As the saying goes, "When troops come, they will be blocked, and when water comes, the soil will flood." Paulus's countermeasure was to increase the number of night fighters.
"Our fighter planes are enough to block their supply lines during the day!" Paulus said: "I guess they don't have many amphibious landing ships, and the ones they can put into transportation are very limited, so they need to keep it secret in this way."
"But we don't have many night fighters!" the adjutant replied: "And the enemy is well prepared. They have deployed a large amount of anti-aircraft firepower on the sandbank!"
After a moment of silence, Paulus said: "We can destroy these anti-aircraft fires during the day, Gotze, so that's not a problem! The problem is the night fighter... as long as it can stop these amphibious landing ship transports!"
So Paulus immediately called Hitler and asked for more night fighters.
Hitler was very embarrassed by this.
Because at this time, Britain and the United States were increasing their bombing efforts on the German mainland, especially the Ruhr area, Germany's industrial heartland.
(Note: From 1944 to July, the United Kingdom and the United States carried out 4 air raids on several cities in the Ruhr area, and the bombing aviation launched 18,506 sorties)
The purpose of the British and Americans in doing this is obvious, which is to support the Soviet Union from another level.
Of course, there is also an element of British craftsmanship involved.
As analyzed before, when the Soviet Union was attacked by the German army with all its strength, Britain, which was located behind Germany, only needed to organize a large-scale landing to put Germany into the dilemma of fighting on multiple fronts.
Stalin has always asked Britain to do this.
But what Churchill wanted more was for Germany and the Soviet Union to lose both sides, so he tried every means to postpone the long-overdue landing to June 1944 (Normandy landing). At this time, the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front was already confident of victory, and the British
, if the United States does not land again, it may not need to land on the Soviet Union to defeat Germany alone.
As for the aerial bombing of the German mainland, it was just because Britain and the United States could not withstand the constant pressure exerted by Stalin. This was more of a symbolic meaning... Bombing from the air was nothing more than dropping bombs on German soil.
As for whether the explosion is accurate and how effective it will be, that is not something they need to consider.
Therefore, although the bombing was aimed at the German industrial area Ruhr, it did not cause much damage to Germany.
The German night combat capabilities were certainly not developed to allow Paulus to block the supply lines in Stalingrad. They were used to intercept British bombers at night.
After thinking for a while, Hitler finally transferred a night combat aviation regiment to Stalingrad under the command of Paulus.
Hitler said to his staff: "Germany will still be Germany without one more night combat aviation group, but if Stalingrad has one more night combat aviation group, it will no longer be Stalin's Stalingrad!"
This night combat aviation regiment flew from Germany to Karachi that day... At this time, Karachi had become the forward base for the German army to attack Stalingrad. Not only was Paulus' headquarters located here, but supplies, soldiers and even fighter planes were concentrated here.
.
Then, the pilots were immediately thrown into combat after a short three-hour rest.
Colonel Fred, the commander of the aviation regiment, also had a dispute with Paulus over this matter.
"You can't do this, General!" Colonel Fred said, "It took us five hours to get these planes here, and we landed three times to refuel along the way. Do you know how physically demanding such a long flight is?
The pilots need rest and time to adapt to the new environment and battlefield, but they only get three hours, and they don't even have a map!"
"I know, Colonel!" Paulus replied: "But this is the situation, we have no choice!"
"We have……"
"You think there is!" Paulus interrupted Colonel Fred: "But have you ever thought that if you have a night's rest, it means that the enemy can take advantage of the darkness to transport more supplies into Stalingrad.
Do you know what the result of this is? You will never know that those mice-like enemies only need half a piece of bread every day to survive and are holding rifles and aiming at us in the ruins! Do you think that this night's transportation volume can make
How many days will they last?”
Colonel Fred was speechless.
Because he knew that Colonel Paulus was right, war is sometimes like this, it has an "opportunity", and this "opportunity" is often fleeting.
For example, the current Stalingrad is the critical moment when the German army is blocking its supplies. That is, Stalingrad is on the verge of running out of ammunition and food. If the Air Force rests for a night and then joins the war, the result will be that it may have to use twice as many weapons in the future.
Efforts and casualties have been taken to exchange it, and it may never even be possible.
Thinking of this, Colonel Fred no longer objected.
"Yes, General!" Colonel Fred stepped forward and replied: "But at least you should show us the targets to be bombed, such as photos and so on!"
"We have no photos!" Paulus replied: "Our reconnaissance plane failed to successfully photograph it, or it was successfully photographed but failed to come back!"
"Then let's..."
"But you don't have to worry about not finding them!" Paulus said: "I think it should be something like a boat and a car, which means it can maneuver on the river and on land! You can find it easily!
"
Colonel Fred couldn't help but be startled and said: "What a strange thing!"
"Yes, but it works!"
That night, an aviation group took off to carry out bombing.
The organization of the German Air Force is that one aviation regiment has three to four aviation groups, and each aviation group has about 40 aircraft.
The 1st Night Aviation Regiment commanded by Fred had only three aviation groups, and the entire regiment had 17 night bombers and fighters.
This should be considered a relatively small aviation group. During wartime, an aviation group generally had about 160 fighter planes, and even 70 at peak times.
The reason why there are so few is because the night bombers are advanced fighters equipped with radar, and the production has not kept up for the time being, so they can only be organized into three brigades per regiment.
Then the night sky over the Volga River immediately became lively, especially at the southern and northern sandbanks.
Searchlight poles swept back and forth, and anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns poured bullets and shells into the air. The darkness in the sky was filled with the roar of fighter planes and the screams of falling aerial bombs.
After a round of bombing, Paulus nervously asked Colonel Fred: "How is the situation?"
"We found them, General!" Colonel Fred replied: "Maybe it blew up and damaged dozens of amphibious landing craft, and lost two aircraft at the same time..."
After hearing this, Paulus couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that this tactic was feasible. (To be continued)