Chapter 762 Training

Qin Chuan's guess was correct. The Soviets, including Stalin and Zhukov, had not thought of the role that helicopters could play in the Caucasus Mountains.

This may be a little hard to imagine, because if you consider the characteristics of helicopters, that is, they can hover and rappel, then it can be basically judged that they can airlift troops and supplies to the Caucasus, and even as long as there is a suitable place, such as opening a large enough landing field, helicopters can land on it.

But helicopters are still a new thing for this era, and all the tactics they use are the first time for this era... So it's like Columbus standing an egg up. Before knowing it, you didn't think it could be done at all. After knowing it, you will find that it is normal or of course you can do it.

Before this, helicopters were only used for rappelling sandbanks and "rat nests" to capture prisoners. It was the first time to use them in mountain warfare, or it was never experienced by the Soviet army, so it was not surprising that they didn't know.

Therefore, the Soviet army landed in Krenovka from the Black Sea step by step... The German army had limited manpower and could not defend too many places, so it had to take the initiative to give up large areas, including the north of the Caucasus Mountains.

Krenovka is an inconspicuous port north of the Caucasus Mountains. It doesn't even have a railway... But even if there is a railway, the Soviets can't use it, because there is no doubt that the Germans will destroy and demolish it when they withdraw.

Because there are no German troops stationed, the Soviets easily occupied this port.

The first thing the Soviets had to face was the ubiquitous mines, which made Zhukov feel a little ominous, because there were so many mines here, which seemed to mean that the Germans guessed that the Soviets would land here.

But even so, Zhukov did not stop his steps.

The Soviets advanced along the coast of the Caspian Sea, occupied an important port, Makhachkala, and turned it into a logistics supply base for the Soviets... The Soviets' supplies could be transported here from the north through the Caspian Sea, and then transported to the front line to maintain the Soviet offensive.

Of course, the Soviets immediately began to repair the railways and roads connecting this port. Because of the serious shortage of rails and sleepers, and the Soviets hoped to repair as many railways as possible before the real cold came, they even removed the sleepers and rails of some branch railways on the east bank of the Volga River and transported them to the Caucasus.

It should be said that the Soviets have never been good at concealing their strategic goals.

At this time, the Soviet army had two possible directions of attack:

One was to continue to move south along the Caspian Sea, bypass the Caucasus Mountains and directly attack Baku along Gubjan and Chilik.

The other was to attack the Caucasus Mountains.

The Soviet army's action of building railways and roads in the direction of the Caucasus Mountains clearly told the enemy that they chose the latter.

However, this seems to be normal, because if the former is chosen, it is necessary to have tanks and other heavy equipment to launch a charge against the defense line built by the German army, otherwise it would be tantamount to suicide.

The Soviet army's large transport ships were almost lost in the Battle of Stalingrad, and it was difficult to transport heavy equipment such as tanks and artillery, so they could only choose the Caucasus Mountains where heavy equipment was not needed or could not be used.

Zhukov was very confident about this attack because he had formed five mountain divisions with considerable combat effectiveness, or mountain divisions suitable for fighting in the Caucasus Mountains:

These five mountain divisions were based on the three mountain divisions that escaped from the Caucasus, namely the 9th, 20th, and 242nd Mountain Divisions, supplemented by the 22nd and 39th Infantry Divisions... These two infantry divisions came from Siberia, and they were accustomed to living and fighting in low-temperature environments.

One of the evidences is that their boots are always one size larger, so that they can stuff straw, cotton wool, etc. into their boots to keep warm. The German army's military boots always fit well, and if you stuff something into them, the boots will appear too crowded.

Of course, Qin Chuan and others don't need these special boots. They have mountaineering boots with crampons, as well as fur waterproof military clothes, thick gloves, ice picks and other snow mountain equipment.

Looking at the complete set of snow mountain equipment of the First Infantry Regiment, even Major General Freko's eyes were full of jealousy.

"Do you know?" Major General Freco said, "Only the most elite mountaineering commandos in our division have equipment like this, and their equipment is even worse than yours, such as military uniforms..."

"Don't envy us for this, General!" Qin Chuan replied, "You have to pay a price to have these equipment!"

Major General Freco nodded in agreement.

The battlefield is a very fair place. Having more advanced equipment means being put into the most dangerous places and there will be more and more brutal battles...The German military is not stupid. They will not use a lot of money to equip the First Infantry Regiment with these equipment and let them stay in the rear to show off.

Then the troops were pulled to outdoor training.

The training subjects sound simple, just moving to a high ground one kilometer away to build fortifications, and the whole process is accompanied by mountain division officers who are familiar with this area.

But it is not easy to do it in reality.

"We must pay attention to the snow ditch!" The mountain division officer said to Qin Chuan and others, "You know, some places are deep ditch in summer. The soft snow will block their upper part and make them look no different from other places. But if you step on it... Congratulations, you can be freed from this hellish world!"

The officer of the mountain division was Christian, a captain and staff officer from Hanover.

Qin Chuan knew only so much about him, because he seemed unwilling to talk about anything other than the mission.

Later, Qin Chuan learned from Major General Freco that Christian had some Jewish blood, and no one knew the specific situation, so Christian was always cautious, which seemed to be very useful in snowy mountain operations.

It took more than two hours for the group to reach the designated area panting and build fortifications there and conduct live ammunition shooting...

Then problems arose one after another, and the mortar could not be fired because the barrel was too tight due to thermal expansion and contraction.

The mortarman hurriedly threw the mortar to the other side of the trench, but it did not explode, perhaps because the shell was stuck and frozen before it touched the bottom firing pin.

"It was right to throw it away!" Christian said: "If you try to take it back, it will 'boom' when you are not ready..."

"You can be free from this hellish world!" Werner finished for Christian.

This sentence has become Christian's catchphrase.