Chapter 347 The Winter War (14)

On this day, the Soviet forces launched fierce attacks on the Mannerheim defensive line time and time again, but each attempt was repelled. Until evening, the ground in front of the defensive position was covered with corpses and tank wreckage, and the pristine snow was dyed a dark red with blood.

On the opposite side, the Finnish forces only wasted some ammunition, paying a minimal price in casualties.

Receiving the news of yet another failure in the offensive, the commander of the Soviet 7th Army, Gorelenko, was both shocked and enraged. At the same time, he feared that Stalin would blame him.

(TLN: Historically, Gorelenko only became the commander of the Soviet 7th Army on 28 January 1941. I will just assume that it's different in our current timeline.)

Fortunately, the soldiers returning from the front brought some news. The caliber of the enemy's anti-tank guns was around 50mm. This determination strengthened Gorelenko's resolve to unveil his trump card the next day and teach the Finns a lesson!

At dawn the next day, around three o'clock in the morning, the Soviet artillery once again covered the Finnish defensive positions with intense bombardment. Everywhere, flames soared into the sky, and the deafening explosions were continuous and unending.

Until daybreak, the Soviet artillery showed no signs of stopping. The artillerymen worked tirelessly, loading shells into the barrels, closing the breeches, and then firing.

Suddenly, amidst the thunderous artillery fire, a series of discordant roaring sounds echoed. Several Soviet artillerymen looked in the direction of the sound and were shocked to see a dozen or so bombers flying rapidly towards them in the distant sky.

"Enemy aircraft! Oh God, how did enemy aircraft get here?!"

The Soviets didn't have anti-aircraft radar, and due to the artillery positions being in the rear, they hadn't deployed many anti-aircraft guns. Moreover, these mosquito-sized bombers only carried 50-kilogram bombs to maintain high speed. The scarce anti-aircraft guns hadn't had time to react, and the bomber formation flew past, displaying considerable audacity!

"Let's fly over these bears' heads! I want to knock off their hats!" The commanding officer leading the formation shouted arrogantly as he watched the chaos below. And indeed, that's exactly what they did. Their current flying altitude was still less than 200 meters.

Soon, they saw more than twenty large-caliber cannons on the ground ahead. "Looks like the Soviet 152mm howitzer-gun M1937, it's them! Prepare to drop bombs!"

And not far from those cannons were piled up mountains of ammunition and transport vehicles!

"Start bombing! Don't hit those ammunition, the blast from such a close distance will affect us!" Twelve bombers formed a bombing formation and began dropping bombs. One after another, 50-kilogram high-explosive bombs fell from the sky less than 200 meters high. Massive columns of smoke rose into the air, and flames and smoke instantly covered the entire position.

A 152mm howitzer-gun M1937 was directly hit by a high-explosive bomb. Although it wasn't blown into pieces, the barrel was noticeably distorted, clearly rendering it completely unusable.

As for the nearby Soviet personnel? The 50-kilogram aerial bomb with a personnel casualty radius of up to 30 meters could shred anything exposed in front of it! Keep in mind that the explosive charge in German high-explosive aerial bombs is generally 75% of the bomb weight, while a 155mm heavy howitzer shell only has about 6kg of explosive charge!

"Other crews, leave this area, I'm going to bomb those ammunitions." After giving the command, the commander manipulated the bomber to climb, reaching an altitude of 500 meters and then began to spiral.

"Bombs away!" As the bombardier pulled the lever forcefully, bomb after bomb descended onto the stacked ammunition.

"Boom!" Accompanied by a deafening explosion, the entire artillery position was violently blown into the sky!

A powerful shockwave enveloped the flames, sweeping away everything around with irresistible force. Even the mosquito-sized bombers at 500 meters altitude were hit by this shockwave, being thrown several meters away. Watching the rising giant mushroom cloud, the commander, who had finally stabilized the wildly tumbling plane, couldn't help but wipe off the cold sweat on his face. "It seems that next time we bomb an ammunition dump, we'll have to fly higher!"

Regardless, this artillery position was completely finished. The Finnish military had sent not only this bomber formation, but four other bomber formations attacked other Soviet artillery positions.

As a result, the unguarded Soviet artillery positions lost more than a hundred various cannons.

"What?!" Meretskov, at the Leningrad Headquarters, heard this news and almost collapsed to the ground. "How could this happen? How could this happen?!" After a while, he slapped the table abruptly, shouting hysterically, "Retaliate! We must retaliate! Have the bomber squadrons turn Helsinki into ruins!"

His orders were executed very well, and large numbers of Soviet bombers took off, heading towards Helsinki.

These bomber units had barely crossed the border when they encountered a group of Bf 109F fighters coming to intercept.

As the previously deployed fighters had all been destroyed, a new batch of fighters, hastily dispatched from "Spain" yesterday, arrived as reinforcements. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the paint on the Spanish national emblems on these fighter planes was still not completely dry.

Yesterday, the scattered deployment of the fighters along the extensive defensive line led to being outnumbered, but this time they quickly assembled 50 Bf 109F fighters to intercept.

The pilots fully utilized the advantage of their aircraft, engaging in a game of cat and mouse with the numerous Soviet fighters.

Diving at high speed for a hit and then quickly disengaging, they left the Soviet fighters staring helplessly.

Two Bf 109F fighters dove down, targeting an I-16 fighter.

The lead aircraft squeezed the trigger, and four 12.7mm machine guns spewed a stream of bullets, accurately penetrating the fuselage of the I-16. Immediately, the unlucky I-16 began emitting thick smoke as it plummeted downward.

Having successfully struck their target, the two Bf 109F fighters didn't linger in the fight. Leveraging the remaining energy advantage from their high-speed dive from the sky moments ago, they once again pulled up, climbing back towards the sky.

Despite having numerical superiority, the Soviet pilots were infuriated as they were shot down one after another. Seeing the two Bf 109F fighters, who had successfully executed a surprise attack, climbing, two nearby I-16 fighters immediately pursued.

However, the enraged Soviet pilots failed to realize that they had fallen into the enemy's trap.

Chasing the I-16 fighter that was climbing towards higher altitudes, closely pursued by the two Bf 109F fighters, soon, due to energy depletion, the I-16 started experiencing difficulties in control, with a heavy nose and even struggling to lift the nose to aim at the German planes for continued climbing and pursuit. In simpler terms, they were undergoing a "stall" using the professional terminology.

Realizing their precarious situation, the Soviet pilots, burning with anger, quickly leveled their aircraft to exit the climbing state. However, in doing so, they inadvertently fell even deeper into the enemy's trap.

Seeing the two Bf 109F fighters gaining absolute altitude advantage in the higher airspace, the pilots immediately stomped on the rudder pedals, controlling their aircraft to dive straight down again.

Once again gaining a diving acceleration advantage, the two Bf 109F fighters, in the blink of an eye, were like two arrows released from a bow, roaring fiercely towards the two I-16 fighters that had just leveled off.

Boom, boom, boom!