The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The Soviet army's ring railway defense line only held out for an hour under the attack of German tanks, aircraft and mortars, and almost no Soviet soldiers on the defense line could escape back to Stalingrad.

The reason was not because they could not escape back, but because they were shot from two directions at the same time on the defense line... the German direction and the Stalingrad direction.

Later, when interrogating the prisoners, it was learned that those guarding the outer defense line were all soldiers of the Soviet "punishment battalion", which was one of the reasons why they were arranged to the outer defense line with almost no strategic significance.

Then the German tanks and troops drove into the city along the highway and the side roads beside the highway.

Qin Chuan heard the soldiers around him cheering... Although the 21st Armored Division was arranged in the second line as a reserve, they were still happy about this milestone: they finally entered Stalingrad.

Unlike the soldiers' excited pride, Qin Chuan frowned and looked towards Stalingrad from time to time with a telescope... The battle inside the city could not be seen from outside the city, and only bursts of gunfire could be heard, as well as the dives, strafing and bombing of German fighter planes in the air.

"Major!" Seeing Qin Chuan like this, Eberhard couldn't help asking, "Is there anything wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong!" Qin Chuan put down the telescope and answered thoughtfully, "There will always be some problems in street fighting, and this battle may not go smoothly!"

"Don't worry, Major!" Eberhard replied, "We easily killed our way in a few days ago, and then set a fire, and finally escaped safely, didn't we? And we all saw that the Soviets' defense was just a few sandbags!"

"That's because we deceived the Soviets!" Qin Chuan replied, "And urban warfare has never been a problem of sandbags!"

"What is that?" Eberhard asked.

"Remember Holm?" Qin Chuan asked back.

"You mean..." Eberhard's face showed horror: "The Soviets will learn our defense method in Holm?"

"Why not?" Qin Chuan replied: "We were able to withstand the Soviet attack and encirclement for months in Holm with fewer troops, why can't the Soviets apply it in Stalingrad!"

"But this is different!" Eberhard said.

"What's the difference?"

"It was winter at that time!" Eberhard replied: "More importantly, the Soviets' coordination was far inferior to ours!"

Eberhard was right, and this was also a point that the German army was proud of... The Soviets' coordination and quality were far inferior to the Germans. For example, the German army at this time, when they attacked Stalingrad, they coordinated with each other to advance: tanks, infantry, and artillery on the ground, and fighter planes in the air.

This is especially the air-to-ground coordination of fighter planes. Once a building that is difficult to break through is found, bombers are called to drop bombs to blow it up... The German "Stuka" dive bomber can increase the destructive power and accuracy of the bomb by diving, so all the German army needs to do is to indicate the target, destroy the target, and then continue to move forward.

And these are what the Soviet army can't do.

But...

"This is just now, Eberhard!" Qin Chuan replied.

"What do you mean?" Eberhard's face was full of confusion.

"The battle has just begun!" Qin Chuan said: "Everything is in order now, and our offensive line is not chaotic for the time being, that is, it basically keeps pushing forward in a straight line, but it will not be the case if the battle continues!"

Eberhard couldn't help but say "Oh", and then stopped talking.

In fact, Qin Chuan only talked about the tip of the iceberg. The problems of street fighting have basically been seen in the Battle of Holm, such as tank mobility problems, night fighting problems, enemy identification problems, etc.

Sure enough, the problem appeared not long after.

When the German army advanced along an offensive line, it would always encounter a few hard nails. Sometimes the enemy and us would launch a counterattack and fight each other repeatedly, so the German offensive line soon became blurred and intertwined.

Then the tragedy inevitably happened... Several bombers dived down and blew up a building, but this building was occupied by the German army, and there were three squads of soldiers in it, and none of them could get out.

However, Qin Chuan didn't seem to need to worry about these, because they were just the reserve team now.

The battle lasted for several days, and almost everyone realized that the situation was getting more and more serious, because more and more wounded and corpses were transported out of Stalingrad, day and night, but the battle in the city showed no sign of ending.

On this day, Major General Wittesheim finally found Qin Chuan.

"Finally" is used here because Qin Chuan knew that Major General Wittesheim had wanted to talk to him for a long time, but he had been holding back because of face or competition.

Of course, Colonel Slain also went to see Major General Wittesheim with Qin Chuan.

"Colonel!" As soon as Wittesheim saw the two, he stepped forward and shook hands with them, saying, "I'm glad you can come, we're in trouble!"

Colonel Slain and Qin Chuan both guessed this, so they were not surprised.

"Is it time for us to go to battle?" Colonel Slain asked.

"I think so!" Major General Wittesheim nodded and said, "But before that, I think it's necessary to talk to you..."

Colonel Slaine couldn't help but feel a little surprised. If they were preparing to go to the battlefield, they should discuss the battle plan in a meeting, but Major General Wittelsheim came to "talk" to them privately.

"That's it!" Major General Wittelsheim led the two of them to the map, pointed to a line and said: "We have now reached here with a large-scale attack. The farthest part has penetrated about one kilometer into the city, but now But it is difficult to describe it as a stalemate, and while they are in a stalemate, the number of casualties is rising sharply! "

"What's the problem?" Colonel Slain asked.

"They dug tunnels to connect to the basement!" Major General Wittelsheim replied: "Just like you did at the Battle of Holm!"

Colonel Slaine showed a look of realization. He knew why Major General Wittstrom wanted to "talk" to the two of them.

"Obviously!" Major General Wittelsheim continued: "The Soviets have learned your tactics, which directly makes it very difficult to fight at night, because the Soviets will suddenly appear behind us at night, or even right next to us. So, The buildings we capture during the day will be lost at night, which will cost us a lot of men, and then it will happen again the next day!”