It is said that Malashenko had anticipated various possible situations in advance, but he did not expect that Vatutin would assign such a special job to himself. All kinds of complicated questions suddenly came to his mind.
, not vomiting but not happy.
"Wait a minute, since you want to be fast, why don't you send aviation troops to perform the mission? Wouldn't it be better to blow up the German train at the station or blow up the railway? As long as these treasures cannot move, they will be recovered by the Red Army sooner or later.
, just like when we regained our territory.”
Malashenko subconsciously thought of the problem as too simple, and the political commissar comrade who knew more information and details than Malashenko explained.
"It's not that easy. The problem is much more complicated than that."
"The Germans guarded this train very tightly and did a good job of keeping it secret. Our intelligence officers were unable to get a specific list of supplies. We didn't know which carriage contained valuables, let alone whether there were any.
How many."
"Considering the destructive power of the aviation force, a hasty air strike is likely to outweigh the gains. This is not the result we want. We need to completely regain the treasures that belong to the motherland. Therefore, we can only use ground troops to intercept, and we also need to pay special attention to the use of firepower.
, you must not abuse fire coverage, this is the difficulty of the mission and the most important point to pay attention to."
"If the situation requires it, the aviation force will cooperate with us in bombing and destroying the railway to prevent the German train from continuing to move forward. But we will not do this unless it is absolutely necessary. This may cause the German train to be unable to brake in time and cause derailment. Then we will lose money.
It’s still our own baby, do you understand what I mean?”
"...."
After reading the telegram, Malashenko had only one reaction: What a fucking big head.
Especially when the political commissar comrade added a bunch of "additional conditions" that were not written in the telegram but actually required him to complete them, Malashenko felt as if his head was blowing up a balloon, "whooshing"
It became extremely large.
"I thought that the treasures in Belarus and Ukraine were all withdrawn to the rear when the Germans invaded. Wasn't our strategic shift very successful? Why are there still treasures left in the country that have not been transported away?
The Germans are also wondering why they have to wait until this time to take action. What have they done? Are they really stupid or is there something wrong with the intelligence?"
Malashenko, who had a headache and a big head, lit a cigarette for himself, and with smoke filling his mouth, he explained a series of questions and thoughts in his heart to the political commissar. Comrade Ma did have too many question marks in his mind at the same time.
I don’t know whether he had expected Malashenko to ask this question and was prepared, or whether the political commissar really knew the relevant situation well and knew it by heart.
In short, the fluent answer that followed was without any pretense and came right after.
"It's not as smooth as you imagined, at least it's not perfect."
"If you think about it, in 1941, there was no time for the troops to evacuate. One division after another was surrounded and annihilated by the Germans, let alone those bulky and heavy cultural relics. The early days of the war were too chaotic, and there was an organized large-scale evacuation.
It is true, but it is definitely not enough to remove everything."
"As for why the Germans didn't take them away in advance, it's because they didn't want these things in the first place, or they didn't originally plan to take them away. Intelligence confirmed that the Germans even cut out the murals in the church recently,
The pedestal statues were sawed off along the base and carried away, along with some newly found items from the Krauts' recent frenzy of looting."
"These bastards know that they can no longer occupy this land and will be kicked out soon, so they go crazy and scrape the land everywhere. They search again in the places they originally searched. They didn't think they were valuable or they didn't search them in the first place.
We should also take care of the places we visit.”
"Many large treasures and cultural relics that have been hidden since 1941 were discovered by those scumbags of the SS. We sacrificed several intelligence comrades hiding in the enemy's hinterland to figure it out.
The Germans had a specific action plan and knew that the items were loaded onto this train and planned to be shipped out of the country."
"The Germans have robbed too much wealth and treasures from our motherland. Many of them cannot be recovered even if the war is won. I think you understand this, Malashenko. So no matter what, Vatutin
The commander is determined not to let the Germans succeed again, this train must be stopped, this is the task of our division, and it must not be allowed to leave the border."
"..."
Malashenko, with his hands on his hips, held the telegraph newspaper in his hand and read it again and again, thinking carefully. The butt of the cigarette in the corner of his mouth seemed to be burning to his lips. Malashenko felt that his mouth was starting to get hot before he spit it out in one breath.
He took out his cigarette holder and spoke with determination.
"Do it, of course I have to do it, why not do this job? Whatever the German guy wants to do, we must not let him succeed. If anything is beneficial to the German guy, I, Malashenko, must sabotage it for him, and we must not let the law
Heath is having a great time."
"How many garrison troops are there at the station? Do you know which unit it is? How much relevant tactical intelligence do we have?"
Know yourself and know the enemy and you will win every battle. Understanding the enemy's situation has always been one of Malashenko's top concerns in pre-war preparations, and this time is no exception.
However, Comrade Political Commissar's next answer was truly unexpected to Comrade Ma.
"The station's garrison is very strong. I don't think you can guess who it is in your wildest dreams. It's the Skeleton Division of the Waffen SS."
"Skeleton Master!?"
After bidding farewell to Prokhorovka, Malashenko never saw one of the four ace units of the SS again. All the memories related to it still remain in the intense atmosphere of Prokhorovka.
Amidst the tank battle and the roar of steel.
As political commissar Petrov said, Malashenko really didn't expect that the Skeleton Division, a bunch of bastards, would actually take up the job of "escorting escorts". If these bastards don't go to the front lines to put out fires and fights, why should they be here as money custodians?
What kind of dirty work is this? Comrade Ma can't understand.
Political Commissar Petrov, who seemed to notice something was wrong with the expression on Malashenko's face and probably guessed the reason for Comrade Division Commander's expression, spoke again.
"Don't get me wrong, these bastards are not here specifically to escort this shipment."
"Intelligence shows that the Skeleton Division has been fighting in the south of us. The opponents are the troops of the 1st and 2nd Belarusian Fronts, and they have not encountered us. The offensives of the two fronts were too fierce, and the Skeleton Division fought continuously for many days.
, fighting fires everywhere, but now we are exhausted, and our equipment is severely damaged."
"So, these bastards are going to the station to receive supplies and new equipment. They are not the garrison here. But now they happen to catch up. We must break through the Skeleton Division's defense to stop the train and retrieve the things."