Colonel Fred and his men had a great time that night. They flew fighter planes to swoop again and again, destroying the Russian amphibious landing ships again and again. In just two hours, the Volga River was full of people.
The remains of an amphibious landing craft, fragments and burning boats were drifting on the river.
The good news came from the pilots to Colonel Fred's headquarters one after another, and the pilots cheered louder and louder:
"I killed another target!"
"I have lost count of how many times this is, but I can guarantee that my results will break the record tonight!"
"Me too, but there are as many of them as ants, and I can't fight them all!"
…
Of course Colonel Fred didn't care about this, he was more concerned about the battle loss ratio.
However, he was not dissatisfied in this regard, because he had only lost two fighter planes tonight, one was hit by enemy anti-aircraft artillery, and the other did not control the height and plunged into the river.
The pilot of the latter would definitely not survive. He flew into the river at high speed and was drowned or blown up. No one could withstand the momentum.
Although the pilot of the former parachuted, the plane flew to the east bank of the Volga River at the last moment... The east bank is the area controlled by the Russians. It is conceivable that the pilot will probably not be able to come back.
Therefore, Colonel Fred also gave the pilots a warning: "Once your fighter plane is hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire, you should try your best to pull the plane to the west bank of the Volga River and then parachute! Otherwise, I think it is better to die with the plane.
choose!"
The subordinate laughed: "Maybe someone likes to see the snow scene in Siberia!"
It was no secret to the German army at this time that the Russians sent prisoners of war to Siberia to do hard labor.
In particular, Germany's publicity about this aspect will help boost its own morale...let all soldiers know the fate of being captured by the Russians, so they would rather die in battle than become prisoners, which is what the top German military leaders like to see.
However, the losses of these two fighters and pilots are obviously insignificant compared to the results they achieved, because so far they have confirmed that they have destroyed 5 ships.
5 ships?
Colonel Fred felt a little strange. At this time, the Russians should have stopped the transportation as before, but they did not do so.
Then the phone rang, it was Paulus.
"How is it, Colonel?" Paulus asked.
"Everything is under control, General!" Fred replied: "We have confirmed the destruction of fifty-one amphibious landing craft!"
Although the German army is well-trained, a bad trend is that there is a serious trend of exaggeration at the top and bottom. They are accustomed to exaggerating their results to show their merits. Even the "Desert Fox" Rommel did not
exception.
This was not a big problem in the early stages when the German army was victorious in repeated battles, but in the middle and later stages...these falsely reported battle results often affected the accuracy of middle- and upper-level commanders' judgments of the battle situation.
Like Fred, exaggerating 5 ships to 51 ships can be said to be a conscientious statement.
"51 ships?" Paulus asked doubtfully, "Did they still not stop transporting them?"
"No, General!" Fred replied: "I think they must have prepared many amphibious landing craft!"
After a moment of silence, Paulus said: "No, Colonel, I don't think that's the case!"
"I don't know what you mean, General!"
"Colonel, we should put things into context!" Paulus said: "If the Russians had so many amphibious landings, why didn't they put them into use a few days ago? I mean, before we didn't find them using them,
When the amphibious landing craft is being transported, they should put all the amphibious landing craft into making every effort to transport like crazy!”
Fred understood what Paulus said and knew immediately that Paulus was right.
The reason is simple: two days ago, the Russian military's transportation by amphibious landing craft was completely safe, because the German army did not know and of course would not use fighter planes or artillery fire to intercept it.
At the same time, Stalingrad is in short supply, so the Russian army should use as many amphibious landing ships as it has.
In other words, the amphibious landing craft that Fred and other pilots saw that day were the real number owned by the Russian army.
"General, you mean..."
"Are you sure that's an amphibious landing craft?" Paulus asked.
"I don't know, but my people saw them coming ashore, I mean... they crossed the sandbar!"
"That may be their deception plan!" Paulus shook his head and said: "Those amphibious landing ships did not really go ashore, they may just be modified with tricycles or other things!"
Then Colonel Fred understood.
"These damn Russians!" Colonel Fred said: "No wonder they still keep shipping after we destroyed so many targets!"
Then Colonel Fred asked again: "But what is their purpose in doing this?"
"Supplies, Colonel Fred!" Paulus sighed: "They are consuming our supplies in a planned way. If we continue to fight like this, we will run out of fuel reserves tomorrow, which means that tomorrow night we will only have
I can watch them transport it!"
Although the bullets and bombs used by fighter planes are also very large, the ratio of them to the fuel required by fighter planes is dwarfed... Bullets and bombs can be launched only when the target is sighted, but the fuel consumption starts as soon as the fighter engine starts to sound.
.
In addition, it is not only the night aviation regiments that need fuel, but also the aviation groups responsible for daytime combat. There are also reconnaissance aircraft, transport aircraft, etc., all of which need aviation fuel.
Fred couldn't help but secretly wipe his sweat after hearing this, and then asked: "So, what should we do, General?"
"No matter what!" Paulus said: "What we are doing now is meaningless. It cannot stop the enemy's transportation, but it consumes a lot of our army's resources! Therefore, stop the interception operation immediately!"
"Yes, General!"
As a result, the sky above the Volga River soon became quiet.
It was also a battle between fighter planes and landing ships, and the same fighter planes won a complete victory, but last night and tonight we got two completely different results: the former ended with the Soviet army suspending transportation, while the latter ended with the German army stopping bombing
Finish.
As soon as the German army stopped bombing, the Soviet army immediately mixed the real amphibious landing ship into the transport convoy.
"Don't mix too many!" Shulka confessed: "If twenty ships are mixed into each transportation line, the Germans may suddenly attack!"
"Yes!" Andrianka responded and immediately conveyed the order.
This also means that Stalingrad’s supplies have returned to normal. (To be continued)