How big is the Caucasus? Many people may not have an intuitive impression. But when German soldiers set foot on this territory, they realized that it was really big enough to be unimaginable. They captured a city, and there were more cities in front of them. They occupied a highland, but they found that it was only one of the tens of millions of highlands.

Just as the Soviet soldiers raised their heads and watched the German planes dive down one after another, dropping bombs to somewhere in the distance, at the limit of their positions and vision, a German tiger tank knocked down a big tree as thick as a wrist, and roared out of the woods.

Soviet soldiers leaned in their trenches. They looked at the tiger tank behind them. A German tank broke out from the woods further away. No one was surprised or shouting anything. They just silently pulled open their bolts and pushed the bullet into their chambers.

There is no need to make a horn, no reminder or order. Everyone knows that the battle has begun, and their own destiny no longer belongs to them. On the battlefield, they can only survive as much as possible, praying that God can continue to live.

A shell landed on the Soviet army's position, causing panic. Then more shells fell around the trenches, splashing pieces of soil, and everyone's panic was suppressed. Everyone was curled up in the corner of the trenches with their weapons in their arms, praying that these terrible shellings would pass quickly.

"Damn it, the Germans' insidious artillery coordination are becoming more and more skilled. Their troops only start to attack. The cover is really in place." A Soviet commander squatted in the trenches and scolded. His voice was soon drowned in the rumbling of the shell explosion. If he was a little further away, he couldn't hear it clearly.

After finally surviving this round of intensive artillery attacks, the Soviet troops judged based on the power and ballistics of the explosion. There were 15o mm German howitzers, 122 mm Soviet goods, and 1o5 and 75 mm caliber guys, which can be regarded as a large collection of German artillery.

When the Soviet soldiers shook off the floating soil and poked their heads out of the trenches to observe the German army opposite, they found dozens of tanks under the cover of dense German grenadiers, which were only less than two hundred meters away from them.

"Tutu! Tutu!" The German machine gunner lying on the ground, the deputy shooter held the link in his hand, and the two established a simple shooting position, and then sprinkled the barrage on the opposite position. Several German machine gun positions opened fire at the same time, and the Soviet army on the Soviet position could not raise its head for a while.

"Bang!" After a long preparation, the first gunshot finally came from the Soviet position. A Soviet soldier held his rifle and fired the first counterattack of the Soviets at the enemy opposite. With this gunshot, the Soviets finally opened fire, but the thin rifle sound, compared with the fierce firepower of the German army on the opposite side, was really disproportionate.

A German commander standing on the edge of the woods put down the telescope in his hand, pointed to the troops in front, and said to several officers around him: "Air Force investigation said that the first line of defense of the Soviet army was only used to delay our attack. Now it seems that this is true."

It seemed to confirm the words of this commander that the German grenadiers had already advanced to the Soviet trenches with the tanks. A large number of grenadiers entered the Soviet trenches behind the tanks, and the gunshots became even more dense. The Soviet army collapsed and seemed to have no intention of defending this position at all.

A position changed hands, and the German army had already gained a foothold on the road of advance. As the tanks continued to advance, more German grenadiers attacked the Soviet positions, and there were sounds of Soviet soldiers defeating begging for mercy everywhere. The combat effectiveness of both sides was not on the same level at all.

"It is not too difficult to cut into such a position, because air support is there, and the Soviet artillery support cannot be swept..." A German officer looked at the battlefield where there was no suspense in the distance, and said with some difficulty: "What is certain is that the elite Soviet troops in the Caucasus are not here."

"There is not even a decent artillery support. It seems that the Soviet Union has really given up Surovikino." Another German officer shook his head and said, "The Soviets are becoming more and more cautious. This is not a good sign. They do not put their troops in the wild, but engage in street wars with us one by one."

With the German attack, the positions here have been completely captured. A few German troops escorted Soviet prisoners to retreat. Soviet prisoners of war, which seemed to have thousands of people, followed one by one listlessly. They looked at the German armored command vehicles parked on the roadside in frustration, as well as some motorcycles and bicycles.

The German commander walked to the front of his armored command vehicle, spread a map on the cover of the motive cabin, looked carefully for a while, then pointed his finger at the area around Surovikino, and said to a second lieutenant who was following him: "Let your reconnaissance force fan forward and move forward, and return immediately when encountering resistance. I want to see how many positions the Soviets gave up had given up on the west side of the Don."

"Yes! Sir. Propel 20 kilometers? Or 30 kilometers?" The lieutenant looked at his commander, wanting to confirm his distance.

"Move forward, you can advance as many kilometers as you can!" The German commander climbed onto his armored vehicle, looked at the dense Soviet captives in front of him, and said, "Build accurate road signs. I want to have lunch in Surovikino City. My armored troops will make sure to go west all the way. If your reconnaissance force encounters any trouble, you can contact my tank commanders nearby."

"As for orders! Sir! Long live the first year!" The lieutenant stood attentively and saluted, and then, under the gaze of the Soviet prisoners behind him, walked towards his six-wheeled armored reconnaissance vehicle. As the reconnaissance vehicle moved, there were several armored vehicles of the same model around, as well as some motorcycles and off-road vehicles.

At this time, a bucket car drove over from the road not far away and stopped next to the armored vehicle of the German front-line commander. A division commander jumped out of the bucket car and stepped forward to salute the regiment-level commander: "I am here to check the current progress of your troops, and the situation has changed. It seems that the Soviets are planning to abandon the defensive positions west of the Don River."

"Yes, Chief of Staff. My troops had just confirmed the information of the Air Force reconnaissance aircraft through a short push. Their resistance was very slight. It can be said that these places were given to us by the Soviet army." The commander of the regiment commander turned around and jumped off the armored vehicle, walked to the chief of staff of the division headquarters, stood attentively and saluted, and then said: "I am ordering the troops to search and attack forward, and the scope is all areas on the west bank of the Don River."

The chief of staff of the division nodded and said, "The problem you mentioned was that another armored division next door had also encountered it. When they attacked, they saw that the Soviet army was about to collapse, so they gave the military headquarters a report. The report stated that they would occupy the west bank of the Don River as fast as possible and encircle tens of thousands of Soviet troops here."

Not only did the attack here feel a bit like a punch on cotton, but further afield, the Germans attacking Perelazovsky rushed into the city, and then caught up with the retreating Soviet infantry on the road behind Perelazovsky, and directly captured 250 Soviet prisoners.

Along all the defense lines between Perelazovsky and Surovikino, the German army successfully broke through, and accumulated 15 ooo of Soviet prisoners of war, but these prisoners were all civilians who had just been armed, and many of them did not even match bullets.

These Soviet soldiers had been completely abandoned by Rokosovsky. They had cut off supplies a day ago and were waiting for news from the rear on the position on hungry. However, while waiting, they were subjected to large-scale air strikes by the German army and fierce attacks on the ground. They were at a loss and could not figure out why the main force east of the Don River did not support them, nor why the cannons, anti-aircraft cannons and other weapons and equipment were all stolen and transported back to the east of the Don River.

When they knew they had been abandoned, they were already escorted by the German army to concentration camps far away in Ukraine and Poland. They had only one purpose of being left to defend their positions, that is, to pile them in the middle of the road like garbage, slowing down the German offensive and gaining such a small amount of time for the main Soviet army east of the Don River.

The Soviet army, which did not want to defend the front line, collapsed thousands of miles. Manstein's troops even exceeded Guderian's G Army. An armored regiment he used as a vanguard to fight until October Town during the journey south, and stopped the attack in order to wait for fuel.

In contrast, Guderian's troops were much more conservative. After his troops advanced dozens of kilometers, they stopped attacking because they couldn't figure out what the Soviet army was making.

The German army then arrived along the Don River. The two sides had contact with the Don River defense line. The Soviet army carried out a brief shelling with the German army. After the German bombers visited again, the Soviet army took the initiative to stop this provocative behavior. Guderian did not rush to cross the Don River, but waited for his infantry to arrive, and then began to build a pontoon bridge to prepare to cross the river.
Chapter completed!