At 6:30 pm, Manstein decided to launch an attack.

In fact, Manstein does not need to be so anxious... The Kerch Peninsula is located in the northern hemisphere. The sunlight time is particularly long in May and June, and it usually takes about 7:30 to 8:00 pm to get dark. (Note: The latitude of the Kerch Peninsula is similar to that of Beijing. You can refer to the dark time of Beijing in May and June)

In other words, the German army actually has time to make some preparations.

But Manstein has obviously lost patience, or it can be said that Manstein has some lack of confidence.

"We can't guarantee that we can successfully break through the enemy's defense line in one attack!" Manstein said: "In addition, I need to leave some time to attack Kerchi City, so now is the time!"

Qin Chuan could understand Manstein's psychology, and he was responsible for the fate of the entire 11th Army, so he had to be careful.

What's more, the engineers have now modified six paving tanks and the logs are enough to pave five passages.

"Captain!" Manstein asked Qin Chuan: "In this case, you will not object to me letting the first infantry carry out the offensive mission!"

"Of course not, general!" Qin Chuan replied.

This is not only because Qin Chuan cannot refuse, but also because Qin Chuan has confidence in this battle... If he knows that he can win, he may still easily lose his mind, why not do it?

Of course, Manstein didn't think so. What he thought was: if the paving tanks did not work, then the First Infantry Regiment might also win the battle with its amazing firepower and combat power. Simply put, it was to give this battle a double insurance.

What Manstein did not expect was that the ease of this battle was almost beyond everyone's idea, so that the 11th Army, especially its main 22nd Armored Division, had a lot of complaints about it... because they believed that the First Infantry Regiment did not do much in the entire battle, but the First Infantry Regiment was the one who picked the fruits of victory in the end.

These are all later stories.

The first Infantry Regiment's offensive plan was: the first batch of first battalions advanced with paving tanks, and advanced to about 300 meters to suppress the Soviet firepower with the tanks. Then the second battalion followed closely and launched a charge towards the Soviet defense line. The third battalion served as a reinforcement force to attack Kerchi City.

The 28th Hunter Division also launched an attack at the same time as the First Infantry Regiment.

Of course, the 28th Hunter Division was not the main force of the attack, they just supported and dragged the Soviet army in other directions.

After he was ready, Manstein ordered to the walkie-talkie: "Fire!"

"Rumbling" means a dense sound of cannons.

The bombing targets were divided into two parts, one part of them bombed the Soviet defense line, but most of them were mortars.

The main force was targeting the Soviet artillery positions that had been reconnaissed before, and this bombing also had air reconnaissance aircraft to guide them, so after a round of artillery fire, the Soviet artillery was basically dumb.

After ten minutes of bombing, with Manstein's order, the troops launched an attack.

Gunshots were everywhere and gunfires rumbling. The German soldiers of the 28th Hunter Division rushed toward the Soviet defense line from all directions without tank cover.

Of course, they did not charge, but instead leaped towards the Soviet army in a scattered formation to attract the attention and firepower of the Soviet army.

Then, the paving tanks in front of the First Infantry Regiment began to advance.

It was converted from the "Three" tank. The engine rumbled and slowly moved forward. At the same time, a series of logs were uploaded on the conveyor belt to lay in front of the tank's tracks... This allowed the tank to move forward smoothly in the mud.

"Go ahead!" Colonel Slain ordered: "Come on the tank!"

The soldiers of the First Infantry Regiment followed one by one with the MP43 in their hands.

Of course, Qin Chuan is one of them, but he is still holding a sniper rifle... For troops generally equipped with MP43, the sniper's mission is heavier, because long-range targets are outside the range of MP43, and they can only be suppressed by machine guns and snipers.

However, this battle did not seem to be worried about this, because they were all following behind the tanks.

The Soviet army had no idea that the Germans would drive the tanks up, of course, because of the mud in front of the position.

Therefore, almost all the equipment in the Soviet defense line is targeted at infantry. If there is anything to deal with tanks, it is the tanks arranged in the defense line. However, these tanks are either blown up by German bombers or the remaining light tanks are light tanks, which cannot threaten the German "3" tanks.

Lieutenant General Yefimovich, commander of the 46th Army of the Soviet Army, called the command center immediately: "Comrade Kozlov, the German tanks are coming up, request reinforcements, request reinforcements!"

"German tank?" Kozlov asked in confusion: "How can their tanks be driven up?"

"They pave the road, and they pave the road with wood..."

"Comrade Yefimovic!" Mechlis snatched the phone from Kozlov impatiently and said, "Will you not fire at their engineers paving the way? Would you not counterattack on them? Let the enemy pave the way!"

"No, Comrade Mehlis!" Lieutenant General Yefimovic wanted to explain but didn't know how to explain. After a while of anxiety, he had to say: "You should come here to see, they are paving the way with tanks!"

Mehlis couldn't help but look at Kozlov when he heard this. The two of them climbed up on the roof with half belief and half doubt, raised their telescopes and looked down. Sure enough, they saw several tanks paving the way as they advanced.

Although the tanks were not moving fast, they paved the road wherever they went, and were about to pave the Soviet trenches.

"What is that?" Mehlis asked in panic.

"I don't know!" Kozlov replied helplessly: "I only know that the Germans are going to break through our last line of defense!"

Three hundred meters away from the Soviet army, the battalion was divided into two parts: one continued to pave the way forward with the tanks, and the other launched firepower suppression on the Soviet army in the gaps between the tanks.

The distance of 300 meters has been carefully considered.

First of all, the MP43 in the Germans had a range of 350 meters, and the distance of 300 was completely within their range.

Secondly, Qin Chuan knew that the Soviet army was equipped with a light mortar similar to the German 50MM mortar... The army in this era generally equipped light mortars to make it play a role like a Japanese grenade launcher on the battlefield.

This light mortar from the Soviet army is 37MM caliber and has a range of 300 meters.

In other words, the German army was exactly the longest range of this mortar 300 meters away, so they could suppress the Soviet army with confidence.
Chapter completed!