Chapter 588 Another way
It can be said that it is safe to mix 20 real amphibious landing ships into each transportation line, because even if the German army knows that there are real amphibious landing ships mixed in, they can't tell the difference, so they don't know which ones to attack.
In fact, the most important thing is that the German army cannot afford to consume its supplies, otherwise it can attack it indiscriminately.
Then in the middle of the night, Shulka ordered all amphibious landing ships to be put into transport.
At this time, Paulus and Colonel Fred were still looking at the map in the headquarters, feeling helpless.
"We seem to be able to just watch as they ship supplies to Stalingrad, General!" Colonel Fred said, "I heard that the Russians are building a large number of fake landing ships, and we can't tell the real from the fake. Is this true?" Is it the 'breakout hero' strategy you mentioned?"
"I think so, Colonel!" Paulus replied helplessly: "At first I thought he was just an officer, but... I found that he is a person who can influence the situation of the battle, understand?"
Colonel Fred nodded.
If he didn't understand it before, of course he understands it now.
"Maybe we have a way!" Paulus said.
"What?" Colonel Fred looked at Paulus suspiciously, he didn't believe there was any other way to deal with this tactic.
"If we can't stop it all the time!" Paulus said: "Then we will carry out a surprise attack at a certain time!"
"So they must suffer losses?"
"Yes!" Paulus replied: "The time we choose to attack is random, without any rules. Then the Russians have only two choices, either use fake transport ships all the time, or suffer losses!"
"But it can't be completely blocked!" Colonel Fred said.
"Of course!" Paulus replied: "We don't want a complete blockade now, but we can reduce the enemy's transportation as much as possible. In this way..."
"Over time, will we still have the advantage?"
Paulus nodded, then pointed to the map and said: "In addition, we have a little advantage: the sandbar divides the Volga River in two, that is, the west section and the east section. False, but what is certain is...the western part of the Volga River, there will be more real landing ships!"
Fred couldn't help but "oh" when he heard the words: "Because the real landing ship will definitely transport the supplies to Stalingrad, that is, it will definitely pass through the western sector!"
"Yes!" Paulus said: "To be precise, the western and eastern sections are the places where real landing ships must pass, but we can artificially make the western section more! For example, we only attack the western section... Whether true or false!"
Colonel Fred nodded repeatedly.
This is indeed a good strategy.
Assume that the Russian army has deployed the same number of fake landing ships on the east and west sections of the Volga River, and at the same time, the middle is separated by a sandbar, and the fake landing ships cannot pass through the sandbar.
So, if the German fighters only attack the landing ships in the western section, there will naturally be fewer and fewer landing ships in the western section.
Then, the real amphibious landing ship will be exposed in front of the German pilots.
Of course, the Russian army can use some means to increase the number of fake landing ships in the western section, such as going around from the eastern section to the western section, or producing fake landing ships to launch... But this will multiply the manpower, material resources and time of the Russian army.
On the other hand, if the German planes bombed along the western sector, most of the threats to the fighters would be Stalingrad's anti-aircraft firepower. Stalingrad was also consuming ammunition while defending the air.
Thinking of this, Colonel Fred immediately said to Paulus: "I'm going to organize the attack now!"
"No, Colonel!" Paulus took out his pocket watch, looked at it, and said, "It's only two hours before dawn...We shouldn't prematurely expose our countermeasures to the enemy just because of the two-hour bombing!"
"Yes, General!"
This tactic is really useful, because it is actually "responsive to all changes with the same". For the landing ships that bombed the entire Volga River section, the effect of bombing only the western section will be much better than the entire river section.
Because it instantly disabled more than half of the fake landing ships in the eastern section.
To the embarrassment of the Soviet army, the fake landing ships in the eastern section cannot be saved, because if there are no fake landing ships in the eastern section, it means that the real landing ships will be exposed to the firepower of enemy fighters.
So the next night, the Soviet army who was caught off guard had this situation: the fake landing ships in the western section were almost lost, while the fake landing ships in the eastern section were all missing, but they could not be transferred because of the obstruction of the sandbar. to the west.
"If we want to transfer to the western section..." Major Mikhailvich said, pointing to the map: "There are only three waterways that can go, the north and south of the Volga River, and the transportation channel in the direction of Mamayev Gang! "
There is no need to say more about the next words.
At this time, Stalingrad was surrounded by the German army on three sides, that is, the north and south were occupied by the German army.
In fact, it does not mean that it was completely occupied, but that the German army occupied the west bank of the Volga River.
Occupying the West Bank means that the river can be blocked with artillery fire, so detours from the north and south are not feasible.
The only channel is the transportation channel in the middle of Mamayev Gang.
But in the direction of the transportation channel, it has always been the main channel for the Soviet army to scramble supplies. German artillery fire and fighter planes have never interrupted the blockade there... If fake landing ships pass by there, not only will the river be blocked Enemy artillery fire and fighter planes were blown up in batches.
"What about the loss?" Shulka asked.
"Not much loss!" Major Mikhailvich replied: "Thirty-five amphibious landing ships were blown up!"
As for the fake landing ships, that is not something the Soviet army needs to consider at all, although most of them are also manned.
"The problem is that we have to stop shipping!" Andrianka said: "Or, at least this time, we have to stop shipping until we have enough fake landing ships in the western sector!"
"And it may not be of much use!" Major Mikhailevich said: "Even if we transfer or manufacture the fake landing ships and deploy them in the western sector, they will be blown up by the Germans soon! Germany The people used a new tactic...they threw petrol cans into the river and set it on fire!"
"This fire can not only indicate the target for the fighter!" Andrianka explained: "It can also burn on the river for a long time, which is a fatal blow to those wooden and bamboo fake landing ships!"
After thinking about it, Shulka said: "We seem to have done one thing wrong, Comrade Major...We always follow the enemy's thinking, but never thought of finding another way!"
(end of this chapter)