The main reason why we did this on the second night was because such a trick of pretending to be real requires enough "fake" to allow the "real" to fish in troubled waters.
Otherwise, if the German army's fuel, ammunition and fighter planes are sufficient to destroy or block all the Soviet landing ships on the east coast, no matter how fake they are, then the Soviet army will not be able to defeat the enemy no matter how hard they try.
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So Shulka waited patiently until more than two hundred navy landing ships joined the team before Shulka started the first step of the plan.
That is to say, the first batch of more than 300 fake landing ships were launched into the Volga River.
These 300 fake landing ships were divided into five batches, each batch of 60 ships. According to the plan, there were three transportation lines in the north and two transportation lines in the south. Then they began to run back and forth to the east and west coasts in a hurry.
In fact, these false landings cannot travel back and forth between the east and west coasts because they are not amphibious like amphibious landing craft.
Therefore, the landing ships on each transportation line are divided into two parts...divided into two parts by the sandbar and then go back and forth in their respective waters.
In order to increase the deception, some landing boats were also built on the sandbar, and soldiers of the Guards Infantry Division even equipped them with old wheels.
But of course they couldn't move on the sandbar and had to be pushed by the soldiers.
If the Germans were on land, these deceptions would be easy to spot.
But it was night and the Germans were in the air. More importantly, once an enemy plane dived, the soldiers pushing the landing boat would of course disperse and hide. So it was not easy for the German pilots to find anything.
The German Colonel Fred was full of confidence in carrying out his mission.
In fact, Paulus held a celebration party for Colonel Fred and his men early that morning.
Although it was a celebration, in fact, only a limited number of Colonel Fred's officers could be invited, and the other pilots each added a piece of ham and a little honey.
Paulus drank the red wine, then knocked the glass with a spoon. When everyone became quiet, he stood up and said: "Gentlemen, first of all, welcome you! I think it is not just me who welcomes you, but also all of us.
Warriors who fought in Stalingrad!"
Everyone laughed knowingly.
They all understood what Paulus meant... The main reason why the German army was unable to attack Stalingrad for a long time was that it could not completely block the supply of Stalingrad. However, Fred's night aviation regiment completely changed this situation.
"You may not know what this means!" Paulus raised his glass to Colonel Fred, and then said: "But I know... you have filled the gap in our night, allowing us to be able to function both day and night.
Blockade the Russian transportation lines from the air! We once doubted this, but... Colonel Fred and his pilots proved it with their courage and skillful flying skills: they launched only two attacks,
Let the Russians give up transport! Do you know what this means? Stalingrad belongs to us!"
As Paulus raised his wine glass, his subordinates also raised their wine glasses to congratulate each other.
Then Paulus changed the topic and said: "However, Colonel Fred, we can't be too careless! I think you have also heard of 'Breakout Hero'!"
"No, I haven't heard of him!" Colonel Fred replied with an amused expression: "The only thing our Air Force needs to care about is the enemy's pilots!"
The officers around him burst into laughter.
This sentence shows that Colonel Fred has actually heard of the "Breakout Hero", but he did not take him to heart because...pilots do not need to take infantrymen to heart.
This is true in some ways, as there seems to be no intersection between pilots and infantrymen.
If there was any overlap, it was the pilots raining bombs and bullets onto the infantry on the ground, while the infantry struggled to bring down the planes with anti-aircraft fire.
And this struggle often ends with a disastrous defeat for the infantry.
However, what Fred didn't know was that he and the "Breakout Hero" were already secretly competing with each other.
Paulus nodded and said: "Maybe you are right, he should be the one I need to worry about!"
"You don't have to worry about him now, General!" Colonel Fred raised his glass.
If Colonel Fred had just arrived in Stalingrad and still maintained a cautious mentality, the two attacks last night that easily cut off the Russian transport lines made him underestimate the enemy.
This is not surprising, because Colonel Fred knew that after the two attacks, the Russian army did not dare to carry out normal transportation, which proved that the Russian army either did not have an effective way to deal with night fighters, or there were not enough amphibious landing ships.
Or a combination of both situations.
As Colonel Fred reported to Paulus: "They can't stop us, we always have air superiority! In addition, there is no cover on the Volga River. Although night bombing is difficult, we are all veterans of night operations... As long as
If they dare to transport it, there is no way they can escape our interception!"
Colonel Fred is right.
At this time, there were five night aviation regiments in Germany.
The larger the serial number, the later it was compiled, and of course, the less combat experience it has.
The 2nd Night Aviation Regiment was formed before the outbreak of the Soviet-German War last year, and it has been nearly a year now.
Many pilots in this aviation regiment are veterans with rich combat experience and then undergo several months of night combat training... The German night fighter pilot training is very demanding, because it often requires the pilot to spot the enemy with only a little light or moonlight.
to shoot down the aircraft, and at the same time, you have to worry about whether it will hit the ground. In addition, you also need to be able to quickly distinguish between friend and foe from the outline of the aircraft model in the dark, etc.
(Note: Night operations often rely on the target to block the background light source and display an outline for identification. For example, looking from bottom to top is the outline reflected by the moonlight, and looking from top to bottom is the light)
On this basis, Fred believed that it would be easier to attack ship targets on the ground.
What it needs to pay attention to is the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower and grasp the distance between the fuselage and the ground.
Fred had great confidence in his men on this point.
Therefore, when Fred received a report from a reconnaissance plane the next night that a large number of Russian transport ships had been spotted, Colonel Fred immediately jumped up from his chair in excitement.
"It's time for us to show up, guys!" Colonel Fred said. "It seems the Russians have amnesia. They have forgotten what we taught them last night! Now, let's remind them!"