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Volume 3 Far East Story Chapter 337 The Burning Ninth Army

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    ~Date:~November 06~

    Several political commissars and their army commanders looked at each other in confusion. When they thought that the Ninth Army was escorting the Southern Cluster's urgently needed food and ammunition, everyone couldn't help but take a breath of cold air. Damn it, what if the food and ammunition were blown up by the coalition forces?  What do 200,000 people eat on the right bank of the Volga River where even ordinary people can hardly find it?  How can we fight this battle?

    After a while, the communications staff hurriedly ran back and breathlessly reported:

    "Report, Comrade Commander, a warning telegram from Rzhevsky of the Fourth Army of Chernigovka. A large coalition aircraft group is coming towards us, asking us to pay attention to air defense and concealment. In addition, Rzhevs  Ji asked for instructions on the next step of action. If the main force does not go to Ufa to relieve the siege, he will have to kill the horses to satisfy his hunger! "

    "What kind of tricks is this Lezhevsky doing? The enemy planes have all left, and his warning telegram has just arrived belatedly. I expected him to send a warning, but the day lilies are already cold!" Tukhachevsky muttered dissatisfied.  (1_1)

    "I didn't expect the coalition's aviation fleet to be so large. How can we fight this war? We have almost no air defense weapons and equipment. In the eyes of the enemy's aircraft, we are lambs to be slaughtered! I propose to convene an emergency military committee on the Southern Cluster Frontline.  Meeting to discuss the next step of the cluster!" Ma Xin, the acting commander of the cluster, who had been hesitant about withdrawing westward or aiding eastward, finally made a preliminary decision.

    Among the bombers of the Allied Air Force, the slowest flying bomber is the Handley Petty 0400, with a speed of 157 kilometers per hour. The distance from Milna to Bafre is about 110 kilometers, and the Handley Petty Type 0400 heavy bomber is the slowest.  , 36 twin-engine heavy bombers in three formations flew at the end of the formation, escorted by two squadrons of new Chinese FR18 Excellent fighter-bombers.

    "The six squadrons including se5 and d4, which can fly at ****** kilometers per hour, took the lead and rushed towards the line from October Town to Bafre.  (1_1)

    Half an hour later, the Ninth Army on the Bavre front was attacked and strafed by 96 fighter jets and light bombers from six squadrons of the coalition. All villages, woods, and trenches within a radius of five kilometers suffered a baptism of blood and fire.  The order to disperse and conceal was simply a dream for the Ninth Army, which escorted the long convoy of grain and grass.

    The weather was so clear, and the wilderness was so open and unobstructed. Centered on Bafre, almost all the nearby villages where the infantry divisions were stationed were hit by air attacks. The carts in a circle and the grain stacks in the middle were bombed.  It was torn apart and a raging fire broke out.  In addition to horizontal bombing, coalition fighter jets and bombers also dived and strafed all machine gun fire points on the ground that dared to fight back.

    For the soldiers of the Ninth Group Army, it was the first time for many Red Army soldiers to see an airplane in their lives, and for many more it was the first time to see so many airplanes in the sky. Countless soldiers who came from poor peasant laborers had experienced the war between Tsarist Russia and Germany and Austria in the East.  The baptism of the frontline battlefield was the first time for them. The power of aircraft strafing and bombing made many soldiers panic and run around. The roar of the engine when the aircraft dived was like the whimpering and roaring of demons in hell.

    After dropping the bombs, se5 and d4 took turns to shoot at all moving or firing targets on the ground, causing huge casualties to the Red Army troops on the ground. The Ninth Army had not conducted air defense drills or training at all, and the sky  The nearly 100 enemy planes in it are rare even for veterans of the former Tsarist Russian troops who participated in the Eastern Front campaign.

    Of course, Yegorov's Ninth Army was the elite of the Soviet Union's Southern Front. Before the hastily organized anti-aircraft Maxim machine gun anti-aircraft positions were destroyed by the opponent's hot bombing and strafing, a fighter dived and strafed too low.  The SE5 fighter jet of the Coalition Air Force was shot down. Before the pilot could parachute, he and his plane hit the opponent's machine gun position and ignited a huge fireball.

    In addition, in this first wave of air strikes, three other coalition aircraft were damaged, followed by all the anti-aircraft machine gun positions that dared to fire were completely plowed!

    Before the coalition fighter jets encounter the opponent's air power, they are more of a temporary ground attack aircraft. Of course, the design of adding bulletproof armor to the engine and cockpit belly will have to wait until China's next actual ground attack mission.  It will not be realized until the attack aircraft is developed.

    The first wave of 96 fighter planes of the Allied Air Force achieved great results in their attack on the Ninth Army of the Soviet Southern Front in Bavre. The Soviet Red Army on the ground did not have enough and effective air defense weapons to lose personnel and materials.  suffered huge losses.

    This was not over yet. Within half an hour, the remaining 95 fighter planes in this wave of coalition attacks had almost finished all their machine gun bullets, dropped all their bombs and started to return home. Then they ran out of their shelters to put out fires and rescue the wounded.  The officers and soldiers of the Ninth Group Army faced the burning stacks of food, but what they greeted was the sky?Another belated dark cloud.

    The second wave of 36 Handley Page 0400 heavy bombers, escorted by 24 Chinese FR18 fighter-bombers, rushed to the battlefield and carried out horizontal bombing at a medium-high altitude of 1,500 meters. 1,152 aerial bombs weighing 25 kilograms fell from the sky.  , completely blowing up the entire five-kilometer radius of Bafre into a sea of ??flames!

    In contrast, the Chinese FR18 fighter-bombers that escorted the Handley Page 0400 aircraft did not obtain permission to strafe the ground before departure. Wang Geng did not intend to take the risk of the new aircraft being shot down by the enemy. 24 Chinese FR18s  The "Excellence" fighter-bombers were just aggrieved. They were also at an altitude of 1,500 meters, followed by 36 Handley Page 0400s, and poured their aerial bombs on all the crawling targets on the ground.

    The fr18 Excellent is the latest all-metal monoplane single-frame two-seat fighter-bomber developed and put into use. It has a maximum flight speed of 260 kilometers per hour and an approved bomb load of 300 kilograms. It can carry eight 37.5-kilogram aerial bombs.  Can carry four 75kg bombs.

    In this sortie, the fr18 Excellent carried 8 37.5-kilogram bombs. The last 192 bombs weighing 37.5 kilograms completely made the Soviet Ninth Army on the ground cry without tears. If it were not for the army commander  If the troops retreated so quickly, they would probably be razed to the ground along with the entire Bafre town center.

    Yegorov was a wise and courageous general of the Soviet Southern Front Army. In other words, if the Eastern Front Army had a talented person like Tukhachevsky, then the representative of the outstanding generals of the Southern Front Army would be Yegorov, although he was ahead of schedule.  An early warning of the southern cluster in the east was obtained in 20 minutes, but it was not easy to evacuate the mountains of food and ammunition. In fact, if it were not for the rush to evacuate the food and ammunition, Yegorov's six divisions would have scattered into the wilderness in these 20 minutes.  If they were moved away from the crowds, woods and villages, the two waves of air raids by the coalition air force might not have caused such a huge blow to the Ninth Army.

    During the nearly an hour of bombing and strafing by the coalition air force in the area near Bafre, the coalition dropped nearly 1,900 aerial bombs. The explosive power of 25-kilogram aerial bombs even exceeded the explosive power of 150 heavy howitzer shells.  , the Ninth Army was severely damaged by such a blow. After the coalition plane returned, it took more than an hour for the Ninth Army to calculate the losses and casualties:

    The six infantry divisions of the Ninth Army assembled in Bafre had a total of more than 6,000 killed and more than 12,000 wounded. Each division lost almost one-third of its troops and the same proportion of artillery batteries, while the group army escorted  More than half of the food, grass and ammunition were burned in the intensive air raids, and almost all villages near Bavre were burning.
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