Eh, if you're not careful, it's going to be five watches! What about applause, what about flowers? What about monthly passes?

************

After a moment's hesitation, Golikov said: "Comrade Shulka, I know your extraordinary talent, you have brought various units out of danger and won victories again and again. But, you also see ......"

Turning to the map, Golikov said: "Stalingrad is generally rectangular, 50 kilometers long along the Volga River, but only 5 to 10 kilometers wide. That is, if the enemy were to advance from west to east, especially to seize the northern factory area of the city, he would only need to advance ten kilometers in the battle, and then he would be able to cut Stalingrad into pieces that could not be connected with each other! ”

"In addition, we are seriously understaffed with troops and equipment!" Krylov took over the topic: "We have counted that only about 80 tanks can be put into battle in the whole of Stalingrad, and we can mobilize only more than 300,000 troops, and they are still decreasing sharply!" ”

"There should only be more than 300,000 enemies!" Shulka said.

The word "should" is used because Shulka shouldn't have known the number, and Shulka is really not sure.

"Yes!" Krylov replied: "They have two armies, with a total strength of more than 300,000 troops, but they are ......"

At this point, Krylov didn't say anything more, he glanced at Golikov, and the two of them had embarrassment on their faces.

Shulka knew what that meant.

Because it was these two armies of the German army with more than 300,000 men who defeated the Soviet army's Southeast Front, and now they are pursuing it all the way to Stalingrad.

On the surface, the total strength of German Army Group B was about the same as that of the Soviet Front, but the Italian Army Group and the Hungarian Army Group actually defended only on the west bank of the Don River and did not join the battle.

In other words, the two German armies could almost be said to have fought against the Stagrad Front and the Southeastern Front at the same time with more than 300,000 men.

Of course, on the battlefield, sometimes it is not possible to simply measure the number of troops and simply conclude that the Soviet army is far inferior to the German army.

The reason for this result is, on the one hand, that the German army has always held air supremacy in the air force, which is enough to magnify the combat effectiveness of the infantry several times...... Air supremacy on the battlefield is too important, because when the two armies face each other, the side with air supremacy can easily get timely information from the enemy and make targeted responses, and can also bomb the enemy's artillery, so an asymmetrical situation of air force against artillery, artillery against infantry, and infantry to clean up the battlefield is formed.

On the other hand, it was because the elite of the Southeastern Front was encircled and annihilated in Kharkov first, and the rest were a rabble, of course, unable to compete with the German army.

The problem is that the remnants of the South-Eastern Front in Stalingrad remained a rabble.

Therefore, the more than 300,000 are not the other more than 300,000.

Krylov and Golikov meant that the more than 300,000 Soviet troops in Stalingrad were not the opponents of the German army's 300,000 at all.

"We need to concentrate all the forces in the city!" "Unorganized troops scattered throughout the city, as well as workers......"

"Comrade Shulka!" Golikov interrupted Shulka: "Maybe I shouldn't have poured cold water on them, but organizing them won't change anything, they are not professional soldiers, this has been verified from previous battles!" ”

Golikov was referring to the rout of the South-Eastern Front when it was stationed south of Stalingrad.

It should be said that there is some truth in this, there is a saying that "soldiers are not expensive", and this is what it means.

This point is not very obvious in the era of cold weapons, but in modern warfare, there is no experience and no basic military quality, and no matter how many soldiers there are, they are still looking for abuse on the battlefield...... The two armies came to open their formations, and the planes and artillery bombarded in a burst, and then the tanks pushed forward, and they were all frightened and ran away.

There is not much difference between having such soldiers and not having them, and they waste rifles and supplies.

"So we should change tactics, Comrade Golikov!" Shulka said.

"Change tactics?" Golikov looked at Shulka suspiciously: "Can changing tactics change anything?" ”

"Absolutely!" Shulka replied: "The 82nd Infantry Regiment, to which I belong, is also a unit with no combat experience, and many of them are still new recruits!" ”

"Yes!" Major Mikhailvich duly affirmed this and took the opportunity to advertise his troops: "We are a unit formed in Ulyupinsk, and more than two-thirds of the soldiers are recruits who have never been on the battlefield, and all they have is anger against the enemy!" ”

Of course, Shulka would not say that the 82nd Infantry Regiment had been training specifically for more than two months for urban street fighting.

"What tactics to change?" Golikov asked.

"We can't afford to hold on to certain areas as we did before!" "I mean, we've been trying to build a line of defense to keep the enemy at bay, and this tactic needs to change!" Shulka said. ”

"What else can we do?" Krylov asked curiously: "Do you want to give the position to the enemy?" We don't have much room to retreat, we have the Volga behind us! ”

With a depth of 5 to 10 kilometers, it is true that there is little room for retreat, as Krylov said.

"I know, Comrade Krylov!" "But we can fight over and over again, that is, in a similar way of elastic defense, trading space for time during the day when it is not conducive to our army's operations, and then taking back these positions at night!" Shulka said. ”

"At night?" Golikov said: "You think we should fight at night? ”

"Yes, of course!" "At night the enemy's artillery, tanks and aircraft are largely useless, and the enemy can only fight us with infantry, but during the day it is not!" Shulka said. ”

Golikov thought about it for a while, then nodded silently: "You have a point, Comrade Shulka, in this way...... A war of attrition against the enemy's infantry will be formed! ”

The reason is actually very simple, the problem is that the Soviet army is always accustomed to rushing and attacking to see the move, and Golikov still has the taste of being beaten by the Germans and is too poor to deal with, so he didn't think of this.

"Why can't we be like the 82nd Infantry Regiment!" "I mean, if you can hold the hospital and the school, then the other troops can hold their positions with the same tactics!" Krylov said. ”

Shulka shook his head and said: "Comrade Krylov, the reason why we were able to hold the hospital and the school was because the Germans wanted to use the hospital and school as an advance base and transport supply line for the attack on Mamayev Heights. Otherwise, they could blow up one building after another of the buildings we were stationed in! ”