It was only after the occupation of the hospital and school by the Germans that Golidov suddenly came to his senses.

"The focus of their attack is on the Mamayev Heights!" Golidov said to Krylov with some panic: "If the Mamayev Hill is captured, Stalingrad will collapse much faster than we thought, and we won't even have time to withdraw!" ”

Krylov did not dare to slack off, he immediately replied: "I will organize reinforcements immediately!" ”

But it was too late to ask for reinforcements.

The topography of Mamayev Hill is peculiar, it is bordered by the Bannei Gorge to the north, the Dorgi Gully to the south, and the Volga River to the west, and only a few roads and trails lead to the Mamayev Hills.

The Germans had been prepared for this for a long time, they used fighter planes and artillery fire to coordinate, and any troops that tried to reinforce Mamayev Hill were hit back by a burst of shells and bullets, and the Soviets not only failed to succeed in reinforcing but suffered heavy casualties.

Then the German motorized infantry division quickly launched an attack on the Mamayev Heights.

Hearing this, Golikov's face was as dead as ashes.

He hurriedly reported the situation to Command, hoping for reinforcements from the air, but he was disappointed.

"No, we don't have extra air power!" Yeremenko replied without thinking about it: "Even if there is, we will not be able to use the Air Force in this situation!" ”

In fact, it was not that there was no air power, but that the Soviet army transferred most of its air power to the Caucasus to fight the Germans.

The Luftwaffe had the advantage that their planes were faster and more agile, which was quite important in air combat, as it meant the question of who could bite whose tail, and the next thing was to press a button to shoot a bullet.

Except for a limited number of fighters, most of the Soviet Air Force were low-speed fighters, and there were even many backward biplane fighters, which made the Soviet army in a passive state of being beaten most of the time in air combat.

But there is one place where there is an exception, and that is the air battle in the Caucasus.

It is an exception because the Caucasus is full of mountainous peaks, and when fighters are traveling through these peaks, especially when covering infantry fighting on the mountains, high speed is not only not an advantage, but a disadvantage, because it means that the pilots have less reaction time, otherwise one will accidentally hit the peak.

At the same time, it would be dangerous to bite the tail of the enemy aircraft in such a situation, or to reduce the speed to the same as the enemy aircraft, but this also meant that the German fighters lost their advantage.

Therefore, the Soviet army transferred its main forces to fight in the Caucasus.

This strategy is certainly correct, since they are almost always a head-off in the skies over Stalingrad, and in that case, throwing them into the Caucasus is a good use.

As a result, Stalingrad's air supremacy was undoubtedly in the hands of the Germans.

"You must defend the Mamayev post!" Yeremenko ordered: "At any cost!" ”

"Yes, Comrade Yeremenko!" Golikov stepped forward and replied.

But this was a helpless answer, other units could not be reinforced, there was only one battalion on the Mamayev Gang, and there was a serious lack of anti-tank equipment, while the enemy was constantly pouring into the Mamayev Post from the gap, and was also equipped with a large number of tanks and assault guns...... In such a situation, it is almost impossible to hold the Mamayev post.

After a moment of silence, Golikov ordered: "Send another regiment up!" ”

"Yes!" Krylov replied.

After relaying the order, Krylov said: "I hope they will last until dark!" ”

Golikov knew what he meant, at least the enemy's planes would be inactive after dark, and it would be easier to reinforce them.

However, Golikov did not hold out any hope, because the disparity between the forces of the enemy and the enemy was too great.

In fact, Captain Oleg, who was stationed at the Mamayev Heights, had already requested several times to retreat......

"The enemy has more than a hundred assault guns, and our fire points are vulnerable in front of them!" "But we can't do anything about them, and I beg to retreat, Comrade Golikov, otherwise we're all going to die here!" ”

Golikov's answer was simple: "You can't retreat, and you can't retreat until you hit the last man...... What's more, I think you've seen the troops that are heading for reinforcements, can you guys pull back? ”

With that, Golikov hung up the phone.

In fact, the people on the high ground can indeed retreat.

Because the Germans were adept at using a form of psychological warfare, they would strike at enemy reinforcements but let them flee if their target was a strategic location, such as Mamayev Heights.

The purpose of this is to break the morale of the Russian army, so that they and those who come after them know that as long as they give up here, they can survive, so not many people are willing to hold on.

But Golikov, of course, did not tell Oleg about this, he just said to Oleg over and over again: "If you abandon the position, you will wait to be punished!" "Reinforcements will arrive soon, hold your ground!" ”……

But as time went on, the number of troops stationed at Mamayev became less and less, and Golikov and Krylov had to face the reality that they would lose this important place.

At this time, Shulka was negotiating with the director of the "Red October Gold Treatment Factory".

"Turn all the machines off!" Major Mikhailvich ordered.

"Whose order?" The factory director asked rhetorically: "Or show me the documents!" ”

"My command!" Major Mikhailvich was a little angry: "Now it's an emergency!" ”

The director of the plant glanced at Major Mikhailvich and replied: "Sorry, Comrade Major, the production is also an emergency, you know, we are producing bullets, shells and even raw materials for tanks, if we stop production, do you know what this means?" ”

It seems understandable that the entire production of armaments forms an interdependent production chain, and a problem in one of them can lead to the rupture of the entire production chain and the stagnation of production.

So it's not like a major has the power to stop production when he says it's out of production.

This was something Shulka hadn't thought about before, he had thought it would be easy.

"Comrade Factory Director!" Shulka handed the director a cigarette and invited him aside, saying, "I want you to understand that if I want my men to exchange their lives for lives, they will be happy to do so, do you want me to do that?" ”

The factory director's face changed when he heard this, and then he replied, "No, you won't do this!" ”

"You can try it!" Shulka said: "Now, this is the last time I ask you to do this, stop production immediately, and close the drainage system!" ”

The director hesitated, but finally did not dare to try.

"Well, Comrade Captain!" The factory director said: "But I will report this matter to my superiors truthfully, especially these words you said to you!" You know, that's not what a soldier should do, what we're doing is ......."

"I know, Comrade Director!" Shulka interrupted him, then raised his head behind him, motioning for him to hurry.