The deception plan during the day is much more tragic than that at night.
Because it really needs fishing boats to ferry it across, otherwise if there are no fishing boats sailing on the Volga River, the German pilots will know something is wrong at a glance.
The problem is that these fishing boats don't have much military supplies.
The reason why I say "not much" is because the fishing boats also carry some not-so-important supplies, such as military uniforms. They then set out on the river with the idea that they would risk their lives to cross the river anyway and transport whatever they could.
The anti-aircraft firepower on the sandbank is very different from before. Many anti-aircraft bunkers and firepower points were built on it overnight, but most of them are fake, and only a small part is real... there must be a part of it that is real.
, otherwise there would be no shells and bullets fired into the sky and it would be easy for the enemy to see through.
Finally, the waste tires were burned on the sandbank and the river to make black smoke everywhere, and all the arrangements were completed.
Needless to say, what happened next was that German fighter planes swooped down from the sky one after another, and shells exploded on the river in rows. Then, fishing boats and firepower points were blown up by the Germans one after another.
However, it can be imagined that the results achieved by the German army were much smaller than imagined. It can even be said that the results were far smaller than the ammunition and fuel consumed by the German army.
In addition to the competition between people in war, equipment and supplies cannot be ignored.
If you can make the enemy's supplies less and waste more, it means that the balance of victory will tilt more towards yourself.
This is the situation at this time, but the German army has not yet realized this.
But at this time Paulus had doubts.
Although everything seemed normal on the surface: nothing seemed wrong from the interrogation of prisoners by the intelligence services, Russian supplies had been dwindling, and the German army was advancing steadily, Paulus still felt that something was wrong.
"General!" The adjutant saw Paulus frowning while looking at the information, and couldn't help but asked in confusion: "Is there any problem?"
"The problem is that there are no problems!" Paulus replied: "Everything is peaceful!"
"What do you mean?" The adjutant was a little confused.
"If..." Paulus said: "If the Russian transportation lines have been completely blocked by us, Stalingrad will be fully occupied by our army as we imagined, and the Russian 62nd Army will be surrounded and annihilated by us...
…How do you think the Russians should react?”
Hearing this, the adjutant couldn't help but suddenly realized: "They should be nervous or have some reaction!"
"Yes!" Paulus nodded: "So I have been worried that the enemy's Stalingrad Front will take action. Just like before, they will launch a large-scale counterattack in order to block our army's attack on Stalingrad, or
There was an emergency mobilization to reinforce Stalingrad...but they did nothing!"
"Does this mean they are confident?" The adjutant immediately laughed: "No, this is impossible, general!"
"Nothing is impossible!" Paulus replied: "This is war. If the enemy has no other reasons, they should take some actions. On the other hand, if our blockade is as successful as imagined, the battle situation should not be
so!"
This is true. Although the German army is still advancing steadily, another meaning of "steady" is "slow", which means that the speed is not faster than before.
If Shulka had heard these words, he would have been impressed by Paulus's carefulness.
This was indeed Shulka's negligence. He should have at least made the Soviet troops on the east bank nervous and loudly announced emergency mobilization through loudspeakers to show off.
"So, what went wrong?" the adjutant asked.
"I don't know!" Paulus replied: "But I'm sure something is wrong!"
After thinking about it, Paulus pointed to the map and said: "Our army surrounded Stalingrad on three sides, except the Volga River in the east. So, if there is any problem, it must be on the sandbank!"
This conclusion is not difficult to draw, using the elimination method: there will definitely be no problem in the areas on land surrounded by the German army. There will also be no problem in the transportation channel in front of Mamayev Ridge, because that is the focus of the German blockade, and fighter planes and
The artillery bombardment was almost non-stop, even at night. So, only the sandbar was left.
"They can't transport across the sandbar!" said the adjutant.
"At least we need to do some reconnaissance!" Paulus looked into the adjutant's eyes and said in an unquestionable tone: "Tonight!"
Paulus's orders were carried out.
The adjutant arranged for six reconnaissance planes to carry out reconnaissance missions... He did not send out night fighters because the adjutant did not think that there would be any danger during such reconnaissance. At the same time, the night fighters should stay in the area of Mamayev Ridge to continue blocking the river.
The blockade of transportation lines must be like this, and should not be relaxed at any time, otherwise all the previous efforts may be wasted as long as a hole is opened.
The adjutant originally thought this was a very simple mission, because the reconnaissance plane only needed to fly over the sandbank and shoot a few flares along the way and take a few photos.
But soon the adjutant felt something was wrong.
"Colonel, we were hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire!" Captain Detrich, who was on a reconnaissance mission, reported to the adjutant: "Their firepower was very fierce. It's strange... They actually deployed such dense anti-aircraft defense deep in the sandbank.
Firepower, and searchlights..."
"That may be because their anti-aircraft firepower near the transportation channel has been destroyed by us!" the adjutant replied disapprovingly.
"I don't think so, Colonel!" Captain Detrich replied: "I mean, if they have so much anti-aircraft firepower, why don't they move it towards the transport corridor? It's a complete waste to put it here, no.
?"
"Continue your reconnaissance mission, captain!" the adjutant said, "ignore the anti-aircraft firepower..."
Before he finished speaking, Captain Detrich shouted: "No. 3 has been hit! No. 3 has been hit... Colonel, it is dark now. If we want to conduct reconnaissance, we must fly at low altitude to face the anti-aircraft firepower!"
But their firepower is so dense that if we lower our altitude even slightly, we will be shot down..."
The adjutant was speechless. If the anti-aircraft firepower was so intensive, it would be abnormal.
In other words, this is what the enemy is hiding, that is, there is something they don't want them to see!
Thinking of this, the adjutant ordered: "Continue reconnaissance, I will send night fighters to reinforce you!"
"Yes, Colonel!" Deitrich replied.
The next second, Detrich reported nervously on the walkie-talkie: "Wait, I seem to see something. Is that a ship?"