A shell landed not far from the position, bringing up a large area of wet dirt around it, and in a huge city not far away, thick smoke covered the sky, and one of the most important battles of the Spanish Civil War, the "Battle of Barcelona", was in full swing.

With the support of Germany, the Spanish National Army has been victorious, has firmly grasped the northern part of Spain, and is frantically attacking eastward with the goal of cutting off the border between the Spanish Republican Army and France.

In the actual battle, the German armored division was very effective in attacking in the field, taking Salamanca, one of the main cities in central Spain, in one go, and completely annihilating the two columns of the main force of the Republican Army that were surrounded near Salamanca, and successfully divided the area controlled by the Republican Army into two. The Nationalists then expanded this success, taking the northern Spanish city of León in the following month, opening up the supply line to A Coruña.

Immediately after that, in the Burgs area, the two sides fought the largest armored battle of the civil war, and the two sides mobilized more than 400 tanks to fight here, and the result was that the German SS 2nd Panzer Division took Burges, and the Republican army was forced to retreat after losing more than 100 tanks.

In the process, the Spanish National Army's air force, with God's help, shot down 192 Republican aircraft of various types, losing only 31 of them. This ratio was unexpected, and the Luftwaffe's pilots who secretly entered Spain even achieved the impressive record of shooting down 77 enemy planes and losing only two planes by virtue of the excellence of the super fighter Me-109.

Of course, if it weren't for the fact that the landing gear of the ME-109 fighter was too small, and the guide zhì fighter rolled over and crashed when landing at the airport, then this proportion could have been even more disparity. The pilot who overturned on his side suffered three fractures all over his body, and he was on a ship returning home with a badge for wounded, and he was accompanied by another coffin, the only unlucky one in the Air Force.

This hapless pilot, whose name was Eberhardt Heffert, was a pilot of the HE51 fighter, and because of the service and success of the ME-109, the HE51 fighter was completely reduced to the use of ground attack aircraft, and the mission became more monotonous and boring.

When Eberhardt Heffert returned from a ground bombing mission, he performed an aerobatic maneuver over the city of Victoria, and the hapless guy's plane engine suddenly stopped and fell to the ground like a bird that had lost its soul, and he became the first German pilot to die in the entire Spanish Civil War.

Well, let's get down to business, and then in Zaragoza, the leader of the National Army, General Franco, personally oversaw the battle, and at great cost took the city, a decision that gave the National Army a glimpse of victory as the battle line collapsed and the Republican Army in the north was forced to abandon the military town of Huesca. If Barcelona could be taken, the number of ships from Italy to Spain would be shortened by almost a third.

Since the offensive was of such strategic importance, there was no reason why it would be abandoned by both sides at will, so the Republican forces massed near Barcelona exceeded any area except Madrid, which had been reduced to the front line. The two sides are in tension in the Barcelona area, throwing all the forces they can into the fight for this important city in the north.

In the muddy trenches, a German sniper stared at his new teammate, puzzled: "What is this, you are wearing this funny." ”

The teammate patted the strange vest on his chest and explained: "This is a tactical vest issued to us, and I heard that it was praised and respected by soldiers during domestic military exercises." ”

"Shit thing, those recruits know what a fart! With our experience here with real knives and guns, it works?" while wiping his sniper rifle, he complained: "With that bullshit kung fu, it's better to study how to change this gun to semi-automatic! ”

The comrade-in-arms smiled, revealing his yellow front teeth: "Then you can report these requirements, everyone is waiting to change these problems." ”

He said as he pointed to the new tactical vest on his chest, "This thing works better than the Y-strap, I've tried it all the way, and it's a good thing! ”

"Well, I know that I can hold a lot of bits and pieces in so many pockets, in fact, looking at these gadgets, it's quite heartwarming, at least the big guys still want to make us comfortable, it's not easy. ”

"Don't brag about it, there is a problem with this thing, it was reminded to me by the person sent from above to guide its use......" The comrade-in-arms pointed to some buttons on the tactical vest and said: "These things cut corners, and the sewing is not reliable, we have to make up a few stitches ourselves." ”

"Okay...... sniper smiled, and waved his hand very casually: "Except for the first batch of Mauser 98K rifles, the butt drilling used for chain guns has been canceled, in order to save costs, what can't those **** do?

"Enemy attack!" In the distance, a Nationalist officer shouted loudly in Spanish: "Machine gunners are on the ground!

"Damn! Aren't they going to eat lunch? Damn the Republicans!" the sniper tossed his new tactical vest aside, straightened his guns, and walked out of cover with the soldier with the new tactical vest and climbed into a sniper position disguised as dirt bags not far away.

The Republican Army is now extremely smart, they are no longer the target of German snipers, many times they prefer to send their own snipers to play a game of cat and mouse with German snipers, compared to the hundreds of records a day when they first came to Spain, the current German snipers can only kill a few Republican soldiers a day.

After waiting for a few minutes and still no target came up to send them to death, the German sniper and his comrades retreated into their trenches, obviously fighting head-on with their little effect, so this situation was generally left to the Nationalists themselves to deal with. But today, as soon as the two of them retreated to their starting place, they deeply experienced the bloody and cruel side of war.

The Nationalist machine gunner on the ground just now was shot in the head by a Republican sniper, and the substitute machine gunner was lucky to only injure his right hand, and the bullet hit the fingers of his right hand and jumped into his shoulder, so "lucky" he had to see off his arm to save his life.

"My men suffered heavy losses, 27 soldiers were hit just now, and two more died from shelling. In the afternoon, a Spanish officer who knew German drama called a meeting of several nearby German sniper squads and observers: "I ask you to be more active in disrupting the actions of some of the opposing snipers. ”

He took a bloody rifle from his deputy: "In the attack just now, our troops accidentally killed a Soviet sniper, wearing a painted cloak, very carefully concealed, he fired at least seven shots before we found him and killed him. ”

The German sniper took the rifle from the Spanish officer, "This is the Mosingana rifle!" The workmanship is getting better and better, and I have to admire the level of absorption of advanced technology by the Soviets. ”

"We've got to take this gun! Another German took the rifle and looked at it carefully for a long time before asking, "What about the body of the Soviet sniper? There is a lot of useful information on it, can you show us?" ”

"The cloak? I don't know where that thing has gone!" said the Spanish officer regretfully, "I guess I can't find it." ”

In just a few months, an improved version of the Soviet fighter I-16 has appeared on the battlefield, although the performance of this aircraft is still not as good as the German Super Me-109 fighter, but it can barely fly to the original altitude, making up for the problem of insufficient ceiling of the open cockpit fighter.

The shadow of Soviet snipers also began to appear in the Republican troops, these people used improved Mosingana rifles, the performance of which was comparable to that of the German Mauser 98K, and these snipers also learned to make their own camouflage, and in just a few months they became extremely professional, and still achieved good results under the pressure of the German sniper team.

There is also the T-26 tank that made the German armored troops very depressed, without the help of German technology, the Soviet Union actually completed the upgrading of armored vehicles by itself, the emergence of this Soviet tank made the German P-2 tank slightly outdated, if it were not for the fact that most of the German armored troops had used the No. 3 tank, maybe they would have been taught a lesson by their Soviet counterparts in Spain.

If we count the large battleships under construction by the Soviet Navy and hundreds of submarines, it can be said that when Germany got rid of the poverty hat brought about by World War I, the Soviets did not stand still and wait, they tore off their label of backwardness and poverty faster than the Germans, and appeared in front of their German friends in a more powerful posture than they imagined.

Everyone knew at this moment that the Germans were not as weak as they appeared, that they had hidden much of their strength and seemed ready for revenge, and that the Soviets were not so far behind, ready to strike the most ferocious when their opponents were at their laxest.

Interestingly, however, they first met in Spain, where the Germans were so powerful that they were astonished, and the Soviets were so unthinkable that they frightened the Germans - they both impressed their opponents, and they both delivered their most satisfactory answers on the battlefield.

"Our opponents are improving, too. The German official stared at the distant horizon and said, in that distance, a round of sunset slowly set, everyone knew that after the night, there would be a round of sunrise slowly rising.