USSR 1941

As a result, the amphibious landing ships were put into use at night, and the whole process was kept strictly confidential.

The secrecy work is mainly the management of transportation routes and starting and ending points.

From the material warehouse on the east bank, to the sandbar in the middle of the Volga River, and finally to the storage warehouse in Stalingrad, all personnel are arranged for martial law and protection.

This unit is the 33rd Guards Infantry Division... The 33rd Guards Infantry Division is a unit directly under the 62nd Army. Every soldier is a veteran who knows the basics, and any one has disappeared or left the army without explaining a reasonable reason will be kicked out of the unit.

This is why it goes without saying.

In actual combat, the Soviet army found that many soldiers disappeared inexplicably and then returned. The soldiers were not as simple as getting lost, getting separated, and then finding their troops.

In fact, some of them were captured by the German army, and then they were left with evidence and handles, and then released them to collect intelligence for the German army and carry out espionage activities.

During the war, even the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Army had difficulty finding out which of those who returned to the army had been prisoners and which were indeed just scattered... This was caused by the chaotic management of the Soviet Army and the lack of identification documents , Their ID card is often just a fighter card, which is easily lost in battle.

Therefore, if you want to ensure that there are no spies in a unit, you have to kick out all the soldiers who have been separated from the unit and put them into another unit with a lower level of secrecy.

Although this approach is simple and crude, it is very effective.

For example, now, the 62nd Army still has troops available when it wants to keep it secret... The 33rd Guards Rifle Division is responsible for keeping the new transport line in Stalingrad secret.

The reason why it is said as a whole is that after discussions between Golikov and Shulka, two supply lines were opened in Stalingrad.

Each of these two supply lines is transported by one hundred amphibious landing ships, and is divided into two lines, the south and the north, which are respectively responsible for the supply of the industrial area in the northern half of Stalingrad and the residential area in the southern half.

The reason for this distribution is to make the supply more efficient.

There are factories in the northern half of the industrial area that can produce ammunition, so there is a shortage of food and no shortage of ammunition.

The southern half of the residential area has a certain amount of food reserves, as well as bakery workshops and the like, but the ammunition needs to be delivered from outside, so it is even more short of ammunition.

If only one transportation line is established,

It is inevitable that the supply will be transported to the north or south, and then the second transport will transport the supply between the north and the south.

On the contrary, after the establishment of two transport lines, although there are still more than 200 amphibious landing ships, they can be tilted according to the different needs and conditions of the south and north, so that the supply can be transported in one place to increase the efficiency.

This is like what I said before, at this time Stalingrad needs to carefully plan and grasp every bit of interest and opportunity.

Due to the good secrecy work, the soldiers stationed in Stalingrad found that the supply situation seemed to have improved. For example, the amount of ammunition for the front-line combat troops had increased significantly, but the strange thing was that the Germans still continued to implement the Stalingrad transport line day and night. bombing.

Food hasn't improved much yet.

This is not because the transport volume is not enough to increase the rations.

In fact, more than 200 amphibious transport ships shuttle back and forth between the east bank and the west bank throughout the night, and the supplies they bring will not only completely change the supply situation, but also increase the rations appropriately.

This also fully shows that the transportation effect of the amphibious landing ship is good, and its transportation efficiency can even be said to be seriously underestimated.

Because even when the large transport ship is not blocked by the German army, there will still be such a transportation process: first, the materials must be transported from the warehouse on the east bank to the port on the east coast by car, then loaded on the ship at the port on the east coast, and then transported to the port on the west coast, unloaded. Ship, and finally transported by car to warehouse or in all directions.

It is different to use amphibious transport ships to transport materials. All these processes can be omitted. It is directly loaded from the warehouse on the east bank, and then directly transported to the target warehouse on the west bank in one go.

Of course, in order to shorten the time to cross the Volga River as much as possible, the Soviet army still set up temporary storage points on both banks.

In other words, although the amphibious transport ships have a small volume, most of them are the size of lifeboats, the actual transport efficiency is quite impressive.

However, in order to be able to carry out strategic deception on the enemy, that is, to convince the German army that the supply situation in Stalingrad is getting worse and worse, the rations of the soldiers not only did not improve but worsened.

This is of course the result of discussions between Shulka and Golikov.

"Our soldiers will inevitably be captured by the enemy!" Shulka said: "The Germans will learn from them about the supply situation of our army. Otherwise, if the rations of the soldiers are getting worse and worse, they will think that the current blockade is correct, and at the same time think that they only need to work harder to completely kill them in this city and continue or even strengthen it blockade!"

"Then ammunition..."

"The impact of the ammunition is too great!" Shulka replied: "Reducing the ammunition may achieve the purpose of deceiving the enemy, and the effect may even be better, but it will increase the casualties of our army. I think it is not worth it. Moreover, We can find a very good reason...the supply of ammunition is because we have increased the production of the factory area!"

"That's right!" Golikov nodded: "In fact, we did exactly that!"

At this time, Major Akimovich handed them two pieces of bread and said, "I don't think this kind of strategic deception is applicable to us!"

"Of course!" Shulka unceremoniously took the bread and stuffed it into his mouth.

During this period of time, he was so hungry that he was a little dizzy even walking. He didn't want to continue to torment himself like this... It wasn't until he was starved that he realized that other difficulties were nothing compared to hunger.

As the saying goes, "a full man doesn't know a hungry man is hungry", it is difficult for people who have never been hungry to understand the feeling of being so hungry that their eyes stare at each other and they feel powerless.

As soon as it was daylight, all transportation tasks stopped.

In fact, for fear of being discovered by the German army, the transport mission stopped half an hour before dawn. No matter whether the transport ship was on the east bank or the west bank at this time, or during transport, it had to go back to the nearest concentration point to hide itself.

(Note: The 33rd Guards Infantry Division set up three concentration points, namely the starting point, the end point, and the sandbar in the middle of the river.)

As the German bombers "rumbled" into the sky, the Soviet army's deception plan during the day also started.