On another battlefield, Lesman, who knew that he had fallen into the hands of the Russians, was on fire, and under the fierce attack, he actually picked Vasily's plane to attack, and after hitting seventy percent of the ammunition, he finally seized the opportunity to successfully hit the other side, Vasily's plane emitted billowing smoke and fell to the ground, and Lesman, who had no time to check the results of the battle, quickly pulled up and threw himself at another plane, ready to quickly solve the current enemy and go to support the lone Gunter Lal.

Vasily's years of training finally saved his life, and seeing that he could not fly back, he tried his best to control the plane to glide forward, and struggled to parachute more than 20 kilometers away on the left bank of the Don River, fortunately there were troops of the 24th Army below, otherwise he would have been a prisoner of the Germans like his brother Yakov.

After Vasily's successful parachute jump, Hartmann, who had witnessed Gunter Lal's three victories, was finally fished out of the water by the Romanians, and he felt that he was about to freeze all over his body, and he looked as embarrassed as he could, and if the other man's movements were any slower, he would become an ice lump in the Don River.

Trembling, Hartmann quickly changed into clean clothes while staring intently at the follow-up battle of Günter Lahr, only to see that the other side became more and more courageous, and after the next 10 minutes, he used exquisite technology to shoot down three planes in succession, two of which were SB-2 and one was an IL-4 bomber. Now Hartmann finally saw some doorways, and there was no doubt that Gunter Lahr's flying skills were better than his, but the unknown model he flew also helped a lot, and the ability to hover, roll, and flip at low altitude was particularly nimble and outstanding. Not to mention that the clumsy bombers are no opponent in dog fights at all, even fighters such as the Yak-3 and La-5 are also inferior. It's just that he was puzzled, why hadn't he seen such a good plane before? Is it a new model?

However, Günter-Lal was in no hurry to engage the Red Army fighters. He had fully understood the purpose of the Red Army, so he let go of the opponent's escort planes and only opened heavy fire on the bombers, and in the more than 20 minutes of his lonely fighting, he single-handedly shot down eight planes in a row, and the Red Army's bomber contingent was disturbed by him and was unable to achieve intensive bomb dropping. These pilots, who had not been trained to attack surface targets, flew bombers that did not have the function of dive bombing. In the end, most of the bombs were thrown into the river, and apart from blowing up a few columns of water more than 20 meters high and some schools of fish, nothing really happened.

Seeing that Vasily's plane was shot down by the Germans, the other members of the formation immediately lost their fighting spirit. Covering the bomber group out of battle. The pilots of the JG52 Wing did not dare to pursue, they quickly rushed back to the sky over the Don River valley to support, at this time the low-altitude breakthrough of the Red Army attack aircraft group found that they had lost the best opportunity and lost a lot of aircraft, and finally had to retreat abruptly, in the retreat, the unrelenting Günther-Lal seized the opportunity to beat another one, in one fell swoop to increase his single-day results to nine.

The units of the Red Army on the left bank of the Don were busy rescuing their own pilots who had parachuted, and it was heard that one of them was the son of Comrade Stalin. Not only was he shot down, but he was also injured in the shoulder, and everyone was shocked. The commanders and commanders of the 24th Group Army, who knew the news, were eager to rush to the scene immediately, and 15 minutes later, even the commander of the group army, Garanin, was alarmed, and he immediately ordered the troops to protect this important pilot at all costs.

Unlike the general imagination, Vasily actually did not feel too much frustration, although he was shot down, but after all, his life was worry-free, and he also fell into the hands of the army after parachuting, and his safety was fully guaranteed, and the injuries on his body were not fatal, and he could be healed after 2-3 months. In his eyes, none of this is important, the important thing is that today he successfully completed the task, in terms of team tasks, he successfully led the formation to lead away the German cluster, created conditions for the assault troops, and in terms of personal tasks, he also seized the opportunity to shoot down an enemy aircraft, successfully raised the score to 3, and is getting closer and closer to the standard of ace pilots (5). He was quite proud when he was rescued at first, but when he heard that a German plane had single-handedly killed nine planes of the assault group, his face quickly sank, and he did not bother to mention whether the bombing of surface ships was successful or not - all he had to do was hear the sound of the ship's guns firing on the surface of the Don River to know that the bombing operation was undoubtedly a failure.

He had a good idea of this, the Romanian warships on the Don River had only suffered a few near-misses, but remained intact on the whole, and the commander of the formation, Colonel Bernard, also reacted from the panic and poured more firepower on the Red Army positions on the opposite bank to vent his anger.

Novikov and Vasilevsky were deeply dismayed to hear the news of the failure of the air raid team, but even more depressing news was that the pilots of the luring formation who had returned reported in unison that Comrade Vasily had been shot down by the enemy and that his fate was unknown.

As soon as this news came out, Sokolov jumped up and went crazy on the spot, Comrade Stalin already had a son who fell into the hands of the Germans, in case Comrade Vasily had three long and two short, he would not have to think about it for the rest of his life, and countless things flashed through his head, and the only thing he didn't think about was one thing - should he kill himself before the Ministry of Internal Affairs came to his door or wait to be sent down by Comrade Stalin?

With a sad face, he jumped to his feet and cursed the other pilots. Novikov and Vasilevsky did not expect such a thing to happen, and they could not sit still at the thought of the terrible consequences of Vasily facing life and death. Although Sokolov didn't dare to get angry openly, his eyes when he looked at Novikov and Vasilevsky had completely changed to something else, and if he could do it at this moment, he would even have the heart to kill - it's all you two bastards who want to stir up Comrade Vasily to go to the battlefield, now it's okay, see how you explain to Comrade Stalin then? I can't let you two go if I die, I must pull you back.

While the three of them were staring at each other, the chief of staff ran in with a small shouting and waving a telegraph, "Good news! Good news! Comrade Vasily is still alive, he managed to parachute! Comrade Kalanin personally sent a telegram saying that Comrade Vasily had been rescued by the 24th Army, that he was wounded, but that his life was not in danger, and that he hoped that we would send a plane to pick up ...... as soon as possible."

"Good! Good! Good! Sokolov, who wept with joy, thought that he was finally saved, and the faces of Vasilevsky and Novikov returned to a little calm.

"Immediately arrange for the best pilot of the transport aircraft to pick up Comrade Vasily back...... Arrange 4, not 16 fighters to escort. Sokolov shouted and issued an order, Novikov frowned and was about to say something, but Vasilevsky hurriedly held him down and added: "Comrade Sokolov, after you take it back, you will personally lead the team and immediately send Comrade Vasily to Moscow for treatment, where there are the best doctors...... In addition, please give Comrade Stalin a truthful report on the situation of the battle, tell him that Major Vasily did not disgrace him, that he fought the fascists with great valor, that he also shot down an enemy plane, and that he pleaded guilty to Comrade Stalin for the wounded. ”

"Yes......" Sokolov subconsciously agreed, and then immediately thought of something, and said with a sigh of hope, "but...... But ......"

"Hiding is not a way, hiding may not make Comrade Stalin forgive us......" Vasilevsky knew what the other party was worried about, he sighed, "I will write you a note later, you go to Comrade Zhukov first when you get to Moscow, and ask him to come forward to help you say a few good words, so that you can definitely pass the test." ”

"Good, that's great."

While Vasilevsky and Novikov were agonizing over how to overcome the superiority of German warships, Manstein was also distressed by the unfavorable news that followed:

First of all, the enemy situation report from the units in the encirclement, because the 24th Army did not expect the speed of the 24th Army's advance so fast, the encircled troops of the Red Army in the Hequ Department are not at all the expected 22 divisions and 2 brigades, and there are 7 more divisions and 1 brigade in the middle, which is almost one-third more troops, so the Red Army in the Hequ Department is not the expected 140,000 people, but almost 190,000 people, and the total number of troops has exceeded the total number of German troops carrying out the task of encirclement and interspersing;

The 6th, 12th, and 5th Tank Armies were vigorously attacking, and the 4 divisions that were responsible for blocking the enemy had sent a telegram for help, although he did not want to use the reserves so quickly, but at the suggestion of Heinrich, in order to consolidate the upper defensive line, Manstein still sent 2 infantry divisions to the left flank to support. In the same way, the offensive strength of the 62nd, 64th, and 57th armies of the Red Army in the lower reaches was also getting stronger and stronger, and he had to send another infantry division, so that the relevant blocking forces reached 8 divisions.

In the end, the style of the Red Army in the river meandering part of the trapped beast is beyond imagination. The scene of the rapid collapse of the Red Army's will to fight did not appear in the foreground, and today three relatively strong centers of resistance have been spontaneously formed in the left and right ribs, each of which is entrenched in at least 2,000-3,000 Red Army, and they have good fortifications to rely on. (To be continued.) )