The sound of gunfire and the roar of tanks on the position became more and more intense and harsh. Political Commissar Petrov, who was packing up the documents on the table at hand, was extremely busy. He had to prepare for the worst case scenario in order to prevent the Germans from obtaining confidential documents and intelligence.
When it comes to the last resort, Political Commissar Petrov will not hesitate to throw all the documents he has always kept with him into a fire barrel and burn them clean.
The 1st Heavy Tank Brigade of the Stalin Guards is a unit directly under the front level. The telegrams and documents exchanged on daily basis involve too many secrets at the front level. Once these things fall into the hands of the Germans, the consequences will be disastrous. Peter, who has a firm belief
Even if Political Commissar Roff died generously, he would not let these things fall into the hands of the Germans.
"Gather all the backup logistics files and give them to me, prepare the fire barrel, and be ready to burn these things at any time according to my orders!"
Commissar Petrov's assistant is a college student who has never fought against the enemy. He has been in office for only half a year, which happened during the expansion and reorganization of the troops after the Battle of Stalingrad.
When I first came to the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Brigade, the unit had not yet received the honorary title of Supreme Leader.
Sasha, who has a very common name, came here with strong aspirations. He had long heard that he was about to serve in the army led by the tank hero Comrade Malashenko. His friends who received basic recruit training together were envious of him. Of course,
Sasha thinks so too.
Not being sent to fight, this made Sasha, who was full of passion and ambition, a little disappointed at first.
After serving as political commissar Petrov, he took him in as his assistant and personally gave him two ideological and political classes. Sasha, who was still a young boy, immediately admired political commissar Petrov, and his admiration level directly surpassed that of Petrov.
His university tutor, but Sasha, who always obeyed the advice of his political commissar comrades and talked less and did more, was a little confused this time and looked confused.
"Comrade Political Commissar, we...we really can't defeat those Germans? Don't we have so many tanks and trucks? Why don't we retreat immediately?"
If ordinary people asked such idiotic questions, they would be scolded by their political commissar comrades, and they might even be punished by cleaning the toilets for a few days. This is already an old tradition of the 1st Heavy Tank Brigade of Stalin's Guards.
But knowing that he, a young assistant, has never fought an actual battle with an enemy, it is inevitable that he will be a little shaken and uneasy when encountering such a big crisis for the first time.
Political Commissar Petrov, who could understand this kind of mentality, did not intend to punish Sasha for this, but the necessary reminders and explanations still had to be emphasized.
"Do you think the Germans attack faster or we retreat faster?"
"...."
Sasha, who was holding a stack of papers in his hand, remained silent. He obviously could not answer the questions raised by political commissar Petrov.
"Or, is it right for our brigade to retreat alone, leaving the friendly 9th Guards Airborne Division behind and allowing the German tanks to destroy it?"
"...."
Sasha was still silent, but he already had a vague feeling that he might have been naive and thought about the wrong thing again, just like he had done many times before.
"Since the answer to both questions is negative, we can only stick here, find a way to repel the Germans who decide to bite us, and then take action after getting rid of the burden. On the open grassland, we are pursued by the Germans.
There is no hope of retreat. We have experienced too many such things in 41 years, but you have never had the opportunity to witness them with your own eyes."
...
With his head lowered, Sasha put down the pile of documents in his hand. After thinking for a moment, he raised his head again and faced Commissar Petrov and spoke again.
"Comrade Political Commissar, then we will definitely be able to defeat the enemy, right? We bear the honorary title of Comrade Supreme Leader and are the most elite tank force. Those fascist fanatics cannot defeat us!"
When people are in despair or face dissatisfaction, they are always willing to believe in those ideal and beautiful things from their subjective will. In most cases, they choose to believe in hope.
After listening to these words, Commissar Petrov, who unconsciously stopped working, also stared at his eyes. After a moment, he sighed slightly, but his tone when he spoke again was still as firm as before.
"Yes, we will win the battle, but before that, we must be prepared for the worst possible failure."
"This conversation is over, hurry up and sort out what I want and give it to me, move quickly!"
Sasha, who was emphasized by Commissar Petrov's order, fell silent after hearing this and immediately lowered his head and got busy doing things.
Putting a stack of documents that he had sorted out in his hands into a document bag on the table, he placed them beside the table. Political Commissar Petrov was just about to walk to the lookout post and wanted to raise his binoculars to see how the battle was going on in the position.
Unexpectedly, it was at this moment that the communications director, who had been busy in front of the radio station giving instructions, suddenly hurried over holding a freshly-baked telegraph newspaper.
"Comrade Political Commissar, call back from the Front Army Headquarters!"
It said it was a call back because the headquarters of Stalin's 1st Heavy Tank Brigade of the Guards had just sent a telegram to the front commander Vatutin less than ten minutes ago.
The content of the telegram was roughly that Stalin's 1st Guards Heavy Tank Brigade was preparing to retreat as ordered, together with the 9th Guards Airborne Division. But now it encountered a face-to-face enemy: the entanglement of the Waffen-SS Guards Division and was unable to escape.
, you must repulse this wave of enemy attacks before you can retreat safely, otherwise you can only be annihilated by the enemy in motion.
So now that I have received a telegram from the Front Army Headquarters, this can undoubtedly be regarded as a reply.
Political Commissar Petrov felt something was wrong when he looked at the expression on the Communications Director's face. Without saying a word, he immediately stretched out his hand and took the telegraph newspaper handed to him and placed it in front of him.
But the contents of the telegram made Commissar Petrov, who had read it at a glance, sway, and the hand holding the telegraph almost shook so much that he dropped the contents in his palm to the ground.
"Comrade Political Commissar! Are you...are you okay?"
The communications director and Sasha spoke in unison with words of concern and concern almost at the same time, especially as Sasha, as an assistant, knew very well that Commissar Petrov had been taking medicine almost every day recently, and it was specially prescribed for him by the American doctor Karachev in the field hospital.
Sasha didn't know what kind of medicine it was, but he knew that Comrade Comrade Political Commissar would only take it when no one else could see it, and he was strictly told not to tell anyone, especially Comrade Brigade Commander, that he must not let anyone know about it.
Confidentiality.
Thinking of the fact that Comrade Political Commissar has been taking medicine every day, combined with the unexpected scene before him, Sasha, who is strictly speaking a kind-hearted boy, is really afraid that Comrade Political Commissar has some serious health problem and collapses.
How would such a huge brigade headquarters be run?
Sasha didn't dare to think about it, let alone believe that such a thing would happen.
But fortunately, Comrade Comrade Political Commissar's body was just swaying. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opened his eyes again with his hand on his forehead, his eyes were still the same as before, without any turbidity.
Looking at the two people in front of him, Commissar Petrov secretly thought that the worst had finally happened. He couldn't imagine how the 1st Heavy Tank Brigade of Stalin's Guards, which was already in a very passive and difficult situation, could provide reinforcements.
Before arriving, they held out against the siege of three elite divisions of the Waffen SS.