The Third Reich's Army Group South's defense line in the north and east of Stalingrad stretched for more than 700 kilometers, and a variety of fortifications were intertwined.

To the west of the Don River, both sides of the Volga River have become a huge military fortress.

Before Operation Uranus officially began, while the Super Flying Fortress was bombing Stalingrad, the special operations teams of various armies of the Western Expedition had quietly left their frontline positions and began to penetrate into the German defense lines.

As a special forces unit directly under the General Staff Headquarters, the Hunter Brigade is naturally also included in the infiltration.

Chen Zhengyue divided the hunter brigade into several small groups and crossed the Volga River more than 50 kilometers away from the city of Stalingrad.

As they crossed the river, the direction of Stalingrad was under heavy air attack, which attracted the attention of many Third Reich troops.

The hunter brigade successfully crossed the Volga River and, led by a few old "special forces", approached Stalingrad.

The furry bear soldiers operating with the Hunter Brigade have not received professional special operations training. They are not special forces in the true sense, but their abilities are impressive.

The Lieutenant Mao Xiong officer who cooperated with Chen Zhengyue's actions was called Maxim.

More than a month ago, Maxim was still an ordinary soldier. He and other team members, led by officers, infiltrated Stalingrad. Their main task was to collect intelligence and snipe the enemy commander.

In more than a month, they carried out nearly ten operations.

A month later, all the comrades who had fought side by side were killed, and Maxim grew from an ordinary soldier to a lieutenant officer.

He previously used a water rifle with a quadruple scope. According to himself, he had killed more than 50 Germans with that rifle.

The headquarters sent him to act with the Chinese soldiers and be responsible for liaison and guidance.

As a meeting gift, Chen Zhengyue gave him a rifle.

The Chinese troops use imitation SVD sniper rifles, which have high accuracy, stable performance, and durability.

The performance of the Lian Sniper is far superior to that of the Shui Lian Zhu. At the beginning, Maxim was not very comfortable using it, but as a sniper who grew up in the flames of war, he has strong adaptability.

There is no doubt that with the help of the new sniper rifle, his abilities will reach a new level.

Maxim took a squad of soldiers to act with Chen Zhengyue. They were very familiar with the area around Stalingrad and helped the Hunter Brigade solve a lot of troubles.

Few people in the hunter group can speak Russian. Everyone has received special training in Japanese, but Russian has just begun.

Chen Zhengyue's conversation with Maxim was mainly completed through tactical gestures.

In daily communication, one speaks Chinese and the other speaks Russian. Neither party understands what the other is saying, and the topic is often not on the same point.

Fortunately, they had had several days of cooperation training before the official operation, and there were no obstacles in communicating with each other in tactical gestures.

When the returning Super Sky Fortress flew overhead, they also approached the Sixth Army's first line of defense.

Around the first line of defense is where the most intense sniper duels between the enemy and ourselves take place.

Chen Zhengyue and the soldiers of the Hunter Brigade were on alert and prepared to face the challenge.

The snipers of the Third Reich were not vegetarians. In fact, the Third Reich had the world's first sniper school and the first special forces school.

………

Stalingrad, Sixth Army Headquarters.

Paulus walked out of the underground command post with a frown on his face, his face looking very ugly.

The smell of gunpowder smoke from the explosion of high-explosive bombs lingered in the air above the ruins. There was no burning place in sight, but many bricks and stones turned into powder.

In the previous brutal urban street fighting, everything that could burn had been burned out.

Paulus was not afraid of the danger and went straight to the place where the bombing had been hardest hit.

He watched with his own eyes seventy-eight tons of bombs fall on this location, which used to be a somewhat dilapidated church. Inside the church was the headquarters of a regiment of the 75th Infantry Division.

But there was no shadow of the church in front of Paulus's eyes, and all the building materials turned into rubble or powder.

The leather military boots sank into the powder, making people feel unsteady under their feet.

Soldiers from the 75th Division were looking for survivors in the ruins, but their pulling away of bricks and stones soon stopped.

Because everyone realizes that under such an intensity of bombing, the human body will either be directly vaporized, or it will become a broken limb.

Even if the body is still intact, the internal organs have been shattered by the shock wave.

Anyway, I can't survive.

Major General Schmidt, chief of staff of the 6th Army, quickly came behind Paulus and said:

"General, the losses of various ministries have been reported."

Paulus motioned with his eyes to Major General Schmidt to continue.

"More than 2,000 people were killed or missing, more than 1,000 people were injured, and materials stored in railway stations, airports and other places were blown up."

Paulus looked at the "church" and murmured after a long time:

"The real hard fight is coming!"

Field Marshal Rundstedt, commander of Army Group South, quickly called to inquire. After hearing Paulus' story, he was also shocked.

Paulus was asked to write a written report and submit it to Army Group Headquarters and Wolfsburg.

Soon after, Manstein's 11th Army and Kleist's 1st Armored Army both received orders requiring them to carry out air defense work.

Especially the tanks and fuel of the Armored Army must be well hidden.

The air force of the Third Reich is not unbrave, but there is at least a generation gap between their fighter planes and China's fighter planes.

A large number of excellent pilots were lost, air superiority was lost, and the danger of air attacks faced by the ground forces was instantly raised to the highest level.

Before Operation Uranus officially started, Jiangdong dealt a severe blow to Rundstedt and Mustache, causing all units of Army Group South to begin to focus on air defense.

Frontline soldiers lose their sense of security and often look up to the sky unconsciously.

On June 3, all Super Flying Fortresses were dispatched to bombard the First Armored Army and Manstein's 11th Army on both sides of the Don River.

Due to some precautions, the two armies suffered less casualties than the 6th Army, but the frontline fortifications suffered extensive damage.

From this day on, the bombing of the Super Flying Fortress became the norm.
Chapter completed!