Chapter 555 Night Fighter
Everyone makes mistakes, so Zhukov also makes mistakes.
In fact, this cannot be said to be Zhukov's fault, but that he, the supreme deputy commander, was ordered by Stalin.
Stalin changed his strategic goal to get in touch with Stalingrad. This is the biggest mistake.
This mistake determined that the Stalingrad Front had to launch a storm against the German army.
Under this strategic error, Zhukov had very little room to operate. He could only order the troops to attack, and he did so without adequate preparation.
On the other hand, the German army adopted a relatively clever defense-in-depth tactic.
The German line of defense in the area of Kotluban did not have an obvious line of defense, or their line of defense was flexible, and scattered guerrilla groups were arranged in front of the line of defense.
This was set up by Paulus, the commander of the German Sixth Army, based on the general lack of communication equipment and the confusion of communication and coordination in the Soviet army.
This approach is very clever, because it made quite a few Soviet troops not even know where the German defense line was, and suddenly found that they had entered the enemy's encirclement during the march, or thought that the front was the enemy's defense line and launched an attack, but there were no enemies at all.
So, in this 12-day battle, the Stalingrad Front invested a total of 250,000 soldiers, with 80,000 casualties.
In addition, the four armies had a total of 400 tanks and lost 300 tanks.
In addition, there were countless losses in artillery, vehicles, etc., many of which were destroyed without even seeing the enemy.
All these casualties only advanced the defense line by 11 kilometers, and they may be beaten back by the German army soon.
Major Mikhailvich looked at Shulka and asked: "If the Stalingrad Front cannot maintain its offensive, does it mean that we..."
Shulka nodded silently.
This is for sure, the loss of the German threat from the north means that they can concentrate all their forces against Stalingrad.
Just then the phone at the headquarters rang, and Akimovich answered the call.
Then he came back and said to everyone in frustration: "The Stalingrad Front has called, they have stopped attacking!"
It seemed to respond to these words, and the sound of the cannon outside weakened a lot.
"The Germans seem to have slowed down their offensive?" Major Mikhailvich looked at everyone in surprise.
"They did slow down their offensive!" Akimovich replied: "Every direction!"
"But... shouldn't their attack be more violent?" Major Mikhailvich asked suspiciously.
"This is the calm before the storm!" Golikov replied: "The enemy is planning a new offensive, and when that moment comes... the offensive will be much more violent than it is now!"
The headquarters suddenly fell into silence.
"What should we do?" Major Mikhailevich asked. "I mean, what can we do to prepare?"
"We don't know how the enemy will attack!" Akimovich replied: "So of course we can't prepare!"
"If there is anything we can prepare for, it is supplies!" Golikov continued.
This is obvious.
Because from the very beginning, the battle of Stalingrad revolved around supplies. The German army did everything possible to block the supplies of the Soviet army, while the Soviet army tried their best to lift the blockade.
Even the battle on Mamayev Kurgan was no exception.
"We have stored some supplies at the tractor factory!" Major Mikhailevich said.
"I know!" Golikov smiled wryly: "They are already used up!"
Shulka had expected this a long time ago. A group army of hundreds of thousands of people needed ammunition.
In addition to this, there are people trapped in Stalingrad who need food, medicine, etc.
These figures are almost astronomical, and the materials Shulka stored in the tractor factory can only be said to be a drop in the bucket.
"We estimate!" Golikov said: "As soon as it dawns tomorrow, the Germans will concentrate their air power to block the Volga River with all their strength, and at the same time will speed up the offensive to consume our army's supplies. When Stalingrad falls!"
Soon, Golikov's worries were fulfilled.
In fact, Golikov actually guessed wrong, because the German army blocked the Volga River that night.
"It's a German plane!" Akimovich's eyes widened after receiving the call: "They blew up our three transport ships!"
"But it's night!" Golikov asked: "How could their planes destroy our transport ship?"
"I... I don't know, Comrade Golikov!" Akimovich panicked: "But they just did it!"
This even caused quite a panic in Stalingrad.
Because the vast majority of Stalingrad's supplies come from night shipments, and now the Germans are able to blow up their transport ships at night...which is pretty much telling everyone in Stalingrad: "You're screwed!"
At this time, the 82nd regiment was still resting in the metallurgical plant.
The metallurgical plant is not far from the transportation channel of the Volga River, so the roar of planes, explosions, and the roar of anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns all night long.
However, anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns are useless at night, because they usually fight without seeing the target... This is especially the anti-aircraft gun. The delay fuze is adjusted, and then when the shell hits the air, it will explode at a similar height and damage the enemy aircraft with shrapnel.
Therefore, it is almost impossible to hit the target without seeing the enemy plane.
At this time, the anti-aircraft machine gun is more reliable, because it can roughly judge the position of the enemy plane by the whistling sound, the black shadow in the air, and the feeling when the searchlight swayed over the fuselage, and then shoot a bunch of bullets regardless of the randomness. .
However, it was clear that the German fighters had the upper hand.
Because not long after, there was another "boom", a burst of flames erupted on the river, and another transport ship was blown up.
"How did they see the transport ship?" Major Mikhailevich asked.
Shulka did not answer.
He knows what's going on...it should be BF110G4, a night fighter developed by the Germans, it locks on the target through the airborne radar.
However, this kind of night fighter is generally used for night air combat, because air combat has a certain height and is not easy to fall to the ground.
Unexpectedly, in order to block Stalingrad, the Germans risked crashing and put it into the night blockade of the Volga River.
Later, Shulka learned that the reason why the German army dared to do this was because they set up ground radar base stations in the upper and lower reaches of the Volga River. These ground radar base stations were used in conjunction with airborne radar, which greatly improved the night combat capability of BF110G4 .
(end of this chapter)
