Chapter 654 Molotov Cocktail

When Zhukov was ordered to take over, the German army had already captured Verdach, 50 kilometers north of Karachi, overnight as planned.

Verdach was named because the Don River from the port city of Karachi to Verdach made a big bend. The Soviets called it the Great Bay. The two divisions of the 62nd Army were deployed along the curved Don River.

If Lieutenant General Lopatin, the commander of the 62nd Army, acted decisively, he should have ordered the two divisions to withdraw to Stalingrad immediately, so that they could still play a role in the defense of Stalingrad.

But it was also because of Stalin's Order No. 227... Although everyone in the Soviet army knew that the Soviet troops stationed in the Great Bay should withdraw, Lieutenant General Lopatin hesitated, and the soldiers on the front line were afraid of being sent to the disciplinary camp and did not dare to withdraw, so no one moved.

While the Soviets were still undecided, the German 21st Armored Division had already rushed to the city of Verdach along the highway and captured Verdach at lightning speed... Verdach had no armored trains, and the Soviet army, lacking anti-tank equipment, even hoped to use homemade Molotov cocktails to stop the German tanks from advancing.

The Soviets called this kind of Molotov cocktail "Molotov cocktail", but ironically, this name was given by the Finns...

During the Soviet-Finnish War, most countries condemned the Soviet Union's naked invasion, especially European and American countries.

In response, Soviet Foreign Affairs People's Commissar (Foreign Minister) Motolov explained to these countries: "Soviet planes did not drop bombs on the Finnish people, we were just dropping bread to the hungry Finnish people!"

This word spread to Finland, and at that time, the Finnish military and civilians generally used simple and effective homemade Molotovs to block Soviet tanks, so the Finnish people joked: "The Soviets dropped bread to us, we should treat them with cocktails!"

So the "Molotov cocktail" was born.

Qin Chuan was not surprised at all if the "Motolov cocktail" was effective against Soviet tanks.

This was not because of the tanks. In fact, from the perspective of tanks, this homemade Molotov cocktail should be more effective against German tanks.

On the one hand, this was because German tanks were more easily ignited using gasoline engines, and on the other hand, many German tanks had engines placed in front.

The key to the problem was the coordination between infantry and tanks.

The Soviet army's coordination between infantry and tanks was very poor, which was particularly evident in the Soviet-Finnish War... That was when the Soviets had just entered the war and entered the battlefield as complete outsiders.

Therefore, Finnish soldiers and civilians often went around the back of Soviet tanks and threw Molotov cocktails to the position of the tank engine to cause it to overheat and malfunction.

But for the German army, this was almost impossible with their tight coordination between infantry and tanks, and even those holding Molotov cocktails could not get within a hundred meters of the tanks.

In fact, the infantry was more threatened...

When the Soviets found that their Molotov cocktails could not be thrown on the tanks, they turned their targets to the German infantry. Anyway, for them, killing one was one.

So, the advancing German soldiers would be attacked by a bottle and then scream with their bodies on fire.

It was miserable, but what was even more miserable was that some people survived with the help of their comrades...

One of Qin Chuan's soldiers was in this situation, with large areas of burns on his body, and blood oozing out from the charred skin and flesh. The soldier cried and stretched out his equally charred hand to touch his pain, but a layer of skin fell off as soon as he touched it, revealing the flesh and blood that was still steaming inside.

Although the casualties caused were not large, it caused a certain degree of intimidation to the German army because this thing was too simple to make. You only need to fill a little gasoline or kerosene in the bottle, then stuff a piece of cloth in it, and light it on fire before throwing it.

The result of the simple production is that this thing is hard to defend against everywhere. When walking, a Molotov cocktail is suddenly thrown down from the roof.

"Damn the Soviets!" Werner couldn't help but curse: "They should fight us in a more decent way!"

This is not just Werner's opinion, many German soldiers and even German officers said so.

This may be a cultural difference. They retain something like chivalry, or it can be said to be a duel culture... Although the purpose is cruel and is to kill the other party, they will find a notary and even prepare a doctor, and then face to face with both sides fully prepared for a "decent" life-and-death battle.

But war is not like this. It is only cruel, realistic and naked interests. Or it can be said that Germany has realized this, but German soldiers have not kept up with this ideological progress.

In any case, Molotov cocktails cannot stop the German army's advance.

The result of occupying Verdach, the turning point of the Great Bay, is that the two divisions of the 62nd Army were surrounded in the Great Bay. They had only two choices: surrender or jump into the Don River.

Most Soviet soldiers chose the former, but some chose the latter... Perhaps these soldiers did not want to implicate their families and make them live in humiliation, so they chose to end their lives in this way.

The 21st Armored Division rested here for two hours... The tanks needed maintenance after marching more than 100 kilometers, and the fuel and ammunition of the 21st Armored Division were almost consumed, especially the ammunition of the 1st Infantry Regiment... The intermediate power bullets were not yet popular in the German army, so the ammunition of the 1st Infantry Regiment was always a problem.

However, this problem was soon solved, because at this time, several divisions in Army Group B also replaced their submachine guns with MP43s, so these infantry divisions also had MP43 ammunition.

Paulus gave an order and asked these divisions to collect the MP43 ammunition and send it to Verdach.

Some officers and soldiers of Army Group B protested to Paulus: "If we give the bullets to others, what will happen to our MP43s?"

Paulus answered very straightforwardly: "What's the difference? They will shoot bullets into the chests of the Soviets for you. You just need to move forward to occupy the enemy's land. What else can you complain about?"

Paulus's words were correct. The 6th Army almost followed the 21st Armored Division to occupy cities and strongholds one by one.

But it was not entirely true. The 6th Army also had an armored corps... the 14th Armored Corps, which was composed of an armored division and two motorized infantry divisions.

When the 21st Armored Division captured Verdach, the 14th Armored Corps had already steadily advanced to the west of Stalingrad.