Bismarck

The barrage of bullets from Guoliunov and Deshka swept across the ground with tracers, and the ZIS-3 field guns and 82 mortars also created clouds of smoke at the enemy's bunkers!

Although the core fortresses of the fascist bandits were low structures made of thick reinforced concrete with tank turrets and anti-tank gun firing points, which could resist artillery and mortar attacks, the shells fired by the Soviet artillery were smoke bombs mixed with shrapnel, which obscured the sight of the German firing points and prevented the possibility of ambush and counterattack by the German infantry.

Moreover, the exploding shells also blew up the minefields and barbed wires that the Germans had set up in front of their positions. Although this level of bombardment could not destroy the anti-tank piles made of rails and angle steel, many of the tank riders were blasting engineers. As long as the tanks could rush to the front of the German positions, they could guarantee to use blasting ropes and blasting tubes to eliminate these last obstacles!

Under the escort of artillery fire, the armored soldiers of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade, encouraged by the brigade commander who personally led the charge, fought and advanced to the sound of clanging tracks.

Although the Germans were also organizing a counterattack, the fire of anti-tank guns continued to flash from the edge of the smoke bombs. However, even though several Soviet tanks were destroyed one after another, the wreckage of the tanks that fell on the charge road just happened to form a fixed bunker with a short interval!

The Soviet infantrymen in the rear quickly sent out dispersed firepower teams, pushing anti-tank guns and heavy machine guns to infiltrate the positions where their comrades fell little by little, using the wreckage bunkers formed by the sacrifice of their comrades' lives as a support to set up a fire network of revenge! The infantrymen further behind also began to infiltrate forward little by little under the cover of these wreckage bunker firepower points.

The right side of the attack route is an open area in the flood zone, where there are no core fire points of the German devils. Although the German firepower on the left is fierce, it is against those Soviet guards who will use their remains to form a bunker to cover their comrades even if they die here!

Under the cover of the Soviet anti-tank guns and heavy machine guns that were slowly advancing in the rear, the Soviet tanks carrying tank riders in the front moved forward all the way, and gradually approached the front of the German position under the strafing of the PPSh and DShK tanks operated by the tank riders.

The modern reinforced concrete core fortress of the German army was obscured by smoke bombs, and the powerful firepower made them blind. The mine rollers in front of the tanks occasionally hit a few mines, but they could not stop the tracks of the steel torrent. Some fascist bandits pushed anti-tank guns and carried rocket launchers to try to sneak to the side of the tanks, but the Soviet heavy machine guns and anti-tank guns behind them were not for show. The wreckage of the destroyed Soviet tanks also covered the comrades' advance.

At least so far, everything is going well.

only……

“Bang! Boom!!!!”

An armor-piercing shell suddenly flew over from the right front of the advancing formation and penetrated the turret of a wingman's vehicle on Gorelov's right! Colonel Gorelov, who was holding a heavy machine gun and watching the battlefield situation, had no time to look back. He just subconsciously shrank his head, and a fierce turret explosion broke out less than 30 meters away from him! The shock wave of the explosion not only made Gorelov's command tank shake twice, but also the turret of the tank was directly blown into the air by the shock wave of the explosion, and then fell heavily - with the bent gun barrel, it fell on the front side of Gorelov's tank with a bang!

The brigade commander, who had just managed to stick his head out to look in the direction of the shell, raised his telescope and his eyes fixed:

"Shit! E-50! Everyone, watch the right wing!"

There was a 50-meter-long farmland between Zhukov Town and the water barrier. A dozen or so tall E- tanks appeared on the open space. Surrounded by infantry, they advanced slowly while spewing fierce flames!

You know, even the current T-54 is equipped with a simple gyroscopic fire control, which allows it to shoot while moving when the speed is not fast. The E-50 tank, which is the mainstay of the German army, not only has this capability, but the accuracy and performance of the German-made gyro stabilizer are much better than that of the Soviet Union!

The search capability of tanks has always been at the level of blindness, especially in such a sudden attack! On the other side, the German troops in Zhukov Town also took the opportunity to stab in the back - in just a few seconds of turning the turret, four or five Soviet tanks were emitting flames and thick smoke!

The Soviet army was trapped in a desperate situation, attacked from both sides - but many soldiers had just turned their artillery around...

Yang Yongfu's tank was one of the unlucky ones that was hit and paralyzed while being attacked from all sides and was at a loss!

The turret that was originally rotating suddenly stopped, and even the body of the tank shook for a moment before it stopped moving. No matter how much Yang Yongfu asked, the driver and mechanic had no way to start the tank again.

"Captain, the engine should be finished... Should we withdraw now?"

The white smoke from the automatic fire extinguishing device in the vehicle was mixed with the sticky smell of engine oil and wire rubber. The driver in front reported the bad news that the vehicle could not be repaired, while opening the escape door at the bottom of the tank.

"No! We must hold on now! Our turret is still operational - Gunner, manually crank the gun and continue fighting!"

Yang Yongfu gritted his teeth, opened the hatch above his head, leaned out of the car body, and pushed away the body of his comrade who had been blown away with only the upper body left, but his hands were still tightly holding the handle of the heavy machine gun on the roof.

But even so, although the fire at the rear engine had been put out, the thick smoke mixed with the blood of the victims and the stench of broken intestines, plus the smell of the fire extinguisher, made people feel a little suffocated.

Even if the safety door under the vehicle is opened, the air convection is not that fast - not to mention that the current tank has lost power. Even if the battery next to the driver has 140 ampere-hours of energy storage, the turret's ventilation fan will not last long.

However, I can’t care so much now!

He took a breath to suppress his nausea and vomiting, but the hands of his deceased comrade tightly grasping the heavy machine gun were a problem. He finally managed to pry his hands apart, but he still had to reload the heavy machine gun, which had already emptied its ammunition belt. In the turret below, the gunner was desperately turning the steering machine, and finally managed to slowly turn the turret towards the direction of the German tank troops.

A high-explosive dual-purpose shell was fired, and it seemed that an E-50 in the distance shook and stopped there. However, this behavior also attracted the attention of the German devils. Several faint black lights flashed, and one shell even just grazed the arc on the side of the tank turret. The armor-piercing shell core bounced and pierced the soil, bringing up smoke and sharp wind marks.

“Were we hit by concentrated fire…?”

Although Yang Yongfu, who was holding a heavy machine gun and firing at the German infantry, remained calm, he sighed slightly in his heart.

"Dad, I may not be able to return... But I just destroyed the twenty-eighth tank and didn't embarrass you."

A flash of light appeared in the distance, followed by a loud bang. However, what awaited Yang Yongfu was not the fiery explosion and the moment of painless ascension, but the explosion of this round of shells was to his right.

"Comrades! Hold on! I'm a member of the Youth League. Come to the right and help me beat them back!"

A slightly childish voice, which had become hoarse due to anger and the devastation of the battlefield, came from the headphones. Yang Yongfu was stunned and had not yet reacted to the identity of this somewhat familiar voice. He only saw Shura's tank on his side, like a roaring beast, running at full speed and dragging black smoke with the engine at full throttle. It rushed out from the somewhat chaotic team directly towards the opposite direction of the German tank unit!

"Comrades, they are one thousand to one thousand three hundred away, use high-explosive armor-piercing shells!"

There were two consecutive loud bangs, accompanied by Shura's resolute voice in the headset reporting the distance to everyone. A flash of fire burst out from the body of another E-50 tank on the opposite side, and then this tank stopped on the spot with no idea where it was damaged.

Although the 50mm armor on the front of the E-120 tank has a -degree inclination angle, it cannot guarantee safety in the face of high-explosive armor-piercing shells with large charges. Even if the armor is lucky enough not to be penetrated by the armor-piercing warhead, the power of the explosion can damage the sight and gun barrel, and even tear the armor and cause hidden injuries.

However, this German tank seemed to be lucky. Although it stopped, the turret was still turning, and it was obvious that it could continue to fight.

But Yang Yongfu, who saw his good friend rushing out, how could he allow this guy to threaten his partner?

A high-explosive shell hit the side of the rotating turret, and after a series of explosions, the guy went to hell to settle the score. Shura, who had already entered rampage mode, seemed to be getting braver and braver, rushing into a pit that had been blown up by the bomber before as a shelter, but a moment later he actually paralyzed the third tank.

The German attack on the flank,

Under the tenacious resistance of the runaway shura, the Soviet army, which was on the verge of chaos and loss of control, gained precious time to reorganize! The offensive, which was about to collapse, also regained its organization and order under the command of Gorelov.

Although there were less than two dozen of the twenty-four tanks left, they relied on the craters and the remains of their comrades to disperse and form a V-shaped array that could take care of both sides, thus stabilizing their position. The "tank knights" who were left with only thirty or forty people also reorganized into firepower and demolition teams, and began to set up light machine guns at the front positions step by step, covering the demolition teams to dismantle the anti-tank piles.

The soldiers from the rifle company, anti-tank company, artillery company and anti-aircraft machine gun company of the brigade infantry battalion behind have also followed the tanks.

And further behind them, in a dark mass, are the three main mechanized infantry brigades of the Mechanized Eighth Army!

"Comrades, the main force of the army has arrived! Persevere! Perseverance means victory!"

"Report from the engineer detachment: The passage to the anti-tank obstacle area ahead has been opened!"

"Guards Heavy Mortar Battalion bombards Zhukov Town firing point! Tanks provide cover! Infantry and combat engineers, attack!"

"Anti-aircraft artillery battalion! Everyone, 37mm guns, burst mode, target - the fascist infantry and tank coordination unit on the right, fire!"

A steady stream of follow-up troops arrived at the front of the battlefield one after another through the "wreckage shelter road" opened by the 1st Guards Tank Brigade with their lives, and then divided into tactical teams under the cover of tank fire and charged towards the core position of Zhukov Town.

The last line of defense of the Moral Army was suppressed by the Soviet army and was in danger! As long as they broke through here, it would only be a matter of time before Poltava was liberated!

It seemed that they knew that this was the only position that could stop the Soviet attack. The German tanks on the right side of Zhukov Town that were trying to form a crossfire began to counterattack more fiercely. In the sight of Yongfu and Shura, some tanks appeared behind the first wave of fascist tanks. There were even half-track armored vehicles that dropped more infantry.

Some artillery fire came from the flank of the German army. Obviously, the purpose of these German devils was to establish a new firepower position on the side of Zhukov Town, relying on the water barrier area, to disrupt the rhythm of the Soviet attack, and then let the tanks counterattack from here!

The battle for air supremacy in the sky was still fierce, and some Stukas began to appear on the horizon. The 37mm anti-aircraft guns that had been suppressing the enemy on the right wing could only turn their muzzles and point them at the sky. A faint howl came from the dark mass of German devils on the right, and they seemed to have been injected with chicken blood and continued to rush over.

but……

"Go to hell, bandit!"

Shura's tank seemed unable to get out of the crater for a while, but since the tank body was intact, he simply used the crater as a tank shelter. Together with Yang Yongfu's "fixed turret" and several other tanks, he single-handedly suppressed the tide of the German attack.

The roar of the tank guns and the roar of the heavy machine guns, Shura's tank was nailed to this prominent position, and a turret fired at the enemy. From time to time, you can see a few blazing flames on the opposite side of the German tanks, or a few iron blocks with their gun barrels drooping and their heads tilted to stop.

However, the German firepower also began to concentrate in the direction of this blocking line!

The first to be hit was the crater in Shura!

The German artillery fire caused smoke to fly around the Shura's crater. The tanks' firepower was also concentrated in the direction of the Shura, and the wind streaks of armor-piercing shells scraped dust on the ground, passing over the Shura's turret every now and then.

Even the Stukas in the sky seemed to have received some instructions. A group of Stukas were divided into two groups, and they rushed towards the Shura crater fiercely under the fire of 37mm anti-aircraft guns!

Shura's tank is in the crater and can't get out!

"Shura! Air strike!" Yang Yongfu shouted with his eyes wide open. Although he fired desperately at the sky with his anti-aircraft machine gun, the range of the 12.7 heavy machine gun was still too limited to reach the fascist bandits with machine guns hanging in the sky opposite!

"It's alright, I've done what I wanted - tell my mother that her son died an honorable death!" (Boom - Ding Ding Dang Dang...)

The call sound in the headset suddenly stopped!

As if time had slowed down, Yang Yongfu saw it clearly: at the last moment of the airstrike, Shura's tank fired the last shot, hitting the German tank that was charging forward, and the next second, several Stuka-mounted machine guns fired chains of fire repeatedly over the Shura tank's head!

After the clanking sound, Shura's tanks fell completely silent. Equally silent was Yang Yongfu's heart, which seemed to be broken.

Thousands of words cannot be undone, and will last forever.

The war is not over yet. Even the inner pain of surviving hundreds of battles can only be transformed into the flame of revenge, and fight the enemy to the end!

Yang Yongfu also gave it his all, ignoring the fact that his tank was also a dead target and its position was even more exposed. He just used the heavy machine gun in his hand to fire wildly and directed the gunner in the turret to fire continuously, using the smoke and roar to vent his sorrow for his deceased comrades.

A round of rockets roared, exploding in the crowd of people on the right wing of the German army. The crowd holding red flags rushed into the position of Zhukov Town one after another. The buildings in the town began to burst into flames from the flank attack on the German counterattack troops, and the counterattack of the fascist bandits quickly retreated. The iron stream of the follow-up troops rolled forward and began to attack Poltava from the position of Zhukov Town.

However, for Yang Yongfu, and even for the 1st Guards Tank Brigade, which managed to capture Zhukov Town at the last minute by fighting desperately, their mission had been completed, and the Battle of Poltava was the task of other brother units.

It was not until the smoke had cleared that Yang Yongfu, who had unconsciously emptied his ammunition belt, loosened the wrench of the rattling heavy machine gun and sat back in the commander's seat in the turret.

His hands hung down and patted the trouser pockets on both sides of his thighs. They were flat, and the holes had not been mended yet. Naturally, Yang Yongfu did not put his wallet in his pockets.

He subconsciously patted his pocket and could vaguely feel the edge of the hole inside his pants.

Five rubles for two illustrated newspapers is not a big deal, but the comrades who fought with me, marched forward with me, and fought with me for a newspaper have gone away in time. All that is left for me is five cents that I can never pay back, except for mourning...

"Shura..."

Chapter 900: Oh~ Italian

I don't know if it takes time to deploy troops or if they are trying to use psychological tactics, but for a whole day, while the construction site of the airport was in full swing, there was no movement from the Allied Air Force in the western Mediterranean.

But after the airport was repaired and the transport planes flying from Germany began to prepare to land in Gibraltar, the buzzing roar of engines and the shrill sound of air defense sirens suddenly filled the sky over the Strait of Gibraltar.

"Fuck! These guys are so damn insidious!"

Looking at the computer automatic plotter of his own ship girl, which showed a large group of mechanical icons that spanned dozens of kilometers wide and hundreds of kilometers long, Top couldn't help but swear and slapped the table angrily.

This is simply taking advantage of someone's misfortune!

The Ju-52 transport plane has a range of kilometers, but the distance from the airport in southern France to here is kilometers. The remaining fuel is not enough to return, so it can only make an emergency landing at the airport in Spain. And even if it makes an emergency landing, with almost no armed personnel on the transport plane to defend itself, the safety of these supplies will probably be a problem.

Even if Franco could guarantee that there would be no armed attacks or espionage sabotage, the fuel for the forced-landing planes would have to be redeployed. In addition, there was no way to tell how the supplies they were carrying would be transported to the Gibraltar Fortress, and how to ensure safety during the transfer.

After all, these British and American guys are really counting the time to get here!

And they either don’t come, or if they do, they come with a large fleet consisting of N squadrons, vast and overwhelming!

Fortunately, neither Commander Lütjens nor Zeppelin were the kind of people who would sit at home and wait for the enemy to come and cause trouble!

Because of the "spare tire" of Tangier Airport, when everyone was repairing the airport during the day, the fighter planes transferred from France had been properly arranged there. Later, under the arrangement of Zeppelin and Bonte, not only did each wing complete the replenishment, but also organized dozens of jet fighters to take the initiative to kill - this was an offensive air defense method to give the Allied forces a preemptive strike!

Fortunately, when they were raiding the enemy's airport, they ran into the bombers that had just organized themselves and were about to come over to cause trouble - otherwise, with only the radar's effective field of view of 200 kilometers, minus the reaction speed of the aircraft taking off, climbing and assembling, they would definitely suffer a great loss!

After all, even if it is just a light bomber, its average speed is more than 400 to 500 kilometers per hour - if it is a Mosquito, its flying speed is more than 600!

Even if it was the Calamity Crow, with only rockets mounted, its maximum speed was only a little over 800. Add to that the obstruction of enemy fighters intercepting head-on, and the efficiency of interception would be even lower.

After all, the efficiency and killing power of interception are directly proportional to the number of interceptions that can be organized!

If it was a passive defense, then they could only passively organize interception within the radar monitoring range - at most two waves of interception. However, in the face of Zeppelin's offensive defense, the range of influence of the harassing Calamity Crows could reach 300 kilometers, or even further - which also meant that the reaction time and number of interceptions of the air force on their side could be more certain.

Fortunately, we had enough reaction time to dispatch troops to repeatedly intercept this thousand-plane formation consisting of more than 600 bombers and more than 400 fighter jets.

"As expected, the air force competes on attack power, while the air defense competes on depth? Fortunately, we discovered it early, otherwise it would be even more difficult..."

Although the enemy was heavily armed, at least Top could still calmly watch the relatively few red, orange, pink and brown symbols on the mechanized automatic marking board, which were moving back and forth among the densely packed and overlapping large groups of icons with blue, green and dark purple tones, repeatedly attacking the opposing aircraft group.

Although it was impossible to see this thrilling battle in the sky in greater detail, at least he could get a rough idea of ​​what was happening - for the captain of a heavy cruiser whose anti-aircraft missiles had been consumed by 70%, having this idea was more gratifying than any other news.

only……

"Hey...Top Top, sister Zeppelin just said that there is something going on." Eugen tugged at the back of Top's clothes.

When Top said "Hmm?" and turned around, she stretched out her slender fingers and pointed at the bottom of the map board: "Just now, Sister Zeppelin told me that they have a group of planes flying in a big circle at low altitude. It is estimated that they will come out from the mountainous area south of the strait and attack Gibraltar."

"How far is it? It's not even marked on the map board."

"Look... it's still 200 kilometers away from us." Eugen stamped his feet lightly: "It's so cunning to go around in such a big circle!"

Top grabbed the topographic map and took a look. Well, the Rif Mountains opposite the Gibraltar Fortress are high and deep, and are indeed a very suitable terrain for low-altitude raids. Especially across the strait near the port of Silda, there is a mountain more than 750 meters high, which is a perfect natural cover for low-altitude raiders!

With such a big mountain, the radar can’t see them at all until they come out of here themselves!

The enemy's high-altitude bombing fleet has at least thousands of aircraft. Although our air force has been supplemented by French reinforcements, Gibraltar has just repaired its runway. Theoretically speaking, the capacity of two aircraft carriers and the Tangier airport is still a bit stretched.

"There's nothing we can do. Now only our three ships can handle this wave."

Top tilted his head slightly and glanced through the narrow armored porthole of the command room, towards the direction of the two Hindenburg-class battleships that had been closely following little Eugen, next to the main body of his little rabbit.

The Tangier Airport on the Atlantic coast of Morocco to the west of the Strait is protected by the Zeppelin and Gneisenau aircraft carriers, but there are also many Allied airports in the Mediterranean Sea to the east of the Gibraltar Fortress. Even though Spain's colonies in Morocco cover almost the entire northern Morocco, the nearest Allied airport to the east is 300 kilometers away, but the possibility of the enemy "backstabbing" from this direction cannot be ruled out!

As the direct guardian of the sea area near the Gibraltar Fortress, his position was originally here. Next to him were the two battleships Hindenburg and Ludendorff. And if something happened, he could call Zeppelin and Ludendorff and Tangier Airport on the other side - after all, the distance between Tangier Airport and the Gibraltar Fortress was only about 60 kilometers, and it would not take much time to send aircraft reinforcements. Even though the main fleet was now fighting with the Allied fleet on the Atlantic coast, the two aircraft carriers plus the Tangier Airport were really capable of squeezing out two more squadrons of troops to "reinforce the defense."

Moreover, given the terrain here, the most dangerous area is actually the Rif Mountains, which extends all the way south from the Spanish Moroccan port of Siluda across the Strait of Gibraltar and has mountains ranging from 800 to 1,500 meters high, making it very suitable for low-altitude infiltration and raids from the canyon.

In the vast Mediterranean Sea, even if the enemy wants to make a low-altitude breakthrough, Prince Eugen's radar can detect low-altitude infiltrating enemies from sixty or seventy kilometers away.

Therefore, relying on the cover of the mountains, avoiding the search of ground and ship-borne radars from the canyon at low altitude, and directly infiltrating and raiding the Gibraltar Fortress is definitely a threat that needs to be considered. If you add the "frontal" mighty waves of bombers swarming in like a tide to contain them, then it must be said that the threat is really great!

As long as Gibraltar and Tangier airports lose their combat effectiveness at the same time, the German fleet will have no support.

However, we are not completely unprepared.

Looking at the fan on the map that marked the anti-aircraft firing range, Top felt relieved and even secretly happy.