USSR 1941

  Chapter 174 Fleet

  There are only four shifts tonight, and five shifts will continue tomorrow!

  **********

   After waiting at the port for more than two hours, the fleet arrived at the port at one o'clock in the middle of the night.

   But if you think you can get on the ship and leave at this time, you are very wrong. The dock workers have to transport the goods on the ship, and the troops can only board the ship after the dock is empty.

   "Damn!" Shulka heard Major Gavrilov curse: "They are late!"

   "Yes, they are late!" Commissar Fuming replied: "They said the fleet should be here around 12 o'clock!"

   "What's wrong?" Major Gavrilov asked.

   "I don't know!" Political Commissar Fuming said, "Maybe something went wrong on the road..."

   "Shulka!" Major Gavrilov called in Shulka's direction: "Go and ask what's going on?"

   "Yes, Comrade Major!" Shulka replied, and led the actor towards the pier.

   "Why you?" The actor asked: "Comrade leader has many guards, he can let others go!"

   "Because time is short, Okunev!" Shulka said while trotting: "They don't know what to ask!"

   "Didn't you ask why the fleet came late?" The actor followed closely behind: "Anyone would ask, wouldn't they?"

"No, Comrade Okunev!" Shulka said: "You have to know one thing, the fleet sailed here from Crimea, and after unloading, it has to return before dawn. If you are late, you know the meaning." What are you wearing?"

   "I see!" the actor replied: "We will miss breakfast in the Crimea!"

   Shulka wanted to kick the actor into the sea.

   "So I say this question is probably not something other people can ask!" Shulka said.

   "What's the difference?" The actor still doesn't understand what's going on.

   "Planes, Okunev!" Shulka said. "There will be German bombers at dawn, and our lives are at stake, unless you can swim to the Crimea!"

  The actor couldn't help being stunned for a moment, and then immediately speeded up: "Then let's hurry up, I can't swim!"

The two ran to the pier, and saw more than a dozen transport ships moored at the pier, unloading nervously. Shulka ran up to ask the middle-aged man who looked like a foreman below, and asked, "The fleet is late. Yeah?"

   "Don't you know how to see with your eyes, young man?" The middle-aged man responded impatiently while directing the workers to carry.

   "We have the 333rd regiment, when can we board the ship?" Shulka asked.

  The foreman turned his head and glanced at Shulka, and then said: "I advise you to reschedule, and don't think about getting on the ship!"

"Why?"

   "Unless the cargo is unloaded within half an hour, they won't be able to return before dawn!"

   "How long will it take you to finish unloading?" Shulka asked again.

   "An hour and a half!" replied the foreman.

   "If I can add more than two thousand people to you, can it speed up?"

   "No, Comrade!" said the foreman, "Maybe the speed will be faster, but the ferry is so big that it can't accommodate so many people!"

  Shuerka looked in the direction indicated by the foreman, and then understood the meaning of the foreman's words... The transport ship could not enter the shallow sea and directly approach the shore, so a pontoon bridge more than 200 meters long was built to reach the transport ship.

  So it is indeed as the foreman said, more people may make it faster, but not much faster.

   "Let's report to Comrade Leader!" The actor said, "Maybe it's more appropriate to reschedule!"

   "No, Okunev!" Shulka said: "You go to inform Comrade Commander and let him bring the troops over. We need to transport everyone together!"

   "I said it!" The foreman said impatiently: "Many people can't solve the problem, it may cause blockage!"

   "No, comrade!" Shulka said: "Many people can solve the problem. You tell your workers that they only need to be responsible for lifting the goods from the ship and handing them to us!"

   "Hey, did you hear what I said?" said the foreman, "You're only making things worse!"

   "Do as he says!" At this moment Major Gavrilov caught up and said to the foreman in a commanding tone: "Whatever he says!"

   "Okay!" The foreman spread his hands.

"Comrades!" Shulka shouted towards the soldiers who were coming from behind: "We must unload the cargo and board the ship within half an hour, otherwise the ship we are on will not be able to escape the dangerous area before dawn. Know what that means? The German bombers are going to target our ships, do you want that?"

   "No, Lieutenant!"

"what should we do?"

  …

   If it was a matter of life or death, everyone was willing to unite. The soldiers who came down from the battlefield knew this best, so Shulka easily mobilized their enthusiasm.

  The method is actually very simple. The 200-meter pontoon at the ferry cannot squeeze too many people into it, but this does not mean that the goods need to be carried down box by box like workers, especially those goods are mostly not heavy.

This is the common sense of transporting battlefield materials: all materials such as ammunition, food, medicine, etc. must be transported to the battlefield, and the battlefield is often on a high ground or in the wild without roads. If there are any materials packed into two or three people Even needing a car, etc. to move it around is undoubtedly asking for trouble.

  So, either it is really impossible to decompose, such as tanks and cannons, or there are cars where it is needed, such as gasoline barrels.

   Otherwise, most of them are weight and size that are convenient for individual transport.

   Shulka told the plan to Major Gavrilov, and then gave an order, and the soldiers were evenly divided into several groups based on the number of ferries, and each group lined up from the transport ship all the way along the pontoon to the shore.

  It's like building a conveyor belt on a pontoon, except that the conveyor belt is made up of people.

  Then... the boxes of goods are unloaded from the ship, and the boxes are transported on the "conveyor belt" almost non-stop.

This undoubtedly improves the efficiency to a great extent, because it not only saves the time for workers to go back and forth, but also avoids all kinds of inconvenience caused by the dark... All it needs to do is to take over the front of the machine again and again. Then the box was handed to the back, and after doing it a few times, I could finish it with my eyes closed.

  The foreman was dumbfounded at this scene, and he sighed to Shulka: "You are right, comrade! You did it...I think you can indeed finish it in half an hour!"

   "You owe me a wage!" said Shulka.

  The foreman laughed loudly, walked a few steps and worked in a broken box for a while, then handed Shulka something, and asked, "Is this enough as wages?"

   Shulka touched it, then laughed, and replied: "Enough!"

   It was a bottle of vodka wrapped in a cloth.