In the early morning of December 17, the frontline position of the Second Army of the 16th Army Group North of the Third Reich.

A German colonel stood outside his regimental command post, looking at the snowfield under the dark night outside the trench with somewhat complicated eyes.

His hair was neatly combed, and his military uniform was clean and straight. Even in the dark, he still gave people a serious and undisturbed feeling.

There is also an Iron Cross Second Class hanging under the collar, which is a symbol of military glory.

It was already early in the morning, but the colonel showed no intention of taking a rest, and there were more soldiers on duty in the nearby trenches than before.

The sky above our heads was whitened by the snowfields, and the visibility was close to 15 meters.

A major officer walked from the command post behind him and walked to the colonel. He first took a tentative look in the direction of the snowfield, and then sat down a little bored.

While lighting his cigarette, he said to the colonel who was still standing:

"Judging from the intelligence given above, the enemy is going to launch an attack tonight. But it's almost dawn, and there's still no movement from the Russians. Colonel, I'm afraid the intelligence is wrong."

"I have asked the soldiers in each battalion to rest. This damn weather, if we stay here for a while, we will be frozen to death."

"The Russians haven't attacked yet, and we are almost unable to withstand it."

He lit two cigarettes and patted the colonel's trousers with the hand holding the lighter.

The colonel took the cigarette, squatted down, and took a puff with a solemn expression.

While puffing away the smoke, the major seemed to remember something and asked in a gossipy tone:

"Colonel Karl, I heard that you and the Commander-in-Chief of China are classmates and studied together in Munich and Berlin."

Karl subconsciously touched the Iron Cross Second Class on his neck, with memories in his eyes.

After blowing out a smoke ring, he said in a deep tone:

"Yes, we studied in the same military school in 35 and 36 years. Not just me, there are many people in our army who were his classmates. It was only seven or eight years ago, but it feels like a long time.

It’s a long time coming.”

The major has wanted to ask this question for a long time, but he has never found a suitable opportunity before.

Seeing that his regiment leader was interested in talking about this matter, he hurriedly asked:

"The commander-in-chief of the armed forces, I heard that he is not yet 30 years old."

"It's really terrible. How did he do it?"

"Colonel Carl, what do you remember about him?"

It seemed that waiting was too boring. Karl did not reject this issue. He thought about it and said:

“Humble and polite, smart and far-sighted!”

"He seems to know the combat methods of all arms."

"It also predicted the current world situation and our predicament."

"He is a very simple yet complex person. You can see it clearly at the first glance. But from the second glance, you will fall into a fog and you can't see clearly at all."

Karl spoke in confusion, but the major nodded thoughtfully.

"I didn't expect that one day the Chinese would come to European soil, and they would be fully armed and become our enemies!"

The major sighed as he looked at the burning cigarette butts.

Karl felt the same way. He took a long puff of cigarette and then said:

"Yeah, no one thought that such a day would come."

"I met the Chinese commander opposite. He was a regimental commander at that time..."

Speaking of this, Karl's expression suddenly became confused.

After the Battle of Leningrad, he was received by the head of state and personally awarded the Iron Cross Second Class.

In the past few years when the war broke out, he devoted himself to the battlefield and rose from captain to colonel.

He had many brushes with death and gave his all to the great Third Reich.

The Iron Cross Second Class is the best proof.

In the past, he was confident about the future of the Third Reich.

His thoughts were pure and single, and he believed that under the leadership of the head of state, the Germans would be able to conquer the entire Europe.

But the war did not end as quickly as everyone expected.

Karl even waited until the day when the Chinese Expeditionary Force appeared in front of his position.

My belief in winning was somewhat shaken, and I began to think more.

The two people in the trench were no longer interested in talking, and the low temperature made their bodies tremble slightly.

The major glanced at the time and said to Karl:

"Colonel, please go and rest for a while. It will be dawn soon!"

Just as Karl was about to shake his head, a beam of red light appeared above his head.

"boom!"

An explosion suddenly occurred in the center of the forward position, and the flames of the explosion tore through the tranquility and darkness.

Karl stood up and turned to look in the direction of the enemy's position.

At this sight, his body and eyes became stiff.

"Swish swish..."

Countless red lights appeared in the sky, accompanied by a tooth-aching howling sound.

The dense rockets were like meteors, drawing an arc and then slamming into the German forward positions.

The sky was filled with meteors and the red light they emitted.

The entire position was caught in a rumbling explosion, and the fire ripped through the sky above like lightning.

"The enemy has launched an attack!" the major said loudly to Karl, holding his head.

Karl lay on the edge of the trench and looked for a few times in the direction of the rocket, and then he returned to his headquarters amidst the tremors of the earth and the surging air waves.

At 5 a.m. on the 17th, "Operation Avalanche" officially started.

Artillery fire burned on a front of more than 250 kilometers in the north, from north to south, with unprecedented momentum.

Amid the glow of red rockets and rumbling explosions, more than 10 soldiers from the Sixth Corps' advance division crawled forward on the snow.

The firelight pointed out the way forward for them.

The enemy's barbed wire fences and various obstacles had already been destroyed by dense rockets. When the soldiers arrived in front of the 16th Group Army's position, the sky was just brightening.

"Dudududu..."

In the melody of the charge horn unique to the East, 10 divisions of expeditionary force soldiers jumped up from the snow. They held semi-automatic rifles equipped with triangular spurs, shouted and rushed towards the enemy's position.

White snow capes fluttered high behind them!

In addition to the Russian Katyusha rocket launchers, the previous artillery preparations also included all heavy artillery over 100 mm from the 6th Corps.

The position of the 16th Army of the Third Reich was plowed back and forth several times. On the devastated snow, there were fragmented fortifications everywhere, and some huge craters were still emitting light black smoke.

The bombed and dazed soldiers of the Third Reich poked their heads out of the snowdrift.

They saw the enemies with oriental faces rushing towards them at high speed, and saw the heroic cloaks.

The brain tells these soldiers that they should pick up their guns and resist, but the body's response is stiff and slow.

"Bang bang bang..."

As soon as an MG42 machine gun team set up the machine gun on the trench, two semi-automatic rifles aimed at them, releasing more firepower in one second than a Mauser rifle squad.

The German troops at the forefront suffered the most violent shelling. Before they could react, their position was lost and countless people were taken prisoner.

But the soldiers of the Third Reich on the second, third and other subsequent lines of defense came to their senses. The mg42 machine gun was firmly placed on the trench, and the machine gunner's finger was already on the trigger, ready to fire at any time.

Karl's military uniform was no longer as clean and tidy as it was an hour ago, and his hair was stained with a mixture of ice, snow and mud.

He held up his binoculars and watched the Chinese soldiers swarming toward his second line of defense like waves.

At this moment, he warned himself over and over in his heart:

"This is war! The enemy is on the other side!"

He slowly raised his right hand, about to give the order to fire.

"Buzz buzz..."

The dull churning of the propeller drowned out the running footsteps and shouts of the Chinese soldiers.

Karl and his soldiers looked up at the sky ahead at the same time.

His eyes first narrowed slightly, and then the corners of his eyes twitched crazily.

'Gunship!'

As soon as the thought came up, Karl saw bright flames erupting from underneath hundreds of armed helicopters.

The 70mm rockets in the rocket nest swept towards the German positions like a hurricane.
Chapter completed!