"Here you go, the intensity of this artillery fire is many times stronger than when we fought against the little devils."

The soldiers of the Hunter Brigade, who were between the first and second lines of German defense, sighed as they looked at the burning horizon.

The trees shook and the ground trembled. Everyone could not sit still and looked up at the place where the shelling was the most intense.

Chen Zhengyue's eyes were calm, and the excitement in his heart was much less than that of ordinary soldiers.

Lieutenant Maxim and other soldiers on the side kept shaking their fists. If they were not behind enemy lines, they would have shouted "Ula" at the top of their lungs.

After watching for a while, Chen Zhengyue's eyes suddenly condensed. He called Maxim and said:

"Now is the time when the enemy is most confused. If we continue to act, we may be able to hunt down higher-value targets."

Maxim's eyes shone brightly and he nodded repeatedly.

The bombardment will last for an hour. During this time, there will be only one color and one sound between heaven and earth.

Before Operation Uranus officially began, the Air Force had carried out multiple strikes.

Therefore, one hour of heavy shelling is enough.

"Hiccup..."

The lenses of Paulus's telescope were flashing with burning light. He felt his internal organs shaking with the earth, and he swallowed involuntarily.

"Hey, hey, hey..."

Behind him, the army staff kept shaking their phones, trying to get in touch with the frontline troops.

While the entire front was burning, Stalingrad, which was in ruins, was very quiet.

Not a single artillery shell fell into the city, and the 55th Army in the city seemed to be a bystander.

'The enemy's attack is more violent than I imagined!'

Paulus marveled in his heart and refused to put down the telescope in his hand for a long time.

The deafening explosion has been ringing for half an hour, but there is no sign of stopping.

Chief of Staff Major General Schmidt came to Paulus and said:

"General, the enemy has been planning for a long time. This is a comprehensive counterattack!"

"The artillery fire extended from the west bank of the Don River to the coast of the Caspian Sea. Not only us, but the entire frontline positions of Army Group South were covered by artillery fire!"

"The Seventeenth Army is facing the greatest pressure. General Kinitz does not know the situation on the front line and needs to wait until the bombardment is over."

Paulus nodded grimly.

At the same time, Marshal Rundstedt, commander of Army Group South, was also pulling his hair.

"Report to the head of state immediately, the enemy's attack is extremely violent!"

"We need air force support and without air superiority, we are very passive!"

Marshal Rundstedt saw more and further than Paulus. He had already sensed the enemy's strategic intentions.

Although that intention was too arrogant and almost impossible to realize, as the commander of Army Group South, Rundstedt had to consider it as a whole.

At 6:35, the mustache in Wolfsburg received reports from various armies on the front line of Army Group South.

"Führer, the enemy's intention is greater than we thought before. They not only want Stalingrad, but also severely damage our Army Group South and push the front to the west of the Don River!"

Air Marshal Göring looked slightly nervous.

Mustache read all the reports in a few seconds, and his expression gradually became ferocious.

"Jiangdong...Stalin..."

He gritted his teeth and shouted out their names, hatred rising in his eyes.

Goering and others knew that the Führer was going to be angry again, so they did not speak rashly.

Sure enough, Mustache knocked on the table and said:

"Their delusions are absolutely impossible to realize. The Germanic nation is invincible!"

After venting hysterically for a few words, Mustache stared at the Chief of Staff and said:

"Send a message to all commanders to stand firm and never allow retreat!"

The enemy's ground troops have not yet been dispatched, and the collision of steel has just begun.

Soon after, Mustache received another report:

"The enemy's counterattack is not limited to the southern battlefield, the Central and Northern Army Groups were also attacked!"

Without thinking too much, Mustache knew that the central and northern attacks were only to coordinate the southern battlefield.

He was already considering mobilizing some troops from Army Group Center to rush to the south for support.

..

Amidst the rumbling sound of artillery and as the ground troops advanced, the sky gradually became brighter and the sun quickly emerged.

After an hour of shelling, the world seemed to become quiet for a moment.

Smoke rose from the position, and some wood crackled and burned.

It had been a long time since I saw anyone's head popping up from the trench. It seemed that all the soldiers had been killed in the devastating artillery fire.

After an unknown amount of time, a dusty hand suddenly touched the trench.

"Cough cough cough......"

A second lieutenant officer emerged from the soft soil. He lay on the trench and kept coughing, coughing up countless smoke and dust.

The beautiful, clean and tidy officer's uniform was stained by mud, and the original color was almost gone.

The second lieutenant's brain was filled with the buzzing sound, and he could not think at all. A pair of blue eyes turned blankly.

The blue eyeballs were soon filled with billowing smoke, and the second lieutenant who had received good military training instinctively shouted:

"The enemy is attacking, prepare to fight!"

He reached for the pistol at his waist and felt it, but he could not take it out of the holster immediately.

The concussion left his body unable to keep up with his thinking.

Amid the shouts of the officers, the soldiers emerged from the mud in a daze, loaded the mechanical bolts, and aimed at the billowing smoke.

It's just that they no longer have a solid bunker, and the ground is devastated.

Such a situation occurs on a 1,000-kilometer front.

Fifty thousand artillery pieces, one hour of bombardment, the effect is obvious.

The Seventeenth Army, which belongs to the Sixth Army, defended Turtsovka. An hour of artillery bombardment caused the commander of the Seventeenth Army, General Kinitz, to lose contact with the three infantry divisions on the front line.

After the shelling ended, Kinitz dusted himself off and immediately rushed to the observation port of the bunker.

In the somewhat blurry telescopic view, the enemy's tanks and infantry were already 500 meters in front of the formation.

But the imperial soldiers on the first line of defense were still struggling in their positions, and Kinitz saw a significant attrition of troops on the line of defense.

The fortifications were destroyed and heavy firepower was removed. Only rifles and a small number of submachine guns could not stop the enemy's army.

Things that made Kinitz even more desperate were yet to come.

More than a dozen armed helicopters flew above the tanks and infantry brigade. When approaching the position of the 17th Army, the cannons and rocket nests on the armed helicopters opened fire.

The defensive formation just organized by the frontline officers was instantly disrupted, and the machine gun team and anti-tank gun position suffered heavy casualties.

The enemy tanks took this opportunity to increase their accelerator and rush towards the first trench. The machine guns and artillery on the tanks fired continuously, and the position was once again covered by enemy fire.

Many troops had not yet recovered from the bombardment. They suffered heavy losses and were inevitably defeated.

Kinitz punched the sandbag hard:

"Order the second line of defense to prepare and be sure to block the enemy's attack."

Already aware of the power of the enemy's armed helicopters, Army Group South was well prepared for this, but the enemy's artillery fire was too fierce and they did not have time to take advantage of it.

Yang Fugui commanded the First Division as the vanguard of the Sixth Corps and took the lead in capturing the enemy's first line of defense.

The Eighth Corps, Armored Group Army, Mao Xiong's Don River Army, Southwest Front Army and other units also launched a massive counterattack at the same time. The sound of gunfire was loud on the 1,000-kilometer front, and life-and-death collisions between the enemy and ourselves occurred one after another.
Chapter completed!