Just when the Prophet of the Revolution first felt the scorch, the great plains of the Polish-German border had turned into a terrible sea of fire. Although everyone knows that the Polish-German battlefield is the main battlefield of this world war, the calm situation from July last year to the present has given the Soviet and Polish officers and men stationed here a false impression that with a strong Trotsky defensive line, the German army will never dare to launch a large-scale offensive. However, when countless large-caliber shells whistled down, the Soviet and Polish officers and men deployed on Trotsky's defensive line knew that they would soon be destroyed.

It is clear that the Germans had long been figuring out how to breach the Trotsky Defence, which consisted of numerous barbed wire, tunnels, bunkers, trenches and reinforced concrete fortified platforms. Probably because the current top brass of the German Wehrmacht are old antiques left over from the last world war, so their solution to this problem is also World War I, and Germany's Krupp and Rheinland Steel received a request from the German Ministry of Defense seven years ago to develop large-caliber howitzers and train guns. So, more than seven years later, hundreds of 280mm and 305mm heavy howitzers/cannons, twelve 380mm train guns, and six 420mm train guns were placed in front of the Poznan section of the Trotsky Line, firing piles of large-caliber shells, smashing one large crater after another on the Soviet-Polish defense line with a depth of several to a dozen meters, and rolling tons of earth, gravel and fragments of fortifications into the air at a height of 100 meters. The blast wave that spread like a landslide and cracked the ground stunned or killed all the Soviet-Polish soldiers in the nearby bunkers!

The seemingly incomparably strong reinforced concrete fortifications on the Trotsky Line, which cost countless effort and wealth. Under the bombardment of these large-caliber heavy artillery, it was as vulnerable as mud and paper. At the same time as these super-large caliber guns opened fire, more than 10,000 210mm howitzers, 170 cannons, 150mm howitzers, and 105mm howitzers deployed on the German Hitler Line also roared at the same time!

The huge roar suddenly joined together, and a high wall of fire was created in the vast and flat Polish-German border area. The earth trembled. The shock wave of the cannonball's explosion rolled up the dust on the ground and soared into the sky, and everything including the air seemed to tremble with the power of the God of War's explosion. Even in the city of Poznan to the east, you can hear the sound of rolling thunder!

Suddenly there were flames above Trotsky's line, which were extremely dense. Thousands of bombs appeared at the same time, and flashes of light, large and small, had merged into the ocean, flooding the entire line of defense, as well as the countless Soviet and Polish fighters stationed there.

The artillery of the Soviet-Polish army reacted at the first time, but their counterattack was only beginning. Above the western skyline. Suddenly a neatly arranged array of fighters and bombers jumped out, and the number was incalculable! The cluster is at an altitude of 3, 4,000 meters, flying against the rising sun in the east. Underneath them was a billowing cloud of smoke and smoke from fire. Fly a little further to the east, and you can see the Soviet-Polish artillery positions rumbling and firing, and the shining muzzle flames become the best guides. The German aircraft group immediately dispersed. Whirling and rushing to a target with offensive value on the artillery positions of the Soviet-Polish coalition forces and the rear assembly area, they dive-threw bombs. The rear of the Soviet-Polish coalition army suddenly fell into a sea of death!

It is worth mentioning that in this German ground-to-air firepower coordinated operation, a Junkers JU87 Stuka dive bomber that can dive bombs at a large angle close to 90 degrees is magnificent. The large-angle dive brought unimaginable accuracy to the bomb drop, and the piercing and sharp whistling sound made during the dive brought a great impact to the psychology of the defenders, and the bomb load of up to 1000 kg gave Stuka super firepower, turning him into a roaring air death!

The Soviet-Polish forces were stunned by such powerful ground-air coordinated firepower almost instantly. Many of the officers and men who were sleeping in the shelter were blown up by large-caliber shells falling from the sky before they even had time to wake up. The bombs dropped by the bombers even blew up their rear in a mess, and the airfields, cantonment points, command headquarters, and military highways and railways in the rear were filled with the roar of planes. The officers and men of the Soviet-Polish coalition army shouted hoarsely. Look around for a place where you can hide from the shells. The officers took their phones and shouted loudly to the rear command: "The Germans are attacking our positions with powerful fire!" The German armored assault is imminent! Request immediate reinforcements! ”

Commander of the Polish Front of the Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. Mikhailovich. Rashewicz was almost immediately awakened by the sound of a bomb explosion, even though his headquarters was based in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Comrade Rashevich was also a Jew, a core member of the Trotskyists, who had served as commander of the Siberian Military District during the civil war, deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council since November 1925, and now an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The Jewish military strategist was invited to a reception at the Polish GCD last evening, and had a few more drinks with Menzhinski (chairman of the Polish GCD) until midnight when he returned to his headquarters drunk. Just as he was sleeping soundly, a damn German bomb fell from the sky, rattling the glass windows of his headquarters. Rashevic jumped out of bed, took the military uniform from the female secretary who accompanied him, and strode towards the combat command room. I saw a group of disheveled senior officers huddled around the window, looking out in a daze at the city of Warsaw, which was exploding and burning. They all knew that the German attack was imminent, and they were as prepared as possible to resist and counterattack, but the power of the German air attack still caught them off guard.

Lashevich rushed in panting while buttoning up his uniform, and his chief of staff, Vasilevsky, hurriedly reported to him about the military situation, and the main blow of the German army was the Poznan line in the middle of the Trotsky line. The commanders of the Soviet 21st Army, the 22nd Army, and the Polish 1st Army stationed there had already made a call. It was reported that their forward units were devastated by German artillery fire and were now suffering heavy losses, and communications in several forward positions and rear had been interrupted. but also in the rear area of the troops and artillery positions. Also suffered heavy losses under the sudden air strike of the Germans! In particular, the artillery groups attached to the 21st Army and the Polish 1st Army had already lost more than 60% of their losses due to German bombardment! Reinforcements are urgently needed now, otherwise it will be difficult to keep the line of defense open.

Rashevic's face was pale, and he was already aware of the seriousness of the problem, and on the one hand, he ordered Zuoyou to send an urgent telegram to Moscow, and on the other hand, he asked the staff officers who seemed to be a little uncalm: "Has the German armored group begun to attack?" Did the staging areas of the tank clusters ahead be subjected to German air strikes? When will the individual tank armies be ready to attack? ”

At this time, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht Army, von Brown. Lieutenant General Bock and Major General Shangguan Yunxiang, head of the Chinese delegation to Germany, were stationed in Adolf. A concrete fortress on the Hitler Line. Each hugged a cannon team mirror and looked at Yiqiē in front of him intently. In this fortress near the front line, all the qiē inside were trembling, and the thick smoke of gunpowder drifted from the Soviet positions with the east wind. The eyes of the two of them were filled with tears, but they still didn't know it, just stared at the suffering of the Soviet-Polish coalition army.

Shangguan Yunxiang knew that what the Germans were launching in front of him was not a real general offensive. Rather, it was a feint to coordinate with the military operations to be taken by the Chinese National Defense Forces in the three regions of Central Asia. The aim was to maximize the attraction of the general reserves of the Soviet army to the Polish battlefield.

Although it was a feint, the German army still invested more than 1 million offensive troops, including 20 Panzergrenadier Divisions, the current German Panzergrenadier Division and the strengthened Chinese Panzergrenadier Division have the same establishment, all of which are equipped with an armored regiment and a self-propelled artillery regiment, each division has more than 200 tanks and assault artillery, and the 20 Panzergrenadier Divisions have a total of more than 4,000 tanks and assault artillery! According to the plan, such a powerful armored assault force will be divided into two armored assault groups. Armored assaults were launched from the north and south directions of Poznan. If a qiē is smooth, this German feint is very likely to capture Poznan, an important town in western Poland. And hit a Varta River salient. However, it would be unrealistic to go further, after all, Poland was the focus of the Soviet defense, with more than 2.5 million Polish Red Army and more than 3 million Soviet Red Army or 20 to 300,000 German Red Army deployed on Polish territory with a total area of less than 300,000 square kilometers. Moreover, east of the Trotsky Line, the Soviet-Polish coalition also relied on several major rivers in Poland to build a multi-layered defense system in great depth, which was simply not something that millions of German troops and thousands of tanks could break through.

30 minutes of effective firing, then a 10-minute pause to wait for the smoke of the shelling to clear and then observe the effect of the shooting, followed by another 30 minutes of effective firing, then the Soviet-Polish defensive positions in the desert Tuvi on the south bank of the Varta River and the small town of Kosiqiang southwest of Poznań were converted to barrage fire with the strong artillery force of 82 artillery regiments, covering the advance of two armored assault groups of 1,000 tanks, assault artillery and 100,000 attacking troops each, Two breaches of more than 20 kilometers wide were torn along the desert Tuwi and Kohiqiang. This was followed by more armoured units and motorized infantry, and they made a breakthrough in the center of the entire Trotsky line in Poznań, an important town on the Varta River!

Poznan was once the most important industrial center in Poland, and although after the victory of the Polish Revolution, a large number of industrial enterprises moved eastward to the Lublin region, close to the Soviet Union, the infrastructure of Poznan is still the best in Poland, with a dense network of railways and roads, and because it is located in the center of the Trotsky Line, it is also an important material reserve base, and it is also a meeting point for military communication lines. To seize this place would be to completely cut the overall defensive posture of the Trotsky Line and divide it into two parts, the north and the south, which are difficult to echo! Therefore, this is also the most important part of the Trotsky defensive line, and if it fails, the Soviets will inevitably rush to the aid with all their might.

On the south bank of the Varta River, the commander of the German Army Group Center, Max. Senior General Hoffmann also stood on a high ground, accompanied by a staff member, holding a telescope and looking at the battlefield that was shattering on the opposite side. Below the high slope where he stood, an armored assault group consisting of thousands of tanks, assault artillery, thousands of tracked armored personnel carriers and thousands of half-tracked armored vehicles had completed the formation. An almost perfect huge wedge-shaped assault formation was discharged, and the rumbling sound of the motor almost drowned out the loud sound of the artillery bombardment, and the assault of the German armored cluster was finally about to begin!

"Comrade Commander. Comrade Valecki of the 1st Polish Army reported that the positions of the Polish 2nd Division on the south bank of the Varta River were attacked by a cluster of German tanks! The Germans threw at least 1000 tanks! ”

"Report, Comrade Waltsky of the 22nd Army reported that the 92nd Division, west of Kohistrong, had been attacked by a German armored cluster 20 minutes earlier, and now it has lost contact, and the position has most likely been lost! Comrade Waltsky asks for immediate reinforcements! ”

"This Polish idiot!"

As soon as he heard the report of Waltsky, the commander of the 22nd Army of Polish origin, who had lost his position, Rashevic, who had always been known for his cool-headedness, could not help but be angry. You know, the battle has just begun. The Germans launched only the first wave of the offensive!

Vasilevsky, chief of staff of the Polish Front, also walked up to Rashevich with a telegram with a solemn face: "Comrade commander, the current situation is already obvious, the Germans are trying to outflank Poznan from the north and south flanks. After the capture of Poznan, then strike at our army in depth. Judging from the current situation, this offensive is different from the past, it is not tentative, but it is real. Their first wave of offense. More than 2,000 tanks and artillery were put in! The Polish 1st Army and our 22nd Army will certainly not be able to stop it. Now it is necessary to throw reserves in the direction of Poznan. ”

Rashevic nodded, the attack of 2,000 tanks was indeed not something that the two infantry armies could resist, but fortunately, his Polish Front had extremely sufficient troops, enough to flood the German tank sea with a sea of men. He glanced at Vasilevsky and found the telegram in the other party's hand, so he asked: "Comrade Vasilevsky, whose telegram is this?" ”

"It was sent from Moscow, and the General Staff of the Red Army wanted to know the scale of the German offensive this time."

……

"Comrade Rashevich called to report. As far as is available, the German White Army threw at least 10 panzergrenadier divisions and 10 motorized rifle divisions in the Poznan direction. That's about 10 percent of the total German armoured assault force at present, and it is estimated that there are an equal number of Panzergrenadier divisions and motorized rifle divisions ready for the second wave of assaults. The Brad-Southwestern Front, deployed in Czechoslovakia, also had unusual movements, and the radio signal was more than 10 times more than usual. In addition, the Balkan Front reported that the Balkan Army Group had stopped its offensive and switched to the defensive a few days ago, and the number of sorties of the Balkan Air Force had also been markedly reduced......"

In his Kremlin office, Tukhachevsky stood in front of a large military map and gave Trotsky and several members of the Communist Party Bureau an update on the battle in Poland. Trotsky's face was cloudy, and his eyes were fixed on Poland on the map, as if he were thinking about something. Krestinsky, Skryansky, Yue Fei, and Vatidis also frowned, and they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when they heard that the German Army Group Southwestern in Czechoslovakia had also moved. Skryansky exclaimed: "Comrade Tukhachevsky, the purpose of saying this is that the aim of the Germans is to encircle and annihilate the Red Army in Poznan and Silesia!" If they capture Poznan, turn to the south, and cooperate with the south-west army group of Baide, which is moving north, then our two army groups will be encircled! ”

"If Poznan is captured by White, we will indeed be in big trouble, and the Polish Front will probably have to retreat in great strides to encircle part of its forces. But Poznan is clearly not so easy to capture either. Tukhachevsky smiled confidently and tapped Poznan on the map with the whip in his hand:

"Poznań was the nucleus of the entire Trotsky line, where we and the Poles had been building fortified areas and fortresses since 1923. Five large separate forts have been erected on both sides of the Warta River, and there are large fortified areas to cover them. On the west bank of the Warta River, next to the city of Poznan are fortresses 1 and 2, where we have deployed 8 305mm cannons and 12 254mm cannons. On the east bank of the Warta River, on both sides of the railway bridge to Warsaw, forts No. 3 and No. 4 were built, with six 305mm cannons and 12 254mm cannons. The main urban area of Poznań, the area on the west bank of the Varta River, has also been transformed into a fortress city, which is the No. 5 fortress of the Poznan fortress group, which is also the core fortress, equipped with 4 356mm cannons, 12 305mm cannons and 18 254mm cannons. In addition, more than 800 howitzers of 100 mm or more, cannons and more than 300 76.2 mm anti-aircraft guns have been deployed in the area around the Poznan fortress complex. The number of defenders stationed in the fortified area of the Poznan fortress is also as many as 3 army groups, with a total strength of more than 200,000, which can be described as a tight defense and impregnable! ”