The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Ten days later, the 11th German Army arrived at the Baku defense line under the leadership of Manstein.

Manstein stood on a high ground and looked towards the enemy with a telescope, but from the perspective of his telescope, it was not the Soviet defense line, but the drilling wells and refineries standing in the distance on the oil field.

After a long time, Manstein put away the telescope and said, "Do you know what I saw?"

"Oil fields, Your Excellency Marshal!" The staff officer replied.

"No!" Manstein shook his head: "I saw the Soviets' discontinued machines, tanks and cars that could not be driven because of lack of oil, planes that could not take off, and the faces of terrified Soviet soldiers! What we have to do..."

As he said this, Manstein raised his head in the direction of Baku, and then said: "Just occupy it!"

After a pause, Manstein ordered: "Attack!"

Instantly, the sound of artillery sounded, and the battle to attack the Baku defense line began.

Dozens of tanks of various types from the 22nd Armored Division covered the troops of the 28th Jaeger Division and took the lead in launching an attack on the Soviet defense line.

The initial attack was relatively smooth. After all, the morale of the German army was high, and the defense line built by the Soviet army was a field fortification built urgently in the past ten days. Such fortifications could hardly resist the attack of the German elite troops.

Werner even said optimistically: "I think we may be able to hold a baseball game in Baku tomorrow!"

"There is only oil in Baku, Werner!" the baker replied.

"Then..." Werner replied: "Let's have a swimming competition!"

"Where to swim?" The baker asked back: "The Caspian Sea? There is a Soviet fleet there!"

"No!" Werner replied: "There are oil fields in Baku. I think that must be the most expensive and charming swimming pool in the world!"

The German soldiers couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Compared with the optimism of the soldiers, Eberhard seemed a little worried.

"Any questions?" Qin Chuan asked.

"Major!" Eberhard replied, "The Soviets will not give up Baku so easily!"

"Of course!" Qin Chuan replied.

"So their defense will definitely not be so simple!"

"Of course!"

"The battle will not go as smoothly as we imagined!"

"Of course!"

"Then we..."

"We only have one choice to attack, Eberhard!" Qin Chuan said, "What else can we do besides that?"

Eberhard nodded weakly. The German 11th Army had no way out. In fact, from the beginning, the 11th Army had no way out unless it defeated the Soviet army in the Caucasus and drove them all out.

Eberhard's worries soon became a reality.

Soon after the German army launched the attack, a group of Soviet fighter planes appeared in the sky. They were the Fourth Air Force in the North Caucasus... Most of these fighter planes were Seagull fighter planes, and some of them were American A20 attack planes.

The A20 attack plane was of course aided by the United States to the Soviet Union. This bomber has a very strong attack power because it is equipped with 10 aircraft machine guns and can also carry 1,814 kg of bombs.

What's even more amazing is its speed and range: 545 kilometers per hour, 1755 kilometers maximum range.

You should know that the Soviet Seagull fighter has a speed of only 443 kilometers per hour and a maximum range of 695 kilometers. That is, the A20 attack aircraft can leave the Seagull fighter behind by a large margin.

Of course, the speed of the A20 is still not comparable to that of the BF109.

As soon as the Soviet fighter appeared, it bombarded the German ground forces. Several German BF109s rushed to fight, but because of the huge difference in numbers, they still couldn't stop their attack on the ground forces... The Germans didn't dare to send too many fighters into the Caucasus.

This is mainly because the areas occupied by the Germans are not stable enough. This is one of the shortcomings of blitzkrieg. Although it can seize the opportunity to launch an unexpected attack before the enemy is ready, the troops always keep moving forward, and there will be many problems in the rear.

At other times, the German army would be followed by security forces to maintain public order, but at this time, the follow-up troops could not follow up after crossing the Kerch Strait, so the situation was not satisfactory.

In this way, the airport would always be shot by the Soviet guerrillas or stragglers and fleeing soldiers' howitzers and mortars.

On the other hand, the air battle in the Caucasus region had basically no advantage for the German army.

As mentioned before, the peaks of 3,000 to 4,000 meters above sea level in the Caucasus region stood like steel knives between the Transcaucasus and the North Caucasus. On the one hand, the high speed of the German BF109 could not be used, and what was worse was that the Caucasus Mountains would block radar signals... So as soon as the Soviet fighter planes appeared, they basically went into battle right in front of them. There were even several times when the German airports were attacked by Soviet fighter planes and suffered heavy losses.

Therefore, the German army could only deploy 50 fighter planes in the Caucasus region for the time being, and the other fighter planes were on standby at the Kerch airport.

But fifty fighter planes were obviously unable to gain air superiority, especially since the Soviet 4th Air Force fought unexpectedly flexibly. They sometimes attacked the German vanguard troops and sometimes attacked the logistical supplies, causing great trouble to the German army.

But these are not the worst. After all, most Soviet pilots have no experience... The training of pilots in the Soviet Union can be said to be the simplest. They generally only conduct flight training for ten months, and the total flight time is about 10 to 20 hours. Even if you are qualified and sent to the front line to fight the enemy.

In comparison, other countries, such as Japan, mostly train pilots for about five years. In the later period, due to too many casualties, pilots who had only been trained for three years were sent to the front line, which basically resulted in death or "divine use". Used for suicide attacks.

Therefore, Soviet fighter planes were not very accurate in strafing and bombing targets, especially moving tanks and cars.

There is a saying in the German army: If you encounter a Soviet fighter plane on the battlefield, you can ignore its existence as long as you know how to turn.

This statement is not an exaggeration, because under this round of heavy bombardment by fifty Soviet fighter planes, only five German tanks were destroyed. The German BF109 even shot down ten fighters.

Therefore, the German offensive troops continued to advance forward almost unaffected.

What really stopped them was the trenches…

Just as the German army was chasing the Soviet army, a wall of fire suddenly "soared" in front of them. It could not be seen from north to south for tens of kilometers, with almost no gap in the middle.

"Fire trench!" Qin Chuan frowned as he watched this scene.

This tactic originally used by the Su 242 Mountain Division to block the German armored forces finally appeared on the Baku defense line.