Chapter 693 Punishment Camp

NKVD troops are the internal guards of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs under the Soviet Internal Affairs Commissariat. Their mission is to complete the combat logistics tasks of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. Their nature is somewhat similar to the German security division or police force.

At this time in Stalingrad, they are responsible for strictly checking those soldiers who try to escape to the east bank at the ferry and throwing them into the "punishment camp".

As the battle of Stalingrad becomes more and more difficult, there are still many such soldiers.

For example, the NKVD troops detained 184 people in one day yesterday.

Among them, 21 people were shot on the spot...

Generally, they are not shot, because Stalingrad needs troops too much, even if they are thrown into the "punishment camp" as cannon fodder, they can play a role.

But some situations force them to shoot.

For example, among these 21 people who were shot, 8 were because of self-mutilation... Self-mutilation is a particularly bad situation, especially after self-mutilation, they can no longer fight, so even if they are thrown into the "punishment camp", they can't play a role, and keeping them will only waste food.

Three of them were NKVD soldiers... NKVD was a law enforcer, and this was absolutely unforgivable, so they did not have the opportunity to go to the "punishment camp" and were shot directly in front of a group of detained soldiers at the ferry.

Another 10 people were identified as spies... Some of the spies may be German soldiers from the Brandenburg troops, some may be wronged, and some are verified.

Among them, there is such an example. As mentioned before, after the Soviet officers and soldiers were captured, they had no way back, so they often worked hard for the German army.

The German army hid the news of these officers and soldiers being captured and let them return to the Soviet army to collect intelligence for the German army.

The German army was very smart in this move, because they had all the evidence of these Soviet officers and soldiers being captured and even confessing, and these evidences would be provided to the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs at any time. Therefore, even if these Soviet officers and soldiers returned to the Soviet army, they still did not dare to betray the German army, and could only provide intelligence to the German army again and again.

So in the end there were only 163 people, which was still a little far from the 500 people required by Rodimtsev.

Just then, a few ships of new soldiers arrived from the east coast... New soldiers were not valuable anyway, most of them died within a few days of going into battle, so they randomly picked some to make up 500 people and sent them to Rodimtsev.

Qin Chuan didn't know what tricks Rodimtsev had used. At this time, they were dealing with leaflets dropped from the sky by the Soviets... This was a propaganda method of the Soviets. They always used low-speed biplanes to drop propaganda materials at the enemy at night when the enemy's planes could not play a role.

Qin Chuan picked up a copy, which was written in German:

"Read and pass it on to your comrades

Soldiers of the 21st Armored Division! For several months, your superiors have been dreaming of capturing Stalingrad. This attempt has cost you 80,000 lives, but the goal has not been achieved.

This attempt will never be realized! And it will never be realized!

Because the Soviet Red Army will continue to defend its homeland, and the defense line around this city will continue to be the enemy's grave..."

Qin Chuan didn't want to read any more. The Soviet propaganda method was very poor. They actually used false data on the leaflets shown to the Germans and emphasized how brave they were. This first failed to gain the trust of the German soldiers. Even if they wanted to surrender, they would be scared to death by such deception.

Sure enough, the German soldiers who picked up the leaflets soon found a laugh:

"Oh, we have lost 80,000 people? How come I didn't know?"

"They are counting the 'traitors to the motherland' they shot on our heads!"

"That won't be 80,000 people!"

"Yes! You can't imagine how many 'traitors to the motherland' there are!"

Then the soldiers laughed.

You should know that at this time, the total number of German troops deployed to attack Stalingrad was only more than 100,000. If 80,000 people were killed, most of them should be killed or injured. No wonder this data became a laughing stock for German soldiers.

But the cruelty of the war did not decrease at all.

When the sky was dim, the sound of Soviet artillery attacking Mamayev Kurgan sounded again.

At this time, the German soldiers already knew what to do. They crouched in the trenches and waited for the moment when the enemy's artillery fire stopped.

This time, the Soviet artillery preparation lasted only five minutes, perhaps because they knew that the artillery preparation would not play any role.

Then, with Qin Chuan's order, the German soldiers rushed to the high ground under the cover of their own artillery fire.

Qin Chuan did not charge with the soldiers. He hid behind a small earthen slope and watched the battle with a telescope... The location of this small earthen slope was to the south, so Qin Chuan could see about one-third of the southern slope of Mamayev Hill.

Qin Chuan soon felt something was wrong. There was no problem with the charging force, about 300 people, but compared with the orderly formation during the charge yesterday, the Soviet army's team today could be said to be very chaotic. They basically did not cover each other, and even a considerable number of soldiers did not know how to hide themselves without tactical actions.

Looking at the rear of the Soviet army, several Maxim machine guns were set up in the bunker at the back, and a Soviet officer with a pistol in his hand was pushing several Soviet soldiers to join the charging camp.

"'Punishment Battalion'!" Qin Chuan suddenly understood something, and then shouted to Eberhard: "Quick, call them back!"

"What?" Eberhard couldn't help but was stunned. He didn't understand why Qin Chuan chose to retreat at this time. Retreating now would mean giving up the position to the Soviets and they would be unable to control the blockade of the central ferry.

"Retreat!" Qin Chuan ordered: "Order to retreat!"

"Yes, Major!" Eberhard responded and immediately gave the order through the walkie-talkie.

Then Eberhard quickly understood that within a few seconds, Soviet artillery fire poured onto the Mamayev Heights in sheets, chasing the retreating German soldiers and exploding on the high ground.

"God!" Eberhard couldn't help but be stunned: "How could they fire? Why? There are their people up there too!"

"Because they are 'punishment camps'!" Qin Chuan replied: "The Soviets don't care about their life or death at all!"

Eberhard understood after hearing this, but still shook his head with an incredulous expression, as if he couldn't believe that the Soviets would do this.

But the fact was before him, but he had to believe it.

From a certain point of view, there seems to be nothing wrong with what the Soviets did, because this is war. Failure to use this method may lead to more soldiers and even elites dying on Mamayev Hill, and even unable to do so. Achieve victory.

Now, they can exchange such an important strategic point for them at such a small price, why not? !