Chapter 933: Decisive Battle (3)

"All 42 combat airfields around Moscow have been destroyed, and the Soviet air force has been annihilated."

"All 24 artillery positions have been destroyed."

"Our attack/bomber formations are bombing the Soviet frontline positions."

Compared to the worried Soviet and American senior officials, in the combat command room of the Supreme Command in Berlin, good news came one after another, and everyone's faces were beaming.

"According to intelligence, the Soviet army has deployed a lot of anti-tank weapons and self-propelled artillery on the first line of defense, but with the caliber and performance of these anti-tank weapons, it is difficult to penetrate the front armor of the Leopard tank (with additional armor) even at a distance of 200 to 300 meters." The 88mm tank gun of the Leopard tank can easily destroy the target at a distance of 1,000 meters or even 1,500 meters, which has an absolute advantage.

"Didn't the Soviets convert a lot of 152mm cannons into self-propelled artillery? Will these guys pose a threat to our tanks?" I don't know what these guys are thinking. They actually moved the 152mm howitzer onto the tank (KV-2) early. Needless to say, its power is so powerful that even if it doesn't hit directly, the shock wave of the explosion at close range can stun the crew in the tank. Now they still think that the number of tanks is not enough, and they have made a lot of self-propelled artillery to deal with their own tanks.

"Don't worry, let alone their poor hit rate, even if they can hit the target every time, they only have one chance to fire." Marshal Richthofen, the commander of the Army Aviation, said confidently. "Once these guys are exposed, our attack aircraft will treat them well."

At this time, the bombing of the front line of the Soviet position had ended, and the ground was bombed with dense potholes everywhere, like the surface of the moon.

In the Soviet front-line command, a staff officer reported to Zhukov. "Comrade Commander, the German bomber group has left. Our soldiers have basically no casualties."

Zhukov nodded. "It seems that the German ground forces will launch an attack soon. Let the soldiers prepare for battle and hit these invaders hard."

"But..." The staff officer hesitated for a moment before speaking. "There are German attack aircraft flying over our positions. Once our soldiers leave the underground fortifications and enter the positions..."

"Damn it!" Zhukov slammed the table. Our side does not have decent anti-aircraft firepower. Once the soldiers leave the underground fortifications and return to the ground positions, they will be attacked by these attack aircraft. But we can't let the soldiers hide in the underground fortifications all the time and give up the defense line in vain. After a while, Zhukov still gave an order. "Prepare for the soldiers to enter the positions. If there are difficulties, they must be overcome. Never let the Germans rush through a line of defense."

"Yes!" The staff officer saluted and turned to convey the order.

Soon, a rumbling sound came from a distance, and the ground trembled slightly. German tanks and armored vehicles came like a tide.

The battle order was then passed to the underground fortifications in various places on the front-line positions, and the Soviet soldiers hiding inside filed out and entered their respective positions to prepare for battle.

At this time, the German attack aircraft hovering in the air seemed to dive down like vultures that found food.

Most of these were Il-10 attack aircraft, with two 20mm cannons, 250 kg of bombs under the wings, and 400 kg rocket launchers or small bomb containers (submunitions) in the magazine.

One after another, the attack aircraft circled down and tilted bullets towards the Soviet soldiers in the trenches. Because dive bombers fly from top to bottom, they can find the location of the trenches very well. Wherever the fast bullets passed, Soviet soldiers fell to the ground. If they were lucky, they could still save their lives, but if they were unlucky, they were directly smashed into pieces by 20mm cannon shells.

"Boom!"

A 250-kilogram bullet landed accurately on a Maxim heavy machine gun position, with a huge noise, like an earthquake. As the explosion spread, mud fell from the sky, hitting everyone's helmets with a crackling sound. The heavy machine gun was blown into pieces, and the nearby Soviet troops suffered heavy casualties.

The German attack aircraft group dived and strafed and dropped bombs in rounds; the German armored forces were still more than ten kilometers away, and the Soviet first line of defense had already suffered heavy casualties.

In the front-line command center, Zhukov's face became more and more ugly after receiving the report.

Soon, the German armored vanguard arrived in front of the anti-tank trench, and the accompanying bridge-laying tanks began to build a steel bridge over the anti-tank trench.

At this time, on the opposite Soviet position, a corpse next to an anti-tank gun suddenly moved. Two hands stretched out from under the corpse and pushed the corpse away with force. A Soviet soldier covered in blood and dust struggled to sit up and looked around in confusion. "Comrade squad leader? Ivan? Malokov? Alexander?" He called several names in a row, but got no response. There were corpses everywhere and the air was filled with a strong smell of blood. The soldier was stunned for a while and subconsciously looked at the anti-tank gun next to him.

Fortunately, the anti-tank gun was intact. Just as he was about to get up, he felt a sharp pain in his left leg, which made his face pale instantly. He then found that his left leg was injured, maybe it was broken, or maybe it was shrapnel inserted, but he didn't care to check his injury, and struggled to crawl towards the anti-tank gun with his hands and feet.

The anti-tank gun was already loaded with shells, and he used the sight eyepiece to cover a German tank that was slowly passing through the anti-tank trench. He didn't know, nor did he care how the Germans built a bridge over the anti-tank trench. His mind was now full of destroying many German tanks and avenging his dead comrades.

Took a deep breath, watched the tanks on the opposite side get closer and closer, and pulled the gun rope hard.

The barrel of the tank gun suddenly retracted, and a pungent smoke rushed out of the barrel.

The soldier did not hear the gunfire.

"???" He dug his ears hard, but still could not hear any sound. He slapped his face hard, but he could not even hear the sound of slapping his face.

He was deaf!

After a moment of hesitation, he quickly looked at the tank he had just aimed at, but was frustrated to find that the tank was intact.

"Damn it!" The soldier muttered, and quickly took out a new shell from the ammunition box and prepared to load it into the barrel.

If his hearing was still there, he would hear a terrible sound of breaking through the air in the sky. An attack aircraft discovered the thick smoke when the shell was fired. "Hey, there is a fish that slipped through the net below." Then he swooped down and dropped a 250 kg bomb on the anti-tank gun.

"Boom!"

Just as the soldier was about to load the shells, the 250-kilogram bomb landed not far away and exploded. The terrible shock wave instantly tore him into pieces.