USSR 1941 - Chapter 838

  Chapter 838 Lie

  In this case, Hitler considered all the issues of how to eliminate the negative impact of the 6th Army after its surrender.

  So, he didn’t consider whether Manstein’s Don Army was in danger at all, but organized propaganda tools, special operations teams, and the Gestapo to block bad news.

  Of course, it is impossible to completely block such a big event. Hitler can only hope that this negative impact can be minimized.

  Manstein is organizing a retreat in full swing.

His attention has always been on the south and north defense lines of Miloway, and he sent batch after batch of reinforcements to the south and north defense lines… In fact, it cannot be called reinforcements, but the first batch to withdraw from the encirclement All the troops were used by Manstein to strengthen the southern and northern defense lines.

  Manstein knew very well that only by ensuring that the south and north lines of defense were not breached could the Don Army be able to withdraw safely.

   Even though Manstein was a famous general, at this time, under the influence of the surrender of the 6th Army and the possible encirclement of the Don Army, he did not consider the possibility of the enemy’s possible airborne operations at all.

  At exactly eleven o’clock that night, more than 100 transport planes at the Akhtubinsk Air Force Base of the Soviet Army were fully refueled and ready.

  The transport plane is “Li 2”.

To be precise, it is “Li 2D”…”Li 2” was refitted from a civil aviation aircraft. At first, it was hurriedly requisitioned when the war broke out, and then simply removed the seats and installed transportation equipment. Until now, at least there are There are three variants:

  The first modification is “Li 2G”, the floor is strengthened and rigging is added, and a hatch is added on the left side, which is mainly used to transport materials.

The second type is “Li 2T”, which is a military type. It is actually used as a bomber, because a machine gun turret is installed on the back of the machine, and a 7.62 mm or 12.7 mm machine gun can be installed in the turret for defense. A 7.62 machine gun can also be temporarily installed on each side. Bombs can be installed under the fuselage, four 250 kg bombs can be mounted, or six 83mm rockets can be mounted on each wing.

  The third type is “Li 2D”, which is a paratrooper type with a towing hook for towing a glider at the tail.

  The problem is that the number of paratrooper type “Li 2D” belonging to the third type, which can tow the glider, is too small, only twenty of them…

   Needless to say why this is, if the airborne troops are organized into infantry divisions and used as ordinary infantry, then “paratrooper” transport aircraft are of course unnecessary.

  As a result, almost all “paratrooper type” transport aircraft have been converted into military and cargo types, or in other words, all the “paratrooper type” that were originally intended to be produced have been changed into military and cargo types.

   This made Veniamenco a little embarrassed, and he said to Shulka: “We can probably only carry twenty-three anti-tank guns to the front!”

  Large equipment such as anti-tank guns can only be transported by glider, because the weight is too large, and if it is disassembled and parachuted, it is likely to break when it hits the ground.

  The airborne troops must carry anti-tank guns, otherwise they will be useless once they encounter enemy tanks… The bazooka can only be used under limited conditions because the range is too short.

  Shuerka thought for a while and said, “We need to replace at least half of them with howitzers!”

  Veniamenco asked: “For Hill Three?”

   “Yes!” Shulka said: “Highland No. 3 is more than 500 meters away from the road, and it needs artillery fire to block the road!”

   “Then we only have eleven anti-tank guns!”

   “Two gates in Milove, two gates in Highland No. 3!” Shurka said, “Seven gates in Butur Village!”

  Veniamenco nodded and did not object to such an allocation, because the flat village of Butur is where anti-tank guns are most needed.

   After thinking for a while, Shulka said again: “In addition, we should also favor Butur Village in terms of airdrop supplies!”

  Veniaminco agreed: “We’re ready to give them a second or even a third batch of supplies!”

Needless to say what the second and third batches of supplies mean… The first batch of airborne and airdrops is the safest, because the Germans are completely unprepared, and the transport planes still take off from the Ahtubinsk Air Force Base. The 6th Army has surrendered and Stalingrad is safe, and it can reach the target in less than 20 minutes at full speed.

   At this time, the German army can be said to have no time to react.

  Because this requires radar detection, and then the fighter jets scramble into the air, and then fly to the target area to intercept.

  When the German fighter planes arrived, the Soviet army might have already completed the airdrop.

   Then, with Veniaminko’s order, more than a hundred transport planes at the Ahtubinsk Air Force Base started.

  There was the noise of “rumbling” motors everywhere, and the air was filled with the smell of gasoline and exhaust gas. Teams of heavily armed paratroopers trotted all the way to their transport planes under the instructions of the ground crew, and then boarded the plane one by one.

   For this airborne, Veniamenco took a risk, he did not send any fighter escort.

  Zolotarev questioned this before: “Is this too dangerous? If there is no fighter escort?”

   “What if there are fighter escorts?” Veniamenko asked back: “Our fighters are far inferior to the Germans, especially night fighters!”

  What Veniamenco didn’t say clearly is that, in fact, the bigger gap is the quality of the pilots.

   “What’s more!” Veniamenko said: “If we take off fighter jets, it will wake up the Germans!”

   Shulka knew what Veniamenko meant…

  If fighter jets are needed to **** them, then the fighter jets have to take off first and circle in the air to form a team. During the team formation process, they may be detected by enemy radar, and then the German Air Force is ready to take off and even has already taken off.

  So, Veniamenco decided to use the transport plane to “run naked”.

   This is actually a helpless choice. The fighter plane is not as good as others, and it is almost the same whether it is available or not, so it is safer to “run naked” at this time.

  But Veniamenco didn’t say that to his subordinates.

  Before those airborne troops boarded the plane, the ground crew would tell them: “Don’t worry, our fighter planes have already flown into the air to protect you! We have sent a total of five aviation regiments!”

In fact, this sentence can only deceive the airborne troops who don’t know much about fighter jets. Those pilots who fly transport planes know that… five air regiments are impossible. The entire Soviet Air Force does not have so many night fighters, and they are not capable of dispatching So many warplanes for night combat.

   Therefore, the pilots of the transport plane are always nervous or have trembling feet when starting the plane.

  Only the paratroopers were calm and even joked with each other.

  (end of this chapter)