The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Karachi is an important port city on the Don River. The reason is that it is located to the west of Stalingrad. A straight road and railway run directly from Stalingrad to Karachi. The materials transported from Stalingrad to the west of the Don River by the Soviet Union can be gathered here and then transported across the Don River or directly to the Sea of ​​Azov by water and then transported to various places through the Black Sea and even imported and exported to foreign countries.

In fact, before the opening of the Don Canal, a considerable part of the materials along the Volga River were transported to the west in this way... The lack of the canal means that the Volga River flowing to the Caspian Sea is also isolated from the outside world, so the materials must be gathered in Stalingrad, then transported to Karachi by land, and then transported to various directions by river and Black Sea routes.

Therefore, Karachi can almost be said to be the gateway to the west and southwest of the Soviet Union. This is also the reason why Lieutenant General Lopatin nervously transferred the 169th Tank Brigade to Karachi when the Germans launched an attack.

But now, Karachi was not facing a threat from the Don River, but the 21st Armored Division that was advancing rapidly from the south to the north.

At 1 p.m., after eight hours of continuous breakthroughs and rapid marches, the 21st Armored Division arrived at the outskirts of Karachi.

At this time, Karachi was already filled with thick smoke and blazing flames. German fighter planes kept whistling in the sky and launched dive bombing and strafing at Karachi. Occasionally, a few Soviet fighter planes came from the periphery to reinforce, but they were soon hit by German fighter planes with superior performance and much better combat quality and fell to the ground one by one.

That was General Paulus's 6th Army, the main force attacking Stalingrad. They were attacking Karachi, or more precisely, a "feint attack", so that the main force of Karachi could be dragged here and unable to effectively organize the German offensive from the flank.

Suddenly, several German fighter planes swooped down from the sky and fired a string of bullets and dropped two bombs at the 21st Armored Division. A team of engineers who were repairing the road to make the tanks move forward better were instantly blown into a bloody mess, screaming and wailing.

"Fuck you!" The German soldiers couldn't help but shout in the air: "You hit the wrong people!"

"Hey! Open your eyes, we are our own people!"

"Didn't anyone notify these reckless pilots?"

...

But the shouts of the German soldiers did not make these pilots realize their mistakes. They turned around and returned again, then dived and bombed again. This time, a 35t tank that was driving in front for reconnaissance missions was hit and smoked. The surviving tank crew hurriedly climbed out of the tank cabin and roared hysterically at the sky.

If these casualties were caused by the enemy, I'm afraid the German soldiers would not even frown. Dozens of engineers and a 35T light tank were like a drop in the ocean for the German army with millions of troops.

But these casualties came from their own people, which made it difficult for the German soldiers to accept.

However, it seems that the pilots cannot be blamed. The battlefield was filled with smoke and visibility was poor. The German army was attacking Karachi. The pilots saw a team of armored troops from a distance, repairing the road while driving along the highway to Karachi. Naturally, they thought it was the Soviet reinforcements.

Especially the 21st Armored Division still belonged to the 4th Armored Army, and the German army attacking Karachi was the 6th Army...so friendly casualties were inevitable.

Fortunately, the German army's communication equipment was relatively smooth, and General Stryk immediately contacted General Paulus.

"Tell those idiots!" General Stryk said on the phone almost in a cursing tone: "They are bombing their own people!"

General Paulus immediately contacted the Air Force, so the bombing stopped, otherwise it can be imagined that it would continue and the scale will become larger and larger.

Soon, a telegram from the Air Force was delivered to General Stryk: "Apologies, General. Our pilots thought you wouldn't arrive so soon! Very sorry!"

This reason made sense, because Karachi was 70 kilometers away from the Germans' breakthrough of the Soviet defense line, which should have taken a day, but the 21st Armored Division took only eight hours.

But General Stryk didn't appreciate it. He responded bluntly: "Is this the reason for your mistaken bombing? Didn't expect it? Maybe I have to apologize to you for this marching speed, right?!"

But scolding is scolding, "friendly casualties" on the battlefield are inevitable, especially in the era of imperfect enemy identification systems, so General Stryk can't do anything about them... You can't order anti-aircraft firepower to shoot down your own fighter planes in revenge.

But this accidental bombing incident still has some benefits.

Because of this, the Soviet army in Karachi also thought that the armored force coming from the highway was "their own people", so they did not use artillery fire to intercept them until they saw the black "cross" on the German tanks and exclaimed "we were fooled".

But it was too late to realize it at this time. The German tanks rushed into Karachi, rudely knocked down houses, and fired bullets and shells. Soon, the unprepared Soviet army was beaten and fled everywhere. There were corpses everywhere.

However, problems occurred when they attacked the railway station.

To be precise, they attacked the passenger railway station... Karachi has two railway stations, passenger and freight. The passenger railway station is located in the eastern suburbs, and the freight railway station runs straight through Karachi to the port in the west.

When the German soldiers followed the tanks and advanced along the streets and railways, they were suddenly hit by a hail of bullets. The two tanks in front were blown into two fireballs with a muffled sound.

"What's going on?" Colonel Slain asked from behind.

Qin Chuan was also inexplicably hit by the firepower. He poked his head out and saw an armored train lying in front of him. The Soviet army was relying on the armored train to form a line of defense to resist.

"Armored train!" Qin Chuan shouted.

Colonel Slain ran up to take a look, and then ordered the correspondent: "Call the plane, it's time for them to atone for their sins!"

Two Stuka bombers soon flew over the train station, but the Soviet army was not a fool. They took off and hid themselves before the bombers arrived... Later Qin Chuan learned that the Soviet army had built several structures nearby. There are underground fortifications specifically designed to hide and protect armored trains.

In other words, this armored train was driven out to fire a few shots when needed, and when the bombers came, it hid in the underground fortifications for air defense. For a while, the Germans were unable to do anything about it.