The decisive battle against the Third Reich

However, the artillery battle mentioned by Major General Wittsheim was not just the "Dora" cannon, but also the Soviet artillery and shells transported from the Transcaucasus.

These can be regarded as additional support for the German army.

The reason is needless to say. In history, the German army not only did not receive assistance from the Transcaucasus when attacking Stalingrad, but also fell into a stalemate between the enemy and us in the Caucasus Mountains while attacking Stalingrad.

Therefore, the supplies from Berlin were divided into two, one part was transported to Stalingrad and the other part was transported to the Caucasus.

But now, because of Qin Chuan's efforts, the German army won the victory in the Caucasus at a very small cost, so the supplies were not divided into two, but the German army could use the arsenal seized in the Caucasus to produce equipment and the agriculture of the Transcaucasus to support Stalingrad.

Therefore, at least until now, Stalingrad has not encountered supply difficulties.

In other words, Qin Chuan's influence on the Battle of Stalingrad has at least two aspects: one is to gain a month of time, and the other is to gain supplies.

Of course, if there is a third contribution, it is in terms of manpower.

However, the contribution in this regard can be basically ignored... The Caucasus region needs a large number of troops to defend, especially Baku.

Baku is located in the Caspian Sea, and the upper reaches of the Caspian Sea are connected to the Volga River. The entire Soviet Southeast Front is on the east bank of the Volga River. Once the German defense in Baku and the Transcaucasus region is lax or the manpower is weak, the Soviet Southeast Front will enter the Caspian Sea along the Volga River to attack the Caucasus region.

This resulted in Manstein's 11th Army having to stay in Baku. Because Baku is very important and the Caspian Sea and Black Sea coastlines are very long, Hitler also added several coastal defense forces and air defense divisions to the 11th Army... The air defense division is used to protect the Baku oil fields from being bombed by the Soviet army.

In Stalingrad, Wittelsheim brought 200 M1910 howitzers from Transcaucasus, and collected 800 of this type of artillery captured from the Soviet army from various troops and set them up outside Stalingrad.

(Note: The German army captured a large number of M1910 howitzers from the Soviet army, and the German army assigned them the number: LeFH 388)

In fact, it is not the number of artillery that is important, but the shells.

The reason is that the German army captured countless Soviet artillery in the process of advancing from Kharkov along the Don River to Stalingrad. A considerable part of them were randomly discarded on the roadside by German soldiers as garbage because there were not enough shells.

But now it was different. The arsenal in Transcaucasus could produce artillery shells, so these artillery pieces were picked up again and handed over to the engineers for simple repairs... They couldn't really say they were repairing them, but rather dismantling those artillery pieces that couldn't be used normally, and using the usable parts as spare parts on another artillery piece, which was almost a kind of integration.

This took two weeks of preparation, and a large amount of artillery shells were accumulated during this period.

Then, with an order, thousands of artillery pieces, including the howitzers in the hands of the German army, bombarded the Soviet-controlled area of ​​Stalingrad.

The shells exploded like a tidal wave on the front line, on the ruins and in the floors, and exploded pieces of stones and dust in the "rumbling" sound.

But this was just the beginning. The Soviet army was not to be outdone, and their artillery immediately launched a retaliatory bombing on the German-controlled area.

And the Soviet artillery fire seemed to be more fierce, because as mentioned before, the Soviet artillery was stronger than the German army. They had an extremely terrifying number of artillery... 2,000 guns, and more shells than the German army.

As soon as the artillery shells were fired, they hit the German-controlled area of ​​Stalingrad fiercely, and the ground shook instantly.

I don’t know who Stalingrad offended, whether it was the Soviet army or the German army, they poured shells into the city.

Countless explosions surrounded the surroundings, as if to engulf all the soldiers stationed on the front line, whether they were Soviet or German. Shrapnel flew all over the sky, hissing over the heads, and the shells that exploded nearby fiercely lifted stones and soil into the air and then sprinkled them on the soldiers.

The soldiers were helpless and could only curl up in the trenches and pray, waiting for the storm to end.

Qin Chuan supported himself on the ground with his elbows, covered his ears with his hands, and closed his eyes tightly, letting the dirt and stones fall on his helmet like raindrops, trying in vain to exclude the shocking horror in front of him... This is simply not something that human power can stop. Sometimes Qin Chuan feels that humans are very pathetic, not to mention creating such a disaster to embarrass their own kind.

The bombardment lasted for more than an hour, and later it was completely impossible to distinguish which shells were fired from the enemy and which were fired from the direction of our own people, because the entire sky was blackened by the bombing... In fact, it was the smoke and dust that blocked the sunlight, making Stalingrad look like entering the night.

The 1st Infantry Regiment can be said to be a battle-hardened unit, and every soldier is well-trained and very brave, but there are a few soldiers who collapsed in such a bombing.

No one knew at first, because the sound of the artillery covered all the sounds, and the soldier was squeezed in the corner of the trench.

It was not until the gunfire gradually stopped that he could be heard shouting at the top of his lungs: "I can't stand it anymore, I want to leave here, forever..." The soldiers originally thought he was injured, and immediately called the medical staff. But after the medical staff pressed him to the ground and checked him, they found that he was not injured at all.

"Erics!" The soldiers who knew him shook him vigorously and shouted his name, but to no avail.

The sergeant named Erics completely lost control, foaming at the corners of his mouth, his eyes wide open with fear, crying, hitting and screaming no matter who came near him.

"He's crazy!" cried the baker.

Then everyone turned their attention to Qin Chuan. They didn't know how to deal with such a soldier.

Qin Chuan didn't know either. For safety reasons, Qin Chuan ordered: "Hand over his gun and grenades!"

"yes!"

The bakers responded, controlled Erics and forcibly removed the equipment from him.

"Let him go!" Qin Chuan ordered: "Let him go!"

The soldiers let go of their hands, and Erics jumped up as if possessed, shouting something indiscriminately while stumbling back, and soon disappeared into the smoke and dust.

The soldiers looked at his back and felt a little uncomfortable, because maybe one day they themselves would suddenly collapse like this.

Later I learned that there were not a few people in this situation during the artillery battle, and there were many people who broke out of the trenches and rushed into the artillery fire.