"On June 5, the situation of the 30th Guards Infantry Division of the Red Banner Independent Primorsky Army, which launched an auxiliary offensive as planned, was not ideal. For a whole day, the front advanced only one and a half thousand meters! To be honest, I'm worried that my plans to divert the enemy's attention will be ruined by the sluggish attack here, and the battle here will be much more difficult than I expected!! ”

From Vasilevsky that night submitted to the army. In the official report of the Commission, especially in the three striking exclamation points at the end, we can see that his worries about the war are already overflowing, but is the situation really as bad as Vasilevsky said?

I am afraid that this is not the case, not that Vasilevsky lied about the military situation or deliberately exaggerated the difficulty and difficulty, but because just when he was extremely troubled, a sudden good news made him overjoyed. According to the confession of the German "tongue" captured by the reconnaissance troops: "In view of the tremendous pressure from the Red Banner Separate Primorsky Army, General Almendinger has decided to draw reserves to strengthen the line of defense on that side!" ”

What does this mean? It is explained that the attention of the German army has been diverted, and it can be said that the attempts of Vasilevsky and Bogdanov have been largely achieved.

Stepping on the first rays of the morning sun, the Soviet Guards soldiers once again picked up their weapons and began to fight, Bogdanov issued a death order on this day: "At all costs, a substantial breakthrough must be achieved on the German defense line!" ”

At that time, the lower-level commanders still attached great importance to such orders, knowing that today's battle would not be a little sloppy, otherwise it would be difficult to protect their heads. And the armored units of the Red Army, which had been playing the role of spectators in yesterday's battle, were also put into the battlefield for the first time this time.

It's just that the German army still continued the excellent performance of the previous day, and did its best to withstand the coordinated impact of the Red Army's infantry and tanks in turn. More often than not, soldiers on both sides were engaged in hand-to-hand combat. The front, which is full of cruelty and blood, is heating up everywhere.

In the afternoon of the same day. After withstanding repeated charges by the Red Army, the defensive line of the German 336th Infantry Division, which had been weakened, was finally torn open, and seeing that the defensive line was about to collapse, General Almendinger threw two of the only three battalions of reserves at hand into the counter-charge at the critical moment.

The Red Army's follow-up troops dropped the chain again, and the Germans finally blocked the opening by nightfall, but for the Germans, it was inevitable that the defensive line north of Constanta would soon change hands. Almentingale was very amuseful that night to withdraw all the troops of the northern defensive line, which was still stalemate with the Red Army, and he pinned all his hopes on the ensuing street fighting.

Vasilevsky and Bogdanov's tactics were successful, and Almentinger, who failed to accurately judge the real intentions of the other side, fell into complete passivity.

Nine o'clock the next morning. Ten thousand artillery guns rang out on the Western Front of Constanta, which had been silent for two days, and the real general offensive of the Red Army began!

Nearly 200 artillery pieces of different calibers were densely arranged in the main attack area, and after two hours of fire preparation, hundreds of rocket artillery guns deployed on the second line sounded the horn of the attack with a perfect salvo.

In addition to the typical infantry and tan coordinated attack, the Il-2 was also particularly active on this day, fully cooperating with the main attack force to launch the attack. On the German side, the poor 50th Infantry Division, which had just withdrawn from the northern line of defense yesterday, was caught in even harsher fire.

In the face of a tidal offensive of T-34 tanks, the division's defense line was quickly torn open with a 5-kilometer-wide opening. And in the flank and rear of the 50th Infantry Division, the fragile defensive line of the 111th Division also failed to stand the test. The Red Army "Iron Cavalry" swept the division's positions like a bamboo, and a German second lieutenant of the 111th Division recalled the tragic circumstances of the battle:

“…… The entire battlefield echoed with the sound of shells and explosions. The sudden strafing of machine guns will not stop for a moment. The sound of rumbling shelling and thumping grenades intertwine into a symphony of death. The air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder smoke and the strong smell of rust (blood...... The Red Army's dense raindrops of rockets smashed down on my positions, and under such firepower, I did not know what to do but huddle in the trenches and pray. Soon the reddish-brown dust rushed over like a tidal wave, despair and tiredness were engraved on the faces of each of us, and from time to time we could hear the bloody cuckoos of the wounded soldiers**......"

The remnants of the 111th Division resisted until the next morning, when the Reds charged again after dawn, and the shells, grenades and machine-gun bullets covering the Red Army's attack made it impossible for the Germans in the trenches to raise their heads.

The battle report showed that the 59th Tank Division of the Red Army had exhausted all the flares and large-caliber artillery shells in one night, and had to urgently call for help from Vasilevsky, which also showed how fierce and cruel the battle was.

But no matter how difficult the process was, the collapse of the German 50th and 111th divisions had already exposed Constanta's soft belly to the shiny bayonets of the Red Army. Almentinger, who was in a hurry, could only order the 50th and 111th Divisions to immediately counterattack and regain their positions that afternoon, but this was obviously a fool's dream.

After losing more than 5,000 soldiers in two days of fighting, the so-called counterattack ended more after a symbolic two-gun launch, and Almentingale realized that how to prevent the total rout of the defenders on the Western Front was the most difficult problem, and he had to send the last reserves at hand to the 50th and 111th Divisions in the hope of stabilizing the defensive line.

At the same time, to the north, after a short rest, the Red Banner Independent Primorsky Army was again engaged in the offensive, and the overwhelmed German 336th Infantry Division was forced to shrink further into the city, and one part had retreated to the port dock area.

In his memoirs, Bogdanov proudly declared: "Before the twilight of June 8, our Red Banner Separate Primorsky Army had put the entire city of Constanta under artillery control, and the end of the Germans was approaching!" ”

There are no problems with Bogdanov's declaration. By this time. The fall of Constanta was inevitable. Even though Almendingale kept cheering up his soldiers, even he admitted: "There is no point in holding out anymore!" ”

Yes, the Germans already decided that they could not hold on, and the only thing that could be done now was to transport as much of their precious living forces as possible from Constanta before they were completely divided and surrounded by the Red Army. At the behest of Almendinger, at the suggestion of Guderian, in the early hours of June 9, in the distant wolf's den, Hitler finally nodded in agreement to abandon Constanta and ship all the troops there to the Bulgarian port of Varna.

Even if the order came too late, all the German officers and soldiers, including Almentingale, were excited. As long as they can get out of this hellish place, they are very happy, and they have nothing else to ask for.

In the first hours of June 9, Almentinger, who had the will to retreat in his hands, quickly drew up a plan for retreat, knowing that it was impossible to calmly board and leave under the fire of the Red Army, and that he needed the cooperation of the navy and air force, and Hitler finally gave Almentingale the green light to cover his retreat with all their might.

At the other end of the front, Vasilevsky decided that a complete settlement of Constanta on June 9 would not be a big problem, and that according to his and Bogdanov's plan, the Red Banner Independence Primorsky Army must be cleared of all German forces north of Constanta on that day and take full control of the docks. And the 37th Army will cut into Constanta with a single sword. The main forces of the German army were completely divided and surrounded.

At eight o'clock in the morning, after a rush of artillery fire was prepared. The 37th Army and the Red Banner Independence Primorsky Army carried out a final general assault on the core of the city of Constanta from the north, west and southwest. The Red Army soldiers who broke into the city soon found that the fighting was far less brutal than they had imagined, that many seemingly impregnable positions had been taken down with a single charge, and that even many of the concrete fortifications carefully constructed by the German and Romanian armies were empty, for the simple reason that the Germans had already fled!

In the middle of the night, Romania and Germany mobilized all the ships they could mobilize and threw them into Constanta, and it has to be said that the Red Army made another mistake of carelessness on this night, and did not expect the Germans to retreat suddenly, only a few frigates were active along the Romanian coastline, and the main forces of the Black Sea Fleet were still resting in Sevastopol.

Of course, although the carelessness of the Red Army gave the Germans an opportunity, this did not mean that they could easily escape, after all, the Romanian navy and civilian ships at their disposal were limited, and a few hours at night were not enough to evacuate about 100,000 men. And once the Red Army reacted, it would be a bitter tragedy for the Germans and Romanians.

At six o'clock in the morning, the Red Naval Aviation, taking off from Odessa and Sevastopol, was the first to spot the fleeing enemy and launched a fierce attack at the first opportunity. In the slightly lit sky, a group of Il-2 or Su-2 attack planes appeared in a zigzag shape. For the German and Romanian soldiers, who were desperate to flee, there was no safety at all when shells, bombs and torpedoes from Red Army attack aircraft came down.

For example, the Romanian transport ship Totilla, which carried a large number of passengers, was densely packed with nearly 4,000 people at the time, and in the face of the Red Army's air attack, the heavy and hobbling ship could only defend itself with a small number of anti-aircraft machine guns. It's just that this kind of self-defense looks like a death throes no matter how you look at it.

Soon Totila was hit with three bombs, and the fire burned all over the hull, and the red-hot deck was a hell on earth, and the only way they could come up with was to trample each other and jump into the sea.

The sea soon filled the Totilla's engine room, and the superstructure was completely engulfed in flames, and only a few minutes later, a thunderous explosion announced the destruction of the Totilla. The surviving soldiers braved the raging flames (heavy oil leaking from the ship's hull) and jumped into the fire, and the instinct for survival caused everyone on the surface to try to grab any float they could.

Of course, this is of no avail, because the temperature of the Black Sea is still quite low at this time, and the icy waters will soon freeze these poor creatures to death.

The Totila sank to the bottom of the sea just 10 minutes after being shot, and the ships that rushed to help save people only saved a few hundred people in total. More than three thousand Romanian and German soldiers were swallowed by the merciless seawater.

Please note. And that's just the beginning! The Red Air Force, which had tasted the sweetness, became more and more active. Waves of Red Army fighters flew one after another over the area where the German troops had retreated, and powerful aerial bombs were constantly being thrown, and huge columns of water tens of meters high were constantly rising on the sea.

At that time, the other main target of the Red Air Force attack was the Teja. The ship, which was carrying about five thousand soldiers at that time, was fleeing at full speed to the southwest under the cover of two Romanian torpedo boats. Shortly after the Totila was sunk, an aerial bomb and a torpedo came into close contact with the Teja. After several hours of struggle, the Teja sank twenty kilometers southwest of Constanta, and this time about four thousand more people were killed.

That is, the losses of the Totila and Teja alone amounted to eight thousand people. This is almost the equivalent of an infantry division that is not fully formed. To be honest, in previous land battles, neither the German nor Romanian losses were so high.

Like thousands of other fugitive soldiers, Sergeant Sforza, a member of the German 111th Infantry Division, experienced fear from the air on a petite Romanian transport boat: "...... The deck was bustling with people, and as soon as planes appeared and circled around us, the anti-aircraft machine guns would rain ammunition like crazy, and you could see that the barrels were already red, and Romanian sailors were constantly scooping up sea water with wooden barrels to help cool it down, and we could only hope that this old antique machine gun would not jam. Because our little lives are all counting on it......"

"Russian pilots were constantly diving and machine-gun fire at us, so I could only curl up as much as I could and hide in the gaps between the bulkheads. After a burst of heavy artillery fire, the scene was terrible - a young man who had just been beside me had his arm and leg broken by machine guns, and the young man was struggling in a pool of blood. I can't find the words to describe the mixture of fear and happiness. The deck, which had just been buzzing with people, was now in shambles, full of wounded and dead soldiers, and in addition to the humming engine noise, there were screams and cries of the wounded. ”

"Just as I was stunned, a motorboat that had been wrecked by an airplane's machine gun floated past my eyes, leaving a deep reddish-brown trail on the surface of the sea, and even more disgusting was the swollen corpse and the shark's tail fin that occasionally emerged from the water. My thoughts were soon interrupted by the heart-rending cry of a sailor: 'Leaking!' The water is pouring in! Can't stop it! We're sinking, damn it, throwing all your luggage into the sea, including your backpacks and rifles! ’。 ”

"So we threw away everything we could throw away and arrived empty-handed at Varna, and when my feet were on solid ground again, I couldn't help but get down on my knees and kiss the ground under my feet, and at that moment I swore in my heart that I would never go to sea again in my life!"

After a day, about 40,000 Romanian and German soldiers died in the Black Sea, but fortunately the Red Air Force had to rest after nightfall, otherwise the blood of Romanians and Germans would stain the Black Sea red. It's just that Almentingale is not much easier, because after the Air Force, the Red Navy is also dispatched, and in the face of the powerful Red Navy, the weak Romanian Navy seems to have to wait passively for death.

However, the Germans and Romanians were lucky, and visibility was very low on this night, and under the cover of night, Romanian boats full of fugitive soldiers transported about 30,000 soldiers to Varna. However, the burden on Almendinger's shoulders was not light at all, and at this time there were still about 40,000 Dorode troops under siege in Constanta, and there were unfortunate things that the commander did not know, and in the second half of the night, a hurricane and waves suddenly blew in the Black Sea, which prevented the rescue operation from proceeding!

This news was a huge blow to the Axis forces in Constanta, because even according to the most optimistic estimates, the storm would take 10 hours to cross, and by then it would be dawn again! Retreating from the sea during the day, to be honest, is no different from looking for death.

With a drizzle of rain and daybreak, the coastline, bays, and forward positions of Constanta began to be bombarded with Red Army artillery fire, and the good news was that there were not many attack planes and bombers to harass the poor Germans, for all the Red Army fighters had gone hunting at sea.

The last line of defense in Constanta was full of painful wounded, and except for a handful of nuns and Red Cross volunteers, no one cared about their lives or deaths. The order began to become more and more chaotic, and all who could still move around had only one thought in their minds - find a boat to jump on, and then get out of this hellish place!

At this time, Almendinger was also in a hurry, and as the Red Army strengthened the artillery blockade, it was impossible for the large ships coming from Varna to dock at the Constanta docks, and he had to do everything possible to collect motorboats and sampans for transshipment, and he had to do everything possible to calm and stabilize the mood of the soldiers. Because it is impossible to retreat during the day, everything will have to wait until dark, and there are still more than ten long hours...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to gundam0080, Storm Once, Andoney, Katsura Kawakatsu, Glorious Charter, and Comrade Juventus!