While the defense of Kiev was about to begin, in the south, the defense of Odessa had been in full swing for two days. In the past two days, the 25th and 95th Infantry Divisions, the 9th Motorized Infantry Division, the 421st Marine Brigade and the 33rd and 34th Infantry Regiments of the Border Army, a total of about 40,000 people resisted the attack of the Fourth Romanian Army.

The Fourth Romanian Army has the 1st, 3rd, 7th Infantry Division, 15th Infantry Division, 1st Armored Division, 1st Cavalry Brigade and 2nd Tank Regiment. It is much stronger than the Independent Coastal Army. As soon as it comes, it divides into two groups and launches a clamp attack on Odessa from two directions.

After careful pre-war reconnaissance, the 1st, 3rd and 7th Romanian Infantry Divisions, with the cooperation of the Second Tank Regiment, began to attack the front of Odessa. After a brief attack on artillery fire (mainly because the artillery fire of the Roman army has never stopped), Romanian soldiers launched a full-scale offensive half an hour later along the safe passage opened by engineers.

The Soviet army's first line of defense was not as strong as expected. It was soon torn a large gap by the 2nd Tank Regiment and the 1st Infantry Division. Then the 3rd Infantry Division also swarmed in, and the two infantry divisions advanced along the breakthrough toward the Odessa city.

Lieutenant General Nikolay Sopika, commander of the Fourth Romanian Army, received a front-line combat report on the morning of the same day, as described: "Our 1st and 3rd Infantry Division have already launched an attack on time at 4 a.m., due to the resistance of only a small number of enemy troops, the vanguard of the 1st Infantry Division has advanced to the outskirts of Odessa... Only the 7th Infantry Division has not been smooth and has stopped due to the tenacious resistance of the Soviet army. Now the air force has been summoned for support."

Lieutenant General Sopika was obviously not very satisfied with such results. He was eager to win Odessa in one go and then directly threatened Nikolayev. He devoted himself to all the reserve teams after noon.

Lieutenant General Sopika's main attack direction was the defense line of the 9th Motorized Infantry Division of the Red Army. In fact, this 9th Motorized Infantry Division belonged to a half-way unit. They were the 9th Cavalry Division of the Red Army. After Stalin's fall, the cavalry of the Red Army was cut a lot, and the 9th Cavalry Division was forced to change its course. After giving most of the war horses to the artillery units, the tank battalion organized by the division was also transferred, and once became a light infantry division that was dissatisfied.

In December 1940, the division's automobile regiment was transferred to support the 30th mechanized army that had just been formed. In other words, when the war broke out, the so-called motorized infantry division was really just an infantry division and motorized.

Even compared with ordinary infantry divisions in other key directions, the division's firepower was quite weak. Most of the soldiers still used Mosinna 30-type cavalry rifles, and the machine gun was also an old-fashioned Maxim. The division's artillery regiment had only two battalions of 76th-due and a rocket launcher battalion that lacked rockets (the battalion used equipment in 1920 for the Red Army's oldest rocket launcher).

What's even more terrifying is that the division does not have a tank or a professional anti-tank gun. The only anti-tank weapon is the rpg2 bazooka that was just issued to the infantry squad in May 1941.

The rpg2 bazooka is a typical Soviet weapon. It is easy to get started, but it is difficult to use it well. The bazooka has problems such as heavy smoke during launch, severe burning and severe rocket rifle. For novices, it is difficult to use it to fight tanks.

When the Romanian 2nd Tank Regiment rushed to the 9th Motorized Infantry Division, a fierce battle broke out. At the beginning, the Romanians were progressing smoothly and broke through the first line of defense of the 9th Motorized Infantry Division without much effort. The Red Army Motorized Infantry, which lacked anti-tank weapons, could only watch the Romanian ckdahiv light tanks and Skoda private III medium tanks rage on their positions. To be honest, the performance of these two Czech tanks is really that true, but it really cannot stop the 9th Motorized Infantry Division from lacking anti-tank weapons!

Some comrades may want to say, isn't there still rpg2? Yes, yes, the problem is that there are too few rockets. Before the outbreak of the war, the 9th Motorized Infantry Division carried out large-scale training activities in order to allow the soldiers to master rpg2 as soon as possible, and consumed a considerable amount of ammunition in stock. The Independent Coastal Army has never been a key force of the Red Army, and the supply priority is at the tail of the crane. Moreover, as Tukhachevsky insisted on counterattack, he also drew considerable ammunition from the Independent Coastal Army, which led to the lack of ammunition in the entire Independent Coastal Army, and a considerable part of them became fire sticks!

However, living people cannot suffocate their urine to death, right? Although the 9th Motorized Infantry Division is weak, it also wants to defend its position. Facing the Romanian tanks rumbling over, they suppressed the Romanian infantry with machine guns, and on the other hand, they also used secret weapons!

What secret weapon? Isn't it Molotov cocktail bar? Of course not, that's too uncreative. The secret weapon of the Red Army is the Blasting Dog!

Don’t underestimate these inconspicuous little things lying on the ground. They have caused great trouble to the Romanian armored forces. This dog, which the Red Army called "mine dogs" destroyed a large number of Romanian tanks that day!

The specific situation is this. When the Romanian 2nd Tank Regiment stepped into a T-shaped front of the Soviet army with a stern ambition, four puppies rushed towards the Romanian tanks in the lead. At that time, the Romanian tankers were ridiculously mocking the Russians, believing that the Russians were so stupid that they were expecting to use dogs to chew on tanks. How bad is this!

But soon the Romanians couldn't laugh. With four loud bangs, the two pilot cars turned into big fireballs. What's even more terrifying is that before the Romanians came to their senses, a large group of dogs popped up from the trench opposite. Their fangs and claws scared the Romanians!

"Machine gun! Hurry up, fire!"

Romanians shot wildly, but the dog's target was smaller than that of humans after all, and these little guys were particularly flexible. Although the Romanians killed some, more dogs still found the target.

With the rumbling sound, the Romanian 2nd Tank Regiment left seven or eight fire-burning tanks and retreated in a hurry. When Lieutenant General Riso Pika, the Army Command, learned that his armored troops were defeated by dogs, the general said in a daze, "All Russian dogs can sacrifice to defend their motherland. But Romanian soldiers cannot do this!"

Yes, not all Romanians willingly boarded the German chariot. In fact, Romanians have no good feelings for Germany, but who made the godfather of Britain and France not good? This kind of fate is so bad!

Continuing to return to the battlefield, after a night of adjustment, the Romanians regrouped on the next day and prepared to break through the defense line of the 9th Motorized Infantry Division in one breath. It was 4 a.m. again. It was the same force. This time, the Romanians raised their vigilance against dogs. The infantry finally followed the pace of the tank and defeated the running dogs.

However, defeating the dog does not mean that the Romanians will make progress smoothly. In fact, compared with the previous day, the Romanians' progress was awful. They only advanced 1 kilometer forward in the whole morning. At 2 p.m., facing the powerful counterattack of the 9th Motorized Infantry Division, the Romanians had to stop.

After two hours of adjustment, the Romanians attacked again under the cover of the air force. After a fierce close-killing hand-to-hand battle, the 9th Motorized Infantry Division, exhausted and exhausted ammunition and food, was forced to retreat and rest. Of course, the Romanians were unable to pursue the victory, because they were also afraid of being beaten by the tenacity of the Red Army.

The battle entered the third day. The Romanians, who had made little progress, exhausted the German army's patience. In order to occupy Odessa as soon as possible and to cut off the support of the Crimean front of the Red Army to the direction of Kiev, the German army took action personally.

Two armored battalions of the 13th German Armored Division (the 4th Armored Regiment) and three grenade battalions that cooperated to fight arrived in Odessa. The commander of the cluster was Major Mulchlenkamp. On the morning of the same day, Captain Shunabel's first company was the vanguard, followed by Lieutenant Vorugel's 2nd and 3rd companies. The entire battalion was equipped with the most advanced German tanks No. 3 and No. 4.

The cooperation of the German army was indeed much stronger than that of Romania. After easily overcame the first anti-tank trench of the Red Army, the Germans did not continue to advance quickly, but stopped to suppress the Red Army's machine gun fire with artillery fire and cover their infantry to follow up.

Captain Shunabel recalled: "After our tanks stopped, Sergeant Hosinger led the engineers to climb to the Soviet positions step by step, and carefully searched to eliminate all mines and other obstacles on the road ahead. From time to time, Soviet shells flew past their heads. And we armored soldiers opened fire with all our might, knocking the Russians on the opposite side so hard that they couldn't raise their heads!"

However, Sergeant Hosinger's own memories have a lot of complaints about this: "You can never expect the so-called fire cover. It's better to pray to God not to hit those damn mines. The Russians are too cunning and evil. They have developed the mine laying into an art, including anti-tank mines, anti-infantry mines, and wrongly arranged them, which are mixed with hunters' traps. Damn, these bastards actually used the tiger clips, and the unlucky Sergeant Hope was pinched off his calf!"

The situation of the German engineers was indeed very difficult. When crossing a ditch, Sergeant Nali beside Sergeant Hosinger was hit by a flying bullet and the sky cover was lifted off. However, what made Hosinger more happy was that an infantry company of the Great Germanic regiment rushed up soon. With the fire support of the company, the engineers could finally raise their heads slightly to carry out their operations.

Hosinger later said: "When the first tank drove past me, I realized that I had once again opened a way for the Viking Division. I was excited to see the scene where our tanks crushed the Bolshevik devil."

Mulchlenkamp's troops successfully took the Soviet position in front, but the tenacious resistance of the 9th Motorized Infantry Division also caused him to lose ten tanks. Of course, the Motorized Infantry Division, which was almost bare-handed, also paid a heavy price for this. The entire division suffered more than half of its casualties in three days of defense battle, and the only heavy weapons were also lost. The division commander Mosenov had to call the commander of the group army with tears in his eyes: "Comrade Commander, please support us as soon as possible, especially anti-tank weapons. The young men used their flesh and blood to fight against the enemy's tanks, and the casualties were too heavy!"

However, Major General Petrov, commander of the Independent Coastal Army, was extremely helpless, because it was not only the 9th Motorized Infantry Division that suffered heavy casualties, but also the other two infantry divisions were not much better. As for heavy weapons, it was not just the 9th Motorized Infantry Division. As a second-line unit, there were indeed few heavy weapons, especially anti-tank weapons!

In desperation, Major General Petrov could only complain to his superiors, almost begging the superiors to quickly allocate some anti-tank weapons to them, even the old anti-tank guns would do!

The difficult situation in Odessa finally attracted the attention of the Ukrainian Front Command and the leaders of the Moscow Central Military Region. Soon, with the personal intervention of General Equipment Minister Ubolevici, the Air Force urgently flew some sealed anti-tank guns from Moscow and Leningrad to the front line. Of course, this old weapon has too limited effectiveness. What can truly solve the urgent need for the independent coastal army is that the Air Force also urgently airlifted a batch of RPG2 armor-breaking bombs.

In the next few days, although the Independent Coastal Army had to constantly shrink its defense line in the face of the superior enemy, it also caused a large number of casualties to the enemy as much as possible, successfully delaying a large number of enemies.

Especially after the battle ended in Odessa city, the Red Navy finally came in handy. The battleships and cruisers of the Red Flag Black Sea Fleet taught the arrogant German Vikings a lesson with fierce shelling, and bombarded the Romanians so much that they howled.

However, on this day, a vicious case with considerable influence also occurred. In order to capture Odessa and to annihilate the Red Flag Black Sea Fleet, the Romanian Navy came out in full swing and launched a maritime attack on Odessa.

Of course, to be honest, this maritime attack was just that. After all, the Romanian Navy was too weak, and even if all the staff were dispatched, it would not be enough to tickle the Red Flag Black Sea Fleet. What really annoyed the Red Army was that during this attack, the shadows of the German Navy and the Italian Navy appeared.

Among them, the German Navy appeared submarines. The U19 submarine attacked the Soviet patrol ship outside the port of Odessa, while the Italian Navy's four northwest wind-class destroyers rushed into the port of Odessa with the Romanian Navy and launched a torpedo offensive, but they were repelled by the Red Navy.

Some comrades may think that since Germany and Italy declared war on the Soviet Union, isn’t it normal to participate in naval warfare? If the German Navy and Italian Navy did not appear in the Black Sea, then this is indeed very common, and the problem is that they appeared in the Black Sea.

I have introduced relevant international conventions on the Bosphorus before. During wartime, Turkey, as a neutral country, should block the strait and refuse to pass by any warships of the belligerent countries. Now the Italian Navy and the German Navy appear in the Black Sea, which is a big fun!

Livinov immediately made solemn negotiations with the Turkish government, demanding that the Turkish government immediately explain what was going on. How did the Turks explain it? They said that after the Soviet Union was in war with Germany and Italy, no warship could pass through the Bosphorus.

In other words, the Turks mean that these German submarines and Italian destroyers were in the Black Sea before the war began, and the Turkish government had no responsibility at all. So is this really the case?

It is obvious that the Turks lied that the German and Italian navies did not enter the Black Sea before the war. On this issue, kgb attaches great importance to it and sends people to monitor the strait almost at all times. According to kgb's records, whether it is a German submarine or an Italian destroyer, they enter the Black Sea after both sides declare war!

"I think this issue has been investigated too much for the time being," Sverdlov expressed his opinion: "Turkey is certainly lying, but I don't think they deliberately violate international conventions. It should be that Germany and Italy put huge pressure on them to force Turkey to make concessions. I think the lessons of World War One should be learned and not over-stimulating Turkey. After all, we are now facing the problem of fighting on both sides, so it is really not appropriate to have friction with Turkey again!"

Trotsky also agreed: "Comrade Yakov's opinion is very correct. Although the Turkish government's approach this time is very bad, it is necessary to see that only a small number of German and Italian ships have entered the Black Sea, which is not enough to completely affect the situation in the region. We should maintain restraint and warn the Turkish government to a certain extent!"

The only objection was Li Xiaofeng. He believed: "I don't think this incident is that simple, which fully demonstrates the attitude and tendency of the Turkish government. They are fascists. This must be highly vigilant! Yes, there are not many enemy ships entering the Black Sea and are not powerful, but I think this time it is just a test. If we cannot express our indignation with the strongest attitude and do not give the Turks a stern warning, soon more German and Italian ships will enter the Black Sea, and Turkey will not take us seriously at all!"

Trotsky was a little angry: "Then according to your opinion, we should declare war on Turkey now? Comrade Andre, I must remind you that the current situation is not ideal. We are under great pressure on the Western Front, and the Japanese on the Eastern Front are also launching rounds of offensives. Only the Caucasus and Central Asia are still peaceful for the time being. We urgently need to draw troops from this area, and we must maintain restraint!"

There is no doubt that Li Xiaofeng is a minority, and his suggestion was ruthlessly rejected by the Politburo. The Soviet government only verbally warned Turkey... (To be continued...)

ps: Bow to thank Pig Xiaosha 2, Offen, Old Student, hzangdd, Southern Wanderer, Mask Angel 555 and Comrade Juventus!
Chapter completed!