Chapter 676 Conversation

The Soviet army's ring railway defense line only held out for an hour under the attack of German tanks, aircraft and mortars, and almost no Soviet soldiers on the defense line could escape back to Stalingrad.

The reason was not that they could not escape back, but that they were shot from two directions at the same time on the defense line... the German direction and the Stalingrad direction.

Later, when interrogating the prisoners, it was learned that those guarding the outer defense line were all soldiers of the Soviet "punishment battalion", which was one of the reasons why they were arranged to the outer defense line with almost no strategic significance.

Then the German tanks and troops drove into the city along the highway and the side roads beside the highway.

Qin Chuan heard the soldiers around him cheering... Although the 21st Armored Division was arranged in the second line as a reserve, they were still happy about this milestone: finally entering Stalingrad.

Unlike the soldiers' excited pride, Qin Chuan frowned and looked towards Stalingrad from time to time with a telescope... The battle inside the city could not be seen from outside the city, and only bursts of gunfire could be heard, as well as the dives, strafing and bombing of German fighter planes in the air.

"Major!" Seeing Qin Chuan like this, Eberhard couldn't help asking, "Is there anything wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong!" Qin Chuan put down the telescope and answered thoughtfully, "There will always be some problems in street fighting, and this battle may not go smoothly!"

"Don't worry, Major!" Eberhard replied, "We easily killed our way in a few days ago, and then set a fire, and finally escaped safely, didn't we? And we all saw that the Soviets' defense was just a few sandbags!"

"That's because we deceived the Soviets!" Qin Chuan replied, "And urban warfare has never been a problem of sandbags!"

"What is that?" Eberhard asked.

"Remember Holm?" Qin Chuan asked back.

"You mean..." Eberhard's face showed horror: "The Soviets will learn our defense method in Holm?"

"Why not?" Qin Chuan replied: "We were able to withstand the Soviet attack and encirclement for months in Holm with fewer troops, why can't the Soviets apply it in Stalingrad!"

"But this is different!" Eberhard said.

"What's the difference?"

"It was winter!" Eberhard replied: "More importantly, the Soviets' coordination was far inferior to ours!"

Eberhard was right, and this was also a point that the German army was proud of... The Soviets' coordination and quality were far inferior to the Germans. For example, when the German army attacked Stalingrad at this time, they coordinated with each other: tanks, infantry, and artillery on the ground, and fighter planes in the air.

Among them, the air-to-ground coordination of fighter planes is especially important. Once a building that is difficult to break through is found, bombers are called to drop bombs to blow it up... The German "Stuka" dive bombers can increase the destructive power and accuracy of bombs by diving, so all the German army needs to do is to indicate the target, destroy the target, and then continue to move forward.

And these are all things that the Soviet army cannot do.

But...

"This is only now, Eberhard!" Qin Chuan replied.

"What do you mean?" Eberhard was puzzled.

"The battle has just begun!" Qin Chuan said: "Everything is in order now, and our offensive line is not in chaos for the time being, that is, it basically keeps a straight line forward, but this is not the case if the battle continues!"

Eberhard couldn't help but say "Oh", and then stopped talking.

In fact, Qin Chuan only said the tip of the iceberg. The problems existing in street fighting have basically been seen in the Battle of Holm, such as tank mobility problems, night combat problems, enemy identification problems, etc.

Sure enough, the problem appeared not long after.

When the German army advanced along an offensive line, they would always encounter a few hard nails. Sometimes the enemy and us would launch counterattacks and fight against each other repeatedly, so the German offensive line soon became blurred and intertwined.

Then the tragedy inevitably happened... Several bombers dived down and blew up a building, but this building was occupied by the German army, and none of the soldiers in the three squads inside could get out.

However, Qin Chuan didn't seem to need to worry about these, because they were just a reserve now.

The battle lasted for a few days, and almost everyone realized that the situation was getting more and more serious, because more and more wounded and corpses were transported out of Stalingrad, day and night, but the battle in the city showed no sign of ending.

On this day, Major General Wittesheim finally found Qin Chuan.

The word "finally" is used here because Qin Chuan knew that Major General Wittesheim had wanted to talk to him for a long time, but he had been holding back because of face or competition.

Of course, Colonel Slain also went to see Major General Wittesheim with Qin Chuan.

"Colonel!" As soon as Wittsheim saw the two, he stepped forward and shook hands with them, saying, "Glad that you are here, we are in trouble!"

Colonel Slain and Qin Chuan had guessed this, so they were not surprised.

"Is it time for us to go to battle?" Colonel Slain asked.

"I think so!" Major General Wittsheim nodded and said, "But before that, I think it is necessary to talk to you..."

Colonel Slain was a little surprised. If they were preparing to go to the battlefield, they should have discussed the battle plan in the meeting, but Major General Wittesheim came to them privately to "talk".

"It's like this!" Major General Wittesheim took the two to the map, pointed to a line and said: "We have probably attacked here, and the farthest part has penetrated about one kilometer into the city, but now it is difficult to move forward. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as a stalemate. While we are in a stalemate, the number of casualties is rising sharply!"

"Where is the problem?" Colonel Slain asked.

"They dug a tunnel to connect to the basement!" Major General Wittesheim replied: "Just like you did in the Battle of Holm!"

Colonel Slain showed an expression of sudden enlightenment. He knew why Major General Wittesheim wanted to "talk" with them.

"It's obvious!" Major General Wittelsheim continued, "The Soviets have learned your tactics, which directly makes it very difficult to fight at night, because the Soviets will suddenly appear behind us or even next to us at night. As a result, the buildings we captured during the day will be lost at night, which will cause us to lose many people, and then the same thing will happen again the next day!"