The Germans actually blew up seventeen amphibious landing ships.
To be precise, it is not blown up, but damaged... The amphibious landing ship is small in size and has a small target. In addition, in the dark, it is difficult for even the German night fighters to drop bombs directly onto the amphibious landing ship.
From this perspective, the Germans did not destroy many amphibious landing ships. Only five were directly hit and set on fire or their ammunition exploded.
The problem is that the amphibious landing craft is very crudely made.
This is actually understandable. On the one hand, the Soviet equipment itself has "rough" characteristics, and on the other hand, because the amphibious landing ship is new equipment, there are still many unresolved problems in the combination of water and land power.
Therefore, once these amphibious landing craft are hit by machine gun bullets, or bombs explode nearby and shake violently, the amphibious landing craft may be unable to move due to malfunction.
Shulka therefore called Sisoy.
"They can't stand it, Comrade Sisoy!" Shulka said: "The enemy launched an attack on the amphibious landing ship. I guessed that this attack would not cause us many casualties, but I did not expect that it would cause so many casualties.
Multiple amphibious landing craft malfunctions!”
"This is inevitable, Shulka!" Sisoy replied: "You know, these amphibious landing ships are customized by the Navy for landing operations. They do not require such ships to have good reliability!"
This is indeed true.
The naval infantry brigade uses this kind of ship more for landing operations. All they need is to be able to rush to the beach and control the direction.
Then...it is basically used by the Marine Infantry Brigade as a bunker to block bullets, so of course it doesn't need reliability.
"So, is there any solution?" Shulka asked.
"I can send you a maintenance team!" Sisoy replied: "In addition, we will increase production and try to ensure transportation!"
Shulka put down the phone helplessly.
Increasing production may be a solution, but if the German Air Force can cause the seventeen Soviet amphibious landing ships to be scrapped or malfunctioned after just one dispatch, the production of ten ships per day will only be a drop in the bucket.
Just when Shulka was worried, Andrianka, who was guarding the phone, reported: "Comrade Shulka, another batch of enemy fighter planes took off again, this time there are more than last time!"
One German aviation regiment has three aviation groups, plus the original dozens of night aircraft, the number of night fighters reaches more than 200.
The more than two hundred fighter planes were divided into three groups by the German army, and then dispatched in turn to implement the blockade.
"Suspend transportation!" Shulka ordered.
"Yes, transportation is suspended!"
"Transportation suspended!"
…
The orders were passed down one after another.
Major Akimovich has just finished reporting the intelligence to the army headquarters.
Since Akimovich rarely cooperated with the 8th Infantry Regiment, Golikov asked him to stay in the 8th Infantry Regiment to coordinate the transportation mission of the amphibious landing ship... After all, the amphibious landing ship was invented by Shulka.
Shulka can also contact Sisoy better, so there is nothing wrong with entrusting this task to Shulka's command.
Even the entire 8th Infantry Regiment can be said to have benefited from this mission. They were withdrawn from the front line to be responsible for the coordination of supply transportation.
"The Army Headquarters has roughly understood some relevant situations!" Major Akimovich said: "Comrade Golikov has no objection to suspending transportation, but this does not seem to be a long-term solution!"
Shulka nodded.
This is of course not a long-term solution, and even if the transport ship suspends transportation, the enemy pilots can rest.
This is the advantage of fighter planes, they are fast and basically not controlled by the terrain.
In other words, the German Air Force's implementation of the blockade does not mean that its night fighters need to patrol over Volga all the time.
They only need to send a few reconnaissance planes to fly over the Volga River and shoot down a few flares from time to time. Once they find the Soviet amphibious landing ship moving, it is too late to call in night fighters.
But the Soviet amphibious landing craft... was always one step behind due to its slow speed.
To take a step back, if this pause continues, it means that the German blockade has been successful and Stalingrad will not be supplied.
If there is no pause, more than two hundred amphibious landing ships will soon be lost to such a huge enemy night fighter fleet.
"How is the transportation situation on the river?" Shulka asked.
"It's not optimistic!" Andrianka replied: "Although we have deployed a lot of smoke, the transport ships are large and have big targets... So far, more than ten ships have been blown up! Preliminary estimates are that the passing rate is at one-third
About one!”
"These bastards!" Major Mikhailovich couldn't help but cursed: "Why do they suddenly have so many night fighters!"
"Transferred from Germany!" Akimovich replied: "The British discovered this and passed this information on to us!"
At this time, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union had certain cooperation in intelligence. At the same time, the United Kingdom was a veteran espionage country, so it was not surprising that it would know this.
What Shulka didn't know was that the British intelligence came directly from the "super secret".
But of course, the British would not tell the Soviet Union this.
At this time, no one except the British themselves knew the existence of the "super secret".
If there is one, it is Shulka.
After a moment of silence, Shulka said: "Contact the Navy, we need more landing ships!"
"Landing ship?" Major Akimovich asked doubtfully: "Landing ship cannot solve the problem, Comrade Shulka, they cannot cross the sandbar!"
"Indeed!" Shulka replied: "But the Germans don't know, and neither do their pilots!"
Major Akimovich couldn't help but be stunned, then said "Oh", and then immediately called the army headquarters.
The answer is actually very simple.
The amphibious landing ship is built based on the navy's landing ship, which means that the appearance of the two is almost the same.
If anything, the amphibious landing craft has four more wheels.
Of course, if the amphibious landing craft is in the water, there will be no difference at all.
In the same way, the German pilots sitting in the cockpit in the air would certainly not be able to detect the difference.
Then, if landing ships and amphibious landing ships were mixed together, the German pilots would not know which ones were their attack targets.
It can even be said that even if they attack a false target, they will think they have attacked a real target and feel complacent.
"Good idea, Shulka!" Major Mikhailovich praised: "Now, as long as we have enough landing ships, it will be enough to keep the German planes busy!"
Andrianka laughed: "I hope they have enough fuel and ammunition!" (To be continued)