USSR 1941

  Chapter 835 Airborne Brigade

   All of this within two hours.

   From this point we can also see Veniaminco's organizational skills.

   But this is also because of the personal coordination of the Supreme Command and even Stalin... During these two hours, almost all transportation in the direction of Stalingrad stopped.

  At this time, the Soviet army has the conditions to do so, because the German 6th Army has surrendered, and Stalingrad's front-line transportation is no longer so urgent.

  Thus, all means of transportation, including cars, amphibious landing ships, and trains, were used to withdraw the thirteen Guards infantry divisions to the east bank of Stalingrad.

As soon as these troops withdrew to the east bank, they were pulled into various camps that had been prepared and controlled... These camps are actually easy to find, because before that, there were temporary camps on the east bank of the Volga River that were preparing to reinforce Stalingrad However, all Veniamenco had to do was call in a reliable army of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to pull up the barbed wire fence.

   Soon, an airborne brigade with a total strength of 3,000 people was organized and transported to Ahtubinsk by train.

The reason why it was shipped to Ahtubinsk instead of Znamensk is because Znamensk has been used as a forward base for Soviet reinforcements to Stalingrad during the campaign. There will obviously be many German spies here, and the airborne brigade is here It's too obvious to be prepared.

  Akhtubinsk is different. There was originally an air force base here, and everything needed by the air force was shipped here.

  So, it is not surprising that a large number of transport planes and even gliders landed here.

   While the airborne troops were preparing, Veniamenco made a special trip to Milove.

  He took a jeep and rushed all the way to Milloway in two hours.

  Originally, this is the time when the airborne troops are most tense and need command the most. As the commander, Veniaminko should not leave the air force base, but Veniamenko doesn't think so.

   "The airborne army command system is not organized into infantry divisions!" Veniamenko explained: "So our command staff is more than sufficient!"

This is a common practice of the Soviet army. Although the troops were split, the command system remained. This is a bit like the infantry having two command systems, and one of the command systems can be separated at any time to form a new unit, or even all They are all recruits and have not been able to form a certain combat effectiveness.

  This approach is very wise, because if the commanders are incorporated into the infantry together, it will not play much role. They are learning the command of the airborne troops, and they may not be good at commanding the infantry. In addition, they may conflict with the infantry commander.

   More importantly, these command systems can quickly play a role in case these troops need to be reorganized.

This is also one of the reasons why the Soviet airborne troops can be used as ordinary infantry again and again and suffer heavy losses, but they can be quickly reorganized again and again (another reason is that the Soviet Air Force has low training and requirements for airborne troops) .

"It's an honor to meet you, Comrade Shulka!" Venyaminko held Shulka's hand tightly as soon as he arrived, and said, "I think it is necessary for me to communicate with you, only in this way can we cooperate effectively Fighting with the 51st Army, so bring the command team! Hope I did the right thing!"

   "Of course, Comrade Venyakov!" Shulka replied.

  From this point of view, the Venyakov in front of him is a person who can fight and knows how to fight.

   Later Shulka learned that this was indeed the case, at least with regard to the Airborne Forces.

Before the war between the Soviet Union and Germany broke out, the Soviet Union and Germany actually had 20 years of military cooperation...The Soviet Union was blocked by Britain and France in economic and military technology (at that time, Britain and France were in the leading position in the world economy and military technology), Germany, on the other hand, was bound by the Treaty of Versailles.

  So the two countries hit it off, and held bilateral negotiations in Rapallo, a suburb of Genoa, Italy in 1922, and signed the "Agreement between Germany and the Soviet Russian Socialist Republic."

This treaty is actually a kind of mutual benefit: Germany provides Soviet Russia with a complete set of weapons manufacturing production lines, helping the Soviet Red Army establish a modern staff command and training system, and the Soviet Union opens bases and factories to Germany, where Germany can train armored soldiers, Pilots and other military personnel, developing weapons strictly prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles.

  Venyakov is the commander who cooperated with the German army in training pilots, and he is also a pilot himself.

This is why it goes without saying that when Venyakov was in contact with the Germans, he could more or less learn the tactics and concepts of the Luftwaffe, and even often discussed with German officers the role of airborne troops on the battlefield. Question... The Soviet Union was the first to form the Airborne Forces. In a sense, Germany still stole divisions from the Soviet Union.

   Then, Venyakov handed a document to Trufanov and said, "This is our preliminary organization of the 9th Airborne Brigade. Please have a look!"

  Trufanov flipped through the documents and couldn't help asking: "The total strength of the airborne troops is only 3,000 people. Why don't you organize them into regiments?"

   "Because of the previous reasons!" Venyakov replied: "We have enough command personnel. On the other hand..."

   While speaking, Venyakov looked at Shulka and said, "I believe we may not have only one goal!"

  Shuerka nodded and gave a secret praise.

The battle of the airborne troops is basically not limited to one target, which is determined by the parachute... The airborne troops jump from the plane. If 3,000 people target a target at the same time, almost all of them will parachute to an area. This will make the airborne too crowded, and if the personnel are too spread out, it is impossible to complete the assembly and attack the target within a limited time.

   More importantly, it is at the strategic level: if only one target is attacked, the enemy will be able to deal with it calmly, because they only need to rescue one place.

  Conversely, if the airborne troops can make full use of their own advantages, that is, the advantage of being able to quickly drop from the sky to reach the vicinity of the target area and attack multiple targets at the same time, it will not only confuse the enemy and make the enemy confused where to rescue, but also disperse the enemy's forces.

   Attacking multiple targets requires a huge command system, because in principle, each target requires an independent command system.

  So, at this particular moment, it is not an exaggeration to organize these 3,000 people into an airborne brigade, and it can even be said to be necessary.

   What Veniamenco did can be said to have saved Shulka a lot of time, and also greatly improved the success rate of this airborne operation.

  (end of this chapter)