At 6:00 a.m. on June 23, on the west bank of the Naref River, the eastern suburbs of Wape City...

A V82 bucket truck rushed to the high ground by the river. Before the adjutant could open the door for him, General Christ, the commander of the First Armored Army, jumped out of the back seat, stood beside the car, raised the telescope hanging on his chest and looked to the other side of the river.

I saw that the village of Ukhova on the other side of the river had turned into a purgatory at this time. The less than 200 houses in the village had all turned into wreckage, and none of them were intact.

Even so, raindrop-like shells still kept falling into the village. The village was filled with smoke and fire from the explosion of shells. From time to time, shells flew across the village and fell to the Nalef River, and tall white water columns rose into the air like fountains.

General Kleist clearly saw that the streets in the village were filled with 17 or 8 motor vehicle wreckage, including motorcycles, trucks, and two SD251 armored vehicles, with many bodies dotted between the house and vehicle wreckage.

General Klester's eyes were full of disdain, and he said contemptuously: "It seems that our enemies have woken up from the panic and want to curb our attack in this way. Unfortunately, their ideas are too dull and too naive."

The adjutant's expression was completely opposite to General Klester. He saw several shells flying over the river and landing on the west bank of the Naref River. The nearest landing point was only about one hundred and fifty meters away from the high ground where they stood.

The adjutant said nervously: "Commander, the Russian shells are too close to us. For your safety, let's change the location to watch the battle."

"We don't have time to change places. The Russians' attack has been launched. Don't worry about my safety. The shells that the Russians can kill me have not been built yet."

Seeing that Kleister despises the Russians so much, the adjutant had to press down on his uneasiness and look at the battle across the river.

The Soviet Union was prepared for the attack on Germany. After the panic on the day of the war, on June 23, the Soviet troops had come back to their senses and followed the scheduled combat plan. The entire war machine was running in an orderly manner.

The Western Front Army has four armies under its jurisdiction. Among them, the third, fourth and tenth armies are deployed on the border, and the thirteenth army is the reserve force.

The 10th Army was responsible for the frontal defense of the protruding parts of Biawestok.

After learning that the bridge near Wape City was lost, Major General Golubev, the commander of the 10th Army, was furious and hurriedly ordered a counterattack to destroy the German troops crossing the river in one fell swoop.

The counterattack mission fell on the 155th Infantry Division and the 13th Mechanized Army.

The Biavestok region originally belonged to Poland. In September 1939, after Germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland, the Biavestok region fell into the hands of the Soviet Union for nearly three years. The Soviet army had a clear understanding of every inch of land here.

As an important transportation hub, the bridge outside Wape City has long received the focus of attention of the Soviet army. It has included the nearest bridge in the coverage of artillery firepower.

As soon as the counterattack began, the Soviet "God of War" showed its power. Nearly 200 large-caliber artillery guns from six artillery regiments wiped the village of Ukhova from the ground in an instant.

Under the powerful destructive power of 122mm, 152mm or even 203mm howitzers, the crossing of the 48th Panzer Army under the First Armored Army was forced to be interrupted. The troops that had already crossed the river also stopped marching towards Biawestok and entered a defensive state.

Through the air force's reconnaissance plane, we learned that a large number of Soviet tanks and infantry were rushing towards the bridgehead. The 110th Infantry Regiment and the 15th Armored Regiment, which had crossed the river, relied on the woods on both sides of the highway, and six occupied villages on the east bank of the river, setting up defense lines, quietly waiting for the start of the battle.

Dorna Town is about six kilometers northeast of Wape City. It is the small town closest to the city of Biavestok occupied by the 11th Armored Division. It is in this town that the 11th Armored Division fired the first artillery to resist the Soviet counterattack.

Facing the Soviet tank column coming along the highway, ambushed at the entrance of the town on the north side of the town. Two e40 tanks on both sides of the highway opened fire first. With the crisp sound of 88 guns, the lead KV1 tank stopped driving in, and black smoke came out of the body of the car.

The black smoke pillars soaring into the sky reminded the Soviet tanks behind them. They twisted the body of the car and stumbled towards the fields and grass on both sides of the road. The entire team suddenly became a mess.

The two e40 tanks opened the door of killing, and the 1st and 2nd Company of the 503rd Heavy Armored Battalion ambushed in the town of Dorna. Twenty-e40 tanks fired one after another. In a moment, the Soviet tankers discovered that the shells were shot from the bushes in the town, from the houses in the town, and from the pine forests in the town.

The entire town instantly turned into an artillery position, and artillery shells flew everywhere.

Faced with these rookie opponents who were not even sent to the scouts and blindly rushed towards their own positions, the tankers of the 503 Heavy Armored Battalion reaped their lives without mercy. The wreckage of more than 20 KV1s were spread all over the fields and roads in the north of Dorna Town. From a distance, more than a dozen smoke pillars soared into the sky, like the green smoke on the grave during the Qingming Festival.

Further north, the Soviet 155th Infantry Division was receiving a warm welcome from the armed SS.

The 14th Air Artillery Division of the Wrathful SS was assigned to the organization of the First Armored Army, responsible for providing air support to the army. Soviet artillery fire could block the German ground forces' operations, but could not stop these killers from the sky.

Summoned by the 11th Armored Division and escorted by eight 109 fighters, sixteen 110e fighters arrived on the battlefield, and the 155th Infantry Division and the marching column of the 27th Tank Division who cooperated with their attack were immediately washed away.

Twenty-four fighter jets dived down one after another, slid past the heads of the Soviet soldiers in chaos, and the strong wind brought by the fuselage almost blew the big-brimmed hats of the Soviet officers on the ground.

In the eyes of the Soviet officers and soldiers, a series of giant bombs fell from the sky and disintegrated by themselves under their terrified eyes. Countless balls ejected from the disintegrated bombs, and then spread their tiled wings and landed on the ground like bats.

Amid the continuous explosions like firecrackers, tens of thousands of shrapnel fell from the sky and shot quickly at the Soviet soldiers on the ground. Whether it was the soldiers hiding in the roadside drainage ditch, the soldiers lying in the rice fields, and the Gastruks exposed on the road, they were all riddled with the shrapnel falling from the sky.

Throwing away the bombs, twenty-four fighters started diving again regardless of the Soviet high-fire firepower blocking on the ground, using machine guns and machine guns to sweep trucks and armored vehicles on the road.

The dive of each German fighter jet caused a bloody storm on the road. Trucks, cars and light armored vehicles were blown up one after another, igniting a raging fire, and wreckage of vehicles skewed up the road.

The Soviet soldiers' air defense firepower on the ground opened fire wildly, with 37mm anti-aircraft guns, 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns, Teggalev light machine guns, and even sand submachine guns being used to strafuse the sky.

On the battlefield, the roar of planes, the sound of gunfire, and the shouts of personnel were deafening.

Only twenty-two fighter jets left, and one of the 109 fighter jets and the 110e type were shot down.

Seeing the enemy planes leave, the Soviet military advisors and soldiers left their respective hidden places to rescue the wounded and reorganize their formations. However, they did not find that on the treetops of a pine forest in the east of Dorna Town, a small hummingbird helicopter was crouching on it.

The thick smoke from the wreckage of trucks on the highway became the best instructions. The artillery observation post behind the helicopter patiently waited for the Soviet soldiers to leave the hidden place and return to the highway, and then shouted at the radio microphone to open fire.

On the west bank of the Naref River, the 119th Artillery Regiment under the 11th Armored Division finally waited for the long-awaited signal. 48 howitzers fired together, and the bombardment instantly flew over the bridgehead, roaring into the unprepared Soviet marching column.

The broken limbs flew into the sky, and the lives of Soviet soldiers were harvested one by one, and the bodies of Soviet soldiers were lying near each shell explosion point.

On the road, when the troops of the 155th Infantry Division were massacred, four reconnaissance aircraft of the fourteenth Aerial Artillery Division of the SS flew near the city of Biawestok to find the Soviet artillery positions.

Aware of the intention of the German reconnaissance plane, the Soviet artillery position had to stop firing and turn into concealment.

A counterattack planned by the Soviet army was defeated by the joint efforts of the armed SS aircraft and the artillery of the 11th Armored Division before it officially began.

More than an hour later, another disaster struck the 155th Infantry Division.

The two bridges next to Wape City are just a river crossing place that the First Armored Army values, but are not the only river crossing place.

As early as the first day of the war, the German engineers built four pontoon bridges upstream and downstream of the Wape City River Bridge. The troops of the Sixteenth Armored Division and the Sixteenth Motorized Infantry Division crossed the Naref River from these four pontoon bridges and established bridgeheads across the river.

After receiving the order from the 48th Panzer Army headquarters, the 16th Panzer Division sent its subordinate second armored regiment to attack the right wing of the 155th Infantry Division with a beautiful left hook. The 11th Panzer Division, which was facing the front, also launched a counterattack.

The 155th Infantry Division, which could not withstand the two sides of the two armored divisions and had not yet come to his senses in the chaos, suffered heavy damage, and had to escape back to the starting point in a panic.

After a morning of battle, the 11th Armored Division defeated the Soviet counterattack, and the road bridges and railway bridges on the Naref River were re-passed.

The steel torrent of the Forty-Eight Panzer Army was like the rushing river of the Naref River, rushing towards the city of Biawestok, where they would encounter stretching anti-tank trenches, countless barbed wire and minefields.

On the way back to the Army Command, General Klester's face changed back to his inherent stiff expression.

Aerial reconnaissance shows that the fortifications outside Biawestok are not only complete, but also surround almost the entire city's perimeter, and there is no other road to bypass.
Chapter completed!