"I think magnetic mines are effective against all iron floating objects!" Shulka said.
Of course Shulka had to use "I think", because a soldier like him shouldn't know so many things.
"That's right!" Admiral Kilponos said, "But what's the use?"
"Gasoline barrels, General!" Shulka said: "We can use gasoline barrels to clear mines!"
Admiral Kilponos couldn't help but said "Oh" and then nodded heavily.
This is indeed a simple and easy method.
This method is not very feasible in the sea, because the flow of sea water is not certain, and the sea surface is too wide. If a gasoline barrel is thrown into the river, it will quickly disperse and lose its shadow.
The river is different, it is just a river channel, and the direction of flow is the same, that is, from top to bottom.
For example, the section of the Dnieper River in Kiev is 864 meters wide, so it is not difficult to operate.
The army may be short of other things such as bullets, food, and fuel, but there is no shortage of empty gasoline barrels... Steel is a heavy industry, and gasoline barrels do not have high requirements for steel, so the empty barrels are often used after they are used.
It is discarded everywhere, or used to remove the cover and fill it with soil at the front line for building fortifications.
Collecting these things is effortless.
As a result, truckloads of gasoline barrels were soon transported to the Kiev Bridge... Although the bridge was blown into two sections, this did not hinder the plan.
Then, the gasoline barrels were thrown into the river one by one.
These gasoline barrels were filled with half a barrel of water... This was to make the oil barrels sink deep enough. On the one hand, it was to allow the magnetic mines sunk at the bottom of the river to better sense the oil barrels; on the other hand, it was to
It can detonate ordinary mines...the mines deployed by the Germans are not necessarily magnetic mines.
"What's the use of doing this?" A Soviet soldier asked doubtfully: "Do they think they can defeat the Germans like this?"
"I don't know!" Another Soviet soldier replied while pushing the oil barrel into the river: "But this is an order, you just need to follow it!"
This may be a shortcoming of the Soviet army. Soldiers do not know too much about the situation and sometimes do not even have the necessary information.
On the contrary, German soldiers often know from top to bottom what they are going to do or why they are doing it. Facts have proved that this often plays an important role at critical moments, because every soldier knows what to do rightly.
These are things for later.
At this time, under the work of the Soviet soldiers for unknown reasons, soon they saw that the entire river was covered with oil barrels. Driven by the river water, these oil barrels sank and floated downstream, like a
The army headed straight downstream in a mighty manner.
Needless to say what happened next.
From time to time, there will be a loud "boom" sound on the river, and with the loud noise, there will be water pillars rising into the sky.
The German troops stationed on both sides of the strait didn't know what was going on at first, but they understood when they saw the gasoline barrels floating down one by one.
"General!" the adjutant reported the situation to Admiral Kleist immediately: "Our mines may not be effective. They threw the gasoline barrels into the river!"
"Barrels of gasoline?"
"Yes!" the adjutant replied: "Thousands of gasoline barrels, they detonated the mines along the way!"
"What a great idea!" Admiral Kleist couldn't help but praise.
After a pause, he added: "However, if they think that shallow-water ships can pass through the river, they are wrong!"
Admiral Kleist was right. The Soviet shallow-water ships were still unable to pass because German artillery was everywhere on both sides of the river. They would use artillery fire to blow any shallow-water ship that appeared on the river to pieces.
But soon, the adjutant sent another telegram to Admiral Kleist.
"Your Excellency General!" the adjutant reported: "The No. 1 pontoon bridge has been blown up!"
"What? How did they do it?" Admiral Kleist asked.
"Barrels of gasoline!"
"I don't understand, those gasoline barrels are used to detonate mines, how can they blow up the pontoon?"
"Not all!" the adjutant replied: "Some are filled with explosives and gasoline! They floated to the pontoon and were blocked, and then..."
Needless to say what happened next, the pontoon was blown up or burned in bursts of explosions and flames.
It would be fine if there were just a few gasoline barrels, but the gasoline barrels were in pieces, and some of them were mixed with bombs and gasoline... So it was difficult to handle.
After thinking about it, General Kleist ordered: "Order the 29th Armored Division to cross the river immediately!"
General Kleist's decision may be right. Although they cannot deal with this kind of gasoline barrel offensive, it will take time for the gasoline barrels to blow up all the way to the pontoon bridges downstream. If the 29th Armored Division moves quickly, it is completely possible.
It is possible to cross the river before the pontoon bridge is blown up, or at least part of it (it is very difficult for tanks to use pontoon bridges to cross the river on a rainy night).
But Admiral Kleist soon discovered that he was wrong again, because after a while, the adjutant hurried up again and reported: "General, No. 5 and No. 6 pontoon bridges have been blown up!"
Admiral Kleist couldn't help but be speechless after hearing this. After a while, he asked: "How did they do it? There are three pontoon bridges ahead!"
"Yes!" the adjutant replied: "It's the guerrillas. They dropped gasoline barrels and mines downstream of the No. 4 pontoon..."
Therefore, from an aspect, the large quantities of gasoline barrels in the upstream are more of a means of attacking from east to west. When everyone focused their attention on the upstream and thought that the Soviet fleet would launch an attack, they only used a batch of gasoline barrels filled with explosives.
and mines destroyed key pontoon bridges.
In fact, Shulka's preparation was more than that.
The scouts sent by Admiral Kilponos still had diving equipment in hand. Once the gasoline barrels and mines failed to work, it was time for the divers to dispatch.
This is the most difficult thing to guard against, because any point on the river may be a place for divers to enter the water. Once they dive into the water, especially in the river at night, trying to find them is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
It is difficult to build a pontoon bridge, but it is easy to destroy a pontoon bridge. That is just to install a waterproof time bomb at the bottom of the pontoon bridge.
These were completed by the sailors of the Dnieper River Detachment... Divers are not available in all troops and require professional training.
At this point, General Kleist knew that his previous judgment was correct. The Soviets would not let the tanks of the 1st Armored Group return to the west bank of the Dnieper River so easily, even if it was just an armored division.
Therefore, General Kleist could only place his hopes on the 11th Army, which was composed of Germany and Romania.