Chapter 669 Lopatin

Then the news spread quickly, and an eyewitness told a Soviet sentry, who reported the incident to his superiors half-believingly, and then reported it to Lieutenant General Lopatin, the commander of the 62nd Army.

Lieutenant General Lopatin was shocked to hear this intelligence, but he could not be sure whether it was an isolated incident or a big conspiracy. He immediately asked the staff: "Where is Captain Droyev?"

Captain Droyev was the Soviet officer sent by Lopatin to meet the "reinforcements".

"I don't know, Comrade Lopatin!" the staff replied.

The communication conditions of the Soviets determined that their reaction speed was relatively slow. For example, if Captain Droyev had a walkie-talkie and kept in touch with the headquarters at any time, he would have discovered the problem long ago.

But Captain Droyev was not equipped with a walkie-talkie, so no one knew whether he could not be contacted or was killed by some spies as described in the intelligence.

Then, Lopatin looked at the map and ordered: "Call the checkpoints along the way to stop the reinforcements and order them to stay on the spot for inspection!"

"Yes, Comrade Lopatin!" The staff officer responded.

Lopatin's decision was obviously wrong because he thought it might be just a small number of Germans disguised as Soviet soldiers who mixed in to do this... This is not uncommon for the Soviet army. The German Brandenburg troops often sneaked in to steal intelligence, even Stalingrad was no exception.

Because of this wrong judgment, Lopatin thought that as long as he stopped the troops and searched them, he would be fine. What he didn't expect was that this time was different from usual. This time it was not a small force that mixed in, and its purpose was not to get intelligence, but to conduct a special operations-like assault.

It should be said that Lopatin missed an opportunity.

If he could accurately judge this point, and then quietly mobilized troops to set up an ambush in front of the "reinforcements", the 1st Infantry Regiment would probably be in trouble.

It's a pity that Lopatin didn't have such wisdom.

Fortunately, Lopatin did not have such wisdom, otherwise the 1st Infantry Regiment would be the first piece of meat to be ground into the meat grinder of Stalingrad, and it would be ground into pieces without leaving any residue.

The second lieutenant of the Soviet army who received the call stepped forward and answered the call repeatedly. Soon, the tanks of the "reinforcements" described in the call were seen rumbling up.

The second lieutenant put down the phone, walked forward, and raised his hand to stop the team.

"Hey, you are not allowed to pass through here!" The second lieutenant said, "Your superiors ordered you to stay where you are and wait for inspection!"

"What happened?"

"I don't know!" The second lieutenant replied, "Anyway, you just stay here!"

Qin Chuan knew that something might have gone wrong. Although he didn't know what went wrong, he couldn't hide it anymore, so he made a quick decision and ordered, "Fire!"

The gunshots soon rang out, and the second lieutenant was shot into a sieve before he understood what was going on. Several Soviet soldiers in the checkpoint raised their guns in a hurry, but a row of smoking grenades had been thrown at their feet... With a bang, more than a dozen Soviet soldiers were blown up.

There were also a few clever ones who turned over and hid behind the sandbags to avoid the explosion of the grenades, but this would be of no use, because the next second the tanks "rumbled" up and crushed the sandbags and the Soviet soldiers hiding behind them.

"Go forward along this street!" Qin Chuan ordered, "All the way to the Volga River, the 'Red Barricade' artillery factory is on the right, and the tractor factory is on the left!"

"Yes, Major!" The German soldier responded while taking out a white towel and tying it on his left arm... This is to avoid being unable to identify the enemy in the dark.

At the same time, they also established a set of code words. One side asked "Long live Stalin", and the other side answered: "Red Barricade". This will not make the Soviet army suspicious and can effectively distinguish the enemy. Because if the other side is a Soviet, of course, they will answer "Long live Stalin" instead of other answers.

According to the plan, the troops were divided into three parts based on battalions, and each part had three to four tanks for cover.

This was done to deploy troops to launch a more effective attack, so that a street would not be blocked by the enemy's firepower and could not move forward.

Facts have proved that this worry is not unnecessary, because in the subsequent battles, several tanks drove out of the tractor factory and blocked a street... These tanks were just produced from the tractor factory, and they were even driven by factory workers.

This also shows that the consciousness of the Soviet working class is still very high. Usually they should have fled at this time, but they would take the initiative to drive tanks to fight.

But this did not work, because the German tanks came around from another street not long after, and fired at their sides...

The tanks driven by Soviet workers were not professional enough, and they could not distinguish between enemies and friends at all, after all, both sides used T34 tanks.

But this was not a problem for the German army, because they tied a piece of red cloth on the eye-catching positions of the tank's gun barrel, body and antenna.

In addition, the tanks driven by Soviet workers did not have infantry coordination, so they were turned into a pile of scrap metal in a few shots.

The news reached Lopatin, and he was shocked. It was not until then that he realized that it was not a small part but a whole army that had sneaked in.

Then Lopatin quickly understood the intention of this army to sneak in...factory.

"Quick, send reinforcements to the factory area immediately!" Lopatin ordered: "At the same time, order the checkpoints along the way to stop these hateful Germans at all costs!"

"Yes, Comrade Lopatin!" The staff officers were busy in an instant, giving orders and mobilizing troops.

But it was too late to do these things now.

Stalingrad was short of troops, and the result of insufficient troops was that the main force of the troops could only be distributed on the periphery.

This was of course not a problem. The periphery was defended by troops, and the city was built by civilians to build fortifications, and even armed the civilians.

Then, when the Germans attacked, the peripheral troops could defend layer by layer and retreat step by step along the fortifications built by the civilians.

But now these German troops have hit the interior right away, and have penetrated more than two kilometers into the hinterland... (Note: Stalingrad is roughly a rectangle, 40 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide)

As a result, Lopatin did not even have troops to send reinforcements to the factory in time. In the end, Lopatin had no choice but to send his entire guard company up.