"Stand up!" a German officer commanded his soldiers, standing on the pier.

Opposite him, hundreds of German soldiers in gray-green Wehrmacht uniforms stood up with difficulty, carrying tents and various equipment, carrying their Mauser 98K rifles, and slowly began to line up.

"Look to the right! soldiers! We are going to Spain, where we will send the most odious communists to hell! You will be there for a real baptism of war! I will not say much!" The one-eyed major officer with a black one-eyed dragon cloth looked a little hideous.

As he spoke, he stretched out one of his hands and began to say the precautions: "First, lie down on your bodies! Whoever lies down will survive! Don't stand up straight on the battlefield, that's an idiot's job! I hope you can all come back alive!"

Then he stretched out a second finger: "Second, try not to exaggerate your achievements! Because I will believe in these achievements, and next time I will leave the more difficult tasks to these troops with excellent records!"

Then he looked at the nervous soldiers and held out a third finger: "Third! Remember to give way to bullets and shells! ”

All the soldiers were stunned for a moment, and then burst into laughter, apparently the nervousness before departure was swept away, the major nodded, and then said: "The transport ship is an Italian destroyer! Be polite when you go up! Don't vomit casually! Go to the designated cabin to get a vomit bag! There are many seasick people on the deck to breathe! The rest of the time will not be easy for you! Remember?"

"Remember!" replied all the soldiers with a smile.

The major glanced at the soldiers in front of him with his eyes and gave one final order: "All obey the order! Board the ship! Go!"

"How many transports are there today?" said an Italian officer, looking at the German soldiers on board, and asked the adjutant beside him, "The Germans are really bloody." ”

"Sir, this is their fourth ship today, and there are two destroyers from our navy to help them transport personnel. There are also two German Hercules-class transports, loaded with their tanks and armored vehicles, and I heard that there are quite a few light machine guns...... and millions of bullets. ”

"I heard that there were planes, which had already been transported, covered with army-green canvas, and escorted by SS troops along the way, and no one was allowed to approach. That's called a mystery!" The officer exclaimed: "Look at people's military uniforms, they are really handsome." ”

"I can't envy it. The adjutant sighed: "I heard that the leader Mussolini returned from Germany, and he admired Germany very much, and even his mansion deliberately imitated the Führer's residence in Berlin." ”

Accardo sent two divisions to Spain, the newly formed 8th Panzer Division and the SS 2nd Panzer Division, both equipped with a large number of armored vehicles and tanks, and these two divisions were also responsible for testing Accardo's blitzkrieg theory on the Spanish battlefield - of course, by the way, the two newly formed panzer divisions were tested in actual combat.

These days, more than 30 ME-109 fighters have been delivered to Spain, and the Germans hope to completely dominate the Spanish skies with this new weapon, and under the guarantee of absolute air supremacy, use German tanks as an assault force to completely tear apart the Spanish Republican defense.

However, the Republicans were not vegetarians, and they launched a major offensive on the day the Germans arrived in Spain, pushing the front to the doorstep of Franco's army, near Granada.

The Franco Corps lost many areas in a row, and the Republican Army, with the cooperation of the Soviet allies, seized partial air supremacy, taking advantage of the lack of preparation of the Franco Corps to gain the advantage of the war in one go.

In the silence of the battlefield, beneath a well-placed camouflage, a black hole muzzle was pointed at the Republican position not far away, and inside were two German snipers with black charcoal on their faces.

They had been waiting here for more than an hour, sparing two Republican soldiers who were probing their brains, and not shooting a Republican corporal hiding in a corner and smoking, they were waiting for a big man worthy of their hands, for whom at least one lieutenant should be killed at a time when the position was exposed.

Finally, they waited for their chance, and a Republican officer in an officer's uniform finally climbed into the position, looked at it with a telescope for a while, and then cautiously burrowed into the trench, but soon he changed positions and leaned out halfway.

The German sniper did not want to waste such an opportunity, and the bullet flew over a distance of more than 100 meters in an instant, piercing the head of a second lieutenant of the Republican Army, and blood splattered everywhere, splashing the face of the soldiers following the second lieutenant of the Republican Army.

Without celebration or hesitation, the two German snipers crawled backwards and retreated until they reached the edge of the trench, before turning over and jumping back into the trench, and then two men carried sniper rifles and crossed the trench with their waists bent, and moved for nearly two hundred meters before they found a company headquarters and got in.

There, a sergeant was boiling a hot soup with potatoes and leaves, which didn't look very tasty, but it was steaming. The two snipers leaned their guns against the wall of the headquarters, each pulled a wooden stool and sat down, and did not politely greet the Spanish company commander who was boiling soup, opened their lunch box and began to use a spoon to serve the hot soup in the small pot.

"What's the catch?" the Spanish company commander asked the two Germans in jerky German, and the two Germans laughed with their mouths wide open, their white teeth bared against the backdrop of their black faces, and one of the two snipers did not speak, but only smashed the potatoes in the soup with a spoon, and the other pointed to the sky while drinking the soup.

The artillery fire of the Republican army's retaliation began, and more than a dozen shells fell on the position a few hundred meters away, and the caliber was not small when you heard the sound. The place where the two German snipers had just been hiding was also hit by a shell, and billowing smoke rose.

"Seventeen shells! The officer is not small, at least a company commander. The Spanish soldier muttered to himself, then pointed to the hot soup as he walked out: "You continue to drink the soup, I'll go to the battalion headquarters for a meeting and come back." Regardless of whether the two Germans understood it or not, they left their headquarters.

The two German snipers ate some hot potatoes and cabbage, patted their stomachs very contentedly, stood up and picked up the sniper rifle from the wall, and the older sniper snorted: "Spaniards, it is also worthy of boiling soup and cooking." How many are we?"

"Today's 3rd. The young sniper laughed and chimed in: "The Führer said they only play football!" I didn't see it anyway, I heard that they were beaten by us last time. ”

"Hurry up, I heard that there are a lot of monsters who went to the Soviet Union to train, and we can't be much worse than them. The old sniper crawled out of the company headquarters with a cat's waist, and the young man nodded and followed suit.

......

"Sir, in the past three days, we have lost 179 front-line commanders, and yesterday I was forced to appoint 1 battalion commander, 4 company commanders, and 52 platoon commanders. A major general of the Republican Army reluctantly reported to his superiors: "This kind of piecemeal war makes us very uncomfortable. ”

"In the vicinity of Granada, the offensive of our troops was stopped by the rebels. Another officer also said with a look of frustration: "There we met with stubborn resistance from a well-trained force, and they even launched a local counterattack, and we lost a dozen tanks and about 400 soldiers were killed." ”

"They are on the offensive in the direction of Córdoba. A staff officer pointed to the map and said: "Here they use about 20 new tanks, according to the analysis of the intelligence department, as well as the comparison of pictures from the Soviet side, it is certain that this is the German No. 2 tank, equipped with a 20 mm rapid-fire gun, and the firepower is very powerful." ”

"We have already lost the positions on the outskirts of Córdoba, and if we lose this newly recaptured city, it will have a very big impact on our morale. The major general, who was the first to speak, said: "It looks like the Germans have joined the war." ”

"Just like many of our Soviet comrades in the army, they have found help! The Germans have entered the rebels, which is not good news for us!"

"Not good news, gentlemen!" a staff officer walked into the conference room and pressed a piece of information on the table: "I just got the news that a new fighter has appeared over Córdoba, this new plane is very fast, it hit one of our reconnaissance planes, but the pilot successfully parachuted over our position, so we got this precious information." ”

He paused, then continued: "The offensive and defensive battle of Córdoba began an hour ago, the rebels attacked the city under the cover of German tanks, and our troops are stubbornly counterattacking in the city, but the situation is not optimistic, because with the help of the Germans, our losses are quite large. ”

"We must hold on there until the last moment! If we lose it, there will be a hole in our defense. The major general said with a frown.

"Give the order! Mobilize all the forces that can be mobilized and arm the militia! Contact the Soviet allies, we need more tanks and fighter planes, and ask them to send personnel to participate in the battle themselves, at least the air force, to help us gain air supremacy. The tallest lieutenant general in the audience thought for a long time, and finally gave the order: "All troops hold their positions in place! ”