Chapter five hundred and sixty-eight of another way
It can be said that it is very safe to have twenty real amphibious landing ships mixed into each transportation line, because even if the Germans knew that there were real amphibious landing ships mixed in, they would not be able to distinguish them, so they also did not know which ones to attack.
In fact, the most important thing is that the German army cannot afford to consume supplies, otherwise it can attack them indiscriminately.
Then in the middle of the night, Shulka ordered all amphibious landing ships to be put into transportation.
At this time, Paulus and Colonel Fred were still looking at the map in the headquarters, puzzled.
"It seems that we can only watch as they transport supplies to Stalingrad, General!" Colonel Fred said: "I heard that the Russians are building a large number of fake landing ships, and we can't tell the real ones from the fake ones at all. Is this true?
Is this the ‘breakout hero’ strategy you mentioned?”
"I think so, Colonel!" Paulus replied helplessly: "Originally, I thought he was just an officer, but... I found that he is a person who can influence the situation of the battle, do you understand?"
Colonel Fred nodded.
If he didn't understand it before, he certainly understood it now.
"Perhaps there is another way for us!" said Paulus.
"What?" Colonel Fred looked at Paulus in confusion. He didn't believe there was any way to deal with this tactic.
"If we can't stop it at all times!" Paulus said, "then we will carry out a surprise attack at a certain time!"
"So they will inevitably suffer losses?"
"Yes!" Paulus replied: "The time we choose to attack is random and without any rules. Then the Russians have only two options, either use fake transport ships all the time, or suffer losses!"
"But this cannot be completely blocked!" Colonel Fred said.
"Of course!" Paulus replied: "We no longer want a complete blockade, but we can reduce the enemy's transportation as much as possible within a tolerable range. In this way..."
"As time goes by, will we still have the advantage?"
Paulus nodded, then pointed to the map and said: "In addition, we have a little advantage: the sandbar divides the Volga River into two parts from the middle, that is, the western section and the eastern section. Although we cannot tell the true identity of those landing ships,
False, but what is certain is... there will really be more landing ships in the western section of the Volga River!"
Fred couldn't help but said "Oh" after hearing this: "Because the real landing ship will definitely transport supplies to Stalingrad, which means it will definitely pass through the western section!"
"Yes!" Paulus said: "To be precise, both the western section and the eastern section are the places where landing ships must pass, but we can artificially make the western section more! For example, we only attack the western section...
…Regardless of whether it’s true or false!”
Colonel Fred nodded repeatedly.
This is indeed a good strategy.
Assume that the Russian army has deployed the same number of fake landing ships on the east and west sections of the Volga River, and that the middle is separated by a sandbar, and the fake landing ships cannot pass through the sandbar.
Therefore, if German fighter planes only attack the landing ships in the western sector, there will naturally be fewer and fewer landing ships in the western sector.
Then, the real amphibious landing ship will be exposed to the German pilots.
Of course, the Russian army can use some means to increase the number of fake landing ships in the western section, such as going around from the eastern section to the western section, or producing fake landing ships and launching them into the water... But this will exponentially increase the Russian army's manpower, material resources and time.
On the other hand, if German aircraft bombed along the western section, most of the threats to the fighters would be Stalingrad's anti-aircraft firepower. Stalingrad was also consuming ammunition while defending against air.
Thinking of this, Colonel Fred immediately said to Paulus: "I will organize an attack now!"
"No, Colonel!" Paulus took out his pocket watch, looked at it, and said, "There are only two hours until dawn... We should not expose our response tactics to the enemy prematurely just for these two hours of bombing!"
"Yes, General!"
This tactic is indeed useful, because it is actually "continuous response to changes". For the landing ships bombing the entire Volga River section, the effect of bombing only the western section will be much better than the entire river section.
Because it instantly rendered more than half of the fake landing ships in the eastern section useless.
What embarrassed the Soviet army was that they could not save the fake landing ship in the eastern section, because if there were no fake landing ship in the eastern section, it meant that the real landing ship would be exposed to the firepower of enemy fighters.
So the next night, the Soviet army was caught off guard and faced a situation like this: almost all the fake landing ships in the western section were lost, but not a single fake landing ship in the eastern section was missing, but they were unable to move because of the obstruction of the sandbar.
to the western section.
"If we want to move to the western section..." Major Mikhailovich pointed to the map and said: "There are only three waterways that can be taken, the north of the Volga River, the south, and the transportation channel in the direction of the Mamayev Hills.
!”
There is no need to say more about what follows.
At this time, Stalingrad was surrounded by German troops on three sides, that is, the north and the south were occupied by German troops.
In fact, it does not mean that it was completely occupied, but that the German army occupied the west bank of the Volga River.
Occupying the west bank means that the river can be blocked with artillery fire, so detours from the north or south are not feasible.
The only access is the transportation channel at Mamayev Hill in the middle.
But in the direction of the transportation channel, it has always been the main channel for the Soviet army to transport supplies. German artillery fire and fighter planes have never interrupted the blockade there... If the fake landing ship passes there, it will not only block the river but also cause the ships to be too dense.
They were blown up in batches by enemy artillery fire and fighter planes.
"Where are the losses?" Shulka asked.
"The losses are not big!" Major Mikhailovich replied: "Thirty-five amphibious landing ships were destroyed!"
As for fake landing ships, that is not something the Soviet army needs to consider at all, although most of them are manned.
"The problem is that we have to stop transportation!" Andrianka said: "Or, at least, we have to stop transportation for this period of time, until we have enough false landing ships in the western sector!"
"And this may not be of much use!" Major Mikhailovich said: "Even if we transfer or manufacture fake landing ships and deploy them in the western sector, they will soon be blown up by the Germans! Germany
The people used a new tactic...they threw barrels of gasoline into the river and set it on fire!"
"This flame can not only indicate targets for fighter planes!" Andrianka explained: "It can also burn on the river for a long time, which is a fatal blow to those wooden and bamboo fake landing boats!"
After thinking about it, Shulka said: "We seem to have done something wrong, Comrade Major... We always follow the enemy's ideas, but never think of finding another way!" (To be continued)