However, the artillery battle that Major General Wietsheim is talking about is not only the "Dora" cannon, but also the Soviet artillery and shells delivered from the Transcaucasus.

These can be counted as additional support for the German army.

Needless to say, the German army in history not only did not receive assistance from Transcaucasia when attacking Stalingrad, but also fell into a stalemate in the Caucasus Mountains while attacking Stalingrad.

As a result, supplies from Berlin were split in two, one to Stalingrad and one to the Caucasus.

But now, because of Qin Chuan's efforts, the Germans won the victory in the Caucasus at a very small cost, so not only was the supply not split in two, but the Germans could also use the captured arsenals in the Caucasus to produce equipment and the agriculture of the Transcaucasia to support Stalingrad.

So, at least until now, there has not been a time when there have been supply difficulties in Stalingrad.

In other words, Qin Chuan's influence on the Battle of Stalingrad was at least twofold: one was to buy a month's time, and the other was to secure supplies.

Of course, if there is a third contribution, it is in terms of troops.

It's just that the contribution in this area is basically negligible...... The Caucasus needs to be defended by a large number of troops, especially Baku.

Baku is located in the Caspian Sea, the upper reaches of the Caspian Sea are connected to the Volga River, and the entire Soviet Southeastern Front is on the east bank of the Volga River.

As a result, Manstein's 11th Army could only stay in Baku, and even because of the importance of Baku and the long coastline of the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, Hitler also replenished the 11th Army with several coastal defense forces and air defense divisions...... The anti-aircraft division was used to protect the Baku oil fields from being bombed by Soviet troops.

On Stalingrad's side, Vitessheim took 200 M1910 howitzers from Transcaucasia, and collected 800 of them from various units and captured them from the Soviet army.

(Note: The Germans captured a large number of M1910 howitzers from the Soviets, which were assigned the designation LeFH 388)

In fact, it is not the number of artillery that matters, but the shells.

The reason was that the Germans had captured almost countless Soviet artillery pieces from Kharkov along the Don River to Stalingrad, and a considerable part of them were discarded by the German soldiers as garbage because there were not enough shells.

But now it's different, the arsenals of Transcaucasia can produce shells, so these guns are picked up again and handed over to sappers for simple repairs...... In fact, they can't say it's a repair, but they take apart the guns that can't be used properly, and the parts that can be used as spare parts for another gun are almost a kind of integration.

This took two weeks of preparation, during which time a large number of shells were accumulated.

Then, with an order, including howitzers in the hands of the Germans, thousands of artillery pieces bombarded the Soviet-controlled area of Stalingrad at once.

Shells exploded like mountains of shells on the front lines, on the ruins, on the floors, and with a "rumbling" sound, bursting with patches of stone and dust.

But this was only the beginning, and the Soviets did not show weakness, and their artillery immediately launched a retaliatory bombardment of the German-controlled area.

And the Soviet artillery fire seems to be more intense, because, as mentioned before, the Soviet artillery is even more powerful than the Germans, and they have an extremely terrible number of artillery...... 2000 guns, and there are more shells than the Germans.

As soon as the artillery shells were fired, they smashed into the German-controlled area of Stalingrad, and the mountains shook on the spot in an instant.

I don't know who Stalingrad offended, both the Soviet and German troops poured shells into the city.

Numerous explosions surrounded the area, seemingly engulfing all the soldiers stationed on the front line, whether Soviet or German, shrapnel flew in the air, hissing overhead, and the shells that exploded nearby lifted stones and dirt into the air and then spilled on the soldiers.

The soldiers were helpless, huddled in their trenches and prayed, waiting for the storm to end.

Qin Chuan supported the ground with his elbows and struggled to lie on his stomach, covering his ears with his hands, closing his eyes tightly, and letting the dirt and stones fall on the steel helmet like raindrops, trying in vain to throw out the terrifying horror in front of him...... This is simply not something that human beings can stop, sometimes Qin Chuan feels that human beings are very pathetic, let alone to create such a disaster to embarrass his own kind.

The shelling lasted for more than an hour, and by the time it was impossible to distinguish which shells were coming from the enemy and which were coming from the direction of their own people, because the whole sky was blackened...... In fact, it was the smoke and dust that obscured the sunlight and made Stalingrad look like it was going into the night.

The 1st Infantry Regiment was a battle-hardened unit, each soldier was well-trained and valiant, but a few of them collapsed in such a bombardment.

At first no one knew, because the sound of artillery drowned out all the sounds, and the soldier was crammed into the corner of the trench.

It wasn't until the cannon fire gradually stopped that I heard his hoarse shout: "I can't stand it anymore, I'm going to leave here, leave this ...... forever"

The soldiers thought he was injured and immediately called the hygienist.

However, the hygienist pushed him to the ground and examined him, and found that he was not injured at all.

"Alex!" The soldiers who knew him shook vigorously and shouted his name, but to no avail.

The sergeant, Alex, was completely out of control, foaming at the corners of his mouth, his eyes wide with fear, crying and beating and screaming whenever anyone approached him.

"He's crazy!" The baker shouted.

Then everyone turned their eyes to Qin Chuan, they didn't know what to do with such a soldier.

Qin Chuan didn't know either, and for the sake of safety, Qin Chuan ordered: "Surrender his guns and grenades!" ”

"Yes!"

The bakers responded, restrained Alex and forcibly removed the equipment from him.

"Let him go!" Qin Chuan ordered: "Let him go!" ”

The soldiers let go of their hands, and Alex jumped up like a demon, stumbling backwards as he shouted something, and soon disappeared into the smoke and dust.

The soldiers looked at his back, and it was inevitable that they would feel a little uncomfortable, because maybe one day they themselves would suddenly collapse like this.

Later, I learned that there were not a few people who had this kind of situation in the artillery battle, and many broke out of the trenches and rushed into the artillery fire.