Chapter 63
At 3:30 am on June 22, 1941, thousands of German aircraft took off on schedule, crossing the German-Soviet border in occupied Poland and launching a surprise attack on Soviet Red Army airfields and transportation hubs. At the same time, tens of thousands of tanks and hundreds of thousands of artillery pieces, millions of German soldiers and troops from vassal states launched an offensive along a 1,800-kilometer front line, divided into three army groups against the Soviet Union, marking the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. The largest and bloodiest war in World War II had begun.
On the first day, German troops advanced 50-60 kilometers and destroyed over 1,200 Soviet aircraft. Favniel was a tank commander of the 4th Panzer Regiment under Army Group Center. He moved forward with his tank platoon, followed by infantrymen riding in trucks and half-tracks, which also towed artillery pieces. At the forefront of the entire army, armored reconnaissance vehicles far ahead scouted out Soviet Red Army defensive forces, while behind Favniel's tanks were short-barreled assault guns, the entire army advancing like a finely-tuned machine.
The Soviet army's large number of T-26 and BT2, BT7, T70 are simply delivering meat. Fawcett's short-barreled 75mm howitzer can destroy these tanks - they don't have much armor, but the artillery is more powerful than that of the same level German tanks...
"Halt, turret right turn 35 degrees, sight on... never mind the sight, elevate to maximum, wait for my command to fire!" Fafnir said to the crew members. Now he was wearing a black armored uniform, with a boat-shaped hat on his head and a large headset with a microphone, half of his body exposed outside the turret looking cool.
Inside the tank, the space is cramped and hot when the engine is running. There are five stinky men who can't take a bath every day stuck inside. It's basically no different from being next to a latrine pit. As soon as Favonir gets the chance, he almost sticks his body out of the car to breathe in fresh air - even the smell of gunpowder and blood is a hundred times better than the smell inside the car! Moreover, a large number of fleas have spawned inside the car. Spraying countless insecticides doesn't work, and they don't dare smoke inside the car either - lest they damage the precious equipment and end up in military court.
Soon, the silhouette of Soviet Red Army tanks appeared in the distance. After waiting for a few more minutes, Favre suddenly gave the order: "Fire!" The 75mm shell soared through the sky and hit a Soviet T-26 light tank after 2 seconds, destroying it - almost all German soldiers and tankers stared at Favre in amazement, "Turret right turn 3 degrees, elevation unchanged, waiting for orders!"
Ten seconds later, "Fire!" The grenade flew in a beautiful parabola for more than 2 seconds and destroyed a BT-2. Now the comrades next to him looked at Fafnir with eyes as if they were looking at a saint... ...The third shot was fired after half a minute, but it missed. Next to him, "Boom" scattered everywhere "It's just dogshit luck... But the first two shots were really godly accurate."
Inspired by Favre, his comrades-in-arms soon opened fire with their own tanks, shooting at the approaching Soviet tanks. The Soviets showed courage, but without infantry cover and artillery support, a tank-only counterattack was futile... They were much braver than the French and Poles, even in a doomed battle, they fought extremely bravely and tragically. At this time, the German armored forces had gained experience from fighting in Poland and France, and their accurate shooting began at over 500 meters, destroying all Soviet tanks by 300 meters. Favre scored four hits, two of which were "long-range shots" called "dog shit luck" by his comrades, and two were obtained through short-range firing within 500 meters. Decker, the commander of a Panzer III assault gun, also "lucked out" with one hit, while Berwigen's Panzer III fired at high speed at medium range, firing over ten rounds in one minute and successfully taking down the Soviet tank that had disabled his comrade... Three BT-series tanks. The counterattack by the Russians' dozen or so tanks was ineffective, only delaying the German tank group for half an hour without any results.
Fawzi fired grenades at long range to clear out one strongpoint after another, providing successful cover for his comrades' assault.
"I didn't expect that, it turns out this is what 'type' really means. It's not some kind of reaction limit or spiritual sense from those Gundam animations. It should be called 'force intuition' instead. This ability should be called 'force' too. Intuitive trajectory prediction, intuitive enemy positioning... Is it really 'may the force be with you'?!" Fafnir thought to himself after the battle. The sealed power being exchanged for this result was barely acceptable. "If I were to forcefully break the seal, it wouldn't be a problem, but it seems like I'd immediately get kicked out of this world... Drifting into an unknown world, maybe it's closer to home, but the most likely outcome is that I'll have to spend several more worlds before getting back on track." Fafnir abandoned his thoughts of releasing the sealed power. "What a shame, this world could have been destroyed at any time... The unknown world is really terrifying - what if I get thrown into the 903rd world? That's not a world you can play around with, even Hongjun wouldn't survive without losing a layer of skin! Those brutal cat robot worlds are no joke!"
In this one week, the German army advanced with unprecedented speed, annihilating tens of millions of Soviet Red Army soldiers and capturing tens of millions more. Fawley and his men had already reached the outskirts of Minsk, where they encountered a formidable foe.
The new Russian tank, the shells hit it and bounced off, and its wide tracks moved quickly on Russia's muddy summer terrain. The firepower was extremely fierce. None of Germany's tanks could destroy this tank head-on. Favni naturally knew that this was the famous T-34 tank, which current German tanks had no solution for, unless they surrounded it or directly hit its engine...
Fawley and his men soon encountered the T-34, which was easy to deal with as there were not many of them, and the Red Army's infantry-tank coordination and tank group tactics were not up to par. Communication equipment was also not available on every vehicle, and most commands had to rely on flag signals or shouting. The German tanks took advantage of their superior communication equipment and tactical experience to successfully crush one Soviet counterattack after another, capturing many T-34s.
On this day, on the highway outside Minsk, Favonil saw a huge guy with a high and square head, a short and thick barrel, crawling slowly but almost indestructible. None of the infantry's anti-tank guns were effective, being blown away by the heavy armor-piercing shells, and Favonil's tank gun was also ineffective. The attack of this big fellow was not very accurate, but it was powerful enough, and each 152mm shell caused significant damage to the German army.
"Damn KV-2, this guy is really hard to deal with in reality. If only we had the 4th F2... at least the long-barreled 75 wouldn't be so powerless. The 88 cannon can't get here in time either, no choice but to flank this big guy and hit it from behind." Soon, the company commander ordered Favonil's men to scatter and encircle the heavy tank, while the infantry and artillery were to suppress the Soviet infantry with all their might, preventing them from interfering with the German tanks' flanking maneuver.
Fawcett's luck seemed to have run out, his tank had become stuck in an invisible mud pit, the engine roaring but unable to pull the tank's body out of the mud. Fawcett saw through the observation port that a KV-2 was slowly turning its massive "field toilet" turret, and it would soon be facing his tank. He immediately ordered the crew to abandon ship, and they jumped out of the tank at top speed. Fawcett also escaped with two M24 hand grenades. A loud explosion, his tank was overturned by a 152mm shell from the KV-2, fortunately, all crew members had already jumped off, and the infantry brothers were suppressing Soviet infantry, there was no machine gun fire shooting at them. Fawcett gritted his teeth in anger, quickly approaching the KV-2, he was furious about being overturned by this lone heavy tank and vowed to take it down.
