21 half-track armored vehicles, 79 four-wheeled off-road vehicles, and 67 light transport trucks, these originally inconspicuous "small roles" after being equipped with 36-60 rocket launchers, not only have unexpected support firepower, but also have fast and flexible mobility, they go out day and night, avoid the enemy's aerial reconnaissance and gather around Windlitz, just waiting for the battle order, immediately artillery fire in turn, the destructive power and destructiveness are no less than traditional artillery.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Soviet officers and soldiers occupying Wandelitz were blindfolded by the sudden and ferocious artillery fire, the German troops that had been secretly assembled began to attack from the west and north, and quickly broke into the city to engage the Soviets in close combat. The combat distance of less than a kilometer was not an advantage for the headquarters of the 22nd and 200th tank brigades of the Soviet army, which were mainly mechanized, and the flares of the rising and falling flares dazzled the eyes of the tankers, and the ubiquitous German anti-tank battle groups could launch a deadly attack from the ruins on street corners at any time, and the relatively weak defense of those Soviet-made self-propelled guns was even more undoubted. Under these circumstances, the Soviet troops had no choice but to withdraw their self-propelled guns and baggage vehicles eastward out of the city, and tanks, armored vehicles and infantry continued to organize defenses in the city.

The attacking side was bound to win, and the defenders were tenacious, so the small Wandelitz became a bloody battlefield of fierce fighting between the two sides. The battle for street by street, house by house, and the courage of the soldiers on both sides to look at death as home, but all the officers and soldiers of the two sides who have experienced the battle of Stalingrad or Leningrad will think of the fierce battle a few years ago, the roles have not changed, and even the weapons in their hands are similar, how can people not feel the reincarnation of history and the wonder of fate.

At the corner of the street, a T-54 tank with the remains of an armored vehicle to cover its body, with the support of the infantry, withstood the enemy's repeated attacks, and the streets and building ruins in front of it had accumulated the remains of thirty or forty German soldiers. In this siege battle, the Germans carried out an oppressive attack at the expense of casualties in the same way that had been fought in the past few days, which was mainly to preserve strength, which made the Soviet officers and men feel unprecedented pressure - even if the opponent had a clear numerical advantage in the face of Western Allied forces. They also rarely fall into such a passive situation. There was not enough time for people to breathe, and the German figure appeared in front of them, and two anti-tank rockets flew in succession with a bright tail flame. With such an engagement, the T-54 simply did not have a chance to carry out active evasion. The tank crew members and company companions could only pray ready to bear the losses. The night environment obviously also affected the accuracy of the attackers' fire, and the German anti-tank battle group was unable to advance to a sufficiently ideal distance due to the interference of Soviet infantry fire, and one rocket fired from the edge of the range hit the wreckage of the armored vehicle in front of the tank, wasting energy on this pile of scrap metal, and although the other hit the tank turret, the Soviets made some temporary modifications to their tank after the previous few days of fighting. This included the addition of steel plates to vulnerable areas, and the T-54's turret frontal armor was the most heavily defended, which actually carried the enemy's iron-fisted rockets. Like beasts under attack, the 7.62mm side-by-side machine guns roared wildly, and the rain of bullets stirred up a series of sparks in the ruins ahead, holding the German personnel at bay. At the same time, the Soviet infantry who were coordinating the defense of the street also opened heavy fire with 12.7mm machine guns unloaded from armored vehicles, and a group of personnel operating light mortars tacitly observed and adjusted.

"Fire!"

The officer gave the order. The operator let the mortar shell slide into the barrel, and in an instant, the shell flew out with a muffled "bang". A few seconds later, it landed in the rubble on the opposite side, causing further hindrance and damage to the attacking Germans.

Seeing that a new round of German offensive was about to collapse, a Soviet non-commissioned officer with a thick mustache turned his head sideways: "What is that voice?" ”…,

"Enemy tanks?" The eyes of the colleagues next to him also widened, and they really couldn't tell what the roar was coming from under the interference of the fierce gunfire. At this moment, the machine gun fire of the German troops on the opposite side increased sharply, as if waving flags and shouting for the appearance of their own assault weapons, and as if deliberately distracting the attention of Soviet officers and soldiers. Immediately afterward, a signal flare glowing green was fired from a building hundreds of meters away - it did not shoot into the sky, but flew forward like a normal bullet. After drawing an arc, it landed in front of the T-54. The flare itself had no special power, but the Soviet officers and men realized that it must be some kind of tactical signal from the enemy, and one soldier tried to cover it with clothing, but as soon as he got up, he was forced down by the German bullets on the opposite side, and at the same time, the strange roar became clearer. None of the Soviet officers and men here could tell what it was, and they were preoccupied with dealing with it, but no one expected that the source of the noise would not appear from the intersection in front of them at all, and the aircraft that could walk around the roof was already hovering in the air for 100 meters to the west of the street, and the weapon operator in the back seat found the signal flare fired by the ground troops through the infrared sight -- the guns that were constantly firing were also reflected in his scope in the form of light spots, but they were not as bright as tank engines. Even if it was turned off a few minutes ago.

After determining the target position, the operator with a grim expression adjusted the launch angle through the weapon stick, and saw his fingers move, and the wire-controlled guided rocket mounted on the lower part of the fuselage flew straight out under the impetus of the rocket engine. During the flight, the operator adjusts its flight direction in real time through the weapon joystick to ensure that the rocket, which is four times more powerful than the ordinary "Iron Fist", can accurately hit the target when it is stationary or in motion. The whole process seemed tedious and complicated, but in fact it was a matter of a snap of a finger, as a rocket fired by the Fi-339 attack helicopter gunship hit the T-54 from the side, instantly destroying its power system, and forcing the tank crew to withdraw from the tank under the threat of internal explosions. After the blow, the Soviet infantry also suddenly realized, they turned their guns to attack the rare helicopter, a Soviet armored car hidden between the buildings as a reserve was also called out by the officers, the soldiers opened fire with the 12.7mm machine gun on the car, and the strings of bullets rose from the ground, several of which hit the side of the helicopter's fuselage and were bounced off by the steel plates in the pilot's cockpit. Like his fellow operators, the German helicopter pilot was expressionless, calmly pulling up his plane, avoiding Soviet fire and searching for his next target on the battlefield.

On this night, the Germans put a total of 9 helicopters into the Wandelitz battlefield, 7 of which were improved versions of the Fi-282, and only 2 were Fi-339s with greater take-off weight and better protection. The former can carry eight ordinary iron fist rockets to launch attacks on armored targets on the ground at a distance of 200 meters, while the latter can mount three line-controlled guided rockets and attack three different targets in batches, with an attack hit rate of up to 80 percent within 500 meters. Although they are equipped with small radio communication equipment, due to the limitations of communication and command technology, they are not yet sufficient to carry out real-time ground-air cooperative operations, but can only adopt traditional light and flame signal guidance, which is easily interfered by battlefield factors, and their limited defense power also makes them very easy to be shot down by ground fire.

While the helicopter squadron was attacking Soviet armored targets in and around Vandlitz at night, there was another roar that pierced the night sky to awesome the enemy forces. Eleven night combat Me-262s flew out and attacked, guided by ground radio signals, they swooped down on the target with the agility and precision of bats - in the connection zone between the Soviet 11th Guards Tank Army and the Soviet 8th Mechanized Army, the German units attacking the Soviet army had already exhausted most of their ammunition, and at this time they were retreating westward, and the Soviet 8th Mechanized Army, which had been activated from the night's sleep, rushed along the road to help friendly forces. Although the Soviets deployed a number of mobile air defense units along the road, the high-speed assault of German jets left the Soviet army's inefficient battlefield air defense early warning system far behind, and when 11 Me-262s appeared above the Soviet marching column with a thunderous roar, the Soviet anti-aircraft gunners were still hurriedly turning their anti-aircraft weapons. Under the light of the flares, the German pilots could clearly see the straight road, and countless Soviet tanks, armored vehicles and trucks were moving from north to south. At this time, the FG radar could not help the pilots to carry out accurate ground attacks, and the 11 Me-262s were still bombing in the traditional way, like geese led by a mother goose, flying in a single column above the road, dropping aerial bombs mounted under the fuselage in turn. Once the ordinary 500KG aerial bomb deviates from the target, the destructive power will be greatly reduced, so this time the German aircraft used a box-type submunition. In World War II, Soviet bombers used this kind of aerial bombs to damage a large number of German armored vehicles, and the German army's submunitions are equipped with two kinds of bombs, one is an anti-tank bomb specially designed to deal with armored vehicles, by attacking the top of tanks, armored vehicles, engine compartments and tracks to cause damage, so that a kind of imitation of the United States "lazy dog bomb", these warheads with flying tails are cast of solid steel, only the size of a finger, with the huge kinetic energy generated by the explosion of the mother bomb to cause surface damage to ground targets, Enough to take out human targets they hit directly, as well as inflict significant damage on normal vehicles and armored vehicles with open roofs.

The 11 Me-262s escaped before Soviet anti-aircraft fire became fierce and accurate, while behind them, Soviet columns on the road and a large area around it were paralyzed by the bombardment, and their counterparts on the main roads were blocked, forcing the Soviet 8th Mechanized Corps and other Soviet units to turn to the country roads, while in the woods near the dirt roads, the German units were preparing to surprise the Soviets with mines, explosives, and anti-tank rocket launchers. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )