With the sinking of the first assault boat by the Soviets on the Don River, the large-scale river crossing operation of the German army also began, and the reason why Guderian's troops lagged behind Manstein in the speed of the attack was because they carried a large number of river crossing tools in the second echelon of troops. Its fundamental purpose was to deal with the possible defense line of the Don River by the Soviet army.

In order to allow a large number of armored units under the jurisdiction of Army Group G to quickly cross the Don River, the German army prepared a large number of bridge-building tools, but unfortunately it was not easy for the German Tiger tanks or even King Tiger tanks to cross the Don River, so the German army carried a lot of equipment.

The pontoon bridges that the sappers were erecting, mainly to provide bridges for armored troops to cross the river, docked the boats side by side, fastened them with cables and bolts, and then the steel decks were dropped by engineering vehicles, and a solid pontoon bridge was quickly built.

While the sappers were building the pontoon bridge, part of the German assault boats had already reached the other side of the Don River, and the German soldiers rushed to the embankment on the opposite bank and launched a heroic charge against the positions of the Soviet troops.

Not far away, another pontoon bridge is also being built, this pontoon bridge does not seem to have as many load-bearing requirements, and most of them are using inflatable rubber boats as a load-bearing part of the pontoon. Apparently this pontoon bridge was intended for infantry to cross the river, and it was built faster, and in the blink of an eye it had extended to the center of the Don River.

More than a dozen German Stuka 2 dive bombers circled in the sky, pouring their ammunition on Soviet positions at any time, and these planes covered the German landing sites and helped the Germans expand the positions they had already occupied on the opposite bank.

An assault boat rushed to the river beach on the opposite bank, and a rain of bullets hit the assault boat, but the grenadiers inside still jumped out of the assault boat fearlessly, the bullets hit their feet, and the sand even flew on them, but the Germans still carried their weapons and ran forward.

One soldier was hit by a bullet while running and fell to the ground. But more German soldiers rushed to a place where they could hide their bodies and began to calmly set up their weapons. An MG42 machine gun was placed on the edge of a crater on the river beach, and it spewed tongues of vengeance at the slightly higher Soviet positions.

"Suddenly, suddenly!" As the sound of tearing linen or sawing wood that is characteristic of German machine guns began to sound, the chain of bullets held in the palm of the German secondary shooter began to jump against the body of the machine gun due to the pull of the machine gun. Tracer shells flew towards the Soviet machine-gun positions, sending a cloud of white smoke out of it.

More assault boats began to land nearby, the Germans were growing more and more, and they launched attacks on both flanks, and the Soviet infantry positions were already undermanned by the German attack, and many places had to rely on the terrain to support them.

A German grenadier leaned against a rock, replaced his assault rifle with a new magazine, and then he rolled over and jumped into the Soviet trench, he was the first German soldier to rush so close to the enemy position, and the Soviet soldier in the trench was startled by the German soldier who jumped in coldly.

There were not a few Soviet troops in this trench at all, and more than half of the grenades had been thrown just now, and now there were only two Soviets in it who could actually fight, and as soon as the German soldiers raised their guns, the bullets hit the two enemies who were pulling the bolts of Mosin's Nagant rifles.

Two Soviet soldiers fell to the ground, and a second German soldier had already climbed into the trench, and the two Germans occupied this section of the position, and the Soviet defense line in the vicinity suddenly became a hole. More German soldiers then followed into the trench, and the Soviets were driven out of more positions by the Germans.

A gap was made by German grenadiers. This was something that the Soviets could not tolerate, and they were still pinning their hopes on stopping the German offensive to ensure that the Don line could hold back the Germans. So when the German army was not firmly established, the Soviet troops launched a counterattack.

A Soviet soldier rushed into a trench already occupied by the Germans with his own weapon, and behind him, more Soviet soldiers also carried rifles with bayonets. They passed through the communication trenches they had dug and took advantage of their familiarity with the terrain and quickly approached the defensive positions occupied by the Germans.

They suddenly came out of the side of the trench and tried to catch the Germans by surprise, but the MP-44 assault rifle in the hands of the Germans and the ammunition delivered by the G43 semi-automatic rifle in an instant were much stronger than the Mosin Nagant in the hands of the Soviet army, so most of the Soviet soldiers who rushed out were knocked over by bullets at the corner of the trench.

A Soviet soldier risked his life to rush around the corner, holding the Bobosha submachine gun in his hand, and began to shoot frantically at the Germans, at such a close distance, the barrage formed by the Bobosha submachine gun had a very good killing effect, and the three German soldiers immediately fell to the ground, and blood flowed from their bodies.

"Suddenly, suddenly!" a German grenadier did not let his comrades die in vain, he fell on one knee against the wall of the trench, held his assault rifle, and fired a bullet in the direction of the corner.

The Soviet gunner, armed with a Bobosha submachine gun, was hit by a bullet and fell to the ground on his back with a scream, and the two Soviet soldiers who rushed out with him were also hit by bullets and fell to the bodies of their comrades in a shaky way.

The rest of the Germans had no intention of fighting the Soviets with bayonets, and under the cover of several grenadiers with assault rifles, they threw two grenades, killing one of the Soviets who were crowded around the corner and charging at the Germans. This charge of the Soviet troops, too, was defeated and retreated with the explosion of these two grenades.

"We must regain the lost position! We must not take half a step back!" A Soviet commander shouted angrily when he saw that his troops had been defeated and retreated: "Organize another attack! All soldiers must not retreat! I will personally lead people up! If we don't drive the Germans down the river, everyone will die on the east bank of the Don River!"

It didn't take long for the second Soviet counterattack to start again, braving the German artillery fire, and against the hovering and roaring of the planes overhead, thousands of Soviet soldiers rushed to the German defensive positions with rifles. A freshly set MG42 machine gun began to roar, and the bullets flew into the dense crowd of Soviet troops, knocking over a large number of Soviet soldiers.

"Comrade Commander! The enemy's machine guns are coming! We have no way to rush through!" said a Soviet soldier holding a steel helmet and retreating into the trench where he had set out, and reported loudly to his commander. His tone was full of pessimism and despair, after all, they were asked to hold this position and not take a step back.

"Whew!" the commander didn't talk nonsense with him, raised the pistol in his hand, and pierced the soldier's chest: "I gave the order! Don't retreat! How dare you go back?"

The soldier stared at his commander in disbelief, then slowly fell down unwillingly, and finally lay up straight at the bottom of the muddy trench, closed his eyes in despair, and did not say anything more the whole time, because he could feel life passing through his body, and no matter what he said, he could no longer change what was happening in front of him.

"Charge with me! Don't retake your position! Never retreat!" the Soviet commander shouted frantically, waving his pistol in his hand. Around him, the Soviet soldiers who followed him forward were densely packed. They charged forward regardless of life and death, trying to get close to the German positions.

A shell from German cover landed in their crowd, blowing away the surrounding soldiers and the severed arms of various soldiers. But the Soviets still moved forward desperately, desperately attacking in the face of German bullets.

However, on the river beach, more German assault boats arrived, and dozens of Germans joined the defensive positions of friendly forces in front, these new machine guns brought by the Germans and plenty of ammunition, they strengthened the defensive positions, and opened heavy fire on the charging Soviet troops.

And the Soviet troops on the opposite side did not have the idea of retreating, they desperately wanted to compress the German positions, and in some places these Soviet soldiers who lacked ammunition even really started a white-knuckle battle with the Germans, and also won the white-knuckle battle, they let the Germans shoot, regardless of the losses, rushed into the trenches, and killed the German soldiers inside with slender bayonets.

The battle was very bloody, and the German army was annihilated by the Soviet army in many places, and the forward position of crossing the river was once recaptured by the Soviet army two-thirds, but in the end, the Soviet army was still unable to draw troops to hold on, resulting in their counterattack finally falling short.

Although the Soviets launched a full-scale counterattack in this breached area, the last German army, which occupied part of the Soviet trenches, relied on improvised fortifications to desperately resist the counterattack of the Soviet Red Army. The two sides fought desperately over their positions, and as more German troops rushed onto the riverbank, the massive counterattack was eventually repulsed.

The Soviet commander eventually collapsed in the path of the charge, being hit by a howitzer shell and dying along with the surrounding infantry in a trench. A simple pontoon bridge connected the Don River, and the German infantry began to cross the river on a large scale under the cover of the air force.

On the riverbank, a German division commander reported to Guderian the results of the battle: "General! Although the Soviet troops fought stubbornly and wanted to hold the defense line on the Don River, their troops were insufficient, and our army had already taken control of the area of crossing the river and was organizing troops to cross the river on a large scale. ”

"Very well!" Guderian replied, "Order the troops to speed up the attack! In two days I will reach the outskirts of Stalingrad!"