It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 81 | Barbarossa? Sphinx!

In this process, there are actually some deviations.

According to the deployment of Ivan Ross's General Staff, the troops would launch a full-scale offensive at a fixed time in the early morning, not "two hours after being rejected" as the ambassador said.

For more than ten years, Ivan Ross's General Staff has been meticulously developing operational plans against Walland, including both radical plans for a quick victory and prudent plans for a protracted war.

The Valland intelligence department was roughly aware of the existence of such a plan, but was not sure what it was specifically.

In fact, in order to completely prevent leaks, the plan currently being implemented was re-formulated by the Ivan Ross General Staff in the past year.

The first wave of offensive operations sequence is as follows:
>1st Minsk Front (Northern Front)

｜5 independent tank brigades
｜23 infantry divisions
｜1 motorized infantry division

｜2 cavalry divisions
The 1st Front Army had approximately 42 men.

The troops on the northern front were responsible for supporting the attack, maintaining the front line, preventing any possible enemy counterattacks, and playing a diversionary role. The main attack direction was not here.

>4th Brest Front (center line)

｜13 tank divisions
｜10 independent tank brigades
｜7 Engineering Brigades
｜44 infantry divisions
｜8 motorized infantry division

｜5 cavalry divisions
The 4st Front Army had approximately 105 men.

The center line was the main attack direction. The center line troops were responsible for forcing a crossing of the Vistula River. After completing the breakthrough, the troops were divided into three groups and quickly advanced into the depths of Walland.

>5th Lviv Front (Southern Front)

｜2 tank divisions
｜3 independent tank brigades
｜2 Engineering Brigades
｜13 infantry divisions
｜2 cavalry divisions
The 5st Front Army had approximately 30 men.

The southern line was also an auxiliary attack direction, serving as a diversionary force and guarding against possible proactive attacks from the Bohemian Republic.

Operation codename: Northern Sphinx.

The Sphinx of the North was the nickname of Alexander I, which shows the earnest hope of the upper class in Ivan Rus.

At the beginning of the operation, the mobilization order was immediately issued.

Arsenals of all sizes were opened immediately, and warehouse management units and repair shops began registration and inspection day and night.

Radio broadcasts could convey the Tsar's will to every village in the empire in an instant, and all reserve soldiers who received mobilization orders would set out immediately and go to the assembly point by any possible means - trucks, horse-drawn carriages, tractors... even on foot.

In three weeks, more than eighty large infantry divisions could be deployed.

Six weeks later, more than one hundred small infantry divisions were trained and ready to join the war.

That's daunting enough, but it's not all.

Ivan Rus's headquarters established a unique force - the National Rifle Corps.

The National Rifle Corps was a distinctive type of musketeer unit from ancient Ivan Rus. This ancient name was chosen to inspire a sense of honor in these units. Furthermore, the National Rifle Corps was organized only at the brigade level.

The National Rifle Brigade is organized as follows:

>Brigade Headquarters
>National Shooting Battalion × 4
>National Dragoon Company (Reconnaissance)
>National Mortar Battery (6 120mm mortars)
>Mule and Horse Transport Company

>Bicycle Communication Company

>In terms of organization, the National Rifle Brigade is an extremely simplified tactical unit with minimal independent combat capabilities and a smaller quota of officers.

These troops were nicknamed "gray cattle farms". Their personnel and weapons and equipment were the worst. They did not have any barreled artillery, and mortars could barely be considered their heavy weapons. They could only rely on anti-tank guns to attack armored vehicles.

However, because only a small number of weapons and technical equipment were needed, Ivan Ross's command still planned to form a large number of national rifle brigades, 300 at a time.

Hundreds of National Rifle Brigades were seen by the Ivan Ross Command as one of the means to victory. They would continuously fill in the vast front to fight and consume the enemy, tying down the enemy's main force, so that elite main forces could be drawn out to concentrate on attacking and tearing open a breakthrough.

Time passes minute by minute.

There is about half an hour left until sunrise, which is the darkest moment before dawn.

At 4:19 in the morning, Ivan Ross Air Force bomber formations took off from more than a dozen airports and flew across the border one after another. Hundreds of SB-2M and SB-2Bis light bombers entered the territory of Walland and fiercely attacked their respective targets.

Field airfields, barracks, and military supply warehouses in shallow and deep areas.

Deep and extensive railway yards, railway stations, bridges and roads.

All these facilities were targets for the bomber formations.

A guiding bomber flew quickly over the Varland Air Force Field Airport north of Radom and dropped two large aerial flares.

The flare was suspended under a parachute and slowly descended. The aluminum-magnesium powder inside the cylinder burst into extremely bright white light when it burned!
The light of millions of candela illuminated the airport below clearly, as if it was covered with a layer of white frost and snow.

On the ground, the shrill and piercing sound of the air raid sirens continued to ring, as if an invisible small saw was cutting the heart.

A formation of more than 30 bombers followed a few kilometers behind. After confirming the situation, they began to turn, correct the yaw error, and opened the bomb bay door.

The bombardier keeps his eyes glued to the bombsight, ensuring the crosshairs are aligned with the runway or hangar.

"Arrived over the target, ready, drop!"

In the blink of an eye, one 100-kilogram aerial bomb after another fell from the SB-2 bomber formation, turning into smaller and smaller black dots...

Sporadic air defense fire from the airport came from below, first two bursts of 20mm anti-aircraft gun tracer rounds, and then a few bursts of 37mm tracer rounds.

However, in the blink of an eye, dazzling flames burst out and flashed continuously.

The anti-aircraft fire was immediately silenced.

Violent explosions occurred one after another, and the Radom Field Airport was instantly engulfed in flames!

Two Fw189 reconnaissance planes turned into blazing fireballs, and dozens of neatly parked Bf109B fighters were also blown to pieces on the ground. A Bf109D was already accelerating on the runway but was overturned by the shock wave of the explosion.

Suddenly, a huge mushroom cloud of fire rose into the sky. It seemed that the aviation gasoline storage tank was hit?
Almost at the same time, more than a dozen airports from north to south were also attacked by air strikes.

At 4:28 in the morning, the temperature was 12℃ and the stars were dim.

At the various artillery positions east of the Vistula River, more than a dozen military cannon regiments were ready. The artillerymen stood in the night, with their heavy cannons having their camouflage nets removed and their muzzles pointing obliquely into the distance.

At a hidden assembly area closer to the river, the engineers counted the pontoon bridge equipment, and one tank after another started its engine. The roar of the idling engines was like the roar of a beast in the dark, ready to go.

At 4:30 a.m., as yellow flares were launched into the air, the various field artillery groups opened fire simultaneously. In an instant, 107mm cannons, 122mm howitzers, 152mm howitzers... a thousand guns roared in unison!
Every moment, tons of steel and explosives were poured onto targets on the west bank of the Vistula.

At dawn, from the coastal Riga in the north to Krakow in the south, millions of Ivan Rus's troops launched a full-scale attack on Varland along a long front of more than 1,400 kilometers!

(End of this chapter)