Chapter 210: Plan ahead
The Volga River is called the mother river by the Russians, the Volga River originates in the lakes of the Ostashkov district of the Tver region of Russia, among the lakes in the southeast of the Valdai hills, and the source is 228 meters above sea level. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 From the source, it flows northeast to Rybinsk and turns southeast, to Kuibyshev to the south, and after reaching Volgograd, it flows southeast into the Caspian Sea. The total length of the river is 3,688 kilometers, the basin area is 1.38 million square kilometers, the average annual flow of the estuary is about 8,000 cubic meters per second, and the annual runoff is 254 billion cubic meters. The total drop of the main stream of the Volga River is 256 meters, and the average slope drop is 0.007. The river flows slowly, the channel is crooked, there are many sandbars and shoals, and there are many oxbow lakes and waste channels on both banks. Below Volgograd, due to the flow through semi-deserts and deserts, the water is evaporated, there are no tributaries to join in, and the flow decreases. The Volga River is only 228 meters above sea level at its headwater, while its mouth is 28 meters below sea level. Counting from Erzhev, which is not far from the source of the river, the total drop of the river is only 190 meters in the section of more than 3,000 kilometers, so the river flows slowly, and sandbanks, shoals, oxbow lakes, and waste channels are widely distributed, making it a typical plain river. The delta covers an area of 19,000 square kilometers.
The Volga River is located in the delta of the estuary, on which it divides into 80 rivers and flows into the Caspian Sea. 3,256 km of trunk and tributary circulation; Freight traffic accounts for more than half of the country's total river transport. The main cargo flows are oil, timber, grain, and machinery. The ice period is from the end of November to April. The navigation period is 7~9 months.
Recalling the information on the ups and downs of the Erga River, Andrei understood that by November, the Volga River would not be able to be navigated, but in history, this battle was fought until the second year, what methods did the Soviet army use at the beginning? At that time, the defenders had absolutely not cut off support, and Andrei began to search for historical information that the Great Patriotic War mentioned that on November 11, Paulus attacked Stalingrad for the last time, the Germans attacked the artillery factory by the river and surrounded Lyudnikov's troops, and the 138th Division held out for a month and a half in an isolated defensive position, and the defensive front line had crossed the blocks of the city.
The Germans continued to bombard the ferries used to transport supplies. Soon, the Volga began to freeze, and the ferries could no longer transport military supplies to Stalingrad. The Soviets dropped ammunition and dry bread on Stalingrad, and due to the shortage of parachutes, the planes had to fly at low altitudes, throwing items directly to the ground, food parcels and ammunition boxes were tied to the wings of the planes, and when the navigator pushed and pulled the controllers, the supplies fell to the ground. Of course, vodka must be parachuted by parachute. A pilot had to take off and land 12 times a night, but the airdrops alone were far from enough to meet the material needs of the soldiers, and the fate of the defenders of Stalingrad became uncertain.
In 1864, Russia converted a small steamer "Parlot" into the world's first icebreaker to maintain navigation on the route from Kronstadt to Orlanningbaum during the freezing period, and the "Yermak" icebreaker built by Britain for Russia was the first icebreaker to sail in the Arctic. On May 11, 1926, the Italian airship designer Nobil piloted his own airship "Norway" and the famous Norwegian explorer Amundsen and others to the North Pole, where the flags of Norway, the United States and Italy were planted. After a long 72-hour flight, it landed in a small village in Alaska on the morning of May 14. It was also the first human flight from Europe across the Arctic Ocean to the Americas, with a total length of 5,460.3 kilometers. The success of this flight of Nobil caused a great sensation in Italy. Nobil then intends to continue using airships for scientific expeditions to the Arctic. On April 15, 1928, Nobil accompanied the predecessor "Norway" from Milan in the newly designed airship "Italy", and landed the "Italy" at the North Pole on May 23. But on the way back, he encountered a snowstorm and crashed on the ice at 7:30 p.m. on May 25. Nobil and 8 of his companions escaped, and the other 7 were blown away by the wind along with the airship. Although they sent a distress signal for the victims, no one in the whole of Europe, including Italy, heard it. Five days later, a Soviet schoolboy picked up the signal on a homemade radio station and contacted the victims through Moscow. As soon as the news came out, the whole world turned its attention to the poor Italians on the Arctic ice cap, a total of 6 countries immediately sent rescue teams, a total of 18 ships, 22 aircraft and 1,500 people, this is also the first international joint rescue operation in human history, in the harsh environment of the polar human beings showed a valuable spirit of cooperation, and in this event the outstanding performance of the "Krasin" became the most glorious in the legend of her life After the Soviet government got the news, a rescue committee was immediately formed, In addition, several batches of rescue detachments were dispatched, and the "Krasin" and two other icebreakers and one scientific research ship were ordered to form a rescue fleet. And the unique ice-breaking ability of "Krasin" at that time made it inevitable to become the flagship of this fleet. But in the depressed spring of 1928, the "Krasin" happened to be undergoing repairs at the shipyard in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). At the sound of the order of the Soviet leadership, the shipyard engineers completed the repair and refit of the icebreaker and the preparation for sailing in less than 5 days. Western journalists at the time wrote in their reports: "Only a madman and a Bolshevik could have completed such a huge amount of preparation in such a short time!" The ship was equipped with a crew of 136 people, including seven journalists, and a team of pilots, including the famous polar pilot who had the best flying skills in the Soviet Union at that time, Tyukhnovsky. On the aft deck of the "Krasin" was carried 1 modified German "Junkers" bomber. The Krasin was not equipped with special aircraft handling equipment, and relied entirely on manpower to slide the aircraft through wooden planks onto the ice. But even so, it was the first time that the Soviet Union used aviation equipment to complete the polar search and rescue work, which was the most effective search and rescue method among the search and rescue teams of the six countries. In the end, the Krasin fulfilled its mission and successfully completed the rescue mission.
In addition, during the Great Patriotic War, Krasin was used to ensure the transportation of important supplies from the main ports of the northern part of the USSR, the most important of which was the summer transportation from Arkhangelsk to Chukchi, the easternmost region of the USSR. From the winter of 1942 to 1943, she was sent to the White Sea to keep the shipping lanes open. Throughout the Great Patriotic War, the crew of the "Krasin" was brave and fearless, and more than 300 of them were awarded various state medals of the USSR.
Soviet icebreakers were able to break through the Volga River ice in the Arctic at the beginning, and what is it!
The Soviet Union now has a lot of icebreakers, but now they are all in the north, and Stalingrad is in the south, so the Volga fleet does not have icebreakers, but it can be transferred, so Andrei thought of contacting the front command, Khrushchev answered the phone and asked: "Andrey, what is the matter with you?" Andrei immediately said: "Comrade Military Commissar, next month will be the ice age, but I'm afraid the battle will have to continue, can the superiors transfer a few icebreakers from the North Pole to provide supply channels for the next battle?" ”
As soon as Khrushchev heard it, icebreakers are yes, but there are no river fleets, but there are icebreakers in the Arctic and the Far East, so wouldn't it be possible to transfer small and medium-sized icebreakers to continue waterway transportation?
So Khrushchev said: "Well, Andrey, this idea of yours is very good, but I need to report to the Central Committee." ”
Hanging up the phone, Andre now feels a little more relaxed, if there is a problem with logistics this winter, it will be sad, I hope his advice is feasible and useful.
And here, Andrei saw Brezhnev coming over and immediately asked: "Ilyich, you are our big butler, how is the situation of the various material reserves of the whole division now?" Brezhnev said: "Now the materials provided by the group army are mainly ammunition, and the food has been reduced, but we have been stockpiling in the early stage, if the food is still enough for half a month according to the current ration standard, and the ammunition, we have half of the weapons that have been captured by the Germans, and we can also rely on capture to supplement part of it in the battle, as for our army's system, we have to find a way, on the one hand, we have organized people to collect on the battlefield, and on the other hand, we rely on the superiors to replenish." ”
Hearing Brezhnev's words, Andrei understood that the materials of his troops are still enough at a minimum, but the logistics on this battlefield can be said to be a rather wasteful, indispensable department, think about the motherland in his previous life in order to prepare for the war, the goal was to shoot each person to the Soviet Union's home, but enough to produce more than 30 million pieces, as a result, the logistics personnel of later generations had a headache when they saw these old guns sealed with butter, if this Nima did not fight the world war, how many years would it have to be saved before it could be used!
In addition, during the preparation period for war, it was produced according to the fact that all the people of the country were soldiers, and the people of the whole country had four grenades in their hands, and the reserves of the regular army were produced according to the 40 reserve bombs of each PLA! The production of this is called a mammoth, resulting in many secret military warehouses piled up with these old-fashioned ammunition. More than a billion old-fashioned grenades will be used until the year of the donkey.
It is admittedly a waste that the Chinese army still uses a large number of wooden-handled grenades in training in the 21st century, but who dares to guarantee that the war will not come, this Andrei knows that during World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union also produced a lot of weapons and ammunition, so that Germany and Japan did not stop before surrendering, and finally relied on several wars, what Korean War, and military aid were all thrown out, otherwise this would be a war, and the warehouse would have exploded! (The surplus materials of the United States and the Soviet Union from World War II were basically consumed by us, from the Liberation War to the Korean War, which is really a tragedy)
This is the war, which is not afraid of waste, but is afraid of nothing, so Andrei still said to Brezhnev in a serious tone: "Ilyich, I hope you will work harder or find a way to get more supplies!" ”