Chapter 721: Crossroads of Fate

Considering that the German army has an absolute advantage in technological weapons, it is now enough to crush its own side in both artillery and air force.

When Political Commissar Petrov first selected a location for the temporary regiment headquarters, he selected a relatively intact house with a basement.

Although this house, which looks like it should have been some kind of warehouse before, is poorly constructed, in disrepair, and even seems to be leaky, at least it is directly connected to the attached underground storage room, which can come in handy at critical moments, like now. .

Malashenko and Petrov, two political commissars in tandem, and their entourage from the regiment evacuated to the basement to temporarily avoid the fierce German artillery fire coming from nowhere.

As soon as he arrived in the basement, Malashenko, who had not had time to take a breath, immediately connected with the political commissar Petrov and blurted out the questions he had been holding in his heart in an instant.

"Where on earth did these bastard Germans get the artillery shells from? It's like hell. The terrain in the city is so complicated. Did they move all the artillery positions here?"

The somewhat nervous Malashenko forgot a very crucial detail in his haste, but this does not mean that Political Commissar Petrov also forgot.

Political Commissar Petrov, who took a slight breath, listened to the vibrations of shelling that were still rumbling above his head. Combined with the direction of the whistling shells that he had just heard, he already guessed the answer that was close to 100%, and then he went to Malashenko spoke up.

"Under the current situation, as expected, Mamayev Heights should still be in the hands of the Germans. Those German artillerymen are inherently short-handed, and artillery positions deployed outside the city cannot hit the city near the Volga River. Come from the East Railway Station, not to mention the terrain and building obstructions in the city.”

"Only Mamayev Hill, only this place, can allow those German artillery to overlook the whole city, and can fire blockade and attack any street in the south and north of the city. The artillery positions deployed on the highlands can also make up for the lack of range. It’s not a problem to cover a distance of ten kilometers or eight kilometers!”

The city of Stalingrad, built in a north-south direction on the Volga River, is truly a wonderful idea.

This thin strip-shaped city makes full use of the convenience of waterway shipping on the Volga River, which will bring great development convenience to the entire city in peacetime. Not only is it very convenient to deliver raw materials into the city of Stalingrad, but the heavy equipment and military products produced can also be easily transported using water transportation, which is undoubtedly a great advantage.

But there is a very obvious landmark that lies in the center of Stalingrad, which runs north to south.

This landmark is not a man-made building, but a hilly plateau formed by the accumulation of graves of the dead in ancient times, Mamayev Hill!

There is a military philosophy in modern warfare in later generations, called "Whoever controls the sky wins half the war." It is used to describe the irreplaceable and important role of air superiority in modern warfare armed with high technology.

As for the city of Stalingrad at this moment, whoever captures Mamayev Heights will win half of the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. This way of describing it is not an exaggeration or even an exaggeration.

Even the German artillery, which is naturally short-handed, can pass through the strategic location of Mamayev Hill and extend the artillery strike range to the three directions of north, south, east and west at the same time. It can almost cover all the Soviet troops that have been identified and marked on the map. All strategic locations were covered by artillery fire.

Relying on the Mamayev Hill as an advanced combat base, the German army can also radiate more troops to carry out operations in all directions around the Mamayev Hill, with the stronghold highland as the core.

The ground connection between the Soviet troops in the south and north of the city is likely to be cut off by the Germans as a result. Any large-scale troop concentration will definitely lead to ruthless artillery fire as long as it is discovered by the Germans.

Mamayev Kurgan is so important! It was so important that the Soviet and German armies were willing to sacrifice countless young lives and continue to throw a lot of chips into the gambling table of Mamaev Kurgan like two crazy gamblers who were red-eyed after losing. The battle is to lose all the betting chips in your pocket first, and the person sitting across from the gambling table will be the final winner and winner.

And now, the shelling barrages roaring like a storm on the ground overhead are telling Malashenko and all the Soviet soldiers stationed south of the train station a cruel fact!

Since control of Mamayev Hills was seized by the Germans more than a day ago, control of the heart of Stalingrad is still in the hands of the Germans.

Feeling the ground shaking under his feet, Malashenko's face turned dark.

Judging from the level of artillery firepower that he was personally experiencing, the German artillery unit that was constantly dropping shells on his head at this moment was at least the size of a heavy artillery regiment.

Being able to send an entire heavy artillery regiment to the Mamayev Hill, which is a relatively rugged and steep terrain, the German army's actual control over this hell hill is probably so strong that it is very difficult to break. The heavy artillery regiment was sent to this post that was difficult to climb up and even more difficult to get down. This in itself is enough to show that the German army is confident and determined to win.

Malashenko was a little depressed. He couldn't figure out why the 13th Guards Infantry Division, which he replaced to defend the train station, could not even attack Mamayev Hill with the strength of an entire organic Guards Infantry Division. Not coming down.

In the original historical trend, the 13th Guards Infantry Division not only took on the task of defending the railway station with part of its forces, but also launched a fierce attack on Mamayev Kurgan occupied by the Germans with the forces of two main regiments. Under Chuikov's order, the entire division vowed to recapture Mamayev Kurgan occupied by the Germans.

The final result was that the 13th Guards Infantry Division completed both tasks at the cruel cost of only 320 people surviving in the entire division.

Not only did it drive the German troops entrenched in Mamayev Kurgan off their posts, but it also took back the Stalingrad railway station that had once fallen into the hands of the Germans.

According to Malashenko's original idea, the 13th Guards Infantry Division, which was replaced by the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment led by him, should be more comfortable with the task of recapture Mamayev Kurgan after fully devoting itself to the task of recapture Mamayev Kurgan, and it should be able to end the battle and successfully recapture the lost territory in a shorter time.

But the cruel reality at the moment is clearly not the case. Mamayev Kurgan is still firmly in the hands of the German army.

The heroic infantry division, which, like Malashenko, was named the Guards, did not complete its mission as the original historical trend would have expected.