The decisive battle against the Third Reich

When Krylov got the information about the loss of the sandbar, he immediately reported it to Chuikov.

"Comrade Chuikov!" Krylov said: "The sandbar was lost!" Chuikov, who was looking at the map, just hummed and nodded casually. There was no sandbar in his defense area, that is, Stalingrad, so he naturally thought that the sandbar in the defense area of ​​the 64th Army or the Southeast Army was lost, so he didn't take it seriously... The German 4th Panzer Army tried to cross the Volga River several times while attacking the 64th Army, but failed.

After a pause, Chuikov moved his eyes to the lower reaches of the Volga River and asked: "Where is it?"

Krylov pointed to a point on the map. Chuikov raised his head in surprise, with an incredible expression on his face: "Are you sure you are not mistaken, Comrade Krylov? This is a sandbar in our hinterland!"

Krylov nodded very confidently: "I have confirmed it, Comrade Chuikov!"

"When did it happen?" Chuikov's face became very ugly.

"Just this morning!"

"But it's just dawn now!"

"Yes!" Krylov replied: "They attacked at dawn and occupied the place..."

"But how did they attack?" Chuikov said: "This sandbar is almost surrounded by us. Did they fly in?"

"Comrade Chuikov!" Krylov answered with difficulty: "They did fly in. According to reports from surviving soldiers... The Germans have a strange aircraft that can hover in the air, and then the enemy slides down the rope from the hovering aircraft. Although they have few troops, probably only two hundred people, but you know, Comrade Chuikov, we are all fortified areas, engineers and artillery on the sandbar..."

There is no need to elaborate on what happened next.

Chuikov's face was pale. He knew what this meant. The sandbar was another Mamayev Kurgan. To be precise, the sandbar could play a more effective blockade of the central ferry and even the entire Stalingrad.

Sure enough, the next second, all kinds of intelligence came from the staff:

"The Central Ferry was hit by precise enemy artillery fire, and suffered heavy losses!"

"The transport fleet was bombed by the enemy, and three ships were sunk!"

...

After thinking about it, Chuikov called the Southeast Front Command.

At this time, Yelyomenko, who was in charge of the overall situation in the Southeast Front, was also busy, so the staff handed the phone to Political Commissar Khrushchev.

"I know what you want to say, Comrade Chuikov!" Khrushchev took the phone and said before Chuikov: "We know the importance of the sandbar to Stalingrad. Don't worry, we will solve this problem!"

Khrushchev was very confident about this, because he learned from the Soviet survivors... To be precise, they were not survivors, but cowards who were afraid of death, cowards, and the shame of the Soviet Union, especially when Khrushchev knew that there were only two hundred Germans attacking the sandbar.

"Your number is seven times that of the enemy!" Khrushchev angrily scolded the Soviet soldiers who were like drowned rats: "Even those of you who escaped back are more than the Germans. You only need to pick up weapons and bravely charge at the Germans, and they will be vulnerable. But you chose to escape, allowing the Germans to occupy the sandbar and drive a nail between us and Stalingrad!"

The furious Khrushchev mercilessly put all these soldiers into the disciplinary camp.

In fact, objectively analyzing this issue, Khrushchev's statement and practice are unfair: it should be said that the soldiers were not wrong in this matter. The artillery had no infantry combat training, let alone actual combat experience. They were not even well-equipped, and they were fighting against the German army armed to the teeth. Therefore, there is no such statement as Khrushchev said, "As long as you bravely charge, you can defeat the enemy." This is obviously easy to say.

This is more of a mistake in the Soviet high-level command and intelligence... There are actually traces of the German army launching such an attack. After all, this is in the Soviet Union, and Soviet people everywhere will report to the Soviet army. The German "Dragon" helicopters have been training in the Don River area for more than a month, and these helicopters are still flying in the sky, so it is difficult to hide.

Therefore, the Soviet army has received reports from the people more than once that the Germans have a strange aircraft. But it has never attracted the attention of the Soviet high-level... They took it for granted that it was made up by the people because of fear or hope for rewards.

If the Soviet high-level could pay a little attention and send some scouts and intelligence personnel to scout or confirm, then the situation might be completely different.

Of course, the Soviet high-level will not blame the problem on themselves. They have a good excuse that "as long as the soldiers are brave enough, they can win any battle."

After Khrushchev hung up the phone, he suggested to Yeremenko: "The enemy has only 200 people. We should take advantage of their unstable position to drown them in our attack!" Yeremenko certainly agreed with Khrushchev's point of view. On the one hand, the Soviets' battle plans were usually simple and crude. On the other hand, Yeremenko was worried that if they continued to wait like this, not only would Stalingrad not be able to hold out, but the German army would also use those strange planes to continue to transport troops to the sandbar to increase its strength.

Therefore, without saying a word, Yeremenko immediately mobilized two artillery regiments to bomb the sandbar. On the other hand, he also mobilized an anti-aircraft artillery regiment to deploy on the east coast near the sandbar to block its airspace.

At the same time, Yeremenko actively organized troops and ships to prepare for landing on the sandbank.

At least one of the three steps implemented by Yeremenko was effective...the anti-aircraft artillery regiment blocked the airspace over the sandbank.

Of course, this blockade does not mean a blockade of German fighters and bombers. Unless the anti-aircraft guns of this era have the kind of "proximity fuze shells" developed by Qinchuan, they can only hit high-speed targets in the air. By luck.

The problem is that the helicopter flies too slowly, so Yeremenko's approach prevents the German army from using helicopters to send reinforcements to the sandbar.

In fact, Qin Chuan had already thought of this beforehand.

After all, there is an entire Soviet front on the east coast, and the Soviets are not fools. They will definitely block the sandbar as soon as possible and launch a fierce attack.

Therefore, the battle is far from over for Qin Chuan and others.

It should be said that this is just the beginning!