USSR 1941

Paulus put his idea into practice that night.

Paulus called this plan "Plan Anaconda".

The meaning of the name of this plan is to regard Stalingrad as a target, and then through some means such as the coordination of artillery, infantry and air force, to entangle and tighten Stalingrad like a python strangling the target, and finally kill every bone They were crushed and finally strangled to death.

More than one hundred artillery pieces from the two artillery regiments were quietly deployed to the front of the line of defense that night.

This front is mainly in the direction of Mamayev Kurgan.

The reason why the artillery was deployed in the direction of Mamayev Hill was because the German army’s offensive line in the Mamayev Hill area was the deepest at this time. The deployment of artillery here can effectively block the Soviet army's transportation.

On the other hand, because Mamayev Hill is located on the opposite slope and the German army occupies the front slope, the defense line in this area is more stable, unlike other positions that will be infiltrated by the Soviet army from the ground or the ruins at any time. And then into a melee in the dark night.

And this is obviously conducive to the survival and function of German artillery.

In fact, the German army has always hoped to seize and control Mamayev Gang for this reason, but they dare not do so because Mamayev Gang has not been completely captured.

The reason for "not daring" is that the Soviet mortars on Mamayev Gang can threaten the long-range artillery deployed by the German army at the front.

This is obviously a good opportunity for the Soviet army to fight big with small things and can't be moved by maneuvering... The advantage of long-range artillery over mortars lies in their long range and high power. Mortars usually have no chance to fight long-range howitzers.

Once the front of the long-range artillery enters the range of the mortar, it is to use one's own shortcomings to attack the other's strengths.

The reason is very simple. The long-range artillery has a huge body and is difficult to hide. At the same time, the maneuvering speed is slow and often requires a car tow, while the mortar can run all over the mountain with only a few people splitting its back, and can set up the gun to the target in a short time Fire the shells and move quickly.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, no one is stupid enough to place long-range artillery within the range of enemy mortars.

However, Paulus did not follow common sense and boldly deployed long-range howitzers on the front line.

Of course, Paulus is bold without being reckless.

First of all, the two wings of Mamayev Gang have been weakened to a certain extent under the coordinated offensive of the German infantry.

This is also one of the reasons why Paulus dared to put the artillery forward. Otherwise, if the German artillery moved towards Mamayev Post, it would be a natural tendency to be surrounded by Soviet artillery. Dare to do it.

This was followed by Paulus adding mortars to the German infantry on the front slope of the Mamayev hill.

Using mortars to suppress enemy mortars, coupled with the coordination of fighter planes, Paulus believed that it would be difficult for enemy mortars to free up their hands to deal with German long-range artillery.

Facts have proved that Paulus's idea is correct, especially the quality of German mortars is much better than that of the Soviet army.

As for quality, the more technical the arms, the more important it is.

For example, infantry, even if they have no combat experience and have not undergone strict training, they may be able to kill a few people by pulling the trigger, or they can gain the upper hand in hand-to-hand combat with a little strength and luck... and the opponent's tactics and experience are different in some special situations. Under certain circumstances, he may not be able to perform at all and be beaten to death by a group of recruits.

But that's not what the technical arm artillery does.

The artillery observation occupies a favorable observation position, and the enemy's position can be calculated in a few seconds, and then the position is reported to the artillery by phone... The enemy has just set up the artillery, and the shells have not had time to fire. It has passed.

In this case, quality is speed, and being faster, even just a little, can be the difference between life and death.

The Soviet army stationed on Mamayev Post is the 39th Guards Infantry Regiment.

Although this regiment has the title of "Guard" and its combat effectiveness is good, it can only be said that it is resolute in combat, not afraid of sacrifices and difficulties... If we really want to talk about quality, a considerable part of its mortar gunners have not even received any training.

This is determined by the high casualty rate of the Soviet army, especially the guards who dared to fight and rush. The well-trained mortar gunners almost died within a few days of going into battle, and the rest were learning and fighting now.

Therefore, on Mamayev Post, the German mortars undoubtedly suppressed the Soviet mortars.

Coupled with the cover of the German Air Force, the long-range artillery in front of Paulus played a role.

As soon as the sky dawned, the long-range artillery deployed by the German army fired out pieces of shells.

Their first target was the sandbar in the middle of the Volga.

As I said before, the Soviet army deployed a large amount of anti-aircraft firepower there, anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns, and even some anti-aircraft bunkers.

The so-called anti-aircraft bunker is to set up a certain thickness of protection around it, and only expose a space on the top for anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns to shoot.

Such air defense bunkers have no effect on bombers, especially dive bombers like the "Stuka", because dive bombers can drop aerial bombs into the bunker from the top down.

However, the air force's suppression of ground air defense firepower is actually more effective with machine guns and cannons.

The cost of aerial bombs is high, including the cost of the bomb, the cost of the fighter plane, the cost of transportation, etc. The cost of transportation in war must not be ignored. In extreme cases, the cost of transportation will often exceed the cost of the bomb or even several times.

And such a bomb can only target one enemy air defense firepower point at a time, and at the same time, there is a certain probability of deviating from the target, which means that the cost-effectiveness ratio is very low.

Instead, it is machine guns and machine guns, a shuttle of bullets that swoop down and aim at the target, with a high probability of killing the enemy and damaging the equipment.

Anti-aircraft bunkers are designed to avoid this situation, and it can withstand most attacks from enemy fighter machine guns and machine guns.

On the contrary, this thing is a headache for the Luftwaffe.

This made the German fighter planes always unable to rest assured or ultra-low altitude when blockading the Soviet Volga River transportation line, because in this way they themselves would face the risk of being shot down by the enemy's anti-aircraft fire.

Now, the Germans put long-range artillery fire forward and backward, and these problems are solved.

The German reconnaissance plane observed the sandbar in the air, and then reported the coordinate data of each air defense bunker to the headquarters by radio, and then cooperated with the artillery to guide the artillery to knock down those air defense bunkers and anti-aircraft fire points one by one.

Naturally, this day is the day of carnival of the Luftwaffe.

A fighter plane and a bomber were dispatched in turn, without the threat of anti-aircraft firepower, they recklessly bombarded the transport ships on the river at low altitude.

Soon, the German long-range artillery also joined the ranks of bombing the transport ships.