Chapter 701 Failure

Then the 21st Armored Division tried several times to open the passage from the airport to Mamayev Hill, but failed... At this time, the Soviet army already knew the importance of Mamayev Hill, and they also knew If the Germans were to attack the Mamayev Hills, the situation where the Germans had blocked the central ferry with artillery fire would inevitably occur. Therefore, the Soviet army built several lines of defense at the airport and organized a large amount of artillery fire. blockade.

Now the Germans had no choice.

In the past, the German army could easily attack the airport because the Soviet army was unprepared and the artillery fire was not concentrated here. At this time, the Soviet army built a defense line at the airport connected to the buildings, and at the same time concentrated the artillery fire in the direction of the airport... Such an open terrain of the airport Instead, it became an obstacle for German tanks.

Because Soviet artillery observers could see German tanks from high altitudes in buildings, German tanks would be covered by Soviet artillery fire before they even entered the airport.

At the same time, the Soviet army used the buildings and ruins on several streets between the school and the airport to launch "close tactics" and "guerrilla tactics" against the 21st Armored Division.

This approach should be said to be correct. Chuikov accurately judged that although troops like the 21st Armored Division would be difficult to match in conventional warfare, this was not the case in unconventional warfare. Although the German army still had the advantage in terms of casualty ratio, it was much better than the previous situation of almost 10 to 1. Moreover, the two divisions Chuikov invested in the airport area were mostly recruits armed by the common people.

Qin Chuan didn't have a good solution to this situation.

Sometimes Qin Chuan wondered whether this battle in history was too cruel and difficult, so fate did not want Qin Chuan to win this battle so easily.

But compared to this, Qinchuan believed that the Soviet commander Chuikov was a formidable opponent. Because among other things, "close tactics" and "urban guerrilla warfare" are two very good tactics. They are even much stronger than the Moscow defense battle commanded by Zhukov... The reason why the Moscow defense battle is so famous is that The strategic significance of this victory, and the victory of the Battle of Stalingrad is the embodiment of Chuikov's commanding art.

Of course, Zhukov also contributed to this.

Qinchuan was sitting in the corner, smoking a cigarette and thinking about these issues. He believed that if the war situation continues as it is now, the German army is still very likely to win.

The reason is as mentioned before. Everything Qinchuan did for the German army, such as buying time, taking Baku so that the German army would not fight on two fronts, and burning the artillery factory and tractor factory, etc., should all be will affect the final outcome of this battle.

After all, in history, the German army finally captured the main city, leaving only a few factories in the northern industrial zone that they failed to capture.

The question is how much price the 21st Armored Division will pay and how many casualties it will suffer if it continues to fight like this, and will one of these casualties include itself? !

More importantly...even if the German army takes Stalingrad in the end, can they guarantee that they will not be surrounded by the Soviet army? You must know that once the Don and Volga rivers freeze in winter, the fragile wings of the German army defended by the slave countries will be exposed.

Considering this aspect, the German army needs to capture Stalingrad faster and then move its troops back to the left and right for defense in order to consolidate its results.

Qin Chuan did not dare to think too much, because no one could guarantee absolute safety or victory on the battlefield, not even himself.

"You're frustrated, aren't you?" Colonel Slain stood in front of Qin Chuan.

"Colonel!" Qin Chuan wanted to stand up and salute but was stopped by Colonel Slaine.

He patted Qin Chuan on the shoulder, sat down next to Qin Chuan and asked him for a cigarette. After lighting it, he raised his head and blew out a puff of smoke.

"You should get used to this!" said Colonel Slaine.

"What?" Qin Chuan didn't understand what Colonel Slaine said.

"I mean failure!" Colonel Slain said: "The battlefield should be like this, this is normal! Although this failure is not because of your fault!"

"Yes, Colonel!" Qin Chuan replied, "I know!"

"You know?" Colonel Slain continued: "Although I know this, I feel a little uncomfortable now!"

"Oh why?"

"Because you have almost never failed before!" Colonel Slain said, "This makes me even know what failure feels like!"

Qin Chuan thought about it and found that it was true as Colonel Slain said, the 1st Infantry Regiment and even the 21st Armored Division could always win after he made a certain suggestion.

But having said that, I know the development and key points of the battle very well, so it is normal for me to always win the battle!

But this normal seems to be abnormal in the eyes of others, so this failure can be considered a good thing.

"Major!" At this time, the communications soldier stepped forward and saluted Qin Chuan: "General, please come to the headquarters!"

Qin Chuan and Colonel Slaine looked at each other. Both of them were a little surprised because this time they directly called Qin Chuan by name instead of Colonel Slaine.

But what surprised the two more was what happened next. They thought the "general" the signal corps was talking about was Major General Strike, but unexpectedly it was General Paulus.

Paulus's headquarters was on the west bank of the Don River, in a town opposite Karachi, more than a hundred kilometers away from Stalingrad.

This is not to say that Paulus was timid, but the Battle of Stalingrad had two fronts, one was the northern defense line and the other was the Stalingrad front. Paulus wanted to ensure that the command of these two fronts was a wise choice to stay on the west bank of the Don River.

However, this made Qin Chuan need some twists and turns to meet Paulus: he first had to take a car to the airport more than ten kilometers away, and then take a Junkers transport plane to the west bank of the Don River... This was when Paulus specially arranged a transport plane for Qin Chuan. If he took the conventional route, he had to take a car to Karachi first, then take a boat from Karachi to cross the river, and then take a car from Karachi to the headquarters.

In this way, although it was only more than 100 kilometers, it would take several days to do it, including the waiting time in the middle.

From this, we can also imagine how bad the logistics of the German army from Berlin to Stalingrad were. In particular, there were several large rivers in the Soviet Union, and the bridges were either non-existent or blown up by the Soviet Union, so the German army had to repeat loading and unloading.

Of course, Qin Chuan didn't need to worry about these.

Qin Chuan looked down from the window of the plane at the German transport line that was busy like ants moving house, and the only thing on his mind was why Paulus wanted to meet him alone at this time.