USSR 1941

Chapter 591: Molotov cocktail

??Chapter 591 Molotov cocktail

?? "Petrol bomb!" Paulus replied without thinking after hearing Fred's report: "If it is a wooden pontoon, I believe the petrol bomb will be effective!"

?? It should be said that Paulus estimated very accurately.

??The reason why he immediately judged that it was a wooden pontoon bridge was because if it wasn't for wooden pontoon bridges, it would be almost impossible to build five bridges in such a short period of time.

?? And if these floating bridges are made of wood, then of course they must be attacked with fire.

?? Colonel Fred immediately put Paulus' idea into practice.

??Fire attack has at least several advantages, for example, it can continue to burn on the river surface, and for example, it can ignite floating bridges or burn ropes, and more importantly, throwing incendiary bombs does not need to be too precise...

?? This is very important for the German night fighter.

??Night fighter pilots are ultra-high-intensity operations, because they not only have to deal with threats from the enemy, such as anti-aircraft fire or searchlights.

?? Among them, the searchlight sounds like nothing. Many people think that it is just the enemy's lighting equipment. After locking the target, it can be used for anti-aircraft fire.

??The fact is of course not the case.

??Air defense searchlight is not only a lighting device, but also a weapon.

??If the beam of light illuminates the enemy's cockpit from the side, the high-intensity light will not only blind the pilot instantly, but also cause dizziness and vomiting after tracking for a long time.

??If the plane is flying level at a high altitude at this time, then the problem is not too big, but if it is flying at a low altitude or even diving towards the target, if it is suppressed by the light of the searchlight, it will be close to death.

??Fighting under such high-intensity pressure, it is very difficult for even the best pilots to drop aerial bombs and hit the target, not to mention that the target on the pontoon bridge is still very small.

However, the gasoline bomb does not need to hit the target directly, the pilot only needs to ensure that the gasoline bomb explodes at a similar location, preferably upstream, and then the fire will spread through the river, and it will spread into a large area... This is very important for German pilots Great advantage.

??The situation of the battle is indeed the same.

??German pilots dropped petrol bombs on the Volga River one by one.

??The German pilots at this time used a tactic they called "beacon lights".

?? To put it simply, the few gasoline bombs thrown at the beginning did not expect to blow up the target, but only to explode near the target and illuminate the river.

This fire will provide a reference point for the German follow-up fighter planes, just like the beacon light illuminates the direction of a lost ship, telling other pilots where the river is, so that they can visually measure the distance from the river, and then the reconnaissance plane will instruct the target to fly. The orientation of the base point, and then accurately throw the incendiary bomb to the target step by step.

?? To be precise, the German army did not have incendiary bombs at this time.

??In other words, their incendiary bombs are actually earth-made incendiary bombs... The oil barrels are simply processed, with one side dented and scored, making it easier to be cracked, and then loaded with time bombs before throwing.

?? Such oil barrels are often cracked when they hit the ground, and the gasoline overflows, and then the gasoline will be ignited as soon as the time bomb explodes.

??If it is an attack on the ground, the German pilots will directly use oil barrels without adding time bombs for safety, and then use tracer bombs or bombs to bomb the location where the gasoline is dropped to ignite them.

?? But attacking on the river obviously requires a time bomb.

??Those oil barrels even floated on the river surface for a while, and then exploded with a bang...In an instant, the Volga River was ablaze, and the gasoline burned on the river surface and spread rapidly.

??There is no doubt that these flames will ignite the pontoon bridge, and even a few incendiary bombs close to the pontoon bridge exploded and ignited the Soviet soldiers who were transporting under the rain of bullets on the pontoon bridge, so they screamed one after another.

?? Most of their response was to jump into the river.

But this is actually not a good choice, because gasoline is less dense than water and floats on the river, which means that there are fires everywhere in the river, and there are only two results for jumping into the river: either burn to death on the river, or Or dive into the water and drown.

??It is obviously painful to choose between the two, and a considerable number of people switch between the two: diving when they are too hot to bear, and coming out when they can’t hold their breath in the water...

?? Unless the water quality is very good, you can dive in one breath and escape from the scope of the fire.

??But these are not what Shulka needs to care about.

?? There will always be death in war, and Shulka can't stop it all, all he can do is to minimize casualties and win.

??Shuerka certainly thought about this situation.

??The German army used incendiary bombs when attacking amphibious landing ships before, and now the pontoon bridge cannot escape the attack of incendiary bombs.

?? But the incendiary bombs obviously can't deal with the pontoon bridge.

??The reason is that the pontoon bridges are too simple, so simple that the Soviet army can replace those ignited pontoon bridges at any time.

??As it is now, with Shulka's order, the two ends of the burning pontoon bridge were cut off by Soviet soldiers, and they soon flowed slowly downstream with a ball of flames.

?? As for the vacant position of the pontoon bridge, we only waited for a while, and soon a new pontoon bridge was added and the transportation resumed.

The reason for "waiting for a while" is because the gasoline on the river has to burn out... It doesn't take too long, because the Germans don't have many incendiary bombs, and the gasoline will spread over a large area in a short time And fully burned, it will burn out in a short time or flow downstream with the river.

?? That is to say, the speed at which the German army burned bridges was not as fast as the speed at which the Soviet army repaired bridges.

??If the Soviet army has any losses, it is the soldiers who were burned to death and the time that was interrupted.

?? More importantly, the German army actually didn't have that much gasoline to waste.

"I don't think our tactic will work either!" Fred reported to Paulus with some helplessness: "Because they can cut off the burning pontoon bridge at any time, just like a gecko cut off its tail. Unless we can let Keep the whole Volga burning, otherwise we can't stop their transport!"

?? It is obviously impossible to keep the Volga River burning, because the German army's own gasoline still needs to be transported from Romania to the front line, and it is still in a state of gasoline shortage.

?? Unless the Germans can occupy Baku.

??But Paulus knew that the German army's war in the Caucasus was also not going well.

?? "General!" At this time, the adjutant reported to Paulus in surprise: "The third communication unit was attacked by enemy guerrillas and suffered heavy losses..."

?? "The third communication unit?" Paulus couldn't help being taken aback, and then ordered: "Notify Colonel Fred immediately!"

??The third communications unit is actually a radar unit, one of the radar units that cooperate with the night fighter group.

??This also means that the night fighter group that is fighting is likely to be in trouble.

??(end of this chapter)