USSR 1941

"Why didn't we counterattack?" Major Mikhailvich asked suspiciously: "Just like we did before, counterattack at night and destroy the enemy's artillery array!"

"The Germans have consolidated their defenses, Comrade Mikhailevich!" Major Akimovich explained: "The terrain around Mamayev Kurgan is complex, with canyons and gullies on its two wings, which prevents us from Outflank it. The front is Mamayev Hill. Although we can indeed take back the front slope of Mamayev Hill with the cover of artillery as before, but only on the front slope... The enemy is in Mamayev Several lines of defense have been built at the foot of Mount Gang, and we will have to withdraw our troops or even give up the frontal slope as soon as the sky is light!"

In other words, the positive slope of Mamayev Hill has become a buffer zone for the German army. The German army can abandon it at any time when it is dark. When the sky is bright... the Soviet army must return it to the German army, otherwise it will have to pay a heavy price. casualties.

As a result, the command immediately fell silent.

Although Mamayev Hill is still under the control of the Soviet army, it has become a sharp knife inserted into the center of Stalingrad because the German army boldly deployed long-range artillery here.

This sharp knife not only poses a huge threat to the transportation line of the Volga River, but also faintly divides Stalingrad into two unconnected areas, the south and the north.

The latter may not be obvious, since the main task of the German artillery at this time is to block the transport line on the river.

But one day, when Stalingrad is very weak due to a severe lack of supplies, the German army only needs to turn the muzzle, and immediately use shells to cut off the bottleneck area from Mamayev Post to the Volga River, which is only about two kilometers away.

This was fatal for Stalingrad.

Because a considerable part of Stalingrad's supplies are self-produced... As I said before, there are many factories in Stalingrad that produce bullets, artillery shells and even tanks day and night.

But these factories are all concentrated in the northern factory area, while most of the personnel and troops are concentrated in the densely built southern residential area.

(Note: Under the planned economy, the construction of the Soviet Union is very regular, and Stalingrad is no exception)

Once the passage between the factory area in the north and the residential area in the south is cut off, there is no need to say much about what it means... The people and troops in the south will be extremely short of supplies, and although there are supplies in the north, there will be no one, so they will soon die. will be broken individually.

After a long silence, Andrianka finally said: "Maybe we can suppress it with artillery fire!"

Major Akimovich shook his head.

"We thought about that too,

Comrade Andrianka! Akimovich replied helplessly: "The problem is that our supplies are not allowed... We need a large number of shells to ensure that we can suppress the enemy's artillery, and this increases the pressure on the transportation line. The result is..."

Major Akimovich spread his hands.

This means that everyone understands that the short-term safety of the transportation line in exchange for a large number of shells may not be enough to shoot out.

In other words, this is actually doing useless work and even counterproductive.

This is where Paulus is clever: it is indeed a taboo to put long-range artillery fire in front, but as the saying goes, "soldiers are impermanent, water is impermanent", doing so in the absence of supplies in Stalingrad will become the tasteless of the Soviet army .

Air Force, Infantry, Artillery... Various arms and plans were rejected one by one, and Stalingrad seemed to be in the final dead end, only waiting to be nibbled by the German army and finally wiped out.

At this time, Shulka said: "Why do we have to drive the Germans back?"

Major Mikhailvich looked at Shulka puzzled, and replied: "Because we have to do this! Those artillery are facing our supply line!"

"If they're facing our supply lines!" Shulka said, "why don't we open up some other supply lines?"

"You mean transport from other directions?" Major Akimovich shook his head and denied: "We can't do it, Comrade Shulka! The other directions are blocked by sandbars, and transport ships cannot pass!"

"It seems that the transport ship can't do it, but why don't we use the amphibious landing ship?" Shulka asked.

"Amphibious landing ship?" Major Akimovich's eyes lit up. "You mean... the amphibious landing ship used in the Crimean Peninsula? The amphibious landing ship you designed?"

As a staff officer, Major Akimovich is especially a "fan" of Shulka, so of course he knows about this battle and the amphibious landing ship.

"Yes!" Shulka replied: "It can travel both on the river and on the land, why don't we use it to transport supplies? Especially for those areas that need to cross the sandbar... It doesn't need to be used frequently loading and unloading!"

"That's a really good idea, Comrade Shulka!" Major Akimovich said. "But, as far as I know... those amphibious landing ships can't steer, I mean they can't steer on land!"

"That's because we needed an emergency landing in the Crimea at that time!" Shulka replied: "So after the crude amphibious landing ship was produced, it was put into use urgently. After that, our R\u0026D personnel have been developing capabilities The amphibious landing craft that controls the direction... It's not difficult, you think?"

This is of course, because it is enough to directly transplant the direction control system of the car to the amphibious landing ship.

"I believe..." Shulka said: "They should have developed an amphibious landing ship that can control the direction. It's just that we didn't know they had it, and they didn't know we needed it. So..."

Golikov and Akimovich were dumbfounded when they heard this.

This is indeed possible, because the amphibious landing ship is still a new type of equipment for the Soviet army, especially the amphibious landing ship that can control the direction.

Therefore, for this equipment, of course, the news is blocked.

But blocking news is sometimes not a good thing. For example, Golikov and Akimovich know nothing about it now.

To be exact, Akimovich is not ignorant of it, but thinks that this kind of amphibious landing ship is still in a state where it cannot control its direction, so it is only suitable for landing.

"If!" Shulka pointed to the map and said, "We use amphibious landing ships to carry out transportation at any point on the front with a width of 50 kilometers, while the furthest range of the enemy's artillery is only 10 kilometers..."

"Then we can perfectly avoid the enemy's artillery blockade!" Golikov continued.

"Yes!" Shulka nodded.

In the next second, Golikov ordered: "Contact the Front Army Command immediately, immediately!"