Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

There is an inconspicuous 4-story red brick building between Lenin Street and Soviet Road in Stalingrad. It was originally an ordinary employee dormitory, but was renamed the "Pavlov" Building after the Battle of Stalingrad. Until decades later, only a fragment of the Pavlov Building remained standing quietly on the banks of the Volga River. "This building combines the great achievements of war and labor. We will defend and rebuild you, dear Stalingrad!" This is the inscription of Pavlov's Building.

During the Battle of Stalingrad, Sergeant Yakov Pavlov (at that time, the platoon leader and all senior non-commissioned officers had died, and sergeant became the highest military rank.) led a platoon of soldiers from September 27 to 11, 1942 On March 25, he stood firm in this apartment building. He stood firm in this apartment building for 58 days in the face of enemies several times his own, and no one was killed. You must know that France, known as the "No. 1 Army in Europe" before the war, only lasted for more than forty days in the face of the German attack. In other words, France's resistance time was not as long as a Pavlovian building.

As for why Pavlov's Building can hold on tenaciously? There are naturally multiple factors involved.

For example, Sergeant Pavlov had quite a lot of combat experience. He ordered the anti-tank team to occupy the roof of the building with anti-tank guns and set up mortars to target German tanks and armored vehicles trying to approach the building. Then on the third Machine guns were placed in the windows in each direction. At the same time, the floor between the basement and the floor was penetrated, so that Soviet soldiers could quickly and covertly move their shooting positions. In addition, a communication trench was dug leading to the cliffs on the west bank of the Volga River, so that communication and supplies could be carried out at any time. The Soviet troops on the west bank continued to transport ammunition and supplies through communication trenches, while the Soviet heavy artillery and anti-aircraft guns in the woods on the east bank were able to provide timely fire support, while more than a dozen civilians without combat capabilities served as baggage carriers and correspondents. This allows the combat effectiveness of these 23 combat soldiers to be brought into full play.

Some people may wonder if the German army has Stuka dive bombers, which are famous for their precise bombing, and can launch a few point-to-point bombings to blow up the entire building.

As early as the moment of the German offensive, the Soviet army formulated the "peace and mud" tactic, which meant that the Soviet army and the German army were completely mixed with each other in Stalingrad. Therefore, the German Air Force was afraid of accidentally injuring friendly forces and did not dare to carry out bombings rashly. Coupled with the intensive anti-aircraft firepower on the other side of the Volga River, Stuka bombers did not dare to get too close to the Volga River.

Moreover, the German Army was unwilling to blow up this "commanding heights". The core point of street fighting in the era before GPS was to compete for the "commanding heights" and use the line of sight brought by the "commanding heights" to output firepower at close range to the enemy. Therefore, the only remaining uncollapsed building in Stalingrad became the "golden doll" wanted by both warring parties. Therefore, to the attacking German army, the value of a complete Pavlovian Building was much higher than that of a ruin. This is also an important reason why the German army has been reluctant to call the air force to conduct a complete bombing of the building, or to bring up its own howitzers to flatten it.

The German army wanted to seize the building, but when the German tanks were covering the infantry and rushed downstairs, they were inevitably hit by anti-tank guns and mortars on the roof. The top armor of the tanks was relatively weak and easy to be hit. Because the distance was too close and limited by the elevation angle, the tank guns were unable to shoot directly at the roof of the building, so several offensive operations were collapsed. Even on the few occasions when the German infantry broke into the building, they were quickly driven back by the Soviet army's concentrated troops and firepower because they did not understand Pavlov's defense design (a bit like tunnel warfare).

In addition, the Pavlov Building is not alone. The remaining troops of the 42nd Guards Infantry Regiment still control several surrounding buildings, including the Flour Mill Building, and can support the "Pavlov Building" at any time. , the commander of the 7th Company also came to command through the tunnel many times, so the German attack was not just aimed at one building, but an entire defensive support point.

The most critical thing is that the German army did not dare to use too many troops to launch attacks in street fighting. Each attack was at the company or platoon level, rather than one division against more than 20 people as everyone imagined. This reason is very simple. Facing the Soviet artillery groups and fire points in the buildings on the east coast, a large-scale infantry charge can easily be covered by artillery fire and machine gun fire, which means killing people needlessly. So in fact, every battle for a building is a unit-level battle, and it is also the most common method of attack and defense in street fighting.

In this way, 58 days later, the Soviet army still firmly controlled it, and the Pavlov Building became the hardest nail in the German army's attempt to occupy the entire city of Stalingrad. By late November, the Soviet army had begun a major counterattack. The German army was forced to shrink its forces and organize defenses. The battle to defend the Pavlov Building was declared victorious. So far, the Pavlov Building has achieved the "milk method" achievement of resisting the German army for longer than the entire France.

And today's Stalingrad city and even the Soviet artillery positions within dozens of kilometers around it, whether they are anti-aircraft guns, howitzers, or cannons; as long as the artillery positions are of a slightly larger size, they cannot escape the indiscriminate bombing of the Luftwaffe. A few places were lucky enough to survive. Faced with the hordes of bombers hovering in the sky and watching eagerly, they did not dare to open fire rashly and could only cower in frustration.

When the Liberation Army platoon arrived near the Pavlov Building, they found that the building had been surrounded by their own sides on three sides, but they were surrounded but not attacked.

German platoon leader Fischer approached another German platoon leader. "What's going on? Why don't you attack?"

Another German platoon leader replied casually. "The Soviet troops inside are very tenacious. We rushed several times but were repelled. We have asked our superiors for instructions to destroy this building and are waiting for their approval."

"Is it so difficult?" Fischer observed the building with a telescope. "It would be a pity to destroy such a good commanding height." Once this place is captured, you will have a panoramic view within one kilometer of the surrounding area.

"Although it's not."

After waiting for a long time, news came from above that they agreed to destroy the building and sent five Stuka bombers to destroy the building.

Although Fischer felt it was a pity, the superiors had decided that naturally he, a small platoon leader, had nothing to say and returned to his platoon level. "Everyone is hiding, that building is about to be bombed." Once the Stuka bomber drops the bomb, it will definitely be all kinds of bricks and fragments scattered. He did not die under the enemy's gunfire, but was knocked down by these fragments. , that’s called bad luck.

Everyone looked for places to hide, some hid in nearby bomb craters, some hid behind the ruins, and some squatted on the other side of the assault gun.