The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Yeremenko on the other side knew nothing about the fact that the German army had received reinforcements. As expected, he launched a new round of attack on the sandbar as soon as it became light the next day.

Theoretically, the Soviet army would have more advantages if it attacked at night than during the day.

Because at least the Soviet army did not have to worry about harassment from the Luftwaffe overhead.

But this is only a theoretical statement. The fact is that the quality and organizational ability of the Soviet army are very poor, especially when they have to build a pontoon bridge. Yeremenko believes that he cannot organize such an attack, or it can be said that if such an attack is organized at night The losses suffered by the attack would probably be greater than those incurred by enemy fighter planes during the day, so Yereomenko gave up such an idea.

This approach can be said to be right or wrong.

It is right because the Soviet army did have such a problem, and Yeremenko was self-aware. And from the perspective of scaring Liaomenko, he believed that he was confident enough to capture the sandbar the next day, so he was not in a hurry to launch an attack at night.

It is wrong because it was precisely on this night that the German army received reinforcements and supplies through oil barrels.

As a result, when the Soviet army launched the attack the next day, they were shocked to find that the German firepower was much tighter than yesterday, even though the Soviet army had already deployed its air force to compete with the Luftwaffe for air supremacy over the sandbank, or it could be said to be harassment.

"Comrade Yeremenko!" Major General Yefimkov, who was in charge of the offensive, reported to Yeremenko: "The Germans are not as vulnerable as we thought, and their firepower even exceeded yesterday!"

"What do you mean?" Yeremenko asked.

"I mean... the Germans may have received reinforcements!" Yefimkov replied, which was his instinct on the battlefield.

"Then tell me, Comrade Yefimkov!" Yeremenko asked, "How do the Germans get reinforcements?"

"I don't know!" Yefimkov replied: "But it is obvious. They have almost made up for all the firepower gaps, and the bullets are very dense. Yesterday we were able to attack the barbed wire fence, but today we were crushed on the near beach. I can’t move!”

"That's just your imagination, Comrade Yefimkov!" Yeremenko roared: "The Germans are besieged by us on the sandbar and cannot get reinforcements at all. They will only fight less and less! Continue to attack, understand Don’t give them a chance to breathe!”

"Yes, Comrade Yeremenko!" Yefimkov replied helplessly.

After Yeremenko hung up the phone, he shook his head and complained: "They always imagine that the enemy is too powerful!"

Khrushchev agreed, saying: "It seems we have to send a political commissar to supervise the battle!"

Obviously, both Yeremenko and Khrushchev believed that the German army could not get reinforcements, so the Soviet army was in sight of victory, at least on the sandbank... The Germans only had a total of 200 people. Even if they continued to suffer casualties, they would still be able to defeat them. The two hundred people in Shazhou were wiped out.

But this was not the case. The fighting lasted from early morning until nightfall, and the Soviet army made no progress except leaving piles of corpses on the river.

On the other hand, emergencies from Stalingrad continued to fly to the Southeast Front headquarters.

"We are about to run out of ammunition and food!" Chuikov reported: "The soldiers on the front line have not received food and ammunition for several days, and I cannot tell them that we no longer have these!"

"Hold on for a few more hours!" Khrushchev replied: "We will take the sandbar soon!"

Khrushchev was right. The Southeastern Front continued its offensive on the sandbank that night. Khrushchev and Yeremenko firmly believed that the Germans were holding on for dear life. As long as they pressed harder and attacked for a while, the Germans would soon be It will collapse due to insufficient ammunition or insufficient troops.

Until the offensive continued until midnight, a message came from the front line...

"Comrade Yeremenko!" Yefimkov reported to Yeremenko: "I believe that the Germans have received reinforcements. There are many more Germans on the sandbank than we thought!"

"Comrade Yefimkov!" Yeremenko shouted into the microphone angrily: "I told you, they only have two hundred people, and now there are even less than a hundred. If you can't complete the task, I will send another one." A force will go up to replace you..."

"Comrade Yeremenko!" Yefimkov interrupted Yeremenko: "We have found evidence that they have received reinforcements!"

"Evidence?" Yeremenko asked doubtfully.

"Yes, Comrade Yereomenko!" Yefimkov replied: "We picked up twenty oil barrels in the river during the attack. They were tied together with ropes, and most of them contained ammunition. , German ammunition, some oil barrels also contain Germans!”

Apparently, these oil barrels unfortunately flowed into the valley between the sandbar and the east bank, and were captured by the attacking Soviet army.

"What do you mean by that?" Yeremenko asked.

"I mean... the Germans use the Volga River to get supplies!" Yefimkov replied: "I have interrogated the captured prisoners, and they said they came from Renok, which means... the Germans came from Reno Ke put down the oil drums and picked them up on the sandbank. This started last night. So far, they have received five batches of supplies. These five batches of supplies have added at least 500 people to them, as well as a large number of people. ammunition!"

Hearing this, Yeremenko couldn't help being stunned.

He knew what this meant. If two hundred Germans could cause so much trouble to the Soviet army before this, then after adding five hundred people, there would be more than six hundred people. In addition, there would be ammunition, then Can the Soviet army still capture the sandbank?

Khrushchev who was next to him also heard the content of the call. He was stunned for a moment and said: "I will send someone upstream to intercept it immediately!"

"It's too late!" Yeremenko shook his head: "The Germans have got what they need, six hundred men, plus the supplies, and the ammunition we have in the warehouse... They can defend for at least a week. !”

Yeremenko was right. Qinchuan's firepower configuration for the newly joined German soldiers was to equip them with Bobosha submachine guns and rotary machine guns as much as possible.

In fact, most of the German soldiers who were reinforced from oil barrels were submachine gunners. This was determined by the height of the oil barrel. It was impossible to turn around in the oil barrel with a K98K. Some soldiers even He didn't even carry a submachine gun, only a pistol. The reason was of course because the space in the oil drum was too narrow.

Therefore, these soldiers require almost no training when using the Bobosa submachine gun. They only need popular science on what they need to pay attention to.