The 502nd Heavy Armored Battalion, with only half its strength, could only be dispatched in this dissatisfied state. Many personnel and heavy equipment were left at the rest point, waiting for follow-up orders.
Although Malashenko was relieved that the 502nd Heavy Armored Battalion was not at full strength and was actually easier to deal with, he was relieved.
But Malashenko, who originally expected to catch a big fish and catch a few more German armored aces, ended up with a rather disappointing result.
None of the top-ranked elite aces such as Calvus, Bertel, and Kosher were caught!
Malashenko, who did not believe that he was so unlucky, even asked Varosha to go and carefully screen the armored prisoners in person, and at the same time count the corpses of the German armored soldiers that had not been burned to coke.
Unfortunately, it turns out that Lieutenant Colonel John did not lie to Comrade Ma. Whether among the German armored soldiers who were killed or captured alive, there were no top-ranked German armored aces.
The German tank commander who destroyed the largest number of vehicles and was captured alive was a sergeant named Muller. He looked very young, as harmless as a kid who was still in school.
According to his own confession, in all the battles he has participated in so far, he has confirmed that he destroyed a total of 31 Red Army tanks of various types. Most of them were the most common T34, a few KV heavy tanks and light reconnaissance tanks, but
He has not recorded a single record of the latest Stalin series heavy tanks.
In the final analysis, Malashenko does not want to catch such a dispensable "rookie" at all. The big fish at the top of the German armored force's performance rankings are what Malashenko is most concerned about. Solve these
Major threat targets will be very beneficial in future battles, and Malashenko has long been thinking about these very high-value "heads."
"Where is your battalion's rest station? How far is it from here?"
Obviously, our Comrade Lao Ma still didn't give up, thinking that if the distance was close, he would run over and kill the remaining remnants of the 502nd Battalion.
Unfortunately, the truth always backfires and runs counter to expectations.
"It's more than 40 kilometers away from here in a straight line, but if you really want to go there, you need to take a detour. If you want to attack, I don't recommend you do this. Once the tanks are repaired, they will be transferred to other directions to support the battle.
And I can no longer contact them, and I don’t know what happened specifically, or even whether they are still at that temporary location.”
"...."
Lieutenant Colonel John poured the bucket of cold water on him, which really made Comrade Ma lose his temper on the spot.
If you want to say that this kid is lying, it's really not like that, and it's even more unnecessary given his current identity and condition.
But if this is the truth, it would be too deceptive. Malashenko finally found an opportunity to completely annihilate the elite armored units of the German army and extract this big beam from the Wehrmacht. But now the result is that the bones are only broken.
He caught half of it and let the other half go. The reason for this is even more hilarious and bizarre.
It was actually because of the Germans' poor equipment readiness rate that they saved half the life of the 502nd Heavy Armored Battalion, preventing the entire battalion from being handed over to death in the hands of the old horse.
Regarding such a result, we, Comrade Ma, can only be dumb and eat Coptis chinensis and admit the pain without telling us. Otherwise, other than dumbfounding, what better way can you do?
The answer is of course no.
"Well, so the final result of this battle is a little regrettable? We were not able to completely wipe out an elite heavy armored force of the enemy and let half of them escape. Is that right?"
In the division headquarters tent that was newly erected shortly after the battle, and we were going to spend the night here tonight, after fighting for a whole day, Comrade Ma, who was tired and aching all over, drank hot water and rested his breath, facing
The political commissar's questions were answered immediately.
"Yes, that's it. Do you think this reason is funny? The Germans' own junk equipment actually saved their lives. If all the 502nd Heavy Armored Battalion were dispatched and drove over, I might be very happy. It's so good.
This opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Unfortunately, I don’t know when the next opportunity will be.”
"...."
The silent comrade political commissar could only nod his head slightly. It would not make much sense to bring up things that have already passed and bring them up again and again.
The opportunity lost this time can be seized next time. Anyway, as long as the 502nd Heavy Armored Battalion is not completely wiped out, the German army will definitely reorganize it and put it into the battlefield again.
Moreover, Stalin's 1st Guards Tank Division is a sharp-edged force that charges forward and digs in wherever the fighting is fierce. For those German heavy armored battalions that act as battlefield firefighting teams, it is only a matter of time before they meet again, so there is no need to worry.
So instead of continuing to discuss these matters, Comrade Petrov would like to talk to Comrade Ma about more constructive topics.
"Oh, by the way. I went to Valosha just now when I had dinner, ate with him, and chatted about some important things. He originally planned to talk to you, and I happened to go over to see him.
Just tell me directly after checking the situation of the troops, and let me pass it on to you."
After taking a big mouthful of hot water, Malashenko made a sound in his throat, then looked at the political commissar sitting across the table in front of him and asked a question.
"Huh? Something important? Tell me, what is something important?"
If it weren't for being so tired right now and feeling like his whole body was falling apart, Malashenko would have really wanted to talk to Varosha about this plan. Comrade Political Commissar happened to mention this problem, and he also told Malashenko
Rashenko was left with some errands to worry about.
"Well, it's a matter of infantry tactics and formation. Varosha took the initiative to report to me."
"Walosha has collected actual combat feedback reports from the soldiers and grassroots commanders and combatants below. The special organization of three to five-person assault teams you proposed is indeed effective."
"Varosa and I analyzed the actual combat situation and tactical arrangements while eating, and finally came to the conclusion that this kind of three-to-five-person assault team uniformly equipped with automatic weapons can use the mobile cover of tanks to effectively contact the enemy.
Before, quickly and completely erase the medium to long range combat distance."
"By the time the soldiers got out of the car and actually entered the combat range of small arms, the battle line had been pushed to within two hundred meters of the effective range of the submachine gun. Of course, in most cases, even our tanks directly sent the soldiers to the edge of the position.
, and even closer.”
"In this case, the enemy's machine guns and rifles cannot take advantage of their mid-to-long-distance shooting range, and are forced to fight us in close combat. Once we enter close combat, this is the time to compete with each other to see who has more powerful automatic firepower.
This clearly means that we have the absolute upper hand. In actual combat, there were even situations where submachine guns were brought close to suppress the enemy's machine guns. In the past, this was simply unbelievable."