Chapter 694 Dora

The Soviets really took Mamayev Kurgan easily.

The situation at this time was quite awkward for the Germans. They could neither charge nor not charge.

Charge.

The Soviets stationed on Mamayev Kurgan were all "punitive battalion" troops. As Stalin said, these troops "washed away the crimes committed against the motherland with blood", so the Soviets did not care about their lives at all.

The result was that the elite of the German 1st Infantry Regiment rushed up, and a burst of artillery fire killed them together with those "cannon fodder".

Not charging.

It meant that the Germans lost the strategic position of Mamayev Kurgan.

"What happened?" Colonel Slaine called Qin Chuan and asked, "Why did the position get lost?"

"Colonel!" Qin Chuan replied, "It's the 'punishment battalion' above!"

"Isn't it easier to repel the 'punishment battalion'?" But before he finished speaking, Colonel Slaine understood what was going on, because his tone of voice had weakened afterwards.

After a pause, Colonel Slaine said to Qin Chuan: "I will report this problem to the general, you can't retreat anymore!"

"Yes, Colonel!" Qin Chuan replied.

Qin Chuan was not worried about this, because the German army had built complete field fortifications under Mamayev Kurgan, and the Soviet army could not solve the problem by using the "punitive battalion" as cannon fodder and then bombarding it. Otherwise, the Soviet army could do whatever they wanted with the "punitive battalion".

Colonel Slaine quickly reported the problem to General Strike.

General Strike was also helpless when he learned of this information.

"These bastards!" General Strike cursed: "They actually completely ignored the lives of soldiers! This is simply a shame for the army!"

In fact, General Strike would curse like this only because Germany had not yet reached this time.

In the early days of the Soviet-German War, the German army was in a victory call, and the quality of the army's soldiers was quite good, so the number of defectors was not large, only more than 9,000 in 1941 and more than 10,000 in 1942.

There were only more than 10,000 deserters in the whole year, which is a very small number.

Of course, this does not include some deserters who were forgiven by their superiors and were not reported or punished. Similar things happened in the 1st Infantry Regiment before.

The German army punished these deserters by either shooting or hanging them on the spot, or sending them to military courts in Canada... These people were not of much use to the German army at that time. On the one hand, this was because the number was too small, and on the other hand, the German army paid attention to the quality of the army, and incorporating deserters into the army would affect the quality.

However.

When the war situation changed, that is, after the failure of the Battle of Stalingrad and especially the Battle of Kursk, the German army generally lost confidence in winning the war, so the number of deserters increased sharply, and by 1943 there were more than 60,000 people, and in 1944 it exceeded 200,000.

At the same time, the overall quality of the German army also dropped sharply, so there was value in the reuse of deserters. Naturally, the German army also had a similar "punishment camp"... the reformation camp (or probation camp).

If the German army had such a unit at this time, there would be no need to consider it. Sending these reformation troops up could be regarded as giving someone a taste of their own medicine.

The problem is that the German army does not have such a unit now.

While General Strike was hesitating, the staff officer gave a suggestion: "General, can we send Romanian troops or Italian troops..."

General Strike raised his hand to stop the staff officer before he finished speaking.

General Strike also thought about this idea, but he quickly rejected it.

The reason is very simple. The armies of the vassal states have "tempers", especially Italy and Romania.

The former was occupied by the Allies in its African colony Libya and even had the danger of being attacked by the Allies. The voice of "taking sides" in the country was rampant. If the German army used the Italian army as cannon fodder again...it would give these people an excuse, which would be very unfavorable to Germany politically.

Similar cases include Romania, Hungary, etc. These vassal states were not very willing to join the war. They were more speculative or did not want to offend Germany. Domestic opposition voices have always existed. Strike did not want to affect the "friendship" of the "allies" because of Mamayev Kurgan.

After thinking about it, General Strike asked: "Is the 'Dora' unit ready?"

"'Karl' is ready!" The staff officer replied: "But 'Dora' will take a few days!"

General Strike nodded and said: "Let them wait a few days!"

The order passed to the 1st Infantry Regiment was not as simple as "wait a few days", but to let them use all the tools to build stronger fortifications, especially the traffic trenches leading to the second line.

"What are they going to do?" Eberhard heard this order and asked in confusion: "Build strong fortifications, and there are traffic trenches leading to the second line? Isn't this contradictory?"

This does seem contradictory on the surface. Building strong fortifications is for on-site defense, and the traffic trenches leading to the second line are for retreat.

But Qin Chuan understood the hidden meaning of this order.

"Dora!" Qin Chuan only said two words.

Eberhard couldn't help but say "Oh".

It should be said that this strategy is correct. If the "Dora" cannon is not very effective in destroying the buildings of Stalingrad or the dense tunnels, then bombing Mamayev Kurgan is obviously more meaningful, both in terms of tactics and strategy.

Of course, the German army will not expose this preparation to the Soviets too early. Therefore, from time to time, the German artillery will fire a row of shells at Mamayev Kurgan, or occasionally a few "Stuka" fighters will dive down and bomb Mamayev Kurgan.

But it is obvious that the Soviet army took advantage of this time to strengthen the defense of Mamayev Kurgan.

The defense here refers not only to the Soviet army's construction of fortifications on Mamayev Kurgan, but also to the Soviet army's increased anti-aircraft firepower nearby.

Most of these anti-aircraft firepower are deployed on the east bank of the Volga River... To be precise, not the east bank but the sandbank on the Volga River.

The characteristics of the Volga River are its small drop and gentle flow. The Volga River is 3,692 kilometers long and is considered the longest inland river in the world, with a total drop of only 190 meters.

The result of the gentle flow is that there are many sandbanks formed by quicksand deposits in the river, which can even be said to be islands of considerable size.

There are several such small islands between Stalingrad and the east coast. The Soviet army deployed a large number of air defense equipment and troops on these small islands to provide air defense cover for their transportation of supplies.