At 2:10 a.m. on June 22, the summer night covered the long Soviet-German border, and the banks of the Bug River remained dark.

In the bushes and groves dotted on the west bank of the Bug River, the chirping of insects and the croaking of frogs are endless, weaving together into a "forest rhapsody" full of natural atmosphere.

The sound of "Forest Rhapsody" hides the sound of steel colliding.

In the German Army, the commandos who participated in the first wave of the offensive carefully took advantage of the cover of night and terrain to quietly approach the Bug River.

During the operation, their water bottles, gas mask bags and other equipment collided lightly, breaking the silence of the night, but fortunately there was the cover of "Forest Rhapsody", which did not attract the attention of the Soviet troops on the opposite side.

At 2:30 p.m., all units entered their predetermined departure positions, and the commanders of the various army groups and army groups also entered their respective field command posts.

In the darkness of the night, the German Army acted with great caution, and the Luftwaffe acted with surprisingly cautious action, not carelessly just because the sky had not yet lightened.

After careful planning, the Luftwaffe's strike on the Soviet Air Force was divided into two steps, the first was a small raid, and the second was a massive raid.

The purpose of this was to prevent the actions of the air force from revealing the operational intentions of the German army and to disrupt the army's plan to attack the various crossings and bridges on the Bug River.

In East Prussia, Germany, the First Air Force carefully selected sixty elite crews, all of whom were masters of instrument flight.

And on the territory of the Polish Governor-General's Palace, the Second Air Force elected ninety crews.

The crews assembled in groups of three over the airfield and then flew east on a predetermined route.

Cross the west bank of the Bug River, where countless German troops were hidden. Crossing the Soviet-German border. The old birds of the Luftwaffe flew the planes. Fly to the heart of the USSR at the maximum critical altitude along a carefully chosen route.

Directly below them, the land shrouded in endless night, was a deserted swamp and a dense jungle.

The Soviet Air Force and even the Soviet General Staff did not know that the use of surprise attacks to destroy enemy aircraft on the ground was the most common tactic used by the Luftwaffe, as was the case in the Polish campaign, and in the French campaign. The same is true in the Barbarossa project.

The Poles did not withstand the Luftwaffe raid on the airfield, neither did the French, and the Soviets were equally unsuccessful.

Although they had already received orders from their superiors to prepare for war, the Soviet soldiers on duty at various airfields in the interior of the Soviet Army did not take these roars too seriously when they heard the roar of engines in the sky.

They have long been accustomed to these air friends from Germany.

In the last month, which can even be said to be a month and a half, as long as the weather is normal, various reconnaissance planes of the Luftwaffe will fly to the hinterland of the Soviet Union to conduct reconnaissance.

These German planes were very timid. Also very cunning, they faithfully carried out the tasks of their reconnaissance aircraft. As soon as they found that a Soviet plane had taken to the air, they took advantage of the advantage in speed to turn around and flee, resolutely refusing to fight the Soviet fighters.

After throwing off the Soviet fighters, they would relaunch the reconnaissance mission in a different direction and not return until they ran out of fuel.

For more than a month before, over the Soviet-German border, the air forces of the two countries spent this kind of chase-and-flee, hide-and-seek-style battle.

After more than a month of training, the ground crews of the Soviet Air Force accumulated a lot of experience.

Although the light is not enough, it is not possible to see how many enemy planes there are, but judging by the sound of the engines, the number of German aircraft will not be very large, and the number varies from two to four.

With their characteristic Russian laziness, they did not sound the air defense siren, but with sleepy eyes, they lazily informed the pilots on combat readiness.

"Hi Victor, sorry to disturb your rest, the German bugs and cockroaches are here again, I need you to get rid of them."

And at some airports, the ground guards did not even inform the pilots on duty.

Maybe these German planes are just passing by here as before, and there is no need to make everyone nervous.

This kind of habitual thinking and momentary laziness brought disaster to the Soviet Air Force.

After more than a month of reconnaissance, the Luftwaffe had a good understanding of the positions of the various airfields of the Soviet army, and the various attack squads easily found their targets.

For some unknown reason, when the German pilots flew over the Soviet airfield, they were surprised to find that the Soviet fighters, regardless of age or model, were neatly parked on the airfield, as if they were participating in a military parade.

There were as few as 70 or 80 planes on the airport, and as many as nearly 200.

The old birds of the Luftwaffe, cheering, rushed to the airfield and "inspected" the Soviet airfield with cannons and bombs.

SD-2 "Devil's Egg" bombs rained down on the ground, each bomb exploding with 50 large pieces of shrapnel and 250 small pieces of shrapnel, 300 pieces of shrapnel turning a nearby area of 12 meters into a forbidden area.

A bomber can carry 360 "devil's eggs", and with the addition of bomb pylons, a ME-109 fighter can also carry 96, and each airfield has been attacked by hundreds of devil's eggs.

It was either an air explosion or a touching explosion, and any Soviet officers and soldiers covered by the rain of bullets were torn to a thousand holes and fell to the ground wailing.

The plane directly hit by the demon's egg was even more like being hit by an anti-aircraft shell, or the wing, or the fuselage was blown out of a large hole, and then it burned.

After dropping the bombs, the German fighters lowered their altitude and swept over the rows of Soviet fighters, and the machine gun bullets and machine gun shells accurately swept over the tail of the enemy planes.

On the runway, those fighters who were rickety and wanted to take off forcibly became the focus of the Luftwaffe.

ME-109 fighters quickly pounced on these planes, destroying them one by one in a taxi.

In the first attack of the German army, three planes were used as a group to attack a Soviet airfield, although the German pilots had the advantage of the surprise attack, but because of the numerical disadvantage and the obstruction of the airfield anti-aircraft artillery unit, some Soviet fighters still succeeded in taking off.

They quickly rushed to the German planes, hoping for revenge.

However, even greater doom befell them.

One hundred and fifty German fighters were only the first attack wave, and after only twenty-five minutes, the second attack wave joined the battle.

One thousand and ninety-six fighters and bombers swaggered into the heart of the Soviet Union, attacking Soviet airfields and important transportation hubs, oil depots, ports and barracks.

As one aircraft returned home, the results were quickly reported to the various brigades, then the wings, and all the way to the air force headquarters.

After summing up and sorting, in the theater of the First and Second Air Forces alone, the first wave of air raids destroyed 872 Soviet fighters, and almost all of them were destroyed on the ground.

The planes of the second wave of air raids have not yet returned, and if their results are added, this number will increase significantly.

The losses of the first attack wave itself were extremely light, only eleven were destroyed, twenty-three were wounded, and even a fraction of the losses of the Soviet troops were completely negligible.

In the Lang Cave, the temporary office of the Luftwaffe General Command received a battle report from the front, and Goering saw the two contrasting numbers on it, and his face was full of doubt.

"Could this number be fake? Even if we had the advantage of the raid, we wouldn't have had such a big victory, and the morning hadn't passed yet. I can't imagine what we will achieve at the end of the day. ”

Hearing Goering's questioning, Jeshunek's mind was also full of question marks, and he was obviously shocked by the amazing result.

"I suggest that after the army has penetrated deep into the enemy's hinterland and occupied the enemy's airfield, we must count the wreckage of the aircraft on the enemy's airfield, and we must determine the authenticity of the results of the battle, and we must not allow the noble Luftwaffe to falsify its achievements."

Goering nodded and said, "You're right, we don't allow cheating. General Guderian said that in a week at most, the army will reach Minsk, I will give you a week, and in a week, I will see the investigation report. (To be continued......)