Chapter 720: Floating Bridge Attack

German fighter planes were quickly deployed on the battlefield, but they did not play any role.

As mentioned before, the floating bridge is composed of many small boats and has good anti-sinking properties. Even if the fighter planes fired a string of bullets and hit the target, there was basically no reaction.

The "Stuka" bomber was of course useful, but the problem was that the floating bridge was long and thin and in motion. In addition, a large amount of smoke was released at the central ferry, which made the bottom visible low. Three "Stukas" dived down and dropped six shells but failed to hit.

Then the floating bridge entered the position between the sandbar and the east bank, and the Soviet artillery fire also stopped.

Obviously, the Soviet floating bridge was accurately calculated, and its length was slightly shorter than the distance between the sandbar and the east bank, which was more than 200 meters... If it was too long or just right, it would be difficult to enter the river valley and get in position. If it was shorter, there would be no problem. Moreover, the Soviet army on the other end, that is, on the east bank of the river valley, also prepared other iron boats and tools for splicing. It would not take long to complete the entire floating bridge and launch a charge.

Qin Chuan gave the order to open fire before the pontoon bridge came to a complete stop.

But the firepower on the sandbar did not cause much damage to the pontoon bridge. As mentioned before, the end of the pontoon bridge facing the German sandbar was built with thicker armor and larger ships. There was even an iron baffle at the bridgehead, similar to the ancient siege of crossing the moat. Machine gun bullets hitting it would only make a "clang clang clang" sound and then bounce off without exception. Even anti-aircraft guns were powerless against it.

Then the baffle was slowly lowered. Qin Chuan originally thought that he could use firepower to shoot and block the Soviet troops on the pontoon bridge at this time, but after the baffle was lowered to form a bridge, a T34 tank was exposed. A "boom" was a shell in the direction of the bunker... Although it failed to hit the target due to poor accuracy on the uneven pontoon bridge, it was enough to shock the German army, because this T34 had already formed a certain fire suppression in front of them and covered the subsequent Soviet troops to continuously attack the sandbar along the pontoon bridge.

Sure enough, the Soviets continued to attack the sandbar from the pontoon bridge.

The Soviets' attack was not just along the pontoon bridge.

In fact, a T34 had blocked almost half of the bridge deck, so there was only a very narrow passage left for the German bridgehead. If they only launched a charge along this passage, the Germans only needed a few MP43s to block it.

When the Soviets arrived near the end of the pontoon bridge, they jumped into the river from both sides and entered the shallows, and then spread out from both sides to charge forward.

What's worse is that there is more than one pontoon bridge. Soon another pontoon bridge floated down upstream... These pontoon bridges always use power to drive one end to the sandbar and run aground, throw an anchor in the middle, and fix the other end with ropes. Then the engineers fill the gap, and the Soviet soldiers can launch a charge. Even light tanks can "crack" onto the pontoon bridge to cover the infantry's charge.

Therefore, attacking this sandbar is still very different from naval warfare. In naval warfare, there is basically no situation of building pontoon bridges for strong attack, but this is not the case with sandbars.

"Call for artillery reinforcement!" Qin Chuan shouted.

"Yes, Major!" Eberhard responded, and immediately commanded the observer behind the gun to report the coordinates to the rear artillery unit.

In less than a minute, a large number of shells whistled from the rear and blasted a series of water columns on the Volga River. Along with these water columns, sections of pontoon bridges and screaming Soviet soldiers were also blown up to the sky.

But before the German soldiers could breathe a sigh of relief, artillery fire was also heard from the direction of the Soviet army, and shells whistled across the sandbar and headed straight for Stalingrad.

Qin Chuan secretly shouted that it was not good... It seems that the Soviet army was well prepared for this. They deployed artillery with a range comparable to that of the German army on the east coast. The German artillery was afraid of heavy losses without any defense.

Qin Chuan guessed correctly. Yelyomenko added two more elite artillery regiments to the sandbar direction... These two artillery regiments were equipped with more advanced M1938 howitzers with longer range, with a maximum range of 11.8 kilometers, which was longer than the 10-kilometer range of the German le. FH 18.

In other words, if the Soviet army deployed the M1938 howitzers within 1.8 kilometers of the sandbar, then the German artillery fire could hit the sandbar, and the Soviet M1978 would definitely be able to hit the German artillery positions.

Sure enough, after a while, the communicator reported to Qin Chuan: "Our artillery suffered heavy losses due to suppression, and we are temporarily unable to provide artillery reinforcements!"

Looking at the direction of the Soviet pontoon bridge, its engineers have begun to repair the pontoon bridge... The repair of the pontoon bridge is not difficult. You only need to row a few iron boats to the gap, tie them up with steel wire ropes, and then lay wooden boards or iron plates.

Therefore, even though the German Air Force fighters and bombers dived down to strafe and bomb, and occasionally blew up the pontoon bridge, they could not stop the Soviet army from surging onto the sandbar like a tide.

The battle soon became fierce, and every German soldier fired his weapons loudly. Although rows of Soviet soldiers fell on the way to the charge, they were as dense as ants, regardless of casualties and mines, and stepped over the bodies of their comrades and charged forward.

After thinking about it, Qin Chuan ordered: "Leave two people behind, and the others go out of the bunker to defend!"

The soldiers responded, carrying their rifles from the rear exit along the communication trench into the trenches on both sides of the bunker.

Although the bunker is safe, its shortcomings are also very obvious. That is, like a tank, it has low external perception and blind spots. What's more serious is that the firepower is too concentrated and mortars cannot be fired.

This will undoubtedly limit the firepower of the MP43 in the hands of the soldiers to a considerable extent.

Therefore, if you want to stop the Soviet army's human wave charge, you must fight outside the bunker.

Sure enough, when the German soldiers entered the position and fired the MP43, they quickly suppressed the densely charged Soviet soldiers, knocking down a group of them as they rushed up, and soon rows of corpses were piled up in front of the barbed wire.

Next came the Soviet tanks... The rocket launcher approached the target under the cover of the German soldiers, and finally hit the target after firing three rockets, turning the T34 into a ball of fire.

However, the Soviet charge did not stop because of this. There were still countless Soviet soldiers charging towards this side on the other side of the Volga River. They were so dense that they could not be seen at a glance. Some of them did not even wait for the pontoon bridge to be repaired. They jumped into the river and swam for a while, then boarded the pontoon bridge and rushed towards the sandbar.

Until a burst of artillery shells whistled from the rear... The long-lost artillery cover finally came again, and this time the artillery fire came more fiercely. A burst of artillery shells accurately hit the pontoon bridge area and blew them into several sections and then floated down the river.