USSR 1941

It should be said that it is not uncommon for the Soviet Air Force to be used as ordinary infantry. Shulka encountered it when he was in Kyiv before... The paratroopers in Air Force uniforms charged towards the enemy's defense line with rifles, so that the Germans thought that the Soviets were fast. The troops were exhausted.

In fact, it is not just Kyiv. At that time, the Soviet Union had a total of five paratrooper corps, each with more than 10,000 paratroopers and a total strength of 53,146. They were deployed in Kharkov, Odessa and other places.

However, the fate of these paratroopers was of course just like the 1st Kyiv paratroopers, which failed to function and were used as ordinary infantry.

It should be said that these paratroopers are used as ordinary infantry.

To be precise, it is not reasonable, but a helpless choice... At the beginning of the war, the Soviet Air Force had no power to fight back and was almost beaten by the German Air Force, without even a chance to fight back.

On the other hand, the Soviet infantry was surrounded and annihilated by hundreds of thousands, and the German soldiers pointed directly at Moscow.

The Soviet paratroopers can only be used as ordinary infantry when there is no condition for airborne... Airborne without air supremacy is almost tantamount to courting death. The transport aircraft used for airborne may be completely wiped out before flying over the target In the air, the airborne troops will really be "airborne" by then.

But now, during the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets had reorganized the Airborne Forces... This happened in September 1941, during the outbreak of the Moscow Defense War, and the Supreme Command ordered the reorganization of the five Airborne Forces.

This is not to say that the Supreme Command has the foresight to know the importance of the air force, but that they hope to use the airborne troops to help defend Moscow... When the German air forces and ground forces attack Moscow in an all-round way, the Supreme Command hopes to be in the German army Airborne troops in the rear attacked its supply lines and thus helped defend Moscow.

This idea is good, because Moscow is such a small place, and the frontline troops that the Soviet Union can invest in at the same time are very limited. At that time, airborne troops will be needed to harass the German army everywhere.

However, these airborne troops were not dispatched in the end.

On the one hand, it is because airborne at night is very dangerous...Unable to win air supremacy, the Soviet Union can only hope for airborne at night.

On the other hand, when the airborne troops were almost formed, they found that it was no longer necessary or necessary to use airborne troops to carry out harassment. The cold weather had helped the Soviet Union complete this task.

From this point of view, although the German army was indeed approaching the city in the Battle of Moscow, it was not only a little bit away from capturing Moscow.

Then, these five airborne troops kept training until the Battle of Stalingrad... At this time, they were used as ordinary infantry and were still used on the front line of the Battle of Stalingrad entirely because of insufficient troops.

Obviously, this is a mistake in tactical thinking.

Because at this time the Soviet Army already had partial air supremacy and was capable of large-scale counter-offensive... For example, the Battle of Kharkov was the first counter-offensive launched by the Soviet Army. While attacking, parachute the airborne troops to the enemy's rear, or sneak attack on the enemy's ammunition depots, important supply lines, occupy important military positions, or even simply attack the German army on both sides.

The problem is that the Supreme Command that made the plan never thought of using it like this... If you fight like this,

Perhaps the Battle of Kharkov was another way, and the German army would not hit Stalingrad directly with a counterattack.

The result of keeping the airborne troops unused is that when the supply of troops is seriously insufficient, these troops who have undergone airborne training are organized into infantry divisions for emergency... This obviously cannot play the role of airborne troops, and they may not even be as good as ordinary infantry, because They are trained to airborne, and then attack the enemy with light weapons, so they basically don't know infantry-tank coordination (tanks cannot be airborne in this era, so airborne troops do not need infantry-tank coordination).

"They were divided into thirteen infantry divisions!" Trufanov pulled out a document and handed it to Shulka, saying: "The 32nd to 44th Guards Infantry Divisions were successively reinforced to Stalingrad battle, how many airborne troops are left... It is impossible to count!"

Shulka knew what "uncountable" meant.

The troops that were reinforced to fight in Stalingrad all have a characteristic, that is, there are a large number of casualties in the troops, and then they are replenished one after another. It may only take a week or even a few days for the entire army to be replaced with new blood.

As a result, those airborne soldiers who were supplemented to the infantry division may have disappeared on the battlefield.

This is indeed the case in history, because after the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet Army had to re-form the Airborne Army again, this time forming 8 Airborne Army.

It's just puzzling that these 8 airborne troops, like the Soviet air force before, were still used as ordinary infantry and exhausted.

What really went into actual combat was the formation of 20 airborne brigades in April 1943... These 20 airborne brigades fought an airborne operation on the Dnieper River that was called the most chaotic in history and the biggest disaster for the Soviet airborne troops.

"We can call up all the airborne troops again!" Shulka said: "Five airborne troops with a total strength of more than 50,000 troops. Even if there are a lot of casualties, we can gather a few thousand people!"

Zolotarev and Trufanov did not answer.

"Is there any problem?" Shulka asked, "You don't think you can get together these thousands of people?"

"No, Comrade Shulka!" Zolotarev replied: "In fact, some of these Guards divisions have not fought for too long, which means they remain relatively intact, such as the 37th Guards Infantry Division , and the 41st Guards Infantry Division, so it is not a big problem to get together a few thousand airborne troops!"

"Then..." Shulka spread his hands in confusion. "We have limited time!" Trufanov said: "Only one day!"    "This is not the main problem!" Zolotarev continued: "We have the ability to gather these airborne troops in a short time , After all, they were originally airborne troops and received relevant training. The problem is that we have no experience, the officers lack the command experience of airborne operations, and the soldiers lack combat experience...Is it too risky to do this?" , The Soviet military has lost confidence in airborne operations.   This may sound ridiculous, but the Soviet Union was the first country to create an airborne force. But when you think about it, it’s not surprising, because their opponents, the Germans, are too sophisticated, too good, and too successful in the use of airborne troops, so that even if the Soviet army has airborne troops, it is embarrassing or it can be said that they have no airborne troops. Courage to take out.