The decisive battle against the Third Reich

When it comes to airborne troops, the entire German army becomes nervous, because in the eyes of the German army, airborne troops are elite troops with extremely strong combat effectiveness, at least that is the case with German airborne troops.

Moreover, both Manstein and Qinchuan knew one thing: if the Soviet Union carried out airborne operations against Baku, it would be entirely possible to take Baku back or even annihilate the two German divisions in Baku.

The reason is that the German army is too weak compared to the Soviet army. It has to defend a line of defense here and another line of defense there. Once the airborne troops are dropped to the rear, it may lead to the collapse of the entire German army.

On the other hand, the airborne troops have a strong initiative, that is, no one knows where these airborne troops will land or attack until they are airborne.

In response, Manstein immediately took action and did some work.

The first was to drive the people of Baku out of their houses and gather them into the refinery.

This does not mean using the people as a shield for the refinery, but once the airborne division lands directly in Baku and gets help from the people, it will be difficult for the German army to win this war.

Manstein then detached a regiment from the 1st Mountain Division to garrison the city of Baku. Only by occupying the commanding heights and important places in the city can the Soviet airborne troops have no opportunity to take advantage.

Finally, Manstein withdrew the 1st Infantry Regiment from the defensive line as a mobile unit.

As we all know, it is very important to deal with airborne mobile units.

The reason is that you don't know in advance where the enemy will airdrop. A fast mobile force can rush to the enemy's airdrop location in the shortest possible time and annihilate them before they are ready.

Of course, this mobile force must be the 1st Infantry Division.

So the 1st Infantry Division immediately became busy.

The mobile force is not as easy as imagined. It only needs to be equipped with a few more cars or three-wheelers.

There are still many problems, such as ammunition supply, estimating where the enemy will land, and what kind of combat plan there is for possible landing sites, etc.

The most prominent problem is the supply issue...the 1st Infantry Regiment MP43's ammunition is almost running out.

But this problem was not difficult to solve. Manstein sent a telegram to Army Commander von Bock.

Of course, von Bock also knew the importance of defending the Baku oil fields. Without saying a word, he dispatched ten Junkers 52 transport planes to deliver ammunition to Baku overnight.

As mentioned before, the thick landing gear of the Junkers 52 transport aircraft gave it the ability to take off and land roughly in the wild. At this time, there was no need to worry about being intercepted by Soviet fighter planes at night... so the supplies were quickly delivered to the first 1 Infantry Regiment.

Then Colonel Slain sent people to organize Soviet people to repair the roads leading to Baku in several directions. This was the basis for the mobile troops to move quickly.

Another option is to divide the battalion into three groups to familiarize themselves with the three directions.

In short, everyone from top to bottom dare not be careless, for fear of accidentally losing the fat in their mouths... In fact, this is still secondary. If Baku cannot be defended, the German troops fighting deep behind enemy lines will even escape. There is no place to escape.

In other words, this is a matter of life and death for the German army.

But in fact, these worries of the German army are completely unnecessary.

Just as the German army was making various preparations in full swing, the 4th Guards Airborne Army, which received the order, was actually in chaos.

This is caused by two aspects.

On the one hand, the airborne troops lack capable and qualified officers.

This should be said to be true not only of the airborne troops, but also of the entire Soviet army, because for a long time the only people who could hold positions in the Soviet army were politically correct rather than capable officers.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Peterkov, commander of the 4th Guards Airborne Corps, did not formulate a complete and unified combat plan when he received the emergency airborne operation in Baku. He simply summoned the generals for a meeting and stipulated that at dawn We must rush to Baku and implement an airborne landing before letting go of our men to prepare.

It is reasonable to stipulate that we must rush to Baku before dawn and carry out airborne landings, because once dawn comes, the German BF and FW fighters will simply enter uninhabited territory and massacre Soviet transport aircraft... As mentioned before Yes, the Soviet fighter planes lagged behind the German forces in the Caucasus. They could only rely on the complex terrain of the Caucasus to deal with the German fighter planes. If they wanted to cover the Soviet transport planes, they would have to stand by and watch the targets of their protection being massacred.

On the other hand, there is the problem of transport aircraft.

At this time, the Soviet army was using Li-2 transport aircraft. (Note: This transport aircraft was exported to China in 1949, which is the transport aircraft pattern on the two-cent RMB)

This transport aircraft is actually not a military transport aircraft. It is produced and positioned as a civilian transport aircraft (a copy of the DC3 transport aircraft imported from the United States).

However, because the Soviet-German war broke out, the Soviet Union did not have suitable transport aircraft, so it urgently requisitioned a large number of such civilian transport aircraft for transport and parachute aircraft.

In this regard, the Soviet Union did have some mistakes.

Because the Soviet Union was the first country in the world to have paratroopers and parachute tactics...

In 1933, the Soviet Union held an air show in Moscow, and 10,000 spectators watched in silence as 46 paratroopers jumped out of two large bombers - a world record at the time. The Soviets also used a large parachute to drop a small combat tank. Although the tank failed to start after landing and had to be dragged out of the exercise field, it left a deep impression on the foreign observers who watched the scene. Inspired by this, European and American countries have established their own airborne troops.

But now, the Soviet airborne troops lag far behind other countries, and even parachute transport aircraft use civilian transport aircraft.

The biggest disadvantage of the Li-2 transport aircraft is its slow speed...the cruising speed is only 240 kilometers per hour.

Stalin's plan was feasible.

The 4th Guards Airborne Corps has three brigades with a total of 10,000 people. Stalin plans to gather 250 Li-2 transport aircraft... Each Li-2 transport aircraft can carry 20 paratroopers, so that the 250 transport aircraft can transport all these 10,000 people in two times. Delivered to Baku.

Then the airborne troops and the Transcaucasus Front will cooperate internally and externally, and recapturing Baku will not be a big problem.

But war is never about imagination.

The reality is that Stalin did not take into account the fact that the Li-2 has a speed of only 240 kilometers, and not all the required Li-2s are in Stalingrad... There are only 50 in Stalingrad, and the other 200 need to be transferred from other airports.

Then a calculation showed that only 30 aircraft could reach Stalingrad within the specified time.

But the Soviet army could not wait, because if it was any later, they might not be able to carry out the airdrop before dawn, so Petkov could only order 80 sorties to carry out airdrops in one batch.