The attack aircraft aviation regiment soon reached the sky above Safran. Under the guidance of the 41st Guards Division on the ground, it attacked the German defensive positions and destroyed many firepower points.
When he saw that the attack planes of the aviation regiment had completed their attack and began to return one after another, Kurishenko issued the order to attack. In fact, as early as when the attack planes carried out the ground attack, Sidorin proposed that the troops receive air support and at the same time, attack the enemy.
The German positions launched an attack. Unfortunately, his proposal was rejected by Kurishenko on the grounds that the air force was attacking the German positions. If the attack was launched too early, unnecessary accidental damage might be caused.
Seeing the Soviet attack aircraft regiment leave, the German troops who had escaped the air attack returned to the trenches, set up weapons on the edge of the trenches, and just waited for the Soviet troops to fall into the trap.
Sure enough, just as the gunpowder smoke that filled the position dissipated, the Soviet offensive troops appeared in front of the German army. However, the German army did not shoot, but remained silent. Anyway, the gunpowder smoke on the position had not completely dissipated at this moment. The attacking Soviet troops
The army couldn't see clearly whether there was anyone on the position.
But when the attacking troops were still two hundred meters away from their position, the German mortars opened fire.
First, there was the scream of artillery shells in the sky, and then they fell into the ranks of Soviet skirmishers and exploded. The soldiers who reacted faster relied on their tactical instincts to lie down; while the recruits who had little combat experience
, still walking forward stupidly, and then was blown away by a cannonball that fell next to him.
Seeing that the Soviet offensive formation was disrupted by artillery fire, the machine guns on the position roared again, either knocking down the soldiers who were still advancing, or suppressing the veterans lying on the ground until they could not lift their heads.
Sidorin in the observation post stamped his feet anxiously when he saw this situation. Although there was an artillery regiment in the division, all the artillery was lost in the last battle, and the superiors had not had time to replenish it. At this moment, he saw the attack
The troops were suppressed by the German firepower again, and they thought painfully: "The artillery, even with only one small-caliber firepower, can eliminate the firepower points on the German position and allow our soldiers to continue to charge forward."
Kurishenko, who was standing next to him, frowned when he saw this situation: "Why are all our soldiers lying down? We need to make them stand up and continue to charge forward."
"Comrade division commander," after hearing Kurishenko's order, Sidorin quickly came out to stop him and said: "Don't you see that the firepower on the German position is too fierce, and the firepower network formed by their mortars and machine guns
, making it impossible for our soldiers to move forward. If we want to attack forcefully, we will definitely pay a heavy price."
While Kurishenko and Sidorin were still arguing, the roar of aircraft engines came again in the air. The two looked up into the sky and found only a lone transport plane flying slowly towards the German position.
.
"What the hell, what is this transport plane doing going to the enemy's position?" Kurishenko said in surprise: "Are they planning to drop paratroopers behind the enemy's position?"
"This is impossible." Sidorin retorted loudly: "This kind of transport aircraft can only carry more than 20 paratroopers at most. If such a small number of paratroopers parachute over the enemy's position, they will be destroyed by all the German firepower on the ground before they land.
Destroyed."
Faced with the sudden appearance of a transport plane, no matter whether the Soviet commanders or fighters were confused, even the Germans were wondering why a Soviet transport plane appeared here. Could it be that it had lost its way?
Just when the officers and soldiers of both the Soviet Union and Germany were guessing, the door of the plane opened, revealing two black muzzles. Then both sides saw dazzling muzzle flashes, and two tongues of flame poured towards the German positions, everywhere they went.
It was a piece of scorched earth, and the logs above the civil fortifications could be broken, let alone the German officers and soldiers in the fortifications.
Although the weapon fired on the transport plane is a 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine gun, its power is not weaker than the 23mm cannon. The transport plane is hovering at low altitude, constantly tilting the flames, and the shells are falling from the sky like a goddess scattering flowers, wherever the tongues of flames go.
, the flesh and blood of the German army was immediately beaten to ashes, and the German position where they were shooting wildly just now became mute.
When they were just attacked by an attack aircraft aviation regiment, the German officers and soldiers were not worried. After all, the war had been going on for so long. Anyone who had not been attacked by an air attack would be embarrassed to say that he had been on the battlefield. But now this Soviet aircraft
The transport plane is simply abnormal. It fights in circles around its own position without even a place to hide. How can we fight this battle?
Since the Soviet army has one such transport plane, who knows if a second or third one will pop up later? After more transport planes equipped with weapons arrive, if I still stay on the position, I am afraid that I will die.
There would be no intact corpses. Therefore, some cunning German officers and soldiers abandoned their positions, bent down and ran back along the traffic trench, hoping to escape the god of death in the air.
The transport plane, which Sokov turned into an aerial fortress and the Germans called it the God of Death in the air, circled the German positions and then stopped shooting. Instead, it dropped aerial bombs downwards to destroy those that seemed to be relatively solid.
of civil engineering firepower points.
The Soviet commanders and fighters, who had been suppressed by German firepower and unable to move, stood up and cheered when they saw how powerful their transport plane was, and then rushed towards the German position with weapons in hand.
Originally, only small groups of officers and soldiers fled on the position, but when they saw the Soviet troops pressing up, the Germans on the position knew that the position could not be defended. If they continued to stay here, they were either killed by machine guns from the planes or shot to death on the ground.
The troops were killed in a random grab, and if they wanted to save their lives, they had no choice but to retreat, so they all joined the fleeing queue.
"That's great, this transport plane is so great." After seeing the outstanding performance of the Aerial Fortress, Sidorin raised his hands and cheered: "Our pilot is so great. After a few rounds of strafing, all the enemies on the position were chased away.
gone."
When the transport plane first appeared, Kurishenko thought that the plane's appearance was redundant. Because it was not suitable for airdropping supplies and airdropping paratroopers. Seventy-eight times out of ten, it was a plane that had lost its route.
However, seeing a burst of fire from the transport plane, at least one-third of the German troops on the position were wiped out, and the remaining ones were not interested in fighting. When the infantry rushed up, they had no luck in even shooting, so they turned and ran away.
After he took a deep breath, he shook his head and said: "I really didn't expect that this modified transport aircraft could be so powerful and easily defeat the defenders on the position. This matter must be reported to Comrade Commander immediately, so that
He's sending us more transport planes like this."
In fact, Kurishenko did not need to order this matter. As soon as Sidorin saw his troops rushing towards the German positions, he walked to the radio operator and dictated to him the message sent to the headquarters.
Before he could finish dictating the telegram, he received a call from Colonel Papuchenko, commander of the 122nd Regiment: "Comrade Chief of Staff, our regiment has completely occupied the enemy's position."
"Comrade Colonel," Sidorin told the other party: "You should seize the time to count and see how many enemies have been eliminated."
"This is not easy to handle, Comrade Chief of Staff."
Sidorin was stunned for a moment, then asked: "Comrade Colonel, I just want you to count the number of German casualties. Isn't this task difficult to complete?"
"Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff, this is a difficult task to complete." Unexpectedly, Papuchenko said: "Major Sukhalev, Chief of Staff of the regiment, personally led a team of soldiers to search the battlefield.
It was shocking to find the position that had been strafed by anti-aircraft machine guns. There were broken logs and bloody corpses everywhere, and there was almost no complete corpse in sight."
After listening to Papuchenko's description, Sidorin couldn't help but take a breath. He really didn't expect that the machine gun equipped on the transport plane was so powerful. After he hung up the phone, he dictated the new information to the operator again.
The content of the message reported to Sokov one by one what happened here and the results achieved.
When he returned to Kurishenko, Sidorin said with emotion: "Comrade division commander, I really didn't expect that this kind of transport aircraft armed by the Air Force would be so powerful. What if today's arrival was not one, but a squadron?"
, I’m afraid not a single German on the position can escape.”
Although Kurishenko did not hear Papuchenko's report, he also witnessed the performance of the Flying Fortress not long ago, so he agreed with Sidorin's statement: "Yes, if Commander
If you send us this kind of transport plane earlier, our troops may have already entered the designated position."
Besides, after receiving the telegram from Sidorin, Smirnov read it quickly, and then excitedly said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, good news. The 41st Guards Division, under the cover of the air force, has
Successfully captured Safran."
After hearing this, Sokov said disapprovingly: "General Riazanov dispatched an attack aircraft regiment to attack a field fortification without permanent fortifications. It would be strange if he could not achieve significant results."
"No," but Smirnov shook his head and said: "After the attack aircraft aviation regiment attacked the German positions and left, the 122nd Guards Regiment launched an attack on the enemy's positions. But regrettably, the Germans
Under the attack of our air force, the casualties were not too great. They used powerful firepower to block the attack of the Guards Division, preventing the troops from advancing forward."
"What, the air strike has no effect?" Sokov couldn't help being shocked when he learned the news, and then asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, didn't you tell me that they had occupied Safran's position? So what?
What's going on?"
"That's it, Comrade Commander." Smirnov explained to Sokov: "The effect of the aviation regiment's ground attack can be said to be not very obvious. But Colonel Sidorin said that there was an armed transport plane with an anti-aircraft machine gun.
They fired at the enemy positions from a high position, and kept shooting in circles. It was this aircraft that defeated the Germans. But seeing the Germans begin to flee, the officers and men of the Guards Division launched another attack and finally succeeded in taking the position.
."
"Armed transport aircraft?" After Sokov repeated the word twice, he understood that Sidorin was talking about the modified flying fortress, so he tentatively asked Smirnov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you mean, I
The flying fortress transformed by General Ryazanov assisted the Guards Division in successfully seizing the enemy's position?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander." Smirnov raised the telegram in his hand, nodded and said: "The actual situation is indeed as you said, it is this modified aircraft that is supporting the Guards Division in capturing Sasha.
In the battle with Fran, he made considerable achievements."
Sokov took the telegram and looked at it carefully. After reading it, he fell into deep thought: "Colonel Sidorin said that because the power of the anti-aircraft machine gun was too great, the German officers and soldiers who were hit by bullets basically did not have complete bodies, so they could not
Calculate the specific number of enemies annihilated."
"I really didn't expect that the modified Flying Fortress would be so powerful." Smirnov also didn't expect that the Flying Fortress would achieve such a result in its first battle. He asked Sokov cautiously: "Comrade Commander,
See if you contact General Riazanov and ask him to modify a few more such aircraft."
"I think it's okay." Sokov nodded and agreed to Smirnov's proposal, but at the end he added: "But the number shouldn't be too many. I think it's best not to exceed ten."
Sokov's words surprised Smirnov: "Comrade Commander, one of our flying fortresses can achieve such results. If the number of modifications is greater, the greater the role it will play on the battlefield."
"It's not what you think, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov waved his hands and said: "Today is the first time the flying fortress went into battle, and it caught the Germans by surprise. Since they know that we have this kind of flying fortress, they will definitely
Come up with a way to deal with it. You must know that the flying fortress is a modified transport aircraft after all. It flies slowly and has weak armor. All the German anti-aircraft weapons can shoot it down. If we transform a large number of flying fortresses and put them into battle
, I’m afraid we will lose everything in a battle.”
A staff officer ran over and handed a telegram to Smirnov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, this is a German military telegram we just intercepted."
Sokov saw a look of astonishment on Smirnov's face after reading a few lines, and quickly asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, what did the Germans say in the telegram?"
"Comrade Commander," Smirnov said with a smile: "Uman's enemies reported to Manstein that our army was equipped with a new type of fighter aircraft that can attack ground targets while circling at low altitudes, which will provide great support to Safran.
The defenders caused huge casualties. The Germans called this aircraft the Death from the Sky."
When Sokov heard this, he couldn't help but be happy: "The Germans said it very vividly. Our flying fortress attacks the ground from the air. Isn't it the God of Death from the air? If they don't want to be summoned by the God of Death, the best way is
, just hide far away as soon as you see our army's air fortress appear, this is the way to save your life."
"Comrade Chief of Staff," he said to Smirnov when he saw that he was still standing there: "Call General Ryazanov as soon as possible and urge him to renovate a few more flying fortresses as soon as possible. And, finally,
So that he can report the matter to General Goryunov. After all, the other party is his immediate superior, and such a major matter as modifying the aircraft should not be hidden from his superiors."
"Okay, Comrade Commander." Smirnov nodded and said, "I will convey your intention to General Ryazanov and ask him to convey the matter to General Goryunov."
This chapter has been completed!