Chapter 598 Choose the battlefield
Shuerka was not kidding, Vavilovic really became the chief instructor of the mortar school, although he really can't do anything, he can't calculate ballistics, he can't calculate coordinates, he can't guide artillery fire...
Even Vavilovic was a little at a loss when facing a group of students, because he didn't know what he should teach.
Shulka helped Vavilovic say something.
"In this school, we don't need an artilleryman!" Shulka said. "It may be a little ridiculous, the mortar school doesn't need an artilleryman! But it is true, because we have to face the battlefield, the battlefield It will not be static, we must adapt to the battlefield and we must continue to change. This school is one of the changes!"
Someone asked: "Is this change not artillery?"
"Yes!" Shulka nodded: "You can't fight like artillery, but you should be an infantry! Just like Lieutenant Vavilovich. You need to run in the ruins, hide, and then rely on your feelings Fire a shell and then quickly shift positions. In this respect, you should be more of a sniper than an artillery, because you don't need to calculate the trajectory..."
"But we can't hit every shot like Second Lieutenant Vavilovich!"
"It's not important!" Shulka said: "The important thing is that you can live and put pressure on the Germans!"
So the trainees and Second Lieutenant Vavilovich knew what they were going to do.
Whether it can hit the target is indeed not the most important thing. The artillery shell is different from other equipment. A large part of it depends on the blasted shrapnel or debris to injure people, which requires a certain amount of luck.
It is rare to be able to make one hit and one shot like Vavilovic.
The light mortar has a unique advantage on a battlefield like Stalingrad, because it can shoot at the enemy without exposing itself in the ruins, and can even attack the enemy across buildings.
Of course, the Germans also have light mortars, and even the light mortars have a longer range than the light mortars in the hands of the Soviet army and the quality of the gunners is better.
This is one of the reasons why Shulka asked the Soviet mortars not to fight like artillery.
If the Soviet army fought lightly like artillery, it would be impossible to beat the German mortars who were better than the Soviet army in all aspects.
So we should fight differently and not take the usual path.
The German army fought lightly like artillery, that is, most of them needed to calculate the ballistics and bombing points. No matter how well-trained the German army was, it took a little time.
The Soviet army didn't need to do this, they let go of fighting completely by feeling, and at the same time constantly shifted positions... This would give them a little time advantage, and it is such a little time advantage that can often determine life and death on the battlefield.
More importantly, this mortar school is not independent yet, it cooperates with the sniper school: sniper rifles are aimed at direct targets, while mortars are aimed at targets hiding behind buildings and ruins.
Golikov is a little confused about Shulka's series of moves.
"How can they be used on the battlefield, Captain?" Golikov asked: "Block the enemy's attack? Or attack the enemy? They don't seem to be able to!"
Golikov was right.
Neither the sniper school nor the mortar school can be used as the main body of defense and offense. At most, they can only cooperate with the main attacking force in both offense and defense.
So, this might seem redundant.
"They don't attack and they don't defend, Comrade Golikov!" Shulka replied: "I mean, they don't perform routine tasks. But if necessary, they can also attack and defend, but the main purpose is to kill the enemy's vital forces. Lord, what the enemy lacks most is people, isn't it?"
"But the army you organized only has more than 300 people!" Golikov said.
The current two schools are only company-level, each with more than 100 students.
"Although I believe in you, your abilities and achievements are obvious to all!" Golikov continued: "But how many enemies can they kill?"
"Maybe more than we think, Comrade Golikov!" Shulka replied.
"Okay!" Golikov nodded: "I have no objection!"
Shulka knew what Golikov meant.
Another meaning of "not objecting" is actually "not supporting", which means that Golikov is not optimistic about this plan and is in a wait-and-see attitude. If the effect is not good in the future, the plan may be canceled at any time.
In this regard, Shulka was not surprised. After all, the Soviet army was more engaged in large corps operations, and there was a wave of attacks or charges at every turn. Like Shulka, he devoted his energy to two company-scale schools. It was a complete waste of time for Likov.
It can even be said that if it weren't for Shulka's previous achievements and reputation, Golikov would not have agreed with Shulka to do this.
As a result, the actual combat effect will come out immediately after three days.
That can be said to be actual combat, but it is still training for the two schools.
During these three days, both the sniper school and the mortar school conducted some simple tactical training, mainly the training of mortars and snipers... If you look at mortars as infantry, there are many trainings that are actually related to sniper training. The hands are the same, the difference is that snipers are direct fire weapons and mortarers are curved fire weapons, the latter has more hiding places and is more concealed because they don't need to stick their heads out to shoot like snipers.
Mortarists learn more about observing the target's position while leaping towards the concealed place, or roughly judging the target's position based on the enemy's gunshots, artillery sounds, smoke, etc.
These are not a problem, the difficulty is actually the choice of the battlefield.
Regarding this point, Shulka and Vasily collected a large amount of battlefield intelligence and screened them one by one.
"It shouldn't be too difficult to go to the battlefield for the first time!" Shulka said while dividing a large pile of documents in half in front of Vasili: "Too difficult will lead to heavy casualties of students and directly damage morale."
Vassily leaned the sniper rifle aside, nodded while flipping through the documents, and said, "The difficulty should not be too small, otherwise people will think that our two schools are ostentatious!"
"Yes!" Shulka is very satisfied with Vasily. He is not only an excellent sniper, but also considers the overall situation.
But it seems that a good sniper is a master of strategy rather than purely a sharpshooter.
"The most important thing is..." Shulka found a copy from the file and handed it to Vasili: "It was chosen. This battlefield is suitable for two schools to fight!"
Vassily took the document and looked at it, and then put it in an alternate location: "If there is no other more suitable, this is it!"
(end of this chapter)