My Third Empire

One Hundred and Thirty Eight Barcelona

History will remember many interesting things, for example, not all Germans supported Führer Accador, and not all Germans sided with Franco's National Army. [For more exciting novels, please visit]

At least hundreds of Germans sided with the Republican Army. They joined the Republican Army to fight bravely with the Spanish National Army supported by the head of state, Acador. Most of them were those who had fled Germany in 1933 after Accador officially began to crowd out the Nazis. These exiles went through twists and turns and came to Spain in the war, and were incorporated into the 11th and 12th International Columns.

These two columns are composed of volunteers from 17 different countries, including the French, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries, who came to support the Spanish people in their war to defend freedom in the most direct way.

Many German volunteers were assigned to fight in the Thälmann Battalion. This battalion was named after Ernst Thälmann, the leader of the German Communist Party. He was sent to a concentration camp set up by the SS south of Kiel, where he was killed a few days later.

This largely German battalion took part in some of the worst battles of the Spanish Civil War. They broke through the encirclement of Cáceres and were one of the few besieged troops to escape to heaven. They fought at Salamanca Sniped the German 8th Armor for two days and covered the safe retreat of most of the friendly forces.

They lost half of their troops in the last battle, but the battalion flag with the pattern of sickle and ax was still flying on the ground. They defended the road between Madrid and Valencia, withstood the onslaught of the National Army, and finally won honor and respect for themselves.

Now, this battalion has been arranged in the most important defensive area of ​​​​Madrid to withstand the fierce attack of the 2nd Panzer Division of the German SS. They competed with the national army building by building, and fought desperately room by room. When they finally lost their positions, they had already turned into ruins.

"Boom!" A shell exploded not far away, and a cloud of dust fell from the temporary headquarters of the Thälmann Battalion. The battalion commander of the Thälmann Battalion grabbed the phone that kept ringing, shook off the dust on his body, and asked in a hoarse voice: "Hello? What mission?"

"One o'clock in the afternoon! We will launch a full-scale counterattack! Retake the lost parts of Madrid! Please prepare your battalions!"

"God! We still have 173 soldiers! The Thalmann Battalion doesn't exist anymore! Sir! Our application for retreat has been submitted for four days! You call me to fight back at this time? Are you kidding me?" Tell The battalion commander of Man Battalion answered dumbfoundedly.

There was another buzzing sound in the sky, and three German export-217b medium bombers of the Spanish National Army flew across the sky, greeting the main Republican defense position not far away.

This aircraft is a simplified version of the -217a bomber used by Germany itself.

The flight speed and bombing accuracy were weakened, but it still defeated the Italian bomber and won the order of the Spanish National Army. However, the number of purchases made the German company Dornier a bit depressed. Spain only needs 17 such aircraft, which really cannot be compared with Germany's own order of 300 aircraft.

Because the Spanish National Army itself is scarce in number, this expensive -17 aircraft flew high over the battlefield, dropped some bombs for a little fun, and left in a hurry.

The bomb exploded in the distance, billowing thick smoke, the ground under your feet could feel trembling, and the sound of houses collapsing faintly came, making people shudder. The war has entered a fierce stage, both sides have invested a lot of troops, and various new weapons are emerging one after another, and the cost is that the losses of both sides are also increasing.

While battling for the southern neighborhoods of Madrid, a tank commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Division recalled attacking a section of the Republican line—a line of bunkers guarded by Basque miners: “We found nothing A little bit of movement, but we all know how brave those miners are. We have fought them countless times and we have been deeply impressed by their tenacity and tenacity."

"We had to advance about 200 meters from their defensive positions and fire at the black holes in the barricades. When the bullets passed through, there would be a puff of white smoke, and the machine guns on the bunkers could not be seen clearly for a few seconds. perforation."

"There was a captain of the Wehrmacht who was so brave that he rushed forward. He even opened the hatch of his tank from time to time and stuck his head out to confirm the direction he was going. It was hard to believe this was true in the hail of bullets. So I shot at his tank. He fired dozens of bullets, and reminded him to be careful—we are used to communicating with each other in this way, which is much more convenient than a communicator."

In fact, the war was much crueler than the German tank commander who was later awarded the Iron Cross described. Republican soldiers threw grenades behind the parapet, and often took the risk of attacking the tracks of German tank units with explosive packs. Someone carefully aimed at the observation holes on the tank and attacked the air fence. Often the Germans would find many warheads in the gaps in the tank after one attack.

What's even more exaggerated is that some soldiers of the Republican Army would bravely leave their bunkers, yelling and gesticulating to encourage their comrades to fire fiercely. They can be sieved. Sometimes, the conical tongue of flame sprayed out by the guided machine gun of the tank can even sweep a large group of heroically charging Republican soldiers within a small area.

As the war continued, the large-caliber howitzers provided by Italy to Franco were the most popular support weapons for the German armored forces. Although these slightly cumbersome cannons were not as light as Krupp's new howitzers, they saved The trouble of transporting cannons and the disadvantage of being inconvenient to maneuver are not unbearable in a positional battle like Madrid.

A new round of shelling began. The shells pierced the air and made a sharp whistling sound, and fell on the street, bringing mud and gravel to the sky tens of meters high. The buildings were blown up and down, the streets were full of smoke and dust, and the corpses lying on the streets were left unattended. People wandering on the edge of hell no longer had the mood to bury the corpses for others.

Once Franco purchased the he-51 fighter unit from Germany to carry out bombing missions (because i-16 and me-109 participated in the war, this old fighter can only do such auxiliary tasks now). The bombing lasted only 8 minutes, but when everyone came back, they found that almost every plane had bullet holes in the fuselage.

The Soviet Air Force fought all their blood over Madrid. They took off one after another to intercept the bombed he-51 and -217b. As a result, these poor i-16 fighters were all slaughtered by the me-109 hidden above the clouds in the sky. During that time, the Soviet Air Force was shot down over Madrid with a full 29 planes-although most of the pilots parachuted to escape, they still suffered heavy losses.

The German and Italian air forces, which had gained partial air supremacy, began to bombard Madrid violently. At the beginning, they carefully avoided civilian facilities, but after the ban was lifted, they began to attack any target that could be attacked. Because of bombing accuracy problems, countless civilian facilities were destroyed.

The Luftwaffe's -217 bomber and the Italian Air Force's "Marquis de Sava" bomber jointly visited Madrid. In order to reduce the losses caused by the ground firepower of the Republican Army, the bombing was generally carried out at night. These attacks destroyed hospitals and tall buildings. Buildings, so that countless Madrid civilians were injured.

In order to improve the bombing accuracy, three new German aircraft were secretly sent to Spain for testing. The aircraft was called Stuka and the military code was Ju-87. This aircraft uses an ugly, but very practical seagull-shaped curved wing, carrying two improved 20mm cannons as continuous ground attack support firepower, and can carry 900 kilograms of bombs, including a hanging 550-pound bomb in the belly.

The head of state, Akado, ordered that the dive bomber be equipped with a strange whistle, so that it could make a shrill scream when it dived at high speed, and the huge explosion that followed could easily disintegrate the will of the enemy troops to resist.

As soon as the three Stuka bombers entered the battle, the Battle of Barcelona, ​​​​one of the most important battles in the Spanish Civil War, was pushed to a new level-the 8th Armored Division of the German Wehrmacht broke through under the cover of Stuka that day. The defense line outside Barcelona. And the three Stukas lived up to expectations, destroying four large bunkers in one go and cutting off two roads outside Barcelona.

After three days of fierce fighting, the German armored forces successfully captured the port of Barcelona. This successful assault shortened the voyage of materials transported by Germany and Italy to Spain by nearly double. Correspondingly, the materials transported by the Soviet Union to Barcelona were forced to be sent to Barcelona Rencia, increased shipping time and distance.

The fall of Barcelona made the Republican Army's already close to collapse defense in Madrid even worse. For a while, Gandesa fell, Vinaros fell, Ruterel fell, and even the port of Valencia, which should have been far behind, became precarious. The balance of victory in the Spanish Civil War has begun to tilt towards the Franco Legion .

At this time, another good news came back to the residence of the head of state in Berlin, the capital of Germany-Marshal Tukhachevsky of the Soviet Union was arrested on charges of espionage and treason. Get rid of the pillars of your own army!

Akado was in a good mood when he learned that the Great Purge in the Soviet Union had broken out, and he even invited the father and daughter of Mercedes to have dinner together. This pair of German star-like "couples" had dinner together in the most luxurious restaurant in Berlin. By the way, it was a good deal. Take a look at the overseas assets of the Bailanhua Group that are about to be sold.

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Chapter 148/1257
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