Steel Soviet Union

The facts were exactly as Malashenko had guessed earlier. The German army, which was in an offensive deployment state, was temporarily disrupted by the Soviet surprise attack and counterattack in the early stage and quickly recovered. The follow-up main force deployed according to the previous offensive status was like a flood that burst a dam, covering all the Soviet counterattack forces on the front line.

The Luftwaffe had been in action since the first Soviet artillery shell fell on the position and exploded.

The Luftwaffe, which was originally busy in the early morning to break through the last Soviet defense line on the outskirts of Stalingrad today, happened to catch up with the emergency situation when the frontline troops encountered a Soviet counterattack. This led to the embarrassing situation that Malashenko encountered an air attack within two minutes of driving the tank onto the German position. But for the German Air Force, it was just a simple matter of changing an attack target.

Similarly, Zhukov, who served as the commander-in-chief of this counterattack, naturally expected that the Germans would inevitably use air superiority to resolutely counterattack, and therefore began preparations early.

Stalingrad, located in the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, gets very early in the summer. At four o'clock in the morning, the sun is already high above the horizon, shining on the earth, illuminating the Soviet pilots and their shining war eagles who are getting ready at the airport. Busy ground crew.

The Soviet fighter aviation, which arrived on the battlefield a little later than the Luftwaffe, had indeed predicted the situation correctly. The main counterattack direction marked with a red circle on the map was filled with dense German aircraft bombing indiscriminately.

The battle for air supremacy over the Malashenko theater, led by Lieutenant Aleryukhin, was only a partial microcosm.

The 24th, 1st Guards, and 66th Army units participating in this counterattack were all subjected to the most indiscriminate bombing by the Luftwaffe.

Just as Paulus requested, all aircraft capable of dropping bombs were sent to the battlefield. The Fourth Air Force of the Luftwaffe under Baron Richthofen dispatched thousands of sorties in just one and a half hours. Aircraft support frontline ground combat.

After taking off with a bomb on the battlefield, I immediately dropped the bomb. After dropping the bomb, I immediately returned to the airport to replenish ammunition and fuel. I used the ground crew to refuel the plane and reload the bomb. I got off the plane to take a breath, drank a few sips of water, went to the toilet, and then immediately boarded again without stopping. The aircraft continued to perform the same mission as before.

The German bomber pilots, who had been spinning all morning, were almost exhausted and fell to the ground. When they got off the plane after three consecutive sorties, some of them had weak legs and fell to the ground and needed help from the ground crew before they could stand up.

The German pilots' desperate bombing did achieve impressive results.

The three Soviet army groups participating in the counterattack were all curbed in their respective offensive directions. The originally ferocious offensive momentum was restrained.

After blowing up the moving Soviet ground troops to pieces, the powerful Luftwaffe then turned its planes and aimed at the Soviet artillery positions.

A few hours ago, Malashenko had cursed fiercely and threatened to personally report to Comrade Lao Zhu the cowardly artillery regiment commander who planned to run away in advance. However, judging from the subsequent development of the situation, Malashenko Shenke will obviously never get this opportunity again.

The commander of the artillery regiment, who was thinking about how to escape as soon as possible before the artillery preparations started, received special attention from the Luftwaffe. A formation of 12 Heinkel 111 bombers bombed the area fully loaded with black bombs, all in a horizontal direction. The method was thrown to the heads of these Soviet artillerymen who had not yet had time to withdraw from their positions.

The powerful aerial bomb explosion caused a chain reaction and detonated the artillery ammunition piled next to and behind the artillery position. The commander of the artillery regiment, who had just boarded the truck and had not yet given an order to the driver to drive immediately, was directly hit by a 250-kilogram class bomb. The bomb smashed through the front cab of the car.

The low-resistance aerial bomb with strong gravity acceleration had already killed the artillery regiment commander who was cursed by Malashenko as a coward before detonating.

The Soviet fighter aviation, which was still weak compared to the German 4th Air Force, paid a painful and heroic price, but they still could not stop the strategic-level air force, which was the largest and most powerful force in the Luftwaffe. , Zhukov tried his best to avoid the scene of being shitted on the head of the Luftwaffe, but it happened ruthlessly in the end.

The battle that lasted until 12:30 noon finally came to an end when the German army ceased fire and ceased fire. The slowly retreating German army stopped less than two kilometers away from the Soviet army and ate lunch to replenish their strength. Malashenko, who had occupied the starting position after being blown up by the Luftwaffe like the surface of the moon, was in a different situation.

Malashenko, who stuck his head out of the turret to observe the situation regardless of the danger during the battle, found that the tank cap on his head had disappeared, revealing his messy head.

Malashenko still doesn’t know when he lost his tank cap and why he lost it.

Maybe it was blown away by the blast of an aerial bomb dropped by the Luftwaffe? Or maybe he accidentally bumped into something and got knocked off?

Malashenko didn’t know the real reason and didn’t have the heart to think about it carefully.

Malashenko, who held a half-burned cigarette between his fingers, only knew that this morning's battle was probably the most intense battle he had fought this year since he traveled through time last year.

The only annoying thing is that the honorary title of the battle with the most intensive firepower does not belong to me, but is used to describe the group of Germans on the opposite side.

Malashenko said that this was the first time he had seen a bomb that dropped like a dumpling for free.

In just one morning, Malashenko estimated that there would be 1,670 sorties of German aircraft flying above his head. In particular, there was a Stuka with the "17 of Spades" livery. Malashenko clearly remembered that this conspicuous German dive bomber flew over his head at least three times. It was as arrogant and arrogant as the one in Germany this morning. No one in the Air Force can match that.

He reached out and brushed the dusty hair on his head, which was as messy as a henhouse. His head felt like it was going to explode. He held the cigarette butt in his mouth and raised his head slightly to look ahead and around.

As far as the eye could see, there was a scene of scorched earth. The nearest wreckage of German tanks and Soviet tanks were burning at the same time less than one meter apart.

The wreckage of the Soviet and German fighter planes that fell from the sky was distorted and deformed by the flames, releasing billowing black smoke. The air under the scorching sun at noon was filled with a faint smell of roasted human flesh.