USSR 1941

"Amphibious landing ship?" Khrushchev asked. "You mean the kind of ship used to transport supplies?"

Although Khrushchev is not a military chief, he has heard of the amphibious landing ship used to transport supplies to Stalingrad. Because it's a "new outfit"...

People are naturally curious about novel things, especially things like "amphibious landing craft" that can "walk" on land and "swim" in water. It can almost be said that a considerable part of it has been achieved. man's dream.

As a result, the "amphibious landing ship" was quickly spread to ten or ten, and of course it also reached the ears of Khrushchev.

"Yes!" Shulka replied.

"I heard you invented it?" Khrushchev asked again.

"It can be said that, Comrade Political Commissar!" Shulka replied, secretly thinking that Khrushchev knew a lot, and it seems that he should have investigated himself before.

"Very good!" Khrushchev nodded and said, "It seems that it is not just used to transport supplies?"

"Yes, Comrade Political Commissar!" Shulka replied: "In fact, it was originally developed for naval landing operations!"

Khrushchev nodded slowly and said, "I've heard about it. If I remember correctly, it was the landing operation on the Crimean Peninsula!"

"Yes, Comrade Commissar! That was the first time it was used on the battlefield!"

"But now we are fighting across the river!" Khrushchev asked again: "What role can it play?"

"Many difficulties in crossing the river are almost non-existent in front of it!" As he said, Shulka took a pen and paper and drew two lines on it to represent the river, and then drew several amphibious landing ships... In fact It's just a banana with two extra wheels, and that painting skill is like a primary school student's graffiti.

But Khrushchev didn't care about these, he seemed to have entered the scene that Shulka had drawn, and waited intently for Shulka to continue talking.

Shulka bit the bullet and explained while drawing: "There are usually two methods of crossing the river, building a pontoon bridge or using a boat to force the crossing, or both at the same time. But both have a problem, they are easily blocked by enemy firepower On the river, even if the crossing is successful, it will often be repulsed by the enemy due to problems with troops, equipment, or follow-up troops and supplies. Among them, the forced crossing by boat must require land, boats and then land. "

This can also be said to be the difficulty of amphibious landing operations.

It can be said that the river crossing operation is a special kind of amphibious landing battle, the only difference is that the opposite bank of the river is also within the enemy's sight and blockade range, and at the same time, the amphibious landing battle can be prepared on ships farther away.

In this respect, river crossing operations are more difficult than amphibious landing operations.

"The advantage of the amphibious landing ship..." Shulka drew a circle on the amphibious landing ship, and then continued: "It is that it can omit the process of switching between land and river water, and we can make preparations at a far away location. Then quickly cross the river to reach the enemy's position, which can cause a strong impact on the enemy on the other side of the river. On the other hand, the replenishment of supplies and follow-up troops can also follow up in time... I mean, if there are enough amphibious landing ships. !"

"It's just your imagination, isn't it?" Khrushchev said.

"No, Comrade Political Commissar!" Shulka said: "We have actually fought. Near the No. 2 railway station, we crossed the Tsaritsa River with an amphibious landing ship!"

"Is there such a thing?" Khrushchev expressed a little interest.

Khrushchev didn't know that this incident was normal. On the one hand, it happened within a few days, and on the other hand, it could only be regarded as a small battle with a short time and small scale. Say nothing.

Golikov nodded to Akimovich at the right time, and Akimovich understood, immediately found the relevant documents and handed them to Khrushchev.

"This is the report on that battle, Comrade Political Commissar!" Akimovich introduced: "Its purpose is to blow up the railway bridge occupied by the enemy. It is also commanded by Comrade Shulka!"

Khrushchev glanced at Shulka again after hearing the words, and then sat down and slowly flipped through the documents.

Occasionally Khrushchev nodded, stopping to look carefully for a few minutes, and then asked: "Is this because the Germans didn't know that amphibious landing craft could be used for crossing rivers? I mean, they didn't know that Unprepared so let's win!"

Shulka knew what Khrushchev meant... This is actually not a literal question, or the literal question is not important. After all, the railway bridge has been blown up, and the Germans can't change it if they are prepared or not. this ending.

What Khrushchev was worried about was that the Germans were prepared for this, so it would be extended to the defensive lines stationed by the Romanian troops on the two wings, so the Soviet attack on the two wings would not be as smooth as the attack on the railway bridge.

Shulka thought for a while, and then replied: "The Germans may be on guard. The problem is that they can't make up for this gap in a short time!"

Khrushchev looked at the map, then nodded in agreement.

The situation is obvious. The German army will use its main force to attack the Caucasus and Stalingrad. The Romanian army and the Italian army have a total of more than 200,000 people defending the 138-kilometer long river bank along the Don River... From the perspective of the German army, they have to do this , because their strength is limited, they can only use weak troops to defend the flanks and then concentrate their forces to attack Stalingrad.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for the German army to pose a powerful impact and threat to Stalingrad.

However, this is precisely the weakness of the German army, an irreparable weakness.

In other words, even if the Germans realized that the amphibious landing craft might pose a threat to their wings, they would have nothing to do, unless the Germans retreated before the Soviets attacked, but this is impossible, and Hitler would not allow this to happen... The last attack on Moscow had failed, and that failure could be attributed to weather problems or lack of preparation. This time, the attack on Stalingrad was launched with sufficient preparation. If it fails again, it will almost mean that the German army will never be able to attack. It is also impossible to defeat the Soviet Union, because there will be a second and a third Stalingrad in the future.

After a long silence, Khrushchev said: "There is another question, Comrade Shulka, how can we evade the enemy's air superiority? If there is no air superiority, how can we intersperse under the enemy's counterattack and kill the German army?" Surrounded by the main force?"