Chapter 717 Armed Swimming

German soldiers laid many such "water mines" around the sandbar after dark. They even wisely laid these mines in shallower areas on the shore... Laying them in deep water will not be effective, because Enemies don't step on the bottom of the river but swim across it.

Then things will be simple. These "water mines" will help the German army on guard. The German army only needs to set up a few open and hidden sentries on the coastline, and then they can go to sleep without worries.

Compared with mines laid on land, mines in water are almost impossible to detect: mines buried in the land can be slowly tested with a bayonet, but these water mines are in the water, and they are everywhere under the water. Stones are indistinguishable from the mix.

So needless to say the result...

At one o'clock in the morning, gunshots, explosions and the whistling of shells flying by were heard from time to time in the darkness.

Compared with other places, the special thing about the Battle of Stalingrad is that it has almost no interruptions. Whether it is day or night, the fighting does not stop almost 24 hours a day.

This is also a characteristic of urban guerrilla warfare. It has no unified front and no clear boundaries, so the enemy and ourselves stagger together and fight randomly. If one side seizes a corner, the other side will lose a wall, or if this side occupies a wall, the other side will lose a wall. Behind Jianfang, a building was occupied by the enemy.

But now, the situation is gradually developing in the direction favorable to the German army.

Although the German army only occupied the sandbar for one day... one day actually did not have a big impact on the supply of Stalingrad.

But the problem is that the news that the German army occupied the sandbar and cut off the Soviet army's supplies has spread.

From the German side, Alexander and Paulus intentionally spread the news. This was obviously a good opportunity to boost the morale of their troops, and of course they would not give up.

The Soviet army strictly blocked the news because they knew that this would inevitably cause a huge blow to morale.

But news like this cannot be blocked.

This is partly because the German army will carry out propaganda on the battlefield... holding a big loudspeaker and shouting to the opposite side: "Soldiers of the 62nd Army, we have occupied the sandbank and cut off your retreat. Resistance is meaningless. You Doomed to fail..."

If the German propaganda is not credible, then the Soviet artillery pouring flakes of shells on the sandbank is evidence.

If this doesn't explain anything, then when the supply ship docks, it will always be blocked by German artillery fire, which clearly tells the Soviet army that this is a cruel fact.

Morale is a strange thing. Although it cannot be seen or touched, it is real.

It depends largely on ideological work or mobilization, but it also depends on who the vast majority of soldiers believe will ultimately emerge victorious.

If you believe that your side will win, it will be easier to persevere; otherwise, you will be more likely to give up... Because you can't change the outcome anyway, so why waste your life fighting?

The Soviet army initially belonged to the latter, but under Chuikov's call and correct tactics, the Soviet army turned to the former. On the contrary, the German army began to doubt itself because it was not adapted to urban guerrilla warfare.

But at this moment, after Qinchuan and others occupied the sandbank and seriously threatened Stalingrad's logistics, the entire situation changed again... Everyone believed that the German army would win and the Soviet army would fail. Even Chuikov could not Change this.

As a result, the German army became more and more courageous as they fought. In one day, they captured two streets and advanced towards the Central Ferry. Even in the direction of Mamayev Hill, the German army successfully penetrated the airport defense line and started a fierce battle with the Soviet army... …

It should be said that the Soviet troops in the direction of Mamayev Heights were most affected by the loss of the sandbar, because after the loss of the sandbar, defending Mamayev Heights had become a meaningless and unnecessary battle.

Qin Chuan didn't need to care about any of this. What he wanted to know was when he would get another batch of reinforcements. After all, the strength of more than a hundred people defending the sandbank was still insufficient.

But the news coming out is not optimistic.

"The enemy has strengthened the air defense on the river bank!" Alexander responded on the walkie-talkie: "At the same time, there are many suspicious people around our base. I believe they are Soviet reconnaissance personnel or intelligence personnel. As soon as our helicopter takes off, they will Will be ready soon!"

Qin Chuan knew the harm of this move.

The Soviet army may not be able to make preparations because it cannot predict the flight path of the helicopters, but there is a saying that "nothing can change without departing from its origin". The final destination of these helicopters is the sandbank, so the Soviet army does not need to make other preparations at all... They only need to use anti-aircraft firepower to control the airspace above the sandbar.

And this is very easy to do. The sandbank is only more than 300 meters away from the east coast. A few anti-aircraft machine guns and a few anti-aircraft guns can easily block this airspace from the east coast, not to mention the helicopters that need to be rappelled. Hovering for a few minutes... At that time, the helicopter was afraid that not even the people and the aircraft could survive.

Therefore, rappelling again is definitely not feasible and other methods must be found.

"This problem may be solved in two days!" Alexander said, "Because one of our troops has already reached a position only a few dozen meters away from the Volga River!"

Qin Chuan responded, but he didn't dare to have much hope in this, because tens of meters is not a "little distance" to Stalingrad, because the German army sometimes moves at a speed of meters or even corpses. calculated by the quantity.

At this moment, there was a sudden explosion outside the bunker.

This explosion was obviously different from the sound of a shell explosion. It was located near the sandbar, and it was dull and accompanied by the sound of water. It was obvious that someone had triggered a "water mine".

Qin Chuan immediately put down the phone and crouched down along the communication trench to the direction of the explosion.

Kuhn and several soldiers had already arrived there and set up their guns. Qin Chuan ordered: "Flames!"

"Boom!" A flare rose into the air, and the originally dark river surface was immediately illuminated in a white snow. In the river, a team of Soviet soldiers used the wreckage of wooden boats floating on the river and dead bodies as cover to avoid the eyes of the German army.

But their efforts were obviously in vain.

The reason was that a bright red had floated at the explosion site, and there was a flutter under the water. It was obvious that the Soviet soldiers who were injured in the explosion were struggling in pain.

"Mortar!" Qin Chuan ordered.

What was fired was a 50MM mortar. A row of shells immediately blew more than a dozen Soviet soldiers out of the water.

Seeing that they could not escape, the Soviet soldiers shouted and jumped out of the water and charged towards the German positions.