Let's turn our gaze back to the Germans, after boarding the 500SS paratrooper battalion, a high-resolution photograph of the person was circulated among all the paratroopers, but if we look closely at this photo, we can see that the man in the photo is not Rokossovsky, but a balding old man - yes, the real target of the Germans is Lenin!

Let's move forward a few more days, and after the "Red Beard" project had begun, the Gestapo controlled by Himmler suddenly received a big news from secret sources - Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, was stationed on the Bryansk front, on a hill outside Pochop!

This momentous news was immediately fed back to the Führer by Himmler, and from the very beginning, the news was kept strictly secret, and only a very small number of people were qualified to know it. And Hitler, after learning of this news, immediately used his clever brain to come up with a brain-opening plan to raid Lenin Hill and capture or kill Lenin alive!

In Hitler's view, Lenin meant what he meant to the Soviet Union what he meant to Germany. If Lenin could be captured or killed, it would destroy the spiritual faith of the Bolsheviks and completely shake the will of these Russian barbarians to resist. In Hitler's words: "The killing of Lenin would destroy the Bolsheviks spiritually, and it would be the best and most effective way for us to conquer Russia!" ”

So, a conspiracy against Lenin immediately began quietly, and in order to conceal his true intentions, Hitler ordered the staff officers in the wolf's den to carry out a plan to hunt Lenin under the pretext of paralyzing the command of the First Belorussian Front. On the surface, this plan is called obstacle crossing, but in fact, the real code name of this plan is "vaulting horse"!

Why is it called "vaulting"? In fact, vaulting is not a gymnastic sport, nor is it an equestrian competitive action, but a term for chess. It refers to a powerful and unexpected blow on the chessboard. Under the cover of the operation "Barrier Jumper". Operation "Vault" unfolded quickly with a high degree of deception. And only after paratroopers boarded the plane. before the real course of action was officially announced to them.

In fact, the Germans took great pains to keep the operation "vaulting" secret, and on the evening of October 10, Himmler personally issued an order specifying the time of assembly and start of the 500th SS paratrooper battalion. All paratroopers were asked to take off the uniforms of the 500th SS Battalion and paratrooper gear, all wearing ordinary Waffen-SS uniforms, and the wearing of paratrooper helmets was strictly forbidden. When you arrive at your departure destination, you don't go directly to the airport, but camp around the airport.

The 500SS battalion completed the transfer before boarding in three batches. The first batch consisted of the battalion headquarters, the second company, and the third company. Lieutenant Hassel Winter led the group in a car. The other two batches were transferred by train. All the weapons and equipment of the battalion and the paratrooper equipment were secretly transferred under the guise of repair and renewal. All in all, even the Germans themselves could not figure out what exactly this was about.

In order to ensure the success of this operation, Hitler also sent a number of special military personnel. Forty members of the Brandenburg intelligence unit also arrived at the departure airport during the day. Their task was to act as guides and interpreters, and to ensure the safe return of this most important trophy to Germany after the capture of Lenin.

In addition to this, there was a six-man team from the German Military Intelligence Service, led by Walter Brown. Captain Savadir led the team in search of valuable dossiers, codes, and journal materials at Lenin's residence.

There was also a special enemy signal unit from the Luftwaffe who was responsible for air-ground coordination during the operation, and whose main task was to liaise with and guide German fighters and dive bombers to launch ground attacks. and guide the follow-up transport aircraft units to land in a field environment in order to escort Lenin back to Germany.

And the last panel of experts is hilarious. Very much in line with the Führer's special taste. It is a special field reporting team of 13 war correspondents, including five writers, five photographers, one videographer, one cartographer, and one radio station staff. It is clear that the Yuan wanted this operation as a model, and he hoped to leave valuable footage to show off to his people.

The Special Field Reporting Team was told: "This will be a great operation that will shock the world, and you will witness and record this glorious moment as witnesses, and your work will surely become the focus of German journalism!" ”

With so many "extra" personnel to carry, and since each DFS-230 glider could only carry a maximum of nine heavily armed personnel in addition to one pilot, the Luftwaffe had to increase the size of its fleet. And let's be honest, it's risky. The larger the size of the fleet, the easier it is to be exposed, and once discovered by the Red Army, a large number of fighters will inevitably be dispatched to intercept it. That's when the transport fleet towing the glider becomes a clumsy target.

Of course, the Germans also figured out a solution to the problem, which was tactical deception. Didn't I say earlier that the Germans made a "barrier-crossing" package for the "vaulting" operation? Therefore, before the Vaulting Horse group is dispatched, another group of transport planes will set off under the cover of fighters, and their task is to attract the Red Army's fighters away and create a carefree atmosphere for the "Vault" group.

To sum up, the Germans really fought hard for the "vaulting" operation, and took the secrecy to the extreme, anyway, in their opinion, it was impossible to divulge the secret. But, as the old saying goes, there are no impermeable walls in this world. Even though the Germans placed great emphasis on secrecy, the "vaulting" operation still leaked the news.

In the final stages of preparations for Operation Vault, the British secret decoding department located in Bletchley Manor, England (mentioned in the previous Oscar nomination for Best Picture in "The Imitation Game"), discovered from some cracked super-secret telegrams that the German army was about to carry out a highly secret military operation, which was codenamed "Vaulting Horse".

It's just that because the intercepted intelligence is relatively fragmented, the spies cannot restore the accurate content and time of the "vaulting" operation. Of course, even if the British had full knowledge of the exact content of Operation Vault, given the high level of secrecy of the super-secret cable, they would not have been able to disclose it to the Soviets (this is not malicious speculation). In order to keep the secret of the super secret electricity. During the Great Bombing of London. Even if Bletchley Manor cracked the German bombing target, it deliberately did not evacuate the crowd. They are so cruel to their own people, let alone outsiders).

In fact, it was not only the Bletchley estate that found clues to the "vaulting horse" operation, but the British MI6 actually knew from the beginning that the Germans were going to carry out a top-secret operation against Lenin. So how does MI6 know?

The reason is simple, it was not said earlier that the Gestapo learned about Lenin's movements and exact address through secret channels, and this secret channel was MI6. Learvin ordered the double agent to deliberately reveal Lenin's whereabouts and security personnel to the Gestapo, preparing to give the KGB a little color through this means. It can be regarded as revenge for the trouble caused by a certain immortal to the British Empire.

So. MI6 knew from the beginning what Germany wanted to do, but in fact they were the ones behind it, how could they be the ones behind the scenes, and how could they kindly tell the Soviet Union about the relevant information?

Let's turn back to October 10, when the Luftwaffe sent additional reconnaissance aircraft to Pochop and "Lenin Hill" for the last time in an attempt to obtain the most up-to-date information on the area. From the large number of photographs brought back by the reconnaissance plane, the cartographer analyzed and carefully marked the local positions and the location of the anti-aircraft guns, and focused on the situation on Lenin Hill.

According to aerial photographs, the Germans perfected the last details of the operation "Vault". There were two anti-aircraft gun positions in the vicinity of Lenin Hill, which were apparently specially deployed to protect Lenin. From this point of view, Lenin was indeed there.

So the Germans locked on Mount Lenin as their number one target and gave it the code name "Castle". It was decided that the landing of the Panthers would be responsible for the capture of the "castle". If the Panthers fail to achieve their goal, a red flare will be fired, at which point the parachute "Red", "Green" and "Blue" teams must immediately abandon their original mission and concentrate their forces to cooperate with the Panthers to attack the "castle" again.

Once successful, the air force transport plane was immediately notified to land on the plain east of Leninberg, and Lenin was escorted by the Brandenburg troops to board the plane and return home.

In this operation, the Germans named the day the attack was launched "X-Day", which was in the early hours of October 11. In the darkness, the officers and men of the 500SS Battalion, which was preparing to parachute, assembled and boarded, and 50 JU52 transport planes were quietly waiting for them.

The battalion commander, Major Kirkhoffe, soon appeared at the airport, and he gave a mobilization speech as usual, and then the paratroopers boarded the plane after singing a song called "The Song of the Paratroopers", and then there was the scene of looking at the photos in the previous chapter.

At the same time, another part of the paratroopers and several groups of specialists who cooperated in the operation also began to line up in front of their respective gliders. After giving a briefing to the paratroopers about the flight, the pilot began to check the tables and then boarded the plane in turn.

Several tractors, such as the JU87, began to tow the glider into the runway, and when the DFS-230 was towed off the ground, it dropped the detachable landing gear hanging from the belly of the runway at the end of the runway. The glider group gradually climbed to an altitude of 3,000 meters and then took a northwesterly course.

On the other side of the front-line airfield, Stuka and other night bombers and fighters began to pounce on Pochop in batches, dropping bombs or strafing their designated targets. Two FW190 fighters were the first to appear over Lenin Hill, but this did not attract special attention from the ground forces of the Red Army, as German aircraft had often visited the area before.

Soon, 15 Stuka began dropping bombs on the city of Pochop under the cover of a squadron of fighters. German night bombers then joined the bomb drop. Bombardments of this magnitude are also unusual for the city.

Heinz on a bomber. Second Lieutenant Schwytzker reported the situation: "A black cloud of smoke and dust rose in the city. As I flew over Pochop, I looked out of the cockpit and it was dark and dreary, and we could only roughly tell by feeling that our bombs might have landed in houses on both sides of the street. ”

The air raid lasted thirty minutes, and the Germans met only extremely weak resistance. Most of the Red Army fighters were distracted by the large German aircraft group on the other side. After the bombardment, fires broke out in many parts of the city, and even the telephone exchange room set up by the Red Army in the city was blown up (the blind cat met the dead mouse). However, this caused a lot of trouble for the Pochop defenders and the Central Security Department.

Before the German paratroopers landed on the X-day, the Germans had made about 500 sorties to bomb Pochop, even after the paratroopers had landed. The bombardment has not stopped. At about 5 a.m. The JU52 group, carrying paratroopers, approached Pochope, starting from the east, according to the operational plan. Paratroopers were soon dropped in three designated areas to the west, north and south of the city. Under the lead of Major Kirkhoffe, the SS paratroopers jumped out of the cabin one after another and successfully completed the parachute operation. However, then they did not go well, because of poor communication, another team of Luftwaffe bombers arrived at the scene in advance to bomb the intended target again, and some of these dropped bombs happened to land at the landing site, resulting in some paratroopers being "accidentally injured".

After the German paratroopers landed, they hurriedly threw away their parachutes. Then look around for weapons and ammunition canisters that were airdropped together, and it has to be said that this method of airdropping personnel and weapons separately is very inefficient, and a considerable part of the weapon canisters are blown into the Sudosti River, so that some paratroopers can only go into battle with the Luger pistols they carry with them.

Almost as soon as all the paratroopers had already jumped, the first leading gliders appeared northeast of Pochop. The heavy smoke caused by the air attack affected the glider pilot's vision, and by this time the tractor had loosened the towing cable, allowing the glider to enter the landing and dive flight phase one after another. And after that, the first large-scale personnel losses of the 500th battalion soon followed.

When there is still a flight distance of 10 kilometers from the destination, the flight is carried out by Friedrich. The DFS-230 glider piloted by Lieutenant Bradenbeck suddenly stalled and fell without warning, and then fell hopelessly straight to the ground. The glider broke in two. All ten, including Lieutenant Friedrich, were smashed into patties on the spot. Among them was the commander of the "Biters" brigade, Richard Brown. Captain Shafir.

The other three DFS-230s that followed this glider, including the second and third gliders carrying the rest of the "biter" group, were not much better off than their commanders. Due to the premature detachment from the tractor. They landed on the bank of the river, at least ten kilometers away from Pochop. Moreover, the area was located right between the blocking lines built by the Red Army. So as soon as they got off the glider, the German paratroopers were surrounded by the Red Army, the two sides quickly exchanged fire, and then most of the German paratroopers were torn apart by the Red Army with machine guns and mortars.

In addition to the four gliders that crashed or yawed, the other 47 DFS230s all landed accurately in the designated area. Hans. The glider piloted by Second Lieutenant Sig carried the first group of personnel of the "Panther" brigade and killed them directly in the direction of Lenin Mountain. I have to praise the piloting skills of Second Lieutenant Sig, whose glider landed accurately at the foot of Lenin Hill and rushed to a stop about 150 meters from the post of the Central Security Department.

After being captured, Second Lieutenant Sieg recalled: "At 5 o'clock sharp, it was separated from the tractor. Ten minutes later began to fly over the Sudosti River, at an altitude of about three thousand meters. I searched the target area in the morning fog, then swooped down sharply at a large angle, and I could see the anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns on both sides of the foothills, and the Russians were rapidly moving into position. But I got as close as I could to the target and landed. ”

Second Lieutenant Seeger's landing skills were superb, but not all German glider pilots were as good as him. Another glider of the "Panther" brigade, which was immediately following him, crashed directly into the ground due to improper operation, and all the personnel on board were dead.

Then, the rest of the gliders of the "Panther" brigade landed one after another. Second Lieutenant Schuller, a military reporter on one of the gliders, was riding in a glider for the first time in his life when he suddenly heard the pilot shouting: "We're going to fly down!" Schuller then felt: "It was more like a fall, falling down without stopping, at a rapid pace, with the wind coming in through the gaps in the cabin and causing a terrible scream." We could see the village, the burning houses, the gentle meadows. Then the glider slammed to the ground, the fuselage shook violently, and my head slammed against the bulkhead, and even with my helmet on, I felt like Venus was shining in front of me. While I was still a little dazed, I heard someone shouting, 'Get out!' Get out! ’。 Then I stupidly unbuckled my seatbelts, and the rest of my followers rushed out of the hatch with one foot high and one foot low. ”

This "fall" took only two to three minutes, and Schuller later recalled: "The glider pilot (a young officer) also quickly grabbed a couple of grenades and rushed out of the cockpit and threw himself into battle like a paratrooper. ”

By the time Schuller left the plane, a considerable number of paratroopers had already gathered and rushed to the "castle", but to the panic of the "Panther" brigade, the guards of the central security hall in front of them did not panic, and immediately set up machine guns and pressed them back with fierce strafing fire.

On the other hand, the Red Army troops stationed in Pochop were at first completely stunned by the Germans falling from the sky, but they soon reacted, and the anti-aircraft positions on both sides of Lenin Hill soon opened heavy fire into the sky. Soon, other onlookers of the Red Army were delighted to see that "one German plane after another was shot down by the artillery comrades." Well, forgive these children, they really haven't seen so many gliders, and instinctively thought that these German planes were all shot down...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you for the second kill of potatoes, baby pandas, mending knives and Comrade Juventus!