Fortunately, the Red Army soldiers reacted quickly, and they quickly ran to the nearby hillside, from where they opened heavy fire on the glider's landing area, so that several German airborne groups were suppressed by fire. For example, the glider, piloted by Ensign Kilman, landed safely in perfect stance, but he quickly fell under the heavy fire of the Red Army, with the result that all the Germans in the cabin were beaten into a sieve in a matter of seconds.

On the other side, the gliders of the "Brave" brigade landed accurately, and the Germans landed almost directly to the door of their intended target, which the Germans had earlier believed to be the resting place of Lenin's guards. A group of 50 paratroopers and specialists immediately attacked it, aiming to destroy the forces defending Lenin as quickly as possible, blasting open the gates with their explosive packs and storming a camp of the 50th Infantry Division of the 21st Army of the Red Army's Second Belorussian Front.

Of course, if the Germans had known that there was a whole battalion of Red Army troops stationed in this camp, they would probably not have been so reckless. Anyway, after blasting open the gate of the camp, the Germans were instantly overwhelmed by the more than 200 Red Army soldiers in the camp who had just finished arming.

Just when the first paratroopers of the "Brave" brigade were in a desperate situation, reinforcements from the brigade arrived, and this group of paratroopers carried mortars and more powerful explosive packs, so the "brave" brigade finally gained a foothold and began to shoot fiercely at the Red Army in the camp.

Let's put it this way, the only gain of the "Brave" brigade after landing was to catch a few foreign journalists who happened to arrive at Pochop on the other side of the camp. Employed by Time Magazine Phil. Castro is a native of Mexico, and he remembers that day years later:

"I woke up from my sleep, and at about 6 o'clock in the morning, a Red Army soldier shouted through the window to several of our journalists: 'Air strike! Get up! Air raid! A few of us fled to a nearby bomb shelter, and standing at the mouth of the hole, I could see a wave of planes flying over our heads. Then parachutes bloomed over us. Then several of us looked at each other, not understanding why the Germans were conducting an airborne operation in Pochop. Just when we were wondering, a group of Nazis in black steel helmets appeared, rushed into the bomb shelter with their submachine guns in hand, and said to us in German: 'Hands up, get out!' ’”

The airborne landing continues. The "Onslaught" group landed northwest of Mount Lenin, and one glider rolled over because its nose touched the ground, killing most of the people on board. The paratroopers on several other gliders tried to move as quickly as possible after exiting the cabin, but were suppressed by fire from the nearby mountains.

As soon as they left the cabin, they were overwhelmed by enemy fire, much to the chagrin of the paratroopers, who did not know what kind of environment they were in. In fact, these paratroopers were parachuted too accurately, and Lenin and Krupskaya, who had just risen in the morning, were scattering on the banks of the Sudost. After discovering the enemy plane's air raid in the middle of the walk, the Mentor and his wife had no choice but to take shelter in the nearest bomb shelter and wait for the air raid to pass before returning to Lenin Hill under the escort of the guards. And at this time. The brigade of "Onslaught" landed right behind their ass!

Tell me, what would it be for the guards of the Central Security Agency? At that time, they probably had only one thought, and that was to go out and defend Comrade Lenin to the death. Naturally, the firepower is very strong, and right.

Unfortunately, the "Onslaught" did not realize that they were so close to completing their mission, and they were pinned to the ground and unable to move, if they could even lift their heads, if they could. You will see that the bald Lenin is hurriedly retreating in the direction of Lenin Hill under the cover of the guards.

Soon, Lenin joined up with the guards at the foot of Lenin Hill. Retreat to the mountains under their protection. When he arrived at Villa No. 2, the mentor was already out of breath and had to hurriedly take a dose of nitroglycerin to calm the beating heart.

At that time, in Villa No. 2, in addition to Lenin and his wife, Lenin's life secretaries Chernikova and Poklonskaya and ten other guards. After discovering that the German glider landed right under his nose. Lenin's chief of guard, Rankovich, quickly assembled his guards to resist, and on the other hand, he immediately called the troops sent by Pochop and Rokossovsky to defend Lenin.

However, as mentioned earlier, Pochop's telephone exchange room was destroyed in the air raid, so the telephone contact was completely cut off, and no one paid attention to Rankovich's calls for help and yelling.

In desperation. Raković could only send two guards to the east to call for help. The situation was critical, and Lenin's life secretary, Poklonskaya, recalled: "Everywhere there was gunfire and cannonball, the guards picked up rifles and submachine guns and fired at the Germans down the hill, bullets kept hitting the walls and windows of the dacha, and all of us could only lie on the ground, not daring to ......look up at all."

Another secretary, Chernikova, was in a state of deep panic when a guard was shot in the head right in front of her eyes, "almost out of her mind" in her own words.

At that time, everyone advised Lenin to leave Villa No. 2 and take refuge in Villa No. 1 on the top of the hill for a while, but Lenin refused without hesitation, in his opinion, the enemy was not very strong, and once his troops reacted, they could destroy these uninvited sparrows from the sky in minutes.

When the glider plane landed the troops, they either ran into a wall, or stormed Lenin Mountain, or passed by Lenin. The paratroopers who parachuted down were also busy with their business. The "Blue" and "Green" brigades first cleared some of the Red Army patrols on the outskirts of Pochop and initially formed an improvised line of defense.

The "Green Team" surrounded a Red Army post that refused to surrender, and the ten soldiers at the post resisted until they had fired all their bullets, and after they had fought a fierce white-knuckle battle with the incoming Germans, they were all killed.

By eight o'clock in the morning, the German paratroopers had already preliminarily cut off the connection between Lenin Hill and Pochop, but they did not have much to do about the "dangerous" Lenin Mountain, and the "Panther" brigade was firmly pinned down at the foot of the mountain.

At this time, the German intelligence officers immediately began to interrogate the captured prisoners on the spot, and they had to figure out several things: First. Lenin was not really in Pochope; second, if Lenin was there, then where exactly was his place; Thirdly, how many of Lenin's bodyguards there were, and what was the configuration of weapons.

However, the captured Red Army soldiers all refused to answer any questions posed by the Germans, and they had only one thought in their minds - and that was to defend Comrade Lenin's safety to the death. With the gradual loss of patience. The interrogation of the captives by the Germans became brief and brutal, and when all the captives refused to answer any of their questions, the demons began to become unusually bloody, and the Germans shot all the captives directly!

On the other hand, the German commander, Major Kirkhoffer, parachuted in a gale, which almost blew him and the "red" brigade into the Sudosti River. After landing on the bank of the river, the major found that he was about three kilometers away from the intended landing site. This made him quite anxious but helpless.

After more than an hour of trekking and fighting, Major Kirkhofe and part of the soldiers of the Red Brigade finally arrived near Mount Lenin. He set up his headquarters in a farm at the foot of the mountain, a few hundred meters away. At this time, Major Kirkhoffe had direct access to a group of troops that included part of the "Onslaught" group, all of the "Panther" group and a part of the "red" group, in addition to four 80-mm mortars from the heavy weapons company.

On the one hand, Major Kirkhoffe instructed that the wounded soldiers be taken in immediately, and on the other hand, scouts were sent to conduct a wide search for more information about Lenin. It was at this time that the Germans finally found the information they were looking for from foreign correspondents. Castro could not exhaust the torture of the Germans, admitting that he had seen people who looked like Lenin near Lenin Hill. "That was a few days ago, and I haven't seen this person in the last two days," he stressed. ”

This disguise is pale and weak. Major Kirhofer finally got the information he wanted. He immediately ordered the firing of flares, rallied the "Green" and "Blue" and other brigades to move closer to him, and when the German paratroopers arrived, he concentrated a force of about 300 men and stormed Lenin Hill.

At that time, the Central Security Office firmly occupied the favorable terrain of Lenin Hill and condescendingly resisted the German attack. According to Chernikova's later recollections: "Comrade Lenin asked Comrade Rankovich for a small pistol and at one point asked to join the battle as well. But the comrades would never allow Comrade Lenin to take the risk. The two guards carried Comrade Lenin almost to the top of the hill to Villa No. 1 on the top of the hill......"

Krupskaya also said about the situation at the ceremony of the 10th anniversary of the defense of Pochop Lenin ten years later: "Lenin once asked to join the fighting, but the fighters refused...... He was not afraid of death, especially when fighting for the Soviet Union......"

Despite the fierce resistance of the Central Security Office, it was still very difficult for the German paratroopers to advance, despite their outnumbered numbers. And as the Red Army around Pochop arrived on the battlefield one after another, the Germans were also somewhat restless on the flanks and behind.

The first reinforcements to arrive on the battlefield at that time came from a group of cadets of the Red Army Academy of Engineers. At that time they were interning in Pochop, and when Lenin's guards told them that the great Comrade Lenin was surrounded on the mountain, the young cadets did not wait for orders from their superiors and rushed to Lenin Hill without much weapons.

Along the way, the young men collected the weapons that had been scattered by the Germans, and then went straight into battle, forcing Major Kirkhoffe to draw some of his forces to drive out the "hairy boys".

To the surprise of military historians, however, apart from this group of emotional "baby soldiers", the Red Army's troops stationed in Pochop seemed to have been cold and slow to respond to Lenin's attack. Especially the armored force that was sent by Rokossovsky to defend Lenin before, their performance was simply stunning.

From about 6 a.m. to 12 noon, the German paratroopers were late, and what made people want to scold their mothers was that they were still short of ammunition. So much so that after a hasty attack on the German paratroopers, they retreated and waited for replenishment. So much so that later the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs wondered if the unit had been bought by the Germans!

So what is the reason? Or out of MI6. The KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were actually right, and the unit sent by Rokossovsky was indeed guilty. Their commander, Major Vlasov, had long been under the control of MI6, and under the Kim Won offensive of MI6, this man chose to betray the Motherland.

On the night of October 10, when the Germans were about to launch Operation "Vault", the major took advantage of his position to send his men a large quantity of fine vodka and beef. The vast majority of the officers and soldiers, including the sentries, were drunk.

In addition, in the evening of the same day, he deliberately sabotaged the radio and telephone used for communication, so that the unit never received the news of Lenin's attack, and of course, even if they did, they could not get up. And that's not all. Previously, Major Vlasov had also taken away a considerable part of the munitions in the name of taking inventory of the arsenal, which directly led to the fact that the ministry did not have enough ammunition to use.

After doing this, Vlasov escaped from Pochope, with the help of MI6 agents. And his actions did pose a great threat to Lenin's personal safety, if it were not for the Central Security Department's sworn fight, if it were not for the unexpected arrival of the cadets of the Red Army Engineer Academy on the battlefield, the final situation is really difficult to say.

At about ten o'clock in the morning, Pochop's Supreme Commander of the Red Army, Major General Onenovsky, finally figured out the purpose of the German army in the confusion, when he realized that the Germans were coming for Lenin. Immediately, my back was wet with cold sweat.

The major general, who was so frightened that he almost **, immediately ordered all the personnel at hand to move in the direction of Mount Lenin as fast as possible, and even he himself walked in the front with his own guard company. As more and more Red Army troops arrived on the battlefield, the situation of the Germans became very difficult.

After being captured, Major Kirkhoffe recalled: "When more and more Russians appeared around us, I knew that the operation was dangerous. Even if we had managed to rush to the top of the hill and capture Lenin alive, we would not have been able to escape with Lenin. After some thought, I made a difficult decision, since I could not capture Lenin alive. And we can't leave this hellish place, so there's only one way to serve the Third Reich. That is, to rush up the hill and kill Lenin at all costs! ”

It's just that Major Kirhofer didn't realize one thing at this time, that is, his mission had completely failed. Why? Because at this time Lenin was no longer in Villa No. 1, or even on Lenin Hill.

Some comrades may be amazed at how Lenin miraculously escaped danger. According to the description of the stall literature, this is the heavens that do not extinguish Lenin. At the most critical moment, Lenin's guards discovered a secret passage in Villa No. 1. It is said to have been left by a certain nobleman in the Tsarist era. Through this passage, Lenin left Lenin Hill without any danger and returned to the city of Pochop.

Of course, this legendary story is pure nonsense, and Lenin's escape from Lenin Hill was not a secret way. Because there is no such secret passage. What really got Lenin out of danger was the rope that had been prepared by the Central Security Department, and at the cliff at the back of Lenin Hill, the guards hung Lenin, Krupskaya and the rest of his entourage off the cliff one by one, and Lenin had already fled from the back hill while the Germans were still stupidly attacking from the front.

At this point, the Germans had failed in their "vaulting" operation, and even though they had resorted to the extraordinary means of airborne raids, the man they were bent on eradicating had escaped from the palm of their hands. However, the German paratroopers did not know this, and they were still fully engaged in the battle.

To the delight of the battalion commander, Major Kirkhoffe, his second group of paratroopers arrived at half past twelve in the afternoon. Twenty transport planes carrying these troops cut into the airborne field northwest of Mount Lenin as planned, dropping 220 paratroopers. At the same time, two gliders that came casually fell on the grass at the foot of Mount Lenin under the guidance of the signal soldiers, bringing ammunition and first aid supplies that the paratroopers urgently needed.

In fact, according to Major Kirkhofe's idea, the second group of paratroopers should have landed directly on the top of Mount Lenin. However, it was too late for him to report to the headquarters that Lenin was on the top of Lenin Mountain, and when this crucial telegram arrived in the Wolf's Lair, the second batch of airborne troops had already arrived at its destination, and with the approval of the Führer, it was sent to Himmler again, and finally passed on to the Air Force, the fighter plane had already been missed.

Of course, in this one of the key figures played a key role, Rudolph. Abel, as Himmler's aide-de-camp, deliberately delayed for thirty minutes when conveying Himmler's orders. And it was these thirty minutes that directly led to the impossibility of the second group of paratroopers being airdropped on Lenin Hill.

After the end of the war, in honor of Rudolph. Abel made a remarkable contribution at that moment, with the consent of the Politburo, and specially awarded him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Back at the airborne field, Major Kirkhoffe regretted that the second group of paratroopers could not be directly airborne on the top of the mountain, but after all, his strength at hand was increased again, especially the two gliders brought combat defense guns that could shoot directly at the air, which was crucial to fighting the guards of the Central Security Department who were condescendingly defending.

On the orders of Major Kirkhoffe, two PAK3637-mm anti-aircraft guns opened fire on the fortifications of the guards of the Central Security Office, and in a short time the machine gun fire of the guards was eliminated, and then the excited German paratroopers swarmed up the mountain road, impatiently preparing to capture Lenin alive...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to SC-VX, the old students, the king of mending knives and Comrade Juventus!