In the early morning of December 9, Zhukov and Kozilov, who were staying up late to study the battle situation and deploying defense, had just a short while, and were awakened by the buzzing noise. When the two rushed out of the bunker, they found that a flowing "metal cloud" had appeared in the sky in the distance. A huge bomber formation composed of 42 H-5 and 28 H-6, flew from ten kilometers north of Kunduz toward Tielmetz.

"No! They want to bomb the railway station! Send a telegram to Telmet... dive bombers!" Zhukov ordered the supervisory team to contact Telmetz with vehicle-mounted radio, and there were soldiers here yelling and shouting at the sky. Countless soldiers rushed out of a cannon position hidden in the house in a panic. Looking up, a dive bomber with black and white impermanence painted on the nose made a scream and rushed down vertically.

The reputation of dive bombers is now well known. The precise bombing ability shown by Germany's Stuka in Spain made the Spanish National Army and European countries darkly change, so Soviet soldiers took up rifles and shot at the planes when they saw this. The four-unit 7.62mm m1910 heavy machine gun on the mobile air defense truck also roared. But these could not stop the soul-delaying ghost car. The pilot was a veteran. He dropped the bomb until he was close to 300 meters. When he pulled the tail of the plane, he almost rubbed the roof.

The 250 kilograms of high-explosion bomb loading exceeds 406 mm naval guns, which is far from comparable to Army ammunition. The bomb accurately hits the house where the artillery is located, penetrates the roof and explodes inside. From the ground, a stream of dust first emerges from the house of the mud embryo, followed by a gorgeous fireball. The air waves generated by the explosion push the heavy earth embryo around, and the black and red fireballs mixed with stones and anti-tank gun parts soar into the air. Several Soviet artillery soldiers who had not escaped were immediately swept several meters away by the shock wave, spitting blood and rupture of the internal organs.

More and more dive bombers roared down, clearing hidden Soviet positions in the city at a designated location. In less than half an hour, more than a dozen black and red smoke columns rose above Kundushi City. As the bombers returned to sail, rumbling guns also sounded outside the city. The four 155mm heavy artillery that the Air Force had arrived in advance were adjusted overnight and became the main force of artillery battles. Four 42 kilograms of high-explosion bombs per minute were all concentrated on the Soviet positions in the north of the city.

"Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom." Four 155mm howitzers, 12 105mm self-propelled howitzers, and 12 85mm towed howitzers roared in unison, launching fierce shelling at Kundus. Soon, the Soviet artillery also began to fight back, and the flames ejected from the narrow connection and hidden houses declared that the battle for Kundus City began.

Hundreds of artillery shells shuttled through the air and covered the targets indiscriminately. Large groups of fireballs and smoke rose from the positions of both sides, and soldiers on both sides had to lie on the ground to avoid the shells. However, not long after, the Soviet artillery was at a disadvantage. In addition to being far inferior to the number of suppression of the opponent, the overhead reconnaissance planes caused them to suffer heavy losses. Whenever they finally moved their positions and fired a few shots, the high-altitude reconnaissance planes would attract a series of artillery shells to cover.

Looking at the reconnaissance planes hovering outside the battle circle, Zhukov's face was very bad. He could only count on Tielmez's aviation force to survive and support himself as soon as possible. However, this idea was quickly eliminated. Shortly after the outbreak of the Kunduz artillery battle, Tielmez, one of the most important assembly points of the Soviet army entering Afghanistan, was subjected to fierce air strikes. Zhukov's telegram failed to save Tielmez. Although the Soviet aviation force took off in time, clumsyly Is 15 and Is 16 fighters were like obese gooses in front of the superior "snake". It took less than 15 minutes before the fighter squadron cleared the sky.

Braving the Soviet artillery fire, a total of 70 bombers launched the first overseas mission in the Afghanistan war against Tielmez, and it was also the largest carpet bombing. 1,400 120 kilograms of high-explosion incendiary bombs not only destroyed all supplies along the railway, including an ammunition depot and three tankers. It also destroyed the entire railway station and field airport, and finally broke up the 153rd Soviet infantry division that was gathering to set out to support Kunduz, and only lost one fighter. Two bombers were also forced to land in the temporary airport of Kunduz after being shot.

This large bombing caused Shaposhnikov, who was cautious, to worry that reinforcements would continue to be bombed during the day, and had to put the 153rd Division, which should have set off immediately at night, and left the 82nd Division, which originally supported Bagland, to defend a possible attack in Tielmez.

By noon, Stalin of Moscow received news that Tielmez was bombed. The explosions on the border deeply stimulated him. Although he was determined to retaliate against the bombing of Anjiyan and Tajik, he was worried that the war would expand. This dilemma made him very embarrassed and finally vented all his anger to the front line. He even crossed the command of the army army, Boshnikov, and directly issued a death battle order to Zhukov and Kozilov, who were stationed in Kunduz. At the same time, he ordered the 472 Iranian 16 fighter jets stationed in Southern Kazakhstan immediately to support the First Army, and continued to draw troops from various places to support Afghanistan.

Zhukov, who put down the telegram, looked a little stiff. In terms of time, domestic reinforcements may have been counted on. The best result of the two divisions of Tielmez's arrival. "Comrade Zhukov, the enemy's tanks are coming." Kozilov's shout interrupted his thoughts. He raised his telescope and looked at the north side of the city. The two tank battalions were like scattered palm-leaf fans, covering the infantry to rush towards the city.

The Soviet officers in the room looked bad, not to mention that they could not deal with their opponents' air superiority at all. The tanks rushed in alone made them secretly frightened. "Comrades! Kunduz is the gateway to defend Central Soviet Asia! Everyone saw the telegram from General Secretary Stalin. They should immediately inform every officer and fighter. If they cannot defend, they must defend, and if they cannot resist, they must fight!" In contrast to their usual kind attitude, Zhukov had a blue face and swept each officer with a stern look, and said loudly: "In this crisis, GC party members must take the lead! They must fight bloody battles with the enemy to the end and never retreat! Those who flee or surrender without authorization will be shot on the spot. Those who disrupt the morale of the army will be severely punished!"

These decisive words made all the officers feel cold on their backs. They all knew that Zhukov not only brought the 57th Division and the 6th Tank Brigade, but also brought the Moscow supervision team. Those murderous inner guards were not ruthless to their own people. During the Great Purge, many marshals and generals were pulled down by them.

"Comrade Kozilov, immediately ask Commander Yarifu to find a way to break through Bagland and move closer to us! Commander Drichi. You are responsible for the road to enter the city on the left. Comrade Yaruvsky, the tank brigade must attack and block the impact for the infantry. Comrade Makapov must guard the Kunduz Bridge. General Shaboshnikov's reinforcements will come soon..." As Zhukov deployed defense, the north of Kunduz city had already started.

Due to insufficient ammunition, the artillery stopped the indiscriminate barrage of Xu Jin and changed to a low-speed point shooting to protect the tank battalion to rush to the north of the city. Behind each tank was a whole squad of infantry. These men from the Yanzhao land bent over, shouted at each other, and approached the enemy with skillful tactical movements with deep track marks. The attacking tank battalion rushed to the infantry trenches at an off-road speed of 12 kilometers per hour before stopping, and the bullets shot from the rubble and behind the buildings made the steel plates jingle.

"Cleaning the trench! Clear the trench!" As soon as the infantry squad leader saw the tank stop, he immediately shouted, holding a submachine gun and jumped into the trench first. The infantry following him had only jumped a few times, and a grenade that flew out of the trench was thrown out, and a soldier was immediately blown up to the point of blood. When the medical soldiers following behind rushed over, other soldiers had already begun to fight dangerously. Submachine guns and shotguns were firing constantly, and the explosive lead pierced into the bodies of Soviet soldiers like raindrops. After experiencing the fierce trench warfare test of European warfare, the National Defense Forces had already found a set of trench clearing tactics that could prevent casualties from the greatest possible loss of casualties. It was to concentrate the submachine guns and shotguns and alternately cover them. The riflemen behind him used grenades to support them. Before each assault, they had to advance in order to avoid accidental injuries.

Although the tactics are simple, if you want to avoid making mistakes in tense battles, it takes a long time of rigorous training to form a squad combination force. The infantry quickly spread along the trenches to the wings. After cleaning the trenches, some people began to fill soil in the narrow areas so that the tanks could pass, and some continued to attack into the city under the cover of machine guns.

"60 cannons!"

Amid the shouting, a 60mm mortar accurately hit the Soviet machine gun position a hundred meters away. The machine gun team quickly occupied the place in a three-three formation under the cover of the mortar. In a moment, the hj32 general machine gun made a sound like tearing the oil cloth. "Sizi, sizizi..." The machine gunner swung the muzzle, and the speed and slow machine drove to the ten-shot spot, suppressing the Soviet infantry rushing up. Because the fire speed of this machine gun was too fast, many Soviet veterans still used the standards of the Han-2 light machine gun as reference, so many people had already made three or four blood holes on their bodies before they could evade.

The speed was fast and the ammunition was consumed quickly. In a short while, a 250-round chain was knocked out. The shell casing and black hinge that could scatter the bullets covered the position. The secondary machine gunner kicked the second bullet box and stuffed the bullets into it. At the same time, a string of bullets had flew from behind the opposite ruins. The stirring stones cut his left ear and blood was flowing.

"boom!"

Before the bandage was completed, the sound of explosion at close range made the machine gun team numb. They cursed and turned their heads to look. They saw a T31 tank climbing up a low slope from behind, and directly destroyed the hidden machine gun points and houses on the opposite side with one shot. After seeing the tank, many Soviet soldiers began to retreat. Under the scheduling of the machine gunners and the synchronous machine guns on the tank, seven or eight Soviet soldiers were killed before they could run away.

Tanks after tanks began to cross the infantry trenches and entered the city. Zhukov decisively joined the reserve team, using the infantry with absolute advantage to deliberately fight against the enemy, and at all costs, the Soviet infantry carried out counterattacks. Under the strict order, the Soviet infantry braved the rain of bullets and used buildings and street covers to tear the battlefield in the north of the city into pieces. This tactic made great use of the Soviet army's advantage in the sea of ​​people, so that in order to wait for the infantry, the tank troops had to temporarily stop advancing and cooperated to clear out every house and every piece of rubble became the target of competition.

The crowded and narrow connection made the infantry on both sides often stare at the muzzles and fire at each other. The bloody and tragic battle scenes unfolded in every part of the north of the city. So by three o'clock in the afternoon, the casualties of the first round of attacks exceeded the 300 mark.

......

"Ammunition! I only have ammunition now!"

In the Kundus Frontier Command Communication Center, the correspondent was so busy that he was not touching the ground, and the noise of the telegraph machine was even more frequent than the heavy rain. Since the battle at noon, this small communication center was squeezed out by countless signals, and even the mobile radio stations of the armored division battalions were transferred. Du Yuming pulled his collar open and rushed into the communication center panting. Looking at the contact machine above his head, he picked up the microphone and blew it.

The Soviet army's resistance was beyond imagination. The disadvantage of lack of infantry gradually amplified after entering the city, but these were not what he was most worried about. What really made him uneasy was that the ammunition was consumed too quickly! After only one afternoon, half of his artillery was fired due to lack of ammunition. The most important four 155 howitzers had no shells a hour ago.

"Zhuo Fan, how much ammunition is left?"

"Report to the division commander, each vehicle still has half of the ammunition, and the light weapons ammunition and oil consumption is relatively large, but it is no problem to persist for two days. Now it is the artillery. Before attacking the isthmus, we only added two base numbers for each cannon (32 rounds per base). According to this intensity, we can only persist until tonight. The supply convoy originally scheduled to arrive in the afternoon encountered a landslide last night and is expected to arrive in the second half of the night..."

"Fuck it!" Du Yuming threw off the microphone. He was already a good temper, but he was also overwhelmed by the logistics. Not only was the road difficult to walk, but he even encountered a collapse. In addition, the field airport transport volume was not large, so he was really anxious. The officers next to him were all unkind. This elite armored master formed in Shandong was never afraid of fighting tough battles, but it was hard for a good cook to cook without rice.

"Teacher, the mountain brigade has arrived."

While everyone was worried about supply, a large group of transport aircraft appeared in the northern mountainous areas. The 43 transport aircraft of the 17th Air Force's 17th Regiment not only brought a whole mountain camp, but also 680 155mm grenades, which made everyone feel a little relieved. The arrival of the 16th Mountain Brigade finally alleviated the pressure of insufficient infantry. You should know that this old-fashioned unit formed in Bashu is also the only unit in China that targets plateau combat. In terms of infantry combat effectiveness alone, it is stronger than the best armored divisions in China.

"Well, why are they here?"

Before he met the mountain battalion commander, several figures made Du Yuming raise his eyebrows. Zhuo Fan followed his gaze and saw Bai Chongxi and Zhang Zhidan talking and laughing in a KC-2 passenger plane that had just landed, surrounded by several Arab officers walking towards the command post.

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.(To be continued.)
Chapter completed!