Iron Cross

On another battlefield, Lesman realized that he had been fooled by the Russians and was furious. He actually chose Vasily's plane to attack after rushing and attacking. After using up 70% of his ammunition, he finally seized the opportunity and successfully hit the opponent. Vasily's plane fell to the ground with billowing smoke. Lesman, who had no time to check the results of the battle, quickly pulled up and rushed to another plane, ready to quickly solve the current enemy and then support Günter-Lahr who was fighting alone.

Vasily's years of training skills finally saved his life. Seeing that he could not fly back, he tried his best to control the plane to glide forward and struggled to parachute more than 20 kilometers away on the left bank of the Don River. Fortunately, there were troops of the 24th Army below, otherwise he would have become a prisoner of the Germans like his brother Yakov.

After Vasily successfully parachuted, Hartmann, who had witnessed Günter-Rahl's great success in achieving three victories, was finally pulled out of the water by the Romanians. He felt that he was almost frozen all over, and he looked as miserable as he could be. If the opponent had moved a little slower, he would have become a block of ice in the Don River.

Hartmann, shivering all over, quickly changed into clean clothes while staring at Günter-Rahl's subsequent operations. He saw that the opponent became more and more courageous. In the next 10 minutes, he used exquisite skills to shoot down three planes in a row again, two of which were SB-2 and one was an IL-4 bomber. Now Hartmann finally saw some clues. It was certain that Günter-Lahr's flying skills were better than his, but the unknown model of the aircraft he was flying also helped a lot. Its low-altitude hovering, rolling, and flipping capabilities were particularly flexible and outstanding. Not to mention that the clumsy bombers were not opponents in dogfights at all, even fighters such as the Yak-3 and La-5 were at a disadvantage. He was just confused. Why hadn't he seen such a good aircraft before? Could it be a new model?

However, Günter-Lahr was not in a hurry to fight with the Red Army fighters. He had fully understood the Red Army's purpose, so he let go of the opponent's escort aircraft and just fired fiercely at the bombers. In the more than 20 minutes he fought alone, he shot down 8 planes in a row. The Red Army bomber team was disrupted by him and the formation was in chaos. They failed to drop bombs intensively and could only attack the warships in twos and threes. These pilots who had not received training in attacking surface targets and were driving bombers that did not have the dive bombing function, ended up mostly dropping bombs into the river. Apart from blowing up a few 20-meter-high water columns and some fish schools, there was no other practical effect.

Seeing Vasily's plane shot down by the Germans, the other members of the formation immediately lost their fighting spirit and covered the bomber group to leave the battle. The pilots of the JG52 wing did not dare to pursue. They quickly rushed back to the Don River Basin to provide support. At this time, the Red Army attack aircraft group that broke in at low altitude found that they had lost the best opportunity and lost a lot of aircraft. In the end, they could only retreat in disappointment. During the retreat, the relentless Günter-Lahr seized the opportunity to hit another one, raising his single-day victory to 9 in one fell swoop.

The Red Army troops on the left bank of the Don River were busy rescuing their own pilots who had parachuted. When they heard that one of them was Comrade Stalin's son, who was not only shot down but also injured in the shoulder, everyone was shocked. The division commanders and army commanders of the 24th Army who knew the news wished they could rush to the scene immediately. 15 minutes later, even the commander of the army, Galanin, was alarmed. He immediately ordered the troops to protect this important pilot at all costs.

Unlike what people generally imagine, Vasily didn't feel too depressed. Although he was shot down, his life was safe after all. After parachuting, he fell into the hands of the army, so his safety was fully guaranteed. The injuries on his body were not fatal and he would recover in 2-3 months. In his eyes, none of these were important. What was important was that he successfully completed the task today. From the perspective of team tasks, he successfully led the formation to divert the German cluster and created conditions for the assault troops. From the perspective of personal tasks, he also seized the opportunity to shoot down an enemy plane, successfully raising his score to 3, getting closer and closer to the standard of ace pilots (5). He was quite proud when he was rescued at first, but later he heard that a German plane single-handedly killed 9 planes of the assault formation, and his face quickly sank. As for whether the bombing of surface ships was successful, he was too lazy to mention it - as long as he heard the sound of the ship's guns firing on the Don River, he knew that the bombing operation was undoubtedly a failure.

He had a good idea. The Romanian warships on the Don River were only hit by a few near misses, but they remained intact overall. The commander of the formation, Colonel Bernard, also reacted from the panic and poured more firepower on the Red Army positions on the opposite bank to vent his anger.

Novikov and Vasilevsky were deeply frustrated when they heard the news that the air raid team had failed, but the more frustrating news was that the pilots of the luring formation who returned reported in unison that Comrade Vasily had been shot down by the enemy and his life or death was unknown.

As soon as the news came out, Sokolov jumped up and went crazy on the spot. Comrade Stalin already had a son who fell into the hands of the Germans. If Comrade Vasily had any misfortune, his second half of life would be ruined. Countless things flashed through his mind quickly, and the only thing he hadn't thought about was one thing - should he kill himself before the Ministry of Internal Affairs came to his door or wait for Comrade Stalin to punish him?

He was sobbing, jumping on his feet and cursing the other pilots. Novikov and Vasilevsky did not expect this to happen. When they thought of the terrible consequences of Vasily's life and death, they could not sit still. Although Sokolov did not dare to get angry openly, the eyes he looked at Novikov and Vasilevsky had completely changed to something else. If he could take action at this moment, he would even have the intention to kill—— It's you two bastards who insist on causing Comrade Vasily to go to the battlefield. Now, let's see how you will explain to Comrade Stalin then? I will never let you two go, and I will definitely support you.

While the three of them were staring at each other, the chief of staff ran in, waving a telegraph newspaper and shouting, "Good news! Good news! Comrade Vasily is still alive. He successfully jumped out of the parachute! Comrade Kalanin personally A telegram was sent saying that Comrade Vasily was rescued by the 24th Army. He was injured, but his life was not in danger. He hoped that we would send a plane to pick him up as soon as possible..."

"Good! Good! Good!" Sokolov cried with joy, thinking that he was finally saved, and the faces of Vasilevsky and Novikov also regained a little calmness.

"Immediately arrange for the best transport pilots to bring Comrade Vasily back...arrange 4, not 16 fighter jets to escort." Sokolov barked an order, and Novikov frowned and was about to say What, Vasilevsky quickly held him down and added: "Comrade Sokolov, after bringing him back, you will personally lead the team and immediately send Comrade Vasily to Moscow for treatment. There are the best doctors there." Doctor... In addition, please report the battle situation to Comrade Stalin truthfully, tell him that Major Vasily did not embarrass him, that he fought the fascists extremely bravely, and also shot down an enemy plane, and express to Comrade Stalin the relevant injuries. Please forgive me."

"Yes..." Sokolov agreed subconsciously, and then immediately thought of something again, and said repeatedly, "But... but..."

"Evasion is not the answer. Hiding may not make Comrade Stalin forgive us..." Vasilevsky knew what the other party was worried about. He sighed, "I will write you a note later. You go first when you arrive in Moscow." Find Comrade Zhukov and ask him to put in a few good words for you, and you will be able to pass the test."

"Okay, okay, that's really great."

While Vasilevsky and Novikov were agonizingly thinking about how to overcome the superiority of German warships, Manstein was also agonizing over the ensuing bad news:

The first is the enemy situation report reported by each unit in the encirclement. Since the 24th Group Army was not expected to advance so fast, the troops surrounded by the Red Army in the Hequ Department are not at all the expected 22 divisions and 2 brigades, and there are additional troops in the middle. 7 divisions and 1 brigade were added, which is almost one-third more troops. Therefore, the Red Army in the Hebending Department was not the expected 140,000 people, but almost 190,000 people. In total, it exceeded the number of troops who carried out the siege and The total number of German troops in interspersed missions;

Secondly, the Southwest Front Army in the upper reaches of the Don River was approaching fiercely. The 6th, 12th, and 5th Tank Army continued to attack. The 4 divisions tasked with blocking the enemy had sent telegrams asking for help, although he did not want to use the reserves so soon. , but at Heinrich's suggestion, in order to consolidate the upstream defense line, Manstein still sent two infantry divisions to the left wing for support. In the same way, the offensive power of the 62nd, 64th, and 57th Group armies of the Red Army downstream is also becoming stronger. He had to dispatch an additional infantry division, bringing the relevant blocking force to 8 divisions. Now, in addition to the 3 infantry divisions on the first line of defense, Division, he still has 3 divisions in hand, not even a spare tank, and the use of strength has basically been maximized.

Finally, the Red Army's style of fighting despite being trapped in a corner was beyond imagination. The imagined scene of a rapid collapse of the Red Army's will to fight did not occur. Today, three relatively strong resistance centers have spontaneously formed on the left and right ribs. Each center is occupied by at least 2,000-3,000 Red Army troops. They have good fortifications to rely on. The troops who were lightly equipped and lacked heavy firepower could not attack them for a while. In order not to delay the entire campaign window, Manstein could only ruthlessly ask the troops to bypass them and not fight.