Chapter 621 Crossing the River
This approach of the German army is indeed a good way.
The reason is that the railway bridge is not wide, and it can only accommodate one train at a time. It can be said that a tank or a car driving on the railway bridge will cause congestion if it is blown up.
Because of this, the use of the railway bridge by the German army has been limited to infantry and manual handling of supplies... Compared with cars and tanks that will block the entire bridge after being blown up, human transportation is much safer.
After all, the Soviet army continued to attack the railway bridge at this time, and mortars and other weapons hit the railway bridge from time to time, and the German army did not dare to take risks.
The disadvantage is that the transportation volume is too small, especially the supplies... In this case, the transportation of troops is not difficult, and only people need to go there.
The problem is that the more troops there are, the more supplies they will consume. More importantly, the ammunition consumed by the Soviet army will also rise in a straight line. Therefore, it is often useless to transport more troops across the river. supply balance.
In this case, the Germans naturally thought of the train.
Railway bridges are originally used to allow trains to pass through. Trains can transport a large number of troops and supplies, and can transport troops and supplies at the same time. At the same time, this kind of transportation is very fast. It only takes a few minutes to fully suppress the enemy's firepower, and then the train "woo" They all crossed the river with one sound.
"How many trains do they have?" Batrakov asked.
"We don't know, Comrade General!" replied the staff officer.
"It doesn't matter how many trains there are!" Shulka said: "The important thing is how many carriages there are!"
Shuerka said that the German army actually only needs one locomotive, and then a dozen carriages are enough.
If a carriage can carry 60 tons of goods...the Soviet Union uses wide gauges, and the carriages are wider, so the goods that can be loaded are actually more than 60 tons.
Then a dozen carriages means that about 700 tons of goods can be transported at a time.
It only needs to go back and forth once or twice, and the amount of ammunition transported is enough for the German army to occupy Station 2.
Batrakov couldn't help but change his face when he heard the words, and replied: "Although there are not many facilities left on the south bank of the Tsaritsa River..."
This is normal. The Soviet army was defenseless outside Stalingrad, and was attacked by the German army all the way from Kharkov to the vicinity.
But outside the city of Stalingrad, the Soviet army built up layers of defenses and retreated step by step. Under the orderly retreat, the Soviet army certainly would not leave much for the German army.
"But..." Batrakov searched on the map, pointed to a point and said, "This is the Makosimovsky Railway Station, and there are many abandoned train carriages piled up there!"
There is no need to say more about the next words.
Abandoned train carriage, no one takes it seriously.
Or it can be said that even if they were taken seriously when the Soviet army retreated, it would be difficult to deal with them... The train carriages are a pile of iron sheets and wood, who can do anything with them?
Blowing up wastes dynamite, burning consumes gasoline.
Who would have thought that they might be used by the Germans and might play a big role on the battlefield.
It is conceivable that German engineers are dismantling, repairing or assembling train carriages in Maximovsky at this time. It will not be long before a train will drive onto the track...
Batrakov anxiously walked around the table a few times, and then said: "No, I should report to the headquarters and ask the Air Force to bomb the Maximovsky Railway Station!"
"It won't work, Comrade General!" Shulka said: "Because of protecting the railway bridge, the surrounding airspace has long been blocked by German planes, and our air force can't get in at all!"
Maksimowski Railway Station is only a few kilometers away from the railway bridge, and Germany has the Air Force to protect the railway bridge, which is to protect the Maximovsky Railway Station.
"But what else can we do?" Batrakov said: "When they put together a train and bring supplies and troops, we will be finished! At that time, the Germans will have an absolute advantage over us, whether it is Troops, equipment, or supplies..."
Shuerka did not answer, he was silent for a while, and then said: "Why is this not an opportunity for us?"
"Opportunity? What opportunity?"
"Do we have any intelligence on the enemy on the south bank of the Tsaritsa River?" Shulka asked.
"We don't know much!" Batrakov replied: "We mainly focus on the west!"
Shulka is not surprised by this.
The west is the main attack direction of the German army, and the Tsaritsa River moat is in the south. The Soviet army believed that the German army would not cross the river to fight, so they did not even provide reconnaissance.
"So!" Shulka said: "If we haven't even scouted the south bank, does it mean that the deployment of German troops on the south bank is also very weak?"
"Of course, Comrade Shulka!" Batrakov replied: "Because of the Tsaritsa River, they can't fight over it, and neither can we. So, most of the Germans in this area are artillery, you know ...the artillery flanks our flank!"
Shulka nodded, then looked at Batrakov without saying a word.
Batrakov didn't understand what was going on at first, so he widened his eyes after thinking about it, and said in disbelief: "You don't mean to fight across the river!"
"why not?"
"This is impossible, Comrade Shulka!" Batrakov retorted almost screaming: "You are crazy, this is impossible!"
"We have no other choice, Comrade General!" Shulka said: "The only way to solve the crisis is to blow up the bridge, and it is impossible to blow up the bridge on the north bank, that is, on our side, because the Germans are heavily fortified with the bridgehead as the center. No matter how we attack, we will be blocked by them outside the defensive circle, and we will not be able to get close to the bridgehead at all! But the bridgehead on the south bank is different!"
This is common sense. The bridgehead on the south bank is the sphere of influence of the German army, and the bridgehead on the other side was captured by the German army, so the German army even transferred the defenders to the north bank to fight against the Soviet army.
"I know this!" Batrakov said. "The problem is that we can't get through it at all. You don't know how difficult it is to fight across the river, especially when the Germans have air superiority, and they have artillery. Their artillery fire will blow us all to the ground." In the river! We have no chance at all..."
"We can choose to cross the river at night!"
"They have a defense line along the coast!" Batrakov retorted: "Their machine guns will not let us pass!"
"I believe that the German army on the south bank will be very weak at that time!" Shulka said: "Because...their soldiers are likely to be on the train!"
Batrakov couldn't help being taken aback when he heard the words. What Shulka said seemed to be true, so the train was an opportunity for the Soviet army.
"Not to mention!" Shulka said: "Comrade General, we have an amphibious landing ship, it is not just a transport ship!"
(end of this chapter)
