"Why don't we go on the offensive?" Major Mikhailvich asked suspiciously: "Just like we did before, counterattack at night to destroy the enemy's artillery array!" ”

"The Germans have consolidated the line of defense, Comrade Mikhailvich!" Major Akimovich explained: "The complex terrain around Mamayev Heights, with its two flanks being a gorge and a gully, made it impossible for us to outflank it. On the front is the Mamayev Hills. While it is true that we can recapture the positive slope of Mamayev Hill under the cover of artillery, as before, it will only be on the positive slope...... The enemy built several lines of defense at the foot of the Mamayev Gang Mountain, and as soon as it was dawn we had to withdraw our troops or even abandon the positive slope! ”

In other words, the positive slope of the Mamayev Hill has become a buffer zone for the German army, and the Germans can abandon it at any time when it is dark, and the sky will light up...... The Soviets had to return it to the Germans, otherwise they would have to pay heavy casualties.

As a result, the command immediately fell silent.

Although the Mamayev Gang was still under the control of the Soviet army, because the Germans boldly deployed long-range artillery here, it had become a sharp knife inserted into the center of Stalingrad.

This sharp knife not only posed a huge threat to the transportation lines of the Volga River, but also faintly divided Stalingrad into two inaccessible areas, north and south.

The latter, perhaps, was not yet obvious, since the main task of the German artillery at this time was to block the river transport lines.

But one day, when Stalingrad was weakened by a severe lack of supplies, the Germans would be able to cut off the bottleneck from Mamayev Hill to the Volga River, which was only about two kilometers away, with a single turn of the gun.

It was fatal for Stalingrad.

Because a considerable part of Stalingrad's supplies were self-produced...... As mentioned before, there were many factories in Stalingrad that produced bullets, shells and even tanks day and night.

However, these factories are all concentrated in the northern factory area, while most of the personnel and troops are concentrated in the densely built residential areas in the south.

(Note: Under the planned economy, architecture in the Soviet Union was very regular, and Stalingrad was no exception.)

It goes without saying what this means once the passage between the factory area to the north and the residential area to the south is cut off...... The people and troops in the south will be desperately short of supplies, while the north will have supplies but no one, so they will soon be broken by each one.

There was silence for a long time before Andrianka said: "Maybe we can suppress it with artillery fire!" ”

Major Akimovich shook his head.

"We've thought about this too, Comrade Andrianka!" Akimovich replied helplessly: "The problem is that our supplies do not allow ...... We need a large number of shells to ensure that we can suppress the enemy's artillery, and this in turn increases the pressure on the transport lines, and the result is ......"

Major Akimovich spread his hands.

This means that everyone understands that the short-term safety of the transport line in exchange for a large number of shells may not be enough to shoot the shells.

In other words, this is actually useless or even counterproductive.

This is where Paulus excelled: it was indeed taboo to put long-range artillery fire in front, but as the saying goes, "soldiers are impermanent, water is impermanent", and doing so in the absence of supplies in Stalingrad would become a chicken rib for the Soviet army.

Air Force, Infantry, Artillery...... The various arms and plans were rejected one by one, and Stalingrad seemed to have fallen into a final dead end, only waiting to be eaten away by the German army little by little and finally annihilated.

At this time, Shulka said: "Why do we have to push the Germans back?" ”

Major Mikhailvich looked at Shulka in confusion and replied: "Because we have to!" Those guns are on our supply lines! ”

"If they're facing our supply lines!" Shulka said: "Why don't we open a few more supply lines? ”

"You mean shipping from other directions?" Major Akimovich shook his head in denial: "We can't do it, Comrade Shulka!" The other directions are blocked by sandbars, and transport ships cannot pass! ”

"It seems that transport ships really can't do it, but why don't we use amphibious landing ships?" Shulka asked rhetorically.

"Amphibious landing ship?" Major Akimovich's eyes lit up: "What are you talking about...... Amphibious landing ships used on the Crimean Peninsula? The amphibious landing ship you designed? ”

Major Akimovich was a staff officer, especially a "fan" of Shulka, so of course he knew about this battle and about the amphibious landing ship.

"Yes!" Shulka replied: "It can travel on both the river and the land, why don't we use it to transport supplies?" Especially for those who need to cross the sandbar...... You don't need to load and unload it frequently! ”

"That's a good idea, Comrade Shulka!" Major Akimovich said: "But, as far as I know...... Those amphibious landing ships can't control the direction, I mean they can't control the direction on land! ”

"That's because we needed an emergency landing in Crimea at that time!" Shulka replied: "So after the production of a rudimentary amphibious landing ship, it was put into emergency use." Since then, our R&D personnel have been developing amphibious landing ships that can control the direction...... It's not that hard, don't you say? ”

This is, of course, because it would be enough to transplant the car's direction control system directly to the amphibious landing ship.

"I believe that ......," Shulka said, "they should have developed an amphibious landing ship that can control the direction." It's just that we don't know they have it, and they don't know what we need. So ......"

Golikov and Akimovich were dumbfounded.

This is indeed possible, because the amphibious landing ship is still a new type of equipment for the Soviet army, especially an amphibious landing ship that can control the direction.

So, of course, for this equipment, it is a blockade message.

But blocking news is not always a good thing, for example, now, Golikov and Akimovich don't know anything about it.

To be precise, Akimovich did not know anything about it, but thought that such an amphibious landing ship was still in a state of uncontrollable direction and was therefore only suitable for landing.

"What if!" Shulka pointed to the map and said: "We can transport it at any point on the front with a width of up to 50 kilometers, while the maximum range of the enemy's artillery is only 10 kilometers......"

"Then we can perfectly avoid the enemy's artillery blockade!" Golikov answered.

"Yes!" Shulka nodded.

In the next second, Golikov ordered: "Contact the command of the Front immediately, immediately!" ”