"Why don't we counterattack?" Major Mikhailovich asked doubtfully: "Just like we did before, counterattack at night to destroy the enemy's artillery array!"
"The Germans have consolidated their defense line, Comrade Mikhailovich!" Major Akimovich explained: "The terrain in the Mamayev Hills area is relatively complex, with canyons and ravines on both sides, which makes it impossible for us to
We will encircle it in a roundabout way. The front is Mamayev Hill. Although we can indeed recapture the front slope of Mamayev Hill with artillery cover as before, it is only on the front slope... The enemy is on Mamayev Hill.
Several lines of defense were built at the foot of the hill, and as soon as it got dark we had to withdraw our troops and even abandon the front slope!"
In other words, the positive slope of Mamaev Hill has become a buffer zone for the German army. The German army can abandon it at any time when it gets dark. As soon as it gets light... the Soviet army has to return it to the German army, otherwise it will have to pay a heavy price.
of casualties.
As a result, the headquarters immediately fell silent.
Although Mamaev Kurgan is still under the control of the Soviet army, because the German army boldly deployed long-range artillery here, it has become a sharp knife inserted into the center of Stalingrad.
This sharp knife not only posed a huge threat to the transportation line of the Volga River, but also vaguely divided Stalingrad into two inaccessible areas, the south and the north.
The latter may not be obvious yet, because the main task of the German artillery at this time was to block the river transportation lines.
But one day, when Stalingrad is very weak due to a serious lack of supplies, the German army only needs to turn the muzzle of the artillery and immediately use artillery shells to cut off the bottleneck zone of only about two kilometers from Mamayev Heights to the Volga River.
This was fatal to Stalingrad.
Because a considerable part of Stalingrad's supplies were self-produced... As mentioned before, there were many factories in Stalingrad that were producing bullets, artillery shells and even tanks day and night.
However, these factories are all concentrated in the northern factory area, while most of the personnel and troops are concentrated in the densely built residential areas in the south.
(Note: Under the planned economy, Soviet architecture was very regular, and Stalingrad was no exception)
Once the passage between the factory area in the north and the residential area in the south is cut off, it goes without saying what it means... the people and troops in the south will be extremely short of supplies, while there are supplies in the north but no one, so soon
They will be defeated by each one.
After a long silence, Andrianka said: "Maybe we can use artillery fire to suppress it!"
Major Akimovich shook his head.
"We have also thought about this, Comrade Andrianka!" Akimovich replied helplessly: "The problem is that our supplies do not allow... We need a large number of artillery shells to ensure that we can suppress the enemy's artillery, and this increases
Without the pressure on the transportation line, the result is..."
Major Akimovich spread his hands.
Everyone knows what this means. The short-term safety of the transportation line in exchange for a large number of artillery shells may not be enough to fire out the artillery shells.
In other words, this is actually useless work or even counterproductive.
This is where Paulus was clever: it is indeed taboo to place long-range artillery fire forward, but as the saying goes, "the troops are unpredictable, and the water is unpredictable." If Stalingrad lacks supplies, doing so will become a useless weapon for the Soviet army.
.
Air force, infantry, artillery...all the plans of various arms were rejected one by one. Stalingrad seemed to be in a final deadlock, waiting to be cannibalized bit by bit by the German army and finally annihilated.
At this time, Shulka said: "Why must we push back the Germans?"
Major Mikhailovich looked at Shulka in confusion and replied: "Because we have to do this! Those artillery are facing our supply line!"
"If they are facing our supply lines!" Shulka said: "Why don't we open up a few more supply lines?"
"You mean transporting from other directions?" Major Akimovich shook his head and denied: "We can't do it, Comrade Shulka! The other directions are blocked by sandbars and the transport ships cannot pass!"
"It seems that transport ships cannot do it, but why don't we use amphibious landing ships?" Shulka asked rhetorically.
"Amphibious landing ship?" Major Akimovich's eyes couldn't help but light up: "You are talking about... the amphibious landing ship used in the Crimean Peninsula? The amphibious landing ship you designed?"
As a staff officer, Major Akimovich is especially a "fan" of Shulka, so of course he knows about this battle and the amphibious landing ship.
"Yes!" Shulka replied: "It can travel both on the river and on land. Why don't we use it to transport supplies? Especially for those areas that need to cross sandbars... It doesn't need to be used frequently.
Loading and unloading!”
"This is indeed a good idea, Comrade Shulka!" Major Akimovich said: "But, as far as I know...those amphibious landing ships cannot control the direction, I mean they cannot control the direction on land!"
"That's because we needed to make an emergency landing in Crimea at that time!" Shulka replied: "So after producing a simple amphibious landing ship, we put it into emergency use. After that, our R&D personnel were already developing capabilities
Controlling the direction of the amphibious landing craft... This is not difficult, don't you think?"
This is of course, because it is enough to transplant the car's direction control system directly to the amphibious landing ship.
"I believe..." Shulka said: "They should have developed an amphibious landing craft that can control the direction. However, we don't know that they have it, and they don't know that we need it. So..."
Golikov and Akimovich were stunned when they heard this.
This is indeed possible, because the amphibious landing ship is still a new type of equipment for the Soviet army, especially the amphibious landing ship that can control the direction.
Therefore, of course, news about this equipment is blocked.
But blocking information is sometimes not entirely a good thing. For example, right now, Golikov and Akimovich know nothing about it.
To be precise, Akimovich didn't know anything about it, but thought that this kind of amphibious landing ship was still in a state of being unable to control its direction, so it was only suitable for landing.
"If!" Shurka pointed to the map and said: "We use amphibious landing ships for transportation, and we can carry out transportation at any point on the front that is up to 50 kilometers wide, while the longest range of the enemy's artillery is only 10 kilometers..."
"Then we can perfectly avoid the enemy's artillery blockade!" Golikov continued.
"Yes!" Shulka nodded.
The next second, Golikov ordered: "Contact the front army headquarters immediately, immediately!"