In the early morning of December 30, the German Army's Zalmut Cluster in the eastern part of the Syrian Desert received an order to withdraw westward from Marshal Rundstedt. Everyone from the commander to the ordinary soldiers below were relieved, but how could they do so?
It was possible to preserve the troops, but it tested the German commanders at all levels.
From ancient times to the present, retreat has been a nerve-wracking thing, and it can turn into a rout if you are not careful. In the current situation where it is necessary to cross the Syrian desert with a depth of more than 300 kilometers from east to west, the laggard companies and soldiers,
In the absence of food and drinking water, the sacrifice will be in vain.
The Zalmut Cluster consists of the German Eleventh Army, the Thirtieth Army, the Fifty-fourth Army, the Romanian Cavalry Army, the Thirty-ninth Motorized Army, and the Fifty-seventh Motorized Army. These six armies were formerly part of
The German Eleventh Army and the Third Armored Group all participated in the invasion of France.
and the Soviet Union's meritorious troops. The pre-war total strength was as high as 560,000. However, in the previous continuous operations, various units were seriously damaged. Most units faced a reduction of one-third or even more than half. At the same time, there was a serious lack of food due to supply difficulties.
, fuel and drinking water, the situation is very bad.
In a private phone call from Marshal Rundstedt to Zalmut, he informed that the 1st, 2nd and 4th Armored Groups were all trapped on the west bank of the Tigris River and their whereabouts were unknown, and that the 3rd Armored Group must be preserved as a priority.
Taking all aspects into account, Zalmut ordered to give priority to the fuel needs of the 39th Motorized Army and the 57th Motorized Army, and let the two armored generals Rudolf Schmidt and Adolf Konzen lead the evacuation first.
The others who evacuated in sequence were the Romanian Cavalry Army, the 30th Army, the 11th Army, and the 54th Army were responsible for the rear and blocking the pursuit of the Chinese Army.
At dawn that day, the reconnaissance plane of the Anjia Army on routine patrol discovered the movements of the German troops and immediately reported the abnormal situation to the theater headquarters.
With all air force departments shouldering important missions, Yang Jiuxiao ordered the five flying brigades of the 11th Air Force Division deployed in the southern area of the Euphrates River to conduct all-out bombing to pursue and annihilate these enemies. At the same time, he requested the 17th Group Army and the directly affiliated tank brigades.
Soldiers, carry forward the spirit of continuous combat, launch a follow-up attack on the German army, and eliminate as many as they can.
As a result, the vast Syrian desert became a pasture where wars raged, and the scattered German troops fled desperately on the ground. The sky was filled with densely packed fighter jets, bombers, attack planes and armed helicopters of the Anjia Army, which caused the German troops to wail and howl in agony.
Word.
In the easternmost part of the battlefield, the 17th Group Army of the Anjia Army had continuously replenished Category B troops to achieve full strength as early as a week ago. At this time, it received the order to counterattack and immediately, under the cover of the tank troops, retreated while fighting.
The Germans pounced.
“Porphyrin —”
Intense general machine gun fire sounded continuously, and the air was filled with a strong smell of gunpowder smoke.
The 50th and 170th Infantry Divisions and four SS regiments of the 54th Army at the rear of the German army were fighting and retreating. They relied on the geographical terrain to continuously build fortification defenses. After resisting for a period of time, they immediately withdrew and never hesitated to fight.
.Fighting continued from morning to noon, and the battlefield has moved to Syria.
As the front continues to expand to the north and south wings, tanks can no longer be used intensively. The desert is too vast, and due to frequent strong winds in winter, the sand dunes are constantly changing under the strong winds. Often there are several small hills separated by a straight line distance of four to five hundred meters.
, unable to see each other, which brought great convenience to the German defense.
The German army continued to use these hills to launch some counterattacks, which made the Anjia Army's offensive troops dare not penetrate too fast in case they were surrounded and ambushed by the German army.
The offensive mode of the Anjia Army infantry is almost textbook. Officers and soldiers wearing khaki desert camouflage uniforms form large battle groups in the long yellow sand with hundreds of small teams in squads and platoons.
Armed with automatic rifles, they advanced layer by layer among the sand dunes and Gobi deserts.
Although the troops were large and well-equipped, the Anjia Army did not adopt the Japanese's favorite suicide charge, which prevented the Germans from fully relying on temporary positions to calmly carry out burst shooting and strafing.
The usual practice of the Anjia Army detachment is to hide behind the sand dunes of the confrontation as soon as the attack is blocked, and call for tanks and artillery support. For a fire support point, they can release dozens or even hundreds of artillery shells until the entire
The German positions were blown to pieces.
I have to admit that this method of warfare is very effective. The destructive power of shrapnel, flames and strong winds is amazing. The trenches built in the sea of sand are very unreliable. They often collapse after a few shots. The German officers and soldiers hiding in them either persist there.
Until they are buried by the yellow sand, they can only choose to retreat and find the next position to continue fighting.
Behind a sand pile in the south, at the bottom of a newly dug trench, there were more than twenty German officers and soldiers hiding. They listened to the rumble of artillery in the distance and kept breathing.
Seeing the dry lips of the officers and soldiers, Lieutenant Merk slowly took off the kettle he got from the dead Chinese soldiers from his waist, raised his head and took a sip, then handed the kettle to the brothers beside him, and then
Passed on in turn. Happened at the border at eleven o'clock in the morning
During the battle along the line, Merk led a company of German troops to ambush an Anjia Army's cable team in a circular sand dune area. At the cost of more than 30 people, he completely annihilated the opponent's 15-man team.
small team, and successfully escaped before the opponent's reinforcements arrived.
However, at this moment, there is no look of happiness on the face of every officer and soldier. In the continuous escape, they are like poor prey, constantly being attacked from the sky and the ground. The troops of a company are only
There were only so few people left, and they knew very well that as ammunition ran out, death would be waiting for them if they did not surrender.
Sergeant Teske, who was leaning against the wall of the bunker at the north end, was the last one to take the water bottle. After drinking, he licked his lips, showing an expression of enjoyment, but he was complaining:
"I don't know what the higher-ups are thinking. Originally, we had a good relationship with the Chinese, but we had to fight a war. These are good, but we can't steal the chicken but lose the rice. I heard that several fronts have failed, and millions of people have been killed.
This is a place where birds don’t poop…”
Sergeant Ortesh, who had participated in the arduous battles of Leningrad and Moscow, said with a wry smile:
"Yes, this is the stupidest decision I have seen since September 1938... In the winter two years ago, when the Imperial Army was in trouble, the Chinese promptly sent cotton clothes and food, making
We were able to calmly retreat from Moscow, organize a strong defense line, turn the crisis into safety, and operate continuously for more than a year. This is how we achieved this year's consecutive victories!
"But now we have offended the sleeping lion in the East. The Imperial Army has encountered unprecedented trouble in West Asia. I wonder who will come to rescue us? Do we have to rely on God?"
Having said this, Sergeant Ortesh shook his head.
Lieutenant Merk took back the kettle and stopped his subordinates' complaints: "We are soldiers, and it is the duty of soldiers to obey orders. The choice of strategic direction is not ours to decide. We only need to fight the battle well..."
"boom--"
A shell fell to the bottom of the northern end of the bunker without warning. As the flames rose, eleven German soldiers, including Sergeant Teske, were reduced to minced meat. Blood and broken limbs were scattered in the bunker.
It's everywhere.
At the southern end of the zigzag trench, Lieutenant Merk's eyes were red with tears as he witnessed his subordinates suffering heavy losses. The communications soldier next to him quietly poked his head out to see what was going on, but his helmet-wearing head suddenly became numb.
It burst without warning, splattering brains and blood all over Merk's body.
"The other side has snipers, and there's this sound..."
Merk's face changed drastically, and he was about to lean against the wall of the bunker to listen. Sergeant Ortesh crawled over from the corner of the bunker, pointed to the east and said, "I heard the roar of the engine.
, at least two tanks are approaching us..."
Merk nodded with relief, and suddenly frowned: "We originally only had two rocket launchers left, but now Tesk's one is definitely hopeless. How can we repel the opponent's tank attack?"
Ortesh was a little hesitant, but before the choice between life and death, he still bit the bullet and said: "Company Commander, we have run out of ammunition and food, why not surrender... The Chinese treat prisoners well, and I heard that they still do
There are many Germans working there!”
Merk was furious and was about to scold him when he suddenly saw the excited expressions on the faces of the soldiers around him. He immediately closed his mouth, thought about it and ordered the remaining twelve soldiers to check the ammunition. He found that all the soldiers were added to the
There was only one rocket, four grenades, and less than five rifle bullets left for each person. The M42 machine gun bullets had been exhausted, and they could not even sustain an ordinary battle.
Lieutenant Merk asked the soldiers to hand over all the grenades, and then said: "At this point, I allow you to surrender, but I will not surrender..."
Soldiers, you look at me and I look at you. In the end, the strong desire for survival prevailed. Sergeant Ortesh motioned the two soldiers to look at his company commander, then picked up a white handkerchief with his rifle and shook it.
Huang stood up slowly this time, and soon German words were heard in the distance. The Anjiajun officer commanding the attack asked all Germans to put down their weapons and walk out of the sand pit with their hands raised to surrender.
Twelve officers and soldiers walked out one after another. After about two or three minutes, after they probably asked about the situation, shouts came from the east again, asking Captain Merk to go out and surrender.
Merk remained unmoved and closed his eyes silently. After a few more minutes, the other party seemed to understand his intention and stopped trying to persuade him to surrender. A string of dense grenades streaked through the air, and six consecutive mortar shells fell.
Entering the sand pit, after a violent explosion, the sand pit was in a mess.
Ten seconds later, gunpowder smoke still filled the air around the bunker, and then the "squeaking" sound of leather boots on the gravel sounded, and the sound of breathing got closer and closer. Lying against the bottom of the bunker, blood kept pouring out of his body silently.
Erke, with wide eyes, held the four grenades and the only rocket tightly to his chest, and used his last strength to pull the fuse of the grenade.
The violent explosion blew Lieutenant Merk to pieces, and also seriously injured two Anjia Army scouts who were close to the trench to check what was going on. If they had not been wearing nylon vests with bulletproof effects, Merk's idea of perishing together would have succeeded.
.
Lieutenant Colonel Wang Jianmin, commander of the 211th Regiment of the 49th Division of the 17th Group Army, arrived here just at this time. After instructing the two wounded to be carried into the battlefield ambulance, after listening to the report of his subordinates, he shook his head and sighed, and then asked to mark the
, and then go back and bury the corpses of these German soldiers after the battle is over - although for Anjiajun, the German resistance brought unnecessary losses, but from the standpoint of the German army, this was a sign of loyalty and bravery. For such
Soldiers must be given sufficient respect.
...
"Boom boom——"
A B3 bomber almost scraped the ground and flew over the heads of the Germans. Immediately afterwards, a series of huge explosions came, and then an irresistible force killed Friedrich Kühn, commander of the 14th Armored Division.
The lieutenant general was thrown heavily onto the windshield ahead.
At this moment, Lieutenant General Qu En felt that his chest and eardrums were about to burst.
The sound of the earth shattering caused by the explosion gave Lieutenant General Quen, who had endured cruel tests on the Soviet-German battlefield, a feeling of the end of the world. Then the entire convoy was hit by a burst of shrapnel, flying sand, boxes, helmets and lunch boxes.
Surrounded by broken rainflakes.
The jeep that Lieutenant General Kuhn was riding in hit a truck that suddenly stopped in front of him. The front of the car immediately deformed. The windshield was hit by the Lieutenant General sitting in the passenger seat and shattered instantly, making him in close contact with the glass.
Qu En's head and face were covered with blood.
The orderly sitting in the back seat quickly jumped out of the car and opened the front door. Qu En covered his head and jumped to the ground. He subconsciously looked in the direction of the explosion. He saw the truck following the jeep and almost hit it.
At the rear of the jeep, behind that car, several trucks had overturned on their sides, their wheels still spinning. And further away, there was a complete smoke and fire.
In the sky, silver-gray fighter planes circled and roared loudly, and the soldiers dispersed towards the sand piles around the road.
Almost at the same time as he jumped to the ground and looked around, the orderly had already pulled Lieutenant General Qu En and rolled into the sand a few meters away. Then several division staff officers ran out from a command vehicle at the back and came to the division commander's side.
, surrounded him and jumped into a sand pit that the soldiers had just dug.
A major pointed at two black spots in the air and shouted "anti-aircraft machine guns! Organize anti-aircraft firepower". While shouting, he ran to the sand pit on the other side of the convoy and organized a mg42 heavy machine gun team to attack the air.
shooting.
The German soldiers who had just jumped out of the truck raised their guns and aimed at the sky.
Qu En was very angry when he saw this chaotic scene, but there is still no way to conduct radio communication. The role that he, a division commander, can play is really limited.
Around the convoy, there were panicked soldiers everywhere. A low-flying fighter plane suddenly pounced down, with terrible flames flashing under its wings. Some soldiers fell to the ground like wheat, as the fighter plane increased its height.
, another bomber roared past overhead, and then heard huge explosions. Several relatively dense crowds were suddenly filled with smoke, and blood and flesh were flying everywhere.
Lieutenant General Qu En clenched his fists and watched all this with worry.
The sound of machine guns all around became more and more dense, and the anti-aircraft fire points constructed by general-purpose machine guns violently sprayed flames. However, the enemy's fighter planes seemed to have reinforced their armor, and sparks popped out when hit, but nothing happened and they continued to rise.
Dive, straf and drop bombs.
"Boom——"
A huge mushroom cloud suddenly shot up from the horizon, followed by violent explosions. Forty or fifty meters away to the east, a truck full of ammunition was hit by an aerial bomb dropped by a Chinese aircraft, and an explosion immediately occurred.
and died in the explosion. The violent explosion also blew up several trucks immediately behind and behind. All around the sand were the wreckage of the trucks after the explosion. Those trucks were now turned into piles of flames.
and scrap metal emitting acrid black smoke.
"General, look!"
A staff officer handed Qu En a pair of binoculars. Qu En looked in the direction of the staff's finger. He saw two Leopard tanks 1,500 meters to the west, desperately fleeing westward, but a huge aircraft overhead.
It circled the ground and a dense hail of bullets shot out from the bottom of the plane.
The weak top armor of the two Panther tanks suffered continuous blows. They caught fire and exploded one after another. They soon stopped moving forward and soon turned into burning coffins of fire.
Lieutenant General Qu En felt heavy: "That's a gunship aircraft modified by the Chinese from a transport aircraft... It's over. If the bombing continues like this, our prestigious 14th Armored Division may be eliminated!"
The surrounding staff officers didn't know how to comfort them. Since dawn, the troops had been bombarded. They marched intermittently. They could not even move five kilometers in an hour. And in the desert, there was no shelter, so they could only
When will these miserable days of being passively bombed end?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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