Chapter 714 Chocolate

However, Yeremenko's other two methods were not so useful or it could be said that the next battle was not as easy as they imagined.

One was to use the artillery regiment to bomb the sandbar.

The bombing itself was not a problem. The sandbar was very close to the Volga River, only more than 300 meters. It can be said that the sandbar could be hit by mortars on the east coast, not to mention the howitzers with a range of at least several kilometers. (Note: The M1910 howitzers equipped in large quantities by the Soviet army had a range of 7.7 kilometers)

But the problem was that the overall shape of the sandbar was slender, like a willow leaf.

Sandbars of this shape are naturally equipped with the function of avoiding shells, because whether the shells are fired far or near, they will fall into the river. Only a small number of shells may fall on the sandbar. What's worse is that these shells that fell on the sandbar may not explode normally. There are many reefs on the sandbar... This is also one of the reasons why the sandbar can be formed on a large scale, because the reefs block the water flow, and the sand in the river slowly settles in this area, and over time it becomes a large sandbar.

Because these reefs have been washed by river water and rain for a long time, their surfaces are very smooth. The shells fired from the direction of the Soviet army will ricochet, that is, they will jump into the river on the other side and explode.

Therefore, the Soviet artillery looked very powerful, with large numbers of shells exploding near the sandbar and stirring up a stream of water mist, but in fact, not many shells could really hit the sandbar, especially since the German army had already hidden in reinforced concrete fortifications, and they regarded the violent storms outside as a joke.

Another thing was the gathering of Soviet troops attacking the sandbar.

The Southeast Front in Yeremenko's hands did not lack soldiers or equipment, but it just lacked ships...

At this time, the Battle of Stalingrad had been going on for more than two months. During this period, the Southeast Front had never stopped reinforcing Stalingrad. There was a Volga River between the Southeast Front and Stalingrad, so both the reinforcement of troops and supplies required ships.

This can actually be said to be a weakness of the Soviet defense.

As mentioned before, the Caspian Sea is an inland sea that is not connected to the outside world. The Soviet Caspian Fleet is called "a fleet kept in a fish tank" because it has no strategic needs. The Volga River leads to the Caspian Sea and is connected to the Caspian Sea. This makes the Soviet army in other directions, such as the Black Sea Fleet, the Northern Fleet, the Baltic Fleet, etc., have armed armored ships but cannot reinforce the Volga River.

During this period, the Southeast Front could only collect fishing boats along the Volga River for reinforcement transportation to Stalingrad. Even so, these fishing boats were damaged and there were not many left.

It was not a problem for the Soviet army to assemble troops. Two guards infantry regiments were assembled in less than half an hour, but it would not be possible to gather ships that could transport troops to the sandbar in a short time.

In a hurry, Yelyomenko ordered Soviet soldiers to build wooden chopping blocks by themselves, and at the same time, Soviet soldiers who could swim were selected to form a commando armed swimming team... Later, it was discovered that the effect of armed swimming was actually better than attacking with wooden chopping blocks, because at least the target would not be so big.

But even so, the first attack organized by the Soviet army was two hours later.

At this time, Qin Chuan and others had made a series of preparations on the sandbar.

The M1910 howitzer was of little value to the commandos... This was not only because of its short range, but also because of its low accuracy. It was playing with large-area coverage, and the commandos had a total of 165 people (35 people were killed or injured in the occupation operation). Even if all of these people were used, they could not make up an artillery battalion.

On the other hand, the purpose that the M1910 howitzer could achieve was that the commandos only needed to contact the rear to easily achieve it. For example, the le. FH 18 105MM caliber howitzer commonly used by the German army had a range of 10 kilometers. As long as it approached the suburbs of Stalingrad, it could hit the east bank of the Volga River to provide cover for the commandos. For example, the commandos could also contact fighters and bombers.

Therefore, the commandos had no need to use these artillery at all.

So with Qin Chuan's order, all these howitzers were dragged to a bomb crater and piled up to avoid being in the way. Not to mention the howitzers in the bunker fortifications, all were dragged out to make room.

What replaced them were the anti-aircraft machine guns and small-caliber anti-aircraft guns seized by the German army from the Soviet anti-aircraft artillery units... These things may not be able to shoot down planes, but they are definitely life harvesters when shooting down infantry.

What surprised Qin Chuan and others was that they found several underground warehouses under the bunker fortifications, in which there were too many anti-aircraft artillery shells and anti-aircraft machine gun bullets to count.

This seemed to be expected, because the Soviet army's position on the sandbar was mainly used for air defense or to provide some necessary cover for ships traveling on the Volga River. To complete this task, a large amount of ammunition was needed and these ammunition must be properly stored, otherwise they would be blown up by enemy bombers in a few shots.

After making preparations, Qin Chuan and others had some time to rest.

The baker took out the chocolate tin hidden in the pocket on his chest, opened it to take out the chocolate, opened the plastic seal and carefully broke off a little and put it in his mouth, then closed his eyes and slowly enjoyed it.

This is chocolate produced in France and supplied to the front line. It is produced in the size of a biscuit, with eight small pieces in a circle. In addition, it has a special tin box for storage, so that the chocolate will not melt due to body temperature or enter sewage during the battle.

Although this kind of chocolate is specially supplied to the front line, it is still rarely seen on the front line... This is mainly because there are too many soldiers on the front line. When transportation is difficult, even if the production in the rear is enough to give one piece to the soldiers in the front, the logistics department But they won't be brought up.

The reason is simple. A truckload of chocolate cannot feed anyone, but a truckload of grain is not.

Therefore, the logistics troops mostly replaced them with ammunition or food, especially in the direction of Stalingrad where the war situation was tense. This once made chocolate a luxury item that only senior officers were entitled to enjoy on the front line.

But in this operation, Alexander specially gave each member of the commando a piece of chocolate.

In Alexander's words: "Gentlemen, you are likely to be without reinforcements on the sandbar for a long time. I hope it can give you a little help when you are tired!"

However……

Werner rolled his eyes and said, "God, I ate it all on the flight!"

"You should save some!" said the baker: "Now...you will regret it!"

"Why?" Werner asked: "We don't know if we will still have the chance to enjoy it!"