Ignoring the Luftwaffe fighters' blockade, the five Il-2 attack planes dived to the ground to drop bombs, and were immediately met with ground anti-aircraft fire.

In the village of Zuravka, there was no need for orders, and in Captain Muller's light anti-aircraft artillery battery, the muzzles of 12 MG-C/30 20mm L65 anti-aircraft guns followed closely behind the Il-2 attack aircraft, and strings of armor-piercing shells flew out from all corners of the village.

As soon as the bomb was dropped, an Il-2 attack plane was about to regain its altitude, when a string of armor-piercing shells hit the middle of the fuselage until the tail, and there were more round bullet holes on its body in an instant.

There was only one light anti-aircraft artillery battery deployed in the village of Zuravka, but the 37th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment under the 13th Air Force Field Division was reinforced to the 1st Infantry Division of the Honorable Jews.

Captain Rabin unfortunately said that in the morning, Soviet Il-2 and PE-2 bombers, ignoring the interception of Luftwaffe fighters, flew to the positions of the 1st Infantry Division and frantically dropped bombs, and the city of Kandemirovka, south of the village of Zuravka, was the main target.

In the course of one morning, the village of Zuravka was bombarded by three batches of eleven enemy aircraft, losing one anti-aircraft gun, four soldiers were killed, six were seriously wounded, and seven others were slightly wounded.

At lunchtime, Captain Rabin received a report of battle damage, drinking coffee in his mouth, but cold sweat remained on his forehead.

If it weren't for the interference of Captain Muller's anti-aircraft guns, which prevented the enemy planes from concentrating on dropping bombs, the troops would never have lost such a small amount of money, and they would have been able to shoot down four enemy planes.

In the interval between air strikes by enemy aircraft, sappers and infantry seized every minute to strengthen the defense of the village of Zuravka.

A cup of coffee was thrown away by Captain Rabin, chewing bread and sausages in his mouth, but Captain Rabin ignored it, ran to the nearest trench in sight, and jumped into it.

The movement of the landing was so violent that Captain Rabin's upper and lower teeth collided violently, and the soreness spread through his brain.

Two black shadows landed on the ground to Captain Rabin's left hand side almost simultaneously, and one flew into the air, and a violent explosion came from outside the trench, accompanied by the shaking of the earth and the dust raised.

With its back down and face up, a corpse fell heavily to the ground to the right hand of Captain Rabin, who clearly saw a bloody hole in the left cheek of the corpse, from which blood flowed down his cheek to his chin and neck, and then dripped to the ground.

Squatting, Captain Rabin moved over to the corpse, reached out and stroked the corpse's face, closing the corpse's round eyes.

Moving the body to the edge of the trench, removing the semi-automatic rifle and ammunition from the corpse and distributing it to the other soldiers, Captain Rabin leaned against the wall of the trench and waited for the shelling to end.

Outside the trench, where Captain Rabin could not see, waves of air rolled and shrapnel flew sideways.

Howitzer shells rained one after another, leaving numerous craters in Zuravka, destroying fragile houses one after another, and in less than 20 minutes, nearly a third of the village's buildings were in dilapidation.

To the northwest of the village, friendly troops stationed in the field were also shelled, and the branches and leaves in the forest were flying, and the flat fields were covered with gunsmoke, and when the smoke and dust cleared, there were more craters of different sizes on the ground.

To the south of the village of Zuravka, the city of Kandemirovka was covered by rockets.

Two FI-382 "Black Hawk" helicopters soon appeared over the battlefield, cruising above the positions of the 1st Infantry Division.

Shells were fired from behind the positions of the 1st Infantry Division and fell on the heads of the Soviet infantry clusters rolling in the mountains to the east.

Waves of explosive smoke flew up, and from time to time Soviet tanks were wounded and paralyzed on the ground, but the number was very small, and more tanks still rushed to the defense line of the 1st Infantry Division.

Sensing that the shells falling on his head were thinning, Captain Rabin crouched down with his assault rifle in his hand, quietly exposing his head into the trench, only to quickly retract it.

The two PE-2 bombers rushed down, and despite the German fighters chasing behind them, they launched a dive bomb on the ground.

During the dive, a PE-2 was hit by a ME-109 fighter jet behind it, dragging black smoke and crashing into the middle of the village of Zuravka along with the bomb, destroying two-thirds of a three-story school building.

Another PE-2 successfully dropped the bomb on the village of Zuravka, but before it could escape, the nose and belly of the plane, to the right wing of the plane quickly became mottled bullet holes, failed to pull up again, followed in the footsteps of its comrades, and crashed headlong into the northeast of the village of Zuravka.

The broken wing flew sideways, slicing through a large area of bush and falling to the right front of the trench where Captain Rabin was.

Shaking off the dirt from his body, Captain Rabin hurriedly stood up and looked out of the trench.

Due north, seven or eight heavy tanks that he had not seen before rushed to the front, looking at the chassis like a KV-1, but looking at the turret it was not.

Behind the heavy tanks, followed by small groups of Soviet infantry.

Farther away, in front of friendly positions on the left flank, more enemy tanks and infantry were charging at the positions.

You are too careless and underestimate us to rush up so straight, Captain Rabin thought contemptuously in his mind.

As soon as Captain Rabin came up with the idea, he saw a cloud of black smoke burst out from under the right track of a heavy tank, and the smoke dissipated, and the right track of the heavy tank broke and was paralyzed in place.

The first victim under the minefield, told you not to bring sappers, you are finished, Captain Rabin thought.

The KV-85 heavy tank was paralyzed in place and could not move forward, but the turret continued to rotate and wanted to fire, but it was quickly targeted by the PAK 40 anti-tank gun, and two armor-piercing shells flew in succession, one was ejected, and the other pierced the right side of the tank's turret.

There was an extra bullet hole on the right side of the tank's turret, and a puff of black smoke came out of it, and the tank turret pointed diagonally to the right front, motionless.

As the tank units moved closer to the village of Zuravka, four more heavy tanks were crushed by mines, paralyzed by broken tracks, and then besieged by PAK-40 anti-tank guns, Iron Fist and tank-killer anti-tank rocket launchers, and destroyed in place.

The two heavy tanks at the rear saw that the situation was not good, stopped moving, and then began to reverse and try to get out of the minefield, but they were hit by one flying armor-piercing bullet after another, turning into the wreckage of the battlefield.

Losing the cover of tanks, the Soviet infantry was forced to retreat, but mortar shells smashed one after another on the head, leaving corpses everywhere and fleeing to the north in disarray.

In less than half an hour, Captain Rabin and his men won the first defensive battle.

Moving behind a half-cut wall, Captain Rabin looked with his telescope at the friendly positions to the northwest and saw Soviet infantry jumping into the trenches on the friendly positions.

"The enemy's key offensive area is on the left flank, and if the left flank is broken through, we will also be affected." Captain Rabin whispered worriedly.