Chapter 680 Reinforcements

Intensive gunfire soon rang out, and the Soviets fell one by one on the way to the charge.

Urban warfare is much more difficult and complicated than field warfare, because there are places to hide everywhere in the city, such as a remaining brick wall, a tank wreckage, or even a pile of cement or bricks.

But in this regard, the German army is obviously more advantageous, because they have rocket launchers... A rocket with a whistle will blow up a brick wall, burying the Soviet soldiers hidden behind it on the spot.

Another rocket came over, and the steel balls that exploded made the Soviet soldiers hiding behind the ruins scream.

But the Soviet army continued to charge regardless of casualties, which was the characteristic of the Soviet attack... This was not entirely due to Order No. 227. Another reason was the backwardness of communication equipment. The Chinese Volunteer Army also had such defects in the Korean battlefield: the battalion and company levels were not equipped with radio stations, and the telephone lines could not be pulled to the front for a while during the charge, so they often couldn't be taken back even if they were sent out to fight.

A part of the Soviet army crossed the ruins and rushed to the German defense line, but the barbed wire in front of them soon made them fall into despair... The German soldiers used a technique to lay the barbed wire, that is, to lay them in the depressions of the ruins, which made it impossible for the Soviet army to find these barbed wires from a distance and therefore they were not prepared.

Some Soviet soldiers did not even find them in the dark, and were immediately pierced by the barbs and spikes on the barbed wire.

A row of grenades were thrown over, and this part of the Soviet army was quickly dealt with, and the Soviet charge was also beaten back, leaving only the sound of artillery and the screams of some wounded on the battlefield.

That night, the Soviet army organized a total of five charges, but each charge was easily beaten back by the German army. The Soviet army could not move forward after suffering huge casualties... To be precise, they advanced some distance and occupied several buildings, but those were voluntarily abandoned by the German army.

The next morning, the German army launched a counterattack as soon as it was light.

Perhaps because the disastrous defeat last night dealt a blow to the Soviet army's strength and morale, the German army's counterattack the next day actually advanced 500 meters into the Soviet army.

This alarmed Chuikov, who was commanding on the second line.

"How many people did we lose yesterday?" Chuikov asked.

"More than 11,000!" Krylov answered a rough number.

The reason why he couldn't be sure was that he didn't know whether there were soldiers who escaped or hid somewhere... Although the series of policies implemented by Chuikov had improved the morale of the Soviet army to a considerable extent, under such pressure, it was still impossible to prevent some soldiers from deserting.

Chuikov was silent.

He had organized all the forces in Stalingrad, including 50,000 civilian militiamen, 75,000 of whom were added to the 62nd Army to fight like soldiers, and a large number of women and the elderly were mobilized to serve as transport, nurses, telephone operators or radio operators, and even children aged 13 to 16 were armed and joined the combat troops.

However, if more than 10,000 people were killed or wounded every day, how many days would these people be able to hold out?

After thinking about it, Chuikov sent a telegram to Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, a member of the Military Committee of the Southeast Front: "Comrade Khrushchev, if this kind of fighting continues for a few more days, my army will be wiped out. Our reserve has been exhausted again. Two or three new divisions are urgently needed here!"

Khrushchev replied without thinking: "You will get the troops you want, Comrade Chuikov, you only need to consider... how to hold the line!"

Khrushchev did not lie. In the next twenty days, Khrushchev organized six well-equipped new infantry divisions to cross the Volga River to reinforce Stalingrad. These troops were fully rested, and two of them were strong Guards Infantry Divisions.

But the arrival of reinforcements did not make Chuikov feel relieved.

On the contrary, the situation was still very serious.

Chuikov stared at a hand-drawn city plan of Stalingrad in front of him in his headquarters.

This map is ten feet high and six feet wide.

It was hand-drawn because before that, the Soviet Union did not have a battle map with a meter scale... No one would have thought that anyone would actually reach Stalingrad, and no one would have thought that the enemy would fight for a street corner, a block, or even a wall in Stalingrad.

So, until the German army surrounded Stalingrad and the Soviet army was determined to defend the city, this detailed map with every building and every street in Stalingrad was urgently produced.

However, the city no longer looked like the map, because it was in a sea of ​​fire and ruins.

"Comrade Chuikov!" Krylov brought Chuikov a bowl of millet porridge.

Chuikov shook his head in distress, took the millet porridge and put it on the table next to him, saying: "The Germans have thought of a way to deal with the tunnels, Comrade Krylov!"

Krylov nodded.

This is obvious, as the battle last night proved.

"The Germans are smart!" Krylov replied. "They are not easy to deal with!"

"Some of them!" Chuikov corrected.

"What?"

"The First Infantry Regiment that participated in the Battle of Holm was also among the troops attacking Stalingrad!" Chuikov said: "If they can think of tunnel defense methods in Holm, of course they can think of ways to deal with the tunnels!"

Krylov couldn't help but say "Oh", he didn't expect this, and couldn't help but secretly admire Chuikov's careful thinking.

"Before this!" Chuikov said: "If the enemy lays down two hundred meters during the day, we can fight back two hundred or even three hundred meters at night. In this way, the battle will be in a stalemate, with both sides pushing and shoving among the ruins. But now …”

Chuikov pointed to the map on the wall and said: "We can't fight back at night, but the Germans can use air power to fight back five hundred meters during the day. If this continues, Stalingrad will be fully occupied by them in a few days. Or even if they don't. If it is occupied, we will also lose the space we need for defense!”

Chuikov was right. The total defense depth was only five kilometers. Even if the German army started from scratch without occupying an inch of ground, it would only take ten days to reach the Volga River at 500 meters per day.

Of course, this is not an occupation, but rather a division of Stalingrad into pieces that cannot be connected with each other.

But this is no longer very different from occupation, because there is only one dock, which means that reinforcements and supplies can only be sent to one of them.