infantry charges. Moreover, the charge of the Indian infantry was not the "sea of people" that the British and American allies originally thought of, in fact, they did not invest too many troops each time, and the formation of the attack was quite scattered, and it was difficult to be killed and wounded by artillery fire, but this kind of attack was endless. Also played very tenacious.

In addition, the Indians were highly skilled in earthwork, and their infantry and sappers seemed to be able to work in any harsh environment. Even if there are shells falling around, even if these shells are still emitting poisonous gas, they will not stop the sapper shovel in their hands until the trench is dug all the way under the nose of the opponent. As the offensive lines of the Indian Red Army became shorter and shorter. The defense of the British and American forces is also becoming more and more difficult......

Lieutenant Thomas now stumbled forward in the trenches like a mouse. While crawling, he muttered and cursed a man named Franklin. Roosevelt's man. He didn't know why he voted for Roosevelt, was it just to send himself to this damn hell full of sand? The young U.S. lieutenant finally climbed to his destination, a trench full of dead and dying men, and a company of U.S. soldiers had been sent to defend it, which they were ordered to hold for five days before returning to Medina to recuperate. However, in the past three days, this company has been replenished twice. There were also three company commanders, and Lieutenant Thomas was the fourth unlucky guy to sit on the throne of the company commander of this company. All three of his predecessors have already given their lives for the country!

A sergeant leaning against the inner wall of the trench and waiting for the Indian artillery to pass by saw Lieutenant Thomas crawl in. Seeing Thomas's rank on his uniform, he knew that he was the new company commander, so he pulled him to his side, and pulled a gas mask from a corpse next to him and put it on the lieutenant's face, only then did the lieutenant realize that all the soldiers in the trench were wearing gas masks. Only later did he learn that the Indian army would use a small amount of mustard gas shells during the shelling, and this company had suffered from mustard gas, so it would wear gas masks every time the Indian army shelled it.

After a while, the firepower of the Indian army began to extend backwards, which meant that their offensive was about to begin! All the American soldiers who could still move took off their gas masks, and it was not pleasant to wear such a thing on their faces in the hot climate of the Middle East!

"I'm Sergeant Nixon, the platoon commander of the 2nd platoon!" The sergeant who had just given Thomas a gas mask shouted in Thomas's ear: "Company D is still 98 people before the Indian shelling, plus you are 99 people, among which the only officer is Ensign Li, he is the leader of the 1st platoon, the line of fire is raised, and he is at the other end of the trench." ”

"My name is Richard. Thomas, your new company commander, sergeant, may I meet with all the platoon commanders and squad leaders of Company D? ”

Nixon waved his hand vigorously: "It's too late, the Indian army's offensive is about to begin!" ”

"Then wait until their attack is over!"

"No, their offensive will not end!" Nixon roared: "The Indians are fighting a wheel war, and they have been fighting for three whole days, and they have not stopped for a minute!" Lieutenant, our guys are so tired, they need to rest, they need to rest! ”

Rest? How can it be? At this point in the war, how many extra reserves can Lieutenant General Stilwell have in his hands to replace the front-line troops? Do you want to rest or hold on for two more days......

The American soldiers in the trenches are now numb, just repeating the actions they had done before, straightening up from the trenches, setting up machine guns, and one by one M1 automatic rifles also sticking out of their muzzles - fortunately, the weather has been good for the past three days, and the American transport planes have dropped thousands of tons of supplies, otherwise these M1s would have run out of bullets long ago! Equipped with 75mm recoilless guns, 120mm heavy mortars and 105mm howitzers at the division level at the US regiment level, they began to block the Indian offensive line with firepower at this time, and a wall of fire was drilled 100 meters in front of the infantry trench.

"Comrades, in defense of the Indian Fatherland, march!"

On the Indian army's position less than 1,000 meters opposite Lieutenant Thomas, Rao, the commander of the 1st Battalion of the 344th Regiment of the 115th Division of the Indian Red Army, was the first to jump out of the trench, waved his lower right arm vigorously, and then pointed straight ahead.

"For the Motherland. Come on! ”

Slogans rang out, and hundreds of people held Mosin. Indian officers and men with rifles and grenades in their waists shouted and rolled out of the trenches together. Begin to charge under the fire of American troops! Almost all of these Indian soldiers were of low-caste untouchable origin. The revolution in the GCD in India gave them a qiē, land, houses, livestock, and an identity that no longer suffered discrimination! But now. U.S. imperialism and British imperialism are going to take away this and turn them into the lowest pariahs once again! The US-British allies attacked the Middle East in order to gain a stepping stone to invade India, so they joined the Red Army under the call of the Indian GCD and came to the Middle East to defend their hard-won Qiē, even if they sacrificed their lives for it!

The young Indo-GC fighters were scattered in formation, everyone with their heads buried and their rifles loaded with bayonets. Rush forward one after another. Imperialist artillery fire swept through the formations of their charge, and some were knocked down, their bodies torn apart by shells. Thrown into the air, but more people are still charging! After paying heavy casualties, some people finally rushed to the front of the American trenches and began throwing grenades, which were wooden-handled grenades that imitated the Chinese Min-7 grenades. The weight is lighter than that of the grenades of the German Army. Therefore, it is more suitable for Asians. Every Indian who rushed to the front of the American positions would desperately drop bombs until all six grenades they were carrying before launching a final white-knuckle assault. According to later statistics, this light grenade was the weapon that caused the most damage to the Anglo-American allies. The grenades that rained down suddenly exploded in the trenches of the US army......

Most of Lieutenant Thomas's men, on the other hand, had no idea how to fire at this time, and all shè fires had ceased except for the roar of the two machine guns. Everyone is doing the same thing. Just pick up the grenade that hasn't exploded and throw it out of the trench quickly! This is really the most dangerous job in the world, Lieutenant Thomas thought as he picked it up. These bombs can explode at any moment! And each one is enough to kill yourself, God! When is such a rìzi a head!

……

"Comrade Commander, Comrade Chief of the General Staff, Comrade Belov reported that an Anglo-American mechanized cluster was found about 20 kilometers north of Tabuk, and it is estimated that it is the 8th Army of the British Army, which had previously assembled on the Suwan Plain." A young Indian staff officer walked into the war room of the Middle East Front Headquarters of the Red Army in Baghdad and, after reading the telegram in his hand, said: "Comrade commander, I think it is time to send the Ubolevich cluster to attack Aqaba. ”

Tukhachevsky and Pavlov were stunned for a moment when they heard this Indian Ah San, and then all four eyes looked at this tall young Indian officer who was only 21 or 2 years old at most, fair-skinned (according to the standards of Indian Ah San). What's the ...... of this guy? He doesn't seem to be some kind of senior staff officer? There shouldn't be any place for him to speak here! Why don't you understand the rules at all? The discipline of the Indian Red Army was also too loose?

"Comrade Carya, please don't worry, now is not the best time to use the Ubolevich cluster, we need to wait for the enemy to go a little deeper, preferably close to Medina before letting Comrade Ubolevich attack."

The Soviet and Indian staff officers in this war room seemed to be no stranger to the appearance of this young staff officer, whom Blyucher called "Comrade Charia". And Blyukhel patiently explained his deployment to him......

"Okay, I see." The Charian comrade smiled at Blyukhel and turned away.

"Who is he? How so? Tukhachevsky leaned over to Blyukhel and asked in a bewildered whisper.

"He's Attar. Kumar. Charia. Comrade Lu Yi is surnamed Charia, and he is the eldest son of Comrade Lu Yi! Blyukhel said in a low voice: "But this identity is kept secret in the Middle East Front, by the way, Comrade Charia also served in the Soviet Red Army, served as a tank company commander, drove a T-28 tank to fight with the enemy's pursuers many times, and destroyed several hunters, don't look at this year, he is only 22 years old, and he is already a regimental staff officer." ”

And what's going on? Tukhachevsky said in his heart: "This Charia is really big enough, and he has even more ability, he dares to drive a coffin car like T-28 to fight hunters, and he has destroyed several cars...... Can that 16.5x diameter 76.2mm gun have that power? It seems that we should find a chance to ask him for advice. ”

Just as he thought of this, the door of the war room was pushed open again, and this time it was the chief of staff of the Middle East Front, Berzin, the commander of the Baghdad cluster, Fediko, the commander of the Kuwait cluster, and a representative of the Turkish Front, and the room suddenly became more crowded. Blyukhel stretched out his hand to beckon them to gather in front of the map table, and then read the telegram sent by Carya before saying: "The enemy's armored group has reached Tabuk, and it is expected that there will be 10 armored divisions and 10 motorized rifle divisions, and our Belov cluster will probably suffer heavy losses in the coming period!" Moreover, I estimate that the five armies of Comrade Belov will not be able to hold back the tanks of the British and Americans, and the other three armies will not be able to capture Medina soon...... There was also an unexpected situation in the Battle of Medina, when the Americans actually airdropped planes to supply 10 divisions of troops! Comrade Belov reported that the Americans would make at least 1,000 sorties a day to drop airdrops in Medina. And there are a much greater number of bombers attacking from the air! ”

Blyukhel said this with a melancholy expression on his face, clearly worried about the great air superiority displayed by the United States. Berzin spoke next to him: "Although Comrade Belov has already stated that no matter how many casualties are suffered, his troops will persevere to the end and complete the tasks assigned by the Front. But we still have to do our best to provide assistance to the Belov cluster, and we will build yì, and the Baghdad cluster will immediately move westward into the Syrian desert and advance towards Amman and Damascus. The Kuwaiti cluster dispatched four army groups to reinforce the Belov cluster. Turkey sent a Soviet Red Army group to the Yakir cluster. ”

"Well, what about the Ubolevich cluster?" Tukhachevsky looked at Blyukhel.

"Continue to lurk." Blyukhel said without hesitation: "If the Ubolevich cluster is used now, there is no problem in winning, but it is difficult to achieve a decisive victory!" Only after mobilizing all the enemy's forces and firmly containing them will the best time to mobilize the Ubolevich cluster! (To be continued......)